supero's Xanga

what did you do today?

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:40:15 GMT

tonight i enjoyed myself thoroughly. i watched tucker hunt a huge housefly. very entertaining to see his short legs vault his 43 lb body into the air. oh man. i might start letting flies into the house intentionally just to watch this. after about a 30 minute hunt (yes, i watched the entire time). he finally got it! he stunned the fly so it was no longer in flight, then he jumped back in surprise of his success and watched at a distance until i got out a tissue to clean the up the prize. everyone got doggie cookies in celebration.

jono and i got dogs this past weekend. yeah, plural. we adopted Canyon (a 11 year old black lab) and Tucker (3 year old corgi) on saturday. their previous family is moving to new zealand at the end of the month and couldn't afford to ship their dogs and wanted to find a home for the two of them. y'all know how much we loved having eliza last year so we've been on the lookout for another dog. we hit the jackpot, guys. these two are quite the pair and i hope you get to meet them soon. canyon is our distinguished gentleman. tucker is the biggest british banger in the house thus far.

oh, you'll want pictures... these are too dark, but i'll post more later. picture #1 shows all the boys chilling on the kitchen floor. picture #5 exhibits tucker's.... er, largesse?

90 minutes!!!

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:57:09 GMT

under 3 hours. it's a new record, friends. :)

a good buddy of mine got me hooked on cheap quality cuts at the hair salon academy down the street. i love the $10 cut that grows out well. unfortunately, the lightweight price comes with a heavyweight time burden. my average cut has been 3 hours long at this place. unbelievable, right? like, really, what can take that long? i don't even do color. anyway, i can't complain too much because they only charge 10 bucks. and besides, i obviously don't mind because i keep going back. hahahahaha.

as i'm leaving, the student walks me to the front and i'm always embarassed. what do i tip for a $10 cut? she just spent half-- if not her WHOLE night combing through and cutting each hair on my head. so, i pay the front lady the $10 and leave a little cash for the student. i'm so embarassed, i can't even go and give it to her myself.

but i'm home now. admiring my cut. and thankful for the sweat of a student that saved me about $40. AND TONITE? amazed that it was all under 2 hours. thanks, academy people.

HOORAY!!!!!

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:15:08 GMT

confused

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:32:26 GMT

i have a bearded iris that is growing out of season. and i have to tell you that I'm enamored by her. she's GORGEOUS. i laugh whenever i see her and i'm tickled to have a bloom so early in the year. my roses are cut to the ground, the cyclamen died months ago, my ginormous zucchini plants have finally disintegrated.... and here this silly bearded iris has the nerve to go all out nutsoid with 7 blooms.

makes me think about being ready in and out of season. reminds me of the propriety of things in season. and then the delight when things are unexpected and lovely. anyway. i'm looking forward to this year of 2009. i am inspired by our presidential inauguration and the opportunity to bloom out of season. so hooray for my confused iris!

moustachio moustachio

Wed, 21 May 2008 22:48:35 GMT

i CANNOT believe someone has made these. I LOVE IT!!! good for disguises and entertainment... and if the jewelry is all too serious. seriously? you can get a plush one that comes with a moustachio itself!!!! hahahahhaha!!

A short jaunt through Berlin.

Mon, 12 May 2008 23:08:42 GMT

I had my 1^st international business trip last week. It was pretty freakin’ cool to travel some place nice for work AND it gave me a chance to revisit a city I saw ever so briefly before. My family’s 2005 cruise to Scandinavia gave us a whole 2 hours to see Berlin—ridiculous. The bus ride was twice as long as our actual stay in the city! All I remembered was Checkpoint Charlie and Lustgarten. This time, I had a day to romp the city and boy, did we romp. My co-worker and I did the free Berlin walking tour—3.5 hours of east Berlin. Pretty neat company b/c they don’t charge you for the tour, they survive by tips, and then rope you into other tours which sound awesome and fairly priced. It was just the right ratio of walking and talking.

The most amazing experience for me was the Holocaust memorial—actually named the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The experience of walking through it was… creepy. isolating, cold… disorienting. It’s left me entirely intrigued and I’m still reading about it. The tour lent a lot of insight—like, why they sell books outside Humboldt University and how the people of Berlin view things. Some remnants of the divided city are absolutely Disney. For examples: 1) the fake set up at Checkpoint Charlie. 2) the Trabi tour where you can take an authentic East Berlin car made of cardboard and plastic on a short tour of the Cold war city sites. They say that there’s a trend to all things East Berlin—comparable to our fascination with the 60s. Nostalgia can be so strange and sick.

I didn’t set foot inside a single museum. After the tour, we took the U2 line (no association to the band J) to a quieter neighborhood which reminded me of Brooklyn. Young families, a bit yuppy, scattered small shops, and plenty of restaurants to choose from. We got to eat outside and I finally got my schnitzel and Berliner pilsener. A fabulously relaxing way to end a trip.

Oh, I didn’t mention the business side of the trip. Err, it was fine.

gone

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:19:23 GMT

I no longer have a dog. She’s probably happier with her old doggie chum, but she’s left an Eliza-shaped hole in my heart.

Grief. We all experience it differently but there’s a cycle that also describes different stages of grief… shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, acceptance. I’m at… probably more than one of these at a time.

I’ve been MAD. And sad. Then more mad. Then more sad. And I’ve tried looking around for another dog—more for a distraction than anything. I’ve cleaned the house out a few times—put away the doggie stuff--hoping that it would help with closure. I’d like to think that I’m healing and less tearful. I feel strange grieving the loss of a dog, but hey, I am.

Life with a new dog...

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:48:00 GMT

long post...

I live a more structured life. If I don’t get up in the morning, I risk a puddle of piddle. If I don’t go home after work, I also risk a puddle of piddle. You get the idea.

I have new eagle eyes. You know how your eye gets trained to find the same thing over and over again? Like, when you decide that you LOOOVE the mini cooper—all of a sudden, you see mini coopers everywhere? Or if you find a pair of funny green polka dotted flats at Nordstrom Rack—they’re in every aisle? Or you take a great hike and find all sorts of mushrooms—and you get fung-eye (aka super, highly-trained vision to spot the fungus among us). OR you get a dog and you have to pick up doodle 2 or 3 times daily, so all of a sudden you see animal dropping everywhere you walk? Nasty. (side note: people should be good citizens and respect their neighbors and pick up their dog’s poop!!)

I have dog fur EVERYWHERE. Yeah. The cool black fleece is just dirty looking. I wear warm ups over my work clothes and take them off in the garage so I don’t show up for clinic covered with white hairs. Nasty.

I am happier. There’s a delight when I come home and Eliza’s bouncing around b/c she’s so happy to see me. I love chasing her around the couch and the fact that she loves having her teeth brushed at night. I love to watch Jono talk to her… it’s just grand. I love that kids approach me to meet my dog on the street and at the park. Hmm, I should probably write about Sal...

I went to the park with Bops the other day to hang out and play bball on the short hoops. We went to the swings and the most adorable 2 yr old came by to meet Eliza.

Boy: what’s the name? (petting Eliza on the head and rump and sitting next to me)

Me: This is Eliza. What’s your name?

Boy: Sal. S-A-L.

Me: (laffing). Oh, Sal, nice to meet you.

Boy: How old is your dog?

Me: (impressed by the sophisticated question) 4. She’s 4 years old.

This kid was particularly chatty… I found all sorts of things about him… that he had a dog at home that was smaller than Eliza named Joppo.

Me: (obviously confusing the kid and dog’s name). Wow, so what color is Sal?

Me: Is Sal brown?

Boy: I’m a boy. (unzipping his coat, revealing spiderman t-shirt) And I’m red.

So awesome. Life with my new dog is grand.

o + j + e = family!

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:06:49 GMT

the first title was j+o+e = family... but that's just bad math. because j+o+e = joe.

anyway!! eliza dolittle my fair lady is our new 4 year old pembroke welsh corgi!!!! she's gorgeous and affectionate and brilliant-- she's already learned to sit. i've been doing lots of reading about dog care, house training, general obedience, and of course: how to maintain status as the alpha bitch. it's actually very fascinating-- dog psychology is a lot of fun and once explained, makes a lot of sense.

the ridiculously long name: she came to us with the name lisa... not very doggie-esque. and she comes from a presumably prestigious pedigree (you LIKE the alliteration). and if you read up on show dog champs, they all have ridiculously long names. so we decided to go with something brit that sounded like lisa... eLIZA. anyway, now you have the story.

more pictures coming soon...

a happy ending

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:39:23 GMT

another dad story for all you fans:

last night i called my pa to wish him a happy birthday. we exchanged pleasantries and hung up.

i got a call 10 minutes later:

dad: hey, what you doing tonight? need some excitement?

me: <<bewildered>> what? huh? ... no, i have dinner plans.

dad: huh. ok, well, i have something very exciting. are you sure you don't want to come over?

me: <<suspicious>> what are you talking about?

dad: well, you should come over.

me: uh-huh. well, i have dinner plans.

dad: what time?

me: dad! what is it?!

dad: i caught the racoon that's been eating my koi.

me: in a cage?

dad: yeah. it's really big. 60 pounds.

me: WHAT?! he's six-zero lbs?!

dad: yeah, reeeaaal big. i almost couldn't lift the cage.

unbelievable. i told him to be careful and we exchanged ideas about where to release the racoon. absolutely nutty, i say.

after dinner i noticed i had a voicemail. it was my pa telling me that the racoon was released at a park and is very happy.