From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, Great Works of Cow Literature:

Salisbury in Wonderland
After falling into a hole while grazing for hay, the young Salisbury finds herself in an eccentric world where no bovine is what he seems. Despite warnings from the Cattledee and Cattledum, Salisbury is entrapped by the Chef of Hearts. But the quick-witted calf soon escapes after distracting the Chef with the Furry Hatter's riddle: "Which came first, the chicken or the bun?"

Good news. The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Wow. Almost two weeks without a real post. Even I'm surprised I managed to stay away so long. For those who might have been worried, I really am alright. There's been a lot of stuff going on in my private life and it's been taking up all my time and energy. It's also got my insomnia raging once again. So, not only am I completely stressed out, I'm exhausted and crankier than hell on top of it. Throw in my annual battle with seasonal affective disorder and it's all sorts of happy up in here. Not. I needed a break to regroup a bit, but I'm back now. I think. Thank you to those who took the time to send messages and emails to check on me. I appreciate it. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Oscar ate about 1/4 of his breakfast this morning then walked away. Someone definitely isn't feeling well at the Moo House today. Poor pup-pup. Mr Moo has suggested we all go to the coast this weekend so Oscar can see the ocean for the very first time. I hope he's not still feeling poorly by then. We're also thinking about staying over one night to see how well he does in a hotel room. It should be quite an adventure.

This afternoon, I will be working on a muslin version of this dress:

It's for a Mother of the Groom. My client will be here at 1900 this evening for a fitting. Construction-wise, it's not a very complicated dress so it should come together quite quickly.

Yesterday, not long after I posted about Oscar not feeling well, he came into the office to let me know he was ready for the rest of breakfast. He ate what was left without issue. He also ate his dinner in his typical ravenous fashion so it looks like he just had a very temporary bout of indigestion. Our trip to the coast tomorrow is a go once again.

I made my client's muslin yesterday afternoon. Step one is always cutting out the pattern pieces.

Once the pattern is cut out, I do a quick round of pattern alterations before cutting out and assembling the muslin.

As you can see, it's just a simple mock-up of the garment. The skirt is not cut to length. There is no lining. None of the openings are finished. It's put together just enough to try it on the client and work out any major fitting issues and/or design changes. Because my client has some unique fitting issues and the fact that she wants the armscyes altered considerably, we're going to make a second muslin just to be sure it's exactly how she wants it before I start cutting her fashion fabric. She'll be back for another fitting next week.

Up very early this morning for our trip to the coast. We've decided to not stay in a hotel this time. We're going to spend the day hiking and geocaching, then drive home tonight. It's going to be a long day. Will be interesting to see how well Oscar holds up. Time to finish getting the car packed up and the muttley in it. Laters!

Oh my goodness! What a day! I haven't seen Oscar so tired since we adopted him. He was awake for nearly 13 hours straight, which is an eternity for a dog. Not only was he awake all that time, he was hiking for most of it, too. We let him curl up on his blanket for the ride home. He fell asleep in about two seconds flat and slept the entire way back. The rest of the day, he was in his car seat in the front with Mr Moo, which he loved. As for me, I had my pillow, a blanket and the entire back seat to myself. I didn't get much sleep last night so I napped whenever I got a chance. Here's a pic of Lord Oscar in his car seat right after we set out this morning:

I'll post more pics from our outing as soon as I get a chance to sort through them all. Stay tuned!

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 197

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We've been working hard on Josie and Oscar's relationship recently. When we first brought Oscar home, he barked, lunged and went after her like he wanted to eat her every time he saw her. Josie, on the other hand, wanted him to stay as far away as possible. She hissed, growled and swiped at him every chance she got. Using several techniques from Cesar Milan, we've been "owning" the cat and teaching Oscar that she is completely off limits. We also let her eat before and right in front of him, which sends the message that she is more dominant and is not to be messed with. Since he's starting to avoid her now, she's starting to put up with him. They were getting along so well this afternoon, I called Mr Moo. He didn't believe what I was telling him, so I took a photo as proof.

Yes, you can believe your eyes. That really is Oscar and Josie sitting on the window seat together. He is completely ignoring her, and she is feeling comfortable enough that she's tucked her front paws and is starting to fall asleep. I doubt we'll see them sleeping together in the dog bed anytime soon, but it's nice to know I can leave them alone in the same room together for a few minutes at least without being terrified of him attacking her.

Feeding time at the Moo Zoo:

That's Josie on her stool and Oscar standing right next to her willing me to hurry up and get their dinners ready. Josie is fed first. She eats from her own bowl approximately three feet away from Oscar. He has to sit on his mat and wait while she eats. Once she's had her fill (she never eats it all in one sitting) and walks away, I give him his bowl. The remainder of Josie's food is left on the floor next to him and he's not allowed to eat any of it or even go near it. When he's finished, he's excused and I pick up both bowls. It's taken us four months to get to this point. At first, I thought that was an awfully long time, but, given how bad things were when we started, it really hasn't been all that long. And, if we've come this far in just four months, I'm excited to see how much better things will be in another four months.

Oscar had mixed feelings about our trip to the coast this past weekend. He absolutely loved the beach.

The water? Enh, not so much.

We're fairly certain it was the movement of the waves that was weirding him out. It might have been the smell, too. He's gone running into chest-deep puddles of standing water without issue so we know he's not afraid of water. We'll try taking him to a lake or two over the summer and see if he fares better there. We're also debating getting a small kiddie pool for the backyard so he can swim. I'm all for anything that allows him to burn off his excess energy.

Get the tissues before you watch this short film.

Hotel room reserved? Check! Game tickets purchased? Check! Going to see the Red Sox in Seattle in July? Check!

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 198

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"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 199

Click here for the entry form.

Looks like I fell off the planet for a little while again. My bad. I'm hoping to remedy the lack of posts soon.

Over the past several weeks, I've had a few inquiries about Josie. As you can see, she's still hanging in there and enjoying every minute of every sunbeam she can find.

I often find it hard to believe she's going to be 18 years old soon. The time has gone by so quickly. It really does seem like yesterday I was bringing her home as a little kitten. At other times, I watch her slowly make her way up the stairs or find myself shouting at her nearly deaf ears and it really hits home how old she's getting. Happily, she's learning to deal with Oscar. Don't get me wrong, she still hates him with the fury of a thousand suns. However, we've been working hard to establish her as the dominant one and teaching him to leave her alone so she's no longer afraid of him. I've even caught her standing over and glaring at him while he was asleep in his bed. If looks could kill, he would have been so dead we would have had to bury him twice.

Several weeks ago, we headed into Forest Park once again for another Geocaching outing.

This time, we searched for a multi-cache. Rather than having a set of coordinates which take you directly to the cache, you are given coordinates to a location where you will find additional information (on a sign, on a survey marker, on a tree, etc) to calculate a new set of coordinates. Sometimes, this second set will lead you straight to the find. In this case, we had to find four different locations before we actually were able to lay our hands on the cache.

We were pleased to find all of the additional waypoints were in the park. On some multi-caches, you have to drive to the other locations. Interestingly, this was the second cache in a row in which we found dollar bills.

As before, we left them for someone else to find.

When people see us walking Oscar lately, we get a lot of questions about his new attire. Yesterday's post about our hike in Forest Park was no different.

Since Oscar is a hyperactive dog and has enough energy to power a couple dozen nuclear plants on his own, we've been searching for ways to tire him out as much as possible. A tired dog is a good dog, remember. There have been days when I've taken him for a four mile walk in the afternoon, Mr Moo has taken him for a couple mile spin after dinner and he was still bouncing off the walls. We finally decided to take some advice from Cesar Milan and we bought Oscar a backpack.

It's the tiniest little thing so we struggled to find things, which would actually fit in the itty bitty pockets, to add weight. Regular size cans of tuna were too big so we went with a couple of the mini-cans of Fancy Feast cat food. Yes, we make our dog lug around cans of cat food. The humanity! Cesar recommends dogs carry approximately 10% of their body weight, which, in Oscar's case, would be about 1.3 pounds. The cat food cans didn't add up to even half of that so we went shopping for another solution and look at what we found:

3/8" solid steel balls. Perfect! I measured out enough to bring the full weight of the pack and contents to exactly one pound, divided them into two equal portions to balance the pack and loaded them up. Given how small our dog is, the weight of his pack is now quite substantial. The best part is it's working like a charm. He wears it every time we go hiking or for a walk. He walks right beside or behind us now, almost never pulls on the leash anymore and, after a few miles of lugging all that around, he's is more than ready for a nap. And, never mind the fact that he's the cutest thing in the whole wide world when he's wearing it. I especially love when people stop to ask what he's carrying and I can honestly reply, "A load of steel." I get the greatest expressions of confusion in return until I show them what's inside and explain it to them. I then usually get, "I should try that with my kids!" Go to town, people. It works!

Here is a very short video of Oscar taking his new backpack for a spin. Try to not die from the cute.

When you're sleeping hard, you don't care how you look.

It would appear Sarah, our regular mail delivery person, is on vacation. Based on what I just witnessed, I don't know if the substitute, who just messed up so badly it was comical, has ever delivered mail before. To set up, we have a community mailbox. It's across the street on the sidewalk and divided up into enough smaller lock boxes to serve about a dozen houses. The mail person can drive up, unlock the back and deliver mail to all of them in one stop. There are also two larger boxes for package deliveries. The mail person locks your package in one of them and leaves the key in your mailbox so you can retrieve it. It's not rocket science. Anyhoo, after distributing all of the regular mail, the new mail dude (please let him be temporary) got out of the truck to deliver a package. He stood in front of the box, looked completely baffled as to what to do, got back in his truck with the package and left. A-mazing. The only reason I was even paying attention is because I'm expecting a package. I really hope it wasn't mine. And, it gets better. Not only did he not bother delivering the package, which is the sole purpose of his job, he left the back door of the community mailbox unlocked and wide open. Good grief. Anyone could walk up right now and take all of the mail from all of the boxes, including the outgoing one, which I'm sure will contain checks and such. I went outside immediately to get our mail before it walked, tried unsuccessfully to close the back door and called the main post office as soon as I got back inside. The supervisor said they would take care of it ASAP. We'll see how long it takes.

EDIT: It took exactly 44 minutes. The mail truck just came zooming up the street again. He re-locked the back of the box, but still no package delivery. I wonder if it was for an address further up the street at a different box.

Is anyone else out there watching Shear Genius on Bravo?

You got something to say about my backpack? Well, do ya? Huh? HUH? Yeah, I didn't think so.

On our last hike in Forest Park, it was wet and very muddy.

While we thought it was a mess, the dog thought it was the greatest thing ever. Thank goodness we brought along some towels to clean him up before we got back into the car to come home. As per usual, we did a bit of Geocaching while on our hike. We found an interesting item in one of the caches - a disposable camera.

We were supposed to take the camera, take a photo of us next to an item hidden elsewhere in the park and return the camera to the cache. However, since the cache was hidden in a steep ravine and the hidden item was back towards our vehicle, we decided to pass on that part. We didn't feel like backtracking four times or risking our necks to climb down the hillside again, thankyouverymuch. Instead, we took a quick picture of Oscar and put everything back as we found it. I bet there are some interesting pics in that camera. I hope the camera survives and the owner posts the photos once they are developed.

The ducks and beavers may be a lot more cuddly, but there is no denying this is the true mascot for the state of Oregon:

We grow a lot of them and we grow them big. Now that the weather is warming up, there pretty much is no avoiding them while hiking in the woods. Fortunately, they are far from fast so it's easy to get around the ones that wander onto the trails.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 200

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I really dislike watching TV without doing something. I also can't stand going to bed with an unfinished puzzle in the house. Therefore, a lot of jigsaw puzzles get put together in our house often and quickly. Here's a new one I finished recently:

And, here is the box cover:

I really enjoyed this one so I'm sure it will get put together many more times before all is said and done.

Watching the live webcast of the first attempt to collide protons at 7 TeV in the CERN LHC accelerator last night.

Welcome to our House of Nerd.

My sniffer may not work as well as it should, but I can definitely hear you!