Monday Mischief: Headless Daisy (Don’t Panic!) ;)

Back from our week-long absence – we sure did miss our blogging buddies!

For the sake of keeping in theme with Mischief Monday, we could say that Daisy is either doing her impression of the Headless Horseman or playing a late April Fool joke on us by making her head “disappear”.  But in fact, this is just silly little Daisy being silly little Daisy.

DH took a cell phone picture of our silly little girl in her favorite “headless” pose – stretched the length of his lap, arms stiff in her “hands-up-or-I’ll-shoot” pose, and her head dangling past his knees, out of sight (and he’s TALL!).

Mind you, she’s so comfortable like this, that she’s actually ASLEEP!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

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Monday Mischief – Taking Liberties

Apparently there’s a page in every pup’s built-in Doggy Handbook that states: “Whenever your human allows you to go somewhere you’re normally not allowed, you forever and always have the right to access that place at will. Once humans give you an inch, they have forfeited all rights to refusal.”

I’m sure it says that because Daisy has taken that page to heart; she lives her life by it. It has become part of The Gospel According to Daisy.

Here’s one example.

We don’t spend much time in our living room; the family room is where we usually go to read, watch TV, etc. The living room has become more of a space used for larger party overflow. Consequently, Daisy has never had any interest in the chairs or sofa in there.

Until DH, for some reason, decided to read a book in there and he invited Daisy up on the couch to sit with him. After that, the couch became Daisy’s territory, presumably when she wants a change of scenery or when we’re all at different ends of the house and she wants to plant herself centrally to watch the comings and goings.

Why do you look so surprised? You're the one who invited me up here in the first place!

A couple of weeks later, DH was waiting for DD and me to get ready so we could all go out together. He sat in the white wing-back chair and put Daisy on his lap. A few days later, I lost Daisy in the house again. Turns out she was sitting in that chair – watching me run around the house like a nut, calling her name and looking for her – with an expression of total amusement on her face.

That chair has now been added to Daisy’s ever-growing list of home hangouts.

Caught! I'll just freeze here - maybe she'll think I'm a toy....

I'll just sit down slowly and overpower her with my hypnotic stare....

Ah ha ha! I win!

Moral of the story: Give a Havachon one little liberty, and she’ll assume control of the entire house!

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Monday Mischief – An Act of Rebellion

Don’t let her sweetness and cute face fool you – when push comes to shove, Daisy can rebel like a 16 year old teenager.

But I'm so innocent!

We’re getting ready to have our kitchen redone.

The wallpaper has been stripped.

We’re in the process of selecting a cabinet maker (an exhausting task). And then a granite fabricator.

Then DH will paint the walls (I have no clue what color to choose) and tile the backsplash (again, a big blank so far). This is a full-blown p-r-o-j-e-c-t that will take many months of Saturdays.

We got the first estimate a few weeks ago. The company rep came out to the house to measure and give his pitch. Which was laughable, by the way – he’s coming in over $7,000 ABOVE everyone else for lesser-grade materials. :<O

He was here for FOUR HOURS. Daisy absolutely refused to behave, so we had to put her in our bedroom and close the door. I don’t like doing that, but we had no choice. At least it’s a big room and we put all her toys, blankets, and water in there.

After some initial complaints, she finally realized her high-pitched “you-can’t-do-this-to-me” yapping and whining wasn’t getting her anywhere and she quieted down.

So the guy finally left around 5:00 – without, I might add, a signed contract. Nor did he get a call back. But his quote sure is making all the other cabinet makers sound great. And they’re offering us way more for the money.

Anyway, as soon as DH closed the front door behind Mr. Big Bucks, I opened the bedroom door and Daisy tore out, once again underscoring her nickname of The Blur. She sniffed for half an hour – every step the guy had taken, every place he’d stood. It really brought out her Inner Hound.

Everything seemed to go back to normal after that….until….

I walked through the kitchen, through the dining room, down the hall….back up the hall, back through the dining room….and then I saw IT….

Daisy had planted a Poop Bomb right smack in the middle of the doorway between the dining room and kitchen. (I’ll spare you the photo!) She set a trap for me, the little dickens. I think this was her retaliation for being closed in the bedroom for so long.

Oh, so you found my little surprise, did you? Maybe you'll think twice before removing me from all the action!

Next thing you know she’ll be shopping for her clothes at Hot Topic with all the other rebellious teens.

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Meet Big Blue – And We’re Not Talking Football!

Who – or what – is Big Blue? Here, let me introduce you:

Mommy....can I have Big Blue for my own?

Big Blue is Daisy’s new best buddy. When DD was younger, Big Blue was her reading pillow – she’d prop him up in her bed and read in soft luxury.

DD hasn’t used Big Blue in years, so when she was having a clear-out in her room, Big Blue was put on the floor along with a bunch of other things to be donated. A little while later, she saw Daisy snuggled up all comfy and content on Big Blue. So she left him on the floor in her room, and any time we’d go into that area of the house, Daisy would happily run into DD’s room and snuggle up on Big Blue.

Ahhhhhhhh.....cozy....

We didn’t have the heart to donate him – he’d found a new life with our little girl! So now Big Blue sits proudly in front of our sliding glass door (aka Daisy’s Window On The World), where Daisy can snuggle up in warm comfort as she watches the Bird and Squirrel Show outside.

Now I can watch the world in comfort!

Or, she just snoozes away….

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I love it when old things find a new life!

Wordless Wednesday….With an Explanation….

I hesitated when posting this because of the obvious mess on our sofa. But then I thought, My blog buddies are great, they won’t tell the rest of the world. LOL

I threw caution – and embarrassment – to the wind and decided to share this funny photo with you all….with an explanation.

We don’t usually look like this. No, really.

But we do cover the sofa with a sheet when no one’s coming over to protect the fabric from Daisy’s nails (that big light green thing). On this chilly Saturday, we were lounging around with throws and pillows everywhere. That’s the mess you see.

We had no intention of documenting our mess in pictures until we left the room and came back to find little Miss Daisy on TOP of the sofa, where she’s never tried to go before.

Why would she jump up there, you might ask? Because her favorite fake fur blanket was up there, of course! And we all know how much she LOVES piles of pillows and blankets!

But Mom, how else could I reach my favorite blanket??

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October Snowstorm!

Wow, no one was ready for this! A weekend that started out like this:

….suddenly turned into this:

Yes, that’s a crazy snow/sleet mixture coming down in October!  Even the pumpkins didn’t look too happy….

And 4 inches later, ice took over:

Whoever heard of fall leaves frozen in ice?!

And before we knew it, our governor declared a state of emergency. But the last of our tomatoes already had their own emergency:

Snow-topped tomatoes weren't on the menu....

So we all snuggled up inside with cocoa, warm apple cider, games, movies, books, and everything else our hearts desired, especially our little Daisy, who really knows how to make the best out of a freakishly frigid October day:

A Series of Unfortunate Incidents

How is it that being away from blogging for a week feels more like a month?

This time Murphy’s Law didn’t just pay a quick visit, he vacationed here for the whole week.

Just before last weekend, I was supposed to host a birthday luncheon for a very dear friend of mine. The day before the big event, I had all the fixin’s and was ready to go. The flourless chocolate cake was made, cookies were baked, raspberry truffles carefully crafted, and ingredients for the lunch itself were standing at the ready for early prep.

And then I threw my back out.

I had to cancel the luncheon and ended up on the sofa with a heating pad for two days, after which my movements had to be VERY careful for several days. I hate doing nothing, it’s not in my DNA.

But before I even reached the point of full mobility, I had a day-long dizzy spell.

The day after that, I sliced a chunk of skin off my finger while chopping onions. That took two days to stop bleeding. (No, I didn’t go to the ER because I’m needlephobic, and that’s all they seem to want to do there.)

The day after that, I was inexplicably nauseous all day.

I finally rescheduled the luncheon for late in the week, which went perfectly. Everyone had a good time – maybe too good, because they were here for over six hours! It was well into the evening and past most people’s dinner times before they all left.

By Friday, I was well behind on my work, I hadn’t blogged in a week and a half, and I missed all my blogging buddies’ news. Ugh.

But you know what the silver lining is? A couple of my blogging buddies checked to see if I was okay, which really touched my heart. Sometimes I think blogging friends are better “neighbors” than those in our neighborhood, because where I live, it’s pretty much “every man for himself”. If you’re not around for a month, no one notices. If your house burns down, they just want to make sure their own property is undamaged. But just let someone plant a new expensive car in their driveway, and everyone takes note immediately – because they have to run out and get a better one.

When we first moved here years ago, the town was filled with horse farms, it had a small central village settled in the 17th century, and there was our development. There were little farm markets at almost every main intersection and more in between. Now only a couple are left, and the horse farms have given way to bigger and BIGGER developments. And our little development has been taken over by up-and-comers who are just waiting to get their claws into the McMansions. We’re among the last vestiges of the charming town we moved into, and I can’t wait to get out. I have my eye on a small mountain town in PA where one of my editors lives – that’s my prize, if fate allows it.

Anyway (sorry for the digression), all that is to say that my blogging buddies are a wonderful reminder that good neighbors do exist, even if they live miles and miles away. And I appreciate every single one of you every single day.

There's nothing like a soft teddy bear and warm blogging buddies....

Wordless Weekend Wishfulness

But WHY can't I have any??

This One Takes The Cake

No, Daisy didn’t take cake off the table …..not this time, anyway!

Do you hate those unwanted telemarketing calls as much as I do? I have our numbers on the Do Not Call registry, but it expired and even though I re-registered us, some calls are slipping through.

What's up with all these phone calls??

But today I got the best one of all. I picked up the phone to be greeted by that annoying silence where you know the auto-dialer has you in a queue. This is because the telemarketer’s time is more important than yours, you see, and his call to you is SO important that they actually expect you to sit on the line waiting to hear his pitch that will just rock your world.

Because we’ve been having some phone difficulties since the storm, including delayed connections, I waited today. I usually don’t. I had picked up a phone with no Caller ID. (Lesson to self: Never pick up a phone without checking Caller ID first….)

So the guy comes on and says, “Hello. Is this the person to whom I am speaking?”

Seriously???!!! Who else would it be – the person to whom you are NOT speaking?? Isn’t that an old joke from the Milton Berle days??

I guess I should be glad that he understood the use of the word “whom”….

Naughty Mommy!

I can’t believe I did it.
I lost Daisy.
Again.
We all know this happened before, but that time it was because she was somewhere she shouldn’t have been.
This time it was my fault.

I need some comforting after my harrowing experience!

I had gone into the laundry room and closed the door behind me when I left, like usual. It’s not a large room, yet I never noticed that Daisy had quietly followed me in there.

I closed her in the laundry room for what must have been 15 minutes.
Yes I did.

Naughty, naughty mommy.

On my behalf (if there is one), she’s mostly white and the laundry room is all white too. And she can tiptoe around like a phantom when she wants to.

I know, I know, that’s a ridiculous excuse. It didn’t fool my conscience either.

I suddenly realized I hadn’t seen her for a while, so I searched high and low – literally. High being up on the bed and couches, low being underneath the bed and tables.

I searched the whole house twice, calling her name, with no response. In true “mommy” form, I started picturing all kinds of scary scenarios – Daisy lying unconscious, Daisy having choked on something, Daisy with a broken leg after jumping off the couch wrong….you know the drill.

Then it struck me – I’d been in the laundry room. But it didn’t make sense – she didn’t respond when I called to her – no whining, no barking, no scratching at the door – and I didn’t see her in there.

How could you?!

So I opened the door and – POP! – out flew little Daisy, who then turned around and gave me the biggest look of reproval I’ve ever seen from a dog.

I don’t blame her a bit. The laundry room doubles as the “naughty room” when she does something naughty.

Bad mommy. I think I’ll give myself a 30 minute time out….