i'm the stinky girl

how was your weekend?  good, i hope!  chris and i had a date night on sunday; we finally went to see dark shadows, had a nice dinner out, and ended the night with... a freakin skunk.  i feel like i could so easily go worse-than-sailor-mouth with this because i'm so mad at kona i could scream, but i'm afraid you might not like me anymore (except caitlin who would probably love me more)!

at midnight, right before i went to bed, i let kona outside to use the bathroom (and left the front door open), went to the kitchen to get something to drink, and started hearing this awful hissing-type noise at the door.  i just knew that kona had cornered some wild snake or critter on the front porch, and that i'd have to go out and try not to get attacked.  but when i went to the door, i noticed kona was making that noise, like he was trying to get something out of his nose and mouth, and he was drooling like you've never seen.  then, it hit me - like i was punched in the face by the incredible hulk - and i thought i'd puke.  the skunk juice, sprayed right by the front porch, was without a doubt the strongest, most disgusting, burning smell i've ever had the misfortune of inhaling.  within seconds each room of the house smelled so bad and so strong, that our throats and noses were burning even without inhaling.  so we hurried as best we could to get together our pillows, blankets, and flojo, and run out to the camper where our respiratory systems could relax for the night.

i was so mad a kona i couldn't even put it into words.  if you didn't know, we adopted him from the animal shelter a year and a half ago.  he didn't have much freedom at his previous house as he was kept in a fenced in yard, so for the first few months he didn't know how to handle all of the space and freedom here on the farm.  he now listens and won't chase after every moving thing he sees as long as chris and i are with him and tell him no, but because he saw a rabbit ONE TIME over a year ago one night when i let him out, he continues to shoot out of the door at night like a freakin bullet in hopes of finding an animal he can chase.  sometimes i get really firm with him before i let him out because his ridiculousness irritates the HELL out of me!  last night i should have known not to even let him out because he knocked me down trying to get to the door.  but i did.  and because he can't just act like he has a brain and leave anything alone, we now smell skunk, which i imagine will hang around for quite some time.

i didn't mean for this post to be so wordy!  so this morning when i went to the grocery store to get the supplies for the de-skunking wash, i kept getting a whiff of skunk.  i was so scared someone else would smell it as one of my big fears is being the stinky girl.  you remember that one kid in class who always smelled bad and was dirty and no one wanted to get too close to?  yeah, that was me.  luckily i didn't personally smell like skunk, but when i opened my purse to get my wallet, i got punched in the face once more by skunk smell.  i'm sure the people around me smelled it, and i just hope they don't remember me, because i do not want to be remembered as the stinky girl.

just in case you ever need to wash the skunk oil from your pet, here's the recipe, and it really works (because i just had to do it in may when my effing idiot of a dog was sprayed the first time):
-1 quart hydrogen peroxide
-1/4 cup baking soda
-1 teaspoon dish soap
-mix together and wash only the affected area.  rinse.  it may take two washes depending on the severity.

happy friday!

i just wanted to stop in real quick to say that i hope you guys have a nice friday and a great weekend! thank you for your comments on my last post, and just so you know, kona isn't skunky anymore thanks to the concoction i whipped up to combat the skunk's spray! and speaking of kona, here's a video of him from earlier in the week doing one of his favorite indoor activities: helping to do his part to keep the floors mopped. one more thing, chris wanted for me to clarify that he wasn't naked, his shorts just aren't visible. as if i'd post a video when i knew he was naked. pshhh, that boy.

hey kona, what are you doing today?

i took these pictures of kona over the course of a few hours one day, and to be honest, i could have taken them over the course of 72 hours and they wouldn't look any different! my poor boy, he must get so worn out from all that dreaming, sleeping, and yawning...

snore. snooooore. snore. dream whimper. snore. snore.

"what are you doing? i'm too tired to open both eyes and figure it out for myself. i was in the middle of a really good dream, too."

hey, are you awake? kona? hey, did you fall asleep again already? hey. alright fine, i guess you're sleeping again.

kona, wake up! i just want to play with you. who wants a goodie?! "a goodie?! i'm awake! both my eyes are open now!" yeah, i thought that might get your attention.

"okay, i'm getting kind of tired. would you mind going and doing something quietly so i can relax for a little while? i'm drained"

from film with love.

i spent part of this morning scanning in pictures i recently had developed from a roll of black and white film. the roll of film was from my college days, so it was obviously very expired. i was excited to find it nonetheless, and even more curious about how the pictures would turn out given its age. i'm breaking the pictures into two groups so you don't get photo overload, so i'd say i was pleased with the results! i only wish i could have processed and printed them in the darkroom myself!

a while back, and i'm talking the end of last year or beginning of this year, i mentioned something about how i wanted to get a "brain goldfish." the fishie at the top was my brain goldfish named cadillac. sadly, he didn't live very long, and staying true to myself, i'm late showing you a picture of him. on to happier things, i think my favorite picture from the entire roll is the third one down of kona's profile. i remember my first semester of black and white photography, the professor said to go ahead and get the pet pictures out of the way so that we could focus on other things later. i love looking at pictures of architecture, candid pictures of people, landscapes, etc., but sometimes i have a hard time even thinking to take pictures of other things because flojo and kona are among the most important and cherished things in my life, and i'll never develop a roll of film that doesn't include them!

do you know rosita mustache?

i do, and she's awesome. rosita is an amazing painter and specializes in custom pet portraits for people like me who love their fur or feather babies more than most humans you'll meet. she has an etsy shop here and is probably dancing with a banana in her hair to an electric piano as we speak. she and i worked out a secret deal so that i'd be the recipient of this gorgeous painting of my kona, big black bear, bear hair, whatever you want to call him!

i know i'm always telling you about great artists, great shops, great stuff, but if you never visit another link i share and you love art and animals, you owe it to the human race to visit rosita's shop! can you tell i'm a fan? i totally am. chris doesn't know it yet, but in the next few days he'll be helping me hang a grouping of pictures in the den, and can you guess what will be front and center? my bear hair painting! i'll also be hanging a watercolor painting of flojo from littleowlarts, a screenprinted deer from allyson & jeremy taylor, this print from impossible moon, and this one from amanda michael harris. and one more thing about my rosita painting, look at how accurate it is!!!

happy three day weekend!

i can't wait to tell you guys all about the gems, the motorhomes and the hiding places for my dad's bong (seriously, there's a perfectly good explanation for that), but i'm trying to get caught up on everything that piled up while i was sick. so for today, in between domestic duties, jogging, trying to stay alive outside with this heatwave, and a web design job, i'm doing a whole lot of this...

my bear likes to kiss. and snuggle. and sit on my lap. since he was home alone most of the day saturday, we have to make up for it with extra love and belly rubs.

i'll be back tomorrow with pictures of pretty stones and some pictures of the few things i cam home with. seriously, i went there planning to come home with A LOT (as i can't get many of those things here), but i barely got anything. to the cheapskate side of me... i curse you, while i shake my fist in the air!

noses rejoice!

i was about to start this post with, "you know one of my favorite things about spring" but seriously, i have about 853 favorite things about spring, so that could be a slippery slope. one of my favorite things about this spring day is lilac blossoms! we have a lilac bush in our front yard, and for the last few weeks i've watched the leaves fill in and the tiny purple buds start to sprout. a few days a go the flowers were finally blooming, and they're sweeter than any perfume i've ever smelled! since the bush gets covered in so many flowers, i never mind cutting some off to bring inside. i put my clippings in some of the old bottles i got the other week, and they look so pretty i wish they'd stay that way for the rest of the year!

my sweet little kona bear might be a little camera shy. well, that or he just doesn't see the point in sitting still if he isn't having his belly scratched or on my lap. what an attention hog. i tried to make the lilac look like a boutonniere so he'd be a little gentleman, but he wasn't having it (i think it looks like he's sighing and saying, with an annoyed tone to his voice, "are you almost done?!? get this thing off of me!"). either way, what a handsome guy!

what sorts of flowers do you have in your yard? are you planting more this spring or summer? what is your favorite thing about spring? i know i am, and as boring as this may sound, i told chris i wouldn't mind getting mulch for my birthday! i love landscaping, and i have my pop and high school job at the greenhouse to thank for that!