I am keeping Mom’s weinerdogs, Coco and Maggie, or…Thing One and Thing Two, after the brainless and destructive characters from Dr. Seuss’s Cat In The Hat story. Ok, they’re sweet enough dogs, but seriously not the sharpest crayons in the box. They try to eat the cats, even tho the cats are prickly on 5 of their 6 ends, and always win the fight, resulting in the cats on top of the tower looking smug, and The Things at my feet, crying pitiously and with wounded feelings (if not noses to boot). They forget from evening to morning about the nature of the cats, and try, hour after relentless hour, to win the fight, and never do. It amuses me in a Machiavellian way to allow the behavior to continue. Sure it’s noisy as all get out, but there’s muzzles to be applied if I grow weary of it.
Muzzles, in their own way, are a source of amusement as well. It incapacitates them completely. You can put the muzzle on and they freeze in whatever position you put them in. Pick up their left foreleg, and aim their tail straight out, and they’ll stay that way until you move them. It’s as if they’re those wireform critters you can position however you choose. I’m telling you, do it now and in an hour they’ll be right there, rolling their eyes and perhaps drooling a little, but unmoved. Ok, no, before you get all PETA on me, I put them in a bed all comfortable most of the time, unless they’re being egregiously annoying, then I’ll totally mess with their little selves.
The other dogs are fine with them, as they are related to Rosie, and I’ve kept them before. Our dogs are not even particularly noisy when they’re here, tho Daisy will give them a “shut the hell up!” bark when they get carried away..They’re the kind of dogs that are quiet if they’re quiet, but once they get started barking it’s a chore to get them to stop. Roxie (the big yellow lab) did give me a “WHAT have you DONE?!” look, as she’d not met The Things before, but it didn’t take them long to boss her into submission and all’s well.
So that’s our household until December 27. 7 dogs, 2 cats, 3.4 kids (Will is going to come around a bit more, with AstroGirl). It’s a good thing I have a high tolerance for noise.
Filed under: Another Silly Meme
A non fiction book
The Three Pound Universe by Judith Hooper
“Hooper and Teresi of Omni magazine offer the general reader an excellent survey of neuroscience, based on interviews with major figures on the cutting edge of research. This is exciting reading about a world of fast-breaking discoveries, the underlying theme of which is the search for the basis of consciousness: the mind/brain relationship. The authors engage the reader’s interest with their clear presentation of the “hard” science of the brain anatomy, physiology, chemistry without compromising the complexity of the many new findings. The more subjective areas altered states, dreams, near-death reports, etc.get, perhaps, more space than they warrant, but these do appeal to most readers. Highly recommended for general collections. Macmillan Natural Science Book Club alternate. George Adelman, Editor, “Encyclopedia of Neuroscience”"
Or something like that. I pretty much embrace nearly every aspect of Christmas, from the sacred (I’ve been humming O Come, O Come Emmanuel for 2 days now) to the purely commercial secular (more! More! you need to buy more!) See, I have these boxes. They’re not huge, but they’re not the sort of thing you’d pack a Tiffany brooch in either. Not that I’ve ever gotten one of those delightful (so I hear) robin’s egg blue boxes, but as a woman in America I am surely aware of them.
Anyway, the idea for me is to fill the boxes. Each boy gets one, and they must not rattle when shaken, unless I put a jingle bell in them, which has happened. For one particular boy, who only reads owner’ manuals and only when he can’t figure it out for himself (so I know he’s not reading this blog), he’s getting a box of foods. The person he’s living with doesn’t believe in snacks, so the only things in his house are potatoes and steaks. Heaven for an 18 yr old boy, but kind of arduous when it’s 4pm and you’re hungry right then. So, last time he and I went to the store he was all “Mom, would you pleeeease buy me a box of Zebra Cakes? Mom would you pleeeease buy me a beef stick and some crackers?” and I said “No, I have a budget, and I’m only here for a few things.” So, in his box he’s getting Zebra Cakes and a beef stick with crackers, beef jerky, cheeze in a can, homemade crackers, and shi…er…stuff like that. Until the box is full. While my intentions are for him to take them home and have snacks for a while, I predict he will eat every last bit until they’re gone maybe by December 27th. But that’s ok. it’s his to eat however he pleases.
As for the whole sacred aspect of Christmas, our church embraces it wholly. There’s an angel tree in the narthex, with cards hanging from it where you can ‘adopt’ the child of a prison inmate, and provide them with a gift. We sing all those fine carols during the services (thus my constant humming. Our pastor has a fine and powerful tenor voice, it should be required of pastors to be able to sing like that…leadership and all. Just sayin’) It’s all Merry Christmas! every time you walk around there. All the women are wearing red jackets and festive sweaters, and all the men have irritating ties that blink and burst into song mid-sermon. Nothing sacred about that, but it’s nice that they know how to have fun. Pastor B breaks from the pattern for December, and preaches on the coming of Jesus, the whole Mary and Martha story, the bit of John The Baptist being touched by the Holy Spirit while still in the womb, all that. Good stuff, comforting and familiar. It just occurred to me! No advent wreath! Huh…but then there’s no candles at all in the sanctuary…I just realized that. I’m ok with it. I guess advent wreaths are personal family things,because I’ve heard people talking about having them at home. I’ll have to ask about that.
Now, I fully realize that, given the hints in the Bible, Jesus most likely wasn’t born In The Deep MidWinter (all that shepherds guard their flocks at night thing), and that early church missionaries made the pagan holiday of Yule into Christ’s birthday because the pagans weren’t willing to give up their midwinter party. That’s not the issue at all. The fact is, Jesus was born, and we’re celebrating that in the most pagan way possible, with green trees in the house and hot buttered rum. Fortunately it’s not an issue likely to keep one out of heaven.
I really am enjoying Christmas this year. For me, it’s not just December 25, but it’s the whole process leading up to it. It’s the wrapping the gifts, giggling about how this one will react to the puffy eyeball stickers, and that one will hoot over the Elvis mugs. It’s the figuring out where the wise men will come from, the fireplace mantle, or the sideboard? It’s what to do with the girl who’s visiting for a few days…do we bake cookies, or sew pillows? It’s the process I love. Sure, it culminates on December 25, and everything after that is kind of like a balloon you let go of that goes sputtering around the room phphphphhtttt, but I do love the process, and I love making a big deal of ALL of it.
