They like to be near each other….just not too near each other.
Things I Learned on the Gutchie Hunt
I haven’t been to a department store for undies in a long time, and I am amazed at how high the cost has become! I am used to a week’s worth of underwear costing around $10, but at the mall, be prepared to spend $75-80. Ouch. At those prices, you can’t afford to have a laundry accident.
Also a surprise was the styles. I haven’t seen such an assortment of boring, conservative gutchies since the 1800s. For some reason pantie waist lines keep going up while pant waist lines remain mostly low. I thought that the “undies-sticking-out-of-your-jeans” look was more for young men trying to look tough. On little old ladies it does not impress.
On a related note, I walked past a mannequin wearing jeans with a huge tag announcing them as “Mom Jeans”. Oh thank heavens! For the young, you might not know yet how wonderful these things can be, but they truly deserve a place in the closet. They are generally made of bottomweight denim and come up to your natural waist. They are loose and comfortable and are great for when you need to do real work, not to look sexy. Landscaping, shoveling snow, walking dogs, relaxing at home by yourself…all such great times for warm, comfy pants! Perhaps underwear designers are expecting a boom to the Mom jeans market and that is why they are making such a plethora of giant grandma thunder panties.
This might come as a disappointment to a section of the market I hadn’t previously considered. While looking online to check the quality of different brands, I saw a considerable number men reviewing ladies’ panties. I am not sure if bloomers are going to provide them with what they are looking for, though. There’s not much support to them, and if you want them to make you feel femimine, they don’t.
Mom, this is soooo boring! Call us when you’re done complaining about underwear.
Semper Ubi Sub Ubi, Revisited
Ignore the vest, Mummy. Let it all hang out!
If you read A Tired Mommy Is A Good Mommy, you will recognize just how important gutchies can be to me. Today I had one of the most disappointing things that could happen to a woman happen: I found out that my favorite underwear has been discontinued. If you are a lady, you know how concerning this can be. Without the right style, not only can you wind up with endless wedgies, but your confidence in your appearance can suffer (and mosquitoes can bite your exposed privates if you go commando!).
Toby and Geordie tried to convince me that living sky clad was the only way to go. I merely had to remind them of the Lady Godiva incident for them to hush and skulk off to another room.
Bitey and the Bee Stings
You might feel yourself on life’s ladder’s low rung
If you wake up each day with a paw that’s been stung.
I Did It Again
It seems that I am a dog who should take my own advice. What did I say at the end of my last blog? Something about watching out for the bees?
After being stung on Friday, I finally started to feel better by Monday. I was cheerful, and my appetite was back. I was greeting neighbors and being my normal bouncy self. Then two steps from the front door I did it again; I stepped on a bee.
This time Mom didn’t hesitate, and she rushed me to the vet. They didn’t seem as worried as she was about me. They checked my paw for stingers. (That hurt like heck). The checked me for a fever. (Despite what the vet said about “bigger things that ‘this’ coming out of ‘there’ all the time” I did not care for it…therefore it hurt like heck.) Then they gave me the nastiest shot I’ve ever had in my life. (That hurt like heck.) My poor paw swelled like an elephant’s foot, and I couldn’t stop panting and pacing. When we got home, I had to take the worst tasting antibiotic invented by man. It was definitely not my day.
To make things worse Toby was feeling neglected, so he got all the attention once I was settled in at home. He got to go out in the yard and play Frisbee with Mom (the bees were asleep by then), and I had to sit in the house with a nasty aftertaste in my mouth while my paw throbbed.
I would warn you to be careful about the bees again, but I can see it won’t help. After watching the movie Swarm, it seems that once bees are riled up there is no stopping them. Just try to make sure that when you’re stung you don’t fall on the train throttle or the self destruct button on the nuclear power plant. The earth’s survivors will thank you.
If the Bee Stings
Is this the saddest little face or what?
My poor little boy had a rough weekend. He started it out by stepping on a bee. I watched him for symptoms like difficulty breathing, swelling, hives and excessive drooling, but he didn’t have any of these. What I didn’t realize was the tiredness and soft poos he was having were signs of a reaction bad enough that he should see a vet. (I was blaming the tiredness on Benedryl.)
Should your pup come out the loser in an encounter with a bee, first remove the stinger. (The pup will not like this.) Then put a baking soda paste on the wound. (The pup will not like this.) Apply ice to help with the pain. (The pup will not like this). Then give a Benedryl. (The pup will really like this if you wrap it in peanut butter!)
Along with the Benedryl, I gave my boy some of the topical cortisone spray I keep on hand for his hot spots. It isn’t as strong as what the vet would have given him, but it did seem to bring him a bit of relief.
Be safe around those bees this Summer!
Landscapes and Memories
As a painter it is my nature is to create pictures that are meticulous and exact. While studying the works of artists such as Van Gogh and Chagall though, I found myself swept away by the freedom expressiveness of their artwork, and I loved it. I want some of those feelings for myself!
I decided to explore the area around me and see what I could find to inspire me. Then I want to see what I can create – more creating a mood than a replica of the place, however. This was my first attempt at quickly capturing a scene from the neighborhood.
This particular location holds a special memory for me. When Geordie was a tiny pup, only a few months old, we were sitting at this same place. Suddenly Geordie jumped up and began growling and pulling as if he wanted to catch something. I checked all around and couldn’t find any rabbit or deer or anything. When I followed where his nose was pointing, I found a car driving on one of the roads on the facing hillside. From where we were sitting, it looked no larger than a beetle.
I hadn’t realized until then that my puppy didn’t understand perspective. The only way I could think to explain it to him was to pick him up and reach one arm out as far as I could toward the car. When he saw that even I couldn’t touch it, he finally settled down.
I still have a lot of work to do before I am comfortable with a more abstract style of painting. This one is driving me batty because I want to go back and make it right. Except, I don’t want “right” I want “mood”.
It’s a good thing I have a lot of paper because I’m pretty sure I am going to need it!
Flashback Friday
Can you find the puppy hidden in this picture?
When Bitey was little, this was his favorite hiding space…until he got too big and needed help getting back out. Wasn’t he an adorable itty bitty beast?
In instances like these, I try to envision non-linear time. What might it be like to have your little dog with you as a puppy and a senior and every step in between simultaneously? I suppose we have that with memory, but to us the points of time don’t fall together but are strung apart. I imagine that in the world beyond this one, time is non-linear.
I guess we won’t need Flashback Fridays then! : – )
Guess Where I Went?
To the museum!
Friends will know that I have been wanting to visit the museum for a very long time, and yesterday I finally did. I wanted something by which to remember my trip, and I picked this little guy to come home with me.
A lot of the gifts in the gift shop were handmade by crafts persons in countries with struggling economies. I thought this was a great partnership. When I found this tiny hand carved triceratops made of tiger’s eye, I simply had to have him (or her).
Foolish me, I didn’t realize that there were different types of triceratops. In movies, they always seem to look the same. In reality the horns weren’t always spaced the same, and some had curved horns or narrow faces. It was interesting to see the different types of skulls side by side.
I was only gone for a few hours, and when I got home I immediately grabbed my pups’ leashes and let them out of their kennels for a potty break. Geordie refused to come and yelled at me that he was very angry at my stupidity! Stupidity? What did I do wrong? Well, it turns out that the first thing he wanted was a drink, not to go outside. Toby would simply have walked to the water bowl and had a drink before heading outside, but Geordie had to make a point of telling me how stupid I was.
I am glad terriers don’t come with horns.
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The Adventures of Bitey Dog 