Digging and Dawgs

Bill is in the midst of changing the layout of the back yard. Again. Specifically, he's shrinking the Dawg Destruction Zone so that Gozer and Stewie can no longer actively destroy the exterior of the house, but they will continue to have access to the outer bits of the garage. But they're brick. And not as tasty. We hope. But to do this, to move the fence and further curtail the dogs and their ability to dig up, chew up, and otherwise tear up anything they can get their filthy paws upon (ie: the house, the planting beds, the few still living trees, the canoe...), Bill also must move the satellite dish cabling.

Dedicated readers may remember last winter when we lost our satellite reception and had a service call only to learn that the dogs had chewed the cable off of the house. Well, to avoid it getting dug up and shredded again, Bill ran the cabling up high, far above where the dogs could reach, only now with the fence being moved there's nowhere to connect it to and it has to get buried. Again. So, today, he's digging a deep trench to run conduit in to protect the ever tasty dish cable. Once that's done and he's deemed it secure from the Destructo Mutts (I'm beginning to think he'll need to concrete it in), then he'll finish the fencing. And then, maybe, he can fix all the gouged up places in the siding. And repair the moon-base-alpha look to our back yard. And reset the patio block... And I'm sure you get the idea.

In the mean time, Stewie and his little brother Gozer are in the house with me, licking and panting and begging to go back outside to help Bill play in the dirt and re-fill the trench he'd just dug. Which is oh so much fun! Much more fun than hanging around the house.

Formatting issues

My blog layout is on the fritz and I'm not sure why. Hopefully i'll get it figured out soon.

Chewie x 2

Bill has returned safely from Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio (yay!) and, among other things, Peter Mahew, the actor who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars films, was selling autographs. For $25!! (boo!)

Apparently, not many people were willing to pony up the cash and Mr. Mahew spent a good hunk of his signing time rather, um, bored. Which is sad. Makes me wonder if just getting in line to say hello cost money, too.

Hey, maybe that was my problem! I happily signed books for free! :p Although I kind of doubt that anyone would pay for an author's signature, at least an author of my stature. Now, if Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington or Hugh Jackman were sitting at a table signing my books, well... I bet lots of folks would pay for THEM!  lol

Ahem. Down girl. Anyway, Chewie didn't have many takers for his autographs, which is kind of a bummer.

(cue clumsy segue)

Another Chewie bummer - but in a different way - is the cat The Kid and I found the other night. We couldn't find him again when we went back with more food, but The Kid did talk to a neighbor who knew the poor kitty. His name is Chewie and he has a home - a run-down rental house near where we found and fed him. Chewie's owners kicked him out of the house and now ignore him so a neighbor feeds him and has been slowly but surely working on getting the massive mats out of his fur - probably why we saw so many big half-sheared clumps. This neighbor already has five cats and doesn't want another, but yet can't stand to see the poor kitty be homeless and abused. So that's good, I guess, if still sad. At least someone's making sure he's fed and cared for. And now we know it's okay to put food out to help.

And Bill saw a kitten in a field ditch on his way home and almost stopped, but didn't, because we already have a houseful (plus he didn't know if he could catch it and wanted to get home). And there's a gray stripey cat that's been hanging around our house that all of our cats yowl at. And why do so many people consider their pets to be DISPOSABLE?? We've 'culled the herd' a few times and given cats away, but always to HOMES and people we know, not just tossed out of the car or booted out of the house.

I'm about two steps away from being a Crazy Cat Lady and I know it, but sheesh!

I'd better start keeping the outside food dish filled.

Updates and such

Bill will be home sometime tomorrow! Woot! Not sure *what* time, it all depends on when he leaves Ohio (drive part way tonight? start out early tomorrow morning?), but it sounds like he and his buddy have been having a blast at Origins.

The Kid's been working her part time summer job so I've mostly been home on my own, hacking and coughing up the last residue of cold-gunk out of my lungs and throat while trying to get things done around here. Whee! Last night I emptied out and taped off my bedroom. It wasn't as difficult as the hallways was - no weird angles with moulding tucked into them - but it took an entire roll of tape. And it's not that big of a room, maybe 12x15, with 2 doors and 2 windows. Since I'm not painting the ceiling and the walls are currently white, it *should* in theory, paint fairly quickly and easily. The hall and stairwell, however, are likely to be a pain in the butt. Tons of weird angles, things to paint around, and the walls are currently a dark pink/rose semi gloss. Eeeeyuck! Plus, Bill doesn't want me to get up and try to edge near the ceiling (I have a hard time on ladders and with the stairs right there it is kinda scary), so no ladder work for me. Not that I mind that, exactly, but the space will remain unfinished until Bill can climb up and finish it.

But he's on vacation this next week or so and surely he can do that little smidge of painting, right?

I haven't sewn a dang thing since I got sick - grr!! - and the projects are starting to pile up a bit. Once the painting's done I will sew, dammit!

Otherwise, things are still the same-o, same-o 'round here. I hope you all are having happy, productive summers too!

One Stray Cat