There is a new teenager in the house!

 Happy Birthday little girl :-) 

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It's below freezing here in South Carolina...

 ...and Tammy is staying warm with three blankets.

She is as snug as a bug in a rug :-)

We had a dusting of snow in the past two days but nothing significant.  My friends and family in North Carolina got enough to cover the ground and cancel school.  I doubt those of us in the Upstate are going to get any more at this point in the season.  But I've been wrong before.

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Here is a new photo of Tammy!

Today was a very good day.  God answered prayer and provided for my needs in a mighty and powerful way.  I am going to bed tonight thankful for His provision and for the people He used to accomplish it with.

And since it's been awhile since I've posted a pic of her, here is my miniature dachshund Tammy making a German spectacle of herself.  How shameless!

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Happy Birthday Tammy!

It was actually a few days ago on April 8th, the same day as the solar eclipse.  Here's the pic I snapped of Tammy on her twelfth birthday.

 

Such a sweet little dog.  Tammy has been a little angel on four legs all these years.  I definitely could not have gone far without her company.  She keeps me going.  And she has saved my life more than once.  There's not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for her, and ask Him to please let us have many more years together.  I hope so anyway :-)

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Tammy's decoy

Last night Tammy, my miniature dachshund, got on the sofa.  And she brought along one of her Christmas toys: a plush dachshund toy, which came courtesy of my cousin Lauryn and her husband.

So she got up under her blanket, on my lap, and I noticed that she and her toy each had their tale protruding out:

Which one is Tammy??  In real life it really does look like there are two dogs in my lap.

It doesn't help resolve matters that the toy is almost precisely the same size as Tammy.  She could make serious trouble if she wants to :-D

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Tammy and me at Kitty Hawk

Today is the 120th anniversary of the first powered air flight, by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk on the  Outer Banks of North Carolina.

In May of 2017, not long after coming back east after nearly a year of traveling across America, I took my dog Tammy on a day trip to the Outer Banks.  I wanted her to be able to say (to other dogs anyway) that she has seen the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.  We drove down to Cape Hatteras and visited the lighthouse, then went back north.  We spent a little while at the Wright Brothers monument, and got our photo taken at the spot where that very first airplane flight took off from:

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Tammy: Feelin' Fine

Have had some scary time lately with Tammy, my miniature dachshund.  Two weeks ago she hurt her back around her hind quarters area.  I took her to the vet and sure enough, she probably injured herself jumping onto and off from the sofa and bed all this time.  The vet gave her three medications and I've been sleeping in the living room since then, close to where she's made a nest of her blankets on the floor.  Just making her take it easy.

Fourteen days later and Tammy is much better!  She's still not allowed to try to jump onto furniture, so I've been carefully picking her up and putting her on the sofa so she can be near me while I work.  She seems to be satisfied with the arrangement.  Here she is from this afternoon:

A very dear friend is in the process of making Tammy a set of ramps that she can use to get on the bed and sofa without risk of injury.  Which maybe I should have done a long time ago already.

But for the time being, she is recovered and spunky as ever.  She's happy, and that makes me happy too :-)

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Tammy the Pup: Caught in the act

I really should post more pics of Tammy, my miniature dachshund.  She's just so cute and comical... and sometimes too smart for her own good.  She has also literally saved my life and sanity.  I would be a far different person - and maybe not here at all - were it not for Tammy.

So last night we were getting ready for our Saturday evening ritual of tuning in to Svengoolie, on the MeTV network.  I was finishing up a few things at my desk before the show, and Tammy had peeked her head out from under her blanket.  And she just looked so cute, reclining back on the sofa.  It was such a good pose that I picked up my iPhone to snap her picture.

And it so happened that I caught her about to yawn.  I quickly hit the button.  And got this pic:

Maybe I'll get lucky one day and be able to snag some video of her yawning, because she sounds really sweet when she does that.

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Haven't done a "Tammy Tuesday" in awhile

For some time I was posting new pics of my miniature dachshund Tammy every Tuesday.  It's been a fair bit since I've done that.  But it just so happened that I caught a really good snapshot of her this afternoon while I was working at the desk in my living room.  I was eating some crackers and she insisted that I pay her the "cracker tax" (there's also the "chicken tax", the "cheese tax", the "barbecue ribs tax", etc.)...

I know: Tammy is not as red as she used to be.  Well, she is over eleven years old.  There's no not facing that.  But she's still in excellent health, and if you saw how playful she is you would think she's much younger than her age.  She always accompanies me when I turn in for the night and she makes sure that she takes a toy to bed, just like a human child would bring a stuffed doll.  I've been told by the vet that if Tammy maintains good health and is kept at an ideal weight, that we'll be in each other's company for many years to come.  Which, would make me very happy.

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Lenten Blogging 2022: Day 40

 It's Tammy's Tenth Birthday Party!!  Here are some of the pics from the event, which was attended by two dogs and their collective three humans.  Including photos of the cake I baked for the occasion.  And a good time was had by all!  Click to embiggen:

The birthday girl and me :-)

Tammy's friend Sasha

Tammy did NOT like the idea of wearing a party hat!

The cake

Tammy couldn't quite blow out the candles but it wasn't for lack of trying!

Sasha enjoying some cake (which was tasty by human standards too)

Tammy eating her birthday cake

Tammy's new toy, courtesy of Sasha's person Melody.  It took her all of ten minutes to destroy the squeaker!

Incidentally, if you want to bake a cake for your dog, here's the recipe I found courtesy of Dorothy Kern at Crazy For Crust.  The main ingredients are peanut butter, sugar-free applesauce, and honey.  And like I said in the captions it was tasty for humans too.  But I'm sure dogs appreciate it even better :-)

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Lenten Blogging 2022: Day 38

 HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY to this little goober:

Yes friends and neighbors, it was ten years ago today on Easter Sunday 2012 that my miniature dachshund Tammy was born!  She was one of a litter of five - two boys and three girls - and she was also the runt.  I think it's safe to say that she has ended up with a more interesting life than most dogs get to have.  That she rode in my lap for a year spent driving across America, alone puts a lot of character on those stubby little legs.  She has been my sweetest companion, my bark of conscience, my life saver (at least once), the person I can trust to understand me when nobody else on earth does.

Happiest of birthdays, Tammy.  And here is to many more :-)

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Lenten Blogging 2022: Day 10

No getting around it: this past week, from last Saturday on, was pretty craptacular.

How bad?  Something happened that has prevented me from driving for the most part, until further notice.  No, not a speeding ticket or anything like that.  I haven't had a ticket in... wow.  Over ten years now.  Not since I racked up those three in less than a month and a half (with two of them in Virginia on consecutive weekends... hey I was eager to see my girlfriend what can I say? :-).

I like... I like... to believe that things are getting better though.  Why do I say that?

My cooking skills leave much to be desired.  It's not that I'm a BAD cook per se, it's more like... well, I'm intimidated by the kitchen.  It all goes back to that Boy Scout Jamboree, and my night to cook for our troop.  I put WAY too much salt into the mashed potatoes.  So much so that it's rumored that the ground where we dumped it at is still too barren for foliage to take root (sort of a mini "Devil's Tramping Ground").

Yes, I've blogged before about some excursions into culinary experimentation.  Recently I wrote about preparing wild boar baby back ribs.   That was pretty easy though: laying the ribs on a foil-lined pan and cooking for two hours.  Very little preparation at all.  I think the most complicated dish that I've documented on this blog has been baking a pecan pie... and I got that recipe from a friend in Belgium.

Ever since then I've been a little scared to make more than a Chef Boyardee pizza.  I won't deny it: my diet has mostly consisted of frozen food, Subway sandwiches and Cocoa-Pebbles.  But with inflation hitting hard and less money to spend on "extravagant" cuisine, I'm having to learn to overcome my fear of the kitchen.

So that brings us to tonight, and what I did for dinner.

I had no idea what to make for dinner, just that I was hungry.  Tammy - my dachshund - was getting hungry too.  No, I didn't want Chicken McNuggets again.  We've had that twice already this past week.

Then I remembered that I had some spaghetti - the kind you find on the pasta aisle of any grocery store - and some sauce and parmesan cheese.  Christmas gifts from a friend who wants me to cook more for myself.  So that's what I endeavored to do.

I knew enough about cooking spaghetti to know that you break the noodles in half before you put them in the water.  And after Googling it I learned that you put the pasta in the water after it's started boiling.  Eleven minutes later the spaghetti had finished cooking.  A heapin' amount of sauce and cheese later and it was all finished.

And, I surprised myself by how good it was!  Making it myself, somehow made it even better.  It was easy-peasy Japan-esy.  And now I have another dinner to add to my (admittedly small) repertoire.

But you want to know what the best part of cooking spaghetti tonight has been?  It's been discovering that Tammy loves it too.  I had no idea that a dog could enjoy pasta, but apparently she does.  So now there is something I can whip up in the kitchen, that she and I can enjoy together.  Much healthier than sharing McNuggets too, no doubt.

So, that's today's post as part of blogging every day for Lent this season.  I have an idea of what tomorrow's post will be.  In fact, I'm about to watch another episode of it now.

More later.

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Something I made a while back...

That's my little girl Tammy, in a photo made by my friend Tim Talley.

Just one of many things I have learned in the past few years.  And anyone who claims that a dog or cat doesn't have a soul, has obviously never owned one.

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Haven't posted any new pics of Tammy in awhile...

Here she is this morning, not wanting to get out of bed:

That's her favorite blanket that's been pulled off from over her.  Dad would throw it over himself as he leaned back in his recliner and Tammy would jump in his lap then burrow herself completely under the blanket and they would nap together.  It's gone all over America with her.

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Tammy wants to sing to you...

Behold her beautiful singing voice!

Been too long since I've posted any pics of Tammy.  I happened to catch her right in the midst of one of her yawns (which, it must be said, sound hilariously cute):

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Currently going through a bout of depression...

Actually, it's a rapid-cycling episode that's been going on for the past two days.  I woke up yesterday morning, remembered that Dad was gone, went into sadness that suddenly plummeted into clinical depression (something that lacks any emotion whatsoever) and then got catapulted into a bout of mania where the sadness returned, got escalated beyond my ready grasp of things, and threw me into a somewhat paranoid state of mind.

This has been going on and off for the past 36 hours now.

So I'm looking forward to working backstage during tonight's performance of Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of It's A Wonderful Life: The Musical.  Three more performances this weekend: tonight, tomorrow night also at 7:30 and then Sunday afternoon at 2:30.  Being involved in something like community theatre helps immensely, whether I'm on-stage or behind the scenes.  That's a really special group of people I get to collaborate with and it means a lot to have so much depending on me and on each other.

Speaking of the theatre guild, I'm planning on auditioning for a few more shows coming up.  It'll be the first time in four years that I would be on the stage.  One certain show has a particular role that I've got my eyes on bigtime, and everyone I've told it to have said: "Chris, that role fits you perfectly."  Let's just say that this character has issues and I've got issues and figure it out from there :-)

Okay well, in addition to the theatre the past few weeks (I don't know what's gonna happen when the production ends on Sunday, it's been so much fun!) there's been Tammy the Pup.  And I haven't posted nearly enough photos of her lately so here she is, my little girl...

I was lucky to catch her in one of her calmer moments :-)

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Tammy Tuesday returns with an ear-full

After an absence of too many weeks, Tammy the Pup is back!  That was my fault though: just been way busy on this end of things.  And I've a few posts percolating in the ol' gray matter that I'm gonna try to channel into reality the next coupl'a days.

But anyway, here's Tammy, in a pose that is familiar to anybody who has ever owned a dachshund.  I don't think a day goes by that I don't have to "reset" Tammy's ears back to their factory default position.  Here she is with both of hers about to get fixed...

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This week's Tammy Tuesday's guest host is... Lucy!

So... this was supposed to be a Tammy Tuesday: the weekly pic of my mini dachshund. Unfortunately the little girl is feeling under the weather today! But don't worry folks she's got that mischievous glint in her eye which is already threatening to unleash havoc when she's back to normal soon.

I didn't want to make it three weeks without something though.  It was my girlfriend Kristen who had the idea of letting her new Chihuahua Lucy fill in for Tammy.  Lucy was in the back seat of my car yesterday when Kristen snapped this hilarious photo of her flashing a wry grin...

Incidentally, for those who remember when Kristen adopted those two Chihuahuas last month: well that's Lucy and her son is now named Charlie.  We're hoping that Lucy and Charlie will get to meet Tammy sometime soon.  If/when that happens I'll be sure to post some pics and video of their encounter :-)

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It's the shifty-eyed Tammy Tuesday!

Zoinks!!  This week's Tammy Tuesday feature went down to the wire!  It's 11:56 p.m. when I'm finally able to getting to post it.

Well, don't let it be said that I'm not the Hardest Working Man in the Blogosphere(tm)!  Here's a low-angle shot of Tammy, leering at the camera over the top of her doggie bed...

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This week's Tammy Tuesday is all wrapped up

Several months ago I came across a long piece of scrap fabric from my Children of Eden costume.  It seemed like something Tammy would enjoy playing with.  Ever since, there hasn't been a day that goes by when we haven't had a tug-of-war with it (and you would not believe how such a little dog can yank something soooo hard).

Here's Tammy in one of her quieter moments with it, as she chews happily on a piece of deer antler...

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