Nice manners, babe!

In honor of National Poetry Month, I offer up a haiku. I'm also including two photos, so essentially 2,000 more words, to illustrate the situation I encountered when I had to leave work mid-morning a few weeks ago to give a presentation downtown.

No way I could fit

Even if I was skinny

Thanks a lot, douchebag

And yet, when I drove a Jetta, I got a warning on my car threatening my parking privileges because I parked in a regular non-compact space. Seriously?

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener...

Thoreau may have waxed poetic about the rain, but personally, I find it annoying and inconvenient. I have acclimated to the normally sunny Southern California weather and am having trouble dealing with our current deluge. I don't know how folks living in the Pacific Northwest do it. I'm not sure I'd survive.

It's true that the rain does make the grass greener. In fact, it produces grass in our back yard, which spends a good part of the year being brown and dusty.

This photo of our sweet Cosette was taken in November of 2006, before the rainy season. Notice the "yard" behind her (and Rusty and Little Guy!) Pretty desolate.

I took this photo yesterday during a brief break in the rain after convincing Little Guy to take a potty break. I imagine that once this rain is done, we'll have twice as much green back there as we do right now. Luckily, I cut it a few days ago as it was growing pretty well from some other recent rain. The dogs and I will be thrilled when the storms are gone though, just as Cosette always was. Damn, I miss her.

A little bit like less-sickly butterscotch...

Okay, so spending so much time with so many family members that I haven't seen in ages (or even met, as with my nephews!) is still the highlight of my Thanksgiving vacation. However, my trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando today comes in a close second! A very close second...

Frozen Butterbeer

I'll probably have more to say about the experience, but in the meantime you can check out more photos here.

Lovely, Love My Family

There have been many highlights to my Thanksgiving trip, but seeing my nieces for the first time in ages & meeting my twin nephews for the first time may top the list.*

Ariel, Dillon, Lucas and Coral

The highlight for my mother was not only have her four grandchildren all together, but having her four children together for the first time in ~14 years.

Kyle, Scott, Dianna and Jodi

*This may change after tomorrow.

Summer Days, Driftin' Away

The summer, no the year, has really flown by. I was a little shocked to see that it's been nearly two months since I've even posted here. July was a exceptionally busy month and I think I'm still recovering a bit. Lately, I feel a little like my dog Honey. We say that she has two speeds. Either she's super active, jumping here to there, basically being a complete spaz, or she plops over on her side and takes a nap. Yep, that's what I've been doing. Work, work, work, play, play, play, and then nap. And maybe take another nap. What?

The main event in July, as it has been for oh-so-many years now, was San Diego Comic-Con, of course. Enjoy some of my photos while I get back to being busy, busy, busy. Or napping.

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability--Sam Keen

A Heart Full Of Love

We met her on New Year's Day in 1993 and she chose us as her new family. She was a playful, mischievous and smart as a whip. She grew and learned a lot in those first two years and then traveled by car with us on a move from the East Coast to the West Coast. We stopped along the way and held her up to look out over the Grand Canyon, which didn't really seem to impress her.

We all adjusted to life in L.A. quite quickly. While there were no windows in our apartment low enough for her to look out of, there were no thunderstorms either, which was a very good thing. Soon enough, we were able to get a yard for her, complete with her own door already in place. There was also a window right by the love seat that had a perfect view.

In a few years time, the family grew, not once but twice. The first time was a huge adjustment for someone who had been queen of the castle for seven years. It went a little more smoothly the second time and in the end, it all worked out just fine. The group of us had lots of good times outdoors in the back yard, on the hiking trails, at the beach, and up in the mountains. Parties and celebrations were often inclusive and were lots of fun. She loved to scavenge for crumbs.

Little Guy, Rusty, & Cosette resting after a hike to
Rainbow Falls near Mammoth, CA
July 2002

For the most part, she had a very healthy life. Five years ago, we had a big scare when she was diagnosed with cancer and had to have a major surgery. She surprised us by recovering quite well. Other illnesses along the way could never keep her down for long. She was too feisty.

We were thrilled when she made it to 17! What an accomplishment! We didn't take a single day for granted and hugged and loved her as much as we could. She loved Christmas and even though she wasn't feeling very well this last one, she joined us when we opened presents. Our last days with her were difficult and sad, but we got to spend a lot of time with her and really say goodbye. We were fortunate to have that very special time. It was quite beautiful in many ways.

Little Guy and Cosette
Christmas 2009

There are so many stories and so many photos (lots to still be scanned) that we have from Cosette's long 17 years of life. I wish I could share all of them. We are so lucky that we were able to love her for so long. We have so many great memories to help fill the holes left in our hearts.

Cosette, our forever Puppy Girl
11/13/1992-01/06/2010

Ferris: Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Ferris was pretty wise. I wasn't feeling it in 1986, but my mother always told me, "The older you get, the faster time goes." [insert surly teenage eye roll here] I'm certainly feeling it now, more and more every year. I hate talking about it as it's kind of like discussing the weather or Tiger Woods' indiscretions, but I do. Lately I'm hearing "I can't believe it's December already!" and I understand.

I'm not sure if it's an aging thing or the fact that almost every minute of a modern day is spent occupied. I commend those of you who take more time than I do to relax, zone out, go off the grid, get bored. Often I'm not doing something productive or a task that I should be taking on (waves at the basket of laundry waiting to be folded), but I always seem to be doing.*

More and more, I'm stopping to appreciate the things I get to do and make time for other things that I need, want, and have promised to do. Recently, I've been to a couple of fantastic concerts, watched two amazing fireworks shows within the span of a week, partied with the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, at his house, with his dogs (!), gone to Disneyland twice, attended my second taping of The Big Bang Theory, and chatted with Jabba the Hutt's chief puppeteer (who also did some sculpting and puppeteering of Yoda). Some of it was surreal.

By no means less exciting, I've also gotten to celebrate my dog Cosette's 17th birthday, take another hiking class with Rusty, learn to pan for gold, get to know some of my neighbors better, go to a brunch with co-workers, spend quality time with E, and take part in a small book club.

There is still much to be done, some fun of course as we move into the season of holiday parties, and much mundane because that's just how life it. The carpet's not going to clean itself and as much as I may try to train them, the guinea pigs aren't going to freshen up their own cage. I've got a lot of household projects to tackle, as well as Comic-Con prep that needs to start yesterday. There are appointments to book, stuff to organize, and basically shit to get together. My goal is to find some balance, waste less time while being more productive and having as much fun as possible.

The question isn't "What are we going to do?," the question is "What aren't we going to do?"

*Yes, napping counts as doing.

Cosette, I Love You Very Much!

Cosette, our American Eskimo Dog, was born 17 years ago today. It was also a Friday the 13th. She came to live with us on January 3, 1993. I was so reluctant to get a dog at the time, but E was really missing the two out of three he grew up with who were still living with his mom. For the holidays, I gave him a "Certicate" I printed up on the computer and presented to him, complete with the misspelling. We still joke about that to this day. It was good for (1) American Eskimo Puppy. Within a week and change, an 8-week old ball of fluff joined our family.

Cosette is responsible for my love of dogs being rekindled after it had been soured in high school. As is common with her breed, she has always highly intelligent and trainable, agile, and protective. She's definitely a "daddy's girl," positioning herself to be the alpha female of the household. We'll just let her keep thinking that, okay? And it might sort of be true.

We moved across the country with Cosette when she was not quite two years old. She reluctantly let Little Guy join the clan several years later (once she put him in his place) and became a mom to Rusty when we adopted him later. Cosette has survived mammary cancer nearly five years ago and came through a bought of Old Dog Vestibular Disease a year and a half ago.

There's no denying that Cosette is OLD. Among other things, she's deaf, has arthritis, sleeps a lot, is very skinny under her fur coat, and is not quite as sharp as she once was. If you go by the old standard 1 dog year=7 human years, she'd be the equivalent of 119 years old! However, veterinary research has shown that the correlation can be related to the size of the dog. Going by the standards I've found, she is more like a 92-97 year old human. Okay, so that's still pretty geriatric!

I have no idea how much longer she'll live, but I'm not going to dwell on that. I appreciate every day we have with her and let her know that the best I can. Tonight, she and her brothers will have cake and ice cream and if they tolerate it, wear party hats to celebrate a long, beautiful life!

The Girl With The Orange Hubcaps

A couple of years ago, E and I attended a Scion owners' event that was really fun and sent us home with lots of goodies for our cars. I won a really nice set of rims, which sat in the garage for over a year while I hemmed and hawed over whose car to put them on (they fit both). I finally decided to give them to E since his car needs to look nice for his drive-in movies. I didn't mind as to me, while a car can definitely be an extension of someone's personality, it is primarily utilitarian.

When the Scion brand first hit the market in '03, they campaigned as being the cars ideal for personlization. Again, that was never really my thing, but I enjoyed looking at the stuff other folks did to theirs whenever we attended gatherings. There used to be a lot of nifty events, but things changed. There were design changes in '08 that I'm not overly fond of and just looked at the 2010 xB, which is not attractive at all. But, I still love my xA and E's first generation xB.

So, what in the world is this all about? Orange hubcaps? What. Well, when I was leaning toward giving up the rims, E suggested I could so something funky such as painting my hubcaps orange. Feeling a little guilty owning a Scion that I never modded, I thought it might be a fun thing to do. We had extra hubcaps so figured if it didn't work out it would be no big deal. Eventually, we found some spray paint I liked--"pumpkin orange"--and E finished them up for my birthday. If you know me at all, you know I love orange. I've gotten several compliments, as well as a few snide comments, but whatever...I like 'em. Now maybe I'll get around to putting on the spoiler that I also got for free.

Hope. Pepper Haz It.

So this cool friend of mine, in spite of being a weerdo, was over at Disney and snagged this t-shirt for me from the G-Force visual fx crew. I couldn't resist doing a little photo shoot. I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm losing my dorkiness. Pepper was very interested, while Pickle couldn't have cared less. Maybe Darwin isn't her choice for leader of the guinea pigs.

I Have Been Assimilated

Getting tired, and perhaps a little jealous, of people going on an on about their iPods, iBooks, iPhones, etc, etc, I joked around that I have iNothing. And I was serious. No Apple products for me, not necessarily by choice, but that's just how it happened to be. I have a cell phone that allows me to go on the internet, my laptop works just fine, and I have a nice, clunky, slow-to-load, mp3 player that I can listen to in my car via an auxiliary jack. Sure, it's fairly complicated to get music on and off of the damn thing, but hey, I haven't known any better. And it's higher tech than cassettes.

That is, until recently when I got a generous surprise from E for our 14th anniversary. As the proud new owner of a 4th generation iPod nano, I feel like I might just have a twinge of modernity in me. Go ahead and laugh, if you want. I'm used to it and do so at myself often enough. I know it's silly and I'm so behind the times, but it makes me very happy.

the iJod (yes, that's what I named it!)-so tiny, so light, so orange (!)

Now, as if getting the teeny machine is not exciting enough, I now get to use the iPod jack that came with my Scion xA. The one I didn't ask for.

I was kind of bummed when I saw that in my new car. Poo. Something I can't use. I intended to try it out with friends' iPods, but never got around to it. Luckily, I still have the cable for it. The cool thing about the iPod specific port is that the media information displays on my stereo and I can control it via the buttons on my steering wheel. So very nifty and fun!

iPod connected


GeeksOn, a favorite podcast

And one of my favorite dorky things is that when I disconnect the unit, my stereo says goodbye. Yes, it often is the little things.

Slowly, but surely I'm even learning my way around iTunes, which I'd never downloaded and used. SO much easier than the wonky work-arounds I had to do with my old digital music player. I have been assimilated.

Little Guy Update, Post Op Day 1

Just a quick update for those of you wondering how Little Guy is doing. If you don't know, I'll just briefly recap that he had a torn ligament in his left "knee" and underwent orthopedic surgery on the 15th. The doctor reported that the operation went well and he only had to stay over one night.

On the way to the animal hospital early in the morning on 1/15/09.

I picked Guy up around 6pm on the 16th. He was still hazy and didn't seem excited to see me, understandably. We made it home, with him whimpering the entire time in the back seat, and E helped me get him settled.

Car ride home, post op Day 1.

The procedure Little Guy underwent has good outcomes. In order to get acceptable results though, you and your pet have to endure a 2-3 month recovery period of strictly limited activity. We made a little area with a dog bed, blankets, and a little fence in LG's favorite spot in the den. Not long after we got him fairly comfortable, he wanted to go for his incision. So, yeah, we had to break out the cone. I was hoping he'd be out of it enough for at least a day or two before resorting to that. Oh well.

Not the cone!!!

Little Guy HATES the cone. Since it went on, he has been whining nearly non-stop for 8 hours now. I wish I was kidding. I thought by now he would have worn himself out and slept. Actually, he did that about twenty minutes ago and dozed for four minutes. I'm typing, Guy's crying.

Of course there is no denying that he is also in pain. He does have a lot of narcotics on board, including the dose he had an hour ago, and really wasn't acting like this until he got the cone. He still tries to shake off every half-hour or so. He just let out a big, pathetic sigh, which gives me hope that he's wearing himself out. I plan to sleep here next to him.

Thanks to everyone who emailed, left Facebook messages, and even sent cards (!) to wish Little Guy well. We have a long road ahead of us, but it will be worth it when he's up and around on squirrel patrol again. Also, don't worry that every post from here on out will be about the dog, his incision, the cone, etc. Some will, but definitely not all. I still have to tell you all about the cool Battlestar Galactica stuff I saw today and share the photos. I may just have time to upload them before the sun rises.

I'm looking out and I'm moving, turning in time. Catching up, moving in, jump up! I can land on my feet. Look out!*

Every one is making their year-end lists. I started jotting down some ideas and kept noting the negative aspects of 2008 like the myriad of projects I didn't finish, funerals I attended, and various other failures and regrets. Instead, I'm posting some photos from the past year. Some represent significant events and others I just like. Click for more info!

January 2008

February 2008

March 2008

April 2008

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

Hopefully 2009 will see some positive changes in my organization, attitude, health, and creative pursuits. Happy New Year to all!

*Lyric from Peter Gabriel's "This Is The Picture"

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you that I almost believe that they're real

I love old photographs. Whenever we go to the Rose Bowl Flea Market, that's what I'm drawn to. If it wasn't such a big bazaar (and if we managed to *ahem* get there earlier), I'd spend more time digging through the numerous boxes and photo albums. E is always on the lookout for anything 3D, puppets, or toys from his childhood. For me, it's the pictures.

It won't come to any one's surprise that I'm particularly fond of canine images. I purchased several, especially ones that resemble my own dogs. I even framed a couple that have a pooch I believe to be Little Guy's twin, from fifty or so years ago. On our most recent excursion, E or I stumbled across a Rusty look-a-like. I tried to find a photo I've taken of him to compare, but none are quite the right pose or angle. If you know Rusty though, they are quite similar. Sure, the ears are different and the one was either shaved or just has less fur than my boy. It was a cool find.

Flea Market Dog

Rusty

Ridonculous

It's been one of those weeks. You know, the kind where you shake your head, and maybe even want to cry, but decide you'd better just laugh at the situation (and/or yourself) and move on. Admittedly, there were a few tears.

It all kind of started with the Great Fruit Fly Invasion of 2008. In my house. So disgusting. We'd noticed a few of the little buggers buzzing around and then suddenly, the kitchen was swarmed. They were hanging out everywhere! I tried making a funnel trap, but must have left too much of a gap because it didn't work so well. What has been working is leaving bowls around with a concoction of vinegar, apple juice, water, and dish soap. I'd read to use cider vinegar, but only had white, so added a tiny bit of juice. It's amazing how many of the critters have drowned. Oh, and the cause of this infestation? My failure to empty the compost bin we keep under our sink.

Note to self:
Don't forget to empty the kitchen compost bin into the outdoor one!

I did shed some tears on Friday. Little Guy had an appointment with the vet to check out his back legs. Recently, his arthritis progressed to the point where, after lying around for a few hours, he occasionally had trouble standing up on his own. A brief walk and some range of motion and stretching exercises seem to loosen him up, but only temporarily.

Recent mobile phone photos of Little Guy, aka Hobo Dog, lying around on some newspapers and dirty socks and underwear.

Two hours later, thorough vet exam, blood work, x-rays, and several hundreds of dollars, Little Guy was diagnosed with a possible torn knee ligament. The arthritis in his hips didn't look too bad on the x-rays and ligaments don't show up. So, he's being referred to a specialist to look at the knee, which very well may be a surgical situation. He also got some pain meds for the meantime. I didn't mind the length of the visit. Seeing as it was Black Friday, it beat braving the stores. It was kind of emotional though as one woman brought in her dog who had passed away at home (but unfortunately missed the jolly guy from the pet crematorium, who told some really frightening tales of attempting to shop at the local Fry's Electronics earlier). Another woman discussed euthanasia options with the front desk staff for quite some time. It was killing me.

We finally got out of the vet's office, made one quick stop, and headed home. I lifted Guy out of the car and set him down on the ground. He was holding his rear right leg up very high, with the paw up near his back. When his hips (or now I wonder, his knee?) have bothered him before, he's not wanted to bear weight. This was different and the wrong leg! His bad knee is on the left. I noticed he was trying to nip at his paw. Taking a quick look, I saw a bee stuck right on one of the pads. I knocked it off and sure enough, the stinger was embedded in his paw. I pulled out the stinger, grabbed my cell phone and called the vet. They suggested I come back right away. I have no knowledge of Little Guy ever getting stung, so didn't know how he'd react. I piled him and my bags back into the car and raced off.

This time, there wasn't much of a wait. Our vet had gone home, but we saw one of her partners. She checked out the paw and then gave him Benadryl and pain medicine injections. He was in so much pain that he would not put his foot down, thus putting all of it on his "bad" knee. Several hours later, he was feeling much better and had no signs of an allergic reaction.

So, the flies are nearly gone and Little Guy is bearing weight on all legs.

Coming soon: My musings on Bolt, which I LOVED!!!

Yet Another Disney Thanksgiving!

I intended to do some sort of "I'm thankful for..." or holiday-related post. It's been a trying, exhausting day so far though and I'm just not feeling it. After two trips to the vet (Little Guy got stung by a bee on the way home from our first, 2-hour visit), it's been a long & expensive day.

So, here are a few photos from our day at Disneyland & California Adventure yesterday. It was a fantastic, not-very-crowded day. For that, I am thankful.

Happy Holidays to all of you!