The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Gibbs at Ten Months
I seem to have skipped the nine month update..
In the last couple of months, Gibbs has battled a UTI that wouldn’t go away and a parasite. Downside of running around getting into trouble.
He is a big hit a doggie day care. Did you see this picture?
Jumping on his best friend, Dallas. Kelly told me, the last time the two were together on the same day, that they start running the second they see each other. I am most grateful for this pic, because the only time I can get a decent photograph of this dog is when he is sleeping.
I have tons of those.
In other awesome news, Gibbs is participating in temperament testing new dogs hoping to join the pack. Apparently, he likes to play with everyone. People on the other hand…
We are still having trouble with strangers, particularly visitors in the house. At the vet’s office, he does some barking before the vet techs pay him special attention. Then he starts to settle down. He has not gotten used to having kids at home. Last weekend, when we had Alex, Gibbs barked a lot and mostly stayed by himself in a chair in the living room. Disappointing.
We have moved on to trying some new tricks. He doesn’t like balancing stuff on his head. My mother say that is because balancing stuff on your head is stupid. Roll over is equally troublesome. I need to find some new material.
January had my first long trip out of town and Gibbs did fine – behaved well enough sleeping in my mother’s room. I think we are almost done with the puppiness!
The Great Rescue Debate
Emily Yoffe over at Slate.com posted a piece last week about animal rescue groups. She told a story that I have heard before.. someone wants to “do the right thing” and adopt from a rescue, but is so turned off by the process that she turns to a breeder.
I have been on both sides of this issue.
Before we found Gibbs, I saw an online profile for a standard poodle. My family had a standard when I was child and we would love another one. The profile said that she would be at an adoption fair at a pet store that weekend, so we drove out to meet her. The volunteers said that she was at a different event that day at a different store. We went to the other store. She was not there, either. We asked how we might meet her. We were told, rather dismissively, to fill out an application. We would be contacted if we qualified.
I am good with the application. You would be hard pressed to find a better pet adoption application than mine and I have a reference list longer than my arm. I am not good with the attitude or the (probably inadvertent) false advertising.
Wright-Way, the rescue where I found Gibbs, also had an extensive online application. It was required before I met him, but mostly because he had to be transported from downstate. They weren’t going to put him through a six or seven hour car drive unless they were pretty sure they had a match. And you know what? It had a question that I hadn’t considered before. They asked how many pets I had and how many are allowed in each household in my town? I had to look up the rules on Glenview’s website.
Once we were onsite, we were asked to watch a video before we met him. It had the standard sermons, but also included some thoughts on crate training that I found very useful. The process made me feel like they were serious without making me feel like a criminal. I would be happy to adopt from them again.
However. I am also a rescue volunteer. We rescue parrots, which are definitely different from dogs and cats, but for what it is worth: I have worked the intake of parrots and I know plenty of horror stories of the “will make you cry” variety. I will skip them and tell you just one thing: about that “Ellen Degeneres clause”? The one that says if the adopter must rehome the pet, it must be returned to the rescue? We have seen animals that we adopted out later posted on Craigslist – for a profit. Not cool. Our directors, Rich and Karen Weiner, wrote a complete response to the article that I couldn’t find in Yoffe’s comments – there are tons already – but is posted on Facebook.
Adopting through a rescue is not an instant-gratification purchase. Please do your homework. Consider what type of pet will be happy in your home. Allow some time for the process. And if the first rescue you contact isn’t working with you (again, this happened to me and my totally impeccable pet adoption credentials), try another one. Or ask a veterinarian. Or try an open access shelter.
Thank you for listening. Now here is a picture of Gibbs:
A Saturday with Alex
Alex came out to spend the day with us yesterday. My mother picked him up after his basketball game and met me at Noodles. He had three baskets, one rebound and an assist. He said that he liked basketball as much as baseball and football and liked all of those better than soccer.
Heh.
Then we tried something new: Make a Messterpiece calls itself a “creative studio”. It has tables and canvases for painting and several other activities. Alex said that he would like to try the Kitchen one and the Drumming one. In the Kitchen, the kids made Astronaut Pudding. It was basically instant pudding that you put together in a ziploc bag and the kids liked it a lot. The idea is that you cut the corner off the bag and slurp the pudding out of the bottom.
Then we went to the drumming place. It is like and old heavy metal video with the colored lighting and lots of water when you are banging on the drums. Alex changed his mind and didn’t want to go in. He determined that you shouldn’t have to wear a raincoat and boots to play the drums. Can’t argue with that.
Then we made a painting with the bubble machines – I forgot to take a picture of it – and headed out.
Then I took him to the Library to find a puzzle to borrow and see if the Used Book Store had any Magic Tree House books to take home. It did. He didn’t have them at home, but had already read them. I asked if he really needed them if he had read them already.
“I like to read books again and again.”
Can’t argue with that, either.
Then we went home, worked on puzzles and watched the Senior Bowl before ordering pizza. I am sorry to say that Gibbs still doesn’t like strangers in the house, but he settled down and kept quiet as long as he was left alone.
We had pizza for dinner and that was the day.
Room, by Emma Donoghue
Book 5
So. Everyone and his book club raved about this one last year. I hit my combination of $2 or less at the Used Book Store + Audio Copy in Stock at the Library this weekend. I noticed, when I logged it into LibraryThing, that someone called it a Couldn’t Put it Down For Serious – which did not faze me.
Should have.
It is the story of a young woman that was snatched off the street of her college campus and held captive for sexual slavery purposes in the kind of totally sound-proof and secure garden shed that establishes the Baddie as having planned the deal for a really, really long time. The book opens after seven years of captivity and sets up the escape and aftermath.
The catch, if you haven’t heard it before, is that the first person narrative is by her five year old son.
The brilliant thing here is that the kid would have to be pretty damn articulate to affect a story worth reading. The author pulls that off by establishing that he is incredibly literate..his mother taught him everything academic thing possible. But she couldn’t teach him about things like.. stairs. She also had to find a way to explain the world to him without being all..”we are being held captive by a twisted and evil man and I have no idea how we are ever going to get out of here.”
She does remarkably well.
I had to stop the audio and pick up the book for almost an entire disc to read about the escape. It is rather odd to have the height of the tension in the middle of the book, but that’s how it had to be.
The aftermath is fascinating, as the mom tries to reclaim her life and the boy, Jack, adjusts to new things every day. And we, the audience, see more bits and pieces of the horrific full picture.
This time, the Book Club Crowd picked a winner.
A Woman in Charge, by Carl Bernstein
Book 4
I have read several memoirs about the Clintons, including Living History, Rewriting History and as much of My Life as I could manage. I’ll get back to it, I swear. I think I keep going back because I have a hard time reconciling my politics (which aren’t so terribly far off from theirs, I expect) to how very much I dislike them.
I think I can now safely say it is the hubris.
Bernstein is sometimes sympathetic and sometimes calls BS. There are a few threads that were particularly interesting to me:
First was the story of poor Vince Foster, the law partner from Arkansas that followed the Clintons to the White House and killed himself after the Travel office scandal. I don’t believe for a second that it was anything but a suicide. I don’t think that anyone taking files from his office was doing anything particularly sinister. But as the narrative ticked down to that moment, I really wanted to shake someone. And Hillary was supposed to be his closest comrade.
Another followed Betsy Wright, who was a senior staffer in Arkansas and wasn’t even working in the White House when she was dragged into the Whitewater scandal. She incurred $600,000 in legal fees for her years of loyal service. The words “collateral damage” rang pretty loudly to me there.
Finally, there was the relationship between the Clintons and Dick Morris. Bernstein referred to him as a kind of Rasputin, which I found funny. But he spent years in the inner circle and I never quite understood why he turned on them. It seems entirely personal. Bernstein goes to some length to separate truth from fiction in statements Morris made after leaving the administration.
Near the end, Bernstein talks about Living History, which I found to be the most disingenuous, self-serving piece of garbage ever. Bernstein called it a “campaign document” that used a strategy of “obfuscate, omit and avoid”. However, he sees it as less deliberate than I do, rather allowing that she sees it as she sees it. “Airbrushed” was the adjective he used and said, “introspection is not her strong suit”.
Overall, this seems a really balanced account of Hillary Clinton’s life, which is what I would expect from Bernstein.
Puppy Bowl VIII
I’ve been talking about Puppy Bowl since..the Bears were eliminated from the playoffs. But I was Tweeting about it yesterday and thought I should look it up again. This is the show that Animal Planet runs as alternative programming to the Super Bowl. It is basically just video of a bunch of puppies playing for awhile, with a halftime show by the kittens. It. Is. Awesome.
The Puppy Bowl Starting Line Up is online. I have two favorites for MVP (because they are cute). This is Abilene and Portia. Even more awesome is that they are listing the adoption organizations for each puppy. Here is a link to the Main Page.
The Real Year End Summary
One of the better things about using credit cards is that I know exactly where all my money goes. When I bother to look, which is once a year. For some chuckles and the official record, here are some highlights:
Gasoline: $2,002.42
My mother says this is obscene, and I agree, especially since this was not exactly a road trip year. But there is nothing to be done about it so I’m not going to worry.
I spent $1,718.42 maintaining my car, which will be nine years old this Spring. This doesn’t sound so bad and it tells me that I don’t really need a new car in 2012.
Noodles & Company: $477.54 That seems low to me. Oh. Because that’s just the one in Glenview. Hang on..doing math..$903.67. Yeah. That sounds right.
My biggest merchant this year was United Airlines, followed by a certain hotel in Washington DC, but I am not sure those count because they were my employer’s expenses.
Here is a shocker: $229.57 in bookstores. That must be an adult-life all time low. Eh. Wait. That doesn’t count bn.com. Double that number.
I will not be telling you the cost of my spa habit, because I am embarrassed. I will not disclose the amount I paid to my veterinarian because it will make my mother cry. And it would involve more math.
That, Ladies and Gentlemen, could sum up my year. Travel, pet care, car and Noodles & Company. I am now ready to do my taxes.
Blankets 3,4,5,6
Between a really long audio book and the NFL playoffs, I am getting a lot of blankets done. First, a fully crocheted blanket. Caron Simply Soft in Sage and Dark Sage:
Next, three edged-fleece blankets.
On the left is three rows of single crochet in Caron White. In the center is three rows single crochet in Red Heart Light Blue. On the right is three rows, single crochet of Loops & Threads Impeccable yarn in Bronze.
I think I’m off to a pretty good start.
A Call for Help
I have talked about Trio Animal Foundation before: the group in Chicago that raises funds to sponsor the healthcare for homeless pets. In the last few weeks, three of their rescues have come down with Parvo:
First, the Newfie puppies Roo and Kanga:
Then Mellisan:
And now Antler’s puppies, the ones rescued at Christmas:
Parvo treatment is so expensive that most rescues can’t take on affected dogs. But Trio has made the commitment and I would feel terribly if I didn’t help spread the word. Following are some easy links to donate online:
My Crowdrise Project to help Trio
Trio Animal Foundation Website. If you would prefer to send a check, please make it out to Trio Animal Foundation and mail to them at: 516 North Ogden Ave. Suite 199, Chicago, IL 60642.
With Their Backs to the World: Portraits from Serbia, by Asne Seierstad
Book 3
One of two books by Seierstad, a Norwegian journalist, that has been sitting on my shelf for awhile. I picked it up after a note from Women for Women that the lady I am sponsoring in Kosovo is graduating the program soon. She is Albanian and this book is about Serbians, but it is all the same war.
Serbia is generally thought of as the Bad Guy in the Balkan Wars, so it was interesting to read these stories profiling Serbians. They don’t all have the same politics; in fact some are supporters of Milosevic going way back. Most blame him for the state of the country, but wanted him to have been tried in Serbia as opposed to the Hague.
Ancient history, I know. The book was published several years ago and had more than one edition. That was part of my problem with it, actually. The author first published before the fall of Milosevic and went back around 2003 or 2004 to follow up with the people she had profiled earlier. She elected to simply add on narrative to each profile and it was hard to tell exactly where in history we were when, with the next chapter and next profile, we were back in 1999.
One very striking thing was that almost none of the people she profiled are any better off at the end of the story than at the beginning, when the regime was still in place. Another was that there are many, many Serbian refugees that were expelled from Kosovo and Croatia who are positively abused by the natives when they try to re-build their lives in Serbia. Of course, many of them still want to return to their homes someday.
A third thing was the continual professed hatred for the West – Americans in particular. I would like to say one more time that it seems we can’t win. The United States is vilified for taking action and vilified for minding its own business. “Imperialist” or “Isolationist”.
Mostly, though, I feel sad for this country. The last profile was of a Serbian rock star who said that before 1990, if you had asked him his “nationality”, he would have had no idea what you were talking about. Now he knows. His mother is Serbian and his father is half Croatian and half Montenegrin.
I haven’t followed the current events, so I don’t know if Serbia has turned any corners. I kind of doubt it with the rest of Europe’s economy tanking. Can you have a functioning democracy without a functioning economy? And is that question getting a bit too close to home?
The Next Dark Age 