I promise, one of these days I will do a new Church Chuckle on my blog home page, but with Cruz laying on the floor in front of the drawer in my nightstand where I keep my "chuckles" it's not worth moving her. I just need to remember to move the "chuckles" to another place.
Not too much excitement this week. Cruz continues to open my kitchen door (with the child proof dealie still on the door knob) and get stuck in the downstairs hallway while I'm at work - goober.
Monday night when I walked into my living room this is what I saw. All the brown things are stuffing from the teal pillow with the white polk-a-dots in the background. While we took our nightly walk I figured I'd have to get a trash bag to put all this in and throw the pillow away but then I thought "nope, just stuff all that stuffing back inside that pillow and Duct tape it closed" and I did.
Close up of Monday night's hole in the pillow.
So Tuesday night this is what I saw on my living room floor............with the Duct tape I had used on the pillow in its own little pile on the floor. The pillow was pretty much ripped in half - so it did end up in a trash bag in my trash bin. Poor pillow. And if you look really close in Cruz' crate in the right background - guess who you see sitting so innocently..............
Thursday night when we took our walk I thought I'd see if she would actually let me walk her down the blocks of Valley Junction's Farmers Market. Normally when I do this on Thursday nights we get to the end of the block right before the farmer's market and Cruz starts pulling wanting to go a different direction. Well Thursday was a little cool and it had rained earlier in the day - so the crowd was really small - but Cruz let me walk her clear down to the park at the end of 4th and 5th Street where the band plays music during farmer's market! I was so proud of her.
And it amazed me to no end how many "dumb" people walk the face of the earth. If you see someone walking a dog that is walking toward you - and the person with the dog is making a pointed effort to put themself between you and their dog - MOVE OVER! Do not continue walking straight at the person with the dog - or worse yet just stop in front of the person with the dog and stare at them. I had to actually tell one lady that stopped in front of me that I was putting myself between her and my dog so she could walk past us............yowie.
Yesterday morning was a free scrap metal and appliance drop off at WDM Public Works so I finally got rid of the snow blower blade that had been in my basement ever since Mike died - and who knows how long he had it in the basement before that. I also stopped at True Value to buy some clamps to help me super glue Cruz' crate together where she has broken it in a couple of places on the front panel....didn't work. Evidently super glue and clamps are no match for Cruz' destruction of her crate.
I had noticed the night before during our walk a light pink spot on Cruz' right back paw so I called the vet about it Saturday and at 10:40 we went to see the vet about what was going on. Cruz has a cyst on her paw - I've never had a dog have one of these before - so twice a day I put ointment on it. And because I wanted them to look on the under side of her back legs to make sure she wasn't scratching too much to make some "hot spots" we decided it would be best to soft muzzle Cruz for her examination. I put the muzzle on without any problems but she wasn't too excited about the vet technician and vet moving around her in the room. I was sitting on the floor with her, with my arms around her and then she became a bucking bronco when the vet sat down next to her. I'm still not sure how it happened but Cruz ended up in my lap and that's where she stayed the whole time the vet was checking everything out. I had my arms around her "protecting" her evidently. I also experienced something I've never had happen before - in the midst of the bucking bronco issue Cruz expressed her anal glands........on the floor........and me. I just thought she had peed a little until the smell arrived - wow. After my vet was done looking at Cruz I asked if she could try to get my cell phone to take a picture of Cruz in my lap. When she made her first move away from Cruz, Cruz was all done being in my lap....oh well........
I did get a kick out of the vet tech wanting to "bribe" Cruz to be ok with them looking at her. I told the tech that Cruz doesn't eat hard treats (Milk Bones, etc.), so they tried crackers - nope. Pretzels - nope. Cat food - nope. I said that Cruz liked peanut butter and they thought they had a stash of peanut butter - but it was gone. Then they tried butter and Cruz licked the butter off the tongue depresser - didn't make her any more "ok" with the vet tech though :) My Cruzie - she's a goober all right.
Then last night I didn't have just one party to go to - I had two!! That never happens. The first was a surprise birthday party for one of the guys in my small group at church. Well, he's not really into surprises and goofed things up timewise for when he and his wife were suppose to leave their house to go eat supper - and all of us sneak into their house. We had way too much time on our hands and with my pastor helping instigate - we found all the toilet paper they had in their house and t.p.ed their trees in front. I was in heaven - I hadn't t.p.ed for a very long time and was out of practice throwing rolls of toilet paper in the air into trees - but I got the hang of it after a toss or two.
The second party last night was a Quinceanera celebration for my friend's niece who turned 15. In the Mexican community when a girl turns 15 they throw a HUGE party and pull out ALL the stops for it. I asked Rigo if they did the same when a boy turns 15 - nope. So here I am, this old white/American lady walking into a building with hundreds of Mexican family members for this young lady. I'm looking for Heather - Rigo's wife who is American like me thinking it shouldn't be too hard to find her right - it actually was. We finally hooked up at their table and Rigo explained everything that went on with the celebration. There was food, cake, beverages and not just a D.J. - but a band too. And not just a band like us Americans would have - they had an accordian, tuba, clarinet, trumpet and more in this band. It was awesome. When it was time to dance - EVERYONE danced. None of this American men deal where they don't want to dance - the Mexican men were dancing fools. The first song was a line dance to............Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus and I'll admit - hearing that song in Spanish made me chuckle to myself. Heather was busy taking pictures for the family so Rigo got me out on the dance floor for two songs and I'm tellin' ya. The songs were llll--oooo---nnn---gggg! Like 5+ minutes each. Maybe even 10 minutes - I'm not kidding. It was the first time I danced since January 2010 - which was the last time Mike and I danced together. So while it was slightly emotional and weird dancing with someone that wasn't Mike - it was fun. And it was awesome to see how important family, tradition and all is for Mexicans. Us Americans don't do this - our families don't stay close together geographically to be there for each other - we spread out and don't have this tight bond and it's actually kind of sad.
After church today a gal pal went with me through Valley Junction's Art Fest and we had a great time together looking at neat things and eating walking tacos. It was another gorgeous day for an event like this on 5th Street.
I debated on whether to mow or not - I really don't like doing things like this on Sundays - the day of rest. But in reality sometimes I have to. So after the Art Fest I relaxed (that means I took a nap - and I'll say it was because I was still a little pooped from all my partying last night). Got up, took Cruz for her walk and then decided I'd mow. I went to put the 20' tie out chain on Cruz so she could be in the back yard with me and that didn't work so well. She just wouldn't get close enough for me to hook the chain to her collar. I thought if I got her on my enclosed back porch maybe I could hook it. Well.........I don't think Cruz likes chains...........at all. She really reacted to the sound of the chain being drug across the cement floor of my back porch and when I tried to reach down to hook it to her collar.........she snapped at me. She's not done that before. I stood up big and tall and "bahhed" at her and tried again. She got really small and I could see the whites of her eyes and I thought "maybe I won't do this". Who knows....maybe this is why she got away from the first family that adopted her - maybe the chained her a lot............. So Cruz stayed inside while Mommy mowed....goober.
