Eddie

This is Eddie
Eddie likes to stand in the middle of the road leading to our house.

And, as Sarge discovered the other day, Eddie likes to take poops on our driveway.

We don't like Eddie very much.

The Good, The Bad, and the Uuuuglaay.

What a week!

The Good:
More than half of the auctions I had up on E-bay sold successfully, and everyone but one person paid. Yay! Sarge was happy because with some of the money I made I bought him a climbing rope for his home gym. I guess he's going to relive those High school Gym class moments in our garage.

Halloween pinatas are coming along well, finally.

The Pumpkin just needs a nose (Piko made me that great summer teeth-some'r here, and some'r there-mouth), and the spider sack needs some dressing. But it looks like they are ready to stuff and hang. For once I'm ahead of schedule with a pinata. Usually the night before I'm gluing and desperately drying with my hairdryer.

An interesting project I was handed by Piko's school was completed in record time. Make two puppets to help raise awareness of the importance of attendance, was my brief. Huh. Well I found this pattern, which was awesome, and came up with these two.

How they will help raise awareness about attendance is beyond me, I guess they'll be using them in their morning announcements.

The Bad:
UGH, we were sick this week.

Piko registered a fever on Sunday, and slept for 14 hours, so she had to stay home from school. Lucky for her it was a short week with Thursday and Friday off due to teacher grading, and a conference. Her temperature got up to 103 on Tuesday night, fevers freaking freak me out. My sinuses have been acting up this week too, lucky me. So I took Mrs. S's advice and tried out the Musenex, and I'm never going back. That stuff dried me out. Thanks Mrs. S, I'm sorry I laughed at you and your upcoming trip. I'll never laugh at you again!!
Poor Piko, she was finally let out of the house on Saturday for her second to last soccer game of the season. She was so happy that she ran around the field like a maniac, and then coughed up a lung.
Luckily for both of us she is well enough to go to school on Monday.

Sarge managed to piss off one of our neighbors by not paying attention to what Dog deGallo was doing while outside. I guess she went over to their house while Sarge was mowing the lawn and bothered their dog. The guy was seriously pissed off, and I don't blame him, Dog is a big dog, their dog is very little. Nothing happened to the dog, but I bet it freaked the guy out. I feel bad because even though Sarge told him sorry at the time, I still think that he should go over and apologize now that the neighbor has probably calmed down. But Sarge being the jerk that he is won't do it. And what am I supposed to do, go over and say. "Hey, sorry that my husband is such an a$$hole."?

The Uuuglaay:
My first apple pie of the season.

Not only did I put to much cinnamon, the "pour" cap was open, not the "sprinkle",but the crust was too wet, AND I over baked it. GAH!! Lucky for me, Sarge does not have a very delicate palate.

My sewing room is a total and complete disaster!! It has still not recovered from a last minute birthday present project.

I guess that's what I'll be doing with the rest of my day.

deGallo Photolog

Nothing exciting around the home this week, the weather has been nice so Piko and I have been at the pool alot.

But here are some of the semi-interesting pictures I took this week. I was going to type "photos" but that sounds like I think that they're art, and they sooooo are not.


The Damn Cat. She's not fat, but look at that pooch! It's hanging over the edge of my desk!!


The Damn Cat again. This is proof that she loves Sarge. She would never let anyone else sit with her like this. I have always told Sarge that he picked out the dog, and she was supposed to be his pet, but she loves me more. And now, I got a cat, and she's supposed to be mine, but she loves him. Darn animals! Making me crazy!

Ok, when I took this picture I thought it looked funny, as if Piko had a big butt. Then I loaded it onto my computer and looked at it in a larger format, and realized it just looks like Piko is sitting on a giant blue Va-jay-jay. Naughty pillows indeed!

And Sarge sent me this picture in an e-mail.

Hee-hee, LOLERSKATES!!!

Why Is This Cat So Mad?

Look at her, she's all "Mrrrrrwow! RRRRROWWWW!!!" Ears back, eyes narrow.
(Click on photos to enlarge them.)

She even turned away from me when I was taking pictures. Look at that tail flick.

Coulld it be...
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THESE?!?!

"FINE!" she says, "I shall sit down and let you see my poor paws!! Have you seen what they have done to my poor paws?!?!?"

"OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!! I'm just going to claw this blanket with frustration!!! AWW MAN!! What have you done to me?!"

The Cat Has Arrived!

She does not look happy.
So I guess we are officially moved.
Now to put everything away.

de Gallo Family Dynamics

This is actually hilariously funny now, but trust me it was not funny when it happened.

Last night Sarge came home to get his dinner, and after he left I let Dog de Gallo out to do her nightly business. She came back in and then started upstairs as I was making the rounds locking doors, and turning off lights. She waited for me on the landing, and we started up to the bedroom.

I didn't really see what happened next, but caught the tail end of it.

The Cat came out of nowhere, and jumped on Dog. All I saw was teeth and claws. Cat did not actually get Dog, but she sure scared her. I guess Cat is usually in Piko's room when Dog and I go to bed, so Dog was not expecting the sneak attack. Poor Dog runs right into our bedroom and onto her bed. Cat went the other direction into the guest room.

A bit later as I'm settling in to do the crossword in bed (highlight of my day >dorky!<), it smells like poo! What the hell? Why does it smell like poo? I go check out the litter box, but that's not it, I just cleaned it. Get back into bed, must be my imagination. No, it still smells like poo. So I start looking around.

DOG! Why is there a nugget of poo on your bed!! Have you been eating your poo again?! CRAP!!! I stepped in it!!! F**K!!! IT'S ON THE BED!!!!! MOTHER LOVING...$#@**!!!!

So I'm traveling the upstairs scrubbing bits of poo off the carpet, stripping the bed, wiping Dog's butt. I checked her feet thinking that maybe she stepped on a fresh one when she went out. Nope, it was dingle berries, hanging on. Nice.

I had to remake the bed (which I hate doing on a regular non-poo day), set the poo sheets in the wash to soak overnight. Though I'm not sure I'll ever be able to use those sheets again. Wash my feet and hands, and change my clothes. Ugh. And then I was not able to finish the crossword.

Sarge gets into bed this morning, and I tell him that the cat literally scared the shit out of the dog. He can't stop laughing, and honestly neither can I.

Poor Dog, we have got to get rid of this cat.

I need to score some grass.

Cat grass that is. This damn cat is trying to eat my plants. And Piko de Gallo is having just a little too much fun squirting her with the sprayer(thanks She Said! for reminding me what a good training tool that is).

Monday, is that you?!

The answer:

HELLS YES!!!

What happened today that made my head explode?

Well, it all started with a 12:25am power outage. Was I up? Yes I was. Did I then go to bed? Well, I tried. Damn smoke detector in my bedroom started beeping, and beeping. Dog de G, starts pacing, and whining, pacing, and whining. I get up, press the reset.........beep!............beep!........ No luck. Take out the battery..............it worked.......beep!........FRACK!!!
Fumble around for a replacement battery in the dark, I know we have some, Sarge bought 8 of them the other month! FINALLY find the battery, replace, golden silence. Yay, finally able to go to bed. I was so tired I wanted to throw up.

Wake up, cat's breakfast, pick up cat puke, dog out, breakfast for Piko, coffee, paper, computer, dog in, my breakfast, dog's breakfast.

Then downhill....
1. A suspicious TKO auction cancellation from an overseas bidder. What? If you wanted to know that your S&H was going to be $11.50 USD, you should have asked first!! Now I can't even do a second chance offer.

2. Trip to Target with Piko de Gallo starts off great! A few tears in the car because she "Really, really wanted to go to IKEA!!!!!". Whatever. Target, return crappy National Geographic RC snake. Find cool roaring mini T-rex flashlight/key chain for Piko. AND THEN!!!!! Piko, where's your hat? The hat that you begged me to make for you! The one you picked out the fabric for, the one you pestered me for all day yesterday, THE ONE I HAD TO MAKE OVER TWICE!!!! Mommy meltdown? Yeeeeah, that was me in the Forrestville Target freaking out over a lost hat. Ended on a good note though, someone turned it in to lost and found. (And that T-rex, yeah, she didn't get it because she showed me she is irresponsible with her belongings. That's right, right?)

3. We come home to, NO POWER. BAH! 45 minutes later, power back on.

4. 2:45. No internets. No tv. No phone!

5. Ironing Sarge's uniform, the iron decides that it's just going to barf all it's water out onto the clothes, instead of making steam. DAMN YOU!!! I JUST BOUGHT YOU 3 WEEKS AGO!!!

All I have to say is that the cable or power better not go out at 8:00 tonight! Mhz is teasing me again with promises of Footy!

It's all the little things that make me nutty.

The Week in de Gallo News

Piko's "Party Favors".
I am her supplier. And Piko de Gallo is addicted!!



I can't remember when we discovered this wonderful item. But throw a handful in the bath, and Piko de G is fully occupied, Sarge and I can have an uninterrupted adult conversation, lasting upwards of a half hour.
At $1.00 for 12 pills I think that it's totally worth it.



I imagine that the end result is somewhat educational, because she sorts them by color, counts them, and is learning the difference between a squid and an octopus.

We have also unfortunately acquired a new pet.
Meet "Nekko de Gallo"



Quite possibly the nicest cat I have ever met. She literally followed us home. We were somewhat worried that Nekko and Dog would not get along. Dog de Gallo has a very high chase drive. Color us surprised to discover that the dog is afraid of the cat! Naturally this is endlessly entertaining to Sarge and I, so we torture her whenever we can.

The weather has also made a turn for the better, which means that the sticks have come out, and Mommy gets some quite time.



And in crafting news:
Freezer paper stencils, are the AWESOME!!

Applying the paint.



Painted stencils.




Finished stencils.




And happily, albeit strangely, nothing has pissed me off this week. Possibly I'm mellowing with age, or I'm entering a period of personal Zen. I'm reserving judgement, because I sitll have to go grocery shopping this weekend.

Day of the Dog

We here at the de Gallo homestead have been watching alot of "The Dog Whisperer". We have a dog, and that dog needs whispering. Because honestly all of the yelling Sarge is doing is not exactly helping.

Dog de Gallo is actually a very good dog. She does not jump up to get to food on counter tops, she does not eat everything in the house. She is trusted to stay at home alone for long periods of time, and can be relied on to not destroy anything. She knows where to poop and where to pee, and she loves to fetch and have ear rubs. She is a great bed warmer in the mornings when Sarge has left for work. Dog and Piko get along pretty well, although I think that Dog de G is a bit jealous of Piko de G, since she was here first, and Piko basically usurped her.

HOWEVER.

She barks. ALOT. OFTEN. She sometimes eats her poo, and then comes in the house and throws up on my feet. Dog de Gallo is also very food aggressive, yikes! She even bit Sarge's hand once...ONCE. She is also an excited pee-er, which is not all that bad I guess. And oh yeah, she weighs about 85 lbs, and the hair, don't even get me started on the hair. What's up with dog hair? How does it get into everything, and it weaves it's way into fabrics somehow, like it's alive! Whenever I take food anywhere, I always warn that there might be dog hair in it, and I'm very sorry.

Anyway, back to the Dog Whisperer. Sarge was watching with Piko de Gallo the other morning, and Caesar was helping a dog that had severe separation anxiety. One of the things that he suggested would help was to get "friend" for that dog. He kept the dog at his dog center and picked out a new dog at a shelter to be the friend. They got along great, and it went a long way to helping that poor dog.

Lately Sarge has been talking about getting a "friend" for Dog de Gallo. I guess he thinks that because Piko de Gallo and I are so busy with school and other activities, Dog de Gallo is alone much more often than she is used to. He thinks that she is lonely. I guess, she might be. So I have agreed to get another dog.

Yes Librarian, I can hear you laughing from your new place in Seattle.

HOWEVER!

I told Sarge that we can only get a "friend" for Dog de Gallo IF, Caesar Milan himself comes to Maryland and picks the dog out for us.



And, I get to name it "Otter". Because then we will have Dog de Gallo, and the "Otter" dog.