Happy New Years! December 31, 2024

 This is the 100th post for this blog in 2024.  It's way off midnight so "in before the lock" as they used to say.

I've spent the year much as I always do, reading, gardening, playing, crafting, watching TV.  It's a good life.

We adopted a five month old Great Pyrenees/Hound mix in April because I had this desire while we were walking our dogs in February and March to have a nice mellow girl beagle (we always have beagles).  I wasn't seeing a girl beagle who was the One.  You just know from their faces.  I decided to branch out a little, and to my surprise I considered getting a puppy for the first time since our OG beagle.

Then I saw this sweet loving face, and asked to meet her.  I didn't think I had a chance, particularly since there was a younger woman who would barely let me get close enough to pet the dog.  We did get that puppy and she makes the world a better place.  Though she pulls so hard we can't walk her, and she ate my slippers.  We will get training in the new year.  We did go to a training course, but it was focused on really getting to know the dog rather than on the more practical details.  She's my Soul Dog.

My garden was in one of those freak years.  Cold spring, astonishing amounts of rain, then drought by August, essentially.  All my years of garden knowledge couldn't save this one.  Garden catalogs are coming out at good speed.  Gardeners never let a bad year get them down.

Thanks for stopping by the blog, may your 2025 be an excellent year.

New Logo For Crafty DOA Posts

Coming soonish to you in 2025, more crafting posts on DOA.  I don't like my old skellie Crafty DOA Logo so I'm trying a new one out.  I just pulled old pics from my files, so I'll get a nicer variety going forward, but here's to complete craftiness in 2025.  Watch for this logo.

For The Big Dog In Your Life: The Top Five Toys

 So, there you are, with 30 years of Beagle experience in your life, when you find and adopt the best big dog who ever was.  And she wants to play, wants to tug, wants to chew.  Thank me Later.

 

When the weather is nice, you need this Tree Hugger ball which attaches to a tree limb with a bungee.  Ours lasted the whole season before she got the ball out of the sling.  You need it to hang maybe 6 ft up if your dog is big so she jumps a little to grab it. It will get wrapped around a branch but it's easy to untangle and is a joy for the dog.  Put it where she spends most of her time in the yard.

 

Great for outdoor tossing, fetching and tugging, the 4.5 inch Jolly Ball can also be brought indoors, just don't throw it for the dog inside!  Still great for rolling and tugging.

For Big Big Chewers, the Black Kong is the way.  It's only problem is finding fillings that sit in it long enough to provide a challenge.  Our dog has mastered the art of bouncing it till the item drops out after she has reached and munched what she can.  She sometimes just likes to chew on the Kong even when it's empty.

The Nerf Dog Soccer Squeak ball has lasted longer than any toy. Usually anything with a squeaker is ripped right open, by pulling at the seams.  This one is hard to find, but it has the best squeak in the business, and it rolls and bounces like a dream.

The Kong Wobbler comes in two sizes.  Oddly, the smaller version is much more fun for the dog.  You can open the Wobbler and put in very small treats (they need to be able to fall out of the opening in front). I've always just used about a quarter of a cup of dry dog food.

The Wobbler tips and tumbles and turns, spilling out bits of food as the dog bats at it.  Very exciting!  The smaller version is much more action packed, as it will spin on its side in a circle, and it tips and turns in interesting ways.  By contrast, the larger version just sort of sways back and forth.

Crafting 2025: Bib

 There’s nothing like the New Year to inspire ideas for new craft projects and to think dreamy thoughts of finishing works long in progress.

This should be simple, right? I’m doing the bib in green on the package in pink instead, and without the tricky appliqué dog head. Adorable.

DOA on TV 12/29/24

 

All my shows are done till January and beyond, so this week I didn’t watch anything. I’ve a long list of Things To Watch, so hopefully by next weekend I’ll have something to write about.  Stay cozy!

Librariandoa

DOA's Saturday Puzzles An Answer Key for the December 21st Cryptogram

 I hope you cranked up the Christmas music this week, stuffed yourself full of cookies and savory dishes, hugged everyone in sight, and made sure to tell those you love that you love them.

Here's the answer to the Crypto.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

 

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Crafty DOA: Completed! The Red Heart "I Love Pink" Blanket

 After many trials and tribulations, I joined together the squares of this blanket with a single crochet stitch, the added a single crochet border all around. It’s complete! You can see the flaws if you look, but I won’t be noticing them as I keep warm this winter.

Here’s a link to some of the problems, and you can see what the original pattern looks like.

 

https://librariandoa.blogspot.com/2022/02/when-it-takes-10-tries-to-get-pattern.html

DOA's Saturday Puzzle A Word Search for The Christmas Appeal

 Lucky for you I reviewed The Christmas Appeal on my book blog last week, so you can read the review, and take the word search as clues to the plot.

https://merlynperilous.wordpress.com/2024/12/19/thursday-reviews-december-19-2024/

 

 

Five Things Friday December 27, 2024

 I’m still munching cookies and leftovers, how about you? After weeks of intense shopping baking, decorating I’m in super chill mode. Ahhhh.

One: I remember getting a set of cookware and a set of dishes that had a tea pot as a child. Why don’t they make these anymore?  I’ve looked, truthfully, and there are only garishly colored plastic dishes nobody would feel all grown up using.

Two: I’m savoring these last bits of 2024 before 2025 hits the fan.

Three:  Talk about feeling special in another era. I was never the belle of any ball, but who wouldn’t have liked to be the object of everyone’s charm at a certain age?

Four: Once again being the Cake Making Queen is on my goals for the new year. Part of this will be how to present and appealingly slice cakes. Our friend Martha has this method for cutting cakes that produces nice sized slices and perhaps keeps the unsliced part of the cake fresher.

Five: I read comics while in my teens, preferring DC Comics to any others for their optimism and the determination of their heroes to do good things.  The best, most likable hero was Superman, before the comics re-wrote his stories to be full of angst and anger to match Marvel’s output. I’ve watched the films and TV shows with the character, until the Henry Cavill Superman was introduced, and that was a very bad representation. Enter the new Superman film upcoming with David Corenswet and a too fuzzy furred but adorable Krypto, and maybe we will get the best Superman yet.  Here is a graphic of all the Superman’s, some I’m not familiar with, some I loved.

Merry Christmas From Ours House To Yours!

 Our dinner and unwrapping was last night, so I’m snacking on leftovers and going through my pile of new books deciding which to read next. Safe travels to you!

DOA on TV December 22, 2024

 Baking cookies badly and trying to get every ornament I own on the tree has taken up all my energy this week, so I only watched two shows this week.

NCIS:Origins   Blue Bayou

In the mid season finale, we see Gibbs in the aftermath of having killed Pedro Hernandez, in revenge for killing his family. This takes place six months before Gibbs joined NIS. He’s full of rage instead of being fulfilled by the revenge. Tearing up his apartment and punching holes in walls gets him evicted by his tough landlord Ruth.

He’s working bagging liquor at a store and Franks and his girlfriend are in line. He tries to talk to Franks but is shut down as Franks does not want to be any further connected to the killing than he is for giving Gibbs the file on Hernandez.

On a rough rainy night that sees Gibbs sleeping in the back of his truck, Ruth sees him and gruffly says he can come home. Slowly they bond over working on jigsaws together. They don’t talk, they just puzzle and listen to Linda Ronstadt sing Blue Bayou.

They finally have a conversation one night in which Gibbs tells her what he did. She shares her own regrets and they become good friends. It’s Ruth who talks to Franks about his treatment of Gibbs and opens the way for a job with NIS. 

A sweet, melancholy episode.

Survivor 47

It’s all over, and Rachel wins! Sitting at the end with Sue and Sam, it looked a bit dicey for a moment as Sam gave a pretty convincing argument for his game. Even so, he got a single vote from Kyle, Sue got none, Rachel got all of the rest.

Often, the person I want to win doesn’t make it. This time, they picked a great player.

DOA's Saturday Puzzles The Answer Key for the 12/14/24 Cryptogram

 Isn't it nice to have a cozy bookish riddle now and then?  This is from Oliver Goldsmith, The Bee.

One writer excels at a plan or a title page, another works away the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index.

 

 

DOA's Saturday Puzzles December 21, 2024

 Good morning puzzlers!  The Cryptogram is out late this morning, but you weren't awake and ready for it till now, confess.   This is unabashedly Christmas themed, because I Love Christmas.  I used the Brain Food Cryptogram Maker for this puzzle.

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