Merry Christmas!

Shake it up baby...



Care2 Christmas E-Cards!

Not for the kiddies, just a little fun

Here's a little ditty from a few years back that I found online and stuck together on a webpage.

The music midi will work if you open it in IE,
might not in FF if that's the browser you use.

not for kids, this time

Walkin' 'round in women's underwear.

Bah Humbug Day

Blogging for Well Cats, missed this one...


Dec 15 Cat Herders' Day. If you can say that your job, or even your life, is like trying to herd cats, then this day is for you, with our sympathy.

That would have been fun. But we're just in time for ...

Dec 21 Humbug Day -- Allows everyone preparing for Christmas to vent their frustrations. Twelve humbugs allowed.

Wonderful fun stuff there,

Wacky but uplifting ways
to celebrate human nature & life.

Want to contribute your version of “how to celebrate?” Pick a holiday, jot down your own thoughts about it and send your comments to us at info@wellcat.com. We’ll be glad to read what you send and might even (with your permission) publish your contribution to our Wellcat Holidays After all, it’s merely a state of mind, my dear.


"Wellcat Holidays" is a trademark of Thomas and Ruth Roy. These holidays are copyrighted by Thomas and Ruth Roy. All Rights Reserved.

Ladies Sing the Blues too

Part Dieux: The Girls

Koko Taylor

I'm a Woman
Wang Dang Doodle
let me love you

Susan Tedeschi

Rock Me Right
Hurt so Bad
Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean
Feeling Music brings
Can't sleep at night
Angel from Montgomery
Dereks Trucks Band and Susan Tedeschi - The Weight
Evidence

Mangoes, Coconuts, Avocados, oh my....

I just wrote this post for Jim in Mex, in response to his article I saw in OpEd News, The Most Popular Fruit In The World. Reminded me of some favorite fruits, and sea stories...

Discovering Mangoes

While being stationed around the world with the US Navy, I discovered mangoes in Hawaii where a neighbor across the street had a huge tree in his front yard. Every morning he would leave us a dozen or so on our door step. Way to many for my roomies and I to eat, but I'd take them to work on base to share with my fellow co-workers. Once I was picking someone up at the airport and the screener saw with the x-ray the paring knife I used to peel them with in my backpack and confiscated it. I forgot it was there, it was just normal kit.

Then a few years later I was stationed in Gtmo (this was back when the base was used as a fleet training/sea trials center) and we had many mango trees in the base housing areas. Filipinos sailors from the navy ships that cycled thru for training and sea quals would come out and collect as many as they could to 'pickle' so they could bring them back to the states and not be confiscated by Customs upon their entry. You know their familes back in Norfolk certainly appreciated what was likely their variation on chutney.

I wonder if anyone ever thinks to give them to the prisoners there?

Pest Control: Also in Gtmo is a critter indigenous to Cuba called the Banana Rat. (The gal from the zoo in LA had one on the Johnny Carson show many moons ago.) The first time I ever saw one was roadkill and at first I thought it was a groundhog (like Punxsatawny Phil--that big) until I noticed the long ratlike tail. These creatures like mangoes too, so my neighbor would surround the trunk of his trees with aluminum which they couldn't get a grip on to climb.

Fast forward to my next stop, Naval Station Roosey Roads, Puerto Rico which has been abandoned by the USN--turned over to the locals. While running our mile and a half PT and running out of conversation, a co-worker and I started watching for mango trees along the course we took daily. When we spotted mangoes ready for picking, later in the day we'd concoct a reason to get back to that area with the navy-issue pickup truck, park it under the tree, climb on top of the truck roof to reach the ripened fruit, and fill up the bed with however many we thought we could consume or give away.

Also in Puerto Rico were the magnificent coconut palms which were abundent in housing. A big fear was that these coconuts would drop the 30'-40'+ and hit some kid playing in the yards under them. This problem was solved by locals who would climb up, knock them down into dump trucks and haul them away. Perhaps to be sold at the roadside fruit stands where vendors would chill them, knock the tops off with a machete, stick a straw in, and walla...

Coco Frio!

God love the locals and the fruit.

Lovin' The Blues

Gotta love the Blues! So, a friend of mine went to all the trouble to embed YouTube links to these numbers, I thought it'd be a real easy post to copy/paste them here so you can enjoy them too.

THE BLUES

SRV on a 12 string
Gary Moore's Still Got the Blues live
Damn Right I've Got the Blues
a young Buddy w/ Mama Thornton's original Hound Dog
with Junior Wells & the bluesbreakers
with an 8 yr old who's really great
Mary had a little lamb
Jimmy V's SRV Shuffle
Sweet Home Chicago
VooDoo Chile
Hendrix live
M.Serri-F.Chapellier-Bill Perry Band
Gary Moore - Wembley Arena 04
G3 Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson
Uli Jon Roth
Yngwie Malmsteen
Corey Heuvel
Melvin Taylor
Vernon Reid
Five Ten
the Adjourments
Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush
some bar band

"Dust My Broom" is a blues standard originally recorded by Robert Johnson, the legendary Mississippi Delta blues singer and guitarist, on November 23, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas. It was released on the ARC Records label under the title of "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom.[1] The song was later recorded and released on the Trumpet Records label by blues singer and guitarist Elmore James and became a surprise rhythm and blues hit in 1952. James version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.[2]

1973 ELMORE JAMES
Howlin' Wolf
JJ Lightin' Blues Duo
RL Burnside
Charlie Pickett
Dr. Feelgood
Mick Jagger
Kenny Wayne Shepard
Gary Moore
Scott H. Biram
Sherman Robertson & The BluesMove
Walter Trout
ZZ Top

Johnny Winters

Messin' with the kid
Talk to your daughter
Mississippi Blues
Johnny B Goode
Rock n' Roll Hoochie Koo
Rock & Roll
Highway 61
Hideaway
Walkin' by myself

Leo Kottke

Vaseline Machine Gun
doin' Little martha, old Allmans tune
Last Steam Engine
Pamela Brown
Rings
Air Proofing

Savory Brown:

Train to Nowhere
Tell mama
Poor Girl
Hellbound Train
Take it Easy

And just a few more...

Magic Dick's Whammer Jammer
Robin Trower Bridge of Sighs
Warren Haynes, Joe Bonamassa, and Pat Travers

Thanks Steve!

Here's my favorite, Jimmy Vaughn telling us how The Tribute to SRV came about... "the greatest thing a brother could do".

And the Listen Only version (best sound):

"Alpine Valley in the middle of the night
Six strings down on the heavenbound flight..."

World's Biggest Cat Toy

Misty, 2002

Have to agree with you there, Chris. Love the vid!



http://youtube.com/watch?v=Sw-apc3XKvI

B E L Í S S I M O

WARNING: This is a Spoiler

Here are the last three minutes from one of the greatest movies ever made. If you've never seen it before, it won't particularly mean much, but the expressions on the grownup Toto's face tells it all.

Toto slowly recognizes the 'missing links'...

YouTube - cinema paradiso

last shot of cinema paradiso. ... Cinema Paradiso (the movie ...
Watch video - 3 min 15 sec -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEFugVbzsSo

You really have to see the whole film to appreciate what this ending means. Toto's expression when it dawns on him at about 2:18, and how he chokes up with the joy of appreciation simply takes my breath away. Bellisimo. Alfredo cheated (the church) and preserved Love as it was meant to be.

Cinema Paradiso

B E L Í S S I M O . A L F R E D O !

Blessed is the season which engages the
whole world in a conspiracy of love.
~Hamilton Wright Mabie

HOLIDAY PLANT TRIVIA
from http://www.oldfashionedliving.com

Poinsettias are now a holiday tradition, but did you
know they are actually native to Mexico and Central
America where they grow in the wooded areas and
hillsides? In the wild they grow much larger, often up
to 16 feet tall. An American diplomat brought the plant
to the US in the 1820's, but it took over 100 years for
it to be developed into a commercial plant.

I lived in Hawaii in 1985-86 and the house I shared with some friends from work had one of these 16' poinsettias growing in the yard. Across the street was a mango tree easily 3 times that. The bougainvilla was what caught my mom's eye when they were there for a visit.

At the bottom of the hillside were sugar cane fields that were burned off after harvest and it made an awful red ash that dusted the air and landed mainly on the louvered windows and screens which stayed open all year round. It turned the wash water a blood RED when they were being cleaned. When I first heard it was due to the cane dust, I thought they meant volcano. Not hurricane dust either (if there could be such a thing). Sugar cane was the culprit that time.

My Poodle Pack

The Mishka, the Mooshka, and the Mouseketeer
(the tri-bred, the purebred, and the in-bred)

The new baby is Sweat Pea, a two year-old toy almost the same color as Boo, just a tad pinker. Not red but still Apricot. Boo's 12 lbs and with his coat on, looks 3xs bigger than this little Orphan I brought home a few weeks ago. But the sweepie one is right between Mishka's orange and Boo's tan color.

Chere's Story:

An older man died in a town near here and there were SEVENTEEN toy poodles found in his trailer. He was breeding them, or allowing them to inbreed--depending on the story you hear. This one was in the want ads for free and I called out of curiosity. Nine times out of ten it's a 'bait and switch' ad, or already taken, but not this time. This time the number was a local one and turned out to be right outside of town, less than a mile from here. When she said 'apricot', I knew I had to at least take a peek and see why someone was giving her away.

Less than ten minutes later I was pulling up with the Mishka and the Booshka and the pet carrier--which just happened to be in the back seat at the time. Boo and Mi stayed in the car as I got out to meet the lady who came out to greet us. She was holding what looked like Boo at about 3-4 mos old. Precious! And teeny (scrawny!), frail, and very very timid.

Rona, I come to find out had taken Sweet Pea from a nearby acquaintance who had somehow acquired her from the people who were getting rid of these poodle pups. They had been keeping her in a box on the porch and really wasn't being handled or socialized well. So she had taken pity and adopted her. Well she really wasn't fitting in so well with the three pugs who ruled the roost at that home, so the ad ended up in the paper. But fitting in with my pack was going to be a whole different story, because she was perfect for them. A tiny dog no bigger than the 9 month Mishka (6 lbs), but looking exactly like Boobear. How could I not have her? Despite being the little mouse, it was love at first sight.

She's a darling, looking like a new born lamb, but my first worry was that being an intact female she could be pregnant or would go into heat. So we got her into the hospital the same week for spaying and vacines. The vet said she's 2 years old, 5.8 lbs, but says she'll start to fill out with some good nutrition.

Whether or not the dogs were malnurished, inbred, or just generally unkempt, someone had taken it upon themselves to clip her down (horribly). She must have been matted pretty badly to get the kind of chop job she came with, but she's had a proper grooming and hopefully with good food and regular meals will grow a nice wooly coat this winter, just like a little lamb.


Centre Country PAWS has the older poodles with adoptions pending. Eva looks like she could be Sweepie's mom.

UPDATE: Sweepie's name has evolved into Fifi, while Mishka (Mooshka, Mouseketeer) has evolved into Mimi Moo, and Boo is still my BooBoo Bear (like Yogi's little friend). My poodle pack.

quote for the day

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious
as autumn sunshine by staying in the house.
So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the
open air. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hurricane Tracking

NHC latest advisory:

KIKO SHOULD REMAIN IN AN AREA OF LIGHT SHEAR FOR THE NEXT 48-72 HR...WHICH SHOULD ALLOW CONTINUED STRENGTHENING. THE SHIPS MODEL CALLS FOR A PEAK INTENSITY OF 68 KT...THE GFDL 88 KT...AND THE HWRF 90 KT. THE INTENSITY FORECAST WILL COMPROMISE BETWEEN THESE WITH A FORECAST PEAK INTENSITY OF 75 KT. AFTER 72 HR...THE LARGE-SCALE
MODELS FORECAST INCREASING SHEAR AS KIKO REACHES COOLER SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES. THIS COMBINATION SHOULD CAUSE A WEAKENING TREND.

Light shear (low high-level winds), warm SST's, low core pressure are factors that build a strong hurricane. Gotta love the warm sea temps.

> > > Here's a good website to track Kiko from:

http://www.tropicalactivity.com/

Along with the nice visual from Wunderground, Sandy has a nice neat table to run stats from too:

Track	Public Advisory	Discussion	Marine Advisory
Visible	Infrared	RGB	Water Vapor
Visible Loop	IR Loop	RGB Loop	WV Loop
More Images	Windshear	Windshear Tendency	Historical
Radar	Computer Models

Tropical Weather Outlook	Tropical Weather Discussion
Experimental Graphical TWO	Tropical Cyclone Danger
EPAC Visible	EPAC Infrared

Nice one, Hurrikan.

(Please see the link for the whole table, one column isn't being shown by the blog.)

Cat 2 for Kiko?

Cat 2 or Dog 2?

Look out Cabo San Lucas...

Storm2k.org

Forecasters saying that Kiko could become a Category 2 hurricane by next Tuesday.

TROPICAL STORM KIKO INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 16A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP152007
500 PM PDT THU OCT 18 2007

...KIKO NEARLY STATIONARY...FORECAST TO STRENGTHEN...

ABOVE NORMAL TIDES...ACCOMPANIED BY LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES...ARE POSSIBLE IN THE WARNING AREA IN REGIONS OF ONSHORE FLOW.

KIKO IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 7 INCHES OVER SOUTHWESTERN MEXICO WITH POSSIBLE ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 10 INCHES. LIFE THREATENING FLASH FLOODS AND MUDSLIDES ARE POSSIBLE OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.

* * * *
Check out this in the daytime, might be a good sat link.

And here's one of those "I can't see your face in cyberspace" moments...

This was me in Hurricane Jose in St. Martin about 8 years ago.

Yes, it's been that long. We had to get off the beach early that day before being barracaded into the beach club under martial law. And before a coup de foudre (being struck by lightning).

Suzzzz might know this beach,
< style="text-align: right;">Next time I'm taking
the puppy-wuppies.

BooBoo and

Mishka RosieBear

Tropical Storm Kiko Forms in the Pacific

15E.KIKO, TRACK_VIS, 17 OCT 2007 2330Z

click for larger images from NRL

Guess we'll have to keep an eye on this one, eh?

Satellite Pass Info Sensor Latest Next (View All) SSMI 10/17 1403 Z, F-13 0611 10/17 1440 Z, F-16 0860 TC_SSMIS 10/17 1437 Z, F-16 0860 10/18 0331 Z, F-16 1011 TMI 10/17 1841 Z, TRMM 0047 10/18 0931 Z, TRMM 0208 AMSRE 10/17 2032 Z, AQUA-1 0162 10/18 0848 Z, AQUA 0072 WINDSAT 10/17 0124 Z, CORIOLIS 0000 10/17 0127 Z, WIND 1068 AMSUB 10/17 2256 Z, N-16 0348 10/18 0015 Z, N-15 0237 SCATT 10/17 1149 Z, QUICKSCAT 0527 10/17 1240 Z, QUIK 0453

Forecast by: National Hurricane Center
Graphic by: Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center

nice animation from Wunderground:
http://icons.wunderground.com/data/images/ep200715_sat_2_anim.gif.

Oh Happy Day

Let me tell you now how to deal with cable companies. It's simple. Keep calling until you get the deal that you want.

The first time I called, I got a ditz who was quoting me prices WAY out of my budget. So I cut it all back to basic, basic cable, 13 whole channels for $13/mo. Not a good deal, but less than what I'm paying now. Then I started looking on their website to see what these price ranges are and found a Family Tier that came with National Geographic for a lot less than she had quoted. So a while later I called again and Ace offered me an even better deal at less money, so that's the one I signed up for. I'll still have Nat Geo and C-Span3, which is all I really wanted when I called six months ago to upgrade then and they offered me the free for $2/mo.

Ok, for a mere $10/mo. more now--I know, I know, MORE! you say? Well, I've had it FREE for six months and it will be an upgrade. So I'm fine with that, I'll still have On Demand too. But aside from getting rooked into a higher bill, I won't have TCM anymore. Oh boo hoo. (where's my poodle pup, I need a cuddle) Oh well, I think I've seen them all already anyhow, but I am going to miss Ben Mancawitz on the weekend. My favorite Young Turk.

So, it's not such a sad ending to a sad day after all.

Cheers!

Sad, Sad Day in Kikoland Today

Well, it's a sad, sad day in Kikoland today. My six-month free trial period for Comcast's On Demand expires tomorrow and I have to call and cancel it. I'm just hoping they'll let me go back to the rates I had previously. If I keep what they've been giving me (free?) for about an extra $2/month (that, I could afford), it will more than double my bill for cable tv and high-speed internet.

In August they were offering a sweet deal I called about, but it was only for NEW subscribers. Naturally their ad on tv didn't say that, although it may have been 'spelled' out on the bottom of the screen for about a nanosecond? If only they had a sweet deal where I could at least just get C-Span3 and National Geo. Really, that's all I want.

In the end, I may have to cancel the internet services and switch to Verizon for DSL. We shall see, I'm not calling until after 3pm so I can at least see one more rerun of The Dog Whisperer.

Fingers crossed. [/end my own private pity party]

/que pasa? This post was removed after some deep soul searching.

Always did like Mark Twain:

Twain penned what he thought was the unspoken subtext of these preachers' sermons, "The War Prayer":

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen".

source: HuffPo

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

He looks like my pretty boy Floyd all dressed up as Santa.

(Looks like the fancy photo thing didn't work, but I'm saving the URL here, so I can play with it again another time.)

618 Rants and Raves: Pet Blogging

Joey reminds me of my Floyd.

That Darn Old Fence

Environmental causes or high tech security sales?

Give me land, lots of land
under starry skys above.
Don't fence me in.

You know I have a lot of empathy for our Mexican neighbors even if I'm not directly effected by stealth border crossings. Being stuck in the middle of land-locked PA and all.

But dearie me, why does the old cowboy song, "Don't Fence Me In" come to mind whenever this debate surfaces?

Now a federal judge in Arizona is challenging the HSD for rushing past environment studies, indeed unprecedented...

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said she granted the delay in part because the federal government did not explain why it hurried through an environmental assessment and began building the fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.

Huvelle repeatedly asked the government's attorney, Gregory Page, to explain why the agencies took only three weeks to do the environmental assessment. She said that amount of time was unprecedented and that the government was trying to "ram" the environmental study through and start construction "before anyone would wake up."

Huvelle also questioned why equal urgency was not applied to building border fences in Texas and California.

Source: AP News

True, it's a federal reserve. Is that what makes it 'special'?

And wake up to what? That certain businesses are making a killing with the HSD budget for contract fencing?

WaPo article
[GSA Chief]Doan's husband and her chief of staff both have a military-intelligence background, and she has sold surveillance equipment to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies -- so she knows how these things work.

She knows how these things work alright. The kind of surveillance/security they mean when they say 'fence' ain't exactly chicken scratch. And if they'd stop all the damn outsourcing from this country, there would probably be plenty of jobs for us all.

What fools Funnel, Inc. takes us for.

O'Reallly vs The Boss

Olbermann will probably be piping in on this one. You know how much he loves Bil0 (and rocking, and NJ). Remind me to tune in.

Ed Kociela | O'Reilly challenges The Boss

Bruce Springsteen is a big boy. He doesn't need me to cover his back. Except, this time it feels so good because the guy trying to knife him is Bill O'Reilly.

[jump]

Not if any cops have anything to do with it. They be rocking...

Cops never give the star treatment. Unless you are Bruce Springsteen.

No. 2: TOP 10 Police Bribes That Never Work
Share this site

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Be sure to read all about it, it's a good one:

What O'Reilly was trying to do was bait Springsteen into coming onto his show. Maybe to resuscitate his rating numbers? Maybe to fawn all over him like the has-beens he airs every Friday night on his icon of the week or whatever that segment he fills with gas is called? Maybe because he's a closeted celeb groupie who just likes to have stars on his show?

Whatever, he's another bloviating jerk...
Be keeping track of this one. ~k

AZRainman : Photoshop Satire: Puppet Fred Thompson: Dumb as Hell

After the GOP debate, my friends are saying Fred's real studly. But still a dud. We've known this for a while now. eh :p

AZRainman : Photoshop Satire: Puppet Fred Thompson: Dumb as Hell

(And there's not a lot of good to say about the rest of them either.)

Kitten Love

Cory only has ONE scratch? Every time I get a new kitty, I end up looking like a sliced ham. Thanks MAW for sending me this one...

The Mean Kitty Song
03:30

This is a video response to MEAN KITTY - Episode 2: Scare Tactic

Cory Williams is an extremely talented young man with a penchant for creativity. He recently found himself the proud "owner" of a kitten he named Sparta. I'm sure Cory uses the word "mean" as a tongue-in-cheek description, because his love for this kitten is evident. ...readers will love this video as much as I did, especially if they also view the accompanying video, "The Mean Kitty's Story," which tells how Sparta came into Cory's Life. The song, "Hey, Little Sparta (The Mean Kitty Song)" was written and sung by Cory Williams. Whatta guy! Whatta kitten!

Cats : Mean Kitty Song

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

God love the cat that winks

Sparta sure is a sweetie pie...

If Cesar Can't Do It, No One Can...

Remember that old cheer? "Cesar, Cesar... He's our man!"

Runing down yesterdays' blogs, I found this suggestion to the Vick question from a football fan :

Michael Vick comes clean

"Here's an idea for redemption. Michael Vick pledges to pay for the care of the Bad Newz dogs for the rest of their natural lives. As fighting dogs, many of them will be unfit as pets. Their life expectancy will be short through no fault of their own. Vick's plea agreement already requires him to pay for their care while they are in government custody. Vick asks the court to let the dogs be kenneled and cared for on him. That's restitution for the dogs. That wins him some points.

"Vick can set up a foundation to fund their care and call it Good Newz Kennels Foundation."

Posted by Master4Caster

I like that.

His post from yesterday is most interesting...

Michael Vick Talking? 12 hours ago by Master4Caster

Yes M4C, it's still about a display of dominance?

The Dog Whisperer's Greatest Challenge?

So, is it time to start blogging again?


Retreat. A word with many connotations. Last spring I retreated from blogging for various reasons. One perhaps being that when the Michael Vick story broke it saddened me greatly to learn the details of a sordid underworld in our supposedly enlightened society. Another reason, it was summertime and I was enjoying the great outdoors as much as I could. Still another was that I found a great new show on tv, "The Dog Whisperer". I had already been a fan of Cesar Millan's by reading his website and didn't even know he had a show until I saw it on the National Geographic channel which I had recently added to my cable. I just can't get enough of this wonderful little Mexican guy who never fails to put a smile on my face. What a natural!

The Dog Whisperer Fridays at 8PM ET/PT

From a CNN report we learn more about the 53 dogs found on the Vick property:

CAUTION: Very graphic details

Watch PETA dog fighting expert say the dogs must die »

True, owners stepping forward will implicate themselves in the illegal activity, but I can't believe PETA (of all people) advocate destroying these animals. From CNN again:

Deadline passes for dog owners in Vick case to claim animals

Read full article »

The very worst case dog, who's health hasn't been permanently affected, should be rehabilitated first. The dog displaying the best pack leader qualities should also be stabilized by exercise, discipline, and affection. The Cesar Way. Balance the pack, become the pack leader with calm-assertive energy, give these dogs the leadership they need in their lives.

Cesar has a dog that he uses on his show named Daddy. Daddy's owner is a rapper. Daddy is the anti-thesis of a dog bred, trained, and living to fight. Someone in the animal-loving world needs to sponsor what could be one of the all-time greatest animal rescue efforts, and who better than a community of people who truly believe in the Power Of The Pack?

This could be Cesar's biggest challange, are there no dogs he can't rehabilitate? I believe he could build a team who would be willing to undertake their rehabilitation by intigrating them slowly into his pack,. What say you, The Dog Whisperer?

Image by LunaC

Rainmaker's Abstractions: Train Wreck on UK Guardian

Rainmaker's Abstractions: Train Wreck on UK Guardian

King of the Jungle

I added a couple more pics to Bil's latest webpage.

The Lion King and his dominion.

I'd take more pictures, but my little vivatar doesn't have a flash and the sunlight has to be just right to get anything decent out of it. The indoor ones do have a slight sepia effect, which I like. Kind of gives them a style all their own with just a minimum of tweaking in the photo editor.

Just now Boo and Bil are having their morning wrestle and some shots might turn out but I haven't picked up around here yet--they're very messy, toys and cushions all over, chewies, rugs upturned, etc. And I fell asleep on the couch watching foreign films last night so the blankets are still all askew.

Nope, no picture making till we get straightened up around here. LOL

Bilbo and the Arrowheads

New Bilbo page as he posed pretty this morning in some good strong sunlight.

Bilbo and the Arrowheads

Uncle Johnny and Aunt Mary Lu brought us this wall hanging on one of their summertime trips to visit us from California when we were kids. I'm not sure if he found it in California, somewhere along the way, or if they made it themselves from artifacts found on one of their own many summertime excursions around the country. It's possible that they may have collected them and had them mounted. It's nice enough to belong in a museum.

Two can play that game

Cat and dog games, that is.

Or does BooBoo think he's a cat?

A Kiko's Cats story:

Amazing how their little minds work. Baggins and BooBoo are best friends but that doesn't stop BooBear from taking cat food any chance he gets. I've been spoiled by dogs who didn't get up on the cat's table but I always had to keep it off the floor to let them get their share before some hungry hound would gobble it up. Why do dogs always prefer cat food? And sometimes vice versa too?

So that's Boo's latest trick. Stealing cat chow when my back is turned, he jumps up on their dinner table and helps himself to leftovers and I've even caught him there chowing down alongside his best friend, Bil. LOL

Now, Bilbo's (the kitten) in the dogfood bowl, whipping out one bite-sized bit at a time, tossing it around some (looks like a squirrel holding one tiny kibble in his paws), and having himself a little pre-siesta snack. By the time I'm writing this, he's in the basket grooming himself after his great accomplishment, teaching Boomerpup to share.

Tit for tat. Oh those furry kids.

from Siberia, with Love

Just couldn't resist.

when we were kids

Our nice white powdery snow is turning hard packing now. Meltdown is starting, but that will freeze up into some mighty icicles probably. The snow is kind of crunchy now and that was always fun playing in when we were kids.

circa 57'58ish?


The Bookish One.

I was thinking about it and I could use some more bookshelves around here too, but in the meantime I just stack them up on footstools and under lamps, anywhere there's a hole. Actually I have a lovely secretary that has 3 shelfs empty because no one has ever secured the top to the base and the hardware (handle) is missing to open the thing (dang packers took it off and I haven't seen it in fifteen years!). So opening it is precarious, it's tipped over before and until I have it bolted down I won't put anything in there but some old VCR tapes on the bottom shelf

WooHoo Winter's Here

Wow, 5th snowy day in a row! Winter's really here and Garrison Kellor can stop bitching on the radio that the poor peeps in MN aren't having a winter. Have the Lakes frozen over yet? These lake effects into January are a strange brew of Mother Nature, that's for sure. GW in action. Gaian too.

Heard on tv last night that the snow will continue thru Friday. My road's just wet so the crews must be doing a good job keeping them clear.

On another note, I have my Guadalupe medal from Mexico. Everyone got home safe. I'm wearing it as a show of solidarity for the immigrants who wish to do no one harm. My sympathies are with you and I think I can recognize the value you bring to the US. Values that should be indigenous to us all. So pray for us Maria.

LA VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE
MOTHER OF ALL MEXICO

Today Mexican American women in Mexico and the United states are seeing Our Lady of Guadalupe in a new light, using her to demand and expect more from themselves, their jobs, their homes and their communities. Guadalupe is certainly up for this new role, as one woman said, "The virgin transcends all things. She is strength, and she is beauty, and she is wisdom and compassion."

She is the symbol of ethnic identity, uniting people of different races, religions and languages. She manifests, symbolizes and activates the power of the people. She is a cultural symbol of justice, unconditional love, union, belonging, family, home.


"Si se Puede" (Yes it can be done)"