Homegirl Quel (kel) in Austin

Ha!

My dog, Stella, just farted and startled herself awake! She pooted then jumped up out of a dead sleep and started looking and turning around in circles. Too funny.

In other dog news, a Snoopy dog from Austin won Best In Show! What a cutie patootie?!

Waste Not

I not-so-recently bought All Natural Chunky Peanut Butter because at the time it sounded really yummy and healthy, but now I don't want it. It's been over one month and I haven't opened it yet. I don't want to be wasteful, so I'm planning to use it to make Peanut Butter Bones for Okie and Stella's Thanksgiving Day treats. I figure we have sweet potato pie, why not give my sweet babies a little something sweet and homemade for the holiday too?

happy to be Dog Free

Y'all know I love my dogs. They're like my kids. Stella didn't want to leave me today. We're giving Stella and Okie a weekend at Dog Boys Ranch. When we got there they were calling Stella to go out into the side yard with Okie. Stella didn't want to leave me. She just kept looking at me and eventually just ran back to me and tried to get into my lap. It was a sweet moment. She's awesome. 

I'm already enjoying the freedom. I didn't have to rush home from work today. I didn't have to walk them feel bad about not walking them. When I got home they weren't following me around everywhere. I didn't have to feed them. I can look forward to mopping our floors tomorrow and having them actually stay clean for two consecutive days. We have fun plans this weekend too and we can both relax and just enjoy. Still, as happy as I am to have time without them, I'll be just as happy when they come back home.  I miss my babies, y'all.

Random Confession

I actually like our office cat now. In general I hate cats. They creep me out. There all seemingly pensive and aloof. I prefer the needy, blissful "dur" disposition of dogs. But I do have a thing for our office cat. Even though she bit me once when I let her sit in my lap and then wouldn't get down and I was afraid to touch her and had to wait for a coworker to walk by and screamed for him to come make the cat get off my lap.

She's a cute little Siamese mutt thing and on the rare occasion when I'm the first in to the office I enjoy her following me around and I give her morning love. I talk to her too--Miss Kitty. She hangs with me until the real cat-lover, the one who feeds her and houses her in her office, arrives. I'm use to going home to TWO pony-sized rambunctious beasts every evening, so walking in to work (which is a converted house) to a quiet, cute little thing following me around is cool way to start the day. 

Why is this the BEST Thursday EVER?

1. My dogs are back home with me after being stranded at Dog Boys due to the ice storm that hit Austin Monday. I boarded them for the weekend because the plan was to go to Dallas. Then came The Ice. I hadn't left my house since Sunday afternoon until today...to get new tires and to get my babies! I missed them so much. It was a bit of an emotional reunion.
2. SCRUBS IS A MUSICAL TONIGHT!

The stars have aligned for me this day.

Passive-Agressive Neighbor

This is what we came home to last night:

Old Bitch. I know it was you. If you could walk over and leave a note sign on our front door, your old ass could come over when we're at home too. I thought it was funny at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I was like, Oh no she di-int! 

This old lady moved in behind us and expects our dogs not to react when her little yelping lapdog is back there gnawing at the fence. Bitch, they have places for old retired people to live when they want peace and quiet and it's not called new suburban neighborhood street where young, working families in every other house on the street have dogs and leave them in the backyard all day.

Granted--when our dogs bark, them joints are deafening. But we've checked with the stay-at-home moms who live on either side of us twice before and neither of them had complaints. Since this old bitch is obviously not going to control her rodent-dog, we'll have to work on discouraging our dogs' reaction--which I don't mind. I mean, I don't want to be disturbing the neighborhood, but leaving a big sign (easily read by anyone walking or driving by) on somebody's door is just rude.

Y'all excuse my french. I really don't cuss like this in real life out loud, but I cuss like this in my head all the time.

My girls had their first sleepover.

My office dog, Sammy, came home with us tonight. She's smaller than my dogs, and old. I wasn't sure how Okie and Stella would share their space, but they were very hospitable.

All hell is gonna break loose in the morning when Sammy leaves with me for work. I'd take Okie & Stella if they weren't so high-energy.

Dog B to the izzy ness

Our very huge dogs dug a very huge whole under the fence and got out a few days ago. They didn't run away though--camped out on the front porch. It was 102 degrees outside and they wanted some open-air shade. One of our neighbors, a Mr. Mom,  kept an eye on them and put them back in and boarded up the whole for us. We're working on a very awesome "thank you" for him.

The dogs broke part of the fence, so we went to Home Depot to buy replacement wood and were up SO late fixing it. Now the new wood is mismatched from the old wood, so I'll be doing some fence staining while Billy's out of town.

Okie and Stella stay inside during the hot Texas summer days, but it's STILL SPRING!!! Not suppose to be 100 degrees yet! They'll spend the next couple of weekends at Dog Boys Ranch...they'll be outside, but at least they'll have a pond to swim in and trees to nap under.

They lose their coats in the summer too, which won't suck so bad for us this summer because we're switching our hair magents carpets out for hardwood floors.

It's amazing to me how much we humans go through to have dogs in our lives. They really are special creatures.

Poor Rusty

Good Dog Bad Dog

      

Okie (left) and Stella (right) are outside in the backyard playing. Stella comes to the door like she wants to come in...all excited and whatnot, but I don't see Okie. Stella won't come in. She just keeps looking at me and running to the side of the house and back to me. I call Okie. No Okie. I go to the side of the yard to see what's up and the fence is wide open. Okie done broke camp. I don't panic (surprising myself), because everybody knows Okie and Stella, plus I was sure Okie would come back home...she's too spoiled to live the life of a street dog. I go out front and there was Okie runnin' up and down the sidewalk. She wants to play cat and mouse, but I only go so far. When I turn to walk back to the house she shoots pass me and is waiting at the door --tail waggin' and breathin' all hard, dancin' around, lookin' at me like "I beat you! I won!"  I love both my dogs, y'all, but I cain't trust Okie. She's a sneaky little byatch.

Okie use to be my dog (she's still my favorite, I'm just a little disappointed in her right now), but I gotta give Stella her props. She coulda broke out with Okie, but she came to let me know Okie was gone (little snitch). A regular old Lassie. 

Good girl, Stella. Okie, BAD dog!

Okie

 

She's my favorite. Don't tell Stella.

Trapped in the Kitchen

I got up super early this morning to prep our carpets for cleaning. Since we have 2 dogs that shed, we had to do extra prep work before the carpet cleaners got here. So I'm up bright and early moving furniture and sweeping carpets, then vacuuming carpets. I'm trapped in the kitchen. I'm at the island having my Saturday morning Milo and the dogs are out back shrieking and barking 'cause they want to come in. We spoiled those ones good. And it's not like they only like being in the house, they just only want to be where we are. If we're outside all day, they're cool being outside all day. But as long as there are humans inside...

I really don't have much to post about right now. So I should probably stop writing. The guy just finished and the carpets look brand new. It'll be a few hours before they're dry, so Okie and Stella will be all stressed out...and shedding...all day back there. We're taking them to the park in a few minutes. By the time we get back and give them a good brushing (actually they're afraid of the brush, but we have these cool sticky-glove things) out back they'll be house dogs again.

I see wood floors on the horizon. That or shaved labs...I think wood floors would be much cuter.

Randomness

So this week was workworkwork. I love my job.

We discovered that Stella has a cool reflex. When you stroke her back in just the right place, her coat jacks over to one side and she kicks her back leg out. It's so funny. You can do it forever and she won't even get annoyed. As long as she's getting attention... My dogs are so spoiled.

We had some people over for dinner last night. Billy smoked some chicken and made curried goat. Mmmm! I love having people over. Entertaining guests is cool. I like it. They ended up staying way late, so Billy and I had to rethink our late-night plans. We were going to go see Luciano at Flamingo Cantina--this hole-in-the-wall reggae spot downtown. We both had to be alert and unfoggybrained-ed today so we decided against going. Which sucks, 'cause we haven't gotten to see him live yet. They rarely bring the reggae bands we like (i.e. actual bands from the Caribbean), so when they do...usually in the summer...we try to make every show. It's hard to know these guys are in town and not go check them out...Beres Hammond, The Whalers, Third World, Beenie Man, Buju Banton...hard to miss those shows. We have plans to see a couple of upcoming shows. Plus, I'm sure other great ones are on the way, so plenty to look forward to this summer.

My mom is coming Tuesday! Yay! The rest of my folks are coming on the weekend. Yay!

Hello. My name is Raquel, and I'm an ifcaholic.

I can't wait until Me and You and Everyone We Know comes to Austin. I read about it here and then saw a special about it on IFC. I hope it's here when my girl Terri comes to visit. I can tell we're going to love this movie.

According to the clock, I only have a few minutes to get ready and make it to church on time. I'll probably be late...and I hate walking into church late, so I'll probably pass on it...again.

Since we found out about my hormone imbalance, and I'm on supplements, I'm sure I'll get my ideal weight back. One of the side effects of my particular imbalance is increased appetite and slowed metabolism, so now that I'm balancing things out, I'm sure I'll be back to normal (in more ways than one) in no time. I also learned that a side effect is increased anxiety and am sure it has something to do with my social anxiety deal...I haven't always been this antisocial.

Hopefully I'll reach my goal weight before I become a baby factory. I've been off my weight loss plan for a couple of weeks now, yet I've managed to maintain my weight since I lost it (thanks to the soy-mones maybe?). I'm back on the treadmill today. Wish me luck!

Sunday Morning

It's almost 8 a.m. and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to go to church today. I'm fully awake, but I don't feel like getting out of bed yet, so I grabbed the laptop and here I am blogging. The dogs are in our bed, trembling because of the thunder and rain outside. The windows are still open from last night, so the sounds are in here with us. I like the sound of the rain falling--very soothing.

I'll call my mom in a bit to wish her Happy Mother's Day. She got the package I sent her yesterday and was all emotional. I was too, when I picked out the card from Hallmark. I know I'm not the only one who knocks back tears when reading those friggin cards. Usually, when I give cards, I get blank ones and use my words. But Hallmark is great about putting into words exactly what's in your heart, you know?

The rain is heavier now and the dogs are trembling so 'til the bed feels like one of those motel messager beds you see on tv. Poor dogs probably think the sky is falling, I'm sure. I feel so bad for them. When I finish my tea, before I read, I'll distract the dogs from the rainstorm with one of my special harmonica song and jig performances. That always seems to work.

Stella at Walnut Creek

I think this is a cool picture of Stella. Apparently it's a tradition here in Texas to take pictures of young offspring amongst the blue bonnets in the Spring. I didn't consider that when I took this picture. Stella & Okie are my "kids" for now, so although it's a total coincidence...here is Stella...amongst the blue bonnets. I like her crooked looking smile.

Billy and His Girls

I just wanted to share this photo again.

Okie and Stella got their P.H.D.D. (Play in the House all Day Degree)

I know this is cheesy, but I'm SO HAPPY FOR MY BABIES! THEY DON'T HAVE TO STAY LOCKED UP ON RAINY DAYS ANYMORE!

When I came home yesterday, they had pulled a Houdini and escaped from their huge monstrosity of a cage, and nothing in the house had been damaged. Granted, they did leave two very smelly gifts for me when I got there, but they didn't rip anything up or damage...anything!

So, Billy and I figured they did a good enough job in the house after obviously being out a long time, so we took it all the way today. We made sure to feed them VERY early in the evening to give the poop ample time to move before we left for work, left out their favorite chewables and some new toys along with their favorite blankets to nap on...

I came in today and they had been PERFECT ANGELS! Somebody (Okie) had obviously been on the couch--which is cool, 'cause the slipcovers are machine washable-- but other than that, the house was just as we left it. It always made me feel sad to leave them all caged up on rainy days. I'm so happy for them. THEY GET TO STAY OUT AND PLAY!

This may not sound like a big deal to you non-dog-owners, but trust me, it's a very big deal.

Okie, Stella & Abby

The other day, Billy and I are in the backyard playing fetch with the dogs when we hear our little 19 month-old neighbor calling, "ba, ba, ba", as in "bark, bark, bark"...that's how she calls our dogs. Anyway, her mom comes over to the fence and tells us that during the day, Abby spends time out back playing with Okie and Stella through the little holes in the wood fence that seperates our yards. How cute?

So, Abby's mom holds her up to give her a better view of  the dogs over the fence, and she lets out the cutest little chuckle. Her mom's arms start to get tired, so she pops Abby over the fence to Billy, so she could have a longer visit. Abby...and Okie & Stella...were so excited to finally meet each other. Now that Abby's big enough, and her folks are obviously cool with the canines, I think we'll have them over for a proper visit.

I took in the sight of Billy holding a chuck'ling Abby with the dogs there, licking her hands and feet...it was so neat to have a little kid there with me and Billy and the dogs. Of course I imagined for a second that these are the kinds of moments we would have with our own 19 month-old one day. Pretty neat.

Baby Okie

   

She's my favorite. Don't tell Stella.

Aaaaaw!

How cute is this?! Billy bonding with Okie and Stella this morning.