the underwear drawer

stuff i bought

Ooh, look what I got yesterday!





Have you seen these? They're these flip-flops, only they're super-squishy because the soles are made out of a one inch-thick layer of sponge covered in, I don't know, latex or something. So when you walk, it's like taking a walk in the clouds, and not in that Keanu Reeves period-romance way. Such a delight for the poor, abused feet. I swear, my arches are going to have a party when we finally unload Cal, because they are not used to supporting all this extra weight. They're like, "Hey lady, what gives?" I wore a sandal with a wedge heel to the reunion last week, and I swear, my feet just about mutinied on me. So now I have to buy them treats to win them over again to my side.


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I have found the solution to our expensive dog-entertaining problem. As I have mentioned before, Cooper has a little problem with her stuffed toys. She loves them, literally begs for them, but once we hand a fresh one over, she completely disembowels it within about 20 minutes. Then, no more toy. And no more money, because these dog toys cost $3-5 at the absolute cheapest, and more like $7-10 for dogs built larger than oh, say, a chihuahua. The dog, she does not understand that it takes money to buy new toys, and that I am not some sort of giving tree or toy-making elf.

Enter the Salvation Army. Did you know you can get stuffed animals there for only 99 cents? And some of them are pretty cute too--see Cooper's teddy bear in the picture from yesterday's entry. (That's shortly before she ripped its head off and pulled out all its sweet, sweet polyester guts, by the way.) Why, for the price of ONE "dog toy" from PetCo, I could get, like SEVEN stuffed animals from the Salvation Army! It's not like the "real" dog toys last any longer. (Well, some of them do, mostly of the hard rubber and rope variety, but she is only occasionally interested in these, unless when they're smeared with some sort of foodstuff.) And sure, some of the stuffed animals are a little matted and busted looking, but WHO CARES, the dog is just going to destroy them anyway. It would be different if I were giving them to my kid, but for a dog, all I care is that it's not, like, impregnanted with arsenic or something. You just have to be careful when picking through the Salvation Army stuffed animal bin. Don't choose any toy with some big plastic piece that the dog could choke on when she inevitably rips it off, or any kind of "beanie" stuffed animal. Because when that dog gets to the little beanbag core and rips it open, you and your broom are going to get friendly.

Some part of me is worried that by continually buying her more stuffed toys and having her destroy them as part of her "play," I'm just reinforcing this destructive behavior and dooming Cal to a life of headless teddy bears. But you know what, we'll get to that "these are the dog toys, these are the baby toys" lesson when the time comes around. And at least Coop now no longer destroys non-toy items, like our chairs and tables and cushions. That's a step in the right direction, at least.

Anyway, it's been way to hot these past few days for a black dog to go to the park during the middle of the day, and what the hell else is she supposed to do for entertainment? Read?

Currently reading: The New York Times series on "Class Matters" in America. (Socioeconomic class, that is, not school class or elegance class.) There are 10 installments in the series so far about everything from Health Care to Marriage to Education, and it's really very eye-opening and worth a gander.