Siber-Den
30 August 2002
OU
Sooner football has just begun. A few days ago, I had to explain to a younger coworker of mine why I wasn't a Longhorn fan or an Aggie fan (as if a Texan really has to pledge allegiance to either). When I explained I was a Sooner fan, he didn't even know what the heck a Sooner was. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what I've gotten myself into here. Kev is definitely a rabid fan. I've actually witnessed both he and his dad watching a game together, and it's a surreal experience. Now this email comes in moments before the game starts. It's from Kev's lovely mom, Louise.
It is almost time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*sigh* I love these Whiteds, but I've been brainwashed I think. Why else would I sit on the couch next to Kev and shout just as loudly as he does when a ref blows a call? :)
Are you ready???
OU <####> OU
OU <####> OU
Where we shall see unforgettable moments!!!
Oh We Hope!!! I think we shall!!!!
[Posted at 19:15 on 08/30/02]
25 August 2002
Lazy Weekend
There's nothing like sleeping through a weekend. That's basically how I spent this weekend (trips to Chuys and Floyds and the gym and tv football viewing notwithstanding)...a long nap on Saturday and a long one today. Hmmm. Reason for my insomnia? Surely not. :)
Anyway, I managed to fit in a trip home as well today. I still refer to my mom's home as my home, though it's been years since I've lived there. It makes for confusing conversations with Kev when we talk on the phone in the day and he asks me where I am. I haven't been able to break that habit. Anyway, I went to my mom's home to drop off a couple of pounds of figs purchased at the local health food store. Mom's a fig addict, and I do my part to feed her addiction.
I've been spending a lot more time lately with the dogs(2) and cats(2) who call her home theirs as well. Kitty Koolie (btw...I did not name her) is the resident feline terror of the place. She's amazingly affectionate, but she also can be a murderous little tyrant. She's closing in on fifteen years, and I still regularly find bird feathers scattered around the driveway. Today, I really got into a petting fest/extravaganza with her. I scratched her ears and her neck and stroked her fluffy back and basically brought her to a purring frenzy. At one point, she even climbed on my tummy as I lay on the driveway petting her (cat allergy be damned). Awww, she was such a sweet little kitty, my Kitty Koolie was. Then I got a little overheated (it was a tad HOT today), so I got up to go back inside, and Kitty Koolie LUNGED at me and attacked my leg. Yes...my sweet little purring, drooling, senior citizen of a cat, expressed her displeasure at the audacity of my discomfort by putting three puncture wounds on my lower thigh: two in front, one in back. I now have a swollen, warm welt the diameter of a plum on my leg. *sigh* Hives are a fun thing. So is Benadryl.
I forgot my place. I'm the peasant who lives to serve her, and I should NEVER put my discomfort over her enjoyment of my attention. I'll try to remember never to allow that to happen again. Better yet, next time I'll simply be careful to distract her before making a desperate run for the back door.
Disclaimer: This entry was brought to you under the influence of Benadryl.
[Posted at 23:47 on 08/25/02]
23 August 2002
Marnie Rose
Awww. Kev's mom just sent me an email with the news. Very sad. :(
[Posted at 19:55 on 08/23/02]
21 August 2002
Perfectly Normal Practice For An Eight-Year-Old?
Stuckey lets her son nurse once every 10 days or so, a practice she calls natural, child-led weaning, though she's unsure whether she still produces milk.Huh?
[Posted at 20:35 on 08/21/02]
20 August 2002
Missing Meerkats
Meerkats are cool little animals. They're kinda funny looking :). Anyway, any mention of them usually gets me interested. Having just returned from New Braunfels, this made this story doubly interesting.
Whitsun said he believed several animals remained on the property this past week, including the gibbons and an alligator.
An alligator? Oh dear. *sigh* I'm getting this sinking feeling.
[Posted at 23:13 on 08/20/02]
19 August 2002
Pyscho Alert
Would it be amazingly weird for me to say this? I REALLY love the way Kev writes. I mean really. And would it be more weird for me to say that I wish I could write that succinctly and eloquently and neatly and effectively? And would it REALLY be pushing the envelope of other-worldly for me to say that it makes me love him all the more?
Pardon Callie. She's in a strange mood :).
[Posted at 20:49 on 08/19/02]
It's Ok...Really...
I've adopted some of Kev's weird habits, and sometimes I have weird experiences because of them.
I went on our weekly shopping trip today. Usually it's done on Sunday. Our weekend was a little full, so I volunteered to do it this morning. Kev has this weird habit of leaving his cart at the end of the aisle, walking down the aisle to get what he needs from the aisle, bringing it back to place in the cart, moving on to the next aisle, where he leaves the cart at the end of the aisle again, and so on and so on. So I've adopted this weird little Kev habit. It's actually expedient. People don't seem to want to move out of the way if you're pushing a cart down the aisle. It saves you from having to say excuse me a THOUSAND times AND having to wait for each person to deign to move over. *sigh*
Anyway, so halfway through the store, with my cart half full, I went down an aisle in search of something, spent some time comparing labels, then went back to plop my selection in the cart waiting for me at the end of the aisle. Except...the cart was missing. Gone. I stopped for a second staring at the spot I'd left it....then looked up and down the back of the store to see if I could spot it. A few aisles over, an elderly man, who I'd seen earlier picking over the plums in the fruit section (I notice elderly men...actually...I can't stop staring at them), was standing in front of MY cart, carefully making his way through the cheese selection. I looked around and saw his cart about six aisles back in the opposite direction (please don't ask me how I knew it was his cart:). I went and retrieved his cart and brought it over to him and told him that he was pushing my cart. He seemed befuddled. Then I started to feel really bad for him. When he looked in my cart and saw all my crap and then saw that the other cart had his few items, he basically just apologized and said that sometimes he gets confused. I smiled reassuringly and told him it was ok.
It shouldn't be such a big deal, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about that man. I thought it was a simple mistake and acted accordingly. God knows I've been known to carry the Ditz Award for days at a time. Once I saw his sadness at his forgetfulness, I kicked myself for not surreptitiously switching the carts when he wasn't watching. Why do I always think of good solutions after the damage has already been done? *sigh*
Now Callie's being obsessive. :) Sorry.
[Posted at 18:14 on 08/19/02]
Houston Medical
Kev is right. It is the couple from Houston Medical. I saw them last night while pounding away on the bike. Too sweaty and out of breath though to congratulate them on their baby. Weird, huh. :)
[Posted at 10:25 on 08/19/02]
18 August 2002
Thank You, Lord, We Don't Need Anymore Rain
We just got back from a really enjoyable road trip to Gruene, Tx. I'm tired and stiff from the drive, but feel I must put something down about last night's music. Former Groobees member Scott Melott gathered former band mates together at a WAY-out-of-the-way venue for an amazing three hour jam session, songfest, and rousing good time. I have been to so many performances of so many bands in the past three years. A few really stand out as being stellar. Last night's was one. There was magic in the air at the Tavern in the Gruene. Cringe from the triteness if you must, but last night's performance was....awesome. I so rarely spontaneously jump up for a standing ovation. I did it several times during last night's performance, the first after an amazingly heartfelt rendition of Nashville Suicide.
Not only was it a joy to hear these favorites being performed so brilliantly, it was also amazing to see Scott and Gary Wayne (former lead guitarist) play with such glee. They seemed genuinely thrilled to be back on stage again. And they really reveled in the crowd's response. We got four encores. Not bad.
It's nice to have friends like John and Cathy, who not only are willing to roadtrip for three hours to see some obscure band, but who come away enjoying it almost as much as we did. Thanks, guys. You're the best!!
Update 7:30 pm:
Kev and I have been listening to our bootleg of the show, and I've been reliving my amazement at last night's version of Nashville Suicide. I remember Scott actually taking several steps back during our ovation, the response so surprised him. I don't remember this from the show, but on the recording after the ovation, Scott says something like, God, I miss that, in reference to the amazing feedback. And someone from the crowd shouts back, we miss it too.
I only wish I'd had the presence of mind to bring a third minidisc for the encores. I don't know that I've ever heard a song as weird as Sasquatch Stew, the last song of the evening. Then again, I don't know if I want to relive it :). Groobees do performance art.
[Posted at 14:14 on 08/18/02]
17 August 2002
Not West Nile Virus
I posted a link earlier about the first dog to contract West Nile Virus. A correction has been put up on that site. It wasn't West Nile. Now they tell us :).
[Posted at 07:31 on 08/17/02]
16 August 2002
Not Me...
[Posted at 19:30 on 08/16/02]
One More...
Ok...this is the last I'll post on the Bruce Springsteen cd. But this sounds kinda familiar
So heavy are the themes, one feels almost guilty enjoying the simple, buoyant melodies of the frothy, '60s pop-flavored "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" and "Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin)." "Mary's Place," a Born to Run-era muscular blowout, will undoubtedly be a live favorite. Not all of the material connects ("The Fuse" and "Countin' on a Miracle"), and read alone many lyrics seem simplistic and overdone. But this is a record better appreciated with multiple listens.
[Posted at 12:32 on 08/16/02]
Turf Wars?
This is a halfway decent article on the problems that arise when certain breeds are featured in movies. Anyone involved with any breed rescue basically cringes whenever a movie is about to be released featuring their breed. The husky list was up in arms for months before the release of Snow Dogs. Rescue people actually camped out at movie theaters to pass out leaflets on the breed and its inherent behavior difficulties in an attempt to try to stem the inevitable tide of sibe adoptions and subsequent abandonments. Still to this day, listers document ads in their local papers selling "snowdogs", like the ones in the movie.
My one real complaint with the article is how it veers off topic into the whole rescue/hoarders non-issue, which is not even relevant to the whole issue of movies making a mess of the pet overpopulation situation. A trend has developed lately for the SPCA/HSUS to lump private, local, small rescues with pet hoarders (the ones who have 50-some critters living in their houses in deplorable conditions). The HSUS was successful in Virginia in lobbying the state legislature to make the existence of home rescues more difficult. The law basically grants state officials access to inspect any rescuer's home at any time without a warrant or prior notice or due process, not to mention the fees and the paperwork required to even exist. The official shelters, municipal and non profit, insist that the only way to prevent hoarders, already covered by current cruelty laws, is by regulating ALL private rescues. In my paranoid little mind, it almost seems as if they are trying to do away with their "competition". But that should seem ludicrous. Animal welfare is animal welfare whether the local breed rescue does it, one dog at a time with funds as they are available, or the huge shelter that has the luxury of fund-raising activities and corporate sponsorship.
As if local private rescues didn't have enough on their plates dealing with owners who want to dump their dogs at a moment's notice and prospective adopters who've never dealt with the breed, one would think the job couldn't get any harder. Now they have officials with the SPCA making comments like this:
Jim Boller, chief investigator for the Houston SPCA, says he prefers the term "adoption partner" or "breed placement groups" to rescue groups, because he doesn't want it to sound like people are rescuing dogs from the SPCA. Boller also says there can be a fine line between rescue groups and hoarders. This fear of well-meaning people who will ultimately do the dogs no good is felt at all animal welfare agencies.
There isn't a fine line between the two. They are two very different breeds of animal. And the SPCA does a great disservice to future unwanted pets and those seeking a companion animal by its denigration of rescue.
[Posted at 10:02 on 08/16/02]
15 August 2002
PETA Nonsense
Ah the animalweenies are at it again:
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says fishing is a violent and cruel sport that victimizes the innocent inhabitants of the nation's waterways. They've initiated a campaign demanding states ban the time-honored sport."They have the capacity to feel pain. They have a capacity to suffer," Friedrich said. "For reasons that really defy logic, we allow people to spend their afternoon impaling them on hooks."
Fisherman have cast their own barbs.
"They eat each other and they die," fisherman Anthony Young said. "Is that cruelty?"
[Posted at 20:06 on 08/15/02]
14 August 2002
Everything Is Everything But You're Missing
I've spent most of today running around doing errands and dog stuff. The huskies got their first grooming in over 16 months. I hadn't realized how long it'd been till I saw the record at Petsmart when I dropped them off. March 2001 was the last time the poor babies had been bathed. Well, that's not entirely true. They were bathed in November. Huskies don't need to be bathed more than a couple of times a year anyway. So there.
I've been trying to listen to Bruce Springsteen's new cd, The Rising, for the past week or so. For some reason, I hadn't been able to get into it. I always try to give every cd I buy at least two listens before I give up on it, and in all fairness, I've been trying to listen to this while working out at the gym. I've slowly realized that this is not gym music. Today, finally, I put the cd in my car and listened to it while doing my various errands. Wow. Now I see why it's been hyped as much as it has. Again, I'm not a rabid fan. I don't like his rowdier songs. I think that probably follows for every musician or band I follow. The quieter pieces affect me more. There are some amazingly POWERFUL songs on this cd.
The one that I haven't been able to stop listening to is Paradise. It's a bit reminiscent of a Jackson Browne's Too Many Angels. There are a few lines in it that send chills down my spine.
Another day, another sun goin' down
I visit you in another dream
I visit you in another dream
and again:
I sink 'neath the
water cool and clear
Drifting down,
I disappear
I see you on the
other side
I search for the
peace in your eyes
But they're as empty as paradise
They're as empty as paradiseI break above the waves
I feel the sun upon my face
The song that really feels like 9-11 to me is Empty Sky. It starts out:
I woke up this morning,
I could barely breathe
Just an empty impression
In the bed where you used to be
I want a kiss from your lips
I want an eye for an eye
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
His music isn't very complicated, both the melodies and the lyrics. But there's an honesty and intensity to them that can be affecting if allowed. I've seen him in interviews and have gotten the impression that he's just a simple guy. He really could just be the mechanic down the street at the corner car repair. There isn't anything Bono about the guy. He doesn't traipse all over the world looking for cameras and significance. One would think someone like this wouldn't be able to translate sadness and anger into melody and rhyme. He does. And in four or five songs on this cd, he does it exceedingly well.
I read an article recently that asked if his cd is the quintessential 9-11 cd. I think it is. It speaks to the loss eloquently and simply.
[Posted at 18:26 on 08/14/02]
11 August 2002
My Furry Friends
Sometimes animal people can seem freaky :). Be that as it may, I don't disagree with this article.
[Posted at 22:01 on 08/11/02]
10 August 2002
Mosquitoes Suck
The first case of West Nile Virus in a dog has been reported.
[Posted at 20:29 on 08/10/02]
Black Dog
S.N.A.P. does great work. Before the Enron collapse (major contributor), most of the rescues in town took their fosters to their Shepherd facility for cheap spays/neuters. I've never taken a look at their website. This was the latest from the organization's executive director.
[Posted at 00:21 on 08/10/02]
09 August 2002
Bird Rescuer
A volunteer bird rehabber for the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Hutchins, Ms. Latsko has turned one room of her Plano home into a hospital and nursery for sick, injured or orphaned birds.
[Posted at 23:34 on 08/09/02]
08 August 2002
Then She Stabs Herself...
Kev and I caught the Houston Shakespeare Festival's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last night at the Miller Outdoor Theater. We decided sorta last minute just to go check it out. I have yet to be disappointed with any of their efforts at their annual festival. Romeo and Juliet from last year is definitely my favorite. Last night's performance might come in second. Very funny, very well done, and the sets and costumes were simply magnificent. The performers' enthusiasm was simply contagious. Their passion for the material was so obvious. It was hard not to be pulled into the world they had created.
And the actor, Daniel Magill, who played Puck was simply amazing to watch. He wore me out. What an acrobatic performance. The Press seems to agree with me.
Magill's hyperactive Puck grows on you. He runs in annoying circles as he listens to Oberon's bidding, and he can't seem to stop grinning and giggling as he races through the forest. But all this nervous energy eventually makes sense, and Magill's Puck becomes the funniest and most delightful mischief-maker to trip across a Houston stage this year.
[Posted at 22:49 on 08/08/02]
FREEBIRD!!!
Foxnews has a review up of the opener for Bruce Springsteen's The Rising tour. I bought the cd last week but haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. I'm not a rabid fan, I like his quiet stuff more than the standard crowd favorites. The following quotes from the review don't surprise me. There have been very few counting crows and Reckless Kelly shows that haven't had morons making rear ends of themselves. Why someone would pay that much money to talk through a performance has always puzzled me.
Here, was Springsteen performing to a crowd of "his people": the local New Jerseyans who are his constituency. But there was a disconnect. This crowd wanted to hear "Born to Run" and "Thunder Road" (see above), to wave their clenched fists in the air and chant "Born in the USA." But Springsteen the artist is working in a different medium right now. His album, The Rising, is full of the kind of poetry that fueled his first two recordings. The songs are precise and heartbreaking — not about having a kegger and throwing up, or being nostalgic for high school days. The Rising addresses something real and tragic that has happened. This seemed to throw the crowd in many ways....Maybe I'm just a prima donna. I'm weird. I actually go to concerts to HEAR the BAND perform, not listen to idiots. Things like this put me in a Kev mood.In fact, that moment gave hope that the crowd had really listened to The Rising But during the album's three key numbers — the exquisite "You're Missing," "Empty Sky" and "Into the Fire" — an aerial view of the arena would have shown a room quickly balding of people. Even in the so-called "VIP" area, invited guests (I could only think of calling them "youts," from My Cousin Vinny) talked loudly and ate like they had been on a desert isle.
[Posted at 22:09 on 08/08/02]
Perpetuating The Problem
I can't get over the fact that there is something called The Puppy Depot. I also can't get over the fact that someone would actually spend $1800 for a puppy when there are so many dogs being destroyed every day. Granted, this breed isn't exactly as popular as a black lab or a retriever. Still. Do some research, people! Find a reputable breeder or shelter or a rescue. Are there still people out there who don't know who/what supplies stores like Puppy Depot?
[Posted at 20:11 on 08/08/02]
Six Years Later
Here's a story with a happy ending. Galena is the only one of mine microchipped. I should get Kiwi and Camie done too.
[Posted at 09:46 on 08/08/02]
06 August 2002
More Adam
Now his journal is getting some publicity.
[Posted at 19:24 on 08/06/02]
04 August 2002
They've Named Her Shadow
Looks like this little girl is getting some publicity.
[Posted at 20:44 on 08/04/02]
Heroes
Kev sent this link.
[Posted at 10:55 on 08/04/02]
May Her Memory Be Eternal
Elena Semander's funeral was the first funeral I ever attended. She and her family were members of our church, and I've never forgotten how beautiful and popular she was, nor how her family was devastated at the loss of the eldest daughter. I was not an intimate by any means, but I remember sobbing uncontrollably at the funeral. Repeating the same devastating questions over and over again, seeing this beautiful young woman lying there...it took its toll on me. I can't imagine the impact on those who truly knew her and loved her. Whenever I see any of them today, I wonder what their lives and her life might have been like if she hadn't had the awful misfortune to cross paths with this monster. I know her mother could have done without this activist's life she's taken on since then. Her father could have done without losing his health, mental and physical. We read cursory mentions of the victims, a mention of their names and ages. The ripples in the water are almost never examined. If Watts is set free, I wouldn't take this statement lightly:
Some family members of Watts' victims say they fantasize about him getting murdered by a fellow inmate, or killing him themselves if he steps off a bus in Houston.I think something like this is the only thing that could compel me to violence--having a loved one taken away and then having his/her death taken lightly. Hopefully, the state will keep this monster in his cell for a long time.
[Posted at 10:46 on 08/04/02]
02 August 2002
I Hate That Place
It seems to me that a whistleblower doesn't necessarily wait till he's about to be fired to blow the whistle on improprieties. Who knows what the real story is. I'm sure the City of Houston is doing its best to cover its ass. I do know that the Houston Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care facility is an AWFUL place. Case in point...any shelter that is supposed to be concerned with humane treatment and disposal of strays and lost pets AND does trade with research facilities has its mandate screwed up. I've been to most of the shelters in town, and that place is nothing more than a dungeon. Just the smell when you walk in the door is indication enough that the place isn't well run. Dogs are kept in tiny kennels and rest on grates that a constant stream of water runs under (how the puppies were washed down the drain). Probably what contributes to the smell of the place.
Put an animal shelter in the worse neighborhood in town and hire locals at minimum wage to clean and run it, and there are going to be problems. As much as I dislike the Humane Society and the SPCA, at least their employees really care about the treatment of their charges. None of his allegations surprises me.
[Posted at 10:19 on 08/02/02]
01 August 2002
0.37 ERA?
If he's as good as all this fuss indicates, I'm relieved he passed up on the Texas gig. We'd like the Coogs to make it past them this year.
Still, 2.15 mil for an eighteen year old?
[Posted at 03:37 on 08/01/02]
What To Do, What To Do
Finally, this is getting some mainstream press. The dog lists have been discussing this issue for a long time.
Fears of vaccine-induced diseases date back more than 40 years. But a sharp increase during the past decade in cancerous tumors among cats, between the shoulder blades where vaccines typically are injected, has spurred studies. Some have found a higher-than-expected incidence of side effects. “We see health problems in dogs for which we have no explanation. The classic one is autoimmune disease,” says Larry Glickman, professor of epidemiology at Purdue University’s School of Veterinary Medicine in West Lafayette, Ind., who is studying possible links with vaccinations. “We see an epidemic of hyperthyroidism in cats today, and we suspect that these are happening because we’re over-vaccinating our pets.”
I wish the kennel we use for the dogs wouldn't still require annual vaccs. Still, the alternative might be possibly exposing the pups to something proven to be harmful or almost always lethal, like distemper. Till something more definitive is known, I'll just keep staggering their vaccinations (no more five-in-one injections) and simply keep them as up to date as is necessary for their infrequent boardings. It's the only time they come in contact with foreign pups anyway.
[Posted at 02:52 on 08/01/02]
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