Hookers of the world! UNITE!

Today is the first day of the Stitch Stirrer plan to build the crochet army! Phase one is always propaganda, so watch out, bizhitchies! The flaming hooks of justice will soon be flying oner a town near you (perhaps joining Ravelry and meeting other crocheters and feeling all empowered isn’t the healthiest thing for my obsessive side).
Todays Theme: Limericks!
There once was a girl with a hook
For patterns she’d nowhere to look
Being quite the slattern
She booked flight to Saturn
Where she lived by hook or by crook
There once was a yarn store in town
That oft made all the hookers frown
With the matter in hand
They formed an angry band
But stopped before the place burned down
Once was a girl with a lizard
That could not survive a blizzard
She hooked up a sweater
He acted no better
But she felt herself a wizard
Okay, that’s enough pain from me!

Things I hate, episode a billion

1) woody allen. I have always hated woody allen movies. I can’t fucking stand them. Little irritating man whining and moaning and navel gazing over and over and over. Also, casting the women he did to play his love interests….yeah, right. hate hate hate. I don’t even care about the step daughter thing. weird, but not surprising.
2) conspiracy theorists. I hate conspiracy theorists because the the narcissism inherent in their theories. CTs come in two nutty flavors. The first is the kind that has lots of opinions and occasionally hints that if he’s not careful about what he says, the secret government agencies will assassinate him. okay first, your friends don’t think your cool because you have this secret ‘information’ that could get you assassinated, they think you’re a dork and secondly, the government has its head so far up its ass it’s completely incapable of having organizations that are that secret and efficient. If they had those secret, efficient organizations, we’d rid ourselves of terrorists, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, people who boat without a license and so on. Do you think that secret government agents are really interested in some dude in a cheap suburban subdivision? The second CT is the one that really pisses me off. These are the armchair experts. These are the people who know that the WTC didn’t fall down from the plane, but it was packed with explosives. These are the people who know why the bridge fell in minneapolis last month. These are the people that look at the aftermath of a situation from the comfort of their stinky la-z-boys and instantly they can see the evidence! Wow! It’s amazing to me that you could figure this out from your living room! You have no formal education in engineering or anything and yet from the photos and news footage YOU can see what the trained structural engineers cannot! Why waste your time in front of the Zenith, your country needs you. Go! Go on now, you could save the government billions of dollars in research money to figure out the causes of surprise catastrophes. All that saved money could be funneled into a secret government agency that could be contracted to kill your neighbor, the one who knows too much.
All things considered, my favorite WTC conspiracy has to do will all the hidden gold under the foundation. I imagine them planning the building and constructing it and when it’s all done they’re like “ho shit! we forgot to put a door in there. Fuck, how are we going to get our gold?”
“dude, you can’t just build a door now, if you want your gold you are going to have to knock the building down”
“knock the building down? hey, i know this guy that works for this secret government agency…”
Oh also, I like the dude that built a little tower out of chicken wire and put bricks on top. He doused in gasoline and started it on fire. it didn’t fall down. Proof that planes could not knock down the towers! oh yeah? well I took a bat and went to my neighbor’s house and beat the shit out of their stucco and they called the cops! See you can’t bake a cake in an oven! I just proved it.
(I really really hate conspiracy theorists)
3) snotty knitters
4a) people who bring their little kids and toddlers to the dog park and get all upset when the kid gets knocked down by a running dog or something. It’s a dog park, not a kid park. It’s the one place where dogs can run like hell and be boisterous and jump around. I’m not talking about out of control dogs, I firmly believe that your dog should be under voice control at all times, but the dogs act crazy and sometimes don’t notice the little kid stumbling around. Hell, sometimes they don’t notice the big people either, it’s not uncommon to have some lopey dog hauling ass after another and miscalculate a turn and crash into you.
4b) people who do not control their dogs at the dog park. I don’t mean the little scuffles for dominance or whatnot, those are natural and important in the dog world. To get involved in dog politics means that you are forcing yourself into a situation you don’t understand and you are not welcome by the dogs. Often, you end up messing things up worse. I mean the excessively aggressive dogs, the ones that are poorly socialized and attack other dogs, the ones that don’t understand or ignore that another dog is saying “fuck off” with his snarl. They’re a goddammed pain. Also, please teach your dog not to jump on people. I don’t need giant dirty paw prints on my shirt. As an aside, it is important to know that when you meet a dog for the first time you do not, DO NOT, immediately put your hand on top of their head to pet them. I know it seems natural to humans to do that, but to a dog you are clearly saying “I’m the boss of you now” and the is going to say “what the fuck, dilly, I have a pack, I didn’t join your pack! you are not the boss of me”. Instead, extend your hand out and allow the dog to come forward and sniff it first. This is you saying, “hello, how are you, my name is specific scent” and a dog will say “AWESOME” or “Meh, i thought you would smell like butt, im outta here”.

International Vet of Mystery?

Or International Vet of Fucking Awesome!
A couple months ago I took Maddie in to see the IVoM and we came up with Maddie’s long term plan. David and I worked vigilantly on her feet and her meds and she very very quickly improved.
We know that she cannot take less than 1 prednisone a day. Each time we tried to ease it back her feet would become inflamed and uncomfortable. I am concerned about the long term effects, but I understand and accept them.
When Maddie’s feet were at their worst we could not let her off her leash at the dog park. She was always picking fights with bigger dogs, she was always cranky. Eventually we stopped taking her altogether. The pain and discomfort in her feet was making her cranky and irritable. You’d be pissed if your feet hurt all the time too and you had to way of getting relief.
As her feet got better we started taking her more and more often and we let her off the leash. Amazingly, she was not the aggressive dog she had been. This is not to say she didn’t have her moments there, like the time she totally stared down this giant akita until he submitted. In the dog world, a stare down is pretty much a dog’s way of saying “you are such a stupid pussy! you suck and you are a wiener and also I will say something crude about your mother dog!” (dogs are not so eloquent, even in translation). Also, akitas are not dogs that submit. Imagine me rushing over trying to grab Maddie before she got her ass kicked.
Initially, Maddie’s forays into the dog park pretty much just involved her franticly sniffing and drooling and peeing on everything. She wasn’t really interested in the dogs unless they chased chester or barked too much. She’s become more and more interested as time has gone on.
Today I could have died of happy. Maddie was thrilled to be at the dog park. Today she played with dogs, she ran like a maniac, she spun in circles, she and I jumped around like retards. She’s still not the best at playing, occasionally she’ll be chasing a dog and forget that she’s playing and think “oh my god! I’m chasing this dog! I bet I’m doing it because he’s a pipehole” and try to take him down. But it was good. The dogs played, she was happy.
I wish I had the words to describe her transformation from a crabby dog, one that mostly just walked around the dog park, into this excited and youthful dog. I wish I had the words to express what it means to me that we have found a level of success with Maddie. I’ve had her since 2005 and my only hope for her was to make her happy and comfortable and we far exceeded that.
I wish I had the words to adequately express just how grateful I am to Dr Pierce Fleming, International Vet of Mystery. He didn’t just walk into the exam room, take a look and make a guess. He did research, he tried to find answers. He took time to listen to me and my concerns. He explained things thoroughly and he gave me hope.
Shar Peis tend to bond with one person and that bond is solid and tight. They will protect that person at all costs, they will adore that person at all costs. The things that make Maddie the happiest include me coming home from work, getting to cuddle next to me on the sofa and sleeping near me. She is not an independent dog in any way, she needs me in order to feel secure and content. Sure, she’s happy when David gets home from work, but she is frenzied when I get home. For that love and loyalty she deserves everything I can give her. To do any less would be a grave sin against all that is good in the universe.
And let’s be honest here, I get equal comfort from her. When I am stressed or anxious I need only sit quietly and Maddie will crawl onto my lap and I can feel the tension ease, I can feel the endorphins being released. She is my therapy dog.



Maddie shoving her hippo head into my chest. It’s her way of saying, “My name is Maddie. This is my head. My head is on you. This feels good. Also, my name is Maddie!”

happy happy happy

oh my god! It’s the happiest game ever! Go there and play a happy game and smile.
Try all the Orisinal Games. All of them are super cute, some are more frustrating than others. It’s the thing to do when Ravelry is going oh so super slow!
It’s a good stress reliever! Today I finished most of the first sleeve on my cardigan and I tried it on and OH! I overestimated how fat my arm was. PZANG! Had to pull out the entire sleeve and then close the armhole a little and then recalculate the decreases! I probably won’t have it done by tomorrow and I can’t start any new projects until I finish a project.
I also started to make a loaf of molasses oat bread and didn’t stop to check if I had any molasses left. Molasses is something you never buy, it’s just always up there in the cupboard, it’s label aging away. I actually have to buy molasses on occasion since I like to make the molasses oat bread. I subbed brown sugar. Also added wheat germ and flax seed to give it a hippie feel. Ate it with the homemade wild blue buddy berry blueberry jam (made from the blueberries I picked in the BWCA. It’s really awesome. No, you can’t have any. I’m just telling you about it because I’m an asshole.).
Also, you know what’s good on everything (except fruit, ironically)? Tajin!