gaymo

left alone with my devices

2009-10-08T10:15:00.006-04:00

Check. Check. Check, check. Is this thing still on? Holy shit! I'm still here. Which is hard to believe since Betty Please left me alone with my devices, I mean left me to my own devices, for 4 days. She was off drinking and whooping it up at a conference while I was left holding down the fort. And by holding down the fort, I mean for 4 days I ate Ramen noodles and Oreos, and I had a Battle Star Galactica marathon for most of the time she was gone. Oh, wait. I did also have Thai carry-out one night. But more importantly, how or why I didn't watch Battle Star Galactica before now, is beyond me. I can't. stop. watching. I'm just starting on Season 3 now and I can't get enough. And seriously people, Starbuck should be required have a bare midriff work-out scene in every episode. I love that character.

It was kind of strange, but kind of nice, to be home alone for so long. I know 4 days isn't really a long time, but I don't think we had been apart for longer than overnight in, I don't know how long. Maybe, 14 years. So, we were probably due for some time apart. And though I had the entire bed to myself, and the covers were just perfect, and it was quiet, it really sucked to not have someone to snuggle up with when I kept waking up from nightmares about trying to escape the cylons. And I'm not talking about the hot blond cylon, or Sharon. No, I'm talking about the big scary metal ones with blades fingers and guns, and that red, eye thing. Geesh, you'd think my brain would at least be a mench, and give me a good Starbuck dream or two. Wouldn't ya? But no.

So, BP is back home where she belongs. She returned bearing gifts. She brought back a brick of chedder-bacon cheese, and brick of buffalo wing colby jack. She knows me well. She also bought a t-shirt and pub glass for me, from her favorite Alehouse. Though, I think the t-shirt is probably more for enjoyment, than it is for me. But hey, I'll take all the +2 to irresistibility shirts I can get.

Jonesy

2009-09-15T15:58:00.005-04:00

So here are a few pictures of our "feral" kitty, Jonesy. Or, garage kitteh, as BP likes to call him. He's still a bit skittish, but we've made tremendous progress with his trust. He comes out and talks to me when I'm out in the yard. He'll follow me around like one of the dogs. If I sit down, he'll come to me to get his head scratched. He just can't get enough attention. Often, I find him waiting at the door for me.

It's looking like I might be able to get him rehabbed to people enough to make him an indoor kitty. That's my hope at least. If anyone wants a sweet, but shy at first, orange and white, male cat, let me know. He needs a good home. One that isn't mine. I'm thinking he'd probably do best in a home without children or other pets. I think if I can find someone who is patient and willing to let Jonesy build trust with them, he'll make a great pet. It's finding that someone, that is going to be tough.

+6 Charisma

2009-09-01T13:34:00.002-04:00

I baked homemade chocolate chip cookies last night. Homemade, like from scratch. You know; butter, flower, brown sugar, sugar, eggs...Who knew those cookies would be like spanish fly. Or as Betty Please said, "they give you like a +6 Charisma bonus. "

Anyone who knows me, knows that I need all the charisma bonus I can get.

In other news. Sparked by Maggie's suggestion to name the stray kitty Ripley (which, unbeknownst to her is Buddy Lee Dog of Action's real name), we decided to name it Jonesy. Jonesy was Ripley's cat in movie Aliens. I also discovered that Jonesy is living in our garage. Just in case you are wondering why it took us so long to discover this, our garage is a detatched garage, built in 1920. We do not park in it, so we don't go in there very often. At least now, I'm not so worried about Jonesy surviving outside for the winter.

Just in this short period of time, I've gotten Jonesy to come out of hiding so we can see each other when I feed him/her. He/she won't come close, but that's okay. Jonesy also meows me when he/she sees me. A very talkative cat.

Also, I started my internship this week. I feel like I'm in way over my head. I'm sure I'll pick things up quickly, but right now I feel a bit overwhelmed. Maybe I should take some of those +6 charisma cookies in tomorrow.

zombies ate my blog posts

2009-08-20T15:07:00.007-04:00

I've been in this weird kind of head space lately, which is why I haven't been writing. I've got a lot going on at the moment, but I'm trying to just go with it and not let it get me down. Plus I don't want to be whiny. But, here's what's going on.

I am a bit anxious and frustrated that we are still on hold in the baby department. I turned 38 this summer,and I'm really feeling the tick-tock of time rapidly slipping away as our window of opportunity for me to try to conceive is closing. We are still on hold because I am looking for a new job, and until I have a steady income we don't have the money to try. So, I'm really just trying to keep in mind that we'll be able to move forward soon. But then the stress of applying for job after job is starting to weigh me down.

Changing jobs is never easy for anyone, I know, but I've been working for my dads business since I was 18. That's 20 years now. More than half of my life. It's not so easy to just walk away. While I have never really liked my job, I didn't know what I'd rather do, so I stayed. I've thought about leaving many times, but there's always something that keeps me. But business has been slow for several years now, and my paychecks are getting further and further apart, and sometimes not for the full amount owed, and it's just too stressful. Not to mention that my dad is probably 4-6 years from retiring, and I don't know that I want to take over the business if there is anything left of it by then.

Since my biggest, and only real regret in life is that I didn't take a lab job I was offered after I graduated from college, I thought I would try to get into an entry level lab job just to see. I know it won't pay a lot, but at least I can figure out if I want to work as a biologist. If I find that I like it and would enjoy it, from there I can go back to school for a masters and then who knows what. And if don't like it, I haven't really lost anything. The problem I'm having is that while I have a degree in biology, I graduated in '95 and I have no recent laboratory experience. So, my resume gets screened out for almost everything I apply for because I lack the one year experience that most of the job posting list as a preference. So, for now, I just keep applying.

The one thing keeping me from feeling completely incompetent and unhirable at the moment, is that a friend offered me an internship doing/learning web work. We're going to be working out the details next week, but what I do know is that I can do most of my work from home. I'll have to go in once a week to discuss what needs to be done for the week, and for him to teach me how he wants it done. I think he's giving me the freedom to work at home on my time because BP is a web designer/programmer and he knows she can work with me and answer any questions. And hey, if things go well there, you just never know. It could turn into a career change for me.

So that's what's been going on with me. I know it has nothing to do with zombies, as this post's title would suggest. But I did rent a movie called Tokyo Zombie that I'm dying to watch as soon as I get a free night. Looks good, no?

And now for some cuteness. These guys never fail to make me smile.

White Tornado and her mistress. Shh, don't tell Finnegan.

Buddy Lee, Dog of Action leaving nosing prints all over the side window.

White Tornado spies who knows what.

I'm too soft hearted

2009-08-10T09:59:00.008-04:00

A few months ago, I noticed an orange and white cat hanging around. We have a few neighbors who let their cats out, so at first I assumed this cat belonged to one of them. But all the neighborhood cats are really friendly, and this cat seems to skittish to belong to someone. I have a few neighbors who usually have the low down on all the animals and children in area, but no one seems to have any idea about this cat.

The cat doesn't seem to be starving, but it also isn't a big cat. My guess would be that it's a pretty good hunter. This is the cat who was hunting the squirrel that Buddy Lee finished off a few months ago. I've also noticed that I no longer see bunnies or birds in our yard.

The cat seems to spend a lot of time under our back porch, our deck, and between our and the neighbor's garage. We have a lots of landscaping around our house, that is perfect for a cat to hide and hunt in. When the cat hears us coming too close, it bolts. It doesn't go far though. It will run from under the porch to between the garages, but then it stops to watch us. It won't come any closer, and if I try to slowly approach, it runs off.

Long story short, we've spent the summer trying to figure out if the cat is a stray or not. We're pretty sure it must be. Saturday, we finally decided we would put out some food and water. I worried about doing this because I don't want to draw raccoons or opossums, or other strays. After the last few days though, I don't think that will be a problem. I waited until I saw the cat before I put food out. I made sure to shake the dish and call, "kitty, kitty," before I put the dish under the back porch. It cautiously watched me. I went inside for about 15 minutes or so, so it would feel safe investigating. When I went back out to check on it, the cat took off from under the porch and food had been completely scarfed down. I don't think it will to difficult to train this cat to come eat when called for food.

I have no problem spending a little extra money a month feeding the stray. I know I can't make this cat a house cat, but I also can't sit back and watch this animal fend for its self. If the cat does stick around, which, why wouldn't it now that we're feeding it, and you know it's getting premium holistic cat food, I will have to figure out how to catch it so I can get it spayed/neutered. I believe that if I'm going to take on the responsibility to feed it, I also have an obligation to prevent it from contributing to cat over population. I also have to figure out how to make safe warm place for it to survive the winter.

So I guess it would seem that we have a new cat. We should probably come up with a name. Something gender neutral since we don't know if it's a he or a she. Any suggestions?

I wish

2009-08-03T11:48:00.004-04:00

I wish she could see herself through my eyes. I wish could see how beautiful she is. I wish she could see how smart she is. I wish she could see how funny she is. I wish she could see how talented she is. I wish she could see how interesting she is. I wish she could see how kind she is. I wish she could see why I love her. I wish she could see what I see. But she can not. And no matter how much I tell her that she is beautiful, and smart, and funny, and cool, and interesting, and talented, and deserving of the things she has in life, she does not believe me.

I wish I could take away her depression. I wish I could take away her anxiety and her fears. I wish I could take away her every little worry. I wish I could take away her self doubt. I wish I could take away her regrets. I wish I could. But I can't.

I wish she would stop worrying about time and aging. I wish she would stop seeing herself as a failure because she did not accomplish what she thought she would by now. I wish she could understand that I don't want her to be the 20 year old girl I fell in love with, I want her to be the 37 year old woman who I am in love with now.

I wish she believed me when I tell her I love her.

Me & the only woman who knows who killed Jenny

2009-07-28T13:53:00.004-04:00

I'm still a bit overwhelmed and exhausted from the BlogHer conference. Once I've cogitated on it all a bit longer, and have time to blog, I may write about my experience. Until then, I will share this with you...

Yes, yes, that is me with the only woman who really knows who killed Jenny. Jealous?

Fate catches up with me

2009-07-22T09:17:00.009-04:00

I knew it was too good to be true, to think I could make it through and entire softball season unscathed. In a stunning softball goddess-like display of batting skill, which resulted a crappy little infield fly, I (re)injured my two middle fingers on my right hand. It's the same two fingers I tore ligaments in, while batting, two seasons ago. Actually, my fingers never really fully healed from before, so it's more like I severely aggravated them while batting last night. Either way, I hope I don't have to throw much in tonight's game. This injury is going to ruin my whole weekend.

But wait, there's more. The next time I was up to bat, I got drilled in the leg by a wild throw while over running first base. The picture doesn't quite do it justice. The purple bruising actually makes a complete ring, the size of a softball. It's not actually purple all the way up my leg as is looks in the photo. That's just some weird iPhone camera effect. The two semi parallel red splotchy lines, yeah, those are stitch marks from the ball. I didn't even see the ball coming. Thank god it hit me somewhere fleshy, and not it the head.

We have another game tonight. I can't wait to see what it brings.

Evening Light

2009-07-20T21:55:00.002-04:00

There are a few fleeting moments every evening when the sun peeks through the blinds and creates the coolest shadow when it meets our Eiffel Tower lamp. For about a minute or two, the light has a soft, warm, golden glow. And every night I think, I should take a picture of that. But, by the time I get the camera out it's too late, and the light is gone. Tonight I was able to catch the tail end of the moment with my iPhone, but the the warm light had already passed.

I'm going to have to get our tripod out, and leave our camera set up so I can capture it at it's best. Of course, with leaving the camera out, we run the risk of the cats knocking it over and breaking it. So, maybe I need a plan B.

I can haz nice day?

2009-07-14T13:40:00.005-04:00

A few mornings a week, we swing by a McDonald's drive-thru for coffee on the way to work. Yes, I could make coffee every morning, but some mornings I just can't. I need every bit of that extra 15-20 minutes of sleep I can sneak in while Betty Please is in the shower. Anyway...the guy who usually works the drive-thru always tells us to "have a nice day", as I'm sure all employees are trained to do. But, since English isn't his first language, and he speaks kind of fast, it sounds like he says, "haz nice day." As soon as I started to pull away after hearing say that the first day, I knew what BP was about to say, "I can haz nice day?" Too much LOL cat speak in our house, I tell you.

Now on the mornings BP wants me to stop and get coffee she just says, "I can haz nice day?"

2009-07-10T13:14:00.001-04:00

I'm in heaven. I had cherry tomatoes from our CSA for lunch today. There's just about nothing better tasting. My summer just got a little brighter.

the hazzards of blogging

2009-07-07T12:13:00.005-04:00

I've been searching for posts to link to for the BlogHer post I'm working on, and the more I search, the more my mood worsens. I really don't know how people can write gay news and issues posts on a regular basis with out being in a perpetual state of "moody." Last night, I felt a strong compulsion to leave a comment equal in snottiness to the tone of the post on some stranger's blog. But, I didn't. I had my comment all written out, and I thought better of it and navigated away.

My belief has aways been that not everyone shares the same point of view, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. I certainly don't agree with everyone and I don't expect people to always agree with me. If come across a highly offensive post, I always think, well, I was never the intended audience anyway. Arguing with the author through comments won't get either of us anywhere. Most people don't really won't to debate, they just want to pontificate. When I read posts that rub me the wrong way, I just think, "what a dumb ass" and move on. And I never think another thing about it. But for some reason, this particular blogger's smugness and complete ignorance are still irritating me. I think it was mostly the fact that this person was so smug in calling someone else an idiot, thinking the "idiot" made up a word to sound more intelligent and therefore superior. And in the blogger's ignorance, they neglected to do a simple google search before writing their post criticizing the idiot. Had they done quick google search, they would have found that the word was not made up. Just because a word doesn't exist in your vocabulary, doesn't mean that word isn't a word with a definition, commonly understood and used by many others.

OK. Maybe now that I've written about it I can let it go.

Anyway, the post I'm working on for BlogHer is on heterosexual privilege. If you've got 2 cents worth on this topic, please write about it and send me the link. Or if you've written about it in the past, send me the link. I'll include you in my post.

Wait 'til I get my Hanes on me

2009-06-30T23:22:00.004-04:00

While sorting the mail, Betty Please pulled out the new Hanes catalog and set in on the counter in front of me.

BP: This is for you.
BP: For later.
me: For later? What are you trying to say about me?
BP: [gives me the, who do you think you're fooling look] Oh please. I know you're all like, "Oh yeah. Just (to the tune of the Hanes tag line) wait 'til I get my Hanes on me."
me: [laughing] you do know me, don't you.
BP: Yes I do. Do you want to be alone with your catalog now?
me: Nah. I'll save it for later.

Hey, don't judge me. I've got a weakness for bare midriff. What can I say?

*edit* So, um, was it not clear that "wait 'til I get my Hanes on me" was a masturbation reference? Just checking.

Matching

2009-06-30T10:23:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend, my favorite cousin mercilessly teased BP and I for buying the same brand, same style, same color, zip-up hooded sweat shirts. Or, as she would say, "matching." She went to comment that we were like the cliche' lesbian couple with our Subaru Forester, our dogs, and our matching sweat shirts... and that if we became any more cliche' she was breaking up with us. No mercy. (For those who haven't been around long enough to have read stories about my favorite cousin, she's cool, and is a great ally. She's allowed to tease me for this sort of stuff.)

So, yes, we did buy the same sweat shirt, in the same color, in our own sizes. We do, in fact, each own a lot of the same clothes; t-shirts, sweat shirts, shorts, and shoes. Most of our clothes are quite similar in style and color. But does that make us matching? I don't think it does. It is not our intention to dress the same, or to twin each other. We both just happen to have very similar taste. On days we do both throw on outfits which are close to matching, one of us will go change before we leave the house. We really do not want to be twins.

Our similar taste goes far beyond clothing. We have similar taste in music, books, movies, television shows, art, architecture, food, cars...but that doesn't mean that we don't also have our own individual taste or style either. Personally, I'm glad we are so similar these areas. I don't have to suffer through road trips listening to music I can't stand. And neither does she. We don't argue over what to watch on TV, or what movies or video games to rent. We don't spend our evenings with one of us leaving to go watch TV in the other room. Making big purchases like our house, our cars, our furnishings, is easy because we have the same sense of style (or lack there of). We are usually drawn to the same things. What can I say?

I don't know. I think our tastes are similar enough that it makes life easy, but divergent enough that it keeps life interesting. What about you? Do you and your gf/partner/spouse/whatever-you-call-your-other-half have similar taste? Would you call it matching?

2009-06-28T22:39:00.003-04:00

Our vacuum went out with a bang this morning. Literally. I was vacuuming along, and without any kind of warning, the vacuum motor blew. It scared the shit out of me. I didn't see it, but an eye witness reports there were sparks and flames shooting out the front. It was a pretty spectacular death.

Since we have 3 cats and 2 dogs, all of whom shed like it's their purpose in life, we bit the bullet and dropped a wad of cash on a nice vacuum cleaner that might actually pick up hair. We bought a Dyson DC28 Animal. It was ridiculously expensive. But after using it this evening, I believe it was worth every penny. Man does that thing suck. In a good way. And the design is super slick. I'm telling you, I think that thing sucked up dirt from the previous home owners.

My life in bullet points

2009-06-22T09:26:00.003-04:00

So, for the 5 of you who still stop by here to see what kind of mediocre crap I've posted lately, I'm back up and running. Sorry for the interruption.

Not much to report here lately. I'll give you the high lites in bullet points.

I'm a year older, and none the wiser.
BP and I finally went to our first Pride Parade a few weeks ago. I posted my thoughts about that at BlogHer.
My garden is feeling neglected, and is very weedy. But, the poppy I planted 4 years ago finally bloomed this year.
I'll be missing my 20th High School reunion this weekend to go to my grandma's birthday celebration instead. I can't believe it's been 20 years since I graduated from HS. Holy crap! Where did the time go?
Though I'm not going to the reunion, I am going to be meeting up with an old friend I went to HS with,who was my college roommate for two years. We had, I guess, a falling out of sorts, and had lost touch with one another. We recently reconnected through FB. It will be fun to catch up, we've both lived a whole nother life since we've seen each other last.
HD TV is awesome, but I miss the functionality of our TiVo. The DVR we have now just doesn't work the same way, and I miss TiVo.
I am addicted to Mafia Wars on FB. Who ever designed that game must have studied gaming theory.It's like playing slot machines. Or crack. Either way, an intervention might be in order.
Though not evident from this post, I think I'm finally past my writers block, or struggle or what ever it was that was causing my inability to put words to the screen.
I was excited to see that G4 is playing Arrested Development reruns. It's one of the best shows you may have never seen. Seriously, if you never watched it, you need to check it out.
I haven't struck out in the last two games. [knock on wood]

So there it is, the last few weeks of my life in bullet points. It's strange to see it broken down like that.

Silly girl. You can't hit a double.

2009-06-10T11:57:00.004-04:00

I got a double in my softball game the other night. It was a double on error, but hey with the season I've had so far, I'll take it. But not that double without any skill requirement. Not just anyone could have turned that play into a double. It was crap hit, and was going to be a really close call at first. But I could see as I was about two or three strides from the base that the ball was going to be an over throw, so full speed ahead I rounded 1st and booked it to 2nd. After I got on base, I said to myself, "a double on error, I'll take that any day." The pitcher replied (in a shitty serious and not in a friendly trash talking tone), "well that's the only way you'll ever get a double." "Oh that asshole did not just say that to me. Did he?" I'm not sure if I just thought that, or if I actually said that out loud. Either way, it irked me. The sexist jerk!

Now it's true, that in our league, it's not too common for a woman of my scrawny ass size, or any woman really, to hit an out right double. But, for the last, I don't how many years, I've hit a double about every other game. And I mean a straight up double, not a double on error, a double. And last season I also had at least two triples. So, arg! that guy just pressed a my buttons with that comment. I so desperately wanted to prove him wrong. Had I been able to place my last hit about a foot closer to the right fielder, I would have had double that game. As it went down, the right center fielder barely kept the ball from gapping them. Bastard!

But I shouldn't complain, I batted a thousand that game. Which is more than I can say for the games we've played up til then. Unfortunately, my batting has sucked major ass this season. When I say sucked major ass, I'm saying I've struck out swinging. THREE TIMES! this season. It's slowpitch. It's embarrassing, I tell ya. And the the only thing I can come up with is that I've started wearing my glasses when I play, and it must have screwed up my depth perception just enough that my timing is off on my swing. Now I am no stranger to getting struck out looking. Sometimes the pitches just aren't called consistently or correctly, and what should have been a ball gets called a strike. Nothing I can do about that. But to strike out swinging. I just can't have that.

I think another trip to the batting cages is order.

2009-06-03T21:46:00.002-04:00

So how psyched was I to find out Ilene Chaiken is going to be one of the keynote speakers at the BlogHer Conference this year. Oh yeah. I immediately emailed BP to let her know just how jealous she was going to be when she found out what she was going to be missing out on. She could have gone to the conference too, but oh no, she just wanted to come with and hang out in Chicago while I go to the conference. She is kicking herself now.

After the initial excitement of the news started to wear off, a new thought entered my mind; my last two L Word posts at BlogHer were a little less than kind to Ms Chaiken. Surely she wouldn't have read them. Right?

Are any of you going to BlogHer this year. I'm really nervous about going because, believe it or not, I am pretty shy. Especially when I don't have BP to lean on.

HD, coming soon to a living room near me

2009-06-02T17:59:00.006-04:00

I'm sitting here waiting for the Directv guy to finish installing our HD dish. It's now 6 PM. He was supposed to be here between 8 and noon. He called at 11 to tell me he wouldn't be here until 2ish. He didn't get here until 3:45. He's now rerunning the cable he just installed because he got to the corner of the house where he was going to run it down to meet the existing dish cabling, and got scared of the power lines. I feel for the guy. Really I do.

Our old dish was mounted on the railing of our deck at a corner of the house. It's out of the way, and not too visible. Unfortunately, the new dish can't mount there. Since the HD dishes are larger and need a more clear shot to the south west, the new installation protocol is on the roof or mount on a pole. I was reluctant to have the guy mount it on the roof, but we have two rather large trees in our backyard, and a pole wasn't really an option. The dish is up, and it's so obnoxious looking. BP is going to freak out when she sees it. I've prepared her, but she's already had me ask what it would cost to have it moved.

I'm sure we'll get used to seeing the big obnoxious thing in the middle of our roof, but geeze it seems like there must have been better options. I actually don't care too much at the this point. I'm just glad that we'll FINALLY be able to get our local networks, and HD TV. Oh, and that we'll have a 100 hour DVR. We are forever having to clear the clutter off of our 30 hour TiVo.

At least this satellite guy didn't keep asking for my husband like the last one did.

*update* The Directv guy finally left at a quarter til 8. HD is so worth it though.

karma bites

2009-05-28T12:01:00.002-04:00

I'd like to know what I did to Murphy that he keeps smacking me down with his law. Aside from that fact that for the past 2 weeks it won't rain all morning, until I get about 50' into taking the dogs for a walk. And then, sky opens up and pour buckets. Seriously. You think I'm exagerating, but I'm not. Do you know how much it sucks to spend the rest of the afternoon at work in wet clothes? Let me tell you, it's not pleasant.

And then...yesterday, BP finially got a check for some freelance work and we thought we would have a bit of breathing room in our bank account and maybe a little money to spend on something fun, and the fucking AC went out last night. You know that won't be cheap to fix. We just can't win I tell ya.

Can someone tell me what I've done to the universe, to bring on such karma. If I knew I could fix it, change my ways. Unless it's because I'm gay. In that case there is nothing I can do. Is there some sort of rating system for karma, like a credit rating, but a karma rating? Someone's got to have a karma rating repair service. I mean, isn't karma like the credit of the universe?

Sunday Hike

2009-05-24T22:20:00.003-04:00

Betty Please has us training to walk a half marathon in the fall, so we're doing some sort of walking, hiking, or biking every day. She downloaded a training schedule, and we're trying to stick to it. It's been really fun. I've always taken hikes or take a long walk with the dogs most days, but BP never used to come with us. Now she does. It's a lot more fun now that she's joining us.

The other fun part of this training thing is that we got our bikes fixed up so we can ride again. We bought some pretty sweet mountain bikes about 15 years ago, and we used to ride a lot. Well the bikes were sweet 15 years ago when we bought them. Anyway, for the last 12 years or so they've been sitting, unused. I forgot how much fun biking was. One thing I will say though, oh man do I need to buy a women's seat for my bike. That, and I need to find my cycling shorts. Pronto.

We've been going to a state park which is about a 10 minute drive from our house for our bike rides and hiking with the dogs. I really like this park, and I can't believe more people don't use it. It's different from most of the parks in our state, in that it's not a wooded park. It's a prairie. It's great for wildlife viewing. We've seen lots of deer and all kinds of birds. I know there is an eagle's nest on the edge of the park property, but we haven't seen any eagles yet.

As we headed out today to walk the dogs, BP said she wished we could go to a different state part that neither of us had been to since we were both in high school. Since there wasn't a reason not too, we went. It was a nice drive. We took kind of the long, scenic way there; about a two hour drive. We knew it would be crowded, being Memorial Weekend and all, and that it's like the most popular state park, but holy crap was it crazy. I wasn't sure White Tornado would be able to hike. She is terrified of children, and not really too crazy about adults who she doesn't know either. She was pretty freaked out a few times, but we were able to find some less crowded trails and get a nice hike in.

We are planning a trip back, without the dogs. There are some trails we want to go on that the dogs just can't do. Well, not unless they learn to climb ladders. Anyway, here are a few pictures BP took with her iPhone. Next time, we'll take our good camera.

Mmm, Bacon

2009-05-16T01:02:00.004-04:00

Ever hold one of these? It's a millipede. It creeped me out to think about holding it. But actually, it was pretty cool. Betty Please made me hold all sorts of bugs that day, including a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. At least we didn't make it over to the cricket spitting contest. Yeah. That's where you put a dead cricket in your mouth and see how far you can spit it. It's a big event at the Spring Fest; that and cockroach racing.

Now getting to hold baby ducks, so much better than holding bugs. They were like the cutest things ever. I wanted to sneak her out and take her home with me. But what would I do with a duck. If I lived on a farm, that would be one thing.

Oh, wait. The baby pigs were like the cutest things ever, too. They almost make me feel guilty for loving bacon so much. OK, they do make me feel guilty. But I'm not too likely to become a vegetarian anytime too soon. Though I've got to tell you, I have been thinking about lately.

Prey for a get away

2009-05-08T09:19:00.003-04:00

I hate it when the dogs kill things. I know that it's the whole circle of life, and it keep populations healthy and under control, and all that stuff, I just don't want to be an eye witness to the carnage.

Right before I opened the door to go out with the girls this morning, I noticed a cat crouched down in the grass at the back of the yard. Yeah, I didn't mow last weekend and it rained about everyday this week, so, tall grass. Anyway, it was too late to not take the girls out, it was time to go. As soon as opened the door, the dogs spotted the cat and bolted. The cat immediately took off, as I expected. What I didn't expect, was that there was squirrel hiding there in the grass. I'm guessing the cat was stalking/toying with it. Buddy Lee spotted it, pronto. By the time I noticed that she had a squirrel, she had already crunched it's back half. I couldn't just let the poor thing suffer, so I had to let the dog finish it off. A more certain swift death with less suffering. I just wish that didn't come with the sound of skull crunching.

It's hard to think that my sweet dogs are such efficient killers. Buddy Lee doesn't get too much these days, but White Tornado is a master mole killer. She gets about one a week in the cemetery. She can dig one up and nab it in less than 5 seconds. It's actually pretty amazing, yet completely horrifying. I know these critters need predators to keep their populations healthy, I just with is wasn't my dogs who were keeping their herds thinned.

Star Trek?

2009-05-07T07:59:00.002-04:00

Betty Please and I have been together for 16 years now. The other day she said something that made me question whether I even really knew her at all. I mean, 16 years is a long time. You'd think you know someone pretty well after that kind of time. But I was blind sided. She told me that she "secretly wants to see the new Star Trek movie." Who the hell is this person I've been sleeping with, because while she looks like BP, she can't be.

She says that this Star Trek movie is not just for trekkies, it's for everyone. She cites the onion video as part of her defense.

Me? A Pig?

2009-05-04T23:32:00.004-04:00

A small group of us went out to eat after softball practice this weekend. After the waitress had taken our drink order and walked away from the table...

BP: Wow! She had really pretty eyes. They were a really beautiful color.
me: Hmm. Really? She had eyes?
Sylvia: Oh my god. You are such a pig!
me: Who? Me? Why?
Sylvia: She had eyes? Yes Zoe, she has two of those too. I can't believe you're such a pig.
me: I can't believe you're surprised by this.

So eyes, heck faces, aren't the first thing I notice. Eyes probably aren't the second or third thing I notice, if I really think about it. I mean, it's not like I got caught checking her out, or that I made mention of her smoking hot bod. I wouldn't have said word one about the waitress. I would have just had that brief little moment in my head. I think you all know the moment I'm talking about. So, does that make me a pig?