Pitbull, grenade, Florida

said Rogers, 30. Fifty, named after famous rapper 50 Cent, is an 8-month-old

"called her father to make sure. Using expertise developed through years of viewing war movies, he surmised it was a grenade"

"The kids were still wearing their pajamas as they drove to the home of Rogers' grandmother."

Writer Willoughby Mariano

Reuters, roadkill, and NASA

NASA fears collisions with the large, carrion-eating birds could damage shuttle

Roseann was adopted!

The dog I took to the Earth Day festival was adopted. She went home to a close to retired couple and will get plenty of attention.

It's funny, I wouldn't have taken her but Stan picked her out and I said sure. She was also close to not making it to the adoption floor but another volunteer lobbied for her. Then of course the couple who adopted her had to show up at the right time to see her. Serendipity.

Missed Intentions

For some reason, I intend to exercise (or clean, or do something productive) a lot more than I actually do. I can find myself thinking, just about as fast as I can think, "I should go for a walk, I should clean my bathroom, I should do dishes, etc, etc). And yet, I'll find another game of solitaire to play, or perhaps another time wasting fark.com article.

At Trader Joe's I managed to used the power in a good way. I intended to get ice cream but they didn't have anything I liked. I then intended to go next door to Brrr's for their superior ice cream. I treated it like exercise and just didn't do it.

The mind is fascinating.

Earth Day Dog Mobile

No pics of dogs this time, although Coco was the most attractive. She was a big shepherd mix with a reddish coat. Her face was the best, she had a lighter golden face with arches of brown fur over the eyes. I swear one of the early Mickey Mouses looks just like that. Adorable!

I had Roseanne, a salt and pepper Australian cattle dog mix. She was very interested in everything and wanted to be the center of attention. We worked on her sitting instead of jumping up for a treat and by the end of the day she had a nice sit. Two people asked for cards on her so I hope she gets to go home with one of them.

I found the Earth Day surprisingly interesting. There were the usual "prayer chanting" and incense burning activities. I'm sorry, smelly incense is really stupid when you're outdoors under redwood trees. How about just having some pine branches around the house if you want a nice smell. I only saw one scientific exhibit and would have liked to have seen more.

There were some capoeira dancers and that's fascinating. Only a few were really good and it seems like it's a better show for late at night during Carnival. Still, cool drumming.

By the end of the day I was wiped out and I'm relaxing with a few Aleve and trying to get hydrated.

Go dogs!

Echo Summit Again

Took a quick trip up to Echo Summit for a short snow shoe experience at the sno park. I had to break trail in heavy, wet snow with a slushy middle layer. It was a beautiful day though and once I'd spent my billion calories I headed home. I am so glad I bought those Cabela's pants, warm and cozy (and cheap!).

Dell Problems

I had some problems this morning with a video driver. Calling Dell was very irritating, especially the voice response system. Tonight a dll file was corrupted and I had to reinstall windows. Another couple hours down the drain. The giant screen is fabulous though. I'm assuming that I'll get used to the scratchpad instead of the trackball (or whatever).

New Dell

My new Dell arrived today after 5:30. Those poor UPS guys work much too hard!

I've got it mostly set up, I still can't send email. I can receive it, but not send it. I sure wish I could get on my old laptop to see what the magic setting is!

The screen is gi-normous on this thing...love it. It's a little more comfortable too. On the other hand, I hate the mouse pad device. There's only the pad which I've always thought was a lame way to navigate...unless you like flicking your finger 3 thousand times to move across the screen. Can't believe I missed that in the specs. I can always buy a wireless mouse though.

It's so clean and shiny too!

I've installed Firefox and Thunderbird and Google Earth. I need to find Solitaire and recreate my many, many bookmarks too.

Still, I'm glad I got it and it was all ready to go out of the box. I probably won't try my TV and remote control till the weekend when I have more time to futz around with everything.

Biking in San Jose

In spite of the rainy weather Donna and I headed out about mid-morning on Friday to bike along the Guadalupe River Park Trail in downtown San Jose. The city has certainly gotten much more dynamic and interesting since I lived there. The downtown city hall is beautiful too, especially the pillars lining the surrounding streets.

We headed north along the Guadalupe River and saw mallards galore. The water was high, but didn't threaten the trail at all. It was also cold and overcast, with no real sun. We made it as far as the airport and then headed back against a nasty headwind for home.

On Saturday, we went to the Berryessa Flea Market on our bikes and did a hour or so of shopping. Donna wanted to get a decorative hanging pink flamingo for her yard. They had parrots, but no flamingos. At the same stall, I bought a gift for Andy and Ira's Sonoma house. I can't wait until they see what it is!

Sunday was get away day and I headed back in time to go to the SPCA for a King's game dog mobile adoption. Fortunately, we have almost no dogs so with 5 volunteers and only 2 dogs I "volunteered" to go home and get my chores done.

black metal pots 50 and 75
san jose marbury

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Sent from my Treo

Why the dog pictures?

On Saturday the SPCA had another dog mobile at the Sacramento Fine Arts in Carmichael. It was their first year of the "Animal House" exhibit. It was fun, all of the dogs were mellow and relaxed. There weren't many people, however, we got donations and people were interested in the pooches.

Paris and Her Beloved Toy

She carried around a little stuffed animal all day. Who would not want to adopt this cutie!

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Sent from my Treo

Tara Sitting Up

I just could not get the excellent shot as she was lying down on her back with all four of her paws curled up getting her spa full body massage. She'll be flying out of the shelter so if you want a loving and mellow pooch act fast!

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Sent from my Treo

Bridget the Boxer

Very sweet brindle boxer. This doesn't quite capture her sweet expression, but she enjoyed her mellow, relaxing day napping on the stage.

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Sent from my Treo

Angel Reluctantly Poses with Cat Painting

This mobile was at an art gallery so at least one of the dogs should pose with the art. Angel was the favorite with many people coming over to visit her. She also enjoyed exploring the area around the art center and was just a joy. She's 2 years old and is part chihuahua.

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Sent from my Treo

Irritability

Why do people stand in front of a door chatting? Step aside and chat, there's a whole sidewalk available, leave space for people to use the door as nature intended it to be used. Ditto for escalator exits.

Why don't dishes rinse themselves and spring into the dishwasher? Why do people with dishwashers whine about doing dishes? Why do you have to clean the counter more than once? Why doesn't it just stay clean?

Why am I not independently wealthy, or perhaps a trust fund recipient?

Emigrant Gap

Now that I'm finally over the horrible sickness, I went snowshoeing off highway 20 (near Emigrant Gap on 80) for a mere hour. This is a view across upper Bear Valley. The snow is not very compacted so I'm having to break trail and it's slow going. I'm aiming for the two stripes you can see in hopes that it's an old, snowed over packed trail. It turns out to be just as soft as the rest, I'm not sure what it was. It was a great trip and I think I'll go tomorrow too. Life is short!

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Sent from my Treo

Foot, shoe, pole

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Sent from my Treo

Becoming a man

I just finished reading an article about the movie "Americanese" in sfgate. There's a lot in the article, and apparently in the movie, about what it means to "become a man," particularly from an Asian perspective.

Women don't obsess in the same way about becoming a woman. Sure, it's a phrase in the middle school pamphlets (if they still have those quaint handouts) when discussing starting your period. It's maybe also assumed, or discussed, or giggled about when you lose your virginity. But I can't even begin to imagine having a conversation with any woman anywhere, "Say, do you feel like a real, womanly woman yet?" Any such conversation would end with gales of laughter...or even girlish giggling.

I guess I don't understand what the issue is. After a certain age, somewhere in the late teens, you're definitely no longer a child. You're sexually mature. I can remember seeing how my brother's faces hardened and became clearly man faces instead of boy faces. There you go, men!

Ritual is I suppose nice enough, but hardly necessary. Is the mythic tale of dad taking his son to the whorehouse really an entry to adulthood? I shudder and hope not (not that there's anything wrong with the sex trade per se). In cultures I'm familiar with, there are many ceremonies that celebrate the boy into man passage, but far fewer that celebrate the girl into woman passage. Of course, I'm no expert on culture.

Anyway, for the men I have this unwanted advice. Get over it. If you're over 20, you're definitely a man, a manly man, and completely male.

Death Valley Thoughts

Young spring wind in the mountain shadow loses the will to blow and moan and hum, stunned by the heat, even now, late in the evening. Stars showing, dying wind flicks tails of white sand too heavy to lift hissing across the road. Deeper in the darkening valley the wind gains will and over the tops of the dunes hurls powdery sand high in the air, a scouring curtain obscuring the dark Amargosa range with alkali sand.