Cali

This Sunday our dog Cali died.

She had learned to climb first our 6 foot chain link fence and then the 8 foot wooden fence. So Nate had her on a chain staked into the ground. The chain was also attached to the kiddie pool they get water from outside. Cali got her stake out of the ground and drug the pool over to the fence to jump over it. The chain was too short or got caught and she broke her neck.

I honestly don't know how to write about this. It is breaking my heart.

Nate got Cali for me the Christmas we were engaged. He picked her out at the animal shelter and took her on the airplane with him out to California, where we were spending Christmas with my family. She was such a cute puppy, only 3 months old. My dad has two big dogs: Titus, a black lab mix and Max a HUGE German shepherd. They tried to boss Cali the whole time and we had to watch to make sure Max wasn't going to assert his dominance too forcefully. However one of the last days we were there Cali got up on the couch (a no-no) and got into the coffee my Uncle Blake had left out. She then tried to take on Max. She was probably 1/6th his size. Since then she always thought she was a big dog that could take on anyone.

Leaving California we drove back to Oklahoma, caravaning with my sister Amber. We got caught in a huge snow storm. One night we were on the freeway all night stuck in the traffic caused by the weather closing the highway. Cali was great. She had the most comfortable seat in the car (the whole back seat) and never made a mess or anything. The next night when we finally got to a hotel room (the last place available) I was scared they wouldn't allow animals so we tried to sneak Cali in. I wrapped her all up in a blanket and carried her to our room through the back door. At that moment the office manager decided to walk back there and Cali barked at him. I automatically said 'excuse me' as if I had sneezed or something. So funny! He of course knew and they just called to tell us they were adding the animal deposit onto our bill. I should have just asked to begin with.

After we were back in Oklahoma there was 3 months before Nate and I got married. Those were hard nights. I was house-sitting so it was a strange place and Nate had to leave every night to go back to his parent's house. Cali slept with me every night keeping me warm (something was wrong with their heater) and safe.

Through the next several months 4 more dogs came into ours lives for us to care for. Cali was always the boss.

Last autumn Cali was in heat and while she couldn't get out of the yard she got some other dog to sneak in. She got pregnant and had 10 puppies while we were visiting Nate's sister, Laura. She was such a good mommy. She cared for all 10 and trusted us moving her and them 2 days after they were born into the car for a 4 hour drive back home. She often seemed exhausted but all her puppies were healthy and happy. We kept one of her puppies, Hoss, which I am now very grateful for.

Cali was beautiful. People at the dog park would always comment about her beautiful reddish coat. She had the most muscular thighs. She was a big baby and always wanted to be a lap dog- even after she got up to 65 lbs. She just wanted to be snuggled down next to you all the time. She loved to run and play and if you threw her in the water she would run around like a crazy dog for several minutes after.

She was our baby since we don't have kids. I miss her so much. I don't know exactly what I believe about animals after death but I know she's happy somewhere and it's only me mourning because I don't get to see her. I love her.

PS In place of Favorite Author Fridays this week I'll just encourage you to read Marley & Me by John Grogan

You Don't Know...???!!!

What??? You don't know Kasey Chambers??? My comments about her similarities to Anna Nalick meant nothing to you??? This must be rectified!

Kasey Chambers is an artist I discovered in Australia. I got her album, Barricades sand Brickwalls, there. She is marvelous! She has a style that could (and probably does) cross over into county and blues.

Her only song I ever heard over here was her first big single, Not Pretty Enough. This is such a good song. Perfect break up or lonely without a boyfriend wallowing material.

Kasey Chambers - Not Pretty Enough


My favorite of her songs is the Nullarbor Song. It's full of tons of Australian imagery. When I hear this song I can SEE Australia and all the things I miss about it.

Kasey Chambers - Nullarbor Song


PS I didn't know what 'nullarbor' meant so I looked it up on wikipedia. Apparently, it's an area of Australia on the south part near the west (I was in Brisbane, Queensland which is on the east side towards the north).

Here's where it is:
See music info AND a geography lesson. :)

Favorite Author Fridays - Walter Dean Myers and Sharon Creech = Love That Dog

I've been trying to decide who to write about this week and I had almost decided on Walter Dean Myers except I haven't read enough of his book. I've read a lot of his books but he's written way more than just 'a lot'. I feel I can't do him justice until I read a few more of his books.

But I was thinking about him quite a lot so I decided to write about a book that mentions him and is written by Sharon Creech, another great young adult/children's author.

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech is a book I would recommend to everyone!!! It's a book in free form poetry about a little boy who doesn't want to write poetry cause that's a 'girl thing'. He is then surprised to find out that the journal entries he's been doing are poetry. They're simple and beautiful (and if I taught Elementary or Jr. High kids I would for sure read this book).

He eventually writes a poem called 'Love That Dog' modeled after Walter Dean Myers' poem, 'Love That Boy'. We get to meet Walter Dean Myers in the book and I can tell you I have seldom been so excited to meet someone in real life.

Anyway it's a short, easy read and teaches poetry and how simple it can be. In school I always hated the poetry sections because although I didn't mind reading poetry, I HATED writing it. I never felt like mine was good enough. This book would have helped me to feel differently.

Rainy Day Music

Ok so there actually is an album by the Jayhawks called Rainy Day Music and this isn't it but it is the music I like to listen to when it's raining.


Anna Nalick has a beautiful, soothing voice. She's like a smoother Kasey Chambers. I love her. She's also my favorite night driving music. You know when you're driving strait through the night and you're somewhere in Arizona and feeling so 'separate' from the rest of the world. Her voice fits perfectly into that world.

She has since been found by the producers of Grey's Anatomy and used for tons of their stuff.

Here's the first of her songs I like. This was her first big single, several years ago.

Anna Nalick - Breathe


Another beautiful song. Sorry I couldn't find a regular video. I'm pretty tired of everything Anna Nalick having to be tied to Grey's Anatomy. I mean I'll admit I watched and loved the first couple of seasons but, as ALWAYS seems to happen, they ran out of dialog and story and turned to everyone having sex with everyone else. So lame!!! So you're choices for the non-acoustic version were Grey's Anatomy, Eddie Izzard or Anime. I thought Eddie was the least distracting.

Anna Nalick - Wreck of the Day


This last one is possibly my favorite. I liked it when I first heard it but I grew to love it one of those 'drive straight through' nights. I was listening to it as I drove from LA and arrived in San Francisco. I drove over the bridge in really thick fog completely cut off visually from everyone and everything around me. It was beautiful. So that's the scene I see when I hear this song. Sorry for the crappy video- it was this or Grey's Anatomy scenes...

Anna Nalick - Catalyst

Update and I'm Bored!

So, update:

Things have been much better lately. Crazy things happen to me and they are crazy but also funny (not resulting in gushing tears or self-righteous anger). I was reamed by a parent...and it was sad but not emotionally heartbreaking. AHHH to be normal again.

So now that I'm back to being normal what happens??? I'm bored. Yes I am at work and bored out of my mind. I just finished a big involved project and don't have the energy to get into another one yet. So I give you my latest stumbling the web sites...

Free Rice- where you learn new vocab and it results in people getting fed

Black Phoenix Trading Post- all kinds of weird scents and things to buy that I probably won't ever spend money on but look So COOL!

Patricia Piccinini- really interesting art exploring humans relationships to animals and the environment and motherhood

Jung Personality Test- Test & Good Explinations. So interesting. I'm INTJ.

BBC Science & Nature- way interesting and well done. So much science to be interested in!!!

Read, Print- free books!!! yeah for me.

Taste Spotting- way yummy looking recipes. I've got a couple on my list for this month so we'll see how they turn out.

Blik- graphics for your walls. They have especially cute kids ones. Some are restickable.

Well enjoy!

One of those...Weeks???, Church Rooms and Britney Spears

Ok so two things lead me to blog this morning:

#1- Britney Spears won VMA Best Video for "Piece of Me"
#2- I am losing my mind (and possibly my husband)

Here's my train of thought (don't be worried if you get lost- it doesn't make much sense).

I never liked Britney Spears. I didn't like the Back Street Boys or N'Sync or 98 Degrees etc. I pretended slight enthusiasm about N'Sync at one point cause my friends were so into them but I think even they realized I was feigning minimal interest.

Anyway so while I've been familiar with Britney Spear's 'music' for quite a while I've never been that interested in her until the hailstorm of bad press started. It was ridiculous! People were saying and doing the most horrible things to that girl. I'm making no judgement calls on her behavior but I can imagine few things she could have done to be eligible for the anger directed at her. Just awful.

So when "Piece of Me" came out it was the first Britney song I had ever liked. It was probably the first she actually meant when she sang it. I just love the underlying anger and attitude.

So how that relates to my life is this...I have had one of those weeks. Not just the odd bad day or grumpy meeting or irrational emotional ridiculousness but everything for a full week. It started innocently with a slightly grumpy Sunday morning last week. Nothing earth-shatteing but overall unhappiness. It wasn't fun but I didn't worry too much since those days happen and sometimes there's just not much you can do about it.

But then Monday sucked too. I was angry I was sad I was grumpy and I was likely to kill the next person who expected me to do ANYTHING. Seriously crazy.Tuesday was just as bad.

and then came Wednesday...

Wednesday I had Cub Scouts. I love my Cub Scouts. They're cute and nice and mostly listen to what I say and don't cause trouble etc. However, early on Wednesday I got a call saying the YM/YW huge 2 ward combined activity had to be moved inside because of weather. The Cub Scouts have the gym reserved from 6 to 7 and the YM/YW wanted to know if they could use it. I told my person they could have all but one sliver of the gym by the stage (I needed it for my activity). As far as I knew the matter was closed.

So I get to the church and start my activity with my boys. They're doing great. They listen and help and have fun. It was awesome. But about 630 someone comes in to ask when we'll be done so they can have this part of the gym also. I tell them I'll be here til 7 then they can have it. 5 mins later another person. Now, lest anyone think these people haven't been told I'm in there, I have SIGNS the say "Cub Scouts meeting- Do Not Enter", posted on both doors. I'm starting to get frustrated (please also remember these are 7 year old boys- every distraction results in 5 minutes of getting them back on task).

At 745 a leader from the other ward (whom I completely confess to having previous issues with due to some events a year ago with my sister) opens the partition and asks when we'll be done. I say we'll be done at 7. At 750 she asks if we're done yet (at this point she's starting to kill my Cub Scout buzz). At 755 she asks if we're done yet- when I answer her this time, trying to keep my temper, she says "what???" because aparently she can't hear me. I repeat myself she again doesn't hear me. At this point I tell her (rather loudly) that we'll be done at 7 and CLOSE THE DOOR!!! It's possible I could have been calmer but unlikely.

At 7 I leave the room, letting them know I'm done. If they had stopped bugging me to begin with I would probably have been done at 645 or so.

So I breathe deeply talk to some parents and get ready to leave. The person in my organiztion stops me and wants to talk about changing room usage and times for scouts. She says, "I was told by ___ that we need to be out of the rooms by 645 so the YM/YW can set up for their activities that start at 7". I am not kidding- I almost threw down right then and there (do you see how on a normal week Wednesday this might have been amusing). Seriously, I barely restrained myself from finding ___ and telling her my very strong opinions on the subject. I told the lady in my organiztion we couldn't move our time and I would continue to use the gym we had reserved until 7. I said "YM/YW is not more important than Cub Scouts. I have no problem if there is a special event and they tell me in advance, adjusting my schedule to help them out."

So I'll skip the rest of the week. Let me assure you it did not get better. Work sucked, classes sucked, people sucked, errands sucked, my house sucked. Overall there were several annoying things that happened but nothing worthy of the anger or distress they produced in me. I feel as though I'm starting the day one step before 'the straw that broke the camel's back'. One thing happens and my day is shot. It's crazy. And of course if anyone suffers for my bad mood it is my husband. He's probably asking to be tranfered to Russia without me.

So the moral of this story is...I'm losing my mind...and be nicer to Britney Spears.

Cub Scouts, Training and My Crazy Ox...

Well a few quick updates.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I work with the Cub Scouts (in the Wolf Den). They're so cute! I just finished my first year with them (I actually came in part way through this last year). I had 5 boys this last year, a couple of them with some extra needs. It's nice to have gotten to a comfortable point with them. At first I was really nervous; I am the oldest of 4 girls and NO boys. And honestly, 7 year old boys are a little gross. But overall they were great and I'm really grateful for the time I got to work with them. Here's some pics of me and 4 of the boys from last year.


Here's the scenery they made for our skit we did. They did awesome!


PS This year we just started I have 6 boys...oh the fun!

Next...

We'll most of you probably know I've been working at the same job since January of '07. Just this August they made my position permanent (I had been full-time temporary the whole time before). I now get benefits and leave time etc. Really nice!!! However it did mean I had to slow down my schooling again. It's crazy- I'm starting to feel like I'll never be done.

Anyway, even after all this time working here I still had to go to orientation. Luckily a co-worker, Kendall, also had to go- and he's worked here even longer than me but just got hired back as full-time permanent. Anyway it was pretty amazing I can tell you. Here's a pic of us before our brains melted from inactivity.


Last but not least, this is what happens when Nate gets a hold of my camera...

Favorite Author Fridays - Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris does several series of books: Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire, Aurora Teagarden, Lily Bard "Shakespeare", Harper Connelly, and has done a couple non-series books. All of her books I would consider mysteries.

I was first introduced to her for her Sookie Stackhouse books, the ones she's most famous for. I love them. I will caution, however, that, as happens with most series vampire books, they're starting to get pretty questionable. The same thing happened with Laurel K. Hamilton. Her first books were really good but slowly they got more and more sexual until they were practically (in my opinion) erotica and I had to stop reading them. I might have to stop reading Sookie Stackhouse books soon. It just happens with the same vampire character in the same world with the same basic cast- all that's left if for them is to have sex with as many people as possible. Very Sad!

Don't let that steer you away from her other series however. I have never not liked a book I've read of hers. She just overall does an amazing job. She creates characters you love and root for and situations that seem real in spite of their obvious fantasy aspects (i.e. vampires). On an interesting note, Charlaine was raped when she was younger and so none of her books will ever have 'forced sex' put in a positive light. If you're familiar with a lot of fantasy/sci-fi books this is a relief to you also.

So here you go. A bibliography broken up by series. Remember ones in red I've read and loved.

Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire

The Southern Vampire Mysteries is about a telepathic barmaid in northern Louisiana, named Sookie Stackhouse. Each book follows Sookie as she tries to solve mysteries involving vampires, werewolves and other creatures of the night.

Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definately Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse

Aurora Teagarden

Aurora Teagarden, a diminutive Georgia librarian whose life never turns out quite the way she plans, ends up solving real mysteries. These have all been released before but are being rereleased now.

Real Murders
A Bone to Pick
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse
The Julius House
Dead Over Heels
A Fool and His Honey
Last Scene Alive
Poppy Done to Death

Lily Bard "Shakespeare"

The heroine of the Shakespeare books is Lily Bard, a tough and taciturn woman whose life has been permanently reshaped by a terrible crime and its consequences. In Shakespeare's Landlord, the first in the series, Lily is caught at a moment when the shell she has built around herself is just beginning to crack. The books capture Lily's emotional re-entry into the world, while still remaining sound mysteries.

Shakespeare's Landlord
Shakespeare's Champion
Shakespeare's Christmas
Shakespeare's Trollop
Shakespeare's Counselor

Harper Connelly

Harper's been struck by lightning and the experience has left her with a strange ability: she can find corpses and see how they died. Afterward, Harper and her step-brother, Tolliver Lang, make their living from finding the dead.

Grave Sight
Grave Surprise
An Ice Cold Grave

Non-Series

Sweet and Deadly
A Secret Rage

*I have not included anthologies she has short stories in*
Also, most series information was gotten off of wikipedia.com

My first tag!!!

THE RULES:

1. link the person who tagged you

2. post the rules

3. tell 6 unspectacular quirks of yours

4. tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them

- I hate close-toed shoes. I'll wear them if I have to but always feel like my feet are squished no matter how roomy they are.

- I read ridiculously fast. Too fast to be helpful- fast enough to be a curse. I am always out of books to read and spend way too much money on them.

- I love snails. In fact, I love any creature that makes other people say ewww. If right now you said sea slugs creep you out it would make me love them more.

- I love watching sports but want it to be way competitive until the end and then I always want a tie. It makes me sad if someone loses so I'll root for the underdog or whoever everyone else hates and can often switch teams in the middle of a game if the one I'm rooting for starts to win.

- I won't take Codine. The one time I took it I woke in the middle of the night sure I was 'drowning' because my feet were wrapped up in the sheets.

- I hate it when people touch my neck. I'm not sure why and I don't even remember when it started but it literally makes me scream- even Nate isn't allowed to.

I tag: Christy, Aubrey, Wendy, Melissa, Rachel and Sheena.

Just that kind of weekend...

Well folks it was just that kind of weekend and honestly the week hasn't improved much so far. But I do have Cub Scouts tonight so it's sure to get at least a little more fun. Here's a fun video of a really good song.

Snow Patrol - You Could Be Happy


another video done by the same person/people...

Kate Nash - Nicest Thing


PS Sorry if you could possibly kill yourself at this point because I couldn't pick a happy song...

PPS Do you feel like once you get married you have to miss out on the best depressing songs? I mean for real- they're both sad but neither applies enough to be touching anymore. I think I need a depressing song about the house not being clean and work being long and grumpy to just wallow in...Any ideas?

Favorite Author Fridays - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes had her first novel accepted for publication when she was 14. I first read her story, "In the Forests of the Night" several years ago and have since read all her 'stand alone' novels. Just this past summer I read the first book in her Kiesha'ra series and I loved it so I can now fully recommend her. Honestly everything she write feels very simple and just flows easily until you're completely surprised you're done.

Bibliography (ones in red I've read and loved):

In the Forest of the Night
Demon In My View
Shattered Mirror
Midnight Predator

Kiesha'ra series:
Hawksong
Snakecharm
Falcondance
Wolfcry
Wyvernhail

Conservation

So I'm in a Conservation Biology class this semester. It's interesting since that's what I planned to major in for quite a while. This class isn't amazing- the teacher is a little dry and seems interested in not passionate about the subject- but it does make me think sometimes.

Today we discussed anthropocentric versus ecocentric views of nature. It literally was one of those instances where I realized that honestly people think completely differently from me (a lot of them in fact).

An anthropocentric view of nature says that animals and nature are important because of how they relate to humans. This is the view of many Christian faiths (man's dominion over the animals, animals & plants are here for the use of man), the Forestry service, most government agencies and the majority of corporations. It's even the view of the 2nd great Conservation Movement in the US, the Resource Conservation Ethic, which said, "Nature is to provide the most good to the most people for the longest period of time".

An ecocentric view of nature says that nature has intrinsic value, whether or not it is valuable to humans. This is the view of several Eastern faiths, the Sierra Club and most 'tree-huggers'. It was the view of the 1st great Conservation Movement in the US, the Romantic/Transcendental Conservation Ethic, led by Emerson, Thereou and Muir. This said, "Nature is spiritual".

I had noticed the results of these two schools of thought but hadn't actually separated them out in my head. When I get information from the HSUS (Humane Society of the US) they give two sets of reasons for everything they're asking. When they were trying to get laws enforced about humane slaughtering practices they gave the ecocentric view of the horribly mistreated animals and the anthropocentric view of the higher risk of disease found in the meat of these animals.

Even in my class, Conservation Biology, you would expect most people to be ecocentric but I don't think they were. These were Ag students moving toward Wildlife Management careers, which is very anthropocentric.

One question our instructor brought up was to ask what were the ethical implications of eradicating a species. What about small pox? Small Pox has been essentially eradicated except for a few specimen in Bio-Warfare labs in the US and Russia. He asked if we had the ability to destroy these last specimen from the world (knowing the implications of a whole generation not immunized against them) would we do so?

The strongest anthropocentric thinkers will say of course. The risk to humans is too great to not do so.

The strongest ecocentric thinkers will say of course not. Every species has a right to be alive. Who are we to purposefully destroy one?

So this is my question to you. Would you destroy small pox?

Politics...Ewww!

So I've pretty much decided not to talk politics on this blog because it causes such contention but I thought this was pretty cool to see who you're views agree with. You might be surprised. Candidate Match Game

Once

This weekend Nate and I watched the movie Once. I really liked it. All the acting was really understated and it reminded me of my time in Australia, where they were speaking English but I still couldn't understand most of what was being said, but overall I loved it. As a modern musical, obviously the music was the highlight. They won an Oscar for the song Falling Slowly but I think this one was my favorite. I need to get the soundtrack!!! Laura had a copy but I never got it burned. Sad!

Glen Hansard - Lies



Oh well, what the heck...here's Falling Slowly too.

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly

blog change

yes i changed my blog colors- or really i just scrambled them. let me know if it's hard to read.

***Ok I changed it again. I didn't love my original colors just messed around but I really needed something different. I think I like it...

matchbox twenty

This is one of my favorite all time albums. I didn't like it when I first got it, but then somehow it ended up the only CD in my car for a couple of weeks and I began to love it. I wish I could put every song up here but then most of you would think I was even more ridiculous about music then you do now.

matchbox twenty - you won't be mine

Hmmm Picture

I just found this pic on Josie's Blog and Flickr from the Mitchell family reunion. I can't decide whether I like it or not. On one hand my legs look pretty skinny and you can't tell I probably hadn't showered in days. On the other hand...do I always look at my husband like that???



PS One of the very best things about family reunions with either side of Nate's family is that there are tons of kids and babies around that you can just take. It's almost like they don't want to hold their own kids. It's wonderful!!! No trouble baby fix and then the ability to hand them back when they get fussy. Ahhhhhh.

Fitzpatricks...

I decided since I already did a supremely long blog today I'll save this fun for next week. Keep guessing...

Favorite Author Fridays- Louise Rennison

A couple of years ago I took Young Adult Literature, and I immediately knew my true calling. It was now my eternal duty to read all young adult books and then recommend them to every young and old adult around. I'm serious! I love young adult literature! By my count of the 6 authors I have blogged about, 3 1/2 are young adult authors (Kelly Armstrong gets to be 1/2 and 1/2).

Let me list the reasons I love them so much:

1. Normally the language and questionable scenes are way less (notice I bold-ed normally, some can be much worse than adult books).
   
2. They don't try to impress you- Sometimes I honestly feel as I'm reading an adult book that the author is trying to show me how smart he is, or how many big words he knows. I don't mind big words but I do mind when they're so obvious that they draw my attention.
3. They're funny- Seriously even the real downers are usually pretty funny since even if they don't mean to be you can still laugh and rejoice you're not a teenager anymore.
4. Their authors are way cool!- For real. I never cared about authors until I became serious about young adult books. I honestly don't care about the life of Ernest Hemingway. It doesn't affect my reading of his stories one bit. But young adult authors are way fun and use this new fangled internet things to keep in touch with their fans. I can talk to some of my favorite YA authors easily- I just shoot them an email.
5. They are brave in facing real issues- Just like the young adults these books are about, the books themselves actually touch real issues mostly, in my opinion, not exaggerating them.
   

So enough of my nonsense here's Louise Rennison!!!!

Louise Rennison is from England. Half of the fun of her books is that I honestly don't know most of what the characters are saying. It's like when I was in Australia and my boss wanted me to take with me the... I wasn't sure. Eventually through him walking over to it, I realized he meant the trash can, which he was apparently calling the 'wheely bin'. Seriously.

Her books are written in journal style from the perspective of Georgia Nicholson who we meet as a 14(?) year old. She is dumb. Not in a stupid way but in a way of everything revolving around her and seemingly simple things blown way out of proportion. So pretty much a teenage girl (hey I can say it, it hasn't been that many years). Boys, of course, are a topic thoroughly explored and honestly it's just hilarious.

In one scene in the first book, Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging, (PS Angus is her cat) Georgia goes to a snogging instructor (read sneaky teenage boy). While this seems ridiculous to us a girl in my YA Lit class swore this was not unusual in Britain. She grew up in Ireland and had her first kiss from a snogging instructor. I know!!!

Anyway, the boys in my YA Lit class hated it. They all thought it was worthless and dumb but I have rarely laughed so hard. I read it aloud to Nate when we were engaged and honestly couldn't get through a part, I was laughing so hard.

The 8th book just came out and I read it and loved it. Nothing can be as good as the first but they're still funny. Here's the snogging scale:

The New and Improved Snogging Scale

.5	sticky eyes (Be careful using this. I’ve still got some complete twit following me around like a seeing-eye dog.)
1	holding hands
2	arm around
3	goodnight kiss
4	kiss lasting over three minutes without a breath (What you need for this is a sad mate who’s got a watch but no boyfriend.)
4.5	hand snogging (I really don’t want to go into this. Ask Jas.)
5	open mouth kissing
6	tongues
6.5	ear snogging
6.75	neck nuzzling
7	upper body fondling – outdoors
8	upper body fondling – indoors (in bed)
Virtual number 8	(When your upper body is not actually being fondled in reality, but you know that it is in your snoggees head.)
9	below waist activity (or bwa) (Apparently this can include flashing your pants. Don’t blame me. Ask Jules.)
10	the full monty (Jas and I were in the room when Dad was watching the news and the newscaster said, “Tonight the Prime Minister has reached Number 10.” And Jas and I had a laughing spaz to end all laughing spazzes.)

I would recommend these but caution against some questionable content- adults are much more likely to take offense than teens.

Bibliography:

Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging
On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God
Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas
Dancing In My Nuddy Pants
Away Laughing on a Fast Camel
Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers
Startled by His Furry Shorts
Love is a Many Trousered Thing

Fitzpatrick and Patrick Fitzpatrick

Teaser photo...

I think I'll blog about this tomorrow but for now here's the pic.



What do you think it's about?

I'll give you a hint...it reminds me of my snuggly and this song:

Barry Louis Polisar - All I Want Is You

Garden

fuzzy picture of a yellow tomato

So let me tell you a bit about my garden. This year I tried several different things because I'm not really good at keeping plants alive and I figured I'd see what would survive and make next year worth it.

And I did find out what I could keep alive and what I couldn't. My number one problem was weeds. I kept forgetting to go out and pick them so they'd get really bad. We tried using newspaper (which is apparently what Grandpa Bennion did) but I don't think I buried it far enough cause it just dried up and blew away.


Grandpa Bennion- gardener extrodinaire

I also didn't do a whole lot to the soil before hand. I really should have done some testing and applied some fertilizer but I didn't make much of an effort (we just took a couple of shovel-fulls from Nate's folks compost pile).

But some of it did come out much better than I expected. The tomatoes for example were amazing as you can see above. Oklahoma is perfect for tomatoes. So beautiful!!! Too bad Nate won't eat them. :(

Anyway so here's what I grew and how it turned out:

• spinach- wonderful! it's an early spring plant (or at least just colder weather). It did great in the early part of the year but went to seed once it got too hot. I'd really like to try some more salad greens next year.

• sugar snap peas- very well. these did fine early on but when it got too hot they wilted. I would like to try something more structured for them to grow on next year and a shade device, which I hope will extend their life a little.

• yellow squash- very well for a while and then these weird white and black spider/aphid things ate them all. Must find out what they are and destroy them!!!
  

• zucchini- never got off the ground, eaten by the same things as my yellow squash

• butternut squash- never got off the ground, eaten by the same things as my yellow squash

• watermelon- over taken by weeds, never produced

• cantaloupe- overtaken with weeds, never produced

• corn- got to the perfect ripeness when we were on vacation and didn't get picked so went bad. WAY SAD!!!

• tomatoes- I planted 4 kinds

• beef steak- big and beautiful but not amazing. They love the sun so maybe they haven't hit their stride yet. The rainy weather isn't helping
• roma- my best and earliest producing. I love them! I wish they got a little bigger but overall they're super yummy
• yellow (low acid)- these things are so beautiful. I wish pictures did the justice. They look amazing on the plant. And really good and sweet
• 4th of July- not overly impressed. These were the last to produce and are medium sized red tomatoes, I'll probably skip them next year.

And just for fun a picture of one of our kittens attacking a tomato I dropped in the kitchen. It was way funny.

Balance???

So on Saturday I got up early and read, then cooked breakfast (egg scramble with zucchini, spinach, mushrooms, olives and cheese- and tomatoes on mine) and then made Nate get up and eat breakfast. He went back to bed and I read a little more and at least contemplated doing the dishes. After all this strenuous activity I felt I needed a nap. So Nate went out to mow the law and I went back to bed (it was my last weekend before school started again!!!).

A couple hours later Nate woke me up and to go stalk Lance, his brother-in-law. It seems Nate was driving by the local skate park and saw Lance there and wanted to go hang out with him. I asked (perfectly reasonably), "Is Emily there?" (Emily is Lance's wife and Nate's sister). Nate said he didn't know. I asked (again very reasonably), "Did Lance invite you to hang out or are we just stalking him?". Nate said we were just stalking him....well OK.


Emily and Lance- the tempters

So we went to the skate park.

It turns out Emily was there and had been the whole time, but apparently Nate only had eyes for Lance. So we chatted with them both. Then they talked me into sitting on the skateboard and going down the big ramp. The last (and really only) time I had ever been on a skateboard was in kindergarten and my 'boyfriend' would let me sit on his skateboard while he pushed me. So overall this seemed reasonable so I did it. I fell off the back a couple times before I got it right (wow I'm way fatter and less fit-able on a skateboard than I was in kindergarten) but it never hurt and I finally got it. Yes I am that cool. Oh, also I had the help of two 10 year oldish cute little black kids helping me.

So after that I went back to chat with everyone, pleased with my athletic skills.

Then they decided I could go down the smaller ramp standing up. Now I was riding high on my previous victory and so I agreed to try. WHY DIDN'T I REMEMBER I HAVE NO BALANCE??? I'm serious! I've been doing yoga for several years and last Spring took a class with a friend of mine, Aubrey. She had way better balance than me and she was like 8 months pregnant!

Anyway so I tried. The two boys giving me pointers again, even offering to catch me (as if their 75 lbs combined could break my fall). So I tried once, and fell. It didn't hurt so I got up and tried again. This time it hurt real bad!!! In fact, if I didn't think the 10 year olds would make fun of me I would have stayed on the ground crying. But I had my pride and so I got up and tried again and this time I made it!!! I went down the little ramp without falling. I'm practically a professional skateboarder.

So long story short, all this weekend and the beginning of this week my whole left side has been crazy bruised and I have been very whiny about it. What made it worse was that on Sunday when we went to pick up Nate's mom for church she had a crazy bruise around her eye. She was in her kitchen, slipped and since she had stuff in her hands hit her face first on the floor. Crazy!!!

So the moral of the story is...I'm not sure. That I should just expect that I'm going to be clutzy the rest of my life? Not to trust lance and Emily? Don't stalk your brother-in-law?

30 Seconds to Mars - !parental advisory!

Ok so I had promised myself I would do a real post before posting another music video but I had to indulge myself a little this morning. Apparently 30 Second to Mars is being sued by their label, Virgin Records, for failing to deliver the 3 records required by their contract. Way Sad!!! I have a huge emo crush on Jared Leto, starting way back in the 90's when he was in My So-Called Life. This is one of my favorite videos of theirs (come on let yourself be emo enough to think he's hot) patterned after The Shining.

I am putting an advisory on this one! It is a little rocked out for some of you and has one scene in the video that, if you understand it, could be rather questionable.

30 Seconds to Mars - The Kill


***** Quick note on the Shining- While I understand this video and it has much more meaning for me since I've seen the Shining, I am not recommending it. I first saw it when I was in 3rd or 4th grade because my baby sitter looked through my folks videos and said "Oh I've heard of this, it's a good kids video" and then proceeded to leave the room to talk on the phone to her boyfriend or something. We were left alone to be totally traumatized and fear Jack Nicholson for years without knowing why (PS I have a similar fear of Tom Petty and the Mad Hatter but that's a different story). I have seen this edited (as if for TV) and it was still scary but watchable- unedited it's totally not worth it and will probably scar you.

Gorillaz

So I just needed some old school fun. Do you remember when this first came out and it was all over the web? It was way modern and super cool. Keep your bass up real high for both of these.

Gorillaz- Clint Eastwood


...and now something a little more recent but still amazing.

Gorillaz- Feel Good Inc.

Favorite Author Fridays- Markus Zusak

Well I was gone for most of July and then when I got back the thought of trying to update everything on my blog got so overwhelming I didn't do anything. So here goes...



I read The Book Thief quite a while ago and loved it. It's from the perspective of a young girl living with a German family during World War II. It is amazing. It had tons of surprises and was definately very emotional (which I'm sure you expected form a novel about that era).

Markus tells of why he wrote the book on his webpage:

"When I was growing up, I heard stories at home about Munich and Vienna in war-time, when my parents were children. Two stories my mother told me affected me a lot. The first was about Munich being bombed, and how the sky was on fire, how everything was red. The second was about something else she saw...

One day, there was a terrible noise coming from the main street of town, and when she ran to see it, she saw that Jewish people were being marched to Dachau, the concentration camp. At the back of the line, there was an old man, totally emaciated, who couldn't keep up. When a teenage boy saw this, he ran inside and brought the man a piece of bread. The man fell to his knees and kissed the boy's ankles and thanked him...Soon, a soldier noticed and walked over. He tore the bread from the man's hands and whipped him for taking it. Then he chased the boy and whipped him for giving him the bread in the first place. In one moment, there was great kindness and great cruelty, and I saw it as the perfect story of how humans are."

That's how the whole book is- filled with 'great kindness and great cruelty'.

Had this been his only book I would have blogged about him earlier but he's written other books and I felt I needed to read at least one more before I could recommend him as an author, not just recommend his book. So over vacation I read his book, The Messenger. It too was beautiful and touching and, in places, very hard to read. I cried with joy and sorrow while reading it and was convinced Markus Zusak wasn't just a one-hit wonder.

I have had some problems finding copies of his other books so I'll probably just have to buy them off amazon or ebay but I can't imagine that I won't love them.

Here's his Bibliography:

The Underdog (1999)
When Dogs Cry- published as Getting the Girl in the US (2001)
The Messenger- published as I Am the Messenger in the US (2002)
Fighting Ruben Wolfe (2001)
The Book Thief (2006)