Unringing the Bell

Passin' the Time

Walkin' in a Willi' Wonderland

Here are more food items I love. What is it with the food?

Lime Tortilla Chips
Jalapenos!

I can't tell you enough how much I love being in our new apartment even if I am being a little lazy about finishing it all up. There's really not much more to do and it'll be so nice once it is all done, but I am just feeling so lazy about it!

Tonight after a little walk around the block with Iggy (who has remembered walks like they are a long lost relative after months of cold stuck inside or only in our yard on the busy street and tries to convince us he needs them all the time now...we can't go near our shoes or jackets without his dweeby little face puckering up in excitement!) Alex and I then ventured out again to Tony's for some mushroom, onion and hamburger pizza with jalapenos on the side (BAD! BAD! BAD! but GOOD! GOOD! GOOD!) and some Queen, Temptations, Traffic, Talking Heads and Justin Timberlake on the jukebox. (Apparently, after Queen, I got stuck in the T's.) Yay!

I think we are heading to NoHo ToMoHo to see some friends. I hope the weather isn't too crappy. It's my onliest day off and I'd like to have a wee bit o' fun.

In other news, I think the drive-in (and, hence, flea market) has opened for the season! woop! woop!

Morning Ramble

I just came in from a jaunt with Ignatius in the yard. The cows have come around again after many long cold months huddled in the barns. The yard is a veritable sinkhole of mud and molden leaves. But it's a gray damp morning and the smell of earth is strong and inviting. Iggy jumping over branches and sticks with a big stupid dog grin unmatched by any other grin I can conjure. Today, I have plans of packing--taking artwork off the walls and placing my paints in wait into drawers and boxes. I will also head to he co-op to buy fiber supplements and glucosamine, hand soap and maybe a snack of yogurt covered raisins or pretzels. I also plan to read through Arthur Plotnik's Spunk & Bite which after flipping through at B & N I was happy to find on the new non-fiction shelf at my library. I finally finished The Red Tent this morning through a veil of tears. I am listening to Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyers, Palmyra, and it is the perfect soundtrack for this morning. Today, Alex went back to school and it is the first day I have had alone in over 10. Usually I am off and running to work hours before he wakes and home after he comes back from his office. And with spring break, I have been welcomed by him at every turn, a gift, to be sure, but it is also nice to spend some time alone, with the music and the rain, and my dog and my thoughts. I feel up for a road trip, someplace where I expect no one to greet me at the other end, but the over-arching reach of responsibility is telling me to stay home and pack. A dilemma. But nothing I can't handle.

Dilruba-Doo!

All I can think is that people must be STUPID! I just don't see how Iggy is not in the top 75% or better in his photographs because, let's face it, he's a handsome boy! Alas, he is leading the cuteness battle in only 3 out of the 4 (actually maybe it was 2 of 4) photographs on puppy war and by leading, I mean, statistically he has more wins than losses, but I guess there are just other cute pups out there...who knew? (Search for Iggy or Ruffhouse and his stats will come up.)

In other news--well, there IS no other news.

I have been working 10 hour days, waking at 3:45am to bake and whiling away the hours making coffee drinks and sandwiches until I get to go home where my husband will rub my aching feet for me upon my return. (Yes, he does and yes, I am extremely lucky, and no that is in no way shape or form emasculating, in fact it is a very manly thing to do, to rub your wife's feet.)

A gal and I from the cafe are talking about running a kids art workshop for 4 weeks this summer out of her barn (you reading this, Jamie?). She's a potter and has a kiln and workshop and all that, so we would incorporate that and drawing, painting, general crafting etc. etc. etc...

It's snowing like crazy out. I just made the front half of a spirt (you know, pants that you cut and re-sew into a skirt), but I don't have enough big pieces of fabric, so the back will have to wait. Alex is cooking some soup and earlier charmed me on his dilruba.

If you notice in the background, (under the potato vodka box) we are re-gluing a chair we got from Alex's parents for the new apartment. (We will actually have a usable kitchen table at our new place--livin' large! In this place now, there's just not enough room and currently, the kitchen "table" is holding (along with other things) my sewing machine.)

Our apartment now looks like hell in a hand basket. It's so hard to clean and pack at the same time. This morning, I awoke in a panic thinking of all the stuff we have to do. Oy! I can't even think about it right now.

Alex just called "Soup's on!" So I guess I am off.

Since I Messed Up the Other Ones

See how IGGY RUFFHOUSE  is doing in the polls here!

Vote Iggy Ruffhouse!

Thanks to Meli Mello (my Canadian mental twin), I have discovered that even if I can't be successful, maybe my dog can! It might be another day before Iggy's photos are uploaded, but try here and here and VOTE IGGY!

Thanks, Mel...now I have a reason to get up in the morning! SMILE!

Stupid Animal Tricks

Every morning with the exception of only about 4 for the past several weeks, Iggy has been waking up at exactly 4:35am and whimpering and moaning and coming into our bedroom in an attempt to wake us up. At first, we thought the obvious--he needs to go out, he hears a person or animal in the yard, he's bored--but as the whimpering and moaning became consistent and we began to notice that it occurred at a regular time each night, we got suspicious. What could be happening at 4:35 in the morning that would set off our dog?

Now, in the past month or so, I have been known myself to awake at just before 4:35am. Baker's hours, you know. But on those mornings, Iggy doesn't seem to show any signs of distress. I began to wonder if it was because I was distracting him from whatever it is that bothers him on other mornings. And, yes, nightly visits from an agitated apparition who was killed on this very spot at 4:35am have not been ruled out. However, I am feeling less worried about ghostly intruders since last week, I awoke just prior to 4:35 to use the bathroom (I swear, it's as if my body is getting accustomed to this morning wake-up call). After using the loo, I hopped back into bed as I am wont to do in an attempt to not wake myself entirely from whatever dream I was having (I have been known to pee with my eyes closed.)

Come 4:35, I must not have sunk entirely back into la-la-land just yet because I am fairly certain (as certain as a half-comatose person can be) that I heard a faint little beep beep. Very faint though. So faint, that were I not half-asleep and susceptible to dream intrusions I never would have noticed it. And of course. There went Iggy. Our own furry little agitated apparition.

So what is it then? Some electronic device in our home that spends long lonely nights working up the energy to chirp gently out of boredom? Is it a neighbor's alarm clock? I am inclined to believe the later, however, I don't recall seeing anyone leave at that ungodly hour. And like I said I AM occasionally in the driveway scraping the ice from my car around that time, lord help me.

There was a time when I awoke at 3:45 and couldn't get the water to run hot or strong (a symptom of a neighbor taking a shower at the same time--and boy how I love that about this apartment!). And we do have a neighbor who is the lunch lady at the local middle school. Could it be her awaking with the rooster? (Just to clarify, the rooster actually wakes at the slightly less insane hour of 5:30 and has not been out most the winter, nor has he seemed to cause Iggy any amount of worry, so I have ruled out the cock-a-doodle-doo in this Nancy Drew novel.)

I don't know what it is.  A mysterious beep beep.  A beep beep that sets Iggy off into such convulsions he comes this close to talking and so I kinda' don't want to figure it out. I look forward to the day Iggy walks into our room, flips on the overhead light and bellows "O.K., guys, it's not funny anymore, what the hell was that???!!!" Think about it, remember the I LOVE YOU dog? We're talking Letterman, folks. We're talking fame.