For whatever reason or combination of reasons, I am completely blocked creatively. I can’t draw. I can’t paint. I can’t focus my thoughts at all. A friend suggested that I try doing little 15 minute sketches each day to try to recover. Even these are miserable to try to do. I feel like I’ve had far too much caffeine and can barely sit still.
Perhaps you can find one of your babies here, sacrificed for my need for source photos. I apologize for not being able to capture their true natures. I’m trying, though. I’m really trying.
At least she didn’t draw you looking like a teddy bear!
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It’s hard to believe but a lot of schools are starting back to class already. Make sure your student stands out in one of these fine offerings. There are shirts, sweaters, ties and vests for the young man or young lady who wants to show they are serious about their future success.
Yes, once again I had a procedure that told me absolutely nothing about what is going on with me. I suppose I should be happy that this process of elimination is helping me to find the real problem, but this morning when doctor’s office called they pretty much said that after the nerve conduction testing next month, there is nothing more they have to offer. Great. Now I have another month and a half of falling down before going through more testing that will most likely have “inconclusive” results.
Coincidentally the night before the test I watched a bad movie where a running joke was one of the characters trying to break into the recording industry by composing House Music. The music was truly awful but was considered greatly improved when a nearly-dead man in his apartment started tapping a single note over and over on the composer’s keyboard. It turns out that MRI’s sound just like that awful House Music! It was all I could do to keep from laughing as that single repeating note kept being blasted through the tube to the counterpoint of musical sounds the machine made. (If you haven’t had an MRI, they are very musical. They don’t just make the ka-chunk, ka-chunk sound shown in TV medical dramas.)
I have a friend who has been very supportive and keeps encouraging me saying that it’s not that nothing is wrong with me but that the doctors haven’t found anything because they aren’t asking the right questions. In the meantime, my technical diagnosis still remains “bull sh*t lying hypochondriac bit*h”.
Oh my gosh, would you quit yammering about yourself already and tell a story about me?!?
Could your day use a little magic? If so, consider adding a Royal Pillow to your decor! Available in a variety of colors and sizes, they can add a touch of whimsy to your life.
This industrious pumpkin planted itself early in the spring. Once it blossomed, the fruit doubled in size nearly every day. This is how big the determined pumpkin got before cutworms got the better of it.
I don’t know what my heartbroken little Toby will do when fall arrives.
I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll make you go to the store and buy me some pumpkins!!!
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What would two puppies do if left on their own in an art museum? Find out in Dream Our World! Inside the boys discover the world of art from a canine perspective and enjoy a day of unsupervised fun.
A day after Toby killed that chipmunk. we found the brother in the exact same spot. Either these two weren’t very good at being chipmunks, or this one was so despondent over losing his kin that he allowed the neighborhood kitty to send him to the other side.
Either way, I am hoping that the wires in my car will be safe for a little longer.
You should have let me catch that one too, mom.
I would a kil’t ‘im real good.
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Halloween will be here soon. Make sure to grab this dramatic satin-lined black cape to top off your costume. Not only thematic and beautiful, it can also keep you warm as you haunt the neighborhood…or a good party!
While my Geordie was quite the hunter, Toby hasn’t really followed in his footsteps (paw prints?). That is what made his killing of this chipmunk so surprising. Toby was really proud of himself, and I guess part of me was as well…until I saw the chipmunk’s brother looking bereft at the feet of an angel statue nearby. Perhaps it was actually shock at having been nearly killed by a vicious animal, but I read sadness and loss in his body posture.
Yet, what a hypocrite I am. Those blasted little rotters did a number of my truck in previous years. They chewed up all the insulation under the hood and gnawed on my cables. I wished them all dead.
So what is the lesson from this encounter? I guess mostly that I am stupid and anthropomorphize vermin. Unless, perhaps, by not better supervising my pup, I have allowed him to create Mexican Joker Chipmunk…..
You think too much. I am a good killer!
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Cooler weather is just around the corner! Make your special young man is prepared for whatever comes with this stylish, handmade argyle sweater in merino wool. This Hand Knit Argyle Cardigan, and many other fine products, are available frommy shop at L Bowman Studios.
Poor Bitey and Toby. It’s always the kids that suffer.
It is looking like what I thought was a simple case of osteoarthritis is either psoriatic or psoriatic + rheumatoid arthritis. Very suddenly I have lost nearly all the strength in my right hand. (Unfortunately I am a righty.)
For the time being, Bitey and Toby will have to be drawn with my left hand. As you can see, they don’t look quite how they usually do. I am also having the fun of learning to use a mouse with my left hand. Oh the joys that abound in Bitey Land!
Like Job, I am trying to be grateful for this most recent challenge. If you are a subscriber to bootstrapping philosophy in neuroanatomy (i.e. W.H. Calvin’s The Throwing Madonna) , potentially switching hands like this might help to unlock my crippling writers’ block. Of course, I still can’t draw, write or type anything I think up. Hmmm….
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To find out what trouble my boys have been up to, pick up a copy of Dream Our World. Inside they view the world of art from a canine perspective and enjoy a day of unsupervised fun!
Figuring out what has been going on with Toby has turned out to be a painful adventure. For months, my otherwise happy puppy has been attacking me. Every resource I encountered mentioned checking the dog’s thyroid levels because low thyroid in dogs can lead to erratic behaviors. I had Toby checked; no low thyroid.
During the attacks, it were as if Toby were asleep. Sometimes he would “wake up” in the middle and looked confused or embarrassed about what was going on.
I think I may have finally figured out what is happening with Toby: Sleep Startle Reflex. Older dogs, deaf dogs – and for some reason greyhounds – tend to have this most often, but any dog can. Basically it is an old survival instinct where if anything – any little thing – happens near the sleeping dog it will attack instantly without even waking up. I don’t even need to touch Toby but make a noise near him and he will come running to growl at and bite me.
What made the condition even harder to pinpoint was that the attacks only happened in the evening or at night not during the day even though Toby sleeps at all of those times. Turns out that the SSR is only triggered during REM sleep. In the afternoons, Toby is merely napping, so he doesn’t dream then.
It felt good to find out that nothing is really “wrong” with my boy; he is just a sleepwalker…..er, sleep attacker. Experts recommend not punishing or yelling at your dog because he is unaware of what he is doing. To him, he just wakes up and everyone is mad at him. It is recommended that you put your furry attacker in a quiet room at night and block it off so that no one disturbs him. Little Toby’s heart has been breaking because I have been having him sleep in his kennel and not in the laundry. I feel awful that he can’t sleep in the bedroom with me, but this room is so small I can’t fit his kennel inside.
Maybe this will be incentive to get rid of some stuff so my puppy can toot contentedly beside me in his sleep.
I hate this kennel. I wanna come back and sleep in the laundry.
Dirty laundry – the bed of the gods.
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Come see what Bitey and Super Sleep-Bitey (otherwise known as Toby) have been up to, pick up a copy of Bitey Dog and Toby in Dream Our World! Inside the boys view the world of art from a canine perspective and enjoy a day of unsupervised fun.
Real Life Toby is smug that he can eat anything and still look cute. Real Life Mommy is grumpy that she is most likely going to have to hand even more money over to Walmart in exchange for a pair of pants. Or a muumuu.
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This is the season for so many happy occasions! Whether a graduation or a birthday or an anniversary, your gift will make a real impression when presented in this reusable Gift Presentation Bag. After your gift has been given, it can be used to present yet another gift, or it can be used as a handy tote.
The Adventures of Bitey Dog 