Thursday, June 12, 2008

My Brand

According to wikipedia, branding has been used historically to mark the rightless, as punishment, to show ownership, and to mark Jews during WW II. More recently it is still done to mark slaves, but generally more in a BDSM way, as a way to haze and also as a form of body art. Traditional hot irons are used in addition to cold iron, that is frozen with liquid nitrogen - the stuff they take warts off with. Anyone who has seen Jackass probably remembers the branding scene, and while I haven't seen this scene, I want a brand. My coworker seems to think that if I see this particular scene, I'd change my mind. I have seen videos of people getting branded and still want it. My concern is more with how it will smell (burning flesh) than how it will feel. Also how to cause a nice scar without infection. If I put neosporin on it, the wound will close quicker and not scar. But if I don't use some kind of antibacterial ointment, it could get infected. Another website suggested iodine, which would keep the wound open but still kill any bacteria. I've got several ideas for what design I would like, and wikipedia gave me several more. Most likely I would go with the mathmatical design for inequality, the equal sign with the slash through it. Not because I like math or anything - I despise math, but more to represent humanity's inherint inequality. I also like F - which is short for fugitivus, which the Romans branded runaway slaves with. If I could find something that represents rightlessness (is that a word?) I would be very happy.
Anybody have any other ideas? Think I'm crazy? Think its cool?

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Family shower fun time!

Henry loves taking baths. He smacks the water with his paws, rolls completely over, barks at his watery reflection. Basically just has a blast. So now whenever I take a bath, he stands against the side of the tub whining at me to let him in. I try to explain that the water is too hot for him and that there is no room, but to no avail. So this morning, I was showering, and he leaned up against the side of the tub begging me to let him in. I pushed him down and went back to sudsing. A few seconds later, he was back. So I pushed him away again, this time with a firm "Leave it Henry!" I turned around to rinse, and heard a big splash behind me. Henry had jumped in. We stood staring at each other for a moment. My first reaction was to toss him back out, but by this time, he was wet, and the air conditioner was on so I didn't want him running around getting a cold. And honestly, I figured he would get pissed and jump out after the spray hit him in the face. But he didn't mind. He jumped and splashed and was basically thrilled to be in the shower with mom. I worried the whole time that he'd fall and hurt himself, or get water in his eyes, or in his ears, or in his wrinkle. Once I'd finished my routine I sat on the edge of the tub and dried him off, and while I was drying myself off, he jumped back into the tub. Silly boy.

Relaxing after his exciting morning



In other Henry news, my youngest is officially a eunuch. I took him for a pre-surgery check up in the evening and he had surgery the next morning. I was hoping to pick him up in the evening after his surgery, but they wanted to keep him overnight again. So he was away from home for two nights which I felt terrible about, but it was nice for Wilson to be the extremely spoiled only pug again. And once Henry got home, he had completely forgotten the trauma. I'm glad to finally have it done. The boys had been humping each other all the time and in all different positions, which was extremely unnerving. Henry was also much more territorial about bones, toys and treats, and after surgery this behavior has virtually stopped.


Monday, June 9, 2008

They've done it

Starbucks has officially gotten me out of the car. They've been trying for awhile. It started with friendly conversation while waiting for my drink at the drive thru window. They would ask me about my day. The weather. What I was reading. If I've ever tried x drink. I detest small talk, but I was willing to put up with this a few times a week in return for a delicious honey latte. Then they hired a new window gal. A super friendly window gal. That literally leaned out of the drive thru window and nearly into my car in an effort to make small talk. While this behavior didn't make me stop coming, it did make me pray it was her day off. In addition to small talk, I also hate people who use their cell phones while waiting for service, but I was always tempted to as an effort to ward off Friendly Frannie. Finally this morning, I decided that I'd had enough, and that I was going to just run inside. It may take a minute or so extra, but I really wasn't in the mood to force banter. And once inside I realized why they'd hired super friendly window gal. They WANT you to come inside. I saw no less than 3 cds I wanted. All the pastries looked so incredible. The pictures in the drive thru menu don't do them justice. I considered buying a paper, despite having access to the day's news online. And on the way out, I saw a book I've been eyeing for months, and really had to restrain myself from buying it. Those tricky Starbucks people. Put uber friendly employees in the window to drive the customers inside, where they spend the real money. Looks like I'll be fake smiling my way through the drive thru for awhile. At least until next payday.