Dog Days of Fall

Mr. Chep went up north with a friend to Campbella's so I decided I would spend the day with my friend E.

"E" breeds, boards and grooms dogs on the side. He grooms and boards mine for free. OK - not free; since I am what he calls "handy" he puts me to work doing odd jobs around the house.

Today - it was helping with grooming.

It was a busy day at Happy Tails Grooming (I came up with the corny name - so :-P) He had 2 shelties (which boy are they hairy) a schanuzer....and 3 cats. Yes, I said cats.

The person that coined the phrase "It's like herding cats" Has never bathed one. Or shaved one for that matter. For your information - cats do not like to be shaved. There was A LOT of mewing, some clawing (and a few teeth) today. Happy Tails is a popular place for cats because many groomers sedate cats when grooming. I understand why. If you don't know what you are doing (and E does - trust me he's good) it can be extremely dangerous.

So what did I learn today?

1. Don't ever shave a cat alone.
2. Shelties are cute but HAIRY. I never want one.
3. Don't agree to help the groomer when he has cats coming for a groom.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Wonderful Flashback

I was working on getting booklets ready for this evening's faculty orientation and jamming to tunes on my I-pod.

There was one song that made me get up and put together a quick blog....Writermom? Any suggestions?

Could it be....Prince's "Let's go Crazy?"

I am now going to giggle through my morning with images of ripped pantyhose, condoms and rotten bananas!

That song will always bring foward great memories.

Thanks WM!

I miss ya!

If aliens came in bug form...

If aliens came in bug form...
Originally uploaded by Chepner.

As I cleared my garden of dead plants, I came across this guy. His attack pose (OK I don't know that it's an attack pose - but it sure made me think twice about getting much closer) is a perfect photograph of the way I have felt all week - attacked. BUT anyway...

Growing up in NW Indiana I can count on one hand how many of these facinating bugs I encountered (how do I know how many I encountered?? Mama Chep would capture them and bring them inside to watch! I also had a walking stick and a tree frog!) I have 2 in my yard alone. (I tried to take a picture of the other one with not much success.)

The Iowa State University Entemology Department website states that Mantis have just started to move into this area. Perfect example is at the baseball game this summer. A co-worker of mine looked up at about 6 on the net and said "Those things are SO noisy" to which I replied "What?" He pointed to the 6 mantis on the net and said "Those bugs. I hear them every night" To which I replied, "I didn't know Praying Mantis made noise" He said, "I thought those were locust."

I stressed to him NOT to grab one. If you didn't know - they have WICKED NASTY spines on their legs.

Anyway - thank goodness last week is over - I am hoping I don't have to take on this pose again next week!