So Happy. . .

I finally got off work early (ie: on time) and grabbed the chance at taking the kids for their first after work walk of the year. It was amazing for all three of us. Normally when I walk the dogs off leash I still make them follow basic rules, but today, all bets were off. I took them to pocket's tree then yelled "GO!" and they took off running. They were so happy. Mole was jumping over ravines like he was three years old - disc disease? what's that? I could almost hear pocket giggling. It made my week seeing those two that happy.

I took a few pics of the kids with the new "camera" but they didn't come out so great. I guess we were all moving so fast that they all came out blurry. Well, all but one. Its a little fuzzy, but it looks like one of those cool oil paintings.

Dog of the Day!

Mole was Dog of the Day on February 27, 2008

Join the Dogster community

Its So Luscious

I have been having a bit of a dilemma with my "create less waste" goal. Since this whole thing is just a "goal" I figured that I can pick and choose what works for my lifestyle. I know that is a bit selfish, but I can't really stop going to work because the gas from my car creates a ton of pollution - and I'm not going to buy a hybrid tomorrow. So, my dilemma is cosmetic - literally. Something I am not going to give up is cleanliness/femininity. I'm not really a girly-girl, but I do like to feel pretty and smell nice - and how do you do that while creating less waste? I mean, I NEED to wash my hair!

I found this website for a smallish cosmetic company that hand makes their products and some of their products are container-less. The company is called Lush and they have an amazing selection. I bought their shampoo - it comes in a bar form and creates a surprising amount of lather. Its also Vegan. I bought some conditioner - also vegan. My favorite thing is a bar lotion. I'm not sure if its vegan, but its still fabulous. Its almost like a massage oil without all that grease!


Super fun soap (notice the weird color specs):


Best Lotion (in fun tin):

If You're Bored At Work

My friend forward me something today that I had to share. Its a cartoon but it is hysterical. After you click on the link, press play then sit back and enjoy. Don't play with your mouse - even though its tempting. Its even funnier if you have your speakers on.

One of the Worst I've Seen

In my deleted blog I would occasionally write about work related things, but I was very careful not to divulge too many specifics. But today something happened that I just have to share.

Warning: not for the faint of heart

I saw a cat that had NO FACE.

I have seen many terrible cases of skin cancer on cat's faces, but today I saw the worst case imaginable. Skin cancer is usually seen in cats who venture outdoors with un-pigmented skin on the ears and nose. If it is on the ears, the remedy is usually easy and involves completely removing the ear pinna. Removing the cancer from the nose is a bit tougher and usually requires a specialist's touch. Most people will do the surgery on the ears, but few will spend the money to do it on the nose. Owners often opt to euthanize their pet when the cancer covers the entire tip of the nose. Some owners will wait until the cancer has invaded the sinus cavities and the cat has difficulty breathing. Very few owners will wait so long that the cancer has spread around the face itself and has eaten away the entire nose.

I'm not sure what today's cat's owners were thinking. I have never seen a cat with cancer that bad. The cancer had not only eaten the ears and nose, but it had continued to spread and had taken the soft palate and cheeks as well. The cat was constantly "sneezing" but I think it was actually saliva coming through the soft palate of the mouth rather than nasal mucous. I felt so bad.

UPS Hates Me . . . Again

Last year around christmas time I blogged about how UPS must hate me (instert web link to old, now deleted post) because they rerouted my package of books back to its origin. Well, now I know for sure that UPS hates me.

My goal this year was to create less waste. Its semi environmental and semi anti-consumerism. I got the idea from The Compact - a San Fransisco group who decided not to buy any new consumer goods for a whole year. They have continued the effort, on some level, and you can read about it on their blog. I have followed them for a bit now and have decided to finally take a step out - hence my goal to create less waste.

I decided that my first step would be to stop using those paper cups at coffee places (insert link to post about Peet's coffee cups dripping). I have actually been doing really well - probably because I haven't gone since that post! Ok, I have gone, but I drank coffee there in ceramic mugs.

My next step was to stop using plastic/paper bags. I have a larger bag that I use when I take the dogs out, but its more of a large purse than a grocery bag. I ordered a bunch of bags from ECOBAGS. Some were the grocery - paper bag - type and some were those fruit/produce bags. I am really looking forward to getting these bags, and have been tracking them on UPS for a week now.

Today I went on the tracking site to find that they re-routed my bags to ONTARIO!!!! Not Canada, but southern CA. I used to live near that distributorship, but not now! This is the second time that this has happened to me with UPS. The reason its a big deal is that I rarely order anything and its happened to the past two! Am I doomed to repeat this every time I use them for shipping? Did I seriously piss someone off and not know it? Maybe I did something to one of the higher-ups dogs and they are getting subliminal messages to re-route all my packages.

Its so frustrating!

I'm Still Burping

One of the lesser known perks of my job is the dinners put on by drug company reps. They usually put on dinners so that they can sell a new product. They always have some speaker talking about a disgusting subject. They often offer CE credit. And, for the most part, the food is good.

Yesterday's dinner blew all the other dinners out of the park on so many levels. The topic was dermatology (ie: disgusting skin bugs and infections!) It was actually very interesting and some info may prove useful for a friend's suffering dog. The speaker was very funny - unlike ALL the others. And she only used one semi-gross (but really sad) picture during the meal - again, unlike ALL the others. But the highlight of the night was the meal itself. Let me break it down:

Wine (2 choices):
White
Red - so good with everything on the menu

Appetizers:
Warm spinach & cheese dip with costinini
Fried mozzarella (not in stick form, but in whole plate size form!)

Salads:
Ceasar salad
"Italian style" (lettuce, tomato, red onions, cheese, vinaigrette)

Pasta:
Zitti
Cheese ravioli - with delicious GREEN sauce
Eggplant Parmesian - Don't worry, I didn't eat it.

Meat:
Chicken parmesian
Sliced beef
Chicken Picata

Sides:
Baked red potato
Asparagus

Desserts:
Warm apple strudel w/ ice cream
Cinnamon vanilla ice cream sandwiched between puff pastry & chocolate
Coffee

Can you believe this menu? It was so delicious! No one will ever be able to compete with that - not even the wine train!

Stupid Blogger!!!!

After much discussion, I decided (was talked into in my feverished state) to post in the blogger Google help discussion group about what happened to my blog. Apparently, sometimes, the paid blogger help people read these posts and will offer to help fix problems. Sometimes they even find your magically deleted blog and will restore it.

I was not one of the lucky ones.

I looked at the discussion forum and saw that 6 people read my message but not a single person helped me out. I didn't even get a "sorry, your SOL"

I hate Google & blogger right now.

What The February . . .?

I am not sure what happened to my blog . . .

I have been sick these past few days, and think that maybe I did something stupid in a feverish state. I posted yesterday, but I don't remember deleting anything - especially my whole blog. Weird.

I'll try to get it back to normal soon.