Blogging Assistance

 Dad's having a little concentration problem with a new post, so I figured I'd give him a helping paw.  Good thing for him my schedule was pretty clear this morning.

Actually, what's going on here is that Mr. Jitters here drinks waaaay too much coffee, and if I don't anchor the laptop the darn thing wouldn't stay on his lap, and who knows what our posts would look like.

I swear, between his caffeine intake in the mornings and mom's restless leg syndrome when I'm trying to get my beauty sleep. . . 

Puzzle Goldmine

As you know from previous posts, mom and dad enjoy working on jigsaw puzzles together.  It's simple low-key, low-cost fun, and up until that most recent one they even let me help out.  Well, they've since started using a table they picked up for free recently, so that means I no longer get to sprawl out on the pieces offer my assistance😠.  Anyway, dad was browsing Asheville's chapter of freecycle.org the other day as he does every morning, and someone posted a collection of jigsaw puzzles.  Always up for free stuff and without knowing or caring what the puzzles were pictures of he contacted the person, and arranged to pick them up that morning, and was pleasantly surprised to see that half of them were cat-themed!  Originally the poster said they had 24 puzzles in all, but by the time they replied to dad, that number was down to 8.  They stated that all of the puzzles but one had all of the pieces, and the one that didn't had only 1 piece missing, even marking on the cover where the piece was missing from.

Yep, that's a dog one in there, too.  So be it.

New Word Wednesday... on Thursday

 Not surprisingly, the clever one is a little off. Anyway, here's another installment of his irregular definition-in-pictures-instead-of-words attempt at humor:

 BeerGrumple [beer-grum-puhl]

 noun, Feline/Facial Expression

you know how if you say something often enough...

I'm not the only one with dental issues

 Funny story;

So dad's had multiple fillings over the years, and he's had these twin white ones smack dab in the middle of his two front teeth that have been there for about 30 billion years. One night he was gobbling from a cement mixer-sized bowl of popcorn, a favorite nighttime snack, and one of the front teeth broke off just below the filling.  "That's fine," he says.  "I'll just be careful."  Mom looked at him and shook her head as she seems to do more and more these days. Flash forward a few weeks and dad notices a hairline crack in the other front tooth right along the edge of the filling on that side. Well, I'm sure you can guess where this is going.  The other morning he comes up from the dungeon workshop to tell mom that that one broke, too.  "Let's see," says mom, holding back a snicker.  Dad opens his gob wide to expose a 4-lane highway-wide gap between his two front teeth, and mom pretty much peed herself with, umm, concern.  She was so concerned she could hardly breath between bouts of concern.  Once her concern subsided and she got up off the floor & changed her underpants she said he'd have to make an appointment to get that taken care of.  

Now, ordinarily I'd have a photo to add to my post, but dad's teeth are pretty gross overall what with the collection of fillings and amount of coffee he drinks, so I won't make you upchuck this time 'round.  Consider yourself fortunate that you'll have to make do with my pencil-sketched rendition. 

Yeah, I'd say that's pretty accurate. Do you know how hard it is to hold a writing implement with a paw?  The twin forests sprouting from his schnoz are just to make it more lifelike, and they're pretty dead-on. 

A Moment of Silence...

 . . . for all those lost and everyone affected by the terrible events of that day.  Doesn't seem like it's been 20 years, does it?  And have we pulled together since then to become a more caring, compassionate unified nation?  Dream on.

With Gratitude

 This here blogging community's big ol' family feel and sense of camaraderie are the best, and we're ever appreciative for your thoughtfulness and caring (plus, we love all the puns!)

New Word Wednesday

Pooperoscopy [poop-er-oss-kuh-pee]

noun, Medicine/Medical.

You know what? Instead of simply giving the definition as I intended, I'll use pictures, make it a riddle of sorts.

Can you guess what dad had to do yesterday?  Let's just say he got his fill of a clear liquid diet all day Monday and Tuesday morning.  I'll spare y'all the rest of the details, but let me explain the notes.  You see, mom's a note maker, and dad's memory occasionally goes on vacation.  Plus, mom doesn't always trust dad when it comes to food, even with an impending important procedure.  Mom's always posting reminders for dad for everything from the grandkids' birthdays to medical appointments to pre-hike instructions.  She believes they're part of her full-time job taking care of me and the absent-minded professor.  So anyway, mom being mom (not only to me sometimes), she wanted to make sure dad knew what was off limits before, well, you know.  Think he got it? The notes on the fridge and most of the ones by the coffee maker are dad's "menu", and all the instructions he was to follow.