Musical Monday

hey! hey! we're the monkees! I thought Davy Jones was adorable when I was a teenager!

Remember this

When you look at the animals at Adopt A Pet (which I know you all are!) please keep one thing in mind:

SPAY & NEUTER

This is really important. There are so many unwanted cats & dogs and the number could be dramatically reduced if everyone would spay/neuter their pets. Kittens and puppies are adorable but when they have to be killed because there are no homes available and the shelter is overcrowded, it isn't quite so cute. If you have an animal and can't afford spay/neuter services, there are a number of low-cost or free clinics around. The ASPCA maintains a free & low-cost spay/neuter database. There is really no excuse not to do this.

Sweet Pea

Today I adopted Sweet Pea. She's a female tuxedo kitten in need of a good home. Please check her out (and all the other animals who need homes) if you're looking for a cat. Some info about Sweet Pea:

She was the smallest of the litter when she and her brother Malik and sister Juliet were dropped off at Central Vet. They were bottle fed and Sweet Pea has turned out to be the most adventurous to make up for being the smallest one. She too is a total love and will find that perfect place on your lap or chest to take one of the many daily naps.

Musical Monday

This is a great clip - Louis Armstrong & Johnny Cash. Hope you all enjoy it!

Silent Sunday

Lulu

Today I "adopted" Lulu. She's a beautiful Maine Coon looking for a new home. Here's how LuLu describes herself:

I have beautiful eyes that change in color to a soft yellow green to a more intense shade depending on the light. As my name might suggest, I am a dainty girl and quiet unless it is time to let you know that I'd like some attention or some food. I love playing with toys and spending time looking out the window. I would do best in a family with older children or an adult household where there was may one or two other kitties -- or even a single adult who would like a new best friend! I have been neutered, tested negative and am up to date on all my shots.

If you or someone you know is looking for a cat, take a look at Lulu!

Brooklyn Roads

Since it's my blog I guess I can do a musical Wednesday if I want! Neil Diamond - Brooklyn Roads, another one of my favorites.

Social PETworking

June is Social PETworking Month. Please help! You can go to Adopt a pet and adopt a shelter animal "socially." You choose the animal and post info on your Facebook, Twitter or MySpace page as a way to share that this animal needs a home. It's free and it can help a lot of animals! You can do it everyday to spread the word about all the animals that need homes.

Today I picked Jenny, a beautiful black & white Maine Coon. Her profile says Urgent so I think she needs a home right away. There were 13 pages of cats that need homes. It made me sad and even more convinced (if that were possible) of the importance of spaying/neutering animals!!!!!

Please look at the site and adopt an animal. It only takes a few minutes and maybe you'll be helping an animal to find a good home.

Musical Monday

My Uncle died a couple of days ago. He was 54, just a couple of years older than me. I have a lot of memories of him but the ones that always come to mind are of him playing the guitar. My daughter plays the guitar also and I've gone to some performances with her. I was always struck by the difference in the way players approach playing. Some are really intense, almost pained looking as they pluck out each note. Others are very casual, not looking at the guitar even. Some cradle their guitars like a lover seeking just the right tone. Dave's guitar was an extension of him, in some ways a mix of all styles, but more than that. It's difficult to imagine him without a guitar, it wasn't something he played, it was who he was. Even I, who am not particularly musical, could tell he had talent. So today's Musical Monday is dedicated to Dave - he was the quintessential Guitar Man.

Silent Sunday

LIFE Photo Archive

This is a very cool site. The LIFE photo archive (hosted by Google) contains millions of photos from LIFE archives going back to the 1750's. You can search by decade, by people, place, event, culture, etc. You can also purchase framed copies of the pictures if you are so inclined. Here are some I liked:

Queen Victoria, 1890
Allied soliders being fitted for boots in WWI, 1918
First Rolls Royce, 1903
Cary Grant & Elizabeth Taylor signing autographs, 1945
President Johnson on visit to California
Nixon & Eisenhower, 1962
Academy of Sciences Computer Center in USSR, 1959
B-47 flying over castle in Segovia, Spain, 1957

Ok, I'd better stop - I could keep this up all night!

Spread this insightful thought

"Tweeting is like a thought bubble over everyone's head"

I came up with this while I was at Wordcamp a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was pretty clever & I tweeted it. Unfortunately I haven't seen people around the world retweeting it. This makes me very sad. I retweeted it myself yesterday but I still don't see a groundswell of admiration for my cleverness. So. . . if you are reading this and are a kind person, take pity on me & retweet this!

Click here for the latest tweet

Here for the original

Help me spread the word!!!

Maybe THEY are right

I'm really not sure who THEY are but THEY say it's never too late and apparently it's true.

This is a very sweet story I think. Sunday in West Palm Beach, FL, Ebenezer Rose, 93, married Monica Hayden, 89. They decided to take the plunge after a brief courtship.

Sleep

Sleep is good for you. Did you all know that? It helps your problem-solving skills. Keeps your blood pressure down. And keeps you thinner. Those are some pretty good reasons to sleep and I, for one, am generally in favor of it. Unfortunately I never seem to get enough and I have three good reasons why: the Web, Pippin and Mellifera.

There's a lot of stuff out there on the web. A Lot. And I'm kind of an information junkie. So I'll get online about 10:00 pm and the next thing I know it's 2:00 in the morning. I have this problem a lot which means I tend to stay up late. So what's the big deal you're thinking - just sleep in late right? That would be where Pippin & Mellifera come in.

Pippin likes to eat on his own schedule. His early schedule is usually about 4:00 am. This means he comes in my room and meows at me to get up and feed him. I could ignore him & try to keep sleeping and I've actually tried that. Do you know what it's like to have a hungry cat walking on your head, biting your hair and nose and scratching at you? It's much easier to get up & feed him. Which is what I do. Staggering dangerously down the steps and to the kitchen where his sweet, trusting little face rewards me with a purr and leg rub. It's hard to be annoyed when he does that. So I feed him and stagger back to bed and what I hope will be 4-5 more hours of sleep. Alas no such luck. (And no, I can't just leave dry food out for him. He refuses to eat it & would do the same wake-up routine to me.)

About 5:30-6:00 Mellifera decides she wants to cuddle with me. It would be fine if she'd get on the bed and snuggle with me. Nope. She wants me in the living room on the couch. And she meows and meows and meows until I get up. If that doesn't work shewalks all over my nightstand and knocks things over. I get up, go to the living room & she jumps up on my lap and cuddles with me. Sweet right? Well not always. At least half the time, she'll walk on me, purr and let me pet her for about 1 minute then decides I've annoyed her, hisses at me, jumps down and disappear. You'd think I'd give up and figure it isn't worth it and stay in bed. Unfortunately the other half she cuddles up by my neck, lays her head on my shoulder, looks up at me and gives me little kisses. Now that's impossible to resist! Which explains why I get up.

By this time I'm pretty well awake, despite only having slept 3-4 hours. So I stay up and then I'm tired and everyone says I should sleep more. Easy to say. Give them my three distractions and see how much they sleep. If anyone has suggestions to mitigate these distractions I'm happy to listen but I kind of doubt they'll be effective. Especially against those kitty kisses!

Musical Monday

My Mom died 10 years ago about a month after my parent's 43rd anniversary. Today would have been their 53rd anniversary. They met on a blind date and got married 8 days later. She was 19, my Dad was 22 and I'm sure their parents thought they were too young & it wouldn't last. It did though. Through 4 kids, 7 grandchildren, little money and lots of hard times, they somehow made it work. Too young they probably were but they succeeded at something that far too many people don't. Happy Anniversary.

Silent Sunday

Update

Just an update to let you all know that the Governor is now following me on Twitter. And you all thought I was boring! In case you're interested in my fascinating tweets you can follow me here.

Oh yeah & Pippin now has 110 followers.

A Juicy Story

I've been meaning to post this for awhile & kept forgetting. Ok, you all see the juicer in the picture above? So how this works is the fruit goes in the tube at the top (which I sort of cut off in the picture) and the juice comes out. The question is where does it come out? Not something I was very concerned about in the beginning as you'll see.

We have an orange tree out front that was loaded with oranges and a couple of weeks ago John and our neighbor picked a bunch. I decided I'd use the juicer and squeeze them so we could have fresh oj. After cursory examination of the juicer I decided the juice would come out into the large blue thing on the left. I thought that made perfect sense so I put the oranges in, turned the juicer on and all that ended up in the blue thing was pulp. I'm standing in the kitchen telling Jill & John that the juicer doesn't work well and John says "there's juice all over the floor." Apparently the juice comes out that teeny, tiny little, hardly noticeable spout on the right side. So I had squeezed probably a cup or so of juice that went all over the floor. Aside from the sticky orange juice all over the counter and floor it was actually kind of funny.

So what do you all think? Where should the juice come out? I still think it should go into that big blue thing!

Updated Stats

Geek chart: Twitter 63%, blog 16%, delicious 12%, flickr 7%, stumbleupon 1%, digg 1%. Eek I need to post more blogs! (Blog more posts???) Well I guess I could tweet less also...

Pippin's Twitter: 104 followers!!!! 157 updates (that's how many times he's tweeted)

My Twitter: 108 followers, 413 updates (mostly boring I'm afraid)

Point of this post: Trying to raise my blog percentage number! Oh yeah and to show you how popular Pippin is. Any day now he'll be ahead of Neil Diamond. Who, I might add, has not yet started to follow me. I'm beginning to develop a complex.

I Found Lois Lane

When I was young (which was quite a long time ago) I read Superman comics. I really, really, really wanted to be Lois Lane. That's because Lois was an independent woman with a career and I admired her for that. Ok, ok, that isn't it. It's because I wanted Superman. I won't spell out wanted since this is a g-rated blog.

Anyway I've been secretly harboring this desire for many, many years sure that eventually I'd find Superman & my true identity would emerge. Alas, that can never come to pass. Turns out there is another Lois Lane and it looks like she's the real thing. I'm sure you're wondering how I found this out. In a word, Twitter.

I tweeted the other day about wanting to be Lois Lane and what that said about me. Well the real Lois saw my tweet and wanted to know what that meant. Honestly I think she knew and was jealous. Unfortunately she has no reason. I've been looking for Superman for quite some time & he doesn't appear to be anywhere in the vicinity of the SF Bay Area. Apparently because he's off in Metropolis with the real Lois (whose tweets you can read by clicking on her name).

So now, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, my girlhood dreams have been destroyed. I guess I can return to Perry Mason. Oops, forgot, Susan Kandel has him locked up. Please tell me this doesn't mean Lex Luther?

Musical Monday

Billie Holiday singing Until the Real Thing Comes Along.