Dogblog: Clyde owes it all to clean living

Clyde got a pretty, brand-spanking-new collar a couple of weeks ago, purchased from our favorite boutique. But before he could wear it, he needed to clean up and get rid of that ring-around-the collar that the old collar had left behind.

Of course, this means bee-ay-tee-aytch. We didn't take him to the vet's office for it, this time. Grammaw was feeling bold enough to do it herself. And Clyde, swell feller that he is, didn't give her a hard time. He climbed into the tub without having to be lifted or any such, and received his waterdogging like a good victim.





There goes that dingy grey! And one doggy's dignity, with it!


Not sure how much more he can take...


Ah, I see... bumping up the temperature a little makes a difference.

And then it was all over, and he got a bunch of yummy treats (which he promptly accepted and then hid from the rest of us).


If this wasn't enough clean-living animal for you, don't forget to visit Modulator's Friday Ark.

Bad package design alert

While preparing to clean up a cooking mess in my mother's kitchen the other day, I noticed a container on her counter. Said container held a roll of chemically-soaked sheets designed for cleaning glass, aptly named "Power-X Glass Wipes." (I think Mom bought them at our favorite boutique.) Somebody, however, seems to have done not so well with the design and layout of text on this canister:
I'm thinking a little judicious rearranging of the "Wipes" would save me from another fit of the giggles.

No complaints here

How odd it is that, on a day when I'm not feeling particularly grumpy about my existence, when I have yet to see the local newspaper and have it make me angry at the waste of trees (or whatever)... in short, on a day when I feel pretty good about life in general, I replay the recording of one of this week's Tonight Show programs with Jay Leno, in which he mentions a study indicating we're the fattest country on the planet.

Funny, the study I saw indicated we were only #9 (behind 8 very small countries, though). Not that it's anything to write home about, either way. But Leno said this as if it were a bad thing.

You know what? I'm with the commenters at Dr. Helen's blog, yesterday. In fact, it sort of falls into the category of the post itself: What's right with the world? What's right is that we have conditions such that large swaths of the population of the planet are fat.

There is a surplus of food -- and yummy fattening foods, at that (we don't just have a glut of gruel -- stuff of all sorts, all flavors and colors and ethnic hues comes to our stores and tables daily). We have so much extra that tons of it go to our landfills daily, unconsumed during its long shelf life.

Work, too, for so many, is not back-breaking labor which burns away every last calorie one consumes. Along with the less physically demanding job comes the leisure time thing, where we can pay a few pence, as it were, to have somebody else entertain us, either in person at a theater/arena or remotely via idiot box/internet/cinema.

By modern Western standards I am impoverished, and, yet, I have a roof over my head, access to all manner of information and entertainment, and daily access to a nutritious diet including fresh/frozen/dried produce from all over the world, clean fresh meats and dairy products, and an extraordinarily wide variety of grains (both processed and whole), as well as a more-than-healthy share of desserts. What an amazing problem -- to be seen as poor and yet overfed!

So what if I may die younger than others, from having been too sedentary (not entirely by choice) and from enjoying the occasional funnel cake or Texas sheet cake brownie? It's better than a long, miserable, hardscrabble existence for a square of weevil-filled hardtack or a bowl of grey porridge.

At least I've been able to taste life. And, by cracky, at my table it's good!

Tuesday Tummy #7

Somebody needs to be smacked.

But it's not either of these two.


It's the person who thought there was something going on here other than simple kitty rasslin'.

Somebody has a dirty mind.

Go study more clean living animals, at Modulator's Friday Ark, or over at the CotC. And, shame on you. ;-)

Why is Pontiac's face red?

Hood Ornaments and Details from Cruise Night 2007

Pontiac is blushing beneath that silvery arc. Why? Because the owner of that car has put some

unusual covers over the headlamps and bumper.

He's a little embarrassed. Look the other way.

Now, he's just a little blue.

Making a few bird calls

Red-eye flights

Flying hound?

I could have had a V-8!

The speed round

and Round and Round

and then on to next year...

Here in my car

Here are some more highlights from Monmouth's Cruise Night 2007.


Blue sky, white clouds,
sky blue, powder blue

To all the grills I've loved before

Stately, not-so-sedately,

What, this old Thing?

Muscles, muscles...

muscles.

Unsafe at any speed my hindquarters...

Workhorse v. stallions

and other Beasts

Well, they said his name is Diesel... that should count for something!

Don't you go gettin'

all up in his grill, now...

you don't want to make him angry.

More to come. Mostly fine details.

Highway Stars

There were plenty of highway stars on Main Street in Monmouth, IL, last night.
The weather couldn't have been more appropriate -- a little bit steamy, but not too hot for the family to come out. I liked the big blue sky more than I liked the big, thick mob, though. Still there was plenty to see, and room to see it.

They had everything
from your granddad's tin Lizzies


to the predatory rays, and just about everything in between the two ages and philosophies of transportation. I took roughly 200 pics, kept a few dozen, and will post only a few, but suffice it to say, there were about 2,000 cars and motorcycles in town for the event, plus a number of vendors swerving up (wink wink) hot dogs, hamburgers, pulled pork sandwiches, funnel cakes, ice cream cones, sodas, and countless other edible treats.

But the biggest treats will always be the cars (click on an image for larger version).

Exsailorette's brother brought some of his finest toys, too. This DeLorean is downright famous, now.

In case of rain,
we could flip this puppy's hood upside down and paddle home... or just
muscle our way through

La Femme: the only car ever designed exclusively for the ladies.


I guess I'm not lady enough. I'd rather have this sweet little thang...
or this:

or even this:
Cute, no?


Oh, hey! Check out this one! It's for sale!


Wouldn't you want your teen-aged daughter's first car date to show up in this? Not sure if this won any awards, but I'd give it a "kitschiest ever" trophy, if I could find a trophy tacky enough...

Really, the prizes are the cars themselves.

If you look closely, you will be able to read what is printed in the rear window....

Aren't we all?


More to come...