Your leaking thatched hut during the restoration of a pre-Enlightenment state.

 

Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").



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Like my brownhouse:
   four rawhides
Friday, March 30 2012
Gretchen headed off for town this morning to get a crown, the kind that goes in your mouth and not on your head. After that, she would continue on to Boston to visit her childhood friend Dina, who lives there now (as opposed to Johannesburg or Tel Aviv, other places she has lived in the past ten years).
At some point I drove with all three dogs into town. I needed two hundred feet of strong rope for my rope-powered chain saw as well as beer and booze and a new juicer for Gretchen (to replace the Cuisinart model whose plastic gear shattered when I was making orange juice several weeks ago).
The first place I went was Shoprite, where a walk down the pet aisle attracted me to a four pack of rawhide "bones." I'm vegan these days, but the dogs (despite the vegan kibble we give them) will never be. So I bought the four pack, splitting giving each dog a "bone" when I got back to the car. Ramona was delighted and immediately began chewing on hers, though neither Sally nor Eleanor initially expressed much interest.
To get a replacement juicer, I went to the Macy's at the Hudson Valley Mall. I'd heard that Macy's carries a robust juicer manufactured by Braun that Gretchens' parents have (though the only versions I found online were 220 volts and designed for the European market). Alas, Macy's only had the Cuisinart juicer with the same cheap plastic gear that had broken in our juicer. Target had an even cheaper-looking juicer, and Sears had the Cuisinart. The plump young woman working at Sears was very helpful, though when she said, "I was actually wanting a little juicer for myself," it sounded a little like a come-on.
To get from Target to Sears, I'd walked through Dick's Sporting Goods, where I'd bought three more "youth" arrows for my compound bow, bringing my number of usable arrows up to four. (I'd eventually found that arrow that I'd thought had been lost in a tree; it turned out it had gone about fifty feet further than I'd thought and landed on the ground, but now it lacked its nock.)
On the way home, I stopped on Esopus floodplain across Wynkoop from the Hurley Mountain Inn and mined another 35 gallons of glorious topsoil while the dogs sniffed around nearby. Ramona has proved to be about as good as Sally and Eleanor at staying out of trouble when provided with such opportunities.
Back at the house, suddenly both Sally and Eleanor expressed interest in the rawhide "bones" I'd bought. Sally's interest was deepest and, surprisingly, clouded with pathos. She walked around with her "bone" for over an hour, never settling on a place to chew it. It was as if it reminded her of better days in her youth back when a rawhide was the best gift imaginable. Now, though, her teeth had become too weak to chew it and all she could do was carry it around. Still, it was a touching thing to watch. Sally used to celebrate every exciting moment by parading around carrying whatever was handy in her mouth, though she hasn't done that in over a year. Eventually, though, Sally had to put the rawhide down, at which point Ramona grabbed it and made quick work. By the end of the day there wasn't a trace of any of the original four.

In Makerbot news, I was finding it hard to print out usable objects do to the behavior of the polystyrene as it cooled. It tended to curl up at the edges, eventually becoming so loose from the platform that it would break free and move around, which would cause the print to fail.


Gretchen says goodbye to Ramona this morning before leaving for the weekend.


Sally this morning.


Eleanor this morning, still wearing her blanket.


Sally with her rawhide "bone" this afternoon.


For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?120330

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