Do you recognize this face?


It’s been in the 90s and Winston just looks so hot, poor little guy. He was constantly jumping in Sally’s wading pool to cool his tootsies. Mr. Heylucy, who is easily over-heated himself, couldn’t take it anymore and decided Winston needed a haircut. I had given it a half-hearted attempt a few weeks ago, but when Winston ran off at the sound of the clippers, I gave up. Mr. Heylucy was not so easily deterred, and locked the two of them in the bathroom for well over an hour. When they emerged I barely recognized my dog.


We have also determined that we can cross "Professional Dog Grooming" off our list of possible career paths.

Once Winston recovered from the trauma of the experience, I think he was quite happy with his cooler coiffure. I like to think that he posed for the above photo as a tribute to Nell. Please come home Nell!

One last look at the hack job:


This one is mostly just to show off that he’s shaking my hand. It might also be to show off my cute sandals. He looks so funny, I keep doing double-takes. It feels like we have a whole different dog. But he seems to be cooler and more comfortable, so that’s the important thing. Oh, and I cleaned up all the fur from the bathroom floor-it filled, to the top, a big paper grocery bag. That’s a lot of fur.

Other than cleaning up dog fur I was really lazy this weekend. I think it was just one of those times when you need to do nothing. It was a rough week. We’ve been invaded by ants, the cats managed to pull one of my curtain brackets out of the wall with their craziness, I took some Advil liquigels on an empty stomach and ended up doubled over in pain for an entire day, I had to spend a day last weekend with my mother-in-law, and I spattered mud all over my white jeans while filling the chicken waterer as I rushed off for work one morning. Life is hard sometimes. So I stayed in my pajamas until Saturday afternoon. Then I was so worn out from showering and getting dressed that I had to take a nap. We did have to eat, however, so I made some good food.

This is my luxurious fruit salad:

I’ve been making my standard fruit salad several times a week, but I decided to treat myself this weekend, and added a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprinkling of brown sugar, instead of my usual orange juice and mint. So delicious! I could practically eat creme fraiche right out of the tub. I’m going to miss all that summer fruit when it’s gone.

Then I made the best caesar salad ever, thanks to Jamie:

Several of you suggested Caesar salad when I asked for anchovy ideas, and the very next week, what did Jamie make on Jamie at Home? His proper Caesar salad. There’s nothing healthy about this one, but it’s so very delicious, and I think the anchovies are essential this time around, so don’t leave them out! Trust me.

I didn’t use my whole loaf of ciabatta for the salad, so I enjoyed it as a snack:

I love olive oil with fresh ground pepper, sea salt, and a pinch of red pepper flakes for dipping bread.

I think I really like taking pictures of food.

I hope to get over my laziness this week, and do some sewing and other things. The requested t-shirt tutorial is on my to-do list, and I hope to catch up on e-mail. Don’t forget to join in the Project Runway discussion, if you are so inclined. I’m hoping this season will start to get more interesting this week, or at least that I’ll be able to tell all the designers apart by the end of the show.

I said there would be sewing and knitting again on this little blog, and so, here you go! I’ve had this fabric for quite a while, it was an eBay find, and it’s old and I’m pretty sure it was originally intended for pillowcases. Doesn’t that just look like a pillowcase border?

And while it would, in fact make very charming pillowcases, I don’t currently have a room decorated in yellow and lavender in need of pillowcases. What else could I do? I had to make a skirt. So I just cut off a bit to use for the waistband, sewed a seam at the back with an invisible zipper, pleated it up, and stitched it to the waistband. Easy-peasy!

I did want to mention that I’m feeling pretty brave with this picture. I appreciate all the comments about the 20 pounds lost, but as you can see, I still have quite a ways to go. Not that I’m belittling those 20 (now 22!) pounds, I’m darn proud of myself for accomplishing that kind of weight loss, especially since I’m doing it in a healthy way, and very slowly, but it’s just the beginning, and I’m working on getting rid of another 40 pounds by the end of the year.

Oh, and I also had to mention, the long-sleeved t-shirt? In the exact same shade of yellow? I found it at Old Navy this past weekend for $1.99! And I also found a green one for $5, and the two together perfectly match my completed Lace Ribbon Scarf.

This was a fun scarf to knit, until the last third. At that point it seemed to stop getting longer, and the ball of remaining yarn stopped getting smaller, and the knitting just went on and on and I got irritated and then made a series of mistakes which required unknitting several rows. Of course it did end eventually, and I rather like it. Even though it’s wool, it’s rather light-weight, and perfect for this crazy Spring weather we’re having. I was so looking forward to this past long weekend, but it was cold and grey and rainy the whole time. Of course Tuesday morning, when I had to go back to work, was all bright and blue-sky-ed and lovely, which put me in a very cranky mood. We’re almost to the next weekend, and I’m still bugged about the whole thing.

I better add something cheery to end with. This is my dog Winston, who likes to snuggle. He gets in bed with me every morning around 5:00, and then doesn’t want to get up when I decide it’s time to get up. He won’t budge and I have to physically push him out of bed. Silly boy! Doesn’t he look comfortable?

He doesn’t have his Summer haircut yet, because of the yucky weather. I just can’t let it go.

Thank you all for the best advice ever. How could I not order the shoes after 14 comments telling me to get them. And I even took my mom’s advice and thought long and hard about whether I would be able to wear them for a long time or if they would go out of style too quickly to be worth the price. BUT, since they aren’t really trendy, just unique, I thought I’d be able to wear them for years and years. Alas, there has been a tragic outcome to this footwear fairytale:

Dear Nordstrom.com: Camper’s size 41 does not equal size 11. Not even a small 11. I don’t think it’s actually more than a 10. A small 10 at that.

I was able to squeeze my feet in there for the 52 seconds it took to take this photo, but there’s no way I’ll be able to wear these puppies. It’s so sad. So, it’s back to the store they go. I guess I’m going sandal shopping instead. And I really do need some sandals. I’ll fill you all in on the adorable sandals I’m sure I’ll find, because despite this shoe tragedy, I’m still an optomist.

Mr. HeyLucy even thought the shoes were cute, and brought me tulips to cheer me up (okay, not really. He did bring me tulips, but they had nothing to do with the shoes, they were just on sale at the grocery store, and he knows I love them).

Next time, here at Hey Lucy, there will be knitting! and sewing! But for now, I leave you with a picture of Winston, who will be getting a haircut this week. The poor little guy seems to get hot quite easily. At least I think that’s why he jumps in the geese’s water dish and gets his feet wet, and then runs through the dirt so they’re good and muddy, and then doesn’t understand when I get mad at him for jumping on the bed.

I was trying to take a picture of that big white iris you see in the upper right corner, but someone kept getting in the way. 

You all are really great at naming pets; I liked all the suggestions, thank you so much! Shortly after I finished that post I was looking at lists of pet names, and I found Winston, which was also mentioned in the comments a couple times. It fits him very well, being English and all, and he seems to like it. I loved Henry, but my grandfather’s name was Henry, so I couldn’t use that. Funnily enough, I had several beta fish while I was in college, and they were always named Fred. I thought Ned and Charlie were so cute too. Ned makes me think of Nancy Drew’s boyfriend, and is a great dog name (no offence to Nancy Drew). Buddy is a nickname I always call animals, so that will undoubtedly be used regularly. I think his middle name should definitely be Lucky, because according the pet rescue lady, he came from a shelter with a four-day limit before animals are put down. Lucky also, because although I’m sure these pet rescue people have the best of intentions, I’m not so sure they really know what they are doing.

Caution: mini-rant ahead.

We adopted our cats from the Helen Woodward Animal Center. I can’t recommend that place highly enough. They take excellent care of the animals, and will not adopt out any pets that aren’t in perfect health. Petey and Lucy both had ringworm when they arrived there, and underwent six months of treatment before they were eligible for adoption. When we wanted to handle various cats they made us wear gloves and wash our hands in between playing with the various cats. At the time we thought all these precautions were a little excessive, but we took home two healthy cats, so we didn’t complain. Paperwork and adoption fees were all very straight-forward, and while they asked a lot of questions to make sure we knew we were committing to a lifetime of care for these cats they weren’t overly intrusive.

The pet rescue people, on the other hand, set up a bunch of pens in front of the pet store and have two or three dogs in the pens together. People are constantly walking by, petting one dog and then another. A couple dogs, including Winston, had diarrhea. The lady cleaned it up right away in each case, but still, it wasn’t a good indicator of the health of the animals. It was so busy that it was hard to find out about the dogs, let alone be able to spend time with them. When I came back with Mr. Heylucy it took forever for the lady to give us a straight answer on the adoption fee and for her to give us the paperwork to fill out. She kept telling us the same story over and over, about how he was at a shelter in San Bernardino, she had to have him neutered, she had him groomed, but he got muddy, how handsome he was right after he was groomed, she needed to cover her costs for the trip to Los Angeles and the neutering and the grooming, blah, blah, blah. Finally, I went inside to buy him a food dish, and Mr. Heylucy told her to cut the drama and tell us what the fee was, let us fill out the paperwork and take the darn dog already. He has a soft heart when it comes to animals, but no patience when it comes to getting the run around. I was starting to feel like we really needed to get the dog out of there, to rescue him from the rescue operation.

Yesterday I took him to the vet to get all checked out. He’s healthy and perky, but of course he has kennel cough, is susceptible to getting a doggie cold, and has a pretty nasty parasite. All of the above are the result of too many dogs being too close together. Of course, now Bear and Reggie have been exposed to all these things, so we may be paying the vet another visit. It may not have been so wise to bring Winston home so quickly, but at least I know that we will take care of our animals, and make sure that they get healthy as quickly as possible if they start showing signs of any illnesses (just an aside, if you live in East San Diego County, the Singing Hills Animal Hospital is an excellent place, I highly recommend them!). I just don’t know if people should be in the business of rescuing pets unless they are committed to keeping them healthy and have the facilities to isolate those that are sick. I find the whole thing really frustrating. So, just be aware, and if you go to Petco while they have a pet adoption group out front, don’t bring your dog in the store with you (our vet said that just walking by a dog with kennel cough is enough to catch it, it’s that contagious), and don’t even look at those poor animals unless you are prepared to take them straight to the vet’s office and have them treated for one or more illnesses. I don’t want to knock someone for wanting to help animals; I just want them to do a better job. It seems that if you really love animals, you’ll do what you can to keep them happy and healthy. Okay, that is the end of my rant for today.

Isn’t Winston cute? I know this picture is fuzzy, but Winston is fuzzy, so it’s a good representation. He also got a bath yesterday, and he cleaned up so nice, even if he didn’t enjoy the bath all that much.

across my forehead that says, "Sucker". This little guy was in a pen outside Petco this weekend when I dropped by to pick up some cat food. I called Mr. Heylucy and asked him to tell me no, I cannot bring home a dog. Unfortunately, he didn’t. Then I called my sister-in-law. She told me to get the dog. I went all the way home, and Mr. Heylucy said we should go back, if I really thought he was a nice dog, and bring him home.


He’s three years old, and a sheepdog or bearded collie, or some combination, and seems to be settling in just fine. He doesn’t have a name, so suggestions are welcome.