Jewelry - nom nom nom

So the Pub has these fabulous onion rings. The kind that even people who don't like rings will devour. Reminds me of this restaurant my parents used to take us to as little kids. I feel like we went there somewhat often, but all I remember are 3 things: Dipping lemon wedges in sugar packets when we were getting fussy because the food was late (How cool Mom was for teaching us that!). Peeling the bubbly cheese off the outside of bowls of french onion soup. And the onion rings. I didn't like the onion itself so would break the ring and pull out the wriggly onion and put it on Mom's plate, then eat the savory crispy batter. The Pub's rings are like that, but I'm happy I enjoy the onion part now as well. In fact I always root around in the basket for the endcaps that have a high onion ratio. Juicy, sweet, crunchy, soft inside - so fantastic. One night the onions they used were particularly large, and turned into Oniony Bangles. I wore them a few minutes, then the silly got a hold of me and it came time to eat them. Cell phone photography in a dark bar - Brilliant!

I can give myself a black eye

I picked up a dark hot pink eyeshadow at MAC when I visited my mom last week (hey, I had a merchandise credit!). I thought with the blue, green, and purple shadows I already owned my color wheel was unbalanced. And this pink is serious enough to counterbalance all the cool shades. So I tried a couple different looks, one with pink on the lid blending to blue on the browbone. Yeah, that one didn't work so well. The blended region was purplish, and the overall effect was of a healing black eye. But flipping the colors so the blue is on the lid and undereye blending to pink then purple did work. I also went a bit further with the eyeliner than normal, thanks to my SIL's encouragement. And I really like it, I hope I can do it on command for my next dance performance (next month!).

Still not happy w/ the photography--it always looks better in person. Like you can't really tell how bright the colors truly are, or how neat it looks that the inner corner of the eye is filled in blue. And I dusted blue sparklies over my cheekbone & temple which add a lot of fun to it. Ah well, learning process all around.

A dash of cosmic unfairness

I would really like an iphone or a blackberry. I have no true need for one, and can't justify the added monthly expense for something not really necessary. But it would be nice to have internet access, and my calendar handy. My husband hates blackberrys & iphones. He mocks them and people who use them, and often teases me about my desires for one. So imagine my chagrin yesterday when he comes home from work with a brand new 3G blackberry paid for by his company. He's really dismayed and doesn't want it at all - it was stuffed in his lunchbox when he got home. I thought it was really cool, and wish it was mine. But I still can't justify getting one myself. Dang!

What on earth is going on here?

So what the hell is going on? My husband called my phone while I was at the gym this morning but didn't leave a message. He was already gone when I got home, but left this upended laundry basket next to the laundry room. I'm trying to figure out why he brought it down from the bedroom? Did the puppy have anything to do with it? Why is it upside down? And why in the hall instead of on top of the washer, where I put it after uprighting it. Did he drop it down the stairs, or purposely place it like this? Is it some machiavellian scheme? Am I way overthinking it?

25 things - cheating post

Ok, I'm finally back online. I've come to terms that it is ok to crate the puppy while I'm home to get a bit of time free from chasing her around worrying if she's about to pee. We started puppy obedience classes and the teacher said that the dog should be crated any time you're not able to keep an eye on her. Even an hour free from that makes such a difference. Alas, I haven't had the time to corral my thoughts into any interesting blog posts. So I'm going to cheat and steal the 25 Things meme that's going around Facebook. You had to post 25 things about yourself, I went for the completely random and useless route:

1. My hair was straight until chemo made it curly.
2. I love thick Belgian ales - tripels and such.
3. I'm a dog person - no cats, no kids
4. If I get to the gym at 6am I consider that late
5. I used to dye my forelock blue, and am seriously considering doing it again.
6. I love the Harry Potter & Little House on the Prairie book series
7. I love trail running with my dog.
8. I knit at stoplights
9. My favorite constellation is the Pleiades
10. I can only sing in tune if I impersonate a cartoon character (Cartman & Homestar are great)
11. I love my family so much it sometimes makes me cry
12. Metallica is the best concert I've ever been to
13. Leeks are my favorite above-ground vegetable
14. Sweet potatoes are my favorite underground vegetable
15. I have a pair of socks I knit with wool from a sheep I helped shear instead of going to my graduation ceremony from graduate school
16. I can cross and uncross my eyes individually
17. I enjoy camping without any modern equipment, even a tent.
18. I would love to visit Colorado
19. A major goal in my life is to have a perpetually tidy house, but it seems contrary to the lifestyle I enjoy living.
20. I obsessively can (put up) food during the summertime. Especially unusual things like pickled fruits.
21. I rarely eat food at the correct temperature - cold beef stew & room temp water work great for me.
22. I was less than 30 feet from Obama during his speech at the Roanoke rally.
23. I usually remember things the first time I hear them
24. My only irrational fear is of falling
25. My toenails are nearly always blue.

Baby pictures

Life has been very hectic since we got Kayla. So much busier I rarely have time to do more than check my email on weekdays. I drive home at lunch to let her out and feed her, which gives me about 10 min. to eat before heading back to work. Lunchtimes is when I used to do most of my online stuff, so now I guess it'll be saved up for weekends. In the meantime, here's some photos of Kayla and Windy. She's turning into a great dog already, and Windy couldn't be better dealing with this hyper ball of fur, claws, and teeth. The only thing Windy's spoken up about is Kayla approaching her food dish. Other than that she lets that puppy walk all over her - literally. She seems to have a mother's unending tolerance and patience. A happy surprise.

Here's Kayla in her Gunga Din pose. She's been pretty good so far about not picking up random things in her reach. Katie & Windy used to play a game we call Face Tug. They bare their teeth and bang their heads together, often grabbing cheeks and tugging on them. It can go on for quite a while and they both loved it. Hooray to see Windy & Kayla already playing the same game, although I'm sure it'll be better once Kayla has adult teeth. Windy is coping by chewing on her bones a lot. Kayla often takes a bone right from Windy's mouth and lays down next to her to chew on it. Windy lets her do it, then looks around for another one nearby. Kayla's already chewing on the big nylabone meant for aggressive chewers, so we decided to skip buying the puppy versions. She'd demolish them :) They're also super sweet laying together. I can tell they'll sleep in a pile at night once we trust Kayla enough to let her free at night. I'm so happy for Windy at times like this:

Meet our new baby!

Fresh from a bath, and hasn't left D's lap since we set her there. She's an Australian Shepherd mix we think, which Katie also was (we always thought it was border collie but after looking online we believe she was Aussie). Looks a lot like Katie did but a little thinner faced and WAY fuzzier. Even her forehead has heavy fluff on it. She's super cuddly and chased after Windy a bit. Windy is about 20% weirded out, the rest just curious - including pulling out all her toys in front of the new girl. No name yet, but she's only a couple hours old, so to speak. Hooray!