Tag: velcro

Too Fat for a Hat?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

wearing a hat before and after

I wore baseball caps throughout my childhood and teen years, I even wore a hat when I worked in the fast food industry as a teenager and in my early 20’s. When I started to go bald, I wore a hat for two reasons, one because my skin burns easily and two because I didn’t want anyone to see that I was bald lol. I mean, I wasn’t hiding it because it’s a fact of life, but I just didn’t like it, so I would hide it.

I stopped wearing hats right after I got this hat for Christmas one year. When I saw the picture of me wearing my Christmas present and how fat I was, I resigned myself to the fact that I didn’t look good in hats anymore. Some people can pull certain looks off, and I was always able to pull off wearing a baseball cap, but I was convinced those days were gone. I would look at myself in the mirror with this and my other hats, and I just didn’t like the way I looked in them.

Today I was preparing myself to go on a walk and regretting it because it is supposed to be 102°F today. I wanted to see if I looked okay in a hat, so naturally this being the nicest and the least beat up hat that I had, I tried it on and was surprised at how loose it was. I had to adjust the velcro so it would be tighter on my thinner head. I had no idea that my head had actually shrunk that much. I looked in the mirror and I wasn’t very happy until I put on the Noom sunglasses. That’s when it all came together.

So I’m going to start wearing a hat again when I go for my walks because I am very concerned about skin cancer, especially since I burn so easily. I actually don’t think I look bad at all anymore in a hat. Even without the sunglasses, I think I look okay.

Deadly Pet Toys

On By Michel McDonaldIn PetsLeave a comment

We got our Toy Chihuahua last year so we’ve had her for maybe a year and 2 months.  When we first got her we went to PetSmart and bought her this little toy that is a green frog with a squeaker inside of it.  She loves that frog.  She’s always playing with it and her favorite thing is to bite down on the squeaker to make it squeak.

She’s chewed the hell out of that frog and she’s even torn the fabric so that she was able to access the squeaker and she chewed the tip of it off.  This was like 6 months or so ago.  I took the squeaker out and threw it away when I realized what she had one.

About a month ago I found the spare squeaker that came with the frog and there is an access in the back of the frog with Velcro so you can remove the one inside and replace it.  Well, even though she chewed the hell out of the stomach it didn’t occur to me that she might try to chew the spare squeaker the same way.  I don’t know why.  I forgot that she did it to the first one so it didn’t really occur to me to not put the second one in there.

Today Darrin was laying on the couch talking to his brother on the phone and our dog Flower was laying next to his feet just going to town on this frog.  I saw how passionate she was chewing on this thing and it didn’t occur to me that she might have been chewing the tip of the squeaker.

Darrin got off the phone and I noticed that she was clawing at her face.  I went over to her and picked up the frog and she didn’t try to get it back, she was still clawing at her face.  She had this look of horror in her eyes.  I could tell she was in trouble but I didn’t know what to do.  I looked at the squeaker and the tip was gone.  The part that makes the squeaking sound was laying on the couch where she was laying all by itself next to the frog and I realized she was choking on something.

I put my finger in her mouth and I could feel it in her throat but I couldn’t get at it.  I accidentally pushed it in her throat and she was struggling still.  I knew she couldn’t breathe at all.  I told Darrin to blow inside her mouth to help her out but he didn’t know what I meant.  He put his lips up to her mouth and blew on them, I grabbed her and put her entire snout into my mouth and just blew and then chip squeezed her chest and you could hear a popping sound, the plastic piece shot out of her mouth and fell onto the floor.

OMFG!!!  I was in total panic mode, I didn’t know what to do.  I didn’t know what I was doing when I blew in her mouth, I thought I was helping her but at the same time I would’ve been hurting her.  If it weren’t for Darrin squeezing her chest she would’ve been dead.

I immediately threw the frog away and took a picture of the squeaker.  You can see in the picture the piece that she had stuck in her throat, it’s the thing that the arrow is pointing to.

squeeker

I can only imagine what might have happened if we weren’t home to see this happening, what we might have walked in on one day.  I might have been on my bike ride and come home to find a dead toy chihuahua laying on the living room floor or on the couch.  Or we might come home from the movies or from going out to dinner.  I will never ever buy another toy with one of these things in it ever again.  And if I find a toy that has one, I’m going to take it out first.

My aunt Louise takes them out.  When I went to visit her for Christmas in Texas someone bought her dogs some toys and she took the squeakers out but I didn’t know why, now I know.  They are killers.  But her dogs are a lot bigger than mine, like Golden Retriever sized dogs.  Our dog is smaller than a cat.  Like half the size of a cat.  I never even imagined this would happen but now I do and I’ve learned from it.

Toy Chihuahua Sweaters

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, PetsLeave a comment

Well I tried making some sweaters for our little doggy with the Knifty Knitter blue loom but it just didn’t work out too well. First off it’s too hard to put on her because you have to put it on over her head then you have to put her front feet in the holes then pull it down and the bottom of it was too tight to be able to do that because of the way I had to end the sweater.

The neck was too big and the waist was too tight lol. The sweater stretched too much too so it just didn’t look good at all. I’m doing it as granny squares now which will make it much easier to do different color themes for the holidays so it works out.

And doing it with crochet with squares it doesn’t pull over, it just sits on top of her and holds on with velcro in the front and underneath. As soon as I finish the first one which will be for St. Patrick’s Day I will put a picture on this blog plus in the crafts section.