up close and personal

Cardinals have always been one of my favorite birds to watch. In addition to admiring their beautiful red feathers, I like to watch them flit about and hear their call. They don't just fly; they gracefully flit, as if doing aerial ballet.

I was excited to see one using my dog's water bowl as a bird bath today. 

them cows need schoolin'

The school/daycare where I work is just outside The Small Town and a small herd of cattle lives next door. The youngest children, including my kindergarten charges, enjoy watching them sometimes. I have ample opportunity to explain where our milk and beef come from. Today when I went to work, I was regaled with the tale of the cows' great escape this morning. They got through their gate and were grazing toward the school's playground! The principal and a few teachers shooed the cows back into their meadow. Would have liked to have seen that.

how I feel today

This is CutieDog enjoying the warmth of the compost pile (soon to become a compost bin this spring). It's such a lovely spring day today that I want to just lay on a blanket in the warm sun and read a good book or knit until sunset. Alas, I hear the local garden center calling me; they're having an open house today, so I'm headed there in just a little while. Our Small Town has a Wal-Mart with a garden center, but the town is big enough to also support a garden center and one of the town's florist's seasonal garden shop. "Yes, I know I'm a handsome fella. Mrs. H, I'll miss this pile when it's gone."

Take it inside, Buddy, this is my bathroom.

True story. This might be more information than some of you want to know, so if it is I apologize for embarrassing you. However, I won't see your cheeks turn red and it's a funny story.

Recently, My Darling Husband needed to use the restroom like any normal human does. It was occupied by yours truly at the time and our house has only one bathroom. (Yes, families still survive with only one bathroom per house.) He really had to go. So outside he went, to a secluded area of our back yard.

CutieDog likes to follow us in and out of the house, so he did his normal following or maybe he was already out there. My Darling Husband is standing there doing his thing, and up saunters our dog, stands next to him and simultaneously turns another patch of grass into a second bathroom stall.

Ok, here's my St. Patrick's Day post.

What do you get when you cross lime gelatin with orange gelatin? A sick-green gelatin side dish. I think that was crushed pineapple that I put in it. Don't try this at home. Looks gross but tastes okay as an accompaniment to a tomato pasta dish.Before I sign off, CutieDog wants to wish you Happy St. Patrick's Day!

the buck stops here

Spotted at a stoplight down in northeast Oklahoma:Look a little closer....

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

We have snow! It finally snowed in southeast Kansas last week. What a refreshing sight to see, after envying all the other snowfall in other parts of the US. After the dry autumn we had, we've needed this snow. And yes, I need to put our Christmas tree away. My Darling Husband's birthday is in December, but prior to Christmas. This time around I waited until after his birthday to put up the tree, just as his mother used to do when he was growing up. It seems like such a waste of time to have it set up for only a week or two, so I've waited until way past the New Year to take the tree down. It's going in the box this weekend.Or I could leave it up and decorate it with hearts for Valentine's Day. Just kidding, Mr. H.Cutie Dog is quite fond of the snow. First thing on his list was to eat it.
When he was a stray, it was winter. There was still ample snow on the ground when we brought him into our home. So I had been curious how he would react to the snow this winter.

My Darling Husband forwarded this funny email to me:

Why It's Great to Be a Dog

1. No one expects you to take a bath every day.
2. If it itches, you can scratch it.
3. A rawhide bone (or a rag in Cutie Dog's case) can entertain you for hours.
4. If you grow hair in weird places, nobody notices.
5. You can lay around all day without worrying about being fired.
6. You don't get in trouble for putting your head in a stranger's lap.
7. You're always excited to see the same people.
8. Having big feet is considered an asset.
9. Puppy love can last.

sign of summer #1

Cutiedog's tongue indefinitely hanging out of his mouth. He's one hot dog, thanks to his furry tuxedo.

oh, so that's what it is called

This summer at work I am with the five- and six-year old children. I work at a daycare. I like the children best when they are being angelic, unintentionally make me laugh at something they do, and when they are quiet! So I relish leaving the DIN each day and coming home to ahhh!, a quiet house.
In the category of making me laugh at something they do, today my class and I were coming inside from eating popsicles out in the yard. While waiting for the other children to line up a couple of the girls were having a conversation together. One said to the other, "You know that stuff dogs get under their eyes? That's eyeball juice".

my dog is American but he can eat like a Chinese

My Darling Husband is away on a business trip, so I thought I'd post some photos of what CutieDog and I have been up to while M.D.H. is away. He reads this blog so I'll add this to our forms of communication.
I was craving (not pregnant, Moms) Chinese food the other day so I bought some take-out. There are three Chinese restaurants in our Small Town. Two of them are Bad Dried-Out Hard Chinese Food restaurants, and the third is much much better. Not all the way up to Big City standards, but still good nonetheless. Mmmm, your food looks mighty tasty!
After using the fork for a few bites, I suddenly remembered these pretty chopsticks we have and what is Chinese food without chopsticks? These were bought from Crate and Barrel some years ago. Honey, the dog is well-educated in the area of international cuisine now.

Take a deep breath...this was after I finished eating. He got the scraps like a good dog anywhere in the world. I think he would order crab ragoons if he could.

I could've sworn I heard a sheep

This evening I heard it again...the same sound of a sheep that I heard coming from our neighbor's yard about this time last year.

This time I did not do what I did last year. I didn't scrutinize surrounding neighbors yards for the sheep I just knew they were keeping as pets in their back yard. I didn't start picturing in my mind which neighbors might have children raising sheep for a 4-H project. I didn't start wondering what restrictions on livestock within the city limits The Small Town has. I didn't ask a neighbor who was out for a walk if he had heard or seen the sheep. I didn't narrow down the location of the bleating to our back yard. I didn't follow the sound of the bleating to a certain spot near our back yard pool.

This year I did not take any of the above actions because this time last year, I did a search on the internet and read about sheep frogs.

We get a few different types of frogs and toads in our back yard every spring. There's an occasional bullfrog, and of course thousands of tadpoles in the water on top of the pool cover, but thankfully they are eliminated when we open the pool for the season. I find the sheep frog to be most curious. It is one of a group of animals that can imitate other animals. I think also of catbirds, mockingbirds and parrots. I'd rather have the pretty birds, and save just a frog or two for the garden.

sign of spring #4

Wasps.

I'm quite sure there's more wasps around here than up in The Big City. Perhaps it's due to our more southerly location. Last summer, My Darling Husband advised me that he sprays the inside of the garage every year with wasp spray to keep them from building nests in there.

Wasps everywhere.

Ok, not plague proportions, but I've spotted at least three inside our house this last week. I never see them fly in when we're going in or out the door. I don't know how they get in, but they belong with their buddies outdoors. They meet their Maker instead.

Tonight I suddenly heard one buzzing (that's always how we spot them inside...suddenly buzzing out of thin air, as if poof! wasp abra cadabra!) two feet behind me in the office where I sit, innocently minding my own blog business. I cried for help, and My Darling Husband came to the rescue with fly swatter in hand, just in time for that wasp to fly to the next room.

That room happens to be our storage room that happens to have a lot of stuff in it, so I'll probably be looking for something in there one day soon and happen upon that wasp and poof! it'll come screaming at me at top speed, stinger first. Or hopefully it'll have met it's Maker by then due to natural causes.

sign of spring #2

CutieDog's tuxedo coat.This guy sheds more than any other dog I've ever had in my life. So much loose fur that I could spin it into yarn and knit myself a BorDal Sweater if I ever had the desire to smell like a wet dog. BorDal Sweater, you ask? CutieDog is part Border Collie, part Dalmatian, and knitting patterns usually have a name. He shakes so much loose fur around the house that our vacuum cleaner is fast becoming a prominent feature of our home's interior design.

p.s.--Happy Anniversary to my parents!

anouncing Easter in a small town

My Darling Husband and I spent the Easter weekend with my family in The Big City. When we came home, I glanced at Sunday's edition of our local newspaper.My eyes immediately fell to the top of the front page and I was pleasantly surprised. You know you're in a small town when the local newspaper editor is unafraid to declare that He Is Risen!
I have an educated guess that the editor of The Big City's newspaper would never allow this.

CutieDog very truly likes going to his "grandparents" (my parents) house. He gets to play with his "Uncle Dog" (my parent's Jack Russell Terror)...

and he gets to be a spoiled "grandog". See, he's not allowed to put his paws on our furniture here at home. He soaks up the extra allowances there. The first time we visited my parents with CutieDog, he tried to get onto our furniture upon returning home. This second time, he surprised us by minding his manners when we got home.

Smart and cute. Good choice, My Darling Husband.

just call my name and I'll be there

Dog training is...progressing. Sometimes Cutie Dog comes when called and sometimes not! "Stay" actually means I'm so cute you can't help but want me to come in his doggy brain.But if you need help with replacing the kitchen faucet, he'll be happy to lend a helping paw.

pick me! pick me! PLEEEASE!

Yesterday and today are National Adoption Weekend. It's a pairing of the Petco store with local animal shelters to promote and sponsor pet cat and dog adoptions. Petsmart is having theirs next month.

A local animal shelter is where one of my Christmas presents came from. My Darling Husband surprised me with him. I'd been chirping on forever about adopting a dog, waiting for just the right time (the moment M.D.H. says yes) and just the right dog. "Right dog" to me = lap dog. I was thinking Sheltie, Schnauzer, terrier size. M.D.H. grew up with larger dogs, so we compromised and are now the pround "parents" of a medium dog. I planned on adopting a dog from either the local animal shelter or from someone whose dog accidentally produced offspring.

I like this accidental canine offspring. He is part Labrador Retriever and part Border Collie. Around blogland he is known as Cutie Dog. Although he isn't exactly lap size, he does like a lap to sit on occasionally. You big baby.

are you making this deposit into your savings, checking, or just on our lawn?

This paragrah is so small-town life! (The complete article, written by Bill Wyckoff, can be read here.) Just nonchalantly ride your horse through town as if there's no such thing as a vehicle. You can do that in a really small town. In The Small Town you might receive a few surprised looks from motorists. In The Big City, a horseowner would have to drive over to the stables where the horse is boarded, and probably have to get a special permit for a one-time ride through town or participate with your horse in a parade.

"....I just received a cell call from Janet, a long time bank employee. She sounded distraught; I thought something was really wrong. She said a group of kids on horse back came by the bank when she was leaving the parking lot. I’m thinking one of the horses must have kicked her car, bucked off a young rider or something. I ask if she was OK, she said yes but one of the horses left a huge deposit of road apples right in the middle of our drive-in lane.
I broke out laughing, and she said, “I really didn’t expect that reaction from you."
So there you have it, the life of a banker in a small rural town. If the dogs aren’t leaving deposits on the front lawn then the horses are in the back. I must have had too much fun today so I’m headed out to check on my cows.
Hope you are having a great day also."

he had a centipede, but I have a Junebug

Speaking of creatures, I'd like to introduce you to the stray kitten that adopted us a couple of weeks ago. Isn't she adooorrrable?! I christened her Junebug for the gold spot on her face. Her visage is like a golden junebug cruising in the night. Night is when I discovered her and her sibling seeking shelter in our back yard from the fireworks being set off in the neighborhood a few days before Independence Day. Junebug came to me right away. They left and I didn't see Junebug for a few days. Then she returned without her sibling. Junebug has been here ever since. There are lots of stray cats in The Small Town and even more in surrounding Even Smaller Towns. And because we have a swimming pool in our back yard, neighborhood strays always make a beeline for our yard. I usually don't feed strays, but when I saw this kitten, who didn't have her mother to depend on, well, how could I leave her to chance? No way.
She loves to be held and cuddled. My Darling Husband is allergic to felines, so sorry, Junebug, you have to stay outside. I'm trying to find a good home for her where she can be an indoor cat. She wants to come in. Just look at that face! So cuuute!

and you thought women have too many shoes

In honor of the classic Saturday morning cartoons, I want to post something funny on Saturday mornings. I grew up with Tom & Jerry, Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse, Wiley Coyote...those were the good cartoons! None of this new-fangled human/robot hybrids spitting lightning. Ahhh, bring back innocence.

These jokes that I post probably will all have been thought up by someone else, since my humor is more situational and impetuous than to just make up a joke from thin air as some lucky-duck people can do. Today's joke is just hilarious!

This guy was so lonely that he decided life would be more fun if he had a pet. So he went to the pet store and told the owner that he wanted to buy an unusual pet. After some discussion he finally bought a centipede, which came in a little white box to use for his house.
He took the box home, found a good location for the box, and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to the bar for a drink.
So, he asked the centipede in the box, "Would you like to go to Frank's place with me and have a beer?" But there was no answer from his new pet. This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked him again,"How about going to the bar and having a drink with me?" But again there was no answer from his new friend and pet.
So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about thesituation. He decided to ask him one more time, this time putting his face up against the centipede's house and shouting, "Hey, in there! Would you like to go to Frank's place and have a drink with me?"
A little voice came out of the box: "I heard you the first time! I'm putting my shoes on!"

how fresh would you like your steak?

Country roadkill. We sped by this on the way to church and back. Sorry for the udderly bad picture. I was hoping to snap it with the cow still on the shoulder of the road, but the creature had been moved over to the ditch by the time I returned to the scene. I'm guessing it escaped from the pasture and got hit by a vehicle. What a loss for the farmer. I've seen all the skunks, racoons, dogs, cats, coyotes, wolves, armadillos, turtles, and opossums for roadkill. Those are roadkill both in town and country. Cows?--only in the country.