Well, folks, it’s late August, so it’s about time to start planning one’s Halloween costume.
I was thinking about being Snow White…but then I saw this. So Isis will be Snow White and I’ll be her evil queen.
Archive for the ‘holidays’ Category
5th Bloggiversary
June 25, 2007This is a big day. I’m taking the day off to celebrate. Not because I worked Monday-Saturday last week, but because my little blog is 5 years old!
Five years ago, plus a day or so, I returned to Prague from a trip home to learn that Chelsea had started a blog. I believe her exact words were, “So I have a blog.” I very technosavvily said, “A what?”
Then I started one a few days later.
Things were very uncertain then. I didn’t know whether I should try to stay in Prague longer or return to the U.S. and further my reporting career and find a husband and have babies.
Things are much clearer now, I am no longer a reporter, and have decided not to get married or have kids. I feel like a single mother already, raising the dog and the boyfriend. (Shoot! I forgot to feed the iguana again.) But with the dog, the boyfriend and our house, I feel very settled and very happy. I have a job that I hope to still have when this blog turns 10. A gamble, because I have had SIX jobs since it was born, including the one I had at the time.
So happy 5th birthday, Rhymes With Safari. Here’s to five more!
Goal setting
May 28, 2007I have to post at least twice a day in order to hit 1,000 posts by my 5th Bloggiversary. Guess I better get back to taking pictures of my dog obsessively if I’m going to have a shot.
I could hit post now, and then finish my train of thought in a new post, but that would be cheating.
Judging from the brightness streaming in through my bedroom window, it’s gorgeous again today. What to do, what to do.
Although it’s a holiday, Rob is working, as he did from 6 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday so he could get Friday off to go to a salmon ceremony and to Portland with me this coming weekend. Road trip with the doggie!
Meanwhile, with so many things I could do with this wonderful day, I find it hard to get out of bed and into the shower. As is the case on most days, that’s the biggest challenge.
Jezise…why are they still showing excerpts of Ann Curry’s interview with Angelina Jolie? I’ve seen this six times already.
I finished “Rise and Shine” yesterday and started “Pretties” by Scott Westerfeld. Yeah, it’s a young adult book, wanna make something of it?
Reminds me of when I lived in Prague — finishing one book and starting a new one immediately. Works best when you read nothing but books you can’t put down. Or you have a lot of free time. The fact that all my shows have had their season finales is not lost on me.
My last weekend with Barney
January 24, 2007I’m feeling a little better now. Have been able to watch the video of Barney, with the music on, and smile. Good old Barney.
When we picked him up from the groomer on the morning of our Christmas party, the groomer said he was losing a lot of weight and his ears needed cleaning. I took him to the vet and sat with him on my lap for close to an hour before the vet could see him. I enjoyed seeing all kinds of people come in with all kinds of dogs. Puppies mostly, getting their shots.
Barney lay peacefully on my lap, allowing me to pet him. As opposed to the treatment he sometimes gave me during my visits, in which he would get up and move to another spot on the floor if I disturbed his slumber by sitting down next to him to shower him with affection.
Some cat lady said to me as she left the waiting room, “I hope your dog feels better.”
I was sort of offended. Like she could tell by looking that the pile of white fur on my lap wasn’t feeling well?
After he got his ears cleaned, Barney did seem to be in better spirits. I worried that he’d be overwhelmed by the party, but he worked the room as usual.
Here’s a picture I took with my camera phone two days later, on Christmas, the last day I saw him. The stuffed iguana represents Stew, and is a squeak toy that belongs to Q&A’s dog, Zoe.
Marking time
January 12, 2007Just 6.5 hours away from another 3-day weekend. This is the life. I should note, however, that I have been coming to work on days when others heeded the TV’s advice to stay off the roads because of the ice.
10.5 hours away from a new cell phone billing cycle. What the hell did I do last month? Make the mistake of thinking mail holidays were also cell phone holidays? If they’re not charging for parking meters, why can’t they not count cell phone calls? I resolve to be more careful in the coming cycle.
Element of surprise
January 5, 2007Why do I think it’s necessary for birthday/Christmas presents to be a surprise?
Several weeks ago, Rob saw a book in a used bookstore that he wasn’t sure if he owned. He went home and discovered he did not and he wanted it. Wouldn’t it be neat to get it for him for Christmas, I thought. It would have, if I’d remembered which book it was.
Back at the store, I picked out a book that could have been it and bought it, because I didn’t want to spoil Christmas by asking him which one it was. No no, it’s much more fun for him to unwrap a book he already has two copies of (for reasons unknown), which I could have discovered on my own, if I’d been patient enough not to buy the book that day, but to go home and give our bookshelves a cursory glance.
Fortunately, I also got him some of those energy-efficient light bulbs and a lamp shaped like the Egyptian goddess Isis, so Christmas wasn’t completely ruined. But I did feel like an idiot, especially since I threw away the receipt.
Today, conveniently one day before his birthday, Rob showed me the cover of a similar book to the one he wanted. So I took back the first book, which cost $15, and was all set to beg to trade it for the correct book, or resort to paying for the new book, if they wouldn’t take back the original book. I debated whether to go to the counter first and ask if I could exchange it, or run the risk of the sales lady not believing that I didn’t slip the book off the shelf into my plastic grocery bag. I didn’t even want to get into it though, if they didn’t have the right book.
Very quickly, I spotted the book on the shelf that Rob had showed me earlier, it was next to a similar book. Even though I have about 8 minutes on my cell phone to last me another 5 days, I called him.
“Is it ‘Jeet Kune Do: Kickboxing’?”
“Uh, I think so. What is the one I showed you earlier?”
“‘Jeet Kune Do: The Textbook.’”
Sheesh, if he can’t remember, how am I supposed to?
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Thanks.” Click. 14 seconds. Too bad Cingular counts that as a full minute.
The new book cost $6.95, and miraculously, the lady not only took back the first book, but gave me change. She paid me for my mistake.
And Rob will get what he wants for his birthday.
Unfestive
December 18, 2006I have no explanation for it, but I am feeling decidedly not festive this week.
Maybe it’s because I’ve already got everything I ever wanted, and have spent huge amounts of money this year, so I’m not as psyched about gift giving and receiving as usual. Unlike Rob, who happily made a list and actually went out and bought gifts for everyone he knows. Except possibly me, because I said we shouldn’t exchange gifts on account of all the stuff we’ve been buying the puppy. Then he went out and bought some presents for her. As if she doesn’t already have more toys than most 11-week-old children.
‘Course my ulterior motive is that Rob’s birthday is two weeks after Christmas, so I can easily save the stuff I’ve already gotten for him rather than try to figure out additional things to buy him.
My mother-in-law equivalent said that my father-in-law equivalent went a little crazy shopping for me. (!) It’s gotta be home improvement stuff. Does that make a $30 gift card from Lowe’s a weird gift to give him, or a perfect one?
Isis, Isis, my pretty little Isis. Joy of our lives. I went home midday to let her out and I swear, she peed a dozen times in an hour. I get the feeling that she’d like to spend her whole day outside playing with the soccer ball that came with our house. She looks so cute, romping around our backyard. I wonder, even if it were fully fenced, if I would feel comfortable leaving her out while we’re at work. I know that’s what people do, but she’d be so vulnerable to the elements. Like the freeway, and the creek, and college students…
I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” last night. How come, when all those critics were telling me this was the most important movie of the year and I heard not one single bad thing about the film, nobody mentioned that it’s really just Al Gore giving a slide show. Al Gore, graphs and maps. How did this movie sell?
I’m not saying it’s not a very important film, or that I didn’t turn down the thermostat and turn off a few lights while I was watching it … I’m just comparing it to “The Passion” (of the Christ.)
They (Christians) said that “The Passion” would make me believe in Jesus as my personal savior. I was like, “Oh yeah? Try me.”
And I guess they (film critics?) implied that “An Inconvenient Truth” would make me reduce my carbon dioxide emissions to zero. But I’m thinking, “eh, I don’t care if Florida sinks into the ocean, I own land on high ground at the opposite end of the country.” (And Al didn’t say whether Washington was in Greenland’s melt path.)
I liked the footage of stuff melting and the Before and After pictures of dried up lakes and rivers, but I wanted to know more about the causes of this climate crisis he speaks of.
Howler Monkey
December 11, 2006I have the best-behaved puppy in the world. We had people over on Friday and they were so impressed at how she went into her crate by herself and didn’t bark or chew on anyone.
She was equally well-mannered when we took her to the in-law equivalents’ party yesterday.
You’d never know that, when no one’s looking, she chews on Rob’s face, bites my pant legs and howls like a baby when I put her in the crate so I can shower in the morning.
Ever so occasionally, when I take her out to pee, and I think she’s going to come right back in, so I don’t bother with the leash, she bolts around to the front of the house. Yesterday she did this on the creek side. I called out, “Isis!” She paused, looked at me, and sprinted away from me to the other side.
This from the critter who used to follow me to the bathroom. We really need to install that chainlink fence.
She’s been pretty good about the Christmas tree. Likes to chew on the tree skirt, but our Noble fir is so big I don’t think she’s strong enough to knock it over. Although she tried yesterday, by getting the string of lights in her mouth and starting to move away from the tree.
Guess she had on her naughty pants.
He’s not like the other boys
December 4, 2006Not only will Rob stop and ask for directions (while I’d prefer to drive around til I find it, thank you very much), but he also likes to dress up his dog. I know this is unusual for a man, because my brother and my mom’s boyfriend vehemently oppose the placement of reindeer antlers on our Lhasa apso Barney.
My mom and I think it’s adorable, although Barney clearly hates it.
Here’s Rob and Isis, wearing matching coats.
Isis appears to be going for his jugular, no?
I was thinking about getting her a Santa hat, but maybe we should get her some antlers … she already knows how to pose like a reindeer in flight.
