Hawaii photo selected for guide

Got an email today that my photo (posted on Flickr) of the moon over the Kohala coast on the big island of Hawaii was selected for the Schmap Hawaii Sixth Edition.

I've added a cool widget to the sidebar too.

Hawaii dreaming on a cold day ...

Airport reunions - caught for the news

Two of my sisters waited for a third Wednesday night at DIA. A local news team from Fox was on hand and asked Annie who she was waiting for at the place where the trains empty out. She pointed to sister Maggie and said, "ask her." Maggie sniffled a bit and said she was waiting for her twin Sara from Albuquerque, whom she only sees a couple times a year. They showed her waiting and then the hugging as Sara and husband Aaron came up the stairs. Even the newscaster was verklempt. She called Sara when she arrived at the gate to tell her there was a news team but Sara didn't believe her so she was quite surprised to see the real cameras when she came up the stairs.

See the story online.

Fragile, please mangle with care

Have you ever noticed that packages marked "Fragile" always look like they've been attacked by a school of piranha? Lately all packages seem to have a mauled appearence but the ones marked Fragile are the worst for wear. The Fragile seems to irk those in the package handling business. Maybe it's not Italian but a secret, package-handler language that means "please use package for bowling."

Viva la Vida

Coldplay was in town last night for our first concert in almost a year. It was nice to get out but we were sleepy (busy week, we're old, we're parents). We also had the really scary seats -- nice view but I was getting vertigo. The show opened with a band from east Texas, Sleepercar. They were new to me (I joke that I get all my new music from Grey's Anatomy or One Tree Hill, but it's true). They were pretty good.

Coldplay, however, was fantastic. I really like their music. Someone made fun of me a couple of weeks ago when I excitedly mentioned that I was going to the show. This person accused them of being a U2 soundalike. I haven't yet bought the new Coldplay album but have heard a few of the songs. I heard more last night. Funny, to me, they sound like Coldplay!

One of my favorite parts of the concert was when they released all these colored bits of paper (like leaves, or really more like snow) and then turned on the black lights. Very cool.

Cat Food

I'm in the cat food aisle the other day picking up dry food. Our two boys get a mix because one kind is never good enough. So I pick up Indoor Cat, Hairball Remedy, and Urinary Tract Health varieties. I usually add a senior variety to the mix -- since Sebastian is almost 17 and Toby is 12. The food has names like "Active Maturity" and "Vibrant Senior". This describes Sebastian pretty well.

But they don't have "Throw Rug" and "Lazy Lump of Fur" varieties for the lazy one. Oh well, maybe the Active Maturity will get Toby moving more.

After all, he's a model now. Catch his beautiful mug as Mr. June in the 2009 Denver Dumb Friends League calendar. (The picture above).

Duke Gary Winston - we will miss you...

When it comes to our pets, life is really too short. In our Duke's case, it was shorter than most. Just 16 months ago, Mark and I rescued Duke from a local animal shelter. He was a beautiful chocolate brown German Shorthair pup about 8 months old. We got to be with him for about half a day before we handed him off to his new family: my sister Sara, her husband Aaron and their English Pointer, Mollie.

On Wednesday, Duke developed GDV (known as bloat), and his stomach flipped with his intestines twisted around it. They tried emergency surgery but this morning discovered the stitches wouldn't hold. They tried to repair those with a second surgery but he didn't make it.

He joins our Flounder in the land of the slow-moving squirrels, as well as his predecessor Gunner, who died of cancer a month before we rescued Duke. He also joins another sister's two dogs Max and Paisley, whom we also lost this past year.

As hard as it is on all of us, it's probably hardest on poor Mollie who lost two of her companions now.

We'll miss you Duke.

(Belated) Happy New Year

I don't really have a list of resolutions this year. This year is going to be the biggest change of my life so pretty much am going to just take it as it comes. But as usual, hoping to be more organized, set priorities, clear out the clutter, and have fun. :-) An easy list...

Flounder

It just isn't fair, is it? The time we get with our four-legged friends is terribly short.

Our black labrador (a "blabrador" we liked to call her) left us today. It was so quick that I'm not sure it really has sunk in. The last two weeks she had started to slow down, more than her usual arthritic self. Today really wasn't any different. She went out this morning for an all-neighborhood dog emergency bark and seemed a little peppy. Besides the new slowness we attributed to a cut on her leg, nothing really seemed out of the ordinary.

But then she got sick. And in a short time after that vomited blood. We took her to the emergency clinic. In what seems like an even shorter time (although in reality was several hours), she worsened. Her organs started to fail. She went into cardiac arrest in front of me and was brought back.

Then came that inevitable decision. What do you do? Of course, I wanted her to be around for another 10 years. I wanted her to be happy, pain-free, healthy. But there were other plans for her. In the end, we had to let her go. She was too weak for surgery, which only had a slim chance of telling us what was wrong, much less fixing it. It was her time, even if we weren't ready for it.

I knew this was coming someday but didn't think it would be today. Although my intuition was that it would be sooner rather than later. In May, as we crossed the finish line of the Furry Scurry, I felt this overwhelming grief that was her last one.

As we said our goodbyes, my husband through sobs said she was off to the world of slow-moving squirrels, a place she will be very happy.

Now to go on with this huge hole in our lives. I have to tell myself she lived a wonderful life. It may not have been as long as I wanted it to be but it was good. I have to tell myself I made the right decision to let her go. The vet was honest and experienced. He gave us all the options and suggestions. I have to tell myself that people go through all sorts of loss and are able to continue on with life. I have three more furries here with lots of love and a non-furry on the way.

But right now, I just miss my baby girl and the smell of her head.

Rest in peace, Flounder. We love you.