Circus life

Gregg has been away this week for work, so I've been hanging with the dogs. Normally, that's not that big of a deal, but this week has been ridiculous.

First of all, Mia is still recovering. She's got these big shaved patches on her stomach and hips. She seemed to perk up right after the surgery but then started limping about a week ago and hasn't stopped. I feel terrible watching her hobble around. Feel terrible, that is, until she starts growling at Bandit, at which point I just want to beat her. Yeah, she's been growling pretty non-stop at Bandit. I don't know if its just her being edgy or her being possessive of my attention. Probably both. Over the years, she's learned to tolerate Gregg's dogs, but I think she's still an "only child" at heart. Even as I write this, she's growling at Tucker for jumping on MY bed, though there's plenty of room for them both. And definitely she's been getting some extra lovin' with the whole surgery thing, but I guess that's not doing much for her personality. Anyway, she growls at Bandit. Bandit -- never one to be scared -- comes closer to check her out. Tucker starts barking and running over to protect me (from Mia, I guess). And I start screaming at all of them. This is seriously the cycle we go through at least 5-6 times a day (more when I was home all weekend). I'm guessing the neighbors are about one step away from calling the cops on me. Once Bandit and Mia even got into an all out fight. I'm sure that's helping with the recovery process.

And, Bandit started leaking. By that, I mean, she seems to be leaving puddles of urine EVERYWHERE. The house smells like a urinal, I kid you not. Its totally disgusting. I've been walking around the house constantly spraying febreeze, pouring Resolve where ever I see spots in the carpet, lighting candles, and freezing my ass off with the door open just to get the stink out. No luck. I have no idea what's up. Granted Bandit's an old dog, but she's never had even a little leakage problem, let alone a gushing issue. Plus it turns out that she might have a heart condition too. Apparently the normal heart rate for a dog is about 130. Hers is about half that. So today, we had a vet appt to figure out the peeing problem. Friday, we go back to the vet to get xrays for the heart, and next week, an EKG with a heart specialist. I'm not even thinking about how much the vet bills are going to be.

Basically, I feel like I'm living at the zoo -- lots of growling and smelly living quarters to boot. Like seriously, I should just put a sign on my door and sell tickets, between vet visits of course. . . You know, come smell my house and tell me if it makes you want to puke too, take in a dog fight, etc.

So of course now, if you've been following along, you'll see the full extent of my dilemma from yesterday!

Dilemma

I can't find my little MP3 player. Not that that's a world crisis or anything, but here's the thing. I think the maids took it. I know, its a total cliche and I feel ridiculous for thinking it. But I don't know what else could have happened to it. I don't really take it around with me. I use it only when I go running and then come in and leave it on one of the console tables, either by the back door or the front, depending on which way I come in. And those are pretty much the only places it hangs out. Which is why I'm sure it must have been the maids. What else could have happened to it?

But of course I feel like a total idiot because I haven't gone running in weeks, so I'm not sure exactly when it disappeared. And we did switch maid services a little while ago, so there's a tiny tiny possibility it was the old maids (no pun intended!). Though I'm pretty positive I went running after the switch.

So what do I do? I don't want to accuse them and be wrong. But if it is them (and I'm 95% sure it is), then I don't want them cleaning the house anymore. But they do a pretty decent job otherwise. Plus I don't want to be even more of a cliche and go through all the maid services in town. The reason we switched is because I was pretty sure the last ones had lost the house key. So . . .

one last push . . .

This year, I've received more emails and seen more blog posts about political issues than ever before, and I love it. I hope this isn't just me and my circle of friends. I hope that its indicative of the entire country. Because whatever your thoughts or beliefs, the most important thing any of us can do is go out, get informed, and vote.

In 2004, approximately 64% of voting-age citizens turned out to vote. I guess its not bad compared to some years, but it still appalls me to realize how many people don't take advantage of their opportunity to have a say in the political process. Whatever the reasons are for not voting, believe me, I've been there -- too busy, totally indifferent about the candidates, hate standing in line, forgot to register. I don't believe there's been single election where I haven't felt one of these. Last time, I forgot to re-register when I moved and was just thankful it wasn't a presidential election year. But I didn't get to make the difficult choice between Obama and Hilary!

I wonder if our general abysmal record when it comes to voting isn't indicative of a larger problem -- is it just me or as a society, do we just not discuss politics? I rarely engage in political discussions with friends. While I tend to have strong opinions, I don't really go around talking about them. And (maybe as a result), I actually don't really like having prolonged conversations with people that disagree with me politically. I'm not sure its like this world wide. Traveling around, I feel like I've encountered much more animated political chatter in other countries. In India, for example, at least in my family, sounding off on politics is an almost daily occurrence. And it seems that no matter what the level of education or socio-economic background, people are enthusiastic about having an opinion and making it known. They recognize the value of being part of the process and take advantage of the opportunity.

I don't know what the numbers are in other countries so I might be totally off base. But whatever -- there's no reason why we can't have a 100% voter turnout in our country. I'd love to see everyone get excited about politics. And more than that, to see everyone really get informed and vote for the right reasons, rather than what a 2 minute commercial tells them. My biggest fear this year is that too many people will get in that voter box, where no one else can see them, and give into that little racist voice in their heads that says a black man can't be president. Or, in California, that people won't recognize that Prop 8 isn't about a moral values but denying a minority group certain fundamental constitutional rights.

So I'm off now to vote for Obama and NO on Prop 8. I hope you do the same, of course. :) But more than that, I hope you take the time to read about the candidates' positions, the arguments for and against the ballots, and vote. Its not too late!!

Throwing countries a bone

I happen to run across this article the other day that had me wondering if we should be going to Iceland for our honeymoon in Feb. You know, throw some money around somewhere that actually needs it. I have to admit that this isn't the first time I've thought about this. After the hurricane in New Orleans, I briefly wondered if it was finally the right time to go to a Mardi Gras celebration there. Or I always feel bad when I'm haggling with street vendors while traveling. They obviously need the $ more than I do, and it usually doesn't amount to more than a buck or two for me anyway.

So basically, its pity travel. Particularly, in a case like Iceland where I've never thought about going to anyway. Who goes to Iceland in Feb? And what I want to know is, is it nice or just frickin' patronizing that I'm even thinking about it?

Anyway, its all just hypothetical at this point. We've already gotten tickets to go to Thailand for our honeymoon, where I'm sure we'll have lots of opportunities to help the local economy.

Gimpy

When my dog Mia was 6 months old, she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. Its a condition that 20-30 yrs ago, a dog would have been put to sleep for. Now, there are a several painful and expensive surgeries that you can do. I considered every one of them at some point. Basically, in a normal hip, the femur attaches to the pelvis at the hip joint. Its like a ball and a socket, fits perfectly -- I think that's the right expression, anyway, though I'm not sure what balls and sockets really have to do with each other. Anyway, in dogs with dysplasia (and humans), the femur starts slipping from the joint. And slowly, arthritis develops in the joint. In Mia's case, even at 6 mos., it was pretty grim. The femur was pretty far out of the socket and she already had quite a bit of arthritis, making her ineligible for one of the surgeries. The others she was still too young for -- they won't perform them until a dog is done growing. The most successful is a total hip replacement, which can run up to 5-6k per hip and involves a fairly lengthy recovery period.

Until recently, those were my only options. And as Mia is fairly functional, I was never quite wiling to subject her to surgery. Not to mention that I don't happen to have 12k lying around to spend on my pet. So instead, I gave her glucosamine, kept her well exercised, and made sure she stayed skinny.

But a few months ago, a friend of mine sent me this article that blew me away:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1817572,00.html?cnn=yes

Its a stem cell treatment for dogs! No surgery. They remove tissue from the dog's stomach, extract the stem cells, and reinject those cells into the hips. According to the article, the stem cells develop into healthy cartilage and tendon cells. It turns out that the article is a bit misleading about how it all works, but is on the whole, accurate. If it works, it results in a dog that's pretty close to normal. And the cost is about the 1/3 the cost of replacement surgery. So of course0, Gregg and I have been watching these developments with some interest. And a few weeks ago, there was an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel about a vet in SC doing the treatment. Gregg called the vet, and we took Mia into see him yesterday.

At the end of the appointment, I was completely amazed:

1. Her joints have probably been inflamed since pretty much when we found out about her condition almost 3 yrs ago. Other than when I first found out (when she could barely walk), I have never given her anti-inflammatory medication.
   
2. Day to day, she probably experiences fairly constant pain. On a scale of 1-10, the vet guessed maybe a 4 or 5.
3. The x-rays showed that Mia's hips are so bad that its a miracle that she can walk. She has the dubious honor of having almost the worst hips the vet had ever seen.
4. And yet, she walks, runs, backpacks, chases rabbits, tries to climb trees. She won't chase frisbees, and she won't let dogs hump her, but other than that, she seems pretty normal.
   
5. I think the stem cells don't morph so much as block inflammatory molecules. This part is still a little unclear to me, but even if the treatment works, Mia's hips will look exactly the same. She just won't feel pain.
   
6. My dog is a horrible drunk -- she had to be sedated for the xray. Afterwards, she stumbled around the vet's office. AND she passed out again while we were paying our bill and peed herself while she was asleep! I swear, she doesn't get that from me! Well, there was a peeing on a curb incident in the city that ONE time, but . . .
   

Anyway, we're doing the treatment and I'm hopeful!

Drum roll please . . . .

Earlier this week, I got an email saying that my wedding dress had shipped! So I've been on pins on needles all week. And, yesterday, it arrived.

I was both excited and scared . . . the place where I'd gotten it is an online knock off place basically. I'd discovered it by accident and had many second thoughts while ordering. They do get rave reviews online. And their prices are unbelievable. But they're based in China. The customer service are definitely not native English speakers. Its all a little sketch. But again the prices are unbelievable!! And I didn't want to be one of those people that spent thousands of dollars on a dress that I'll wear only once.

I didn't want to order blind though. So about a month ago, Vid and Yi-ling and I went dress shopping, so I could get a sense of the different styles. I wanted to know what would look good on me before just ordering from a picture. Turns out, not that much looks that good on me. There was really just one or two types of dresses that I liked. So I went back to the website, and of course, they didn't have anything like I'd wanted.

So I probably should have just dropped the plan and bitten the bullet. But instead I found out that the place does custom orders also. So you send them a picture and they make you a knock off. Doesn't it get better and better? Totally freaked now, I sent them my pics and they got back to me almost immediately, saying they could do it. Actually, itwas kind of crazy. I wrote them late one evening, she got back to me early the next morning and apologized for the delay!! So they're definitely speedy, I have to give them that. And not just with communications, it took them 2 weeks to get my dress made. Dude you go to a bridal store and they tell you to allow 6 months.

Against my better judgment, I proceeded to give them my measurements anyway. THAT was actually an adventure in itself too but that's another story -- it just turns out that not many people order a dress online like this. Go figure. The website asked for a million different measurements and I went to a tailor to get it done right. They were totally baffled so that didn't bode well at all. So a part of me expected to open the box and find something that only a 6yo could wear.

The first thing I noticed is that it came in a little tiny box. All bundled up in there like a sweater. I'm guessing that's not how the better bridal stores send them. :) But I had known that'd be the case from the reviews. Anyway, I had about 15 minutes to try it on and then hide it before G got there, so I was running around like crazy with it.

At first glance, I was disappointed. The dress didn't really look anything like I'd asked for. The material wasn't as shiny as the satin I'd tried on. And there was no embroidery. I stared at it for a few minutes and then realized i had it on inside out!!

Then it was another huge production getting it off, and in it again with all the frickin fabric. I already got dog hair all over it too, cuz nothing touches my floor without getting hair on it. Plus the dogs were all curious to see me so exicted so they kept coming up and checking me out. And the annoying thing is that even when I managed to get it on right, I couldn't zip or button up anything. Its a 2 man job!! So all I know is that it seems to fit and its gorgeous!!

Ladies, you should definitely check this site out:
www.lilywedding.com
I'm so amazed!

Anyway, I was telling the story to our secretary here at the office, and she's going to help me put it on after lunch!

BFF Bandit

When I was in law school, I used to take my then-puppy Mia everywhere. We used to study together at dog-friendly coffee shops. Well, I studied; she usually snacked. I walked her to campus whenever I had errands to run. She'd sit patiently outside while I ran into the library to drop off a book or make a quick copy. I remember once, though, that she happened to sneak in when some one opened the door and found me in the computer lab. She had friends all over campus -- the registrar's office, professors, random students that would be all crowded around her whenever I left her somewhere for a minute. Anyway, my point is that its easy and fun to take one dog with you everywhere. But now, with Gregg's two dogs in the picture also, its much easier to just leave them all at home. One is cute; 3 is a circus.

But this last weekend, G went camping with his brother and took Mia and Tucker with him. So I got to hang out with just Bandit. And I have to say, the one dog thing is just as much fun now. I didn't do that much this weekend, but it was nice having her with me everywhere. We went to Santana Row and met up with Yi-ling and Charles for lunch. I think just about every shop we went into allowed dogs. Some had treats for her. It was funny to watch her on the escalator at Borders. She'd never been on one before, so she freaked. Couldn't figure out how to get off and on. And it was funny watching her around other people. Unlike the other two, she's pretty rude when it comes to people. Not unfriendly, just won't really give you the time of day. People would coo over her and try to pet her; she'd walk right past them, totally oblivious. She hung out in the car with treats while I was at TJs, and then wandered around with me at Home Depot. Yesterday, I tried this yoga video and she came up next to me and did a few stretches of her own. Until she got bored and started bringing her ball over for me to throw. Apparently dogs don't find the downward dog all that entertaining.

For a dog that normally just sits around and sleeps all day, I think she had quite the exciting weekend.

Please VOTE!!

EVERYONE seems to have an opinion about Sarah Palin. Honestly, I feel like I barely noticed when Obama picked his VP candidate. But then along comes Palin and she's got even Pink running "terrified." Crazy conservatives (and I mean CRAZY) like Dr. Laura seem to have a problem with the choice, too -- taking us back to the 20s, she asks why McCain couldn't have chosen a female candidate with grown children. Because we all know what's gonna happen now -- Palin's gonna be all torn between her kids' runny noses and nuclear arms deals with Russia, and we're can't trust her to prioritize appropriately. On a lighter note, Slate.com asked their readers to send in any Sarah Palin dreams they might be having. And you'd be amazed to read just how many dream worlds Palin's been visiting lately. . . . come on, really? This is what people dream about? http://www.slate.com/id/2200015/

Personally, I like knowing that the only thing standing between me and the vice presidency is American citizenship, a couple of years on my local city council, and a Miss Alaska title. I take comfort knowing that when my kids go to the school, they'll have choices. They don't have to buy into the whole evolution myth if they don't want to.

Man, who knew I'd be agreeing with Pink?

Are you going to eat that cookie?

Since I started my diet last week, I'm pretty much either always starving or gorging myself while feeling guilty. I've never been a huge dieter, but especially with the wedding coming up, it seemed like a good time to practice healthy living. I know I don't have the will power to really cut any of the good stuff, but I figure if I can cut my portions and exercise more, I'll be well on my way to being acceptable in my wedding pictures. But damn, that's easier said than done.

Seriously, suddenly all I do is think about food. Yesterday, in a fit of masochism, I started perusing my favorite recipe site just so I could drool at the pictures. (Well, I needed healthy dinner ideas, what else was I supposed to do?) To manage my portions, I've started keeping track of all my calories at this great website - www.fitday.com. Sometimes, when I'm really hungry, I'll get on there and start entering in foods that I want to eat, so that I can see what I might be able to get away with. The website lets you track activities/calories burned also, so I play that game too -- see if I can't balance that extra portion of lunch with an extra 10 minutes of walking. Its become something of an obsession.

What's sad is that its only been a couple of weeks and there have already been days when I've gone way beyond my allotted calorie intake. NO, no - actually what's even sadder is when I realize how much of a piggy I was before all this started. Case in point, this morning I happened to notice the number of calories in a package of Ramen (all right, I admit it -- my love for Ramen is a freak of nature that somehow survived the college years). Anyway, there are 190 calories per serving of Ramen. But get this - there are 2 servings per package! AND whenever I ate Ramen, I almost always ate 2 packages. So can you imagine what my total daily intake might have been like if I was wasting almost 800 calories on this crap?!?

the next level

I've been wondering who else to tell about my engagement. You know how it is. First, I was calling all my close friends and telling them about it. Then, a few weeks later, I changed my relationship status on Facebook. Which, by the way, did wonders for my usually neglected wall -- thanks everyone! So the rush of congratulations from that was pretty nice.

But now what? How else can I advertise my engagement and who else can I really get to care? Well, today, I found a new outlet. Looking for photographers for the wedding, I had a thought. Back in Jan. they did an article on CASA when I was working there. And the photographer that took my pictures mentioned doing wedding photography on the side. I thought I'd check her out but didn't have any contact information. So I sent an email to this other girl I know at the paper to get the scoop. Turns out, though, that she doesn't work there anymore -- actually, neither she nor the photographer do, but that's beside the point. Anyway, within minutes, I got an email from her replacement. Soon after that, I got an email from the EDITOR congratulating me on my engagement. Any minute now, I expect the photographer herself to get wind of the whole thing and contact me with her prices. :)

So judging from how quickly word spread, I think its clearly time for me to start hitting all the papers.

garden madness

So Gregg has a couple of long stretches in his yard that aren't covered in grass, so for the last couple of years, we've been planting vegetables along the side of his yard. Last year, we started too late and never quite got the hang of watering regularly. This year, we planted so early that on some nights, he had to go out and cover everything to protect them from frost. And he got all into setting up a drip system all around the yard so that everything in his yard is watered automatically now. We even got excited and built another planter so that we could buy more plants. Well, G built it but I provided some moral support along the way. :) We ended up with zucchinni, tomatoes (3 types), eggplant, bell peppers (2-3 types), corn, basil (2 types), cilantro, mint, japanese cucumbers, chili peppers (a million different varieties, it seems). I don't know if we just got a little too excited or what, but we've been swimming in vegetables now for a couple of months. These pics are about a month old, so a lot of our plants are even bushier and bigger now. Except for the corn which seems be done now for the season and has been slowly wilting away.

Gregg does most of the tending - the weeding, fertilizing, spraying, that kind of stuff. And I've been trying to actually use everything. I like veggies, but its been hard keeping up. So if anyone has any good recipes out there that involve A LOT of vegetables, please pass them along. The winner so far was a night about a week or so ago when I made veggie paella (with just about very veggie we have) and gazpacho (which uses a lot of both tomatoes and cukes!). A couple of zucchini casseroles, a corn chowder, pickled cucumbers, lots of pasta primavera -- Its been fun trying out new recipes, but enough already. Especially if your recipe is easy and doesn't involve a ton of chopping, I'm be so ready to hear it!

And if you want any chili peppers, please come and take them. This is definitely a case where we went a little overboard. They sell a lot of peppers as six packs at the beginning of the season. And that's actually a lot of peppers, seeing as how one plant is more than enough to feed a family of 4 for the whole summer but we didn't know that. We started off with six packs of serranos and jalapenos. Happened to run into some Thai Chillis, Anaheims, then some Cayenne. We searched all over for Jabaneros and then even found these super hot Carribbeean peppers. Needless to say, our taste buds have been slowly withering away. Lately now we've taken to sauteeing a bunch of peppers in some oil, then blending it all up into a pure chili hot sauce that we've been throwing on everything. Fortunately for us, they seem to be staggered, the serranos will probably die off here in a bit just as the super hot ones like the Carribbean and Jabaneros are starting to ripen. But still, we have more heat than we can handle, so any help would be appreciated.

Belated kayak update

About a week after our trip, we re-inflated our kayak in the garage to see if there was a leak. This time, instead of using our "short cut" car pump, we used the foot pump provided with the kayak. What do you know -- the kayak actually inflates to about twice the size of what we had pumped it to for our trip! AND there's a gauge that tells you when you're at full size. Turns out we weren't even close to full size when we went to Elkhorn. Guess that's what instructions are for. :)

"Maybe you're not as retarded as I made you out to be"

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a kayak and it finally arrived last week. Gregg and I have been itching to take it out for a spin, so Sat we went to Elkhorn Slough near Moss Landing for a trial run. Its a two-person inflatable kayak, so took us a little bit to get it all pumped up and ready to go. There were a few different parts - the kayak itself, the seats that were separately inflatable and inserted into the kayak, and of course the paddles. Now, I should preface this whole story by saying that neither of us are really avid kayakers (Gregg had never gone before Sat, and I can count the number of times on one hand). Also, neither of us are particularly active in general anymore so we probably have no business engaging in strenuous exercise to begin with.

But anyway, we inflated the kayak in the parking lot and set off.

The first problem we encountered almost immediately was that we couldn't get the kayak to face forward. I was sitting in the back so was technically steering, I suppose, but no matter what we do, we ended up doing little donuts and facing backwards. And also, Gregg's seat deflated almost instantly and kept sliding down, so that it felt like he was doing crunches whenever he paddled. So we decided that maybe we should try switching places and looked around for some place to pull over. Of course, there wasn't any, so decided to just switch on the go by turning around and moving our seats over. So basically, G would take the middle seat out, move it towards his end and turn around so that we were facing different directions and he was in the back. Not sure if that makes any sense, but basically, we had switched it up so the back of the kayak was in the opposite side, he was steering and I was in front. The plan had diaster written all over it, but actually turned out ok.

There was a HUGE difference almost immediately. I don't know how long I had to put up G making fun of my steering abilities. It had to have been at least 10 minutes before he felt underneath the kayak and realized on his side, there were these little fins that were supposed to be in the back of the kayak and guide the steering. So really we had just set the seats up wrong in the beginning and that's why we were doing donuts up the slough. So you'd think that at this point, I'd get a little apology for all the ribbing. All I got was, "Hmm, maybe you're not as retarded as I made you out to be." See what I have to put up with?!?

Anyway, the trip was much better after that for a while. We were going in the direction of the wind and current, so we basically just coasted. Definitely our kind of exercise! But then we stopped for lunch at the end of the Slough near some railroad tracks and that's when we realized how deflated our kayak was! It looked seriously sad. Some guy actually pulled over on the road on the other side of the slough while we were eating and asked if we were ok.

We hadn't even thought to bring the pump with us either! But we figured it'd be ok, we'd just get a little wet. Famous last thoughts, I guess, because we couldn't have been paddling long on the way back before we realized that we so were not ok. First of all, the wind was blowing against us now, so it wasn't as easy. And then, the kayak was pretty deflated, so we didn't have much to work with. Basically we kept paddling and paddling but not making any progress. So we didn't know what to do. At some point, we gave up and thought we'd just paddle over to one side and see if we couldn't leave the kayak somewhere, walk back, and then come back and get it with our car. Seemed like an all right plan, except that it took forever to get over to the side with it being all marshy and thick with weeds. And then once we got there, we realized we weren't anywhere close to the road! So then we were stuck walking along the railroad tracks with the kayak!

We tried it for a while and then just decided that paddling was probably the lesser of two evils and got back to that. Made it back eventually. Actually I think we'd made more progress than we realized too because even by the time we jumped back in, we could see the parking lot in the distance. So I guess we had that going for us. When we finally made it back, we were deflating the kayak to head home (although at that point, it was pretty much all the way deflated anyway) we noticed a big vent that we had left completley open the whole time. Doh!

Just my luck . . .

Now I know its just cuz I'm the new kid on the block and get the cases nobody else wants. But I think its also because I have a big sign on my forehead that says "calling all wackos and losers."

Feeble old ladies with no hope of ever getting any more spoual support but wanting to try anyway; small business owners who should know better but were basically trying to get away with whatever they could; people entering into questionable contracts to begin with (orally of course, so no one can prove ANYTHING). They've all been flocking to our door after basically doing everything they shouldn't have and are now wondering how to fix it. And guess who's gotten to deal with them?

I'm so amazed by how many people come in to a law office trying all these things at home that they probably shouldn't have. And now they want to know what they did wrong. Well, duh. What's even better is that usually they also want to know how to just blame the other guy.

Today's lucky winners: a couple that rented out their completley unfinished property to some homeless people and are now getting sued for it. Now when I say incomplete, I mean basically it sounds like all they had was a big empty space with something that somewhat resembled walls. All kinds of other good stuff thrown in from all sides too -- knife fights, drinking, illegal immigration, you name it, its all in here. Wait, it gets better too. No one involved seems to speak the language. AND they've been sitting on this thing for a while, so now, they need some one to do something ASAP. Lovely.

starting out

All right, so I've had this urge to blog, and I have no idea why. To be honest, my opinion about blogging has always been a little mixed. Its seems a little "look what's happening to me because I know the whole world is interested" ridiculous. But then I'll be the first to admit that I LOVE reading other people's blogs. I know an awful lot about a few people that I'm really only casually acquainted with in real life.

Anyway, blogging seems huge now, and I feel left out. So figure I'll give it a shot. Not sure I'll make the best blogger. For one, I live in a little town that you'll only have heard of if a) you know me; b) you're very good with CA geography; c) you're obsessed with Harleys; or d) you mistakenly believe the clothes with the same name are made here. My best friend is a 6 ft tall white guy who's happy so long as he can go to Cost-co, spend lots of $ on electronic equipment, eat, sleep, watch tv, and get some regular action (not necessarily in that order, I guess, though he's not above multi-tasking if he can get away with it). My THREE insane/adorable dogs, who I find to be endlessly entertaining, never seem to amuse people quite so much. Not for more than a few minutes anyway. So basically, I don't know what I'm going to blog about, but goddamit, you're going to read about it (well, at least you as in my faithful one and a half readers that will probably actually semi-care). Also, unfortunately, I sometimes have the attention span of a 3yo, which doesn't bode that well for my blogging career either. I think you can count on maybe a few months for sure. Then we'll see. :)

So I'll tell you what -- for now at least, if anything even vaguely interesting or funny happens, you'll be the first to read about it.

OH and if you're looking for something to do this wknd, go check out the Dark Knight. Christian Bale is totally bad-ass (and cute!) as Batman (again). Can't remember the last time I stayed awake all the way thru a 2 and a half hr long movie, particularly after midnight.