February 19, 2008

• Figurines, The Fight for Dominance and Weird Winter Weather

  I’ve been keeping busy the past few weeks with painting some of the ceramic figurines and other unpainted pieces that we bought. Included is the figurines the Beast bought me for part of my Christmas present (the other was my new stove, remember?)

  I did most of the other pieces (toilet seat with cute little saying on it, a 3-dimensional picture, teapot and cup, etc.) and decided to tackle some of the other, larger pieces. I painted the garden gnome because I thought it was adorable. It’s a pipe-smoking gnome resting under a mushroom *umbrella*. But the umbrella mushroom forms a kind of basin that I will probably put bird seed in this spring. It’s too shallow for a bird bath (and we already have one). I wish I was able to put a picture up here of it because his face turned out amazing. He looks almost life-like (if you have ever seen a garden gnome, that is).

  I also did a squirrel, holding a big leaf that will also hold bird seed. Then I tackled my Indian scout one. I wish I could remember the name of the Indians that wore clothing like this one has on. You’ve probably seen them in pictures and movies. He is wearing a wolf hide. The head of the wolf is his hat and the front legs are tied around the front and the back legs and tail hang down. His pants have fringe and his gun and braids are adorned with feathers. I really took my time and worked with the detail. I even went and bought some special brushes for the fine details. I swear, one of the brushes can’t have more than four or five hairs on it but I needed it for around the eyes and a few other small, detailed areas.

  I also found out that I need a magnifying glass on a stand. It needs to be large and the more magnifying, the better. Even though my eyesight is now back to almost 20/20, up close and personal, I need to magnify areas of detail on some of these figurines I have. I still have my cowboy to do and I’m almost not looking forward to it just because of that. If anyone knows of a place that sells a magnifying glass setup like I described, please email me.

  I finished up the indian this afternoon and I’ll let it dry for 24 hours before I seal it. It gives me a chance to look it over beforehand and see if I missed any spots that need touching up. I’ll do something less detailed next to give myself a break. My eyes go ga-ga after a while and I am not as neat as I need to be. I can paint for an hour or two and then have to stop and do something else.

  The nice thing is that I started another afghan but a different pattern. I thought it funny when I found out that my sister, *D*, is crocheting an adorable large doily in a pretty shade of yellow. It’s funny because the afghan I am making is also in yellow. Neither of us knew about the choice until our projects were already underway. This afghan is for me. I am making it for my living room and it looks great with the burgundy of our loveseat and recliners. I’ve got about 10 inches done so far and have to make a yarn run now that I know approximately how much I can get out of the yarn I’ve chosen. It’s a soft but bulky yarn and should be a great nap afghan when it’s done.

  Baron has become a real problem for both the Beast and me. The weird thing is that it isn’t a constant problem but it’s annoying as hell. He keeps challenging us for dominance. He’s sneaky when it comes to me, though. He will wait until the Beast leaves and then start things like laying on me while we are on the loveseat. I keep a blanket on it so it doesn’t get it full of dog hair. Even dobermans shed and they can shed a LOT of hair. It surprises you because it’s so fine and short. He doesn’t look like he has that much to spare but I’ll send you what I vacuumed up next time. You could probably glue it together and get a decent sized puppy out of it.

  Another area of challenge is obeying commands. We have always made him *sit* and *stay* until we release him to eat his food. We don’t wait long, just long enough for him to be calm. We had found he ate like a pig if he was excited and I know he didn’t chew anything. All the dog training books and the trainers we’ve talked to say that it’s a good practice. Lately though, Baron has almost…and I say *almost* because I will pick up his food and put it inside a cabinet if he doesn’t sit. But it’s the defiant look on his face (and, trust me, you can SEE it) that pisses me off. In my mind I am thinking *you are NOT going to make ME do things YOUR way, buster!* He will suddenly go ahead and sit down when he realizes that I am serious about not giving him his food but he lowers his butt very slowly doing it. I know he doesn’t like failing. Neither do I and I won’t. I have more patience than he has determination.

  I’m sure you have heard about the tornadoes that his Alabama. We’ve actually had two separate incidents of that in as many weeks. The first set was a weather front that hit us after having several 60 degree days. A storm front came through several states, including N.E. Alabama. It extended north into Tennessee where it did more damage and killed more people than it did here locally. The sirens kept going off every time a tornado was seen (I told you about this in another post). This last storm front hit around the Montgomery area. We, thankfully, only got rain out of it. But it did a lot of damage in Prattville but much less than the previous storm that hit us and Tennessee so hard. I feel bad for the people there because the governor did not declare it a disaster area so there’s no federal aid or FEMA help for those poor people that lost their homes and businesses. He did, however, obtain some of the FEMA trailers stored down south for the families to live in while their homes were being repaired.

  Since they didn’t get federal aid, it meant no help in cleaning and clearing the area. But Alabamians have big hearts. The very next day, 29 volunteers showed up to help out and had brought equipment to assist in the effort. More showed up today and the county had trucks there to haul away the debris being gathered. It makes you proud. Most of the injured were not serious, thank god but there ARE two people in serious condition in the hospital. Say a little prayer for them if you think about it.

  It’s really a wonder that everyone here isn’t sick as a dog. We’ve had our weather go from the ‘teens for a day or two and then up into the 60′s for the next couple days. Up, down, up, down…..you HAVE to watch the weather on TV or have weatherbug so you know how to dress. Heck, even to where you set your t-stat. I could have choked the Beast when I found out that he was lowering the t-stat to 65 degrees at night. It’s fine while you are under the comforter but just have to pee during the night. The seat on the terlit is so damn cold that you fear your butt is gonna stick to it. He SAYS he only turned the t-stat down to 65, I didn’t check but it felt a hell of a lot colder than that when I got up to let the dog outside at 4:30 am. If I have to get up tonight, trust me, I will check it….and raise the temp if I find it even at 65.

  It went from 28 degrees this morning to a high of 52 with no wind. It doesn’t feel bad, surprisingly. But we will have a warmer night (around 38 they say) and guess what it’s bringing with it? You got it….another stormy night and 50% chance of showers and isolated thunderstorms. That means another possible set of tornadoes somewhere. Heck, pray for all the states that front is going to go through. Who in the hell ever heard of so many tornadoes in FEBRUARY??? *sigh*

  Well, I have to run. I’m making penne pasta with Italian sausage, onions and green peppers for dindin. It smells heavenly. I’ll turn any leftovers into spaggetti sauce tomorrow so nothing will go to waste. I want to make some Texas toast garlic bread and the oven is preheated now. Love you all and stay healthy.

  • 5:27 pm
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