and a dog! on thursday!

sadie girl. this picture makes me fall in love with her all over again.

i always fall off the wagon when it comes to regular things i'm supposed to post. i can't get it together enough to post dogs every thursday. because it's not just dogs on thursday. it's dogs on thursdays, tuesdays with dorrie, barefoot contessa on every third friday (or something like that) and it's all just. too. much.

but isn't it fun when i do remember?

grizzly trying on his new sweater. he LOVES it!

when knitting goes to the dogs

literally, folks think i've gone pure mad.

first with the hat, now with a sweater. i'm knitting my dog a sweater. of malabrigo no less. it's going to be gorgeous. she'll be the best dressed dog around to be sure.

now, to those of you who think i've gone totally nuts, when little girl Ginger goes to the groomer, she gets all her hair cut off. and when it's cold out, she shivers. and the coldest is yet to come - it snows here. but in this gorgeous wool sweater, not only will she look fabulous but she'll be toasty all winter long. and i get to knit with my very favorite yarn. malabrigo is the most luscious wool yarn i've ever wrapped my hands around.

i'm using the left-over lettuce from the koolhaas hat and a smidgen of girl-child's pornstar pink (bought for her clapotis) to create the edging. they both go perfectly with the hank of melilla i picked up yesterday in zionsville.

i can't wait to show her off!

what is in a name?

a bunch of the dot crew are answering this question. saw it on chanknits first, then the fabulous ms g - lord those gals are making me want a basset hound in the worst way!
on to the question at hand: what's in a name?
let's start with the boys:

old man ruger was our third. third rottweiler, third ruger. ken used to be quite the marksman and one of his favorite pistols was a ruger. the name stuck. we liked it.

fatboy (the minpin) came with his name. interesting story though. girl-child had gotten an older female from a friend of ours who used to breed minpins. said friend's daughter came home from college and had a fit that her mother had given away her childhood dog so girl-child gave miss lucy back. she and her dad visited the pound on a regular basis. one visit, as they were leaving, a guy walked up to ken and said, "this is the perfect dog for you! his name is 'fatboy'!" (ken was wearing a harley shirt). fatboy hadn't even been inprocessed yet. he left with ken and one happy little girl-child.

turns out our friend who bred minpins used to give the all the litter pups harley names. and with there being only a few breeders in the area, there's a pretty good chance fatboy was one of miss lucy's pups. ashley calls him muffin or monkey. ken and i call him piss hound.

grizz got his name from an old black lab we dogsat when ruger was just a puppy. ken and i never forgot how much we enjoyed watching that gentle giant dog play with our sweet puppy. he's grizzly bear, grizzers and bubby.

and the girls:

we got sadie from another motorcycle friend. our first group ride was called a sadie hawkins ride. it was all about the girls. our friend brought her two remaining puppies to the park where we gathered afterward for a cook out. i knew as soon as i took her into my arms that she was mine. mostly she's just sadie. sadie-girl.

and gigi:

she came to us as ginger. cami gave her the middle name of mirabeau. so now, she's gigi beau beau.

turns out there's a whole lot in a name. :)

guest dog

we have a four-legged houseguest. a friend of ours is recovering from a serious illness. so while he gets better, his best friend gets to play at our house. i tried snapping some pictures the other day but this is all i got. he's in the doggie protection program.

ginger is having a ball playing with her new friend.

dogs on friday again

caught the boys napping. fatboy is a real snuggler. ken too for that matter. :)

i'm official!

thanks for the shout, g. finally, the folks over at dogs on thursday recognise me as an official member. whew!

now to share a picture. . . since my sadie girl will be seven this month, this one is for her.

on her first birthday, the breeder threw a birthday party for the whole litter. there were thirteen golden retrievers swimming in the pond, chasing balls, sniffing butts and having cake. yes, there was even a cake. it was a hoot.

i had several friends who had goldens, they came for the party. it was the most fun i'd had in a long time.

happy birthday, sadie - girl.

dogs on thursday and some yarn

it's my first dogs on thursday post. i'm not actually official yet so you won't see me on their blogroll but i've been watching the fabulous ms. g dogging it up on thursday's for a while and wanted in on the fun.

snagged this picture of my fur-posse yesterday:

from left to right it's miss gg, grizzers, fatboy and sadie-girl is in the middle.

getting home from my trip was hard when all the dogs came running to greet me and my first thought was of Ruger. :'( something was missing. it's just not the same here without him.

on a happier note, my sister gifted me with yarn. i don't think she's a knitter. she went into a yarn store and came out with a bunch of novelty type yarns and some big, chunky, SLICK needles. i think this stuff can be challenging for a more experienced knitter. she got fed up and quick! i told her i'd knit it up for her. she gives me the gift of yarn and i give her the gift of scarves. :)

grizzers

this little bundle of fur makes me smile every day.

thought i'd share some with you.

blooms and bubby

i had a great mother's day.

boy-child called me first thing and promised goodies from the mail man maybe tomorrow. girl-child wished me a happy day with sweet kisses and ken took me out to brunch where girl-child works (it's the only way i can get her to wait on me!) then we hit the big-box garden center to finish up some work in the yard. i'm pooped. ken is still out there, going strong.

i planted the rest of the flowers in my shade garden along with this beautiful columbine ken bought today. see all the squirrell gizmos in the trees? have i mentioned my husband has a rather strange affinity for furry tailed rodents? it's perfectly adorable.

and today we finished ruger's resting spot. ken chiseled his name in stone. it's perfect.

and we planted a garden around him.

i know this is just shovel marks in the grass but i see a heart, marking the spot right where the best. dog. ever. rests in the yard:

i'm fine 'till i think about him, which is ALL THE TIME.
that dog was LOVED.

staying busy

playing outside with ginger:

sewing a little on a new shop sample for cami:

knitting a bit on the wrap i've come to call the bliss wrap (after creator, debbie bliss). it's also known as the wrap that will never end:

and taking pictures of the progress on the crib ken is building for friends.

it is stunning. he's amazing.

rest easy, old man

The Best. Dog. Ever. was laid to rest yesterday in the spot where he loved to lay in our back yard.

We'd been Rottweiler owners for more than twenty years. Ruger was our third and we saved the best for last, evidently. He really was the best dog - gentle with children, easy with other dogs and never met a stranger.

When we knew we wanted another rottie, I spent hours researching local breeders, talking on the phone, looking on the internet. I wanted to find the best breeder, to find the best dog. In the meantime, Ken took a trip up to Michigan and found an ad in the local paper - a 'backyard breeder' had rottie pups for sale. He came home that Halloween with a furry little blue-eyed football. The Best. Dog. Ever.

We were lucky enough to have this amazing creature in our lives for ten years. Two years ago we found a melanoma in his mouth and last year he got a staph infection he just couldn't seem to beat. We made the hard choice to let him go before his suffering was too much for him to bear.

There aren't even words for how much we loved him. Rest easy, Bubby. You are missed.

Ruger
1999-2009

hard to be sad

with this face looking up at you.

I don't share enough pictures of my dogs. This is Sadie-girl, my sweet golden retriever. See that smiley face? Watch your heart, it'll melt right out of your chest.

promised pictures

first, the van damage. not major but I know it'll still cost more than I want to spend to fix it. :(

and the raglan sweater I'm knitting for Cami

the yarn is Berroco Comfort, a really nice (though splitty) acrylic.

the pattern is a top-down, raglan sleeve baby sweater. with this yarn and size 8 needles it's knitting up to fit little Jordan (14 months) perfectly.

and Fatboy was just too cute not to snap a picture and share. :)

happy Tuesday!

perfectly round, just the way I like 'em

My cookies, that is.

Oatmeal cookies are among my favorites. Just the recipe on the box of Quaker not changed a bit. And I use my beloved cookie scoop for perfectly round beauties.

even the dough is good.

perfectly golden. mmmmm

And I had to take a picture of Schnoozer the Schnauzer (I'm not even kidding). We're dog sitting for my daughter and her fiance while they house/dog sit for someone else.

He's such a good little dog. Personality plus. I feel so bad for him though. They think he's a bit of a pain. Well, duh - he's holed up in an apartment all day. He comes out here and runs the back yard till he's plum wore out. Tossing the frisbee helps too. He's a different dog at "granny's" :)

one without bugs!

I went out and picked a few pears off our tree today. It was an adventure, out there swinging my rake, trying not to kill one of the dogs with my falling bounty. We don't tend to our fruit trees at all. They're old and unkempt (sort of like me! heh heh) but produced a surprising amount of fruit this year.

The little dogs were all over me, begging for bites of my pear. Mystery solved of who has been nibbling the ones on the ground and Fatboy has been eating grass all week!

How can I not give them a bite? Just look at these faces!

fatboy fodder

he's too embarassed to show his face. but isn't his backside adorable?

I bought this doggie diaper in the hopes it would stop him from marking in the house. He hates it. But not more than I hate cleaning up dog pee.

sorry, buddy. I'm going to win this one.

presents, progress and a pooch

The. Best. Dog. Ever.

This is Ruger, looking all melancholy. But aren't the bows a nice touch? :oD
If you look closely at his back leg you can see the wound I'm protecting. It's healing nicely but his esteem may never recover.
Sorry old man.