Blue Dog Art & Design

Thursday, July 27, 2006

It's Official!



The "Diaper Champ" went out with the trash on Monday! I'm selling my stock in Pampers. My son is fully potty trained! WAHOO!

The whole process took about 4 months start to finish. My first-born took well over a year start to finish, mainly because it took FOREVER to get him out of pull-ups at night. This time around, no pull-ups and it seems to have done the trick.

Hmm...how much glass and beads can I buy with the money we'll save?

P.S. Oh yeah, yesterday marks a year for me blogging. I still have no idea what I'm doing.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Interesting Fun for Your Monday

While I have heard of this film, I have never seen it. I guess I am going to have to watch it now. I found this from Pobble. (thanks, I think these are becoming a thing for me too!) Happy Monday and enjoy!



We took the boys to see "Cars" over the weekend. It was a great movie, definitely has value for the older crowd in addition to the kiddies. I recommend it even if you don't have little ones.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Because I Need a Laugh These Days



"Dear Lord," the preacher began with arms extended and a rapturous look on his upturned face, "without you we are but dust..."

He would have continued, but at that moment one very obedient little girl (who was listening carefully) leaned over to her mother and asked quite audibly in her shrill little girl voice, "Mommy, WHAT is butt dust?"

Church was pretty much over at that point...

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Blue Monday

Yesterday I lost it twice at work as well as while driving home in the car. My coworker has small cell lung cancer that has metastisized in his brain, throat, lymph nodes and liver. They will treat him with radiation and then chemo. Being in the office and walking past his office is creepy. I need to call him or at least his wife, but I'm afraid I'll lose it on the phone and I don't want that to happen. I'm trying to muster up all my courage to be supportive. That is all I have for now. Sorry for being a downer today.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Today in History

Photo: Exclusively Weddings

On July 17, 1999, it was 103°. We threw a big party here. Happy Anniversary my love.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

A Quick Getaway



We are headed here for the weekend! See you next week. Have a great weekend!

Monday, July 10, 2006

The Blue Dog Days of Summer



It appears that we are back in the thick of summer here in DC. After a deluge of rain, we had a few mild days of temps in the low 80s for the weekend and as of today, the humidity has returned. Anyone else having a bad hair day, raise your hand?

Work is downright creepy. We are down to only four people in the office today. There seems to be this “what’s going to happen next” vibe here and it’s just downright unsettling. The receptionist got fired last week, two coworkers are out for illness (one serious, one pink eye), the boss is on vacation and I’m left with the remaining brain trust member coming to me for conversation. Enough said.

I made a fantastic new necklace Saturday night, which I may or may not actually be able to upload a photo to show you. (Cursed Blogger). Yes, that’s right a most exciting night at the Blue Dog House. Actually, I enjoyed the night. The hubby went for a rare night out with friends and after the kids went to bed, I had a nice evening to myself. The fused piece that I used in the necklace had been bothering me for a while. As a focal point, the fused piece is quite striking, but I was having trouble coming up with the best color and bead selections to accentuate it. Finally after a visit to the local bead shop, I found the right selection of beads and when I sat down at my table the design just came together. I really like it a lot.

Sunday morning was a bit interesting. The elderly neighbor two houses over died a few weeks ago and one of his sons has been at his house doing what I’m not sure. At any rate for unknown reasons, he decided to mow the lawn at 6:15 a.m. As I mentioned above, the weather was mild over the weekend so we had the windows open at night, so hearing the mower that early was a rude awakening. The hubby was up at 7 to go canoeing, which meant the kids were up right about that time too. I had them climb into bed with me to watch toddler TV while I tried to get a few extra Zs. No such luck and around 8 the psycho lawn-mowing neighbor lets out a string of expletives--again for unknown reasons. My five year-old then wants to know what he was saying. Nice. I moved the kids to the living room, while I made the bed and sorted laundry. Around 9 the psycho starts peeling out of his driveway in his deceased dad’s minivan and tears up the hill in front of our house only to slam on the brakes in front of my next door neighbor’s house (they grew up together 30 years ago). He then goes to the end of the street turns around and tears back to his house. This scenario repeats at least two more times over the course of almost an hour. Now, I understand this guy just lost his dad and yes trust me, I know that it is an unpleasant experience, but come on! I only met the dad a couple of times mostly because he was on oxygen and spent his time inside. I have never met the son, but the next-door neighbor who grew up with him, said the son is a bit of a loose cannon and a drunk. Really? That was pretty much proven yesterday morning. I was trying to cut him some slack under the circumstances, but next time I’ll be calling the police.

Moving along...

Fortunately, since I was almost developing a twitch from lack of original “Grey’s Anatomy” episodes, I have discovered that they are running reruns not only on Sunday nights, but also Thursday nights. Last Thursday night was even a double-header. I know, I need to get a life, but it is a really good show. I can’t wait for it to start up again in the fall, even as the show moves to Thursdays.

I’ve been beating myself up about not posting as often as I’d like. I do enjoy reading others’ frequent postings, but often think that I just don’t have stimulating enough material to warrant more posting. I also often have a blog idea (usually in the car) and then it inevitably escapes me by the time I get to the computer. So, rather than bore you, I’ll try to be okay with whatever rate that I post.

P.S. It seems this is my 100th post so I thought I'd share that milestone.

Monday, July 03, 2006

“Working” on July 3rd*

Why the hell did I not take today off work? The answer to the question is this. I have a pile of work to do. The reality is that I have my work done and it is sitting on everyone elses’ desks waiting for them to approve or provide changes, etc. I’m caught up and waiting for everyone to get stuff back to me. It will all come back to me at the same time and I'll be slammed again. Such is the life.

We’ve had an interesting go of it with weather lately. Last Sunday, the lovely tiny stream that runs through the back of our property suddenly became a raging river and came within 15 feet of flooding the house. We received over 6 inches of rain in 2-1/2 hours in our rain gauge. We were lucky, however, as several neighbors were flooded. We endured two more consecutive days of rain and every time I heard the rain beating on the roof it made me nervous. Fortunately, we stayed dry. Many people in the area lost their homes and many others were evacuated as concerns of rising rivers and failing damns loomed with every passing shower last week.

We got hit with nasty storms again last night. The stream came up to the top of the banks again, but not into the yard this time. The ground is totally saturated and with the wind in the storms last night we were lucky that trees did not fall. Others were not so lucky in that respect. There were at least 4 trees down at the school my kids attend and debris was everywhere. Much of Alexandria is also without power. Somehow my office has power and so does my house, so I’m not going to complain.

The elder half of the brain trust had her last day on Friday. We had a lovely retirement lunch for her and sent her off with her husband. At least I got an excellent meal out of the deal. The other half of the trust took today off and it has been pleasantly quiet.

As for my other coworker, we have not received an update lately. He was having several tests last week to find the extent of the cancer and to determine the stage. We have not heard from him since they were to meet with the doctor to get the test results. I spoke with our director this morning and he said that since he hasn’t heard anything at all, and he’s beginning to dread calling.

It has been a really strange year in so many different aspects between things happening to people here at work and then bad things happening to friends as well. Hopefully the second half of 2006 will be better than the first.

I have had lots of things to blog about, but no time to post. For now, I guess this is all I have. In the meantime, take care of you and yours and have a great Fourth of July!

*For some freakin' reason, I can't get photos to post. Had I been able to post the photo it would have been a lovely fireworks display. You'll have to use your imagination.