Last night I participated in a scrapbooking class at a local continuing education center. I picked scrapbooking because I figured it would be easier to understand a subject I was already familiar with -- but it didn't matter much since the teacher spoke to me in English the entire night. Oh well. I didn't get to practice German, but I did get to make a lovely page for a scrapbook.
I still need to add a title. I couldn't decide between "Man's Best Friend" or "Happiness is..." I think I'm going to go with "Happiness is..." because I listed some of the things that we love about Sharkdog.
Now I just have to find something other than Sharkdog to scrapbook about.
Well, I guess you guys don't bake cakes or quick breads. Or maybe you just like to keep your recipes top secret. Because only one person gave me some suggestions. But that's all right. I'll get by.
Onto other things -- my favorite topic, Sharkdog. He has a lot of endearing habits, but this is one of my favorite. (Oh, who am I kidding. They're all my favorite.)
Sometimes when we go for a walk, Sharkdog will sniff around in the grass until he finds just the right spot. When he thinks he has found it, he's gives it a test by rubbing his head in the grass.
Once he's confirmed it's a good spot (and it's almost always a good spot), he goes to town.
Oh, just look at him go. He loves to roll around in the grass.
Ok, I guess that's enough.
But then again, maybe not.
Nope, he still has a bit left in him.
There we go. It's time to leave. Of course, we normally only make it a few feet before Sharkdog finds another good spot and starts to rolling again.
Sharkdog is a scaredy cat. Have I mentioned that? I think I've mentioned it. Here are just a few of the things that scare him.
The wind. Not so much when he's outside in the wind. In fact, he loves to let the wind catch his ears. But the sound the wind makes when we're inside the apartment -- now that scares him.
Wind blowing through the ears = not scared. Wind blowing through the apartment = terrified.
The vacuum cleaner. It doesn't even have to be turned on, the mere sight of the vacuum cleaner causes Sharkdog to freak out. Usually he frantically runs INTO the room I'm vacuuming and runs back and forth in front of the vacuum.
Spoiler alert: The vacuum cleaner wins the staring contest. Every time.
Doors. Especially doors that are not fully open or move slightly because of a breeze caused by wind blowing through the apartment. This is bad news for Sharkdog since every single room in the house has a door -- including the kitchen.
The photo above isn't exactly what it looks like. Sharkdog didn't pee on the couch. Here's what happened: I was sitting on the couch with a glass of soda when the wind started making a little noise. Sharkdog freaked out and tried to get out of the room. As he ran towards the door, the wind caught it and slammed it shut, scaring the bejeebers out of the dog. Sharkdog turned around and starting running back towards the couch, jumped over the back of the couch, and knocked the glass out of my hand.
Despite all of his absurd fears, we still love this little dog. Who could resist such a cute face? We all know that Brian can't resist. :)
Have you seen BabyLegs before? I think they're adorable and probably pretty functional. I ran across a tutorial for turning women's knee socks into BabyLegs knock-offs and knew I had to give it a try -- especially considering the number of expecting mothers I know. I bought a pair of inexpensive knee socks and then let them sit around for weeks. I finally got around to trying the tutorial a few days ago and it in less than 15 minutes I had made these cuties.
You're supposed to use women's knee socks, but when I bought the socks I thought I was supposed to get toddler knee socks. So these are a little small. But that's ok since this was just for practice and the socks were only 50 cents.
I don't have a cute little baby laying around to show them off, but Sharkdog was happy to model them for me.
Ok, maybe "happy" isn't exactly the right word. But doesn't he look cute.
As if I don't have enough ways to waste my time, I've found another. Turning photos into cartoons with BeFunky.com. Within just a few minutes I turned one of my favorite photos of Sharkdog from this:
Into the cutest little cartoon beagle ever.
And while it only takes a few minutes to create, it's just so fun to keep trying more photos.
Like this one.
And this one.
Granted, I found this site because I was specifically looking for ways to turn photos into cartoon charaters, but I wasn't expecting to find something so fast and easy -- and totally addictive. Hopefully soon I'll be able to show you the project I'm working on that needed a little cartoonization. But for now, I'd better get off the computer and do something useful. I'm off to the grocery store!
Brian informed me recently that in the event of his untimely death, he doesn't give me permission to remarry. But that doesn't really matter since he thinks I'm going first due to of my diabetes.
Brian also said that Sharkdog told him that I'm not allowed to get another dog in the event that Sharkdog goes before me.
Brian and I often borrow phrases from some of our favorite tv shows, changing a word or two as needed. One phrase I exclaim fairly often is I LOVE THIS BEAGLE! (Like when Michael Scott exclaimed "I love this woman!" about Jan.) So here are just a few things that make me want to proclaim my love for Sharkdog.
He knows how to get comfortable.
When we brought Sharkdog home I only had one rule (that I can remember): He could not sleep in the bed with us. I don't know where I got that rule from, but it only lasted about a week. After I went to bed, Sharkdog would start running around or whining next to the bed. Several nights during the first week I ended up sleeping on the couch until Brian got home from work. I finally said he could sleep in our bed and he actually started sleeping at night.
He loves to be under the covers, so when he's ready to get under the covers he'll start gently scratching at the edge of the blanket near my shoulder. If I don't respond by lifting the cover, he'll inch towards my face until he's actually scratching my face, but it rarely takes me that long to lift the covers. He can manage to get under the covers himself when he has to, but on more than one occasion he has gotten himself inside the duvet cover instead of under the duvet.
He knows how to get even.
Brian probably find this funnier than I do, but every time Sharkdog has a bath the first thing he does when he gets out of the bathroom is run to the bed and dry himself on my covers. But it's so cute, I can't get mad.
He knows how to strike a pose.
You're probably thinking that Sharkdog must have some kind of formal modeling training, but this is all natural talent, baby.
He knows how to have a good time.
My favorite part is right after Brian says that he thinks Sharkdog is worn out.
He's iconic.
I'm sure I could go on and on, but I think I've proven my point. Sharkdog is a pretty swell dog.
People often ask about Sharkdog's name, but no one seems to be familiar with Sharkdog's namesake. Two weeks ago, a woman at church asked about his name and I explained it was from a cartoon. Then Last week, she showed up with a special treat for Sharkdog.
That's the original Sharkdog right there. And below is the new Sharkdog. Can you see the resemblance?
I thought that Sharkdog and Daisy would get tired of playing with each other all the time, but they still like to have a few wrestling matches every day. I've been trying to capture some of Daisy's signature moves with little success. My favorite move is when she puts practically Sharkdog's entire head in her mouth. Sharkdog has tried to copy this move, but Daisy's head is much too big.
Here is the only move I've been able to capture. Daisy uses her massive paws to hold Sharkdog down then tries to chew his head off.
But she has to be careful. Because this gives Sharkdog the perfect opportunity to go for her jugular.
Get her Sharkdog! Go in for the kill!
I think I enjoy watching the dogs fight as much as they enjoy fighting. But don't worry, there's nothing illegal going on here. The two fight very gently. I think Sharkdog will miss his buddy next week when she goes home.
I was going to title this post Ruff Housin', but that was too cheesy for even me. And I love puns. And cheese. So that's saying something.
Since Friday, we've been dog sitting Daisy. She'll be with us for three weeks while her family attends a retreat and goes on vacation. I wasn't sure we were going to make it the first few days. The dogs love to wrestle and it seemed like they could go at it all day. I don't think Sharkdog has any idea that he's half Daisy's size. Nevertheless, he has some good moves. These are some of my favorites.
The scissors hold
The ankle biter
And one of my favorite moves is when Sharkdog sits on Daisy -- and she just humors him.
Fortunately, things have settled down a bit and I'm pretty sure we'll be able to make it through the next three weeks. They're pretty adorable when they're nice and calm.
Imagine me and you, I do. I think about you day and night. It's only right, To think about the girl you love and hold her tight So happy together.
This is one of the first photos I took with my then-new camera. Brian and I were driving from Oklahoma to Texas and I was trying to figure out all of the features on the camera. I would change one of the settings, lean over and take a picture of me and Brian, then look at the photo to see what it looked like on that particular setting. I was playing with the exposure at this point, which is why this photo is over-exposed. In all of the previous photos, I was looking at the camera and Brian was looking straight ahead at the road. So imagine my surprise when I looked at this photo and was greeted by Brian's huge grin. It still makes me smile.
And speaking of things that make me smile, I couldn't resist posting a second photo this week. I'm pretty sure I've posted this one before, but it works so well for this theme.
Thanks for the tips for the Halloween party. It turns out, I didn't need as many games as I anticipated. The ghost bowling was a huge success. We learned at our front hallway doubles well as a bowling alley.
Since the kids didn't get to go trick-or-treating, we had a little indoor trick-or-treating fun after dinner. I told the kids I would be behind one of four doors and they waited in the living room while I went into one of the other rooms. Then they knocked on each door until they found the room I was in, then yelled "trick or treat" while I passed out the candy. It's not quite the same as the U.S. tradition, but everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Here are all of the kiddos in their costumes.
Sharkdog also dressed up, but he didn't make in the photo. Just like most little kids, he only kept his costume of for a few minutes. However, I was able to get some photos later on when I bribed him with a piece of bread. That dog will do anything for some bread!
Here he is getting into costume:
What? You'll give me some bread if I put on my mask?
And the transformation is complete:
The phantom of the opera is here!
Visit Tip Junkie for more Halloween show-and-tell.
When I showed Brian the photo I was going to use for the theme lazy, he said, "That's not lazy, that's jet lag." And he's probably right. This photo was taken on July 4, 2007 -- three days after arriving in Vienna.
Today I have a special treat for my loyal readers. After much begging and bribery, Sharkdog agreed to grace us with a post. So sit back and enjoy the musings of this little dog. I promise, it's time well spent.
The life of a miniature beagle isn't always easy. Sure, I have good looks and people area always fussing over me. But emotionally, it can be trying when people question whether I'm 100% beagle because of my small stature. Or when people think I'm puppy just because I'm small. But every once in a while a product comes along that seems like it was designed just for someone my size, just for a miniature beagle.
Last week Brian and Alisha bought this miniature computer. They said it was so Alisha wouldn't have to carry around her heavy laptop when she needed a computer on the go -- remember what happened to her last laptop? -- but I know what it's really for. Me. It must be for me. It's just my size.
Ah, yes. Now I can finally keep up with my stories on my own computer.
It may be small, but like me, it's packed with charisma. It has Skype pre-loaded and with it's integrated webcam I'm able to talk to my friends around the world without running up a huge phone bill for Brian and Alisha.
Why, hello there. Aren't you looking fine today.
To give you a better idea of the size of this miniature marvel, here's a photo of Alisha's Dell and my new laptop. Isn't it magnificently mini!
Alisha says it's too small to use as a main computer, but I think it's just the right size for me. For those of you interested in the specs, it's the Asus Eee PC and you can a nice quick guide on their website. (The page has music, so make sure your volume isn't too loud if you're at work.)
Brian's parents arrived yesterday. On the way home from the airport, Robert asked whether I thought Sharkdog would remember them. We weren't sure -- it has been more than a year since Sharkdog has seen Robert and Rhonda. But when we got home, Sharkdog sure seemed to remember them. And he certainly seems to like them.
Do you know about Gimp? It's an image editor -- in the same vein as Photoshop, only free. (I'm sure that's not the only difference between the two, but it's one of the major differences.) I started using Gimp to make cool blog banners, but lately I've been using it to manipulate photos.
This started several weeks ago after reading an article from the L.A. Times about the marketing of Che Guevara's image. Soon after, I was looking through some photos and noticed one particular photo where Sharkdog had some of the same characteristics of Che's famous photo: the tilted head, the strong jaw, the righteous anger blazing in his eyes.
What? You don't see the righteous anger blazing in his eyes? Well, I see it. So I turned the photo above into the one below.
Oh, but it doesn't stop there, folks.
Earlier this week saw some photos of my niece on my sister's blog. Skip on over there and take a look at the first two photos and tell me what pops into your mind.
Do you know what came to my mind? Mug shot. So I turned my sweet, innocent niece into the hooligan you see below.
