What does it mean to be a dog lover?

February 3, 2015 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 19 Comments

If you are ever in the mood to bawl your eyes out, let me recommend Marley & Me by John Grogan. The book, mind you, not the stupid movie. Grogan offers the truest insight into the hearts of dog lovers ever. We are all masochists; we commit to utterly loving our dogs with full knowledge that one day they will break our hearts. (Oh my god, I am tearing up just writing that.)

Anyway. I fucking love dogs. They make the best people. I think that is an Einstein quote. Or maybe this is: if you ever think a dog can’t count try putting two treats in your pocket and only giving him one.

My entire family is dog people. You should see Thanksgiving at my mom’s house, it’s insane.

As you know, Aaron and I have Bandit & Leroy. Bandit is more like my familiar than my dog, though, and we are psychically linked. (Joking not joking)

What? It was raining out and they are Chihuahuas.

My mom has Blue. He is very rude, his tongue is all the time sticking out.

My brother Clayton has Radar & Otis. Radar’s motto is make war not love. Of all these dogs, she’s the boss. Yep, tiny boss dog gets the big bed and kicks big dog over to the tiny bed.

Below is our newest member, my baby brother George just entered into contract of guaranteed heart break in 14 to 17 years time with Blue Lady Carter.

Finally, my brother Jamie doesn’t (yet) have a dog but he and Bandit have a special relationship.

Anyways, what it means to me to be a dog lover is to try to love them as immensely as they love us but they will always love us more. Because they’re dogs and that’s what they do. Didn’t I say they make the best people?

Vintage Christian Dior dog tag bracelet at Farfetch

99 Problems & A Bitch Is Definitely 1

January 24, 2015January 24, 2015 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 8 Comments

Like literally. A female dog is my big problem today.

We’re dog watching a cute (?) shepard/collie mix this weekend. She is sweet, soft, loving, big, hungry for Leroy, and pulls on leashes. That’s right, she wants to eat Leroy.

Leroy looks like this ring to begin with, so it’s not a far stretch that someone would decide to try to eat him. I almost do on a daily basis because he’s pretty darn cute. But this is not cool. Two attempts now at eating him. NOT COOL, BIG DOG.

So the original plan was leave all the doggies at home today, since both my husband and I are working. But now we can’t leave her with Leroy. And Bandit & Leroy are a unit, so next solution? Bring them to the shop, leave BIG NAUGHTY DOG at our place.

EXCEPT. We left her by herself for 15 minutes and she got on the dining table. Ate an ink pad and knocked stuff off the table. I think that was the order of events. So now, Aaron drove her over to my shop, with the baby gate, and she’s trapped in my back room. Because she still must be separated from Leroy and Bandit. Not to mention, if she’s acting this way with my dogs? What might she do to a customer’s dog?? She’s back there now. CRYING. “Why?” She cries, “why do you punish me? Leroy looks so tasty, can you blame me?”

Uhoh, she’s quiet. I’m afraid to look.

Barry Kieselstein Cord Bracelet
Boticca Hot Dog Ring
Boticca Origami Dog
Allurez Rose Gold Bone Necklace

Hump Day 1.17.2007

January 17, 2015January 17, 2015 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 3 Comments

Really? Do I really need to explain the anniversary on this one? Let’s just say, give me the right setting, a little take out food, a barely furnished apartment, a big brown dog, and the guy I met two nights prior in 2007…

We watched American Idol. For my very first time. I definitely mentioned that part in yesterday’s post. I couldn’t bring myself to link anything American Idol *shudder* so instead is the Haim song I like the most right now. It sort of works with the memory theme, right?

In case you are just tuning in, I’m telling the story of a very life changing week. It started with meeting a guy at a bar on a Monday, back in 2007. Not to give too much away but the timeline is a Monday to Monday string of events.

Some days were less interesting. Like Wednesday. It was a very regular day, I think. Except that it formally counts as “our first date” being that I went over to Aaron’s barely furnished apartment and we watched American Idol and I met the Moosehead. He was a hell of a dog. Before AI we took the Moose up to Alamo Square dog park. We also hit up Bar 861 on Divisadero for happy hour. I think this was all the same day. Regardless, it has become a conflated memory of a date.

What I can tell you concretely, this was the day that I wrote this to my best friend:
“I met such a cute guy last night- this is his myspace pic. And he already called and we’re watching american idol and eating dinner tonight smile emoticon hooray!”

Oh wait, so I guess I watched American Idol on Tuesday? Oops. Must change the time line.
To be cont.

Today’s bangles: yellow Hermès from my brother, Angela Cummings from my mom, and an Alaska charm bracelet of my mom’s from when she was a girl.

1.7.15 first time for everything

January 7, 2015January 7, 2015 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 14 Comments

Apparently I thought it’d be a good idea to try this today.

Now, if you’ll excuse me so I can go and hide my face.

Researchery

December 29, 2014December 29, 2014 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 6 Comments

My last post (ahem…right here) showed off my recent accidental Goodwill find: an ivory bangle. As I mentioned in the post, this is a very complicated piece of jewelry and it has prompted me to do some research in deciding if I (likely) keep it. My honey and I brought it to our jeweler Isabella Hutten to confirm it’s ivory-ness. Which she did. It’s tricky to place a value on ivory because of the laws surrounding the sale of it in many states, the undesirable yet valuable nature of ivory, and the lack of comparable ivory items on the market. So I started googling ivory like jewelry.

It seems bone is the popular ivory looking material. I guess because it might be cow or horse. Basically a waste product in our meat eating economy. Like this second hand Chanel bangle. Yep I just called a Chanel bangle “waste product”… That is how we do! For seriousness tho the raw look of bone is highly popular. Bone, along with geodes, fossils, and skulls are definitely having a moment. In an odd way, most ivory is too polished looking to be fashionable.

The other big ivory-like material out there is acrylic resin. Handling my ivory bangle it feels and looks very much like a synthetic material. Maybe because I’m so accustomed to synthetics. The big difference in ivory is the very light cross hatching pattern. It is a tooth, afterall. It has some tiny natural rings and details. Like a tree pattern but much more delicate.

Anyway, I enjoy this research and reason to read about jewelry. My honey and I are staying in Lake Tahoe for the week to commune with the snow. Whenever we come up here I have the most challenging time packing. I’m all “Do people wear jeans in winter weather?” I can’t ever remember.

Our friends and their ridiculously cute 1.5 year old are staying with us at the cabin we rented. Most people come up here to ski, but I enjoy the hiking and snowshoeing. Bandit is all about the outdoors whereas Leroy likes to remind me that he is a Chihuahua.

Yep, this is how we do it with our visiting dog. (This is actually a pre-Tahoe shot- see my ivory bangle? Paired with the yellow enamel my brother gave me. Below is the legit Tahoe shot. You’ll note I finally decided people in the cold *do* wear jeans. Unfortunately I brought the pair with the fly that’s afraid of heights.)

#weirdselfies 🙊

12.11.14 stormy weather

December 11, 2014December 11, 2014 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 4 Comments

It is rainy in SF which means our entire city has ground to a halt. We don’t know how to handle weather! If there is any truer statement about San Francisco, please let me know. I didn’t go to work today because the shop has no power. Correction, I did go to work today, discovered I had no power, and returned home.

My dogs refuse to go outside to take care of business. Chihuahuas, I tell ya. These raincoats are purely decorative.

Here’s a car swimming thru the intersection. My picture is terrible, I apologize.

Finally, a life tip from me to you. When you buy a salad, turn it upside down to eat so you get the boring stuff out of the way first. You are welcome.

Today’s bracelets are a turquoise Taxco cuff, and a green stone (what is this stone?) and silver bracelet also from Mexico.

11.27.14 turkey turkey

November 27, 2014 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 2 Comments

Living in the same city as my mom I see her a lot. But even so, I walked over here yesterday after work. I felt like Michonne with my honey’s army backpack full of gear (by gear I mean makeup and high heels), my two doggies on leashes trailing behind me, stomping through the wilderness of San Francheesie. Once here, my mom and I ate cheese and tried to connect her computer to her TV. But to no avail. I think it takes more than shoving an ethernet cable into each device. You can start calling me a technology wiz at any point now.

Then my mom said “Oh I have some old bangles for you!” And lucky me, the luckiest of all girls, my mom gave me these two big bangles from my dad to her from back in the eighties. Both have special inscriptions in them.

So I am thankful for many things today. For my mom and my brothers (even when I am annoyed by them), my honey, and my doggies, and for the air that I breath. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, too!

11.13.14 gone fishin’, suckers!

November 13, 2014November 13, 2014 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 5 Comments

You know what this is, you guys? This is my wrist bare of everything but my loyal Up because I took a day off.

“Wait, Margaret, you work? How do you fit in working around all your WordPressing?” You may ask.

Here’s the usual scene: customer wandering my little shop dying for assistance as I tip type away. “Do not disturb my bracelet blogging genius!” Reads the imaginary thought bubble above my head. But oh no! Not today! Today I’ve gone fishin’, in the proverbial sense. In the literal sense I’ve gone sofa sittin’, but that is so much less interesting.

Fortunately my dogs like going fishing, too. Bandit sez “Fish?” with a very hopeful gleam to his eye.

Sayonara suckers!

Gone fishing sign made by Carved by Heart on Etsy.

11.6.14 bringing on the heartbreak

November 6, 2014 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 8 Comments

Yesterday I promised you guys some heartbreak. Here it is, in the picture below my wrist shot (so sexy!) and above this paragraph (also so sexy!).

That’s Bandit at around 5:45 pm on our first day of work since the time change. He’s sitting there, alert, looking out the shop door, waiting. Waiting for who? For my dad.

It’s dark, obviously closing time, all signs indicating to Bandit that one of his favorite people should be arriving any moment to pick us up and give us a ride home 💔 Bandit hasn’t done this for months now. But this time change, it triggered a reminder of the habit in him I think. It was so ingrained in us. One of the recurring thoughts I had after my dad died was “but how will we get home now?” Late afternoon continues to be a hard time of day for me.

Dogs are amazing, aren’t they? Poor Bandit (and Leroy too, but he’s a bit of a dum dum), I wonder what he’s thinking? How they experience sorrow? Two of my dog owning acquaintances died recently. Dick, the owner of my local hardware store and Diana, a customer of mine. I really felt for their families, of course. I can relate to them and what they are going thru.

But my heart just broke completely thinking of their dogs, Lola and Hudson respectively. These were both people, like myself, who spent 24/7 with their dogs. Lola is this blind chihuahua and she followed Dick up and down the hardware aisles. They were a cute pair, Dick this lumbering old man and Lola this ‘perfect fit for Paris Hilton’s purse’ tiny dog.

Diana’s dog Hudson has the most soulful eyes. He’s a small black Maltese. Diana went thru many months of chemo and surgeries, and you could read the concern on Hudson’s face. He knew something was going on. So when he walked into the shop the other day, I hugged him and I told him that I am sorry for his loss. It felt like the right thing to do.

Those dogs, their littles lives, the centers of their universes are gone. How do they deal? I know they miss their person, but do they sense the total absence? Or are they like Bandit, hopeful that if the stars align just right and they wait patiently enough, that person will return?

Today’s bangles are: Les Ponts de Paris by Hermès, trellis silver cuff from Tiffany’s and my dad’s two face watch by Baum & Mercier. Below is the engraving I added to the back of it.

Ghost dad LOL

October 25, 2014October 25, 2014 ~ Margaret DTH ~ 28 Comments

Alanna from White Girls Be Like posted a challenge, a competition! She’s hosting a Funny Blog Friday which sounds pretty alright. Since I’m competitive, and I like to think I’m funny despite my total inability to remember punchlines, I raised my hand.

But then I started re-reading my blogs. Turns out grief, bracelets, and infertility don’t make for a rollicking good time. So here’s a collection of my worst, darkest, least funny, most painful, absolutely terrible thoughts recently. Let me welcome you to rock bottom.

-If my dad were still alive we’d probably go to the baseball game tonight.
-My dad was the only person to ask me how my day went.
-It’s getting darker earlier and soon I’ll be walking home from work in the dark. Because my dad used to be my ride home and now he is dead. And nobody asks me how my day went anymore.
-How many rounds of IVF would it take to bankrupt my honey and me?
-If we do get pregnant, this kid will probably be an asshole because we’re over invested in the process.
-At the very least, he’ll have no toys. Because we spent all our money on making him.
-I don’t think my dogs like me as much as they used to and they’ll probably hate me if I get pregnant.
-Someday everybody I love will die, I think that’s how the lyrics go.
-If my husband and I both die with some frozen embryos still in the bank, will my brothers destroy the embryos? Even after all this hard work and money spent?
-What if my honey dies first?
-What if I die first with frozen embryos in the bank? Would my honey remarry?
-What kind of a woman would marry a widower who brings his own frozen embryos to the table?
-Obviously my destroyed frozen embryos and I must haunt my honey and his new wife if he decides to ditch the embryos.
-Will my dogs like my husband’s new wife better then me?
-Can I haunt them too?
-Will they even care?
-Dogs are probably only afraid of ghosts when the ghosts are haunting paper bags.
-When I’m not haunting my husband and his new wife, my afterlife will be spent haunting paper bags. Paper bags. While my husband and his new wife will be busy getting pregnant super easily.
-At least I’ll have my destroyed embryos to keep me company. And my dad. Who will definitely ask me how my day went.
-I’ll need to remember to update my dad on the whole paper bag situation.
-Maybe we can bring one to a ball game, depending on haunting policies.
-Or are there ghost leagues? I’d probably prefer those.