Is that a plate in your lip, or are you just happy to see me?

I'm doing a little research into the different cultures and tribes of Ethiopia, trying to decide whether a side trip is in order when I go to pick up Charlie. The side trip could not be too long, because I don't want to use up my maternity leave (which is unpaid) nor do I want to be in country, THAT CLOSE, and start heading in the opposite direction from Charlie. The most interesting tribes seem to be way down south, and due to bad roads, medication-resistant malaria mosquitoes, and an earlier rainy season than in Addis, I probably won't be heading south to see these tribes. But thanks to YouTube, I can sort of see them anyway.

The origin of the lip plate, according to one source, is that a neighboring tribe was stealing their women, so they tried to make their women unattractive Over time, it became a symbol of beauty to their own tribe.

Funny how that happened!

The lip is minimally cut when the female reaches adolescence, and then slowly expanded over time to accomodate a larger plate. Apparently it doesn't hurt. The plate is only removed to eat and sleep. I wonder how they talk?

Interesting!

Idol Recap

Kara DioGuardi gives on point constructive criticism usually (although her lock jaw syndrome drives me right up a wall). Tonight in reaction to Adam Lambert? "You're surprising, shocking, sleazy, superb and I like it!" Or something like that. She looks flabbergasted after his performance. Funny.

From Perez Hilton:

A glitch on iTunes might have revealed who's winning the American Idol race - at least in terms of popularity!
After each episode of AI, the contestants' songs are placed for sale on iTunes, but the sales figures for each finalist is never revealed. Idol execs don't want people knowing ahead of the finale who's got the popular vote.
And, for weeks people have been thinking the final two might come down to Adam Lambert and Danny Gokey. But, if iTunes is any indicator of the popular vote, looks like contestant Kris Allen might make it to the final two instead next month.
A glitch last week in Apple's software allowed users to see which contestants were selling the most downloads of their "live" performances each week.
And it's no surprise, the leader - by far - was Lambert who holds 6 of the top 10 chart spots this season. And his cover of Mad World has become the No. 1 selling song this year!
Instead of Gokey coming in second, Kris Allen is actually in the second spot with three performances on the top 10. As for Gokey, he's got just 1 on the chart.
Is it safe to call it now? Adam Lambert seems to have the first place spot on American Idol in his pocket!

And as usual, 5 points to every person who correctly calls this week's elimination!

Conflicted....

I saw this video on another blog and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Of course I'm glad the children are not being killed anymore. But something about the presentation.... again we have the Western world (or let me just say it, the "white man") swooping in to "rescue" people from their own culture. We find this aspect of their culture untenable, so we change it.

I don't know.... It kind of bothers me.

To exemplify the narcissism of this point of view: what if another culture came along and called Christians "a suspicious people" and decided praying to a cross was "backwards" and razed all the churches.... hmm? Basically, it's a similar situation. We are coming in uninvited because we don't respect this tribe's "beliefs" or their way of life.

Is it better to allow a child to die, or to come in and change the way a culture has been living for centuries?

But I'm glad the children are being cared for.

What do you all think?


Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

Daughter from Danang

Since this is an adoption blog I thought I would post this movie. I'm pro-adoption, obviously, but this movie is not. However, it's important, even being pro-adoption and certainly being in the midst of an adoption, to educate myself on all aspects. Certainly there are adoptions that are not motivated by benefiting the child.

Daughter from Danang

A heartbreaking documentary that upsets your expectations of happily-ever-afters, Daughter from Danang is a riveting emotional drama of longing, identity, and the personal legacy of war. To all outward appearances, Heidi is the proverbial “all-American girl”, hailing from small town Pulaski, Tenn. But her birth name was Mai Thi Hiep. Born in Danang, Vietnam in 1968, she’s the mixed-race daughter of an American serviceman and a Vietnamese woman. Fearing for her daughter’s safety at the war’s end, Hiep’s mother sent her to the U.S. on “Operation Babylift”, a Ford administration plan to relocate orphans and mixed-race children to the U.S. for adoption before they fell victim to a frighteningly uncertain future in Vietnam after the Americans pulled out. Mother and daughter would know nothing about each other for 22 years.

Now, as if by a miracle, they are reunited in Danang. But what seems like the cue for a happy ending is anything but. Heidi and her Vietnamese relatives find themselves caught in a confusing clash of cultures and at the mercy of conflicting emotions that will change their lives forever. Through intimate and sometimes excruciating moments, Daughter from Danang profoundly shows how wide the chasms of cultural difference and how deep the wounds of war can run--even within one family.

This documentary is a little over an hour, so give yourself some time to watch. It's not the happy ending type of story one might expect from a reunion. All adoptions are unique. This was an eye-opener as to some of the challenges that may occur during a reunion. It's also pretty anti-adoption, but based on the circumstances of the Vietnam war and Operation BabyLift... well that was not a positive time for our country or Vietnam and it's complicated still. Mixed in with strong reunion emotions, Heidi also has to contend with serious culture shock. I wish someone had been able to prepare her better. It seems this disaster occured because of the cultural differences and even 2 years later she has not been able to integrate those differences. It's such a shame as her birth mother is still in such pain.

Once you hit the "play" button, you can make this full screen by clicking on the lower right-hand corner box (next to the volume button that looks like a megaphone). I recommend viewing it full screen as there are some nice shots of Vietnam.

Look at my nursery mural! Yay!

Remember, this is what I started with (above).

Laurel came over this morning and by noon, she was finished. It looks GREAT! I'm so pleased!

Again, the colors are not true as I had to use a flash to get the focus correct. Here is the "work in progress":

And the finished product, taa-daaa!:

(Again, click on the picture to get a larger version with more detail.)

What do you all think?

Fabulous, right?

Tomorrow my neighbor's mom, Laurel, is coming to start work on a mural (or maybe that's too big of a word...) she's coming to start working on painting a piece on the nursery walls.

To get in the proper mood, here are some other murals I think are outstanding!

The Balcons de Barcelona is a mural of 450 m2 on a dividing wall of a building, where by means of the technique of trompe-l'oeil, it imagines a group of outstanding personalities in the life of the city at different times from his history such as Joaquim Blume, Cristóbal Colón, Santiago Rusiñol, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and many others. It was created in 1992.




Hide and seek







Wall painting in Quebec, Canada.



A street artist who works with abstract forms consistent with typical graffiti vocabulary and vertical surfaces that are highly taggable, Daim adds a vivid three-dimensionality to his work that makes it seems to pop off the wall before your very eyes. He has worked in spray paint but has also used virtual reality devices to craft amazing three dimensional works in virtual space.






Thanks to Oddee.com for the images and summaries. I love that site. Take a moment to check it out. Or take an afternoon....

Hero of the Week: Kurt E.!!!

My friend Michelle, who lives down in Florida, went behind her house where there is a waterway and saw this bird:

The bird was weak and hungry, it had something caught around it's beak. It couldn't open it's mouth and it couldn't get this material off it's beak. It settled in for a nap, probably too weak to do much else. Michelle ran inside to call her husband, Kurt to come and help. Kurt jerry-rigged a net on the end of a pole and managed to catch the bird and remove this stuff from around it's beak:

He released the bird into the waterway and they held their breaths watching to see if it would have the strength to swim and hunt.

Moments later it caught a fish and gulped it down whole! Here you can see it going down it's throat!

Perhaps not the best day for the fish... but since this story is about the bird, it's a miracle of timing and personality. These two people saw an animal suffering and decided to do something about it. Many others would have clucked their tongues and decided there was nothing to be done... "cruel nature" and all. Michelle and Kurt are both heroes in my book (and I suspect the bird's book), but since Kurt did the MacGuyvering, he gets the hero citation! Left to me? I probably wouldn't have used my noodle in that situation. I would have waded in and tried to catch the bird by hand, getting my butt chewed by alligators in the process. Smart Kurt!

So next time you see some animal suffering... try and think if there's something you can do. This only took 5 minutes. Oh, and please don't throw this type of trash away without cutting it up into small pieces.

(20 points to first person to correctly name the type of bird)

Been shopping!

I know some PAPs have been shopping since they signed on the dotted line, but I always told myself to wait until I passed court. As you can see I almost made it, at 25 days prior to court! Some things are just too cute to pass up! They might not be there anymore in 25 days from now! Carpe Diem!
This is a casual summery look:

This is a shirt and brown pants (should I be writing descriptions for fashion mags or keep my day job??)


Here is a Wal-Mart special that I loved:


And this piece de resistance is from my parents, a lovely accent lamp that matches the "Butterfly Meadow" theme and has a butterfly on the post. The colors are not depicted accurately... I think it's time for a new camera.

If you click on the picture you can see it much larger and in more detail.

(5 pts for the first person to post the author of the famous poem "carpe diem")

Everything but the kitchen sink!

Being a little concerned about "preparation" for this baby, I looked into diaper bags and what goes in them, etc. Really folks, I'm starting from scratch here!

I found a site that had some advice and a fun quiz on your diaper bagging "style" with questions like this:

You're on the road when you realize that you don't have your favorite chapstick with you. What do you do?

a) Panic, then turn around and head home for it

b) Reach into your glove box, where you have a spare. There's one under the passenger seat, too, and some in your desk drawer at the office…

c) Decide you'll pick one up during the day if you really need it

It's super important to have chapstick available when you need it, right? I ave extras everywhere, as well as extra hair brushes, perfume, dental floss, just some of the essentials... Well, that kind of thinking got me a "Style 1"(although I was hoping I'd be minamalist. That is the irony of my life, I guess.):

1- Choose a Super-Sized Tote! With the amount of stuff it seems you tend to bring with you on the go (and back home with you, too!), a large diaper bag just may be the way to go,because how else will you carry extra clothes, wipes, toys, snacks, and random infant what not plus your grocery list, gum, mints, sunglasses, keys, lipstick, checkbook … Learn more about buying a large diaper bag here, then read on to see what you need to be filling it with.

The quiz is followed by advice on how to pack the "perfect" diaper bag.

American Idol Recap or WHY IS ANOOP DAWG STILL HERE?

I feel sorry for Lil Rounds.


Each week she changes her routine to do what the judges suggested the week before (IE "be more artistic, make the song your own, sing Mary J") and then the judges slam her for doing that ("you changed the melody too much, you choose the wrong artist, this is karaoke, we've been waiting for you to sing someone like Chaka Kahn but it wasn't worth the wait", etc).


Tonight she looked so sad, as even Simon noticed, and also looked like she had "had it up to here" with trying to please them. Maybe it would be merciful to have her go home this week...

And what was with the judges using their one and only "save" to keep Matt another week??? I was sure they would only use that in the case of someone who had huge money making potential being voted off (like Chris Daughtery caliber). There's no way Matt's going to be the next Idol, nor does he have record selling potential. Not really. In fact, I think he'll be going home with Lil this week. Although I WISH Anoop Dawg was leaving. Ugh, he's such a preppy frat boy.

Anyway, 5 points to anyone who picks the right idol contestant to go home. 10 points if you get them both right (two are going home tomorrow).

Fat people to blame for the end of the world!

Well, I'm exagerrating, but only slightly!"Big Waistlines Mean Bigger Carbon Footprints: Obesity and Climate Change Linked" is the name of the journal article that came out today.

Next we will be responsible for the economy.

Go here to read it.

From the article:

"The Guardian's Leo Hickman notes, "As if being obese didn't already carry enough social stigma. Now, it seems, you're not just killing yourself by being overweight, but you're killing the planet, too." He compares obesity to smoking:

For me the most interesting aspect of the study is that it shows how the obesity debate is now starting to be analogous to how the smoking debate ended up playing out. At first, being overweight – like smoking - was labelled as being something that was damaging to just you. The attitude was: if you want to eat or smoke yourself to an early grave then be my guest. But now being overweight is increasingly being seen as a selfish act in which – as with the effects of passive smoking - you are not just having a negative impact on yourself but also those around you, be it through increased healthcare costs (both through overall taxation and rising insurance premiums) or, as is now being claimed, increased environmental costs."

Now, is this true do you think? Or just another way of fueling prejudice against large people?

If fat was a race...that comment surely would of been racist.

Chicken ala Carte

My dad sent me this video.


Thought I would share it. Kind of makes me ashamed to be overweight (well, I already was ashamed, to be honest) and to live in a country of so MUCH. Everywhere we go in this country, the Wal-Marts, the Sam's Clubs, the restaurant PORTIONS, the stores with 40 different choices in LIPSTICK....

I remember seeing things when I was growing up that have given me a deep sense of gratitude, but also of shame, to live in such EXCESS.

Watch until the end, my Christian friends will probably like this.

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Yet Another Britain's Got Talent Manipulation

Notice the editing. The audience dismay. The backstage reaction, etc.

Notice the band (or recording) ready to play the second song in an instant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QsBDewlNcY&feature=related

Ok, it's getting a bit much, eh?

Baby Astrology!

In college there was a book called "Love Signs" by Linda Goodman that my roommate and I would consult whenever a new potential boyfriend came into the picture. Would our "signs" make for a good pairing? Would we argue a lot? Would our relationship be filled with passion or cold as ice? I can't remember how accurate the book was, but it was fun to crack it open and read to each other!

The book was about romantic relationships, but we also use it to look up family and friendship relationships as well.

Today I had the idea to look up Baby Girl's astrological sign, and research what the astrologists have to say about our relationship. Born on September 1st, she is a Virgo (August 24th to Sept. 23rd). I've actually NEVER been in a relationship of any kind with a Virgo. It's a blank slate.

Here's what I found out from the Family Astrology website (you can click here and put in your own family's signs to research if you like). My thoughts in italics:

This child is very orderly a place for everything and everything in it's place! (thank goodness, that is great news!) While this makes the parents happy at an early age, (getting him/her to pick up and put away toys is not a chore with this little one), as she advances in age the critical eye of Virgo will be turned on any untidiness discovered in the parents. (Rot-roh....) This child seems to have been born with common sense and financial ability but not a very good sense of how to enjoy life and should be shown by the parents how to be more affectionate and to enjoy the simpler things of life. (Ok, that I can do...)

The Virgo child is highly inventive and can usually come up with sound, workable ideas at an early age. This is also the type of child that is just as content to play quietly alone (well I can relate to that being an only child); she is frequently in a creative mood, sitting for hours getting something as perfect as possible. For this cause, her peers will see very little of her if the parents do not intervene to be sure she has a well rounded childhood.

When a Virgo child is born to an Aries parent, they may think they have nothing in common and not much to learn from each other. (Yikes!) This is a relationship that takes time and patience to develop. Each family member must learn to understand where the other is coming from and to respect their different world views. Each must learn to give the other a bit of latitude in order for this family to remain close and supportive. In many ways, the Aries parent and the Virgo offspring are opposites: Aries can be brash, dominant, and aggressive. Usually quite impatient, they're always jumping into new things. In contrast, Virgo is detail-oriented, quiet, and even shy at times. Aries may seem hotheaded, and Virgo may seem fussy. Aries teaches Virgo about fun and excitement, about the spontaneity that is often missing in Virgo's life.

Because of their many differences, the Aries and Virgo family can learn a great deal from each other once they look beyond their surface inconsistencies. The best aspect of the Aries-Virgo family relationship is their great effectiveness as a team.(Finally some good news!) When it comes to taking care of family issues or planning holiday events, they work well together. Aries is always full of good ideas, and Virgo is happy to see them through. Their personalities, opposite in so many ways, ensure that there is never a dull moment.

It sounds like they have my personality down pretty well... And if they really have hers down too, I might have to be careful I don't steal all the attention and limelight from her! Hopefully, I will be selfless enough to let her shine in her own "quiet" and "shy" way. Or maybe they are 100% wrong and she will be an outgoing, loud and attention grabbing child. Either way is fine with me. I can't wait t find out though! We are at 30 days until court.

Do you guys put any stock in astrology?

(20 whopping points if you can tell me who said: "Sagittarius is the most philosophical of all signs." Clue since this is a difficult one: singer from the 60's.)

The Susan Boyle Media Manipulation

When my dad sent me the You Tube video of Susan Boyle, my first reaction was a tugging of the heart strings and trying to hold back tears. Yet, even while my primary emotions were being played with, not far behind that I was realizing that the editing of the show was quite manipulative. Perhaps this is a result of 4 years of film school, but it was plainly obvious Britain's Got Talent was editing this moment for all it could get. A large part of me felt manipulated. Here watch this and tell me what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related

The more I thought about her, the more disturbed I became. Why is the audience so mean? Because she's not thin, young and pretty? Why are the judges so stunned? Because a plain person isn't supposed to be talented? It's such a surprise to hear her voice come out of her "frumpy" face? Is this what we've come to that we are so surprised when beauty comes in a plain package? UGH. She would never have caused such hype if she came in a young and pretty package. Instead, the media has decided to latch on to her looks, her virginity, her inept social skills (hip wiggle and inability to remember the word "village") and sell it to us as some hugely incongruous and odd package and we are eating it up! We should be ashamed of ourselves!

The message of the show seems to be that older, frumpy women with bushy eyebrows deserve to be ridiculed unless by some amazing chance they happen to be able to sing.




2 thought provoking articles from the Huffington Post:
Dennis Palumbo

Like millions of viewers, I was thrilled and moved when 47-year-old Susan Boyle wowed the judges and audience on Britain's Got Talent with her superb singing. As everyone knows by now, the unmarried, "never been kissed" woman from a small village was greeted by both the audience and the talent show's judges with derision when she first took the stage. Looking matronly in her somewhat frumpy dress and unkempt hair, her appearance initially elicited smug, condescending and even cruel smirks, smiles and chuckles. What could this "un-cool," plain-spoken woman have to offer? What right did she have to share the stage with all those young, pretty, talented people?

Then Susan opened her mouth and sang. And her voice was so powerful, so achingly beautiful, so full of yearning, that even the usually heartless Simon Cowell was blown away. As were the other judges, and the audience, all of whom gave Susan a standing ovation. And now, online and elsewhere, Susan's voice, and the story of her triumph on that stage, are known throughout the world.

But I can't help wondering, what would have been the reaction if Susan Boyle couldn't sing?

What would the judges and the audience have thought, and said, had her voice been a creaky rasp, or an out-of-tune shriek? Would she still possess that "inner beauty?" Would we still acknowledge that the derisive treatment she received before performing was callous, insensitive and cruel?

The unspoken message of this whole episode is that, since Susan Boyle has a wonderful talent, we were wrong to judge her based on her looks and demeanor. Meaning what? That if she couldn't sing so well, we were correct to judge her on that basis? That demeaning someone whose looks don't match our impossible, media-reinforced standards of beauty is perfectly okay, unless some mitigating circumstance makes us re-think our opinion?

But I have no doubt that, had she performed poorly, Simon Cowell would be rolling his eyes still. And the audience would have hooted and booed with the relish of Roman spectators at the Colosseum. And that Susan Boyle's appearance on the show would still be on YouTube, but as an object of derision and ridicule.

So let's not be too quick to congratulate ourselves for taking her so fully to our hearts. We should've done that anyway, as we should all those we encounter who fall outside the standards of youth and beauty as promulgated by fashion magazines, gossip sites, and hit TV shows.

We should've done that anyway, before Susan Boyle sang a single note.


And from Mark Blakenship's article "2 Reasons Susan Boyle Means So Much To Us":

(1) Susan Boyle rebukes the bitchy cynicism that often defines reality talent shows.

By now, it's an unavoidable trope: The unusual-looking, weirdly-mannered outcast shambles on stage for an audition on a show like American Idol or America's Got Talent and promptly makes a fool of herself. Her embarrassment is played for tawdry laughs, and viewers are encouraged to feel superior to her and so feel better about themselves.

And obviously, the producers of Britain's Got Talent know that. They introduce Boyle with the goofy music reserved for the usual freak, and they show her talking about how she's never been kissed and how she lives with a cat. The audience audibly mocks her as soon as she takes the stage, which encourages all of us at home to sharpen our claws.

After that, her singing---which is very good, if not quite excellent--- naturally causes an uproar. We've been primed for dog food, but we get a burger, so it tastes like steak.

This narrative is just as manipulative as anything else on reality television, of course. Boyle could have been presented as a winner from the very start, but that would've ruined the drama.
But as fabricated as it is, her on-camera arc is undeniably moving.

That's because when we laugh at someone for being a freak, we're laughing out of fear. We're laughing because we want to prove that we are not like that loser over there. If we can shame the people who don't belong, then we can prove that we do.

By participating in the narrative that television has constructed for her, by cheering her on and watching her video over and over, we can not only feel good about graciously welcoming an outsider, but also feel relief for helping create a world that will someday welcome us.

(2) Susan Boyle isn't young.

The Susan Boyle Story is even more powerful because Boyle isn't a geeky teenager. You can look at the most maladjusted adolescent and think, "Well, she'll grow out of it. There's still hope." But when a woman is an outsider at forty-seven, it's easy to think it's too late---that she's doomed to a permanent life on the fringes. That's certainly the pervasive pop cultural story: That "older and single and cat-friendly" is the same as "failure."

Watching an older person---especially an older person who doesn't seem very hip---prove she still has time to emerge from her cocoon is exciting because it reminds us that we can still sort through our own problems.No matter how old we are, we're dealing with something, and it's refreshing to be told that that's okay.

Susan Boyle has a lovely, amateur's voice. It's hard to tell though, with all the emotional, heart string tugging edits on the show. For comparison's sake, here is Ruthie Henshall singing the same song. I think she blows Susan Boyle out of the water, but since we are not "set up" by the editing and TV-land reality show manipulations, it's hard to differentiate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt-IBJpEMzA

Can you tell the difference?

Oh, and I'm not "against" Susan Boyle. I think she is delightful, funny, sweet, and AWESOME for refusing a make over! I hope she gets a good lawyer becasue they are going to make millions off of her, and her naivete might pave the way to be used more so than she already has been.

Wookie the Westless

Change is difficult for all species.

Bringing a foster dog into one's house is not a decision to be entered in to lightly. It is not something that should be done in reaction to a heart wrenching story, or on impulse.

When I agreed to take in Wookie, I knew it was going to be work. A lot of hard work.

However, since I was the one who stopped to pick him up, like the old Chinese proverb, I'm now responsible for his life. I knew that, and still choose to stop and catch him. Now I am paying the price for that decision….

Let me tell you about last night, as I prop my eyelids open to type….

All was well during the evening. Wookie was introduced to the others and got along well. He ate his din-din with the girls, and there was no food guarding or aggression. In fact, he won't eat unless I'm standing right there, cheering him on (weird!). He played well with a toy, voided in the garden, had his nighttime treaty-treat before bed. We all went into my bedroom and BAM!

CHANGE.

11PM to 12AM: I had brought his crate into my room, right next to my bed. It has a soft pillow inside and is comfortable. He did NOT want to sleep in it. Well, I made him. It's night time and considering he is a stranger, I was not about to have him wandering freely in my room while I sleep. There's too much potential for trouble in all kinds of ways (chewing shoes, fighting with another dog, peeing/pooing in the corner, etc.)

He panted loudly and anxiously for an hour. Did I mention LOUDLY. PANTING.

12AM to 2AM: Free at last! I couldn't take the loud panting and occasional whining anymore and freed him. He decided he would join the other 3 dogs on my bed. Instead of finding a small corner of the bed to curl up on, he walked all over us, knocking some dogs off the bed, and found a spot nearly on top of me. Then he would lie there for 5 minutes, get up, turn around in circles, step on me, find another spot, pant, lie down, and repeat. At one point, all 50 pounds of him were lying on top of me, belly to belly, with his hot stinky breath panting in my face. Hannah, who is on a good day as highly strung as my laundry line, was pushed over the top by this behavior, and felt the need to also lie on top of me to be consoled. Ok, enough. I can't take it anymore.

2AM: Prepare Benadryl in a teaspoon of peanut butter. Give to Wookie. Wish I had something stronger, like chloroform. Put in ear plugs. Put C-PAP back on (yes, amidst this tangled mess of dogs and human, there is a loud machine with a full face mask and wires and tubing everywhere!) Receive paw to the gut, elbow to the neck. Wookie finally settles for 5 minutes laying across my legs, trapping me. Any time I move, sigh, scratch my nose, Wookie leaps up at attention and the "finding the perfect spot" routine starts anew. I lie, stiff as a board, afraid to move an inch or make the slightest sound, until 3:45 AM. Pressure myself to fall asleep this way, worry about being tired all day tomorrow.

3:45AM: Get up, take Wookie outside to pee. Give him water and a snack. Take him to the basement crate. Call work to let them know I might be late. Turn off alarm. Put in earplugs, turn on fan, ignore incessant muffled barking rising through floor boards from the basement. Feel like "evil foster mother" as I finally fall asleep.

7:AM: Internal clock wakes me up an hour earlier than necessary. What kind of internal clock does that??? Take care of four dogs and their individual needs. Make it to work 10 minutes early.

Rinse. Repeat.

(5 points for whoever can remind me why I do this stuff???)

Wookie really likes his toy. He acts like he's never had a toy before, but he sure knows how to play! I can't help but feel for the young feller. He's been going through some changes. I wonder what his previous home was like.... was he loved? He sure knows how to cuddle. He's pretty clean. But no tags, no microchip... I've posted ads everywhere. If he's missed surely someone will look. I've also scoured all the "lost dog" ads with no luck. I try to imgaine having one home and then suddenly being on your own, then in another home.... how difficult and nerve racking that must be. Not unlike what our adoptive children go through.



Here is Boo. She is exhausted from lack of sleep. As are we all...

Idol recap and Wookie update

Ok, quick Idol recap before it's too late and the results show comes on!

Adam: "Sang"(if you can call it that) "Born To BE Wild". Cleared out my sinuses! Seriously, he kept my attention, but there were moments when he sounded like a Screeching Owl's screeching mouse dinner.

Lil Rounds: UGH. I think she's choking. Each week she gets worse. The judges tell her the opposite thing each week and it's screwing with her confidence. She used to be so good! Lil! Pull it together, girl! And straighten that wig!

Allison aka Ms. Manic Panic: Sounded stuffed up, but did a decent job of singing a corny song ("I Don't Want to Miss A Thing"). Of all the movie songs in the world... she had to pick this song??

Danny: He's reminding me too much of what's-his-name (with the Soul Patrol fans). See? I can't even remember his name. I feel bad Danny's wife died, and I liked him at first because of the sympathy thing. But does he really have staying power? Or will they be giving away tickets to his concerts in a year from now like they did for Soul Patrol guy?

Everyone else: zzzzzzzzzzzz......

Going home? Hmm.. could be Lil, but I think the judges would keep her around even though Simon is mad at her lately. Probably Anoop because there's no way his frat boy butt is the next American Idol. He's got a bad case of the snoozies.... puts me to sleep every time. He's got to go some time, it might as well be tonight.

WOOKIE UPDATE:

I picked Wookie up from boarding where he has been the past week (it didn't work out with Elizabeth, long story, but she did sponsor a week's boarding so my parents could visit in peace and my floors could be done, so thank you , Elizabeth, for that).

Wookie is doing really well (knock on wood) so far. He is getting along with the girls just fine, sniffing them and allowing them to sniff back. He's tolerating Beulah's incessant barking begging him to play. He's following me around, which is pretty cute, like an imprinted duckling. Still a bit insecure, but it's only been a couple of hours. I have him wearing a belly band since he's a leg lifter and not house broken. He's allowing me to put it on no problem. Basically, a week at doggie day care did wonders for him. He's no longer skittish, he's loving towards me, likes to be cuddled and pet, and gets along with the girls. So if he can just get house broken and leash trained, we have a great candidate for adoption.

Right now he is asleep by my heels. There really is a difference in attitude with rescued dogs, I think. Such fierce loyalty and gratitude. They know.

Pictures of Wookie coming soon, stay tuned.

5 points for everyone who has rescued an animal and posts his/her name!

Kilts: Hot, or NOT?

Just a fun post due to lack of adoption news...

During the whole "boys names for girls"debate, a poster mentioned that not only does she like boys names for girls, but she also likes when men wear skirts (I'm not TOTALLY sure I see the connection, but whatever.)

It seems kind of rock n' roll in some instances....

And then in others.... not so much!

What do you think?

Kilts, yea or nay?

ALSO; a whopping 25 points for whoever can correctly predict who's going home on American Idol tomorrow, after watching the show tonight. Tonight's mentor is Quentin Tarantino. How... interesting. Yay!

Ahhh! New floors!

This post needs no words..... except thanks to my parents who stayed home to supervise all day in the mayhem, so I could save my leave for the maternity type and not the floor installation type!

Ok, what is with the orbs in all my pictures? Ghosts? Notice they are never in the same spots (no pun intended!)

If you recall, this is what the nursery used to look like! So there is a major improvement!

and the corner area:



And I also got my room done too, because what the hey! It's not like I haven't spent my life savings on this adoption... or my surgery... so why not drop some more bills?





Oh and just a gratuitous pic... this is how tired everyone feels!

Beulah's exhausted from barking at the workmen ALL. DAY. LONG. And Mom is tired from cleaning up behind the workmen.

And here are some tulips, just because it's spring and they are out!

Ok, 10 points for whoever can tell me what the orbs are, why they are never in the same spot (if it was dust they would be in the same spot on the frame) and why they only show up inside the house and not on outdoor shots.)