Best.Dog.Blog.Ever

So, when I'm too lazy to express my own musings, I promote others.
Like this one:


http://automatedredemption.com/flavorcountry/dogblog/index.html

The only problem with this Blog is that there are no photos of MY DOG.
I can only hope that the writer came up with this brilliant idea and started taking photos of dogs in my old neighborhood in San Francisco AFTER we moved to infinitely cooler hood in Oakland.

If MY DOG and I find out that's not the case, there will be trouble.

But, in the meantime - enjoy!

Do I look like I'm old enough to have a 16 year old?

And that's only the first question I wanted to ask the loan officer at the Credit Union.

Greg and I were in the Credit Union inquiring about car loan interest rates. We weren't particularly dressed up or adult looking. I think Greg had managed to shave and I had just put my hair up in a matronly bun because I'm having a challenged hair day. But, for the most part Greg's ratty bike messenger bag and my snug fitting Diesel jeans and teeny bopper plastic purse should have put us somewhere in the under 40 age group.

When asked how much we were planning to spend on a new-to-us car, we responded with what I guess was a shockingly low number because the loan officer proceeded to look at us for a few seconds, state, "you know you can't get a loan for a car older than '96" and then ask with an ah-ha exclamation, "oh, is the car for your son?"

Lady there is so much wrong with that I don't even know where to begin.

Do girls not drive cars this decade?

What are you on salary or commission? What do you care?

And this just a short three weeks before my 35th birthday. Way to go, moron loan officer.

If she hadn't given us such a killer interest rate, I may have gauged her eyes out.

Bill Moyers is a Sensible Man - Oops

Ok, I'm an idiot, it's a hoax.
No organized consumer boycott happening that day.
Perhaps a good idea, nonetheless.



And a much more eloquent writer than me, so here you go:

Subject: From Bill Moyers re: inauguration


Not one Damn Dime Day

When there was a break in the storm...

we saw some pretty magnificent sites.

Like this one:
Just before dusk a pair of bald eagles were in their fishing posts on a lake - one in a dead tree, one on a rock. Their white heads stuck out against the lush green of the foothills. At the same time a stunning sunset is rolling through its swatch of pastels - orange, purple, pink - over the lake and the deep grey storm clouds still linger in the sky behind me. Suddenly one eagle takes off and within a half second the other follows.
They soar majestically as the sunset gets lower. And as the light disappears, so do they, into the horizon.
Soon it starts to rain again.

This couple was two of the four eagles we saw that week.

Complete raptors and others index:
4 bald eagles - three adults, one second year
34 red tail hawks
5 coopers hawks
8 herons
4 kites

This is what an introvert does for kicks and stimulation.

Baptized into 2005

For 5 1/2 days we camped in torrential downpours and unseasonably cold temps.
To the uninitiated this would sound like a really stupid thing to do.

But, let me tell you - it was glorious and to those of you out there who've done it - you know what I mean.
To be so out of ones element and so close to the elements is transcendent.

Once I gave in to the wet and cold, I felt as though all the sins and sadness of 2004 were just washing away. I was molting; shedding baggage and badness. Pretense - be gone!

I fell asleep at 10pm on New Year's Eve, shivering in my tent. At 11:58, my friends woke me up and handed me a glass of soggy champagne. I danced around the barely there fire in my long johns and enjoyed every drop of that cheap champagne as big drops of rain plunked into my plastic cup.

The next afternoon we packed up our mud-caked belongings and headed for our home in the built environment. We hadn't gotten too far before the skies opened up and the sun shone for a few minutes - just long enough for us to be greeted by a double-sided rainbow.