Goodbye Sweet Sexy Penny

Today the pug world is minus one beefy sexy pug. Sweet Penny has crossed the Rainbow Bridge and while we are grateful she is no longer suffering, we are so sad that she has left us and our hearts are broken for her mom, Dana. Go give Dana some pug love and comfort as she deals with this heartbreaking loss.

So long sweet Penny. We never got to meet you, but we loved you. Hopefully our brother Woody met you at the Bridge and is sharing some whippey cream with you.

Yipppeee it is Thursday!

Wow, all this hot weather is not only messing with my season mojo, but apparently it has messed with my ability to know what day of the week I'm in. All day at work yesterday I thought it was Tuesday.

Yes, I am very happy to know that I am actually one day closer to the weekend than I thought, but wow, I lost a day somewhere. Sure hope I enjoyed that day - wherever it went.

Knitting with the world's most miserable yarn continues. The cardigan is looking good and I think I will like it despite the fact that I have developed such a dislike for the yarn. I can't believe how much this wool sheds - little fibery dust everywhere. Since I am not a domestic goddess, this new layer of dust is adding to my angst.

In all fairness, I probably really hate this yarn because I've spent way too much time knitting with Malabrigo and after you've used the dreamy, yummy, incredibly soft and wonderful Malabrigo, well, you just can't feel the love for anything else. And, yes, Malabrigo is that awesome. Go fondle some -- you'll never be the same.

On the pug front -- they are fat and sassy and wonderful. Right now they have gone out for their morning constitutional, eaten breakfast, and are happily snoring away on their dog beds around me as I type. I hate leaving this peaceful snoring kingdom to go to work, but eating and living indoors factors greatly in their happiness so I must go earn those green papers.

Have a fabulous Thursday all. Kiss your fur babies for me and enjoy the day.

Never Knit with Yarn You Hate

Okay, I know better, yes, yes, yes, I know better and yet, I still did it. In a time long ago and far away I went on a yarn buying binge and ended up with 20 skeins of Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed. Now I love tweed and I love aran, but Debbie Bliss yarns -- not so much. So apparently in a fiber induced blackout I got the yarn ignoring the Debbie Bliss part. So it sat and sat and I muttered and mumbled. Then I saw the pattern Elsewhere on Ravelry and wanted to cast on immediately and had all that tweed and well . . . .

So I'm working my way through the pattern which is fun but the yarn is absolutely annoying me. It is rough and dusty and full of knots and is interfering with my knitting bliss. But I have finished the back and half of the front and am too close to the finish line to give up so I keep going. I've learned not to knit it while wearing any dark clothing because it leaves a dusting of fiber bits in its wake -- you should see my laptop keyboard -- grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

All I'm saying at this point is better soften up with blocking or I am going to be one pissed off knitter.

The worst part of this tale -- I have tons -- metric butt load tons of fabulous fiber I could have used for this project and yet, I did not. So there you have it. I have only myself to blame and I'm not even sure why I made this decision. Oh well. . . .

On the pug front -- the weather has been hot and sunny. Bodhi loves it, Myoki and Ho-Tei not so much and my beloved Poppy is not much of an outside girl. It is the Maltese in her -- she prefers pillows and air conditioning and tasty treats served on a beautiful platter. Total princess.

Well, off to work so I can afford those pillows and platters. Have a great Wednesday all!

Mud Season

The pugs are enjoying the higher temps and the chance to play in the yard and mud. Why is it that dogs that don't like water think that mud is just more fun than pugs should be allowed to have? They run and kick and tumble and wrestle and get filthy and are the happiest creatures on the planet. I'm a sucker for a pug smile so naturally I encourage them to have big pug fun.

So the evenings are filled with frolicking and pug cleaning. Yeah, they hate the cleaning part.

I've pretty much decided that planting anything in the yard would be futile. Bodhi is such a wild child and his zoomies leave plant destruction in his wake. Besides, the yard isn't that big and I'd rather have a play area for the pugs than a garden. Why yes my dogs do have my wrapped around their little puggy paws. Speaking of which -- sniff, sniff, misssssssst. Have you noticed? They sniff two times and then snort or as I call it mist. Cracks me up. Best facial in the world.

Happy Wednesday all!

Crap - I lost a week

Where did last week go? Did I do anything fun? Who knows -- it just whooshed by. I can tell you that I DID NOT clean my house. I am barely domesticated -- basically I am potty trained, can dress myself and know how to push the button on the coffee maker and microwave -- what else could you possibly want??? Oh, yeah, I also do laundry but only when I am out of underwear -- that's the rule.

So I've been working and studying and working and studying --- see, nothing exciting.

Oh, wait, there was excitement -- yesterday morning the streets, sidewalks and Stairway of Death were all covered in ice!!! Surely there is a place on the Olympic Ice Dancing team for me after yesterday morning's performance. Honestly, who knew that short, fat, old ladies were capable of doing the splits -- okay, getting up was not pretty or graceful and yeah, my pride and inner thighs were both "hurt," but there was no time for wallowing in self-pity because I still had to climb Mt. Everest aka the steps that will be the death of me yet. The thrill of climbing a bazillion steps was increased ten-fold by the fact that each and every one of those metal death steps was covered in ICE. I am pretty certain that anyone watching my progress would have been convinced that I was having some sort of seizure -- each step highlighted with a string of profanities and my feet and arms flailing. The fact that I was gasping for air and wheezing (I'm telling you, they add more steps every night -- okay, they don't, but it really feels like they do) just added to the scene. I think I can bring a new "take" on ice dancing. LOL!

The pugs aren't all that fond of ice, although they look much cuter sliding around on it than I do. They are all getting cabin fever, but none of them wants to go for a long walk until the sidewalks are free of the dreaded ice/snow/mud/water stuff. Going to be a long end of winter at this rate.

Well, I need to go eat some ice cream. Gotta keep my strength up for my daily battle with the Stairs of Death.

Happy Wednesday.

By the way, Bandit is recovering at home, having done very well with his recent surgery. If you get a chance, go check out his new sweater made by Emmitt's Mom, Melissa. Give them both some love cuz Pug folks ROCK!

Tuesday

First things -- I got my hair cut!!! Yep. All chopped off -- super short and I am super dooper happy about it. It has been too long with too much hair. I completely forgot the pleasure that is the pixie cut. Of course that meant I had to find my itty bitty tiny silver hoop earrings and now my glasses look yucky. Sigh! Reinventing yourself gets costly.

Weather-wise -- still snowing. The pugs are not pleased. Adding to the angst, Ho-Tei's knee cap slipped out of place and so he had some hobbling and whining and now has drugs to make it all better. Poor sweet baby! Bodhi is about to spontaneously combust -- he has cabin fever in the worst way. He has been zooming up and down the driveway, but it is not enough to burn off the rocket fuel he apparently has pumping through his veins. I've been tempted to take him to the stairway to hell aka the transit entrance to zoom up and down those bazillion steps I hike every day. My luck -- he wouldn't even be a bit winded. The energy of youth is so wasted on the young!

Knitting -- working on a pair of crazy monkey socks, a top down raglan, a cabled scarf and Imogen jacket. Yeah -- none of them are getting done. Talk about attention deficit disorder in knitting. Sigh!

Tomorrow is Bandit's surgery -- so everybody send warm, healing, loving thoughts to him and his momma, Paula. We hope he comes through with flying colors. He is quite the handsome pug and we are all hoping he get better soon. Stop by and give him and his momma some pug love.

Pug Hugs to you all.

What Happened to Saturday?

Whoa, I woke up and it is Sunday -- what happened to Saturday? I have snippets of it, but how could those snippets be a whole day? And, really, why don't work days go that fast? Just askin. . .

Today is Bodhi's Gotcha Day. One year ago today he boinged into my home and heart. What a treasure and gift. He is also a handful, but then that is part of his charm. Amazing isn't it -- if a human behaved this way, I'd run the other way, but if it is a pug, I'm all "oooooooooo lookie how cute."

I have successfully avoided doing my homework and it is now the deadline so this will be short because I have a metric buttload of homework to do before midnight. I have only myself to blame -- I don't mind. Rest assured, I didn't do housework while avoiding homework. Oh no, that would so not be my style. I napped and knitted and tried to watch the Olympics.

Speaking of the Olympics -- some nice knitwear sported by the American Team during the opening ceremony and how sad that Norway was not sporting knitwear. Sigh!

I enjoy the Olympics but I loathe the NBC hosts -- talking heads -- whatever. Half the time they sound like they are drunk or stoned. So I turn off the sound -- plop on some happy tunes -- and watch it to good music and no mumbling, bumbling heads. (Personally, I think they all have had one too many Botox injections -- men using Botox is just so wrong. They look even more stupid than --- well, as stupid as the women who have pumped themselves into paralyzed surprised expressions (think Bruce Jenner/Joan Rivers -- but don't think about them too long because that will cause nightmares the like of which you don't ever want to encounter -- trust me on this.)

Well, that is enough babbling for a Sunday morning. I need more coffee and then off to find where my books are hiding so I can conquer the work before the deadline. Have a very Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Pug snorts and kisses to you all.