Kunoichi: Doggie Ninja

I probably haven’t written too much lately. What can I say, I’ve been busy. I made a new cosplay site, got stuck in Nashville’s flood and bought an embroidery machine. The embroidery machine has really taken me away from the general sewing because I keep wanting to use it and there’s just not enough hours in the day.

So since I’ve done a few things now, I figured I would show off my progress!

My first attempt was a set of dragon wings. The first one worked with no problems. But the bobbin thread ran out and I didn’t catch it like I should have on the second. So instead, I just act like I only made one! (Shh..don’t tell.) Lesson #1: pay really close attention.

Next up was a simpler design with some lettering for Sharon’s shower. Ran out of bobbin thread on the “us” portion of the word. I caught it, but I didn’t know how to fix it. Last time it ran out at the start of a color and I figured out how to go back to that. So off to hancock’s I went for more learning.

Tuesday I fixed the towel for Sharon and caught up with tv (well, some of it). But Wednesday was the big project.

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Those are not meant to sound linked, although they could be.

In Ichi news, she would NOT go in her kennel this morning. So she stayed in my room. I checked on her at lunch (and put her in her kennel) and she was sound asleep in my bed. No damage (that I’ve yet to find). That bumps her up to 4 hours by herself in the house that she can stay. I frequently leave her in the house while I go grocery shopping these days. It’s just getting too hot. If she’s not going to destroy things, I have no problem with her being inside.

And while the vet doesn’t like her being on my bed at all, she seems to recognize that it’s mine. Every night she gets off it so I can get in, get settled and then she MIGHT hop back on. Increasingly, she’s sleeping in her own bed. Most days she starts sleeping in her own bed and I wake up with extra weight on my legs (she likes to rest her head there).

Click for more information on MY NEW SEWING MACHINE.

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So, I have kind of slacked on this. But for relatively good reasons. Be they taxes, new sites coming up, helping friends with their sites and projects, redoing an armoir and convention season kicking off.

So after the jump I’ll go through some of it.

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Huntsville is on it’s 3rd straight day of snow on the ground. It melts, then it snows a little again. I think most is actually melted this time but the sunny skies have turned all snow-cloud again. Most of us are really unhappy about it as it’s just 1/2 an inch to an inch every time. Just enough to be dangerous, not enough to play in. Even the weatherman sounded sad last night.

But I thought I would share some pictures of the latest bout and Ichi finding out why the Shiba 500 is not a good idea in snow and ice. You can’t tell from the pictures, but the patio was like a big sheet of ice as was the side walks. Even Ichi is getting tired of the snow, I think. She wanted to come inside and sleep in the nice warm house.

No video yet (although it’s loaded, just not in a very convienent form). But here is Ichi around the time she started SHIVERING. That’s what happens when you decide to lick all the snow off the ground (pictures offered as proof of my weirdo dog).

She did indeed have fun and despite the record low temperatures, demanded to go outside with siginificantly irregular frequency. And then I would have to bribe her to come back in. She particularly enjoyed running back and forth across the patio because it kicked up snow as she turned. No snowball fight this time. It was too cold for me to stay outside much.

I do have more frozen pipes (laundry room) and I figured out why (they are exposed!). Ichi has thoroughly enjoyed being an exclusively inside dog this week due to the freezing temperatures. We are supposed to go up to 47 degrees today! Yesterday we got barely above freezing for the first time all year.

There is still snow in my driveway and the pool is still frozen over (or at least it was this morning). When I drove to work there were still patches of snow on the edges of the road. So, it’s been an adventure. Didn’t get as much snow as we though but did get plenty of icy roads.

Since we are supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow tomorrow, flurrying through Saturday, I was reminded that I never posted the pictures from the LAST time it snowed. It was the weekend before my birthday and I awoke to snow, so Ichi and I went out and played.

For all your northern folk, though I was able to get out on the roads by noon to go grocery shopping, this was enough to close the interstate and other major roads (like Memorial Parkway). Needless to say, they are already prepping those two to be closed for the rest of the week.

And if you are wondering how Ichi did on her first instance of snow sans leash, she had a great time. First there was the attacking, then the investigating. All day she tried to figure out what the wet stuff was. ANd I threw snowballs at her which she quickly learned to duck (and then eat). So I look forward to my pup getting to really enjoy the snow this time. I’ll remember to video tape it.

In other wintery news: I dealt with my first instance of pipes freezing on Sunday. Luckily they never burst and I got them working about 3 hours after I discovered it. It’s been below freezing for the entire week so far, so my pipes since then have been dripping. Ichi’s been very much so an inside dog all week.

In true Alabama Snow style, I already have bread and disliking milk, I opted for Coca-Cola. I can snuggle up to Ichi for warmth.

Lastly, HOOK ‘EM HORNS!

In case you were wondering what I might like, I made you some lists. These work for Christmas too (afterall, there’s all of a 2 week delay on that).

Christmas/Birthday list

Buy My Love (I’ll explain the name momentarily)

Blu-rays

And if you just want to get Ichi something, I made her a list too. Be forewarned, I’m probably getting the bubble machine for her this year along with a set of bubbles. And she actually already has the sushi set, but I left it there because it’s awesome and people should see how awesome it is. (And she’s so cute playing with it.

So…the buy my love wishlist. It’s a bit different than the other two you’ll note. It’s mostly toys. See, I figure, who ever in my life screws up bad enough to warrant flowers, well, buy me flowers and a toy. WHY? Because I’m just a wee bit ADD at times, so I’m likely to be all “what did you do…OOOOOO…YOU GOT ME AN OOD!” I might come back to your mistake eventually, but I might be too busy playing with my new Ood toy and taking pictures to make a comic where the Ood and my Cylon discuss being slaves. But I figured, it’s not a bad thing to get toys at Christmas, right? I swear I’m turning 28, not 10. I promise, even though I totally wanted a bouncy house birthday party (I decided to start celebrating my birthday as if it was the birthday that the digits add up to next year). This year: VEGAS BABY. And Huntsvegas and Hotlanta. Yes, I’m having 3 parties and it shall be amazing.

Finally, I took a bunch of Christmas pics of Ichi when I went to take pictures of the new house all gussied up. She did a great job of lying down and sitting on command, but I had a bit of trouble (as we always do) with “stay”. And then I figured out the secret to taking pictures of her and getting her to look in the correct direction: put a treat in the hand with the camera. She’ll look the camera all day long.

So, for years I’ve been proclaiming “Baby It’s Cold Outside” to be the creepiest Christmas song. When you take away the lovely voice of Dean Martin or the cuteness of Elf, you get a song about a girl on a date who wants to leave. She’s making every excuse she can to leave. “My mother will start to worry.” Meanwhile, the man in the song is continuously trying to get her to just have another drink. All the while he’s telling her how pretty she is. The lyrics include “the answer is no”. (Anyone else get a “no means no” feeling from that line.)

Take the lyrics and attach them to a pretty girl and a creepy guy who keeps edging closer and closer (“mind if I move in closer”), making awkward comments about her hair. Then she says the line “hey what’s in this drink?”. I can absolutely imagine a stalker saying “how could you do this thing to me”.

With that in mind, do you still think it’s a romantic song? Yeah, me neither. Under the cut I’ll discuss the song I realize this year is not being used appropriately: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

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At first, Ichi seemed to really love her yard. Picture to the left as proof. Much running was done along with much fetching. There’s still fetch, there’s still running…but we’ve now begun to really find our nemesis: rain.

I should mention…Ichi is not scared of thunder or lightning. Or fireworks as we moved in shortly before the 4th. But, like most Shibas, we’re not exactly okay with water. Rain is just a lot of water that’s not really predictable.

Ichi has thus stayed almost always on the patio. It’s like she thinks of the grass as a very large bathroom, instead of a play pen. You have no idea how much begging I had to do to get her into the grass for the picture. If the ball goes into the grass, she hesitates and often decides not to go get it.

Well it’s been particularly rainy this week. Like every day, flash flood warnings, whole shebang. Naturally, this meant a lot of howling. Because Ichi must think that howling at the rain as it falls from the sky will stop it (she looks up as she does it). So we’ve worn our no-bark collar a LOT more. And we’ve been brought inside more (probably the real reason for the howling).

Last night I knew that I would have to bring her inside for the night or risk angry neighbors as the weather man said major storms. So at 11pm, I went to get her, figuring there would be some tv/petting time first. NOPE. She ran STRAIGHT to my room and under my bed, no-bark collar still on (what do you call a dog that is a scaredy cat?). Normally she comes out when she realizes I’m not trying to get her out. Not this time. When I realized that she probably would not come out before I wanted to sleep, I cleared the floor (easy in a new house) and made sure each door was securely closed.

Sure enough, I was awakened at 5am to a little scuffle sound that was Ichi waking up and getting out of “bed”. I patted the top of my bed and up she came (although from the other side, she’s quick!). I put an arm securely over her and held onto her until she was comfortable. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep. Imagine my surprise to find Ichi still on the bed when the alarm went off.

So now that we have a yard and don’t have to sleep in the house, we are well behaved enough to actually fall asleep and somewhat stay asleep on the bed next to me. This will not be an every night thing, but it’s nice to know that if I’m feeling a little depressed I can now fall asleep next to something cute, soft and furry. To be awakened to a lick in the face (yep that happened…a lot).

I may not always be the best at taking an active role in my own life. But I’m getting quite tired of all the pick-a-little, talk-a-little about our government. People, listen to me: it does not matter how many times you tell your friends how much you despise the current political climate and how you feel it’s just digging a deeper hole. I have no more authority than you do and neither do most of your friends. Therefore, I emplore you: stop complaining and DO SOMETHING. Tell someone that can do something about it.

Dislike universal health care: tell your congressman or senator! We have evolved into a culture with almost instant access to our elected officials. Most of them have twitter now. Yes, the president has twitter.

So, I did some digging for you. I’m making this really easy for you. Here’s how to get in touch with anyone from the state of Alabama on up. Read the rest of this entry »