EMPS #6: Good Fences Make Good Dogs

...Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
--from Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Looking through our fence across the alleyway to neighbors' fences.

For Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #6: Fences And What's Behind Them, Carly wants us to photograph, well, you know, fences, and what's behind them. Oh, that's easy! Let's start from my own back yard:

On the other side of this fence is a real barker.

Here is the fence between our yard and that of our neighbor to the north. Unlike our pool, the one you can almost see through the slats here sometimes has water in it, and occasionally laughing children. But at night, a dog lurks behind this fence. As a puppy it used to bark all night long - poor lonely thing, but very annoying for us! Now I think it mostly barks at cars and cats, and anything else it thinks it heard or saw or smelled. This usually sends Pepper roaring into the back yard and up to the fence seen at the top of this entry. There she peers out and sniffs and barks furiously. Across the alley, behind the wooden fence, another dog usually joins in.

Pepper usually stays there, on guard, until Cayenne and I go out to get her, whereupon she wants to be rewarded for her vigilance. This happens several times a night unless I close the door to the laundry room, thus blocking access to the doggie door. Still, at least the dogs aren't getting into fights, or roughing up the neighborhood's half-feral cats.

Two fences between us and our neighbor to the south.

On the south side of the house are two chain link fences, ours and our neighbor's. His fence is close to the side of his house, making kind of a dog run for Tootsie, a black lab (or possibly a lab cross). She is usually out there, but wasn't when I took this photo. Tootsie is friendly and lonely and a sweet dog, and getting old now. She doesn't bark nearly as much as she used to. But if the other dogs get much of a barkathon going, Tootsie joins in.

Miko's Corner Playground, as seen through the fence.

Now we're off to the dog park again, this time with an eye for what encloses it. Here's the view from the parking lot. On this side the fence consists of oblong metal bars painted reddish tan, with a decorative metal arch over each section and the occasional concrete pillar in between.

The inner gate of the north entrance (large dog section)

The double-gated entry is similar, but two-tiered.

A chain link fence makes good neighbors of large and small dogs.

On the north side of the main enclosure is a chain link fence. Beyond that is the small dog section. I've seen dogs almost as large as Pepper in there, and the occasional toy dog or puppy on our side. Generally, though, the other enclosure fills up with poodles and pugs and pekes and so on. Some of them like to race Cayenne and Pepper along the fence line, knowing they're completely safe from the larger dogs. Cayenne and Pepper love this.

Pepper is unconcerned about what lies beyond this fence.

On the west side is more chain link fence, providing a view of more grass and trees and some halfway decent sunsets. What you don't see so much is Country Club Road, which is perhaps forty feet from this fence. The fence is fairly high, and there is no gate on this side. I'm grateful that this off-leash facility has such good fences that I need never worry about Pepper running into the street. She might get away in the parking lot (she hasn't, but it's conceivably possible), but that's quite a bit less dangerous. The traffic is much slower there, the street is far away, and dog owners are constantly on the watch for each others' pets as they're coming and going.

Cayenne, Pepper and friend are safe inside these walls.

The south, east, and part of the north part of the oval-shaped park have the bars and arches I highlighted earlier, interspersed with concrete and stone pillars. The view is rather beautiful, with the possible exception of when a large party takes over a picnic area nearby. Even then, it's mostly the loud music that can get annoying. Fences like these don't block sound. But they can keep the dogs happily ensconced in a place filled with grass and trees, running water and interesting smells, and lots of dogs and people to be their friends.

Be sure to check out Carly's original entry if you're interested in joining in on this Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot. And don't forget to stop by her blog again on Monday for links to this week's participants as well as next week's topic.

Karen

Take Your Dog To Church Day 2008

Canine bystanders during Holy Communion

Okay, so it's not really called "Take Your Dog To Church Day," except at Casa Blocher. It's actually the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, and technically it's celebrated on October 4th. But my parish, The Episcopal Church of St. Michael and All Angels, pretty much always transfers the observance to the nearest Sunday, including the annual Blessing of the Animals. For most people in the parish, "animals" roughly translates to "dogs" - which is fine by me!

Tuffy at church in 2007. Note the shaved patch on her head.

Last year's observance was bittersweet for me. Tuffy had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and I knew there was a good chance it was her last trip to church.. I may have taken Tuffy with me on a brief weekday visit to the church's business office, but it was definitely her last blessing.

Cayenne and Pepper look around before Mass.

This year it was the new crew, Cayenne and Pepper. Overall they behaved pretty well, not up to Tuffy's standard, but better than just acceptably. They did a bit of whining, and visited the people in the next pew back, but I don't think they barked, and they didn't break away and wander off. Well, maybe once, for all of five feet.

My friend Mary pets her new friend Cayenne.

Unfortunately, Take Your Dog to Church Day has become complicated for me since I became an acolyte, and started carrying candles and crosses and such into the sanctuary. My friend Kevin had to look after Tuffy in the pews a couple of times in past years, because it wasn't practical to have her sit near the altar with me. This year there were two dogs to supervise, and Kevin had only met them once before for about thirty seconds. But he graciously looked after them for most of the Mass.

Dogs in the sanctuary!

Father Smith had streamlined the Mass to accommodate canine attention spans, but by the time he was giving his sermon there were audible signs of doggie restlessness. I was pretty sure that most of the whining was coming from Cayenne and Pepper, and told Proscovia so. "Go get them," she said. So as Father Smith talked, I went into the pews and collected them from Kevin. Once they were with me they sort of settled down - and I still heard whining from the pews.

The blessing - or was it an exorcism?

After his sermon about St. Paul, St. Francis and negotiations with a medieval wolf, Father Smith and Proscovia went around blessing the pets individually. It sounded as it they were almost all dogs, but there was a pair of turtles. Eventually they got around to the Blocher dogs, who were a little dubious about the procedure.

Alex the crucifer (cross bearer) and his new friend Pancake.

After Mass I briefly looked after Erin's sister's Corgi, Pancake, and then quickly got my alb off so I could photograph Pancake for Erin and then retrieve Cayenne and Pepper, who by then were back in the pew with Kevin.

Pancake poses for the people.

Pancake was probably the best behaved dog in the whole church. Erin was thurifer, which means that she had numerous duties during the Mass involving incense. Pancake stay and stayed put through all of it.

Pepper's turn to look alien. Or possessed. Or robotic.

Cayenne and Pepper weren't remotely as well behaved as Pancake. Still, they did all right, and everybody loved them.

There is more to the legacy of St. Francis of Assisi than sprinkling holy water on dogs. Another part of it is a prayer that's attributed to him, although it's considerably more recent:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

This autumn, as Republicans and Democrats battle for votes on behalf of their preferred candidates, I hope some of us will try to live up to those ideals.

Karen

Looking for Skeletons in the Candidates' Past

Tonight I'm just going to do a quick entry, I hope, because I want to visit everyone's blogs on this week's Round Robin Photo Challenge. I'm also weeks behind on making the rounds on the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. I'm way behind on things today for two reasons:

1. John lured me to the tv twice today, with a classic Route 66 episode guest starring Martin Sheen and James Caan, and with new episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

2. This Presidential Election cycle is turning me into a hardcore political junkie, probably for the first time in my life.

Late last night, say from 2 AM to 4 AM, I wrote an entry on my Obama blog called "They Also Serve Who Only Scan and Copy-Paste." Don't bother to look for it; it's not there, although I may reuse that title sometime soon. The article disappeared into the ether due to site maintenance, and my forgetting to copy the piece before attempting to post. It was about the fact that the Obama buttons I designed have been blowing out the door of the campaign office, especially the Barkers for Obama ones. They made nearly 1,000 buttons between Tuesday and Friday, and although not all of them were my designs they've probably sold hundreds of them. Last night, on request, I added to the range with these:











And, just for you, Bea:



This afternoon, the guy in charge of the campaign office here asked me to make him a Barkers design with his dog pictured instead of one of mine. "Sure!" I said. And a family asked me to do a larger version of the Kids one so they can have a T-shirt made.

Cayenne wears a Barkers button with her own likeness.

Meanwhile, I myself still only have the defective buttons I made a few days ago, plus one Barkers and one Bloggers. I went down there today hoping to make more Barkers and Cool Cats and the Weekend Assignment designs, but there were still no Barkers on hand, the only Cool Cats were a few of the wrong cat, and I couldn;t work the circle cutter. I'm half convinced that the key to competent button making is to cut a goo circle on the crimble (printed design). There was no one down there today to help me with the mechanics of button making, so I have to put off my own button order until Monday.

The other political stuff of the day wasn't local. Over on the email account for mavarin@com, surrounded by nonsense characters, debt reduction come-ons and endless sex-oriented spam, I came across one with the subject line "7 Reasons Why Barack Obama is Not a Christian." The sender, a group called Christian Response, was offering to send out a DVD supposedly offering evidence for their spurious accusation. I didn't read the toxic email all the way through, but I did see that it ended with something like, "Who are you going to believe, Barack Obama or Jesus Christ?"

In accordance with my current policy on libelous spam, I emailed them back:

From: Karen @ thatword.com
To: Christian Response
Subject: Re: 7 Reasons Why Barack Obama is Not a Christian

You people should be ashamed of yourselves. This lie has been thoroughly debunked, as you well know:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/church.asp
http://www.newsweek.com/id/145971
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_obama.html
http://www.factcheck.org/specialreports/that_chain_e-mail_your_friend_sent_to.html

As a Christian who is webmaster for a mainstream church, I am frankly appalled that some self-proclaimed Christians place one or two issues that Jesus never spoke about ahead of His mandates to love your neighbor, love your enemy, be a good steward, care for the poor and be pure of heart. Your willingness to lie and cheat in order to mislead Christians into voting against Obama on the basis of false information is an affront to everything Jesus stood for - and still does.

Oh, and by the way, take me off your mailing list. It will be one less odious spam to delete.

Karen

I have no illusions that I will sway anyone at the other end of that email, but I had to make a stand. That includes publicizing such dirty tricks here and on the Obama blog.

The political news of the day offered some perspective on this smear attempt. The New York Times ran a front page article on Barack Obama's alleged link to former Weathermen bomber William Ayers, only to conclude that they are mere acquaintances. It is, Media Matters notes, "at least the 18th Times article this year mentioning that association." Media Matters goes on to say that the same person quoted about Ayers and Obama, Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman, also called Watergate conspirator G.Gordon Liddy "McCain's "own Bill Ayers" - and yet the New York Times has never mentioned the latter connection. Amusingly, this is the same New York Times that the McCain campaign accused of being "in the tank" for Obama a week or so ago. (Update: McCain also has been friends with a 1960s anti-war radical, the late David Ifshin, who was making noise and shutting down campus at Syracuse University when I was a kid and my dad was a dean at S.U.. Ifshin didn't bomb anything, but he did broadcast anti-American war machine rhetoric on Hanoi radio.)

Meanwhile, there are reports every day about Troopergate and other scandals and abuses of power by Sarah Palin as Wasilla mayor and Alaska governor. There are legitimate concerns being raised about John McCain's health, about unreported "per diems" on Palin's taxes, and about unreported gambling income and losses on McCain's.

And there's this, which if it holds up factually and gains traction in the media, will probably serve as the final nail in McCain's political coffin: Rolling Stone is publishing a major, major article on John McCain in its October 16th issue. It's online now:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

The article documents his unprincipled, hotheaded, self-serving behavior throughout his entire career, from his school days as the arrogant, hotheaded son and grandson of four star generals through his behavior this year. Using lots of interviews and quotes from McCain himself, it paits a very dark picture of the man, much more in line with what we've seen from him over the last several months that that of the principled moderate and proponent of "straight talk" that many believed him to be. That (along with the "Maverick" label) appears now to have been a calculated smokescreen, a way to rebrand himself after the Keating 5 scandal and attract favorable press attention as a route to power. (Update: Obama's campaign has now brought up the Keating 5 scandal in a major way, pointing out its relevance to the current economic crisis. McCain's people are now scrambling to counter this with feeble denials to well-documented fact.)



As I read the Rolling Stone piece and quite a few other articles about McCain and Palin, I am led to an inescapable conclusion. The difference between digging up skeletons in McCain's and Palin's pasts and doing the same to Obama - as the Republicans are trying desperately to do now - is that McCain's skeletons are real. Obama's are the product of racist, paranoid, opportunistic, xenophobic fantasy. No matter that he's a Christian - call him a Muslim anyway, and the rubes will believe it. Shake people up with talk of "socialism" when Obama calls for universal health insurance, and hope that nobody notices that Ronald Reagan said the same thing about Medicare in a scaremongering LP that Palin quoted from in Thursday's debate. Invent or play up spurious connections between Obama and terrorists and lobbyists, and hope nobody listens when the media point out McCain's many lobbyists on staff and Palin's former connection with an indicted Senator. Keep the narrative going on Fox News, National Review Online and in viral emails, and above all, train your supporters to assume that anything the rest of the media may say is a liberal elite media lie.

Only it's not going to work any more. A few people will always be fooled, but the rest of us can see which skeletons are real, and which are made of cardboard.

Karen

P.S. So much for "just a quick entry!"

Round Robin: Summer's End in a Land of Endless Summer

Looks like the fruit on this palm has gone brown.

Yes, it's Round Robins time again! This week's topic, The End Of Summer, was suggested by Janet of the blog Fond of Snape a little over a year ago. We just had to wait for summer to end again so we could play along!

A few brown leaves - probably due to drought

Living in Tucson makes a topic like this one kind of tricky. The end of summer in my childhood memories was about a last day of riding the waves on Lake Ontario, or heading back to school, or picking apples off our tree in the back yard. It's about a new chill in the evenings, early October rain, and the tinge of yellow or red started to spread across a maple leaf. I can't show you anything like that. There are no waves to ride, the only apples I see come from the grocery store, and I have no kids to show in new school clothes, getting on a bus. The rainy season is over here, and by and large the leaves don't change color.

As for a new chill in the air, check this out:

Friday, October 3, about 5:30 PM

Not exactly chilly, is it? But compare that with the first day of autumn, when it was 98 degrees at 6 PM, or the many times over the summer when the temperature broke 110.

It's getting harder to visit the dog park before sunset.

One sure sign of the end of summer is that the days cease to be longer than the nights. That means an earlier sunset.

Imminent sunset looking across Country Club Road.

Heading home around 6:10 PM Friday.

Another sign of the end of summer is when the annuals finish their growing season - assuming they haven't already been killed off by scorching heat or drought or caterpillars or, um, dogs:

Cayenne checks out the edge of John's garden.

Two months ago, this flowerbed was full of annuals.

Only a few plants remain in bloom.

"Nooo! I can save them!" John exclaimed (in jest) when I told him I was photographing the dying annuals.

To be honest, though, my personal summer ended nearly a month ago, on September tenth. That was the day my 90-day employment contract ended in Oro Valley. I ended that day on a curb with my shoebox of personal possessions, taking a few last pictures with my Sprint phone:



Be sure to check our Welcome Entry and Rules of Play if you're new to the Round Robin Photo Challenge and would like to play along. Meanwhile, be sure to check out the other Robins' farewells to summer!

Linking List

Janet - Posted!
Fond of Snape
http://www.fondofsnape.com/

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Wammy - Posted!
The Ellis Family
http://www.theellisfamilycincinnati.blogspot.com

ellen b. - **Welcome, New Member!**- Posted!
The Happy Wonderer
http://happywonderer.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/the-end-of-summer/

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Connie - Posted!
Far Side of Fifty
http://farsideoffifty.blogspot.com/

Erin - Posted!
Life of a College Student
http://erinminusguidedogs.blogspot.com

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Nancy
Nancy Luvs Pics
http://journals.aol.com/nhd106/Nancyluvspix/

Kiva - Posted!
The Eclectic Granny
http://eclecticgranny.blogspot.com

Valerie - Posted!
Soulfully Blonde
http://soulfullyblonde.blogspot.com

_rRose (new blog!) - Posted!
WAIT-NOTYET- MOUNTAIN RIVER WHISPERS
http://wait-notyet-mountainriverwhispers.blogspot.com/

Sandra - Posted!
Strong Chemistry
http://strongchemistry.blogspot.com

Mary - Posted!
Work of the Poet
http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com

Jill (new blog!) - Posted!
South Bay Soliloquy
http://southbaysoliloquy.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Robin - Posted!
Robin's Woods
http://robinswoods.blogspot.com/

Teena - Posted!
It's all about me!
http://purple4mee.blogspot.com

Arti - **Welcome, New Member!** - Posted!
Ripple Effects
http://rippleeffects.wordpress.com

Mary - Posted!
Just A Hippie Gypsy
http://contrarywoman.blogspot.com/2008/10/round-robin.html

Chrissie (new blog address!) - Posted!
Chris-seas Corner
htto://www.chrisseascorner.wordpress.com

Abby **Welcome New Member** - Posted!
{Hello}
http://www.abbyfleming.blogspot.com

Oh, and a note to AOL-J Robins, and anyone else changing blog addresses: please let us know the URL of your new blogging home as soon as you can, so we can update the sidebar over the next couple of weeks. Thanks - we're here for you!

Karen

Weekend Assignment #236: Fourth Quarter Projections

It's late, so I'll try to make this entry short and simple:

Weekend Assignment #236: We're now in the fourth quarter of the year, the time when (if they're not on a different fiscal year) companies have their last chance to shore up any deficiencies and show a profit for the year. Let's skip lightly over the fact that some companies accomplish this by cooking the books, and apply the basic principle to people instead of companies. As the year winds down, what do you hope to accomplish so that 2008, on balance, represents some kind of progress for you personally? (No, this does not mean financially, unless you've somehow bucked the trend of the rest of the country. Tell me about the writing, the home repair, the wedding, or anything else you hope to accomplish in the next few months.)

Extra Credit: What is the best thing you've done so far this year?

Me first!

As you've probably gathered, 2008 hasn't been a good year for me. I've been unemployed twice, and my dog died after a year-long illness. But I have made progress on the first novel, and done some planning on a further sequel post-Mages. And while it's not a huge accomplishment, I count it in the plus column that we've gotten two new dogs that we love a lot, and that I've been exercising them and myself at the same time over at Miko's Corner. I'm also pleased with myself that I've manage to make a tiny difference in this election with my blogging, badge designs and office work. Even if haven't convinced a single person to vote for my preferred candidates, I've manage to overcome my shyness enough to do a few things I've never dared to do before.

For the rest of the year, I fully intend to get Heirs of Mâvarin back out into the literary marketplace, this time concentrating on the YA market and agents who represent YA authors. But the biggest priority will be to get employed again.

Your turn! What do you hope to accomplish in the last quarter of the year? That have you already accomplished in the first three quarters? Write about it in your blog or journal, and please include a link back to this entry. Then leave a link to your entry in the comments below. I'll be back in a week to cheer you on in your year-end efforts!

Karen

Weekend Assignment Results: Button, Button...

For last week's Weekend Assignment #235: Button Up!, I asked you to design a button, or at least tell us what it would say. Here are the results of your creativity. All designs shown below are copyright the original bloggers unless otherwise stated. Follow the links to the actual blogs to see the full-size versions and many more designs, or to read about other button ideas that didn't make the cut:

Florinda said in comments...

I don't think I'm going to be doing this assignment, but I do have a little award for you at my blog today!

Arachne Jericho said in comments...

I did this a while back: Obama buttons for my avatars.

I often use either a Sherlock Holmes avatar (late 19th century illustrations are still wood-blockish) or recently a Psmith avatar (early 20th century illustrations started using washes and more subtle effects). Thus I created these for fun. Also, they're good as GIFs and are very small, file-size wise.

Carly said...

Two things that mean a lot to me are coming up very soon, so I kinda got excited about this Weekend Assignment. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and of course with the election in November, it's a good time to remind folks to get out and vote on election day. Although, given the recent events with the on again, off again, she says bailout, he says relief package machinations, I think folks will be going to the polls in great numbers this election to make their feelings known. Oh well, I made the effort anyway. I never really know if my little voice is heard, but at least I know I put it out there, so I can feel good about that.

Kiva said...

I read Karen's post on Friday and then listened to the presidential debate that evening. My first idea for a button was just a red circle with TALK in the middle and then a diagonal red line down the center. I am soooo tired of all this jabbering and both candidates saying nothing substantive. I've always maintained that actions speak louder than words.

Mike said...

The last one has nothing to do with politics. (You're welcome!) We have this picture in our kitchen of our first dog, Cosmo. He is sitting on the couch, like he often did, but he is sitting on his butt with his hind legs in front of him and one front leg on the armrest. He looks like he is trying to imitate the way a person sits on the couch. It cracks me up everytime I see it. I'd put it here, but it is from an old, non-digital camera and we don't have a scanner. Anyway, I was thinking of that and something along the lines of, "Couches, they're not just for people anymore."

The new Weekend Assignment will be posted shortly. Maybe.

Karen

P.S. If you did this assignment and want your button, please email me your snail mail address. Thanks!

Botched Buttonry (but at least I'm not Sarah P.)

Late last night, after hours and hours of retrieving stuff from AOL and uploading bits of it elsewhere, I watched a little Doctor Who, worked on Chapter Six of Heirs of Mâvarin, and suddenly, around 4 AM, remembered that my Obama buttons weren't quite ready for primetime. This was a problem, because I emailed the "final" version of them Tuesday afternoon, to be made into buttons today.

So I pulled an all-nighter. That's not unprecedented behavior for me, far from it. But this time I really pushed it, going to bed around 7:20 AM.

What had happened was this. I had been asked to add the following disclaimer to the button designs: "Made in-house by volunteers." Since that would look kind of terrible blazoned across the front of the button, I wanted to write it in a circle at the edge, so it would show up along the crimp at the edge of the button. That's the standard place for trademark and copyright notices on buttons. I should know, because I used to sell rock and roll buttons (among other things) for a living.

Only my free-with-this-computer photo editing software has no tools to make text go in a circle. Microsoft Word does, sort of, but I struggled with Word Art for an hour and the results were far from adequate.

About the time I reached this conclusion, perhaps 5:30 AM, John was up. At my request, and with much frustration expressed by each of us, he eventually managed to produce the needed text and add it to the button designs. I placed them back onto the master Word doc for printing out, emailed it to the person in charge of buttons for the local campaign office, and went to bed. I intended to be there when the buttons were made 2 1/2 hours later, but when I awoke from 90 minutes of sleep I knew that wasn't gonna happen.

When I awoke again, I had email that they'd already added the text in some less elegant way and printed out. And besides, my correspondent said, my text disappeared off the front of the button into the crimp area when the button was made. Well, yeah. it was supposed to.

So late this afternoon, dogs in tow, I stopped by the campaign HQ en route to the dog park. I was told my buttons are very popular, a fact that was demonstrated moments later when I tried to buy a Barkers for Barack button. They were out of them.

I had brought a page of printout with my version of the disclaimer on several versions of the Barkers button, partly to see where the disclaimer would end up on the finished button, and partly to make one with Pepper, who didn't get onto the semi-official designs. So I set out to make them myself. A volunteer set up the other button maker, which looks like the one I loaned the campaign but doesn't operate quite the same way. I tried it, and promptly ruined my Pepper for Obama button.


After a second attempt also went south, I switched to my old button maker. Although it's been over a decade since I last made buttons, I remembered how to work that one. But remembering how and doing it competently on thirty-year-old equipment are two different things. I could not get the plastic piece to crimp around the back, and promptly ruined my remaining "crimbles" (the term John and I coined for the circles of printed paper) as well as more metal badge parts. I could not enlist help, as there was a meeting going on a few feet away, which included the person who printed the other crimbles. I was borderline disruptive (although I didn't mean to be) before I gave up and left, anxious dogs, defective buttons and all. I wore the bad buttons (one of Pepper and one of Cayenne) anyway at the dog park, which led to a pleasant conversation with a journalism student there.

Defective buttons! And it's my fault!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to consult with someone at St. Michael's about the church web site, and of course tomorrow night is the VP debate, with speculation running high about how the combination of experience, intelligence and foot-in-mouth disease fares against ignorant, incoherent, witless charm. Thursday night is also when I roll out the button designs readers suggested for this week's Weekend Assignment. Remember, I'll actually be making and mailing the buttons you write about, even if I need help with my own buttonmaker! So please get your entry in by Thursday evening if at all interested. They don't need to be political, much less something I agree with, just something you think would make a cool button.

Then Friday I'll go back down to the campaign office and buy some buttons for myself, and anyone else who wants one. (One per person, please.)

Karen