Matt arrived on Saturday. He’s seven years old and terribly sweet. Whenever the front door opens he thinks it is time to go for a walk and starts doing the “greyhound hop” around my living room.
He has an allergic condition that has thinned all the hair on his hindquarters to reveal a rash on his exposed skin. I’m suspicious that his previous owners may have given him up because they weren’t able to afford the vet bills to treat his condition. He raced in another state where he was adopted, his owners moved here, then they decided they needed to release him back to an adoption agency. Visited with the vet today to get him a check-up, bloodwork, and shots — Matt was so well behaved! Hopefully the lab results will give us some clues as to what’s going on.
In the meantime he’s settled in well as part of the household. He loves curling up in the office while I work on the computer. I fell asleep on the couch last night watching a movie, and when I awoke he was snuggled up next to me.
Will this be the time that I fail the “foster test”? I know that wherever he winds up, he’s going to make his new family very happy.

Discovered some incredibly cool hook and loop lettering kits on clearance at Target. Picked up as many as possible because I think they will be fun to play with at Rob’s wedding. I kind of screwed up my first shirt (and my iron) because I wasn’t as careful in the application as I should have been. Still looks cute, albeit in a tacky counter-culture sort of way.
My other favorite trick these days is to apply my favorite stickers to magnetic sheets and cut them out – instant fridge magnets! I used to love having bumper stickers all over my car, but I don’t really do that anymore, so it is much more fun to have them in my kitchen instead. Besides, I have the vintage white metal enamel cabinets in my kitchen, which means I can cover most of my kitchen in tacky magnets!
Shown here is my Mudsharks sticker, a set of vice stickers from Accoutrements / Archie McPhee, and my Aviation Sparkplugs sticker. Next to be made into magnets are my sticker replicas of vintage luggage labels.

I think there must be a bad moon on the rise. In the checkout line at skanky Safeway…
Me: Pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt and a container of coffee creamer
Gal behind me: Two pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream
Gal behind her: Gallon of brownie sundae ice cream, gallon of cheap red wine, and a tin of cat food
All of us were about the same age and shopping alone. Made me wonder if this was the designated time for gals to pick up their comfort food.
I had to take a detour to get home earlier today because there was a fire truck between my house and where I turned off the main drag. Took the dog for a walk when I got home (best way to find out what’s going on around my block!) and it turned out that my neighbors’ smoke alarm was going haywire for no apparent reason. I’m getting really tired of coming home or waking up and seeing fire trucks. I don’t like needing to dial 911, but I’m happy that the fire and police department have really good response times in my neighborhood.
Some days my neighborhood amuses me greatly.