Big News: I heart British Footwear (andourdoghasaname)

Pip Pip Cheerio!

I'm trying to be cheerful. If I embraced the current permeating mood of my life, I'd be whiny and depressed right now... but see? This is me. CHEERFUL.

Let me FIRST say that you are all very pretty and very creative and VERY cool for sharing your name ideas with me. We tried many of them, for at least 2 hours each. Greg loved Bailey, but it didn't work. We couldn't use Alistair because that was the name of one of my sculpture professors in college who absolutely hated me. I loved Walter Middy and his rich imaginative life, but the dog would NOT acknowledge us when called. Buddy is still a popular nickname for him. Marcel reminds me too much of Ross's monkey. Caerus may become his middle name. The suggestion Jasper came about 1 hour too late....

And down the rabbit hole we go.

You see, Thursday of last week felt so genuinely like Friday that even after staring at my calendar for 15 minutes, I could not shake the feeling of Friday... which turns out not to be such a cheerful feeling if it's NOT really Friday and you're constantly calling yourself an idiot in your own head.

We followed up Fake Friday with a bout of Karaoke, or at least watching Karaoke - because I do not Karaoke. I will drink beer and watch people who Karaoke, I will cringe when someone truly devoid of talent steps up to the mic, I will peruse the 200,000 songs in the song book, but I will NOT Karaoke. I had a lot of friends in college who were singers. I was a singer. For goodness sakes, I am a singer. I lead my college A cappella group - dorky, I know. But I loved it. Anyway, my friends pretty much all got big kicks out of Karaoke. I suffered through a handful of collegiate outings to local bars where we all took turns singing the night away in an uncomfortably tense and sweaty sort of way. It was never fun for me. The adrenaline rush going up to the stage makes my throat close up and my saliva alters its consistency to that of Elmer's Glue. My tongue tends to swell JUST enough that I can no longer pronounce words without spitting or sounding challenged. And on particularly bad occassions I start to twitch and tremble.

I always loved getting up on stage surrounded by friends and complex harmony - it's an entirely different world for me to be on stage alone with bad Midi back up and a slightly damp Microphone.

The bar that is near our house has a weekly Karaoke night and our friends love it. My girlfriend doesn't ever Karaoke, so I'm in good company - but her husband puts in a song every 5 minutes and gets up to sing almost as often. I've only sung once there, and it was because I just couldn't take it. Our friend got up to sing "That Thing you Do" by The Wonders (although, not really right?). Great song. And I was ready for some toe tapping and beer sipping, and the song background started and Nick didn't start singing! And then he started... but he was completely off beat and obviously didn't know the melody and it sounded like disaster. This is unusual because he has a pretty good voice and usually knows exactly what he was doing. Turns out this song was not exactly what he thought it was. I didn't really think about it, I just went up to the front, grabbed the second mic, and joined him. I knew the song by heart, and it was fine. I wasn't nervous, I just felt a whole lot of pity for the guy and knew he basically needed to be saved.

Now they won't let it go.

Now they ask EVERY TIME if I'll go up to sing. Now he's started threatening to do that song again just to get me up there again.

Annoying.

Karaoke was added to with some birthday celebrations and we ended up staying from about 9:30 p.m. till about 11:00 p.m.

At which point I realized that when I had gotten home from work that evening, I'd gotten out all my baby bootie crafting supplies. And all my vintage trim. And my embroidery thread. And some nice blankets.

And I'd left them all out in our living room. While we were gone.

Do you see where this is going? I looked wild eyed to Greg and told him what I was thinking and he slipped out to assess the Canine induced damage.

He didn't come back for a good 20 minutes which is saying something because our house is only 2 blocks away from this bar.

When he came back he explained that the cupcake baby booties I'd been spending an insane amount of time on were ruined, a handful of my vintage trim was chewed up, and everything had been strewn throughout the house.

I took a few minutes to center myself, and then we went home to deal with the destruction.

Saturday Greg whisked me off to Joann's Fabrics to pick up some new (Aka Unchewed) plastic Trim Cards (to store trim), and of course I forgot to get those while there, but managed to get thoroughly distracted by a fabric sale.

Saturday night Greg took the dog out right before they were going to go for a long walk. When he brought the dog back in, he went upstairs to change into his jogging clothes and then got the dog's backpack out. Once they were both suited up, he went to grab the leash that the dog had been dragging around since he'd been taken out... Only to find the metal latch and nothing else. No leash.

The dog had completely chewed the leash off of himself in under 5 minutes.

We eventually found the leash carcass and, upon inspection, have realized that ours is a sly fox of a dog. He considered chewing the handle of the leash - you can see the consideration marks - but then opted to cut off the leash where it counted, right at the base. Then he discarded it's lifeless body out of sight and came to lay at my feet.

When Greg found the offending naked metal latch still attached to the imp's collar, he said "Okay Dexter".

Does anybody watch "Dexter"? The t.v. show about the lovable sociopathic serial killer?

We just finished season two. I had suggested "Dexter" when we first started watching the show but Greg was so grossed out by the whole serial killer aspect that he just couldn't go with it. But now, by the end of the second season, It's undeniable how perfect the name is for our little compulsive chewer. Plus, he started responding IMMEDIATELY to being called Dexter.


Dexter it is.

Also, on Saturday, I feel I was very accomplished because I finished the Dining room Curtains, half-finished a poofy black and white polka dot skirt, and sewed up a Doggie bed.


I'd say he likes it.



Yea. Don't Let that face fool you. He's a killer.

Of stuffed animals and shoes.

Last night Greg tried to extra make up for my crafts getting destroyed by inviting me to take a long relaxing shower with candles, and he would clean up the living room and make it completely doggie safe for night time. I accepted and he'd also cleaned up the bedroom, and set up some candles and my Ipod in there by the time I was out.

This morning I was woken up gently by feeling his arms slide around me, and then he started whispering in my ear.

"We can buy new ones today. They're having a sale online right now, I looked them up already. But last night I left your fit flops out and the dog completely chewed them up."

I was too tired to be upset, so I had to work my way into it, but Greg got it right and found them for half off what they'd originally cost and was poised and ready to get me another pair. I don't know if any of you have heard of fit flops, but they're freaking awesome. I have a lot of foot and leg problems, and if I could wear these everyday I'm convinced my pain would go away.

They're serious flip flops, and they'd been a gift from my mom after I found them. Not only are they comfortable, but they're named "Fit Flops" because they're also supposed to work your leg muscles extra so that they tone your legs during just normal everyday wear. I'm not convinced they do that... but it does make it feel like I'm walking on clouds. They originated in England, so they were hard to find the first time around, but now you can find them much more easily online.

Coincidentally, I also bought some slippers today.

I got a pink pair and the only thing I'm worried about is the size. My shoe size is anywhere from an 8 to a 10. These slippers are sized in UK and they're variable sizes... 3-4, 5-6 or 7-8. Even if I had wanted a 5-6 I wouldn't have been able to get them because nobody on Ebay who is carrying a 5-6 will ship to the U.S. But people who care 7-8 will. So I got a 7-8. I'm a LITTLE afraid it'll be too big, but I figure I can just wear thick socks. If you're familiar with UK sizes, please tell me I did the right thing. If they fit, these will be perfect. They're warm, they're lined, they're furry, they're polka dotty, and they've got rubber soles. Awesome.


So after I'd gotten over the shock of *sniff* losing my most expensive pair of shoes to the dumb dog this morning, I got ready to go for work and on my way out realized that we'd forgotten to peanut butterize and freeze the Kong. SO instead, hoping to distract him, I gave him a new stuffed animal toy we'd gotten just in case he'd immediately torn apart the first two. It was pink and long floppy legged...

And now it's dead.

Thoroughly dead.

I found one of it's legs at the door on my way in to the house at lunch.

Also, Dexter likes to decorate for holidays out of season in his free time. I had a bag of old cheap Mardi Gras decorations by the front door ready to be handed back to friends of ours - He's never gone near them before. Today, he was moved to deposite streamers, beads, coins, cups, and masks all over the house.

I think it takes a lot of talent to stack the masks like that. And the artistic presentation of the Rabbit innards are particularly .... artistic.

He even added his own flair.

I wonder why he looks so guilty.

Those pink things... those are remnants of the rabbit. I wasn't even sure of what to do so I ended up cleaning up the stuffing and the decorations, and leaving the severed limbs and torso of the poor rabbit.

The day is looking up a little bit. I received beautiful sparkly goodness in the mail from themakery and can't wait to fill my brand new sparkle vinyl pouches with make up and change.

I also received my purchase from Craft Embellishment World. I've never shopped for craft embellishments on the internet before, and I have a feeling I never will again because I can admit when I have a problem. I must have blacked out while I was embellishment surfing because I ended up ordering over $80 worth of Puffs. Heart puffs and butterfly puffs and wing puffs and leaf puffs and rabbit puffs and I now have a lifetime supply of puffs. It was fun while it lasted, but I can never go back.

So. Let's recap. New Shoes! Puffs! Psycho dog named DEXTER!