Reading till my eyes pop

I've been doing a lot of reading as of late. I am not sure why this is, as I've had over a year to read to read to my heart's content, but recently I have had this huge urge to just read, read, read and read some more. I'm staying up till 11 or midnight simply reading. I do not think I have done that since the Harry Potter books came out.

I have read a few library books, one of which was really good. "As the Crow Flies" by Jeffery Archer. My mom got it for me and said she's read all of his books, except his newest one. It is a huge book and I finished it in two days. It would have been one, but I couldn't stay awake any longer. I also read another Mary Queen of Scots book, which I felt went a little better than the other one I'd read, which seemed to make her life heavily romantic, which in all honesty I don't think it was. "Fatel Majesty" by Reay Tannahill was the better of the two. I cannot remember the other one, as it is packed away in some storage unit in the Dirt Hole. The other book was a bit strange, I read it in a day. "The Gossip of the Starlings" I think was the name. It was strange, sort of like the book "Prep."

Due to the fact my dad ordered yet another light for the backyard so we can see Basil Dog the Black Wonder, he also ordered the new Dan Brown book. I've been dying to read "Angels & Demons" since the movie came out, only I had no idea where my copy of the book was. Turns out my Dad ran off with it and it is still in the house. My mom gave it to me saying, "Its in micro print. I can't read it." I had noticed this, as it is a paperback. I also noticed, as I ran off with the hard cover copy of "The Di Vinci Code" they have another one on the shelf in my room. (Which I learned my brother had cleared off for me, only to have my dad invade with all his own books, so I have no room to put things on the shelves.) I am looking forward to reading the new Dan Brown book. More than likely will finish it in a day.

Due to all this reading, I haven't made a purse. I did manage to get all the redo pictures up yesterday and post one. I still need to edit the pictures of the bigger bag and make the one i cut out last week. I am just sort of lackadaisical about sewing thing together at the moment. I have all ready concluded I'm going to basically miss fall, due to this feeling and other things coming up. Oh well. Such is life, right?

gloomy last day of summer

Today is the last day of summer. And here, it is gloomy. Sort of rainy, sort of humid, sort of warm, sort of uncomfortable.

And I am wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt, mostly because there is still a part of me that thinks 82 degrees is cold. Rationally, I know this not to be true, but the Texan in me thinks it is cold.

I retook a bunch of my purse pictures and edited them down to size yesterday when I had access to a working computer with Photoshop. My laptop, known to the world as Jess, is currently in a fued with Photoshop, so they aren't getting along. This is unfortnuate for a wide array of reasons, one being that my husband's laptop, also known as Merv, is dying a slow death. I all ready went through this, I believe but Merv only will deem to work if his battery is removed. The past two days I've been looking for laptops, talking to people and have decided for now to let go of my dream of Mac ownership (well I own one, but Milo Mac is old. He's like nine or something) and buy another Dell. That is if my husband decides to buy one, as of last night he deemed Merv worthy enough to go through phase three of training with him, when he needs a computer to read his pubs (don't ask, no idea what they are exactly in nature.)

Anyways, I've got a teacher sort of bag I will be posting this week. Its a large tote bag, basically. I took its pictures yesterday in the overcast skies in the green house. It turned out okay. I guess we will see...

I have been feeling pretty lazy as of recent. Also regretting not bringing my sewing machine with me, as I think I might do more sewing if I had my own machine and did not have to wait for my mom's machine to be free. Oh, such is life.

it all just got away from tony romo

So today, whilst watching football, I saw a commercial about GM. I had seen the same commercial a few days before, but I had forgotten about it. It is the commercial staring the new CEO of GM.

The first time I saw the commercial, I had to roll it back to make sure I had heard correctly.

I had heard correctly.

Ed Whitcare is the new CEO of GM.

Ed is back, back again, Ed is back tell some friends.

Now, why do I know who Ed is? I know who Ed is because he terrorized my family for awhile. And by terrorize I mean he drove AT&T stock into the ground, expanded the company too fast to the point it was much too large for its own good, and took away all employee benefits or limited them to the point where they were almost pointless. After Ed entered our lives, when SBC bought out Ameritech...it was pretty much all down hill from there. My senior year of college, I randomly decided I could do Ed's job better so I proclaimed I was going to become the CEO of SBC. Or AT&T.

I also concluded Ed as plotting against me, so everything that went wrong in my life, or in the world in general, was Ed's fault. Ed was plotting against the world.

And then he left. He left and left Randy in charge and Randy moved the company to Dallas from San Antonio, where Ed had moved it from St. Louis after Ed was told he couldn't play golf somewhere because he wasn't old school St. Louis. So he went where he was old school, San Antonio. We'll see how long he lasts in Detroit, before GM moves to San Antonio, though the government might not let him do that...

My brother just informed me I'm a week behind in my news. So what? I finally remembered to tell the internet world this random information.

No one cares, so why should you?

What I managed to do yesterday in relation to my current profession:

I cut out a purse and ironed the pieces.

This was all I did due to the fact after I finished I could barely stand to stand. I know that sewing the thing together would have required me to sit down, but I was also sweating a lot, so I figured I should go take a nap and maybe it'd all go away.

For the most part it did go away, other than my sinus headache, which I've had on and off today, so all I've done today is re-take pictures. Which I should go load onto my brother's laptop and cut them down to size and redo all the purses I've recently put up for sale.

Will I do this? More than likely not.

My mom and I ordered some stuff form this scrapbooking place online. I need a new blade for the paper cutter, as the blade on the on I found in the drawer of the room I live in needs a sharper blade. Somehow we managed to order blade scorers, not cutters. Not good. The site doesn't have any blades, just the odd score thing. The rotary cutter my mom ordered wont' cut cloth and barely cuts paper. It totally butchard the picture I tried to cut with it. The dull blade on the paper cutter is better. My dad gave me his old photo paper cutter he had for his dark room, which hasn't been used since 1992, thus its covered in rust and dust and has to be cleaned. It is also huge and I usually scrapbook in my bed. I know, not the best place, but I'm not one of those crazy scrapbookers. I just stick thing on the page in a haphazard way. Then I stick some stickers on sometimes. When I was on my game, I stuck random objects I had saved in the book, but so far that has only worked when I went to Scotland.

I've been doing more research on the whole going to Alaska in the winter thing and am thinking the ferry looks like a really good idea. I'm not sure its such a steller idea for Basil, but then again, she spends roughly maybe 8 hours a day in her crate when not barking, then about 12 at night in there. The 8 hours during the day is of her own free will. We've been closing the door so she won't hang out in there, but she's been super smart and nosing the door open. We try to keep her out of there at night because once she goes in there after she eats, she won't come out to go potty, which is an issue.

I ordered jeans from Victoria Secret. Finally. I got 34s because that was all they had, but I really need 32s to wear flats (or heels....it seems). They are a little long, but they fit. They are a size smaller than all the shorts I ordered because the shorts are all falling down. Least to say, my butt looks nice in the new jeans, especially when I've got my super heels on. I've also been surfing through White House Black Market looking at dresses. I'm not sure who runs their site, as there's always a bunch of dresses that they don't have any or they show up in the size searches when there are none of the dresses. I am confused. Last weekend I went with my dad to the mall and I hit up WHBM to see if they had the dress I wanted in my size. They only had a size 0. My dad told me to just try it on.

And I did.

I got it zipped up all the way till I hit my boobs. The waist fit. The lower hips fit. My boobs were just too big. Seriously, my boobs were too big! I knew they were huge. Well, huger than they used to be. I needed about another two inches of material around the bust area. I was so shocked. I stood there staring at myself wondering what was going on. The other dress I ordered back in teh dirt hole was a six. The boobs were a little big, so I thought I'd need a four. I never ordered it because I didn't like the dress all that well, but this dress I loved. It was gone from online when I went to look later that day. Then it appeared again last night. Only they only had a size 8. Then it was on there this morning only they did not have any sizes. Now it is gone.

Thus I have become obsessive in my search of the site for dresses. They don't seem to have any in a size two, which is what I'd need I think.

I think I might be wasting away. I'm not sure why. I don't have a gym to go to any more and I seem to eat more here simply out of boredom. I'm not sure what is going on.

Well, that is all.

Life getting in order

So, last night I began to read a guide book I got for my husband on Alaska and the highway we must use to get there.

And I freaked out a bit more. I did find the section of traveling with pets helpful, but most of the information is geared to the summer traveler, not those of us insane enough to travel in the winter (which if I had my way we'd wait till MAY to go, but guess what, the military has other ideas. Who tells someone to report to Alaska in February?)

I guess I need to do further research on the topic.

In purse news:

Been working on the fall line. I've got this 5 year old laptop named Jess that I use to run my shop. Jess, recently, decided he hates Photoshop. Thus, it is hard to edit pictures of the purses. This has hindered me greatly in my quest to update the fall line. (What has also hindered me is that I failed to realize the scope of my mother's quilting quest.) The other day I finally asked my dad if it was okay if I used his computer (Dellbert, yes we are strange in my family) to crop and resize my images. I had tried my mom's Mac, but her iPhoto doesn't allow me to resize the image. I can crop it to my heart's content and do everything else, but resizing isn't an option. This makes me sad. But, anyways, so I went up to the office the other day to use the computer. It was off, so I turned it on and then realized the screen wasn't on. There is no clear POWER button. The first one I hit did nothing and I was unwilling to hit more buttons for fear of screwing the screen up and incurring the wrath of Dad. I sat for a moment then realized my brother was at work.

So I picked up my camera and went into my old room, now my brother's Man Cave and room while I live here for the time being. I sat down at his computer and plugged in the camera to the UBS port on his screen.

Nothing happened.

I opened Photoshop (he's got the whole Abode suite. I hate him).

Nothing from the camera.

So I used one of the USB ports on the actual computer and WHALA! It worked.

And I breezed through what I needed to do in half the time it takes me to do the same work on Jess. Man, when you've got a new computer...Photoshop works wonders.

I then took the images back to Jess and spent almost a half hour adding a new purse to my shop. Part of this was due to the fact I forgot to mesure the purses, so I had to go do that, the other is that Jess is old (he's like super old in computer years) and the internet here is sort of whacky at times. You'd think living in a major metro area you'd have good internet, but ours has a mind of its own. The internet in the Dirt Hole got slow around the time work let out and everyone went home to surf the internet, but here it'll do it randomly in the middle of the day.

Anyways, the fall line is up and running. I'm going to expand into teacher bags! Basically large tote bags. I've got all these teacher friends, so I might as well use them. lol. My aunt also suggested I do dialysis bags. She has to go to dialysis regularally and always seems to need a bag for her stuff. Which is a good idea. New market! She said she'd have my uncle email the specs for the right size. I am uber excited. I really want to sell some purses so I can buy more fall cloth. The Hobby Lobby here has the best prints in the world. I see purses everywhere!

Well, I'm going to go be productive today.

I just want to wake up...

Something has been bothering me since I arrived in Chicago. For one, my mother has turned into a news junky, so now I am up on everything going on in our nation and all I can say...is everyone really stupid? Seriously? I understand no one is going to see eye to eye with me, but Obama is a communist? He's fascist? He's going to turn us into a socialist nation? Do any of the people who spout off this crap know what these things are?

Well, no. They do not. Take it from the girl who without meaning to studied communism for four years. I also studied fascism. I'm not too up to speed with what the hell socialism is, but I'm pretty sure we're not going "that" direction.

I think it is somewhat amusing when the right wing movements call Obama fascist. Fascism is a far right political movement. I learned this my first semester of college. Communism is extreme left. What most people call communism isn't actually communism in the least, but some for of dictatorship, which is usually more conservative in a sense than liberal. Political things are always murky, but let's get something straight: Obama isn't going for fascism. Forgetting the fact I concluded by the end of the History of Fascism course I took my freshman year I concluded there was no such thing as Fascism (I also concluded there was no such thing as Federalism too, but that's another story), I do know enough to know we're not heading towards Fascism, nor are we heading towards true communism.

What does "true communism" mean? It is the theory Marx came up with, which inspired those crazy Russians (as well as others at the time.) While communism in theory is great, it'll never work. Seriously, it will never work because, as Frank Zappa said, 'people like to own stuff.' That is why communism won't work: stuff. The thing the Communist were trying to do away with, Capitalism, was the thing that made the whole thing impossable to work: money and stuff. People in these countries still wanted it, the people in charge still wanted stuff and money, thus they got stuck in the dictatorship step for the most part. Because these regimes called themselves communist, we called them such, but they are not communist. There has never been an actual communist regime. China came close (spent three years studying China and they got the closet, they failed, but they got the closet to a true Communist system.) Thus, there are three different sort of communist regimes, all in varying degrees of, well, suckiness. Stalinist is the worst, highly repressive regime. This is the stereotypical sort of regime one things of, where the government goes after people and basically people have no rights or civil liberties. Moaism is, well I am not sure, as I was never really clear what Moaism other than the fact Moa's regime was Moaist. I guess that is the regime that clearly follows the leader and they are more "communist." Titoism is the "nicest" regime. It is where the people have more "freedom" but almost always leads to the regime turning into Stalinist. The Prague Spring is an exam of Titoism gone to pot.

None of these are actually communist. Trust me. National health care won't make us socialist or communist in the least in the sense most people seem to believe. Nor will it make us fascist, as under fascism one's ever move is controlled by the government and rights are repressed. No one's rights will be repressed under what is going on today. It irks me to no end that people are tossing around these political terms without knowing what they actually mean. That is all.

Fascism is an extreme right movement (Obama isn't right in the least) while Communism is the extreme left. No one is Communist because we all like stuff.

Okay, that is really all.

halfway across the world

i have left the dirt hole. I repeat, I have left the dirt hole.

For good.

There was a lot of drama in getting out of the dirt hole, but I am currently living in an area fully of things, people, cars, leaves, green and cold air. Basically, I am in heaven. Summer in the area my family is from hasn't been so summer like, more fall like. Today had a real fall feeling to it, other than the lack of color other than green.

My dog, Miss Basil Dog herself, seems to enjoy it here. She's happy to be surrounded by so many playmates (ie, my family) as well as the cool air. There are lots more things to bark at here than in the dirt hole and a lot more places to run around the house. All in all, she's one happy puppy.

I am still in the process of getting my shop back up and running. It is taking longer than expected for a few reasons. One only being the state paper work to charge sales tax, the other being my Hell Week of Fleeing from The Dirt Hole. I am utterly exhausted and sleeping on an expensive futon mattress my brother managed to dent with his butt.

Yeah, you read that right.

Last night saw me moving to the other side without the dent for the first time and ramming my knee into the wall one too many times, reminding why I slept in the hole for so long.

So, today I moved the bed. No one in my family seemed to believe I had managed to move it on my own. They all think it is heavy. I must be stronger than I know of, as I had little trouble moving it once I started using my legs. Maybe all that time I spent in the gym was worth it?

I am only part way to where I need to be in February, but in the end...hopefully it will all be worth it. Hopefully. Alaska better be pretty.

How I came to Heart Sephora

A couple weeks ago, I was sitting on the floor in the bedroom looking at my makeup. I realized it was all rather old and I ought to go buy new stuff. This did not excite me in the least, due to the fact I live in the Dirt Hole and the only place to get makeup is Wally Martinos. But I needed mascara desperately and I had an major life event coming up, so I put Basil Dog in her crate and went to Martinos.

Two hours later I emerged. Why did I spent four hours in Walmart?

I decided I wanted red lipstick. This was after I spent twenty minutes debating what sort of mascara to get (I am a Max Factor convert now. I used to only wear Almay. Nope, no more.) I ended up getting a soft black color and a brown for everyday use. On my way out, I decided for my outfit for a major event I wanted to wear red lipstick. I had the red shoes, red lipstick would complete the look. So, there went an hour. Seriously, do you know how many red shades are out there?! I had no idea what would look good on me, so I just sort of guessed. I all ready knew that a bright shade would make me look super pale, so I thought something a little lighter or something.

Least to say when I chose was wrong.

After I spent an hour forging for red lipstick, it suddenly occured to me that I'd need a darker shade for an evening event I had to go to, as red wouldn't jive with the dress. I needed a plum shade.

There went another hour.

And that shade looks a little better, but I still don't like it too well. I felt it was slightly tragic that this lipstick buying had gone so horridly wrong, as I sort of needed it for the coming weekend. I ended up wearing the nude color I usually wear, but I figured I'd find something for the other events in Civilization.

Before going to Civlization, I did some research on Red Lipstick. Casey over at Casey's Elegant Musings did a whole tutorial on red lipsticks. Seeing she's got a pale complextion like me, I figured I'd start with her favorites. I sent to Saphora.com to start my search for MAC.

Sephora doesn't sell MAC. However, Sephora ships for free if your order is over 50. That part was easy, as I needed new makeup brushes for the new eye makeup I had ordered from Etsy. (Orglamix, and while I love the staying power of the eyeshadow and blush, I'm still not sure how to get the color to be as intense as her pictures. But this is due to the fact I am an actual novice when it comes to makeup. I have come to realize that when I wear makeup, no one notices. Which can be a good thing, I guess...I told R my story about trying to find mascara, to which she said, "Do you wear mascara?" and I was like, "I have it on now." She stared at me intently, but I am not sure she noticed it or not.) So, after suring around Sephora's website, I came to the conclusion I needed to actually go to the store.

Fast foward two weeks, and I go into Sephora. I've only been in one maybe twice in my life, both times I was imediately asked if I needed help and given a basket if I had anything in my hands.

I stood in the store for at least ten minutes staring at lipsticks. No one spoke to me. I finally began picking up lipsticks and staring at them closer to my face. The testing tubes of lipstick always freak me out (as do most testing makeup things just open to the public), so I just stared. I finally picked two shades out and then some lip liner. I wandered to find the travel kits for brushes and found them. I stood there for a long while and no one spoke to me. I am not sure why this happens to me. When I desperatly want help, no one offers. When I am perfectly happy not having any help, everyone wants to help. (Similar things happened earlier in the day at Oakley, as I stood there for a long while before a salesperson came to my aid.)

I think I stared at the brushes for about fifteen minutes before I finally picked up a kit and was like, "Okay, I think this is what I want." The one I wanted, of course, had no price listed anywhere for it. I figured it was between maybe 32 and 36, so I went to check out. I just stood there, not really paying attention, then it was my turn and a lady checked me out, offered to sign me up for some club, I declined, then I paid. Later, I found out the brushes wer 44 bucks, and I was like, "Well, oh well. Let's hope they are better than Target brushes."

They are. I am not sure, having only used them once, but they are pretty good. I know they are better than the brush I bought at Kohls a month a go. And they are a lot better at putting on my new eye shadow than the old Target brushes. Though, I wish I had gotten the 36 dollar kit, as it came with more eye brushes. It lacked the angled blush brush, but oh well.

However, why I heart Sephora is not for their brushes. Nope. I heart their lipstick. I got two different shades. They were both the same type of lipstick, the Sephora Glamour Lipstick, which is semi-sheer. I got two different shades, the Romantic Rose and the Red Flirt. The Romantic Rose is the perfect sort of nude shade I need on a daily basis, as it is not so nude as it looks like I didn't put any color on, but its not in your face color. And Red Flirt is PERFECT red for me. It is sheer enough that it is not so in your face red that I feel like a clown. And they last pretty long (even after eating), they smell good (I hate the way L'Oreal lipstick smells, gross) and they feel GREAT on. And while 12 bucks a pop is a little more than I would usually spend, I did spend 30 on Dior Addict lip glass two winters and I never wear it because the "new" coral shade they have is all wrong for me. (This was another example when I wanted help and the lady at the Dior counter was like okay, what do you want? Okay, take it and pay get out of my face. I mean, I was standing there telling her that i used to wear this one shade and I had to toss it because of my eye infection and I was in the market for new makeup. She sort of thrust the new coral at me and lip liner and that was all she was willing to do.)

Anyways, after trying out the red shade, I decided I heart Sephora today. The lip liner I got, without aid, is the exact shade of my lips, go figure. It is a little darker, but it looks great with the Romantic Rose lipstick. I didn't try it with the Red, but I can do that later this week.

Moral of the story: If you are in the market for some lipstick, try Sephora. If you are in the market for good brushes, try Sephora. If you need good lipliner, try Sephora. However, if you're in the market for a long lasting, all natural, mineral eyeshadow, try Orglamix. If you want good customer service at any store, don't actually want any when you walk in.

Basil Dog and the Dog Park

Past two posts dog themed....hmmm.

Anyways, Basil Dog went to a dog park this past weekend. I have always figured she'd adore dog parks, as when she used to walk before it began to boil in the dirt hole, she constantly wanted to play and when her two friends would come over, she always wanted to play 24/7. So I thought: Dog Park=Happy Basil Dog.

Nope. I was wrong. Ever so wrong.

My husband and I went shopping in Civilization and left Basil Dog with her all time favorite person (other than us), A. A said he was going to take Basil Dog and Macie to the dog park. Macie usually doesn't like the dog park, but she likes being outside I guess, or something along those lines. So, we left Basil Dog with cranky Macie and A and left.

After we were done shopping (sunglasses, makeup and the biggest JoAnn Fabrics I have EVER been in), my husband called A. At one point he said, "That is when you just gotta throw her in. Pick her up and toss her."

COnfused, I asked, "Is A trying to get Basil to go swimming?"

Our old method to get Basil in the water was to toss her in. Evil, I know, but she liked it, I swear. Her ears would perk up like they do when she's happy.

"No. Basil won't play with the other dogs," my husband informed me.

We set off for the dog park. We arrived to find A sitting at a picnic table in the shade (it was a boiling 100 plus day) and Macie patrolling the area around the picnic table to prevent any other dogs from greeting her person. As we got closer, I came to realize that Basil Dog was sitting under the table at A's feet. She came out when we got near, but as soon as another dog got near, she darted right back under the table. Macie joined her. Upon getting tot he table, I came to realize my former clean dog, was now a dusty mess because she was sitting in an actual dirt hole.

"Did she dig that hole?" my husband asked. He had at first claimed that the reason Basil Dog wasn't playing was the fact she was still wearing her seat belt harness, so he took it off, but she just went right back to cowering in her hole.

"No," A said. "It was sort of there." He looked under the table and went on, "I am pretty sure she's made it deeper since she got in there."

To which, she used her formerally white paws and dug herself a little deeper. Both my husband and I tried to get her to come out and play, but she refused to do this for us. Macie and Basil were the only dog not playing at the dog park and a few times a couple dogs tried to come over and say "Hi" but Macie and Basil wanted nothing to do with these dogs, which were all larger breeds, but that never stopped Basil before....

"Has she had any water?" I asked, notcing the siz eof her tounge.

"I've tried to get the two of them over to the water bowl, but neither will move. Macie has no interest in leaving the table, thus Basil won't move."

My husband used the water bottle I grabbed and poured water on the dogs to lap up. Thus, Basil went from dusty to muddy. After about fifteen minutes, I was soaked through with sweat and wanted to get going. I lured Basil out of the hole and tried to get her into her seat belt harness. The reward I got for this was a bunch of dirt in my face. I later noticed she had managed to get it all over my white shorts, shirt and even down my shirt (I had mud in my bra). A got up and started across the park to the leashes, and oddly, Basil followed him closely. Macie suddenly decided to check out the other dogs, but Basil was having none of it.

I walked Basil back to the parking lot and as we were walking, SHE TRIED TO PLAY WITH A DOG ON THE SIDEWALK. I told her tuff cookies, you are done.

She slept all the way home. Seriously, she was asleep as soon as we loaded her into our car (after we had made a pit stop at A's abode so I could de-dirt/mud myself and allow her to roll around his all ready dusty carpet). She was out cold until we got near the dirt hole and didn't even bark when we drove passed people. She just stared blankly, completely nackered.

Upon reflection of her behavior, I think the heat was an issue. Basil Dog is a Diva when it comes to heat. Remember, she thought it'd be a good idea to just randomly end her walk in the middle of the street because she was too hot and I had to carry her home. She still does this, now usually if I try to walk her she gives up after a block due to heat, thus why I just save us both the trouble and we don't walk outside, we play hard inside now. (which my poor bare legs tell that story) I think maybe when we get to a cooler climate, we will try the dog park again. Maybe, just maybe, next time she won't dig herself into a dirty hole.

my dog eats pillows

Basil Dog seems to like to chew on pillows.

And not just any pillows, mind you, they must be ones she sleeps on in her crate. Outside of the crate, she has no desire to chew on pillows and un-stuff them.

She loves to un-stuff dog toys, but any pillow that goes on the floor or on the couch, she won't touch until it goes to live in her crate. Anything in her crate is fair game. She's chewed up rugs, door mats, and finally pillows.

I used to make her pillows. I used to think it was easier to make them and stuff them myself. She'd chew the corner off and then pull out the stuffing, I'd restuff it, sew it and wash it. After she would decimate the pillow right after I fixed it, she went a few nights with no pillow. She cried, whined and was basically a pain. So I bought her a 9 dollar crate pad at Walmart. She sure as hell did not like that too much, but she never tried to unstuff it.

I bought anti-chew spray and doused it in that. She did not want to go in her crate. She loves her crate usually, she is almost always in there sleeping if she's not staring out the window. Almost like clock work at nine pm, she is in there asleep. After we take her out at night, all we have to say is, "Go to bed, Basil" and she's in there, curled up asleep.

But not with that crate pad. She hated that thing. So, because I am a sucker for my dog, I went to Ross and spent an hour staring at pillows. Most were flimsy and I knew she'd chew right through. Finally, I settled for a 7 dollar circual pillow that was too small for Basil Dog, but was made out of the toughest material Ross was offering.

I can't remember how many months ago I bought that pillow, but the fact it was cicular seemed to stop the Master of Pillow Destruction. I always tried to remember to put her bone or something in with her at night to prevent the temptation to unstuff, but I guess she doesn't care. The bone was in there last night with her and she chose to decimate the pillow.

I did not notice when I first let her out, but at some point in the morning, I noticed green stuffing everywhere. I found her pillow with a huge hole in it and the plastic tag that was the name of the brand was in pieces all over the crate. I yelled at her, took the pillow out and brandished it in her face. Her ears fell, and she went into the crate. (When you yell BAD DOG at her she goes to her crate for timeout. I used to have to drag her there, but recently I simply yell BAD DOG and she goes. and looks pathedic while she sit there waiting for you to close the door.) She spent an hour or so in there (mostly because I forgot she was in till I went to get dressed and she wasn't there). She came out and was still acting like a repentant puppy, till my husband came home and she began jumping on us and I yelled BAD DOG again and she went in there again, looking pathedic. (We are trying to get her to NOT jump on us, we usually end up looking like mauled animals now that it is summer. We have been trying to do this since we got her 8 months ago, but she is still having issues.)

I think she knows she's pissed me off, though, as she's been looking pathedic all day, even when my husband is around. She stares at me with her pethdic puppy dog look, but it doesn't work on me. She is a bad girl, she should not chew on her pillow. I guess she finally forgot what happened the last time she chewed up her pillow.