Thursday, August 26, 2010

Oy Vey!

This dog!
Oy is an apple-headed mini chihuahua. His parents both weighed four pounds. Originally bought to give my daughter something to do so that my house wouldn't host a party worthy of a John Hughes movie while we were away on vacation, she named him Oy, for Oy of Midworld, a billy bumbler in Stephen King's Gunslinger series.

House-training is going slowly, mostly due to the resistance to crating him at night. He loves to sleep with Harris, so I let him.
In the mornings, he jumps up on my bed and snuggles in for another few minutes, until I get up and let him out.
But between Harrison's bed and mine, he apparently makes several 'pit stops', because by the time I get upstairs, there's Oy poo all over the place!

Another strange thing this dog does is eat anything and everything.
Grapes, green beans, cheese-its, fizzy skittles, cereal, corn on the cob, apple cores, twizzlers, popcorn... if it can be dropped on the floor, he will eat it. I recently learned just how crazy his diet is when he walked across the front porch to the tomato plants, picked a ripe tomato off the vine, and ate every bit, including the stem. I'd never seen a dog pick and eat a tomato bigger than his head before. Half an hour later, he had a steel food can. It was the tomato paste can from dinner- roasted garlic and basil flavor. He stuck his head into the can and licked out every molecule of tomato paste. He made a job of it, until he was sure it was all gone.
Tomato paste!
What dog has a tomato deficiency?

Living with Oy is like having a poltergeist in the house. He will drag one shoe from each pair to a different room, even to a different floor of the house.
In each room, you can find a collection of one shoe, from several pair.
"Where's my other shoe?"
"Well, where did you find that one?"
"By the door, but there's only one."
"Well, shoes don't just walk off by themselves, Honey."
Yeah... except sometimes they really do.

Oy makes a game of going into my room, the laundry room, any room with a hamper or dirty clothes pile, and dragging any and all unmentionables into the living room/ hallway. The more embarrassing the item is, the closer to the front door it will be found. If we cheat him out of his fun by washing our underwear, he will drag the closest thing, sometimes even a pair of Ron's jeans, into the next room.

Oy is a helpful dog. He goes under all our furniture and drags out any toys, odd socks, old magazines, used tissues (which he immediately shreds into confetti), often right before we get company. Of course, any old rotten food he finds is promptly eaten, and then brought back up in the presence of our guests.

Oy also loves Pikachu. I mean, he loves Pikachu. He stalks Pikachu. Sneaks up behind him... and pounces! He doesn't just enjoy quiet time with Pikachu, he goes into my daughter's bedroom and pulls the Pikachu slipper down the hall into the living room, to make a spectacle of his love for Pikachu.
What is it about Pikachu?
I think it's the ears.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Thematikos

Each year we do a family portrait.
I like to go with themes, or at least color schemes.
We've done black and white,

black and red,

pink and brown
(that was the year our family portrait featured me lying on my bed, drunk, and laughing).

We've done "dead"

And "Steampunk"

This year, I asked folks for ideas and here's what came of it:

Lisa Staubly is taking theme ideas for this year's Family Portrait.

August 10 at 2:07pm · ·
    • Jackie Snider I think you should all dress like babies. full on with diapers and binkies. haha.. hahahahahahaha. I just pictures that. It was a joke, but now I'm SUPER serious!
      August 10 at 2:11pm · ·
    • Beth Thompson Mardi Gras with clothes. Or French courtiers. Or Arabian nights. How about going all Antony and Cleopatra?
      August 10 at 2:14pm · ·
    • Lisa Staubly Arden suggested "Hippies".
      August 10 at 2:14pm · ·
    • Jackie Snider full on rednecks. with overalls and pitch forks and shotguns. sitting on hay. I wanna be able to smell manure through the picture.
      August 10 at 2:15pm · ·
    • Beth Thompson Hippies are cool, but you won't get to wear a bustier. Just sayin'.

    • Tiffany Staggs Leprechauns.
      August 10 at 2:17pm · ·
    • Lynda England Bustilloz Clue, everyone's holding a prop ....rope..wrench... behind another one's back.
      August 10 at 2:19pm · ·
    • Jackie Snider Mega Gangstas. Grills, ice, baggy pants, do-rags. hah...hahaha. I'm having too much fun picturing these...
      August 10 at 2:19pm · ·
    • Lynda England Bustilloz Conservatives.
      August 10 at 2:20pm · ·
    • Lisa Staubly
      Arden also suggested The Addams Family, and Zombies.

    • Frederick Hartman Famous murderers (Gacey, Dahmer, Manson, etc.) Go hardcore
      August 10 at 2:37pm · ·
    • Barry Boatright Playing off jackies idea: Gangstas but in the real way, Black and white suits, Nice shoes, Tommy guns, Fedoras. The girls can be in bright dresses with period era things, Like Flowers in their hair.
      August 10 at 2:37pm · · 1 person ·
    • Barry Boatright And for arden, Band geeks, So she can carry a tuba!
      August 10 at 2:38pm · ·
    • Lynda England Bustilloz I like the band geeks idea. esp if someone is playing comb and tissue paper.
      August 10 at 2:56pm · ·
    • Lindsey Boken Put me in ittt!!! (:
      August 10 at 3:03pm · ·
    • Sadie Staubly Rainbow or zombies. There are no other options!
      August 10 at 3:04pm · ·
    • Darren Culp Wild West. Cowboys, guns, poker table, dance hall girls, piano player, bartender.
      August 10 at 4:12pm · ·
    • Ron Staubly How about nerds/geeks or Greasers...? American gothic as a scaled-down red neck (pink neck?). I like the hippie theme too.
      August 10 at 4:42pm · ·
    • Dana Deonier Rohrbaugh I like the conservatives idea. let's refine it-- Eagle Forum. dare ya!
      August 10 at 8:16pm · ·
    • Dana Deonier Rohrbaugh of course I don't understand why it can't always be SteamPunk. seriously- it just doesn't get any better than that.
      August 10 at 8:17pm · ·
    • Margaret Mattson
      If not Steam Punk, then why not Daft Punk?

      http://www.last.fm/music/Daft+Punk/+images

      Because nothing says "The Staublys" like robots and electronic dance music! Seriously, though, you won't have to worry about who looks good or not if you a...See More
      August 10 at 9:01pm · · 1 person ·
    • Julie Rea The Sound Of Music....when they are dressed in the curtains.
      August 10 at 10:41pm · · 1 person ·
    • Dana Deonier Rohrbaugh Oh wow- Julie's idea FTW!
      August 10 at 10:44pm · · 1 person ·
    • Dana Deonier Rohrbaugh Ron in Lederhosen!!! (sorry Harrison, you too)
      August 11 at 11:52am · ·
    • Dana Deonier Rohrbaugh and your stacked self in a dirndl? yes.
      August 11 at 11:56am · ·
    • Sadie Staubly if it were really a hippie thing, we could wear whatever we wanted, cause that's the whole point of being a hippie. i don't like my people being exploited. haha. but i like the classic gangster idea a lot. :D
      August 11 at 5:59pm · ·
    • Lisa Staubly Let's not pick any theme that involves bra-burning.
      August 11 at 8:59pm · ·
    • Dana Deonier Rohrbaugh go with the dirndl- it's like laying them on a shelf. lol

The trouble came when family members thought that they had an equal vote, and even veto power. I quickly reminded them that if it weren't for me, there would never be a family portrait, and that I will consider all suggestions, they should not make the mistake of thinking this was a democracy.
Personally, I love the idea of zoot suits and gangsters, but my husband had problems imagining it as a family portrait. He wants to simply don a tie-dye t-shirt and a bandanna and pass for a hippie. I'm imagining something similar to a 70's record album...