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

Robinson Cowrusoe
While searching for a new oat trading route, a mariner named Cowrusoe becomes stranded on an uncharted island in the Cowribbean with only the hay on his back. But despite having all the lush grass he can possibly chew, Cowrusoe's only true happiness lies in persuading the local tribe of burger-eaters to set their sights on the island's wild poultry instead.

You joined our family when you were only 5 months old. Today, you are 18.

We love you, baby girl. Happy Birthday.

EDIT:

You also joined our family when you were only 5 months old. We had over 15 wonderful years with you before you left us two years ago today.

We miss you, Zoe.

When we first showed Oscar his new Tricky Treat Ball the other day, he was completely afraid and acted like it was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen. I had to leave it on the floor for a while so he could smell and get used to it before I started showing him how to play with it. To make a long story short, once he discovered food comes out of it, he was all about the toy. It's his new favorite now.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 205

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And so it begins...

After spending pretty much all day yesterday cutting, I started work in earnest on my client's wedding gown today.

As is my nature, I spent the entire day worrying about whether her muslin really fit her as well as I thought, if I added enough extra into the skirt, did I screw up any of the lace placements, if I missed any changes because I forgot to write them down, etc, etc.

Turns out I worried for nothing, as per usual. Even though all I had for her to try on was a shell of a garment when she came for her fitting, she loved it and it fit her perfectly. I ended up adding way more than we needed in the skirt (better too much than not enough when it comes to fitting), but she liked the extra fullness so we left it. Since I only assembled just enough of the dress for her to try it on today, I now get to take it all apart and start over, making it for real this time with all of the pieces and finishing details.

We recently bought Oscar a Kong Wubba toy.

We've been on the lookout for a toy we can use to teach him to fetch and retrieve since he really doesn't know how to do either right now. Because he's always so afraid of anything new, I put it in his bed so he could get used to the sight and smell of it. I think he's decided it's acceptable.

I caught him chewing on it for a few minutes this morning so it looks like this might be the one.

Oscar and Josie want to wish everyone a Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Partial conversation I had with a girl at the groomer's today:

Me - I need to set up an appointment for Oscar to get a bath, please.
Her - What time would you like to come in?
Me - Tomorrow or Friday, early afternoon.
Her - How is 10:00 tomorrow?
Me - Ummm. I said, "early afternoon".
Her - Okay. How about 11:00?
Me - ???

Was I being too cryptic? She eventually put someone else, who understood me, on the line. Oscar will be going in at 1:00 on Friday afternoon. Man, that was painful.

Hiking/Geocaching in Forest Park in April

One of my favorite things about hiking in the Portland area is seeing the volcano, Mt St Helens.


Some of Oscar's favorite things are finding geocaches and peeing in the grass.


As for Mr Moo, he's just cranky and hates everything.

Some days, for every step forward, you take two steps back. Went to a nearby park with Oscar today. I let him off leash to work on his whistle training and he took off. He ran completely out of the park, down two blocks and crossed two streets before I was able to catch him. It was a miracle he wasn't run over. It was all I could do to not strangle him once I managed to grab him. I wish I knew why he's so good most days and totally out of control on others. Very frustrating.

Garlic mustard is bad, m'kay?

Leftover photos from Oscar's Cinco de Mayo photo shoot.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 206

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I still can hardly believe, at the end of this week, Mr Moo will be on sabbatical. Every seven years, Intel makes their employees take two months off. With the addition of some of his vacation time, Mr Moo is going to be off work for 10 weeks. I'm excited to have him home, but a little nervous at the same time since we have absolutely nothing at all planned. I can already imagine him wandering the house saying, "I'm bored!" after about day two. I'm trying to get all of my work finished up and out the door so we can do stuff together. I sense a lot of day trips in our future.

EDIT: Mr Moo told me tonight that it looks like he's going to have to work through Wednesday of next week. I guess his project isn't wrapping up quite as quickly or as nicely as he was hoping so he needs a few more days. With the amount of work I have to get done myself, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. He won't lose the days. He'll just add them on at the end.

Unless some sort of miracle occurs between now and tomorrow morning, it looks like we'll be taking Stuka to be euthanized tomorrow. Both yesterday and the day before, he was very active, hopping around and looking like he was on the mend from his bout with the fluid in his abdomen. Today, however, he's gone downhill far and fast. He doesn't even have the strength to perch right now and is sitting on the bottom of the cage. I knew it was really, really bad when he barely resisted when I went to pick him up. Normally, he fights like a rabid falcon when we try to just touch him. It's going to be a long night.

There was no miracle. Stuka is still sitting on the floor of his cage and, if anything, he's gotten worse. I don't know if his legs are becoming paralyzed or if his sense of balance is completely gone, but he's barely able to stay upright. It's definitely time. And, wouldn't you know it, our vet is out of the office today and on vacation for a week starting tomorrow. The receptionist gave me the phone numbers for two other clinics and both of their vets, who deal with exotics, are out of the office today, too. Figures. I called the place where we took Stuka one time for an after hours emergency and they can see us this afternoon. Mr Moo is going to sneak out of work for a little while and take us because, given the state I already am in now, I will be in absolutely no condition to be driving once this is done.

We didn't make it to the vet appointment. Stuka just died.

It was a rough day today, but I cried less than I did yesterday so it was a little bit better. We aren't going to have a chance to bring Stuka's body in for cremation until Saturday morning so we had to put him in the freezer. The table on the landing is our pet mausoleum and now our kitchen is a morgue. Oy. If I think too much about him being in there, it sets me off. I'll be much better once we get his ashes back and I can put them with Bungee's. I'm sure they're having a ball in Heaven now that they're together again. Here's a pic from better days:

That's Stuka on the left and Bungee on the right. I promised Mr Moo I would not buy anymore birds if he promised to keep an open mind about adopting or fostering some in the future. He's not a big fan of having birds in the house. If it was up to him, we would never have another. I think I might be able to talk him into rescuing some down the line though. We'll see.

These are a couple photos I took of Oscar back in April. He is a handsome little man.

Since making that fancy lace-covered Edwardian wedding gown from scratch isn't a big enough project to make all of my hair fall out, I'm making another dress for a different client.

This one is for a 19 year old, who will be part of a wedding next month (not as a bridesmaid) and wanted a nice dress she can wear again. She has a number of fitting issues, which make it virtually impossible for her to buy clothes off the rack. She is very tall - over 6'2". She rowed crew for several years and, as a result, has very broad shoulders. She's also carrying some extra weight. Her measurements place her just off the measurement chart for this pattern company. I bought the largest size and had to add a tiny bit around and a whole lot up and down. She is so tall I can barely see the tops of her shoulders when she comes for fittings.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 207

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There are several rounds of the movie contest still open. Take a look and make a guess!

Photos from one of our April hiking/geocaching outings in Forest Park.





Hoping to do a lot more hiking once Mr Moo and I are finished up with all of our work and he is officially on sabbatical.

Sometimes, after a day like today, this doesn't necessarily seem like a bad idea.

The rain, she is a-comin'.

I can still hardly believe this is Mr Moo's last day at work before his sabbatical begins. He's got so much to do still he'll be working from home tomorrow and Friday. Therefore, we're not calling his sabbatical officially started until next week, but he'll be home, at least, so I'm not complaining.

Since he's relatively good about coming when we call him, we often will let Lord Oscar out to "do business" in the backyard without the leash. If he starts to wander off, we give him a verbal reprimand and he's learning to stay where we can see him. This week, I noticed he's been consistently wanting to go around the corner of the house, which is a no-no. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what he was up to. Well, he let me know today. As soon as I let him out this afternoon, he ran right around the corner again. I called him firmly and he came back - with something fairly large in his mouth. I told him to drop it and chased him away from it. It wasn't until I was practically stepping on it that I finally realized what it was. It was the partial corpse of a snake. Yuck! From the looks of it, I think Mr Moo accidentally ran it over with the lawn mower on Sunday. Poor snake. I was worried Oscar had been eating it. However, the fact he dropped it so willingly means it didn't hold much value to him, which is a good indicator he didn't think of it as food. It was just something new, smelly and interesting in his yard that he picked up to show me.

Just got back from a 3.5 mile walk with the dog. Why is it he, at the end of our walk, drags along like he's about to die from exhaustion, but, once we're in the house again, runs around like a maniac and wants to play?

Yesterday, we took Miss Josie to the veterinarian for her semiannual physical. Since she's geriatric, at 18 years old, it is recommended she get checked out every six months instead of the usual twelve. For once, we didn't have a grocery list of problems to discuss. She still has all of the same issues as the last time we saw the doctor (hair loss on her belly, skin cancer lesions, lack of mobility, hearing loss), but there was nothing new to report. While those things seem severe, they aren't affecting her quality of life so we still consider them mild annoyances rather than huge medical issues. And, aside from them, she really is doing well overall. She eats well, poops well, is maintaining her weight well, and seems happy. The doctor listened to her heart and gave her a full once over. He couldn't believe it when I reminded him she is 18 now. He said she's in fantastic shape. Her heart sounds great. Her kidneys haven't gotten any smaller. Nothing feels weird in her gut. Her coat and eyes are shiny and healthy. And she's even gained a few ounces. I told him about how much she's slowed down recently. Her arthritis seems to be getting worse and I asked if there was anything we could do to make her more comfortable. We discussed many medication options, eliminated most of them because of the side effects/her kidney issues, and finally decided on a new injectable medicine meant to treat arthritis in canines. Yup, she's getting doggy medicine, much to her dismay.

He asked if we could give her injections on our own. We told him, after giving Zoe, the wiggle worm, sub-Q fluids for weeks when she was sick, we could manage a few shots in Josie, the most laid back cat on the planet. We have to give her one shot twice per week for four weeks, then only once per month after that. He said he's seen great results from this medicine in cats and we should notice improvement in her mobility within a couple weeks.

How much do I love sewing yards and yards of beaded lace trim by hand? Let me count the ways... Yeah, that would be ZERO.

How to Make a Dress

1. Carefully cut out all of the pieces.

2. Carefully hand baste the layers together.

3. Then wad the whole thing into a big messy ball on the table.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 208

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There are several rounds of the movie contest still open. Take a look and make a guess!

Houston, we have sleeves!

Progress is slow, but it's still progress.

Still working on the Edwardian wedding gown.

It doesn't look like much has been done besides the skirt being attached, but there has. The skirt has three layers (lace, satin, lining) so just cutting and sewing it alone took an age. I made and inserted the bodice lining, bound and finished the armscyes, and, after three attempts, got the invisible zipper installed. My client came over for a fitting this afternoon and she's very happy with how it's turning out. The list of things left to do include finishing the collar, attaching the buttons, hemming all layers of the skirt, finishing the linings and sewing on the remaining 18 miles of beaded lace trim. I should finish in about a thousand years.

Back to work on the blue dress tonight.

This is where my client's wedding gown started:

A million and one pattern pieces. It took me two days to cut everything out.

This is part of the reason why custom clothing costs so much.

Since we don't have a fenced backyard, letting Oscar outside to play has proven to be a challenge. We either had to leash and stay with him, or we tied him up to a piece of small rope, which was anchored to one of the bird feeder poles. Either way, it was a pain in the butt and we spent more time untangling him from the legs of the patio table than actually playing. While I was searching online for rawhide bones, I came across this:

It's a tie out stake, which goes in the ground and has a rotating retractable leash attached to the top. There was a good chance this was going to be as much of a failure as the rope, but since it was less than $15, we figured it would be at least worth trying. Mr Moo set it up not long ago and it's working like a charm.

We think the retractable leash pulls on him just enough that he retreats and goes around things like the table and flower pots now instead of getting wrapped all around them like before. It's designed for small to medium dogs so the tension isn't so high he has to struggle to move, but, apparently, it's enough to get him to back up, which is exactly what we were hoping for. Oscar is looking forward to spending many sunny summer afternoons in the grass. Another dog dilemma solved!

For a dressmaker, Pat's Custom Buttons and Belts in California in one of the greatest resources EVER. You send her a piece of your fabric and she will make fabric covered buttons or belts in a host of styles, shapes and sizes to perfectly match your garment. I sent off a scrap of fabric from my client's wedding gown and received these in the mail today:

Not only did I receive an exceptional quality product, she sent me five extra buttons for free, gave me a discount on top of that, returned the unused fabric and the total turn around time (I'm talking from the time I mailed the fabric to when I had buttons in my hand) was just four days. Four. I can't even answer emails in four days. Pat Mahoney, if you ever read this, you are my hero and I beg you, please, do not ever go out of business!

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 209

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There are several rounds of the movie contest still open. Take a look and make a guess!

Mr Moo officially began our landscaping project today. He deconstructed the retaining wall/flower bed on the east side of our property.

The long term plan is to fence off that side of the house. The area will get virtually zero sunlight, which isn't exactly conducive for growing plants. We're going to remove the bed by moving the wall back until it's right up against the neighbor's fence. Since we'll need them again eventually, Mr Moo stacked the stones up closer to the front of the house.

He discovered one of the support posts for the neighbor's fence is rotten. Once we help her to replace that and remove all of the dirt that's still in the way, we'll start rebuilding the retaining wall.

Something that brings me great joy in life? My kids hanging out on the patio together, unleashed and not running away, and actually getting along.