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.

Ms January!

My 2008 Denver Dumb Friends League calendar arrived today. My Flounder is Ms January!

The photo was shot last December after our first big blizzard. Sarah-Dog also is in the calendar on one of the collage pages.

Lost reference in Chuck

One of my new favorite shows is Chuck on NBC. He's a regular Joe, a bit on the geeky side who accidentally downloads government secrets into his head. In Monday night's episode, he is being tested by a doctor to see what he knows. He starts spouting off various secrets and one is "Oceanic flight 815 was shot down ..." which is a reference to the flight that crashed in Lost. Pretty funny (especially since they're on different networks).

It's very unique

I read in the paper about a "blog" on "unnecessary" quotation marks -- ones that are grammatically incorrect but have been added for some strange reason. It's hilarious and oh so sadly true. I work with words all day in many languages and see way too many over used quotation marks.

I was thinking about grammatical things that bug me. One is the use of over, instead of more than. "The committee raised over $2 million." To me, the word "over" means a state of being, such as "the balloon hovered over the field." When we talk about something that can't physically be over something else, it should be "more than."

Another is the word unique. The definition means one-of-a-kind or unparalled. So when someone says "that's very unique," he or she is adding an unnecessary modifier. It's already one-of-a-kind, it can't get more unique than that.

And sometimes plans change

Thankfully our Hawaii trip is flexible (using miles and timeshare, etc) as we now have to postpone it to later. Plans have changed -- mostly for the good but will be better when I am not so sick!

Baby butter bean is what is making me so sick. She doesn't like anything I eat. I have a few more weeks of this and can't wait to be past it. Uhg! Why can't I have the pregnancy you see in movies? These people are hardly sick! Instead of morning sickness, I get 24-hour sickness.

Oh baby butter bean, you better be cute. I'll be reminding you how sick I was every year on your birthday (and probably will have a fun labor story too).

Hawaii on $20

I love it when a plan comes together.

In my crazy frantic last couple of months I began to stress over getting our annual Hawaii trip together. We have a timeshare week this year. I also realized that we both had enough miles for a place ticket each.

Since we wanted to go in September, time was now to get the show on the road. First I called the owner services in Maui. The woman was awesome -- you have to submit your request in writing but email counts. She looked at the dates I requested (based on award dates available from United's site), told me there was a few left and to email immediately. I did and she confirmed it within minutes.

On to the United site, I found good flights for our time frame and booked them. Ends up it's on 35k a ticket for reward miles. We had thought it was 60k per ticket (it's this once the reward miles run out). So total for airfare - $20! So I used 70 of my 85k miles and we still have a whole trip left on Mark's miles.

I love it! I'm dreaming of the sea and sand already. :-)

The people you meet on public transportation

I took the bus downtown a couple of weeks ago to meet friends for an early showing of Harry Potter. While I was taking the 16th Street Mall shuttle, an older woman with a cane came on the bus which was on the full side. "Ma'am", I said, "would you like my seat."

"No, No," she insisted and proceeded to tell me that once she started taking seats then she'd go downhill fast. It was bad enough she had the cane but she was going to fight it. She was pretty feisty and spoke quietly so I only got a couple of words here and there. As my stop appeared, I thanked her for chatting with me and stood up. Then she said, "well, maybe I will take a seat now."

At the theater, friend Pam who recently returned from a trip to London and Paris. In Paris, they ran into a group of obvious Americans trying to figure out where they needed to go -- without a map. She was amazed that not only were they wandering around a place they were unfamiliar with sans map, but clearly didn't speak the language to read the signs (or understand measurements -- 300m is not "just over there.")

Later as the hubby and I made out way back to the bus station we encountered the self-named "Irish contingent" from the Microsoft convention in town. They were looking for the Celtic Pub and were hoping they were going the right way. I laughed and said, you come all the way to Denver and you go to an Irish pub? The woman understood the reasoning and said, oh, they had been plenty of local spots -- including Elway's for dinner. Can't get more local than that.

When Mel Gibson walks by you at work ...

Famous people never walk by my desk at work. Well, it's rare that anyone walks by my desk at work since my office is at home.

My sister Sara, a landscape architect in Albuquerque, was just plugging away at her cubicle when Mel Gibson walked by. It's funny to even write that line. If it were me, I would have believed I was just working too hard and hallucinating. (The working-to-hard part not too far from the truth.)

It seems Mr. Gibson is in ABQ to film his next project and would be using the company's studios for filming. He was touring the building when he ambled by my surprised sister.

Apparently the building layout is fairly open with cubicles and she said all you could hear was nervous tittering, giggling, and people whispering on the phone.

Wouldn't that be a hoot?

Wonder what they said when he left?

"Attention, Mel has left the building"

now *THAT* is the way to do a movie trailer

It doesn't give the whole story, the best parts, or splice together scenes that don't actually appear (at least so far)... it makes you go WHOA... (and boy, the pressure this movie better not suck).

1.18.08 - the Trailer

Ass Effects and other stupid commercials

I have the TV on a lot during the day while I work so I see/hear a lot of advertisements. There's a couple of ones that have made me laugh.

The mostly recent one is one for a new heartburn medicine called "Aciphex" -- said out loud sounds like "ass effects". Did these people not say it to one another before naming the drug that?

Another one that makes me snicker - -the paper towel one with the kid and the soda. He pulls a soda bottle out of the fridge and proceeds to shake it. The lid pops off and sprays his mother with orange soda. She yells at him "what are you thinking" and then grabs the water sprayer on the sink "this works much better" and they proceed to shower each other further. Yeah right. First of all moms everywhere are cringing with the message. It's going to take more than a paper towel to clean up that mess!

I'm melting!

As the temp hits 98 degrees ... thought I would post a reminder of six months ago today (Dec. 20, 2006 - the start of the first big holiday blizzard)...

The yard is full of collies

Early last Saturday morning, someone in my dream turned to me and said "the yard is full of collies."

Then I realized my husband was standing over me and he has just said it. I opened my eyes and see that dawn is just breaking. Barely. It's 4:30 am. I rubbed my eyes and said "Is one of them minature and named Max?"

I went upstairs and sure enough, it was Max, the minature collie and his buddy Rusty - not a collie, or even close. Rusty is a chow mix. Sarah-Dog had alerted Mark with her version of "THE YARD IS FULL OF COLLIES...THE YARD IS FULL OF COLLIES." (Which, ironically sounds a lot like "THE YARD IS FULL OF SQUIRRELS" and "THE YARD IS FULL OF UPS DELIVERY MEN".)

So if you have read my blog before you'll know the beginning of March, I wrangled Max and took him across town to his former address still listed on his tag (which luckily was still inhabited by some of his humans). Rusty, thankfully had a tag with the correct address -- about a block over and a block down.

Since clearly Sarah-Dog was verklemped -- there would be no more sleeping until the yard was free of collies. So I leashed up the wayward pups and at 5 am, walked them back to their house.

My intention was to slip them back into their own yard. But the gate was nailed shut (probably after their March escapade). Then I noticed the front door open (the screen door shut) and a pair of glasses laying on the step. As I approached, I smelled the reason someone had accidentally let the dogs out ... in a drunken stupor. Lovely. Holding my breath, I picked up the glasses and put them on the ledge. Carefully opened the screen door, de-leashed the pups and pushed their rumps inside. I made sure the screen door shut and then went back home to my bed.

The drunken fool who let them out probably didn't even know they were gone. Wonder if he/she found his/her glasses...

We were quite freaked out by how the wayward pups got into our backyard in the first place since the gate is normally shut. But pretty much determined the hubbie left it open after taking the trash out Thursday night and my girls mysteriously didn't notice it open when they were out on Friday.

Otherwise someone else may have woken up to "the yard is full of Labradors."

Top 10 problems dogs have with humans

I saw this in the paper a few weeks back and had to repost it - 'cause it's funny.

Top 10 problems dogs have with humans:
10 Sit. You sit!

9 Chewing. There is no logical translation for not chewing in dog language.

8 Don't cover up my holes! It's hot. I'm trying to cool off. Cut me some slack, will ya?

7 Barking. There is no logical translation for no barking in our kingdom.

6 Stay. Sorry. No can do. Got things to do, dogs to see.

5 Sniffing. It's called P-mail people. Geez, buy a clue already.

4 Jumping up. Stretching. That's all we're doing. Stretching those back legs, don't ya know?

3 Collars. Here's an idea. You wear them.

2 Off. What? The couch? No way.

1 Wait. There is no logical translation in dogdom.

Source: longmonthumane.org

Joan of Arc survived

On today's date (May 30) 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Or was she? In a Da Vinci Code kind of way, there is an argument that she actually escaped the burning because she was a secret illegitimate daughter of a queen.

According to the alternate theory, Joan of Arc was smuggled out of the city and later secretly married a French nobleman Robert des Armoises. Another condemned witch took her place at the stake. She was much older than Joan of Arc's 23 years.

This theory is in a book published in the 1970s called Joan of Arc and Her Secret Missions. The author, Pierre de Sermoise states that Isabelle of Bavaria (wife of the half-mad King Charles VI of France) had an affair with the king's brother, Louis d'Orleans. Joan was born of this relationship on Nov 10, 1407. Louis was assasinated two weeks later and baby Joan was sent into hiding with the d'Arch (later changed to d'Arc) family in Domremy.

It was due to her royal birth that she was so well educated. The marriage certificate to Des Armoises identifies her as "Joan of France." She died in 1449. The author claims her tombstone is there with her symbol (celtic cross in a circle).

Of course there have been many historians arguing against this theory. Joan was made a saint in 1920. The theory also is disputed by the Roman Catholic church.

From further research, I've found that in 2006, Joan of Arc’s rib and some other relics were reported that they had survived her burning at the stake. Tests were conducted in Paris to find out if the remains were indeed hers, since it seemed unlikely anything could have survived such a fire and there long had been a legend that the ashes were tossed in the Seine. There was no way they could be proved to be Joan’s relics definitively since there was no authentic family DNA to compare them against. In April 2007, the results were the rib belonged to an Egyptian mummy from between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC!

The most favored explanation for all this was that holy relics were required in the 19th century before Joan could be beatified and canonized. What is more interesting perhaps is that the relics were in the possession of the Catholic Church all these centuries. Until recently they were housed at Chinon in a museum owned by the Archdiocese of Tours.

Like the Da Vinci Code story, perhaps this was part of a cover up by the church?

It's definitely an interesting theory. I have the book on order from amazon.uk (cheaper than the ones listed here, even with shipping).

There's a further reason that I am interested in this. If she really did survive, I am a descendant of hers through my maternal grandmother (surname Haderer). Several generations have been researching the link. I recently received an article from 1973 about the de Sermoise book with some papers from my aunt's cousin.

In memory of Laura Alexander

Ruth Stewart died Friday May 18th after battling bipolar disorder. I got the benefit of knowing her for about 10 years. She was the only member of my ex's family I would have loved to keep.

Laura Alexander was her alias. As her disease waxed and waned, she had many grand ideas of writing books and traveling under this name.

As Ruth Stewart, she was a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother and a good friend. She was a firey liberal - one of the few 70-somethings I knew with a "legalize pot" sticker on her car. She was a caring and giving person, often to the point of her detriment.

Several years into my relationship, I had received a phone call from her. She was elated. She had an epiphany. She was the seventh child of the seventh child. She went on like this for awhile. I knew her to be well-educated and funny. I kept waiting for the punchline. It never came. After I had hung up with her, I called my now-ex at work and told him about the conversation. Oh no, he said. She's off her medication. That was the first I knew she had this disorder.

After my horrid split from her grandson, I began to lose track of Ruth. The breakup was really hard on me and I had to distance myself from everything related to him. I had sent a birthday card to her every year (Sept. 1). One year, it came back. Through one of her manic phases, Ruth had fallen prey to a refinance scheme that ultimately took her condo in a foreclosure. She decided to travel after that -- but essentially became homeless. I re-sent the card to a local shelter where she was staying but after a couple of months it too came back.

After time passed, I often wondered about what became of her. Unfortunately the disease changed her to someone other than the person she used to be. This happens too often to those affected by the disease.

The email from my ex came this last Monday on a bleak day I was already suffering my own loss. I felt terrible I had lost track of her but I know the Ruth I knew was gone a long time ago. There was no obituary and apparently no service. I understand the family was tired from dealing with the disease (as I now deal with those close to me with this disease) but she was still a great person and deserves a memorial.

Rest in peace, Ruth.

The Furries scurried

Two weeks ago Flounder and her houndies (Sya, Sheena, and Oz) and their humans scurried their way around Washington Park. The day started out looking like cold and rain but managed to stay dry and perfect temp. Whew! Imagine a couple of thousand wet dogs!

Flounder and I raised $750 this year, which is our highest yet. She made the two mile trek but was a little slower this year. Around the curve of mile two, she started to lag behind until Pam mentioned there were frosty paws at the finish. That was all she needed to push her rump into turbo mode. (She ate two of them -- each in mere seconds).

We ended up getting there at 7am because I had woken up really early. This gave us plenty of time to wander the vendors and get lots of freebies. On the way down, she seemed a little confused at the distance of the car ride. But as soon as I parked near Washington Park, she got very excited. Amazing that she remembers the place since we're only there once a year. Her favorite is to check out the vendors because she knows they all have treats. She has perfected the "starving dog" look (even at a rotund 100 pounds).

Hopefully Sarah-dog and I will be able to do the Lucky Mutt Strut in July.

The cats could care less about all the buddy-buddy stuff (although wouldn't mind getting out and about) but they wanted me to post this link of their dreamhouse.

*Now* I get it ...

Guess you have to see the whole commercial! It's for a Kohler toliet and the guy is frantically trying to back it up and is flushing all kinds of stuff down. (Apparently it's a super flush.) I couldn't figure out why the guy was trying to back it up. But fianlly saw it from the beginning. There's a hot plumber (named "Jo") who just pulled up next door.

They have some entertaining ads.

ACK! My tongue is black

The following is a public service announcement:

Nothing worse to jolt you awake. I was sleepily brushing my teeth this morning when I noticed my toothbrush was turning black. What the ... I did already have my coffee but that usually is a little bit of brown. This was ink black. Then I opened my mouth. ACK! I look like that chick in Pirates of the Caribbean -- with the ink black mouth. I quickly take stock of the counter top. Nope, definitely toothpaste I am using. Crap! Did I chew on my pen earlier?

I check in with myself. Besides a little sleepy, I otherwise feel fine. Heart's beating. All my limbs are attached.

Then I remember, I woke up about three a.m. with horrible heart burn. Maybe this was part of that? I had taken some chewable pepto-bismol and then went back to bed. So I googled away and found this pepto page.

It says: The active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol contains bismuth. When a small amount of bismuth combines with trace amounts of sulfur in your saliva and gastrointestinal tract, a black-colored substance (bismuth sulfide) is formed. [Lovely!] This discoloration is temporary and harmless. [Unless you count my ego when everyone freaks out when I talk to them.] It can last several days after you stop taking Pepto-Bismol. [Seriously??]

Several days? Yikes. But hey, the heartburn went away...

Weird. I've never had this happen before and I have taken Pepto before (a lot, in fact, which may be another story you don't want to hear).

So there's you little warning!

Eyes on the world

I've become obsessed with web cams. This comes partly from the Macintosh OSX dashboard. I have widgets that allow me to have a bunch of web cams up while I'm working away on my Windows (kind of a screen saver effect for my Mac, without the actuak screen saver process.).

Today Mount St. Helens is intermittent fog (completely fogged out right at this moment), downtown Denver is mostly sunny, the Golden Gate Bridge just disappeared under a fog bank, people are milling about in Times Square NYC, Old Faithful in Yellowstone is mostly cloudy (and actually going off here and there), and the Russian hamsters are in the dark (actually haven't caught them not in the dark yet but the time stamp keeps updating).

The Times Square is actually part of Sloth Cam, which cycles between Times Square, Las Vegas Wedding Chapel, Calhoun Factory - Canada, Abbey Road - London, Broadway - NYC, Vancouver Aquarium Beluga Whale Cam, San Diego Zoo Panda Cam, Daytona Beach, Trafalgar Square, CBC - Montreal, Del Mar Beach - CA, Venice Beach, Parliament Hill - Ontario, CBC - Toronto, Eiffel Tower, Panama Canal, and Sydney Harbor.

The downtown Denver one is from Camlorado (a collection of about two dozen cameras throughout the state). The one I tend to sit on looks west and I can watch the afternoon t-storms roll in.

I've been trying to add my Hawaii cams but they don't seem to be the correct format. Bummer.

But otherwise a fun way for desktop diversion ...

What part of No Soliciting don't you understand?

I have a very clear sign on the door – "No Soliciting." It means, unless I know you or you have a package for me (from a real package company, not a package from God), then don't ring the doorbell!

I don't care who sent you or why, how nicely you are dressed or how polite you are. I don't do anything business, charity, whatever from someone I don't know who comes to my door.

Since the sign doesn't seem to work, I've thought up some other devices. I'd like a booming loudspeaker that makes me sound like the Wizard of Oz -- "WHO DARES TO RING MY DOORBELL?".