Operation DingleCane!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Because of the extreme weather where my sister lives, she has been confined to her house for four days and has been going insane.  Not that I think that is a very long trip for her, but she is bored and on the fourth day decided to paint her bedroom.  She told me she asked herself, “What does Laurie do all day to stay busy?” and then added that maybe it was because I had dogs that I didn’t get bored.  It got me thinking that maybe I am simple like I just described Vern, but I swear I do more than sit at the fence all day hoping to catch a glimpse of the neighbor’s cat.  Yet, the question still remains…what do I do all day to stay busy? 

 

I used to be such a go-getter. When I think of all the things I used to accomplish in one day, in addition to working, it makes my head spin. I was the queen of multitasking and I could vacuum my house while writing out party invitations for one of the girl’s birthday parties.  My house was spotless, my kids reasonably well fed, homework got done, and the dog got walked.  My mom would come for a visit and call me a Whirling Dervish and now, at best, I am a Spurting Dervish. I will have a spurt of energy, accomplish something, and go back to wondering how it got to be 5:00 pm and time to think of another excuse why I couldn’t make dinner.  The other night John got home from work and I told him we had to go to Subway because I didn’t have time to cook that day and proudly showed him my long johns creation I had come up with, all by myself, which consisted of wearing the pajamas he had last seen me in that morning, under my clothes. 

 

It is not that I don’t do a lot each day, but I can’t really tell you what I do.  Lately, I have been putting away Christmas and somehow, by putting up less stuff this year, have ended up with more stuff than boxes when trying to put it all away.  If I didn’t know better, I would think my new Gingerbread smoker got together with one of my Jim Shore Santas and multiplied over the holidays.  I used to be so organized and now, I fully expect to find my reading glasses or half of a sandwich next year in one of my poorly packed Christmas boxes.  Why else doesn’t everything fit back in the same boxes? Yesterday, I thought I was finally done and looked up to see four Santas, my Believe blocks, and my HoHoHo blocks looking down at me from a nook in my foyer.  I didn’t feel so HoHoHoing after I saw them, and I Believe they may stay up there through Valentine’s Day. If John would give up his space in the garage, I would start saran wrapping the Christmas trees at the end of the season and put them away like that, so next year all I would have to do is unwrap them and set them up.

 

Actually, I can account for part of my days and my sister is right about the dogs taking up my time.  In addition to two long walks each day, since I have taken up Photography, I spend a lot of the time photographing them. Right now I am in the middle of what I like to call Operation DingleCane, which at one point involved candy canes and my dogs, and has been a great deal of work and caused me much frustration. I follow several dog photographers on Facebook and loved a candy cane shot one of them did with a dog.  The shot showed the dog looking up through the candy canes with some beautiful bokeh lights all around him.  Since I don’t have a studio, I pushed all the furniture aside in my sunroom, had John help me bring in an outside swing, which only required him to take off three sliding glass doors to get the thing to fit, and hung a backdrop.  John has learned years ago that it is just easier to go along with my cockamamie ideas than to try and explain that a) he doesn’t want to be involved and b) the idea is stupid.  He knows I am “learn by doing” kind of gal and it may be a stupid idea that has no chance in hell of working, but until I give it a go I will not admit defeat.  So, I enlisted Hayley’s help in unwrapping all the candy canes and got on my high horse when Hayley said John had told her the candy canes did not need to be unwrapped and admonished her for taking the advice of a novice over a creative genius, aka her mom, who just happened to see this idea on Facebook.  Well, we unwrapped the candy canes and hung them from the swing and encountered our first problem when Vern began licking them. Since I have never seen anyone in the Food Group mention crushed up candy canes as approved kibble toppers, I kept telling Vern to stop.  He did stop, but only when he thought I wasn’t looking.

Candy Canes!

The Candy Cane Bandit!

Next, the dogs decided that all this hanging and swinging stuff was fun to run through as they wrestled their way out the door and before you know it, I had some broken candy canes. Unfortunately, in my quest for my masterpiece, I missed one of the candy cane parts on the carpet and I now have a stain that I have been unable to get out.  A lesser artist would have called it a day, but I persisted and placed Vern in the middle of all this chaos only to have him stand up and turn around and unknowingly show off a candy cane stuck to his rear end. 

Fudge walked through the photo shoot several times and each time ended up with a candy cane stuck to her, too.  I blame it all on the fact that I did not anticipate Vern’s licking, but John said it had to do with humidity and if I had listened to him and not shrugged off his advice with the words, “this is boring and stupid,” I would have known to leave the wrappers on.  Well, hindsight is 20/20 and after Hayley said, “Mom, you have a candy cane stuck to your back,” and later mentioned that most of the candy canes were covered in dog hair, I decided to cut them all down and declare Operation DingleCane an epic fail.

 

I tried to explain the whole thing to my mother and between saying she thought I had a screw loose and she would never understand anyone with this mentality, I couldn’t help but wonder if Picasso had to put up with all this negativity from his mom.  What’s with the goofy eyes? It’s like you have a screw loose! 

Meanwhile, my sister can paint her bedroom and someone else can have a spotless house, I have dogs to photograph and other things to do equally important.  Just don’t ask me at the end of the day what I did all day, because I might not be able to tell you, but I know it was worthwhile. Oh, and I promise, it will never be painting my bedroom.

If all else fails with your dogs, force your DD to get involved!

Can she still see me?  Tell me when she is gone!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Oh dear, we do not need to give Laurie more ideas.

[Leslie and Halas]

I don't understand how candy canes were stuck to everyone and everything, yet you don't have any pictures of THAT. I think that alone would be a great photo theme. For that matter, why stop at candy canes? You could do an entire photo essay called, "Things That Stick To My Dogs."

[Bonnie and Kona]

OMD!!! I had to read this aloud to my DD. We are both rolling on the floor laughing! 

I am so very sorry to tell you that you mention two things in your blog that happened to my parents. I need to add  that they both have a measure of dementia. I am not being unkind, this is a confirmed diagnosis from geriatric psychiatrists. Uh um... Dad sometimes wears his pajamas under his clothes. Soooo.... I'm just wondering. In addition, my mother wrapped her Christmas tree in plastic and put it in the basement fully decorated last year. Again, I'm am very concerned and wonder if you need to check in with your doctor sometime soon, dear. Love your blogs, worrying about how you are spending your time. xoxoxoxo I know you have experience with working with the elderly. It's also very difficult to diagnose oneself in these matters. Just sayin'

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Camilla, What was I thinking? That would have been the money shot :)

Elizabeth, Fishing line is what I used to hang those candy canes. LOL

[Elizabeth, Bailey & Bruin]

OMD..  Poor doodles and DD! LOL  I am the same way.  I can have 4 days off in a row and get nothing accomplished  but was busy all day!!

 BTW what did you hang the candy canes from? 

[Camilla and Darwin]

LOL, love this whole thing! Oh the adventures of setting up a photo shoot. :-) I too wish you had gotten a picture of Vern with the candy cane on his butt. LOL

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Thanks, Lori. Maybe that is her "get lost" face :) LOL You are a trickling dervish :)

Jane, Nancy and Georgia Brown told me today most of the picture I was trying to copy was done post production. LOL Meanwhile, I learned a lot :) One way or the other, I am going to get it.

Karen, By that time, I had probably thrown the camera :) LOL

Thanks, Gina!

F, Thank you! Yes, I do attempt totally useless stuff :) LOL My clothes are piled on my dresser and I don't even have the excuse of having a broken drawer :)

[F, Calla & Luca]

I love that last photo of Fudge. At least you attempt projects, I don't even bother. well, I did glue a drawer that was coming apart and I may even put the clothes back in it tonight. but here we mostly watch the grass not growing. I can think of millions, well a few, of things you do that I don't, like baking, shopping and holiday decorating. Downton Abbey must fill my time and rumor has it tomorrow we are going--shhh--to a museum.

[GBK]

Funny, your DD has the same look as Fudge LOL  Great blog, totally enjoyed it!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I cannot believe you didn't get a photo of the candy cane stuck to Vern's butt!!!! What a great December page that would have been in the 2015 DK calendar! 

PS: I'm going to go research using crushed up candy canes as a kibble topper. :)