Good boy, Laddie

Here’s the finished product from class today.  I like how it turned out.  I went through 2/3rds of a bottle of great wine while painting it.   It’s the Goob!   If any of you read Terry Pratchett, you might remember the big gorgeous but really dumb dog who would tell himself, “Good boy, Laddie!”  I say that to Goob a lot.

 

Quotes from the book I think Laddie was in:

“He tended to smile a lot, in a faintly puzzled way. This gave people the impression that he was slightly more intelligent than they were. In fact, he was usually trying to work out what they had just said.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“…inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“If the abnormal goes on long enough it becomes the normal.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“Ordinary laziness was merely the absence of effort. Victor had passed through there a long time ago, had gone straight through commonplace idleness and out on the far side. He put more effort into avoiding work than most people put into hard labor.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“People who didn’t apply themselves to the facts in hand might have thought that Victor Tugelbend would be fat and unhealthy. In fact, he was undoubtedly the most athletically inclined student in the University. Having to haul around extra poundage was far too much effort, so he saw to it that he never put it on and he kept himself in trim because doing things with decent muscles was far less effort than trying to achieve things with bags of flab.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“The moments that change your life are the ones that happen suddenly, like the one where you die.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“People who used magic without knowing what they were doing usually came to a sticky end. All over the entire room, sometimes.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“The universe contains any amount of horrible ways to be woken up, such as the noise of the mob breaking down the front door, the scream of fire engines, or the realization that today is the Monday which on Friday night was a comfortably long way off. A dog’s wet nose is not strictly speaking the worst of the bunch, but it has its own peculiar dreadfulness which connoisseurs of the ghastly and dog owners everywhere have come to know and dread. It’s like having a small piece of defrosting liver pressed lovingly against you.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“It was always best, [Victor] had learned, never to try to follow the plot of any click you were in, and in any case Soll wasn’t just shooting back to front, but sides to middle as well. It was totally confusing, just like real life.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“Messin’ around with girls who’re in thrall to Creatures from the Void never works out, take my word for it. You’d never know what you were going to wake up next to.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“’But look, that can’t be right,’ said Ginger, in the small voice of one trying to be reasonable while madness is breaking down the door with a cleaver.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“What was it they said about the gods? They wouldn’t exist if there weren’t people to believe in them? And that applied to everything. Reality was what went on in people’s heads.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“Reality didn’t have to be real. Maybe if conditions were right, it just had to be what people believed…” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“The rope continued its swing. There was a noise exactly like a rubber sack full of butter hitting a stone slab and this was followed, after a moment or two, by a very quiet ‘oook’.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“Poets long ago gave up trying to describe [Ankh-Morpork]. Now the more cunning ones try to excuse it.” ~Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
“It’s very hard to be bad at acting in moving pictures.” ~Silverfish
“Gosh. Isn’t life interesting when you see it from someone else’s perspective…?” ~Victor Tugelbend
“Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job. I bet even people like Cohen the Barbarian get up in the morning thinking, ‘Oh, no, not another day of crushing the jeweled thrones of the world beneath my sandaled feet.’” ~Victor Tugelbend
“And don’t you go around using that calm and reasonable tone of voice with me. I hate it when people go around being calm and reasonable at me.” ~Ginger Withel

 

I love the internet

I have this German Shepherd.  He is a big beautiful dog, but he is loooooong.  Like, ridiculously long.  He may be papered and he may be beautiful but he could never be shown.  He’s too long, doesn’t have the conformation.   At certain angles, it just strikes you just how long he is.

He will be going around the corner with his head and shoulders, but the back half of him hasn’t yet become involved.   And every time I see this, I think of that old cowboy song, Get a Looooong, Little Doggie.  I know the chorus (growing up in Idaho does that to you) and I sing it to the dog on a regular basis.

Tonight, I wondered, “What are the rest of the words to that song?”   I checked Google.   Voila!  The lyrics.

Gawd I love the internet.  Plus I’ve been drinking a little bit of Scotch. 🙂

Sing it, Gene!

————————

Get Along Little Doggies – Gene Autry playing cards and singing in 1940

Get Along Little Doggies – Arlo Guthrie and the Muppets … get a loooooooong little doggie
As I was out riding one morning for pleasure
I spied a young cowboy a-ridin along
His hat was throw’d back and his spurs were jinglin
And as he was riding he was singing this song

Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little doggies
It’s your misfortune ain’t none of my own
Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little doggies
You know that Wyoming will be your new home

When spring comes along we’ll round up the doggies
We’ll stick on their brands and we’ll bob off their tails
Pick out the strays, then the herd is inspected
And the very next day we’ll go out on the trail

Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little doggies
It’s your misfortune ain’t none of my own
Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little doggies
You know that Wyoming will be your new home

We’ll ride on the Prairies across the wide rivers
And on through the flats where there’s never a town
Our horses are weary, we’re tired and we’re hungry
Stay still, little doggies, quit roaming around

Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little doggies
It’s your misfortune ain’t none of my own
Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little doggies
You know that Wyoming will be your new home

Tide is a-comin and the doggies are straying
They’re farther from home than they’ve been before
Come on, little doggies it’s time to be rollin
When we get to Wyoming we’ll roll no more

Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little doggies
It’s your misfortune ain’t none of my own
Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little doggies
You know that Wyoming will be your new home

Goob and the Bee

Winter set back in today, rained last night, and it got cold. Apparently the plants and bees haven’t noticed.
The wisteria on the patio cover is coming on full bore, and when you stand underneath, the whole structure fairly hums with bees.
(click for a little larger view)

Our big lovely German Shepherd, Gunnar, a.k.a. Goober/Goob, was out under the wisteria today and a bee dropped down in front of him. He ate it. Yelped around, found another one, and did it again. Poor Goob is the very definition of brainless. Sweet, but unutterably dumb.
The arrows point to his tongue coming out in anticipation and the bee, about not to be. (click for a larger view)

This is my favorite (for the moment) orchid blooming again. You can’t even see the second spray in this picture. I hope I get one before the blooms all fall off. Also, can you see my pizza clock? It’s pretty funny. What time is it? It’s Pizza Time! This is the only clock I’ve ever owned that I cared enough about to even have an opinion on.


Lewi guest stars in the background.

Goob loves getting brushed. Lewi wonders why.

Every time I see this I hear the sheep in “Babe” crying, “Wooooolves, Wooooolves!”