A new skill - Buddy Taping!

It sounds like some odd team-building exercise, doesn't it? I can imagine a group of fourth graders and a roll of duct tape ... or, maybe I'd rather not imagine that.

Really, it involves taping an injured finger to a healthy finger to stabilize the hurt one. In fact, here's a picture! Of my very own hand. And no, the purple was not added in photoshop. It got a little tricky since two fingers are broken and not just one.

I've known for a while my dog, Oscar Wild, was never socialized. He doesn't get on well with other dogs. Not a problem given where we live except when there are dogs roaming free. Not common, though, since we only have a couple of neighbors in our square mile. Yesterday I walked the Cannonsburg biking/ski trail and, tired after about three miles, was approaching my driveway when ... Yes, two strange dogs in the road. I'm not sure if Oscar wants to eat strange dogs or just be buddies. Whatever the case, he wanted at those two in a bad way. So bad that while I was going for a better grip on the leash, he bolted. My fingers? History. 

Another angle: 

I had to Google "Buddy Taping." Thank heavens for YouTube. You can find anything on YouTube. There are even videos on rug hooking! Which is something I might not be doing for a while, given my poor digits.

And my not-so-best Buddy ...

Hard to be upset with that face.

A Little on the Overwhelmed Side

I visited a new (to me) hooking group last Monday, and while it was wonderful, full of artists and beautiful rugs, I felt the bar raising up, up, and away. There are Real hooking artists there! Like Brenda. Suddenly my rug looked like a small, shriveled raisin in a field of succulent grapes.

Not that I don't like raisins. I do. But there's a big difference between a prune and a plum, for example. One my children will eat. One they think is gross, for Babies and Old People with Regularity Issues.

Speaking of my kids, this is the Spring Portrait for Little Fish. No joke. They truly expect me to pay money for this? I'm in the wrong biz - school pictures is where the money is.

I'll just keep plugging away, I suppose. Maybe my rug won't resemble the Frankenstein I fear. Maybe? Or perhaps this is opportunity to finish my last-ever packet for Hamline's Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults. For some reason I've been putting it off. Can't imagine why ...

Oh, and speaking of the Universe (I was, wasn't I?), it heard.