It doesn’t really look like much, huh? Just a lacy blob. But as you can see, it’s a blob that’s getting bigger, so we’re clearly making progress.

A little more detail. Just because.

I’m feeling like a bad mother tonight because I found a tick on Chappy. A very large, round, well-fed tick that’s clearly been there for a while, and I hadn’t seen it. My guess is that he picked it up last week at the farm because, well, it was a farm and he was outside for most of the day–and then rained in for most of the past week. But–it took me a week to find it?

But, no time to be squeamish. I grabbed my “Ticked Off” tick-removal spoon and pulled that thing off–and with quite a loud pop, too. I’m 98% sure that the entire thing came off. I couldn’t actually see its head before I dumped it in the toilet, but the legs were moving, and I didn’t find anything on Chappy except for a little scab. Like I said–the tick had obviously been there a while. I do love those Ticked Offs, though–I can’t imagine trying to get those critters off with tweezers, and they’ve never failed me.

Still, obviously, I’m a terrible mother.

Chappy, on the other hand, is a very good boy. He sat nicely in the kitchen while I pulled the tick off and while I tried to look at his neck where it had been (not easy, what with all that fur). And yes, he got a treat for being so well behaved. But, obviously, next time we go to the farm, he’s going to get a more thorough spritz of his anti-flea and tick spray.

For the record, it was so cold and damp last night that I was cold when I climbed into my nice, cozy bed … so I pulled out that lovely afghan I just finished and put it on top of my duvet. I honestly didn’t expect to find a use for it before October or so, so this was particularly exciting. I can vouch for its fitting very nicely on my twin-sized bed, and apologize for its having ended up on the floor at some point in the middle of the night. That used to happen to my dolls and stuffed animals when I was little, too. In fact, my very favorite doll, who has a crack in her little plastic face, used to end up with her head on one side of the bed and her body on the other … poor Buttons. She must have been so glad when I headed off to school in the morning. Can you imagine the headaches she must have had?

Today’s post title? It occurred to me this morning that I am exactly a quarter of the way through my forties. I am 42.5 years old today.

Yes, it’s my  half-birthday, and to celebrate, I spent the day at work, but got to take Chappy out for his first walk since Saturday. And when I came home from work, I cooked supper and baked a pan of brownies, using a recipe I got from Stitchy McYarnpants in 2006 and hadn’t gotten around to trying yet.

No photos of the brownies (yet), but I can vouch for them being decadently chocolatey, even if they are rather more cake-like than brownie-like.

Today’s CHUCK links:

• A review of season 2 from IGN.

• But also, another creative move from the minds of the people trying to save Chuck. They’ve already had people buying thousands of Subway footlong sandwiches because Subway is such an enthusiastic sponsor, but now, they’re encouraging people to “Have a Heart” and donate to Subway’s favorite charity–the American Heart Assocation–in the name of Chuck Bartowski. I think this is a great idea, myself. Because, one, it’s creative and better than swamping the NBC studios with boxes of candy, but two, even if it has no real impact, it’s money going to a good cause. Because who doesn’t want to stop heart disease?

Tags: Chappy, Knitting/Spinning // 9 Comments »