Sad Peonies

Two of the main reasons that I suck as a blogger are 1) I forget to always have my camera on my person (there are 20 awesome pictures I miss every day because I left my camera in the house when I go on a bike ride or a dog walk or to work in the garden) and 2) I see something great to photograph and then get distracted and the moment passes and the photo never gets taken.

Prime example number one, the peony blooms.  By Wednesday of this week the peonies were in full beautiful bloom, and we have several varieties: white, white with pink striations, light pink, and dark raspberry sherbet pink.  There are several dozen peonies throughout the homestead and they all looked maginificent.  But I didn't have my camera on me, and by the time I got out there the next day, camera in hand on Thursday, the booming thunderstorms and super heavy downpours during the overnight hours left us with sad, droopy peonies, their blooms sagging on the ground. 

 Sigh.  A day late and a dollar short.  They sure did look great just a day before.

Cavalier, North Dakota Sets World Record

...for the largest ice cream sundae.  Yes, Alycia's hometown set the record today for the largest ice cream sundae in the world.  The Guiness Book of World Records was on hand to verify the attempt.  You can see the proceedings on the video below.

Road Trip Highlights

Alycia and I wrapped up a 4,500 mile, two week road trip the other day.  We visited some great places - Yosemite National Park and Napa Valley in California, and Salem and Portland in Oregon, and got to see many of our best friends along the way.  I'll post some good pictures and additional stories in a few days, but I thought I'd pass along some entertaining/unusual highlights. 

There was a cat show at the hotel we stayed at on our overnight rest stop in Reno, Nevada. Alycia was able to meet, pet, and photograph the Iams Cat Food Ambassador cat (his name was Dances With Mice) as well as a host of other feline pageant entrants.  Dances With Mice was apparently quite an amiable feline.  Being extremely allergic, I stayed away and let Alycia visit with the kitties. 

We ate the best gas station food I've ever had - a full rack of ribs, German potato salad, and spaghetti squash from the famous Whoa Nellie Deli (yes it is actually in a gas station) in Lee Vining on the way to the Eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park.  The spaghetti squash was so good that I was compelled to ask the cook for his secret.  I should have known the secret was butter, lots of butter.  Instead of halving the squash and baking it face down in a few inches of water, find a way to balance it face up, place a half stick of butter in each half, cover with foil, and bake about an hour.  I'll be sure to let you know when (not if) I try this out.

On a gasoline stop in Spokane, Washington we rescued a dog.  Her name was Cookie, she was an old Australian Shepard, and her name Cookie was fitting.  She looked exactly like a Cookie, like an Oreo that had been squished.  She was an amalgam of white, grey, and black splotches and we found her crossing a busy street.  We corralled her for some belly rubs and pets and called the number on her tag and got her back home safely.  That brings the number of states that Alycia and I have rescued lost dogs in to three.

We're still in the midst of getting unpacked, the garden weeded, and the last few things planted for the season.  I'll post an update of the happenings around here in the garden as well as additional vacation photos that might be of interest.  

Sergeant Stubby

The Internet can be a wonderful thing sometimes.  The other day I stumbled upon (literally using StumbleUpon) a website about Sergeant Stubby, the most decorated combat dog of World War 1 and the only dog in the history of the US Military to be promoted to the rank of Sergeant through combat.

You can read more about Sergeant Stubby at the Smithsonian Museum of American History or on Wikipedia.

Sadly if Sergeant Stubby were around today he'd find that he'd be promptly put to death if he tried to live in Denver, Colorado or Miami, Florida or dozens of other cities throughout the United States?  Why?  He looks enough like a Pit Bull (it's hard to tell from the photos what breed or mix he actually is) that Breed Specific Legislation makes it illegal for these types of dogs to be kept in the city.

While I'm horrified at the stories of dog attacks the media reports, there is far too much mis-identification of dogs, media sensationalizing of these stories, and outright incorrect information being broadcast in the news and on the Internet.  I think Breed Specific Legislation punishes good dogs/owners and doesn't address the real problem - bad owners.

Tuffy's Dinosaur Dog Toy Review

Our lovely homestead has had its share of stuffed dinosaur visitors (all the dinosaurs have been Tuffy's Dog Toys) over the years, and with the arrival of some new dino friends I thought it might be prudent to stop and fondly remember the dinosaurs of yesterday and celebrate the proud beasts of today.  Please note that these are only the names that we've given the dinosaurs, not their actual given Christian name.

Harold the Dinosaur (RIP) - Harold was memorably disemboweled in a fit of puppy energy in late 2010 (see The Untimely Death of Harold the Dinosaur).  After the vicious evisceration, Harold lasted a bit longer as a de-stuffed stretch of fabric that became a favorite tug-of-war toy for Shadowfax and Shaak Ti.  Time caught up to Harold though and he became more shredded fabric than actual dinosaur and had to be thrown away. Harold very likely would have survived longer without the puppy, and he was a great companion for Shaak Ti for more than three years, just not able to stand up to the onslaught of a larger dog like Shadowfax.  In retrospect he wasn't as tough as some of the other dinosaurs and didn't live up to his billing as an apex predator, easily succumbing to the predations of one deaf, spazzy, destruction oriented puppy. 

Stella the Stegasaurus - Stella is by far the best of all the fuzzy prehistoric beasts we've had to date.  The dozen or so armored plates running along her spine were each individually sewn down to her body and most had a squeaker in them, giving Shadowfax many individual compartmentalized opportunities to chew, chomp and destroy.  Stella also hid her stuffing well in her head, tail, and four legs, requiring numerous bouts of dedicated stuffing removal from Shadowfax.  Her long length also made her an ideal tug-of-war toy between the dogs and her multiple handles (head, tail, four legs) made for a great human/dog tug-of-war toy.  Stella has been with us for almost two years now and even though she was pricey as a dog toy, she's given the dogs countless hours of entertainment and has been well worth the price.

Triumph the Triceratops - Triumph is fairly new on the scene, having arrived this past Christmas.  Unfortunately as soon as we named him he developed a hole in his right flank and promptly gave up a majority of his stuffing.  The verdict is still out on Triumph, but I think that ultimately he'll fall in between Harold and Stella in terms of toughness, longevity and cost/benefit.  His horns, armor plating, and tail make for good hand holds during tug-of-war bouts but I'm not sure if his fabric and construction is sturdy enough to withstand intense puppy destructo-attention.  

In a future post I'll review the non-dinosaur Tuffy's Dog Toys that inhabit the house, including Boris the Bull, the 5-Legged Octopus (I think that makes him a Quintarpus) as well as the newest arrival, Sherman the Sheep.

 

 

Christmas Wreath in May

I was hesitant to write this post since I was afraid Alycia would be angered by my publicly calling out her shortcomings.  In this case her shortcoming is her blatant disregard for seasonal holidays by procrastinating/refusing to take down our Christmas wreath in an appropriate amount of time. 

Alycia and I have regular quid pro quos in our daily lives involving chores.  These are harmless exchanges of the "if you clean out the lint trap in the dryer I'll polish the door knobs" or "you brush Tito's teeth and I'll stick my hand in the blender".  So when she agreed to take down her Christmas wreath when/if I put away the Christmas lights she probably thought she had it made.  Since I am known to procrastinate on such things and I also like looking at the pretty Christmas lights, she must have thought this was quite the savvy bargain since the odds were good that those lights would be up until, well until next Christmas.

So when I took down the Christmas lights in late February I gave her a week or so to fulfill her end of the bargain by taking down the wreath.  But nothing happened.  So I started giving her grief about it.  Lots of grief.

In her defense the Christmas wreath has several things going for it.  It's hanging over a door in the entryway and really isn't in the way.  It also hasn't dropped ANY needles in five months.  I'm not sure what manner of genetically modified evergreen boughs this thing is made of, but the fact that it hasn't shed any needles is weird, freaky, and just plain unnatural.  I keep trying to casually brush it as I walk but I'm afraid that it's so dry that even casual contact could create enough friction to cause it to instantaneously combust. 

The Christmas wreath also has sand dollars and fake starfish attached to it, making it less of a Christmas wreath than a summer beach wreath.  Now I may not get out much, but I have never heard of a summer beach wreath.  Perhaps this is just another attempt by the insidious wreath industry to gain a foothold in another holiday, but I doubt it.

Head Gardener During the Ottoman Empire

Here's a rather grisly but fascinating bit of history from Smithsonian Magazine describing some of the details of the inner workings of the Ottoman Empire.

"The job of executioner was held instead by the Sultan’s bostancı basha, or head gardener—the Ottoman corps of gardeners being a sort of 5,000-strong bodyguard that, aside from cultivating the Sultan’s paradise gardens, doubled up as customs inspectors and police officers. It was the royal gardeners who sewed condemned women into weighted sacks and dropped them into the Bosphorus."

You can read the very interesting full article (it's pretty short, but yes quite grisly) at Smithsonian Magazine.  

I don't think I've ever heard of a job where I'd be mulching the azaleas one day and lopping off people's head the next day.  It would definitely give a new meaning to the phrase "dead-heading", you'd probably have to specify if you were talking about flowers or people.

New Advertising on the Blog

You may have noticed that I'm trying out some new advertising from Chitika on Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes.  After our falling out with Google AdSense over a year ago I've been searching for an online advertising shop worthy of the high standards of the creators and readers of this fine blog.  The Amazon Associates ads are good, but not generating enough action to justify being my sole attempt at website monetization.  You can still do all your Amzaon.com searching and purchasing through the "Search Amazon.com" box at the middle-left part of the blog or click on any of the Amazon widgets that look particularly enticing.

The first few days of running the new Chitika advertisements saw some really non-specific ads (pretty much just incorporating "Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes" into some semi-sketchy search engine), but the ads seem to have gotten a bit better over the last week. What's your feedback on the ads?  Annoying?  Tolerable?  Do you have ads blocked or opted out of seeing them?  Do you have any other or better recommendations for web advertisers?  If you blog, what ads do you run on your site?

And please note that any and all revenue from this site goes to help deaf dogs in North Dakota.  We're not an officially sanctioned 501(c)(3) charity or anything, but every little bit helps.