'tis the season

"May All Your Holiday Wishes Come True"

If Jesus was born...

...in the digital age

something that bugs me

-when teachers misspell words.

We are all entitled to spelling mishaps here and there but when you're a role model as well as a conduit to a child's educational success, you should think about spell check if grammar and spelling are not one of your strong points.

Thankful for another year...

... and all the blessings that have come along with it.

I love my life, my family, my friends, my animals, my world.

Calling all dog lovers!

And animal lovers too, even if you don't have a dog...

I wanted to share with you CityDog Blog's Halloween post, by yours truly. I've been working at CityDog Magazine (right here in Seattle) for the past several months combining my passion for writing and dogs. I mean, really, what could be better!?! Please share a comment or introduce yourself on the blog. We LOVE hearing from fellow dog lovers and want this to be a place for all of us to come together and share our thoughts and ideas on all things dog!

The magazine itself is available in Seattle, Portland and Northern California and is sold at Borders, Barnes & Noble and independent newsstands. Here's a link to our website: CityDog Magazine so please take a look, poke around and make yourself at home.

I've met so many fun loving, BIG hearted animal lovers through this blog, and am excited to meet many more through CityDog! I'll say it again, I've never met an animal lover I didn't like. And if you're reading this post, odds are, you're one of them.


Happy Halloween to you and your four leggers. xoxo

Halloween is in the air...

...and the animals are getting excited!

(well, kind of.)

some interesting cat diet info and a Chumley pic

(Chum falling asleep in some yarn)

The vet came out for a house call today because Chum was starting to take a turn - occasional vomiting and a few dark brown urine spots on the shower curtains but still decent activity levels. I wanted to nip this in the bud before it got much worse so she came out to test his blood and urine and give him some antibiotics. I learned some more valuable information re: cats with kidney disease as well as gastrointestinal issues (which we believe Chum also has).

We were told to keep his protein levels low because a protein rich diet was believed to add stress on the kidneys. My vet said that this is hard to prove but what is a definite must for cats with kidney disease is to feed them canned food (dry can be supplemented throughout the day) and to make sure they get enough omega acids and a low phosphorus count. I had been doing that for close to two years and I think we've been pretty successful at keeping him comfortable and somewhat stable.

When I buy his food, the first thing I search for is the percentage of protein. I try to keep it under 10% and always avoid any sort of fish or shell fish in his food since he has a hard time digesting them. I found a New Zealand brand of canned food made from Lamb that had a decent protein count so I started to feed him some of that because he needs variety otherwise he gets bored and loses his appetite. After a couple times eating the lamb I noticed he would vomit. This is because the lamb (and any type of meat) can inflame the GI tract. I never realized this. So now he has to avoid:

MEAT/BEEF/LAMB
FISH
SHELL FISH
CORN
WHEAT
GRAINS
and
SOY

The best meals for a cat with kidney and GI issues are:

CHICKEN
DUCK
TURKEY
and
RABBIT

and any VEGGIES they will eat.

Thankfully Chum LOVES veggies - I make him soup using low sodium chicken broth, very diluted, filled with carrots, celery and spinach (no onion or garlic though).

I've been buying him the Chicken, Duck and Rabbit cans from Nature's Variety Instinct as well as intermixing Spot's stew which has a very low protein count as well. I used to feed him the chicken variety but it contains soy so now I am switching to turkey.

I just wanted to pass along this information for anyone else who may have a cat with either kidney problems, GI problems or both because you may notice some positive changes with some of these modifications to their diet. I've hit every pet store in a 10 mile radius finding the best combo for his issues and I'm happy to say he's still here with us.

rushing through airports and such...

I mentioned that we almost missed our flight leaving Columbus because Tom was still on the course a bit later than was expected. When we finally get to the airport we’re rushing through security - Tom goes ahead of me, puts his things on the belt they go right through no problem so he grabs them and starts heading to the gate. My stuff starts going through and the belt stops and the screener yells for a bag check and of course because we’re about to miss our flight, it’s my purse that needs to be checked. Tom’s still walking ahead, thinking I’m following right behind him and turns back to see the screener hold up my purse asking, “Is this yours?” I say yes and Tom looks at me like WTF you got in there. The stone faced agent walks over to a little cubicle and asks me if there’s anything sharp or dangerous that would inflict harm when she opens the bag and I tell her no and she says that I am not to reach in while she is searching. Ok fine. So she opens it up and out pops my giant water bottle that I completely forgot about. She holds it up high, probably to show everyone else in line how much of a dumb ass I am and Tom sees it from the other side of the cube and makes a face to me like, ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Like this is my first time traveling by plane or something. I mouth to him that I had NO IDEA it was in there and the agent grabs a little vial and pours the water inside and sets it aside. I tell her that I am so sorry, we were running late (I thought about going into the whole golf saga but didn’t think she’d be sympathetic to that story) and all I could do was say again, I’m sorry. She looks at me sternly and says NO LIQUIDS and runs my bag back through the belt. I think because they knew we were running late they purposely took their time so I stand there waiting, Tom’s bugging his eyes out at me and I’m like what the hell am I supposed to do reach in and grab it from the xray machine??? So he waits, I wait and then the bag comes out and I grab it and we run. But not before stopping to check the scores for the Ryder cup on the airport bar TV because you know, that’s really important.

For as much as I complain about Tom and his love affair with golf I have to admit he is pretty darn awesome as a husband outside of that ridiculously annoying addiction. Here’s why…

While on the airplane:

-he lets me eat his warm cookie right off his plate without even saying a word. (I ate mine too but the flight attendant saw me eat his and she got him another one so it’s not like he didn’t get to enjoy a warm cookie too.)

-he gives me the less germ-infested-looking pillow always asks if I’m too hot or too cold and adjusts the air thingy accordingly.

-he holds my ball of yarn and lets out strands while I knit. (Our flight attendant asked if she could take a picture of him doing this, Tom said he would prefer not.)

In the airport:

-he lets me play games on his phone and then when he needs it back to check emails and such it runs out of battery life.

-he always lets me pick the restaurant or carry out place and I’ll say “What do you want to eat?” And he’ll always say “You pick it, I’ll find something I like.” And then most of the time I end up liking the thing he got better than mine so we switch and he never complains about that either.

-he plays along when I make up games while we’re waiting at our gate during a lay over/delay.

update from Denver...

Wow. Over a month since I've blogged. Ridiculous. Only excuse (although there should be no excuse- surely I can find at least 20 minutes in my day to sit down and type away some nonsense on here) there's been travel, weekend visitors, fun end of summer events, and another freelance job added to the mix. Overall lack of time to just sit still but I want to get back into a groove. We'll see if I can stick to it.

Right now I'm sitting at Denver airport waiting to board our flight back to Seattle. We went to Ohio for a few days of golf related activity. It was fun only because Tom's buddy brought his girlfriend and we palled around together for the 3 days of the tournament. We stayed in Dublin which was really cute and also went to Easton mall and ended up circling the city on highway 270 because the highway system was a giant cluster mess of confusion. Here is an example. We took 270 North from Dublin to get to the mall. We get there, spend time tooling around (actually met up with another friend of mine who lives in Chicago who happened to be in Columbus for work so that was really a bonus) and as we're leaving the mall the GPS tells us to get back on 270 North??? We ignore the GPS woman and realize as we're driving the time and mileage on the unit kept increasing and telling us to turn around and head the other way. I'm like WHAT THE HELL? We took 270 north to get here this cannot be right. My friend was driving and she agreed that we should be heading south as well so I told the stupid GPS lady she was on crack and shut the thing down and we continued to go south. Well I guess the highway system is one giant loop so eventually we notice 270 south turns into 270 north. So what should have taken us 20 minutes to get back to the resort ended up taking almost an hour and a half as we circled around the city. Thank God I wasn't alone. We had a good laugh about it.

This weekend was all about golf. Golf golf golf golf golf. Our flight to Ohio from Chicago was canceled so we had to switch airlines and unfortunately our luggage was not going to arrive until much later in the day. So once we got to Columbus Tom had to stop at a golf store in the airport (can't believe they actually had one) and he bought some shorts, a shirt, socks and a glove. Then he rented clubs once we got to the club. He'd golf all day and come back to the room and put on the golf channel to watch the Ryder cup. At dinner he and his buddy would review the best holes of the day and plan their strategy for the next day. I finally hit a breaking point when we almost missed our flight home because he was still golfing and our flight was leaving in an hour and a half and we still had a half hour drive to the airport. THEN while in the airport rushing to the gate he stops to watch a sports bar tv to check the scores of the Ryder cup. And once we are on the plane he's on his phone checking out the scores. I try to distract him by showing off some pretty yarn I bought at the little yarn store in town. Then I hand him a bag of his favorite candy, sour cherries, I found at this cute little candy shop. He pops a few in his mouth as he stares down at his phone. Enough already.

The thing that amazes me is that we flew in on a red eye to get to Columbus and both of us got zero sleep. The minute he changed into his golf clothes he was like super man, full of strength and vigor, all smiles ready to go. I was dragging like a two toed sloth and could barely stay awake to draw a bath but yet he was so energized to go hit the course and play rounds of golf for 5+ hours. I thought about this and realized I don't think there is anything I love that much that I would willingly lose a whole day's sleep over to participate in and that kind of makes me sad. Later that night I talked to Tom about this and he kept asking me random things to see what my equivalent would be. Sex? No. A knitting competition? No. A bead store blow out sale? No. Wine tasting? No. Wine tasting on a beach? Still no. Finally I came up with something. Wine tasting on a beach surrounded by puppies with their nails trimmed short. Something like this has to exist and I'm on a mission to find it.

Some excitement today in Seattle

Thanks to Obama's visit to Seattle, western Washington experienced quite a scare today:

Sonic Boom

At the sound of the first boom, my knees buckled and I froze. Then a few seconds later, another one. It felt like a drum banging in my chest. The house shook, windows rattled and then I thought, "Is this an earthquake?? But why the big bangs first?? Maybe that's how they happen here in Washington?!?" Then I thought maybe it was a gas explosion and a neighbor's house just blew. Twice. It was hard to comprehend what could have made that type of intensely loud bang and shudder. Wrigley ran upstairs whining and pawing at the bedroom door so he could run into the closet and hide. Chumley got really low to the ground, almost belly crawling, and his eyes were as big as could be, as he kept looking from side to side. He stopped to hiss a few times and then slithered into the study to pee on the floor.

I grabbed the computer, tried logging on to local online sources and couldn't connect. Then I hopped on facebook and started a shit storm of panic over there. People heard this as far north as Edmonds and south as Olympia (actually I don't really know exactly where these places are but one is really north and one is far south).

Pretty much everyone who heard these booms was in an immediate state of panic. 9-1-1 couldn't handle all the calls - some people armed themselves with weapons thinking it was a terrorist attack while others searched their homes for an intruder. Some thought a small plane crashed in their backyard or even Mount St. Helens was erupting. It was nuts!
Here's a story on our local blog with real time updates. The comments are pretty entertaining to read especially those who were really freaked out (myself included).

Yes, we heard it too

Today, I've decided...

...I'm going to drastically lower my expectations of people, that way I won't be so disappointed when they turn out to be:

a) inconsiderate

b) self serving

c) manipulative

d) insincere

I will put forth my energies to those who are deserving of what I have to offer.

Thank you Bette, my 89 year old soul sister for your friendship and providing me with a world's worth of wisdom in the last 7 months.

(Bette and I at her art display, July 2010)

Wonder where this guy is now...

During the summers while in college I worked for my sister, who managed a shared office suite. I answered phones for the various businesses - about 30 of them, some with actual offices, others with just phone access and an address to make it appear they had a physical presence. My sister gave me the low down on who's who and how to treat the incoming calls. There were quite a few clients who only came into the office once or twice a week so I mainly just took messages and passed them along.

I had only been working a week or so when I got a call from a very quiet man asking for a therapist who was out of the office. I told him he was not in and asked for his name and number and if he'd like to leave a message. He became really agitated, almost frantic, and was pausing after every few words then finally blurted out, "I can't stop masturbating!"

I freaked out (can't recall what I said - it was either, Ewww! Oh my GOD! or Pervert!) and hung up on him. I ran into my sister's office and told her about the obscene caller.

After we had a laugh with a couple other co-workers who popped in to see what was so funny, my sister asked whose line the pervert called. I told her it was one of the therapists. She got all serious and asked which one. I said Dr. McKay. Her eyes bugged out and she said "OH NO!! He's a sex therapist!! That wasn't a crank call!"

We still laugh about this now and for all we know the guy's still masturbating because he never called back.

(me answering phones, 1994)

nicknames for Wrigs

Wringles
Wringo
Wring Leader
Wrigamortis
WringWrings
Wridley
Wrigglesby
Mr. Wrigglesbottom
The Wriddler
Noodle
Big Yellow Dog
and approx. 10,000 more

I also have a song that is sung to the tune of B-I-N-G-O

"There was a dog his name was Wrigs and Wringo was his name O"

"E-I-N-G-O"

"E-I-N-G-O"

"E-I-N-G-O"

"And Wringles was his NAME-O!"

(I know it doesn't make sense singing it with an "E" but it sounds better. I tried it with the "R" and it just doesn't roll off the tongue as easy.)

Psychotic Pet Sitter

I'm cat sitting for some friends this weekend and their cat, Gracie, is known around town as being somewhat aloof to others and not very friendly. When I went yesterday she was curious but not too interested in getting close and I didn't want to make her uncomfortable so I kept my distance. When I came by this morning she was super sweet and affectionate and after some coaxing even let me snuggle and kiss her. I took some photos to send to my friends and wrote this text, (using predictive text not the keyboard) letting them know all was ok:

"Gracie is so incredibly loving today. Pushed her head into mine and was grunting while I stabbed her ears."


What I tried to type was "rubbed" but accidentally hit an extra "b" key. I quickly shut down my phone while the text was sending and thankfully it didn't go thru. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to read while your animal's in someone else's care.



She's such a little sweetheart.

The House

Here's a compilation of five songs from Katie Melua's latest album The House.

Definitely worth downloading. Or just buying the album.

And if you want to hear the full length versions of 3 of the songs, here they are. These are my favorites on the album:

I'd love to kill you

The flood

A happy place

And here's another great song and video from a couple years ago:

If you were a sailboat

I know, I know, enough with the links already.

She don't use jelly

I keep a big tub of vaseline next to the bed because my hands and feet have been really dry so while I'm in bed I can slather it on to my liking and not have to walk from the bathroom to the bed collecting tufts of fur and litter remnants on the bottom of my feet.

So, we had an appraiser come by to take pics of our house including every single room and umm...well, I forgot to remove that big ole tub of vaseline.

I'm sure someone's having a laugh right now.

13 seconds

of funny

The clip above was from my friend and Doga instructor Brenda's Dog Yoga Blog where, as you can see, Wrigs and I have been spending our Saturday mornings.

The nugget

After college, I lived the life of a swinging single for a couple years. I definitely enjoyed my freedoms and took full advantage of casual dating because I was not ready for anything serious.

I was dating this guy who was 10-12 years older than me, we'll call him bi-sexual Bill, because well he was bi-sexual, but I didn't realize that until later in the relationship, I'll get to that another time. So anyway bi-sexual Bill was gorgeous, chisled features, always tan, perfect teeth, great smile. One of the first times I went to his condo I was blown away because he had pictures of himself with high ranking politicians, like for example...President Reagan!?! And several other famous sports figures -Payton, Jordan, Ali, Agassi, and famous actors and actresses, Robert Redford and Whoopi Goldberg were two that I recall. He had an adorable tabby named Peanut and part of the reason I loved hanging out with him was because of his cat. Peanut was a LOVER and a lap cat. I would be covered in cat hair after 5 minutes on the couch but it never bothered me. This particular visit was maybe the 3rd time I had been over and we were watching old black and white movies on the couch of course with Peanut purring on my lap. I started to fall asleep, I hadn't been feeling well, had a horrible sore throat and he said I was welcome to stay over. With that, I headed into his bedroom, fully clothed, and crashed. The next morning I felt worse and had a pretty bad stomach ache. He was still asleep so I tip toed into the bathroom. I tried to be as quiet as possible, even blanketed the toilet bowl in lots of tissues so the plops wouldn't kerplunk in the water. I flushed as soon as I could and ran the water, so in case he woke up maybe he thought I was washing my face. When I was done one "nugget" didn't flush so I flushed again. Now I'm praying he didn't wake up because a double flush is a sure sign of a dump. But now the toilet just filled up with with water as the nugget floated to the top of the bowl. I'm sweating with panic thinking the whole thing's about to blow and water and nugget will flood the floor but then the water stopped right at the rim and stayed there. I'm looking all over the bathroom for something to scoop out the nugget but there was nothing useful. I thought about using toilet paper to reach in grab it and wad it up but then where would I put it? In the kitchen down the garbage disposal??? I remembered we had plastic bags from take out the night before so I closed the lid of the toilet and slowly made my way into the kitchen without waking up the bi-sexual. I grabbed a bag out of the garbage and ran back to the bathroom and quietly closed the door. I gagged as I scooped and then shook all the water out of the bag and wrapped it up into wad, knotted it then tossed it into his empty garbage can. As I looked at it I thought, "What if he gets curious and wants to see what it is? Maybe he'll want to know if it's a feminine product to figure out my cycle and when we'll have sex." Again this was before I realized he wasn't really into women in that way but if he had been curious how does one explain this?? I'd be known for the rest of my life as the girl who wadded up a piece of her own poo and threw it in the garbage. So I grabbed it out of the can, and thought I'd bury it in his kitchen garbage which was almost full. That way if he got curious and looked through there maybe he could blame it on someone else. So as I quietly opened the door there he is standing on the other side smiling, holding out a toothbrush. I realize he must have a stash of them on hand so I thank him and go back into the bathroom with the brush and my bag of poo. He yells that he's going to make coffee and I think great, now I can't sneak into the kitchen and dispose of my bag. I thought about throwing it out the window, but what if a neighbor saw me and got suspicious and went to retrieve it and then came knocking on his door? Then a light bulb went off. Peanut! I could toss my nugget into the cat box and no one (aside from Peanut) would ever know. The litter box was in his office so I had to be sly and not appear to be snooping around. I put the poo in my purse and thought while he's in the kitchen I'll just sneak in there, unknot the bag and toss it in. Of course Peanut was right there by my side as I started fumbling with the bag and the stupid knot wouldn't come undone. I hear the beep for the coffee machine and start to freak so I abandon that whole scheme. Bill's walking down the hall holding our coffees as I come out of his office zipping up my purse, looking like I just stole something. I imagined him saying, "What did you put in your purse?" and then I'd say, "Nothing, nothing" and he'd insist on looking inside and then out pops the poo. Thankfully that didn't happen.

After we drank our coffee, we walked to a little breakfast spot in his neighborhood. After my second cup, before our food arrived, I explained that I had the world's smallest bladder and must hit the restroom again.

Crisis averted.

My animals

LOVE SUMMER!!!





We live on our deck every night. It's pretty fabulous.

stylish and eco-friendly

I found these adorable reusable water bottles at our local market. There's one for every day of the week which is a great gift idea for a runner/yogi/gym goer, or anyone who still uses disposable water bottles. Or something to get for the office to split up between co-workers. They are a bit feminine but I think that's what I love about them. They have a simple calmness in both color and design, like something you'd see in a spa. They are also very sturdy and dishwasher safe as well as BPA free. I'm drinking out of the sky blue one now and I love looking at it!


Here's a link to check out some other products by Reduce. The measuring spoons and scoops are so cute and would be fun to use.


The site also lists retailers that carry the line which would probably be cheaper because the online shipping is a bit high.

Check it out!