Ahoy mateys! Aye, it be Talk Like a Pirate Day yet again, and in honor of the blessed day, me friend Estelle - that's Cap'n Estelle the Mighty to you, ye land lubbers, and we're here to remind ye all it's Adopt a Less Adoptable Pet Week. Estelle has a soft spot in her heart for pirates- after all, they share an awful lot in common with the types of pets being featured this week. A motley yet lovable crew, misunderstood, maligned by a society that values attributes they have no control over. ... Read more »
Musings
Using snakes to light a fire
I think I could have been very happy as a biologist. It was the direction in which I was headed, though always with the intent of turning my bachelors degree in biology into a professional degree. I chose to ignore the fact that I really loved biology as its own pursuit, fascinated with taxonomy and utterly enchanted with the concept of sitting on a smelly pile of rocks in a harbor by Marina del Rey counting mussels. I understood this, the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, trying to get a ... Read more »
The naked dream would have been less stressful
I am a recurring nightmare kind of person. Always have been. They come in waves, depending on what my stress du jour is, where I am in life. I remember my first recurring dream well: I am running from someone, something, bad. I do not know what it is but I know that I can't let it catch me. I run along the side of the house, bright in the midday sun, and my feet turn to lead, sticking into the tall summer grass as though it were quicksand. I open my mouth to scream, and nothing comes out. ... Read more »
Crabby Con
My husband loves Comic-Con, which if you don't know is a yearly event here in San Diego in which an ever increasing number of people ranging from normal to deranged descend upon San Diego for the weekend. It started out as a comics thing, but it's expanded and exploded to a Hollywood event with TV stars, movie stars, and famous authors appearing for insanely crowded panel sessions on such topics as "Creating the Dothraki language" and a meet and greet with the guy who plays Masuka on ... Read more »
Pie eatin’, dog and kid abandoning mom here
I opened Facebook on Mother's Day morning, shortly after my chubby fingered kiddos brought me (and Brody) toast and eggs in bed, and saw this oft-repeated quote: "A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." And I sighed. I really don't like that quote. It's like what we talked about on Friday all over again. Hey, unless you're cutting off your limbs and giving away all your pie and raising free range ... Read more »
It’s a hard knock life
I have Annie on the brain. My daughter's community theater debut is in four days, and between now and the end of the month, this will be all I have going on. Annieannieannieannie. They worked their little keisters off on it, though, and it's spectacular, so I am very proud. When the casting call went out for Sandy, they were looking for three things: scruffy terrierlike mutt takes direction well mellow And of course, Brody is none of those things, so he was out, but they did find ... Read more »
Have a Happy Mother’s Day- and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise
A few days ago, my friend Dorian at Catster pointed out a rather mean-spirited post over at Huffington Post entitled, "Pet Parents are NOT Moms." I am trying to give the author the benefit of the doubt here; maybe she intended it to be sort of tongue in cheek. She starts by pointing out all the sometimes over the top things we do in the name of love- and I get that, been there, bought the membership card- but the overall tone of the post just skewed off left and went straight to mean. And that ... Read more »
Stay bloodthirsty, my friends
I couldn't figure out why every single babysitter on our list turned us down for Saturday , and then I realized- oh, it's Cinco de Mayo, otherwise known as A Good Day for Tacos and Cervezas here in San Diego. No self respecting college kid would be at home. In honor of the occasion, I'm going to whip up some Brody's Surf Shack Fish Tacos, crack open a Dos Equiis, and oh yes, put a sombrero on the dog. *cue music* He walks himself...because no one can do it better. Cats hate him ... Read more »
A brief deviation
I'm not really a football fan. Let me say that from the start. I married a hardcore Chargers fan, so I tolerate it out of necessity, but it's never been a game I had an attachment to. But I was a Junior Seau fan. I grew up in Oceanside, Junior's hometown, and our little town couldn't be more proud of his success. He would come to high school pep rallies. He took care of his family and friends and neighbors and was actively involved in philanthropy. You couldn't find a single person willing ... Read more »
The Realtor, by Edgar Labby Koe
Once upon a midday dreary, home from working, weak and weary, Staring with resentment at the “For Sale” sign perched near the door, While I Facebooked, blogged and Tweeted, on the sofa, softly seated, Suddenly I felt quite heated, heated staring at the floor. “Tis an old juice box,” I muttered, “sitting crumpled on the floor- Garbage there, it makes me sore.” Ah, so clearly I recall that it was in the chill of fall, And each separate messy creature wrought its carnage on the ... Read more »
This is why I don’t travel with family
Passengers on a flight from Detroit were held aboard a plane at Chicago's Midway Airport for more than two hours after a female passenger was suspected of having monkeypox, officials said Thursday. The woman had been travelling in Uganda, according to officials, though they didn't say when. She boarded a flight from Detroit to Chicago and while on baord, developed a rash. A family member told flight attendants that they suspected this woman had monkeypox, so the Chicago Fire Department called ... Read more »
Ticky Tacky Town versus Crazy Town
This weekend we went and looked at houses. We can't make any offers until our current one sells- SO HURRY UP SOMEONE AND BUY IT- but we can at least get a good feel for where we want to live. We're moving with two priorities in mind: lessen my husband's commute, and get us into a good public school district. To that end, there are two communities we are considering. Ticky Tacky Town is made up of little boxes on the hillside, and they're all made of ticky tacky and they all look the same. ... Read more »
3 Dumb Things that Dog Owners Do (That Make Us All Look Bad)
I am a dog person. I think most of you probably know that. I like dogs, a whole lot. I am into them. I can hang with them. That being said, I understand that not everyone else on the planet feels the same way. Dog owners who refuse to act with some basic courtesies grate on me as badly as parents who let their kids kick the back of my airplane seat. With the advent of spring, lots of people are venturing outside again with their pets- and this is a great thing, usually, but it also marks the ... Read more »
Horrible pet parents unite
I love this recent post from Mel Freer where she longs for the good old days before we were overinundated with information about pet food recalls, puppy mill abuses, and terrible people who do awful things to animals. I agree. On the one hand, the internet has made the dissemination of information so much easier, and that is a very good thing in a lot of ways. On the other hand, it kind of makes information hard to escape. There is a constant barrage of it, and unless you just flat out ... Read more »
Happy birthday Koa- no joke
Two years ago this February, we took an hour and a half drive north to the Retrievers and Friends rescue to meet a 6 year old black lab named Lucy. She was feisty, glossy, and fun, a slightly older version of Brody. We loved Lucy. But then the rescue volunteer suggested we take a look at another dog, one who didn't photograph quite so well but was kind and sweet and might be a good match for the family. There she stood, with her hangdog face and her defeated posture and her barrel chest and ... Read more »
Never work with children or dogs. And especially both at once.
My daughter has joined the local youth theater's production of Annie. As a seven year old, one of the youngest in the cast, her role is to stand in the back and look cute. This is good. A good intro to theater. While I was gone, my husband got to attend the parent meeting. We learned that there is no sliding scale of parental volunteer requirements based on the number of lines in the play, so the parent of the silent kid picking his nose in the back has to do just as much as the parent of the ... Read more »
How I learned what kind of dog I am
Like many pet lovers, I waste a lot of time asking myself the question, if I were an animal, what would I be? It's really not as easy a question to answer as one might think. The obvious first answer, of course, is to look to which kinds of animals you own. There's certainly a correlation there, as anyone who has spent time looking at a veterinary exam room can attest to. The short, squat bulldog owners. The wiry, nervous bird owners. The little wrinkly elderly with the little wrinkly ... Read more »
Sidetracked by grammar
I had this whole long serious post about the topic of owner relinquishments and why they were always a nightmare to deal with, but I got sidetracked from my mission when every single media outlet I could find that was talking about the case in question used, in some form or another, the word "euthanization." I've been seeing it in headlines in print and on the web with increasing frequency the last couple of years and it always makes my irises spasm with pain. Euthanasia, to euthanize: those ... Read more »
