Thankful for Acupuncture & Awesome Friends!

Today I'm thankful for the many friends I've made in Chico, but most especially to Michelle Faucher who is an amazing acupuncturist & owns the Pinwheel Community Acupuncture Project! I've had some random icky cyst on my finger since mid-summer and when I asked my doctor about it he said it looked like a ganglion cyst and I'd have to have a surgeon remove it. ICK! Luckily I mentioned in front of Michelle one night at dinner and like a dope I never thought about utilizing her services. She popped some needles in that night and asked me to come back to the clinic the next day. I did and already the cyst has shrunk in half (if not more!). A couple more treatments and it should be all gone! No expensive, long healing or icky surgery needed!

In addition going to her clinic for treatment, it's also a nice forced break from reality. Since it's a community style clinic, everyone receives treatment in the same room. That means I have to be quiet! It gives me a forced 30+ minutes to power down and focus on myself. So far I've been too on edge to really kick back and zonk out and have instead read emails and articles that I've meant to read but never had time to until I had nothing else I needed to be doing (or could be doing).

So on Day One of November I'm thankful to have a friend who creates a wonderful caring space for our community and for the assistance in getting my cyst to disappear without surgery (or beating my hand with a bible)!

All right now STOP! SISTER TIME!

When my ex decided to leave and my world was in chaos my sister was feeling sad and sorry for me so booked a ticket to visit me for her fall break. Her school district moved to a "balanced calendar" system and she has a two week long fall break which was perfect for her to take a week vacay to see sad old me! Luckily, I'm not sad anymore so we could just enjoy our time together. She is still here until Wednesday but she was complaining about not having any blog posts to read so I decided to throw her a bone and make a quick blog post.


Her first night here we just chillaxed and didn't do much. She likes to pretend like I'm ALWAYS on my phone, but she is no better. She's always on her phone or tablet as well. We are a bunch of internet junkies.

 

Luckily she loves my doggies and doesn't mind them laying all over her all the time. 

 

Target is like our Mecca so of course we had to make a visit to the Chico Target. And of course when we saw Turkey Hats we had to model them. Because duh! Who wouldn't?!?!

 

 

We LOVE geocaching so we had to squeeze some of that in of course! Found some cool ones in Upper Park @ Bidwell Park!

 

 

We apparently also have a hat trying on addiction. We first pretended to be guests at the Royal Wedding and then tried on flapper style hats in an homage to Thoroughly Modern Millie, a family fav!

 

Finally, my sister has attended several social gatherings with me during her time here. We went to a birthday party brunch/lunch this morning and caught a few cute snaps of us together! 

 

She has two more full days here so there will be sure to be more photo ops! One more blog post at least for her to read.

I'm Reminded of The Byrds "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)"

Lots of changes afoot. Many sad, but many happy ones on the horizon.

Loss of love and pretty much almost everything in it that was the life I knew, but the chance to rebuild myself stronger and better and hopefully invite new joy into in the future.

Most excitingly is that my sister is pregnant! I cannot WAIT for this baby to come. I love kids and I love the idea of having a niece or nephew to spoil and love.

Now that I am recovered enough from the devastation of my life to feel inspired again I hope I'll be writing more and more. It's hard to write when all you see around you is remnants of the life you had before someone decided to throw a stick of dynamite in it and walk away. But hope and joy are on the horizon so now I can see past the gloom and doom and that feels good!

Stay tuned...

365: Lucky Day!

Not only did we get free luggage, but the seat between Ange and I was open! Super nice and comfy for our 5 hour flight! What is the chance that could happen on our 8 flight to Morocco??? Keeping my fingers crossed!

365: Precision Packing

T minus approximately 30 hours or so. I spent part of the late afternoon organizing and packing our donation bags. This is my 9th trip to Africa and probably somewhere in the hundreds for number of bags I've packed. I pretty much have it down to a science. I know just how to fit things in to maximize every book and cranny and to make sure the luggage come in right at 50 lbs. It took lots of practice and continues to take lots of patience but it's all worth it in the end. Now to pack my personal goods. We'll get to that tomorrow!

365: Our "Husbands"

In most parts of Africa it's illegal to be gay. The Gambia is one of those countries. In fact the President of the Gambia threatened to behead any gay person that was "discovered" in the country a few years ago. Clearly this presents a problem for Ange and me.

In the past we've made a game of telling nosey neds about our private lives. Usually the wilder the story the more fun we have. People started to wise up and realize we didn't look anything alike so our lame story of being "sisters" wasn't working out.

This year we decided to step up our game and recruited a some of our new Chico friends (who are also a couple) to be our fake husbands. All year we've staged spontaneous photo shoots at various events so that we have photographic evidence of our love. Tonight was no different. Behold! The happy couples! The couple on the right are WORKING it. The couple on the left...look like an awkward prom photo. Perhaps they're having marital problems?

365: Poking the Belly

When my sisters and I were little we used to fight over who got to "poke the belly" of a new tub of butter. Poking the belly meant you'd stab or otherwise maim the middle of a tub of butter usually where there was a swirl. I have no idea where "poking the belly" came from but after googling a while it was apparent this was just one more weird thing my family made up. I'm guessing we made it up because the butter looks sort of like a belly button? One of the best things about being a grown up is that I have pretty much free range to always poke the belly now. Because Ange doesn't even know what the hell that means nor does she get excited about it. And no smelly little sisters trying to elbow their way in!

365: So Grateful for Days like These

Today was pretty much perfect. I went to the post office this morning and found three packages waiting for me! Score!!!

One package was my birthday gift from my dad and stepmom--a Timbuk2 messenger bag!!! Yes! Now I can walk and bike to school when we move down to Chico with getting annoyed at straps sliding off my shoulders or worrying about my stuff getting all wet or ruined! Thanks papa bear & Gail!

My second package was some Old Navy stuff I ordered with a birthday gift card from my sister & a credit I got from something I had to return that my mom got me for my birthday! Yay new clothes!!! Thanks mom and sister and BIL!

The third package was more amazing love from one of my Juniata girls and her awesome family. More donations for Africa! Thanks Mandy, Brian, Tom & Math Ruthie!!!

Next I got to my office and there was a note slipped under my door from a student I had last semester. It said all sorts of nice things and totally gave me a pep in my step all day. Thanks Esther!

Finally, someone stuck little encouraging post-it notes all around the bottom floor of Butte Hall today. They were so cute and definitely made me smile. They were intended for other students in the midst of stress about finals I'm sure but I didn't mind partaking in the love fest too!

Pretty much my life is charmed and amazing.

365: Captain Nerd

Ange has massive anxiety with flying. She's been working on stress relieving techniques in preparation for our flights to the Gambia next Monday. She thought some sensory deprivation would do her some good so we decided to invest in a sleep mask for her. It might not help her sleep but at least she'll be stylin and profilin on the way there.

365: Hazards of the Trade

I had about $350 left in my professional development accounts this year and it needed to be spent by the end of the semester or I'd lose it so I decided to invest in some "instructional aids."

Specifically: contraceptives.

Have you ever spent $350 on contraceptives at once? It buys a TON of stuff. I ordered everything through Amazon and since they operate an online space for many smaller sellers I ended up with 16 different dealers sending me things. Dental dams here, condoms and lube there, etc.

Well apparently two things happen when you have stuff shipped to the university. First they open all the packages that come in and check out your stuff. That's kind of bunk but I guess if someone sends me anthrax then it won't be me who gets it. Secondly, apparently you aren't supposed to get "personal stuff" shipped to you at work.

I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

When I went into the office this morning out Department Administrative Assistant was cracking up. Apparently someone in shipping had been frantically trying to get a hold of me all day Friday (I worked from home on Friday) because he was worried about the massive orders of contraceptives I was getting. He finally called Marie up and was trying to get the story out delicately to her without busting me or embarrassing himself or her. The best part is that Marie immediately knew what he was trying to get to but instead of bailing him out she let him spit out the whole story before she explained that I'm the sex professor and none of that stuff was "personal" but was for instructional purposes. She thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. I did too. I'm still waiting on more packages so let's see how embarrassed I can make them before it's all said and done!

All I can say is that it's a good thing I didn't have more money because sex toys were next on my list.

365: Gangrene

I think my body is determined to get gangrene before all is said and done. I sliced my thumb open on wine bottle foil yesterday and cut my index finger on a tin can of dog food this evening. They are like paper cuts on SPEED. They need to heal up before we leave next week or else I'm sure they'll get infected with some crazy disease I've never heard about. Because that's what always happens to me in foreign countries.

I also like how my thumb looks all wacky in this shot and my middle finger on the right hand side looks like it's pregnant. Weird camera angles for sure!

365: Exhausted but Satisfied

So pretty much Ange and I have been "partying" for 36 hours straight (and I use partying very loosely). One of my bffs came into town for about 24 hours and then we decided to go to the winery this weekend without actually checking to see if the winery was open (it wasn't; oops!) so we ended up hosting a little impromptu afternoon winery party of sorts at our house. After all that hosting and socializing I am BEAT! But I wouldn't have changed a thing. Such an awesome weekend. Now I have to bust some ass on grading and make it through finals and we're off to the Gambia!

365: Road Trip!

Our landlord came down to fix some stuff at the house this morning and when we was here he told me his little dog Zippy got bit by a snake last night and he had to go to the emergency vet. Luckily he had already had a rattlesnake vaccine so he made it. This was my call to action! I'd been meaning to get the girls vaccinated but kept putting it off. The Butte Humane Society has a walk in clinic every day of the week (M-F) and super cheap vaccines. So I hopped in the shower after Bill left and tossed the girls in the car to go get their rattlesnake vaccines! They were SO EXCITED to be GO, GO, GOING! They also decided that despite the fact that I drive a station wagon they both needed to squish into the front seat and breathe on each other and me. Total nerds. But they got their first shot so hopefully it will save their little lives if they ever happen upon a snake while running through the canyon!

365: Camp Awesome is Teeming with Wildlife!

Scientific method proved that there is more than one salamander living in our yard. I saw four at one time today! Two are pictured here; they're so small I couldn't get all 4 in the picture with any kind of clarity. There's also a slug in the picture. We have lots of them.

Scientific method also led us to reject the null hypothesis. Ho did not equal "Dogs will shred little salamanders into millions of pieces." I think this is because they salamanders belong to the honey badger family; they did not give a crap about the girls sniffing them. If they would have darted it would have been over for sure.

365: Pizzerias Long Lost Cousin?

Anybody out there besides my sisters and mother remember Pizzerias? Also known as the best chips ever invented? My mother and I were obsessed with them. So delicious. And then, tragically, one day that stopped making them. It was devastation central. My mom has even dreamed of them years later if that tells you anything about our level of fanaticism.

Today I was at Winco picking up some groceries. When I got to the check out line my eyes feasted upon these beauties. Could it be? New pizza chips? I was hesitant to get my hopes up, but I knew I had to do it for my mother's sake. It was a good choice. Although not as good as Pizzeria's, they're pretty close. Hopefully these continue to be made and are more widely available!

365: Ice Cream Buddies!

After the fundraising dinner at Woodstock's we decided to hit up a new Hispanic ice cream parlor with two of our newest and favoritest people in Chico: Danny & Caitlin! They are also our soon to be surrogate (?) parents to our fur babies!

We had so much fun!!! From Danny's decision to try ALL the green ice creams in the case, to laughing about BEEFHAWKS, and apparently getting on the owner's nerves with our boisterous laughing, it was clear we were the only people in the place having a GAY old time! So glad we met these two :)

365: HOLY SHIT

That's all I can say! Earlier this year I was reading my HRC magazine and I saw an article about the practice of "Grossing Up" by (so far) private companies to offset the tax penalties for domestic partners imposed by the Federal Government. As I've mentioned before this practice is obviously unfair and bothers the shit out of me (e.g. if Ange were a man I wouldn't pay taxes, but because we are same sex partners we're taxed--at 40% no less!) and of course being the sassy person I am I decided to do something about it.

Being new I didn't really know where to go so I reached out to my friend Jill who is the student rep to the CSU Board of Trustees and I figured would know where to go. She had some ideas and we both spent time meeting individually with people and together with some people. We were told there wasn't going to be much luck at changing things but we still thought it was important to put on the table. I worked mainly with people on campus and Jill worked mainly with the unions (student and faculty) and various trustees.

I hadn't heard much about it lately and as it's the end of the semester and I'm going to Africa in 2 weeks I haven't thought much about it. Today the Chancellor's Office released a statement related to the break down in negotiations between the CFA and the CSU and had a whole bunch of links to various things. One was a link to a "a handwritten list of items" to discuss. ONE OF THE ITEMS (of 9!) WAS GROSSING UP! OMG!!! My heart literally skipped a beat! [link here to the full list: http://www.calstate.edu/LaborRel/Contracts_HTML/bargaining-proposals/2012/04062012-CFA-05032012-Notes.pdf]

Now I'm not claiming this was solely because of the work that Jill and I did, but that's a pretty big coincidence! So whoever has been carrying this torch all the way to the negotiating table on behalf of the 23,000 faculty members in CA I say AWESOME JOB & THANK YOU!

365: Gala Night

Tonight was my department's spring gala to celebrate our spring interns and graduates. I was asked to be a "commencement" speaker at the event which was nice and fun. They gave me a thank you note and a cool stone coaster as a thank you gift. We had 51 students interning this semester--so many it was hard to get them all in a picture and impossible to get them all looking at the cameras at the same time! I did a quick panorama snap and called it a day. Yay for new young professionals!

365: Cinco de Mayo

Tonight Ange had an end of the year Geography Department social to attend, and although she invited me I didn't really want to be a 3rd wheel (or 61st as it turns out) to a party where everyone has a common bond and feel like the odd one out. Plus, so far in Chico we mostly have joint friends. One of us may be more friendly or familiar with someone(s) but we're generally friends with the same people. It's nice and healthy to have separate friends too so I thought this would be a nice way for Ange to further develop her friendships without having to worry about me being or feeling awkward. But of course I wasn't going to sit at home twiddling my thumbs so I made plans with another friend.

So coincidentally it was Cinco de Mayo. But as we don't really plan our days around mostly drinking holidays I didn't realize this until my friend mentioned it. All I knew is that I was NOT up for a big party so that limited our choices of what to do. We finally decided to grab some drinks and appetizers at a place close to her house (and far from the wild downtown area where there were sure to be lots of drunken students) and have a long relaxing evening on the patio. After a few hours we packed it in and went back to her house for some hot tubbing! Yes! Finally a friend that owns a hot tub! I told her ANY time she needed a hot tub buddy to call me up! Ahhhh, relaxing enjoyable evening!

365: Empowerment Rally

I was invited to speak at an Empowerment Rally organized by a class on campus. It was a communications class that focused on gender & communication, taught by someone I've never met, and organized by students that I've never met. I have no idea how they picked me. They contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I'd be one of their three speakers and if I could give a 15 minute presentation on body image. Sounded like it could be fun so why not?

It turned out to be a cool class project and was a lot of fun. They raised $500 during the week for our Safe Place program which does education and outreach around sexual and domestic violence on campus.

My talk focused on loving your body TODAY and not feeding into social & media messages telling you that you're not good enough the way you are. I think it went over pretty well with the students, and I know it went over very well with their instructor because she asked me to speak at a conference she organizes in the fall! All in all, an awesome empowering day!

365: House of Weirdos

A small glimpse into the weirdo house that is ours. I got my faculty regalia today. Since I'll only wear it once a year and it cost an arm and a leg I thought I'd practice using it and get some more mileage. I bet our dogs never thought they'd get doctor water!

Ange has a presentation she is nervous about tomorrow. She decided to practice for me tonight. Naturally to practice you need to full get into the moment and sanding next to the kitchen table is almost like a classroom right?

Doesn't everybody do these things at home?

365: Test Drive

Ange is in the market for some new pillows. She's very serious about pillow selections. She's been eyeballing some ones at Costco but hasn't really felt like committing to testing them out. But finally she dove in. Good thing because they failed miserably. The search continues.

365: Looking Out Over the Pride Land

Duke likes to pretend he's the Lion King. He'll sit at the top step of the deck for hours on end just watching the world go by. And by world go by I mean nothing happening. Because duh, we live at the bottom of the canyon. Maybe he sees a bird fly by every once in a while. Maybe he's reflecting back over his life. Who knows? All I know is he loves it and he sure looks cute doing it!

365: Draw Some

My sisters and I started playing a few different app-based games a while back. I've added a few other friends here and there but it's really fun to play with them because we have the same context for jokes and family inside info. I may not be Van Gogh, but I can draw some pretty funny things! This picture was modeled after my brother-in-law. I cracked myself all the hell up over it. Fun way to spend some alternative quality time with my sisters (and others!) each day.

365: Motivation

22 days until we leave for Africa.

SO MUCH WORK TO DO BEFORE THEN!

Luckily it was a gorgeous day and I pulled the hammock out of hibernation so I could enjoy the day, spend time with my babe AND get work done. Not too shabby!

365: Spyder & Scarlett

These were our get-ups for the white trash party (yes we know that's classist and not pc--it wasn't our party and we just rolled with it). Ange was also known as Spyder & I went by Scarlett. We carried ketchup and mustard bottles for our beverage containers. All together we spent about $25 putting our outfits together. It's ok to be jealous. We know we're hot.

365: Go Big or Go Home

One of my/our good friends texted me this morning to see if Ange and I wanted to have drinks this evening. Well drinks turned into more drinks turned into dinner and long (hilarious) conversations. We' finished our second pitcher of margaritas but had more stories to tell and since I wasn't driving I got one final drink. Grande margarita! Good times with a good friend. Olé!

365: All in a Day's Work

Today I walked into the HCSV office to find Ms. Tina here manhandling Bubba. Who's Bubba? He's our Department Mascot. He has a torso, head and arms--they just were waiting in the wagon until Bubba's body got put back on his stand. Bubba dresses up in all sorts or gear all year round. He's got a graduation outfit (that he's wearing now), a Santa Suit for Christmas, some casual Wildcat gear for non-holiday/celebration time. And of course he has his g-string. Since he gets moved around so much and is always changing clothes someone thought it would be a good idea if we didn't let him hang in the breeze all the time. And obvs a g-string is the best choice. The things you have to deal with if you are housed in our department! (And I'm talking about both Bubba and Tina)

365: Amazeballs

So first, a small rant. I get REALLY sick of hearing about how social media and Facebook in particular is causing the world to be more superficial and weakening "real friendships." These articles and comments in my experience come from two places:

1. Older people who don't actually understand technology all that well or are for some reason stuck in the "good old days" mentality (that doesn't actually exist) pre-technology. Basically, natural-born Luddites who resist innovation "cuz it's soooo scurry."

2. Hipsters who like to eschew technology because it's the cool anti-conformist thing to do. Basically, Luddites by choice because "I'm so much better than you because I don't participate in social media."

To which I call BULLSHIT.

I have several Facebook friends that I have become BETTER friends with (by many measures) because of Facebook. People that I know from various places in my past but if not for Facebook would be a distant memory because I'm probably not going to pick up the phone and chat with them or make plans to go see them. But because of Facebook they are people that I actually think about in more than a reminiscing way because we've built a connection via the web that wouldn't have been there without it.

And occasionally these people do astounding things that both amazes me AND fuels my disgust for the articles and comments that I mentioned above.

I got a quick Facebook message the other day from a Facebook friend that she'd popped a package in mail that contained some donation items that I could take with us on our upcoming African trip. Out of the blue. This person is a former grad student friend of mine, that again, I enjoy her and always thought she was great while in grad school, but we were never BFFs and OMG I'm going to miss you so much let's get matching tattoos! But through Facebook we have gotten to be much better friends than we have ever been "in real life."

Now this is NOT a diss to my "real life friends" (e.g. the people I do call on the phone on occasion, I do hang out with, people I do visit on vacay) because they are awesome and amazing as well, but how many of them have ever sent me a care package of donations without any prompting whatsoever? How can someone say that Natalie isn't a "real friend?" Get out of here with that nonsense. Friends come in a variety of formats and don't give me any speech about the quality of your friendships. Cause ALL of my friends rock. No matter how little I see them or how we conduct our friendship.

Rant aside, how cute is their return address stamp??? I love it!

And seriously, Natalie sent me BBQ Kettle Chips! Swoon! (We've had a mutual asynchronous conversation going on about the amazingness of Kettle chips for the past couple of weeks--that little package right there should be a major indicator of friendship status right there).

Anyway, longest 365 post yet right? But I just needed to put that out there. You're the bomb Natalie (& Tyler!) and you are definitely someone I count as a friend.

365: Obsessed

Confession: I am obsessed with Deadliest Catch.

I have NO idea why.

The show and I have exactly nothing in common. I'm a vegetarian and I abhor the continued pillaging of our seas. They're crab fisherman. They're all blue collar roughneck dudes. And clearly that is about as far from my life as you can get. The show reinforces a ton of gender stereotypes that I generally (fiercely) resist. I can't even fathom worse working conditions. All of the guys on the show are hardcore thrill seekers/risk takers. I've been terrified of a dead bat for two days. I really have no idea what the hook is for me. But the heart wants what the heart wants.

365: Riding the Bus!

'm ahead of schedule in my M/W Human Sexuality class so we got out of class earlier than usual. I had time to kill and it was a beautiful day so as I strolled along towards Stonewall to see my babe I saw the bus stop and thought "Hmm...I haven't rode the bus since I moved to Chico maybe I should do that?" and as if by magic a bus pulled up and I decided to hop on! All I knew is that it was headed in the direction I was going and that with a Chico State ID I could ride for free! According to Ange this made me a "weirdo" but whatevs! It was a random and fun adventure. I only rode about 5 stops before I bailed. I didn't want to ride all the way to Costco or wherever and be stuck there. More adventures to come once we move down here!

365: Old School Fun in the Sun

We've skipped over spring and headed full on into summer! It hit almost 90 degrees today and while we were bopping around town I decided we needed to throwback to the olden days and buy a sprinkler to play in! We looked several places and couldn't find one exactly like I was picturing from my youth but we found a pretty good substitute at Big Lots. We came home, hooked it up to the hose on the deck and ran through it for about half an hour. So. Much. Fun. And also like our youth it was nuddie pants only so we had to be crafty with the pictures we took! Definitely the best $3 we've spent in ages.

365: Post Carwash Par-Tay

The fundraiser carwash raised over $700 to fund HIV test kits for Stonewall! Wahoo! Of course we did what we do best and partied it up to celebrate our hardwork and sunburns! Love my peeps!

365: Deal of the Day!

While bringing Carmie to the vet this morning I spied a garage sale sign. So of course I made a mental note to stop on my way back up. I found this little baby laying on the lawn and the lady sold it to me for $0.50! It will make a perfect suitcase for hauling donated supplies to The Gambia next month and someone there will be a proud owner of a vintage suitcase when we're done with it! Love me some garage sales!

365: Doodles

I don't think I've ever seen more desk doodles than I do at Chico State. Almost every single classroom I've been in on campus has more than one desk with varying levels of doodles on them. Here was an interesting one I saw today. Alien invasion? Weird.

365: Caught Red Handed

The poison oak case I have is one of the worst I've ever had. I think I got it from giving the little girl dogs a bath this weekend. The most interesting part is checking out where I must have touched myself after giving them a bath and before I showered myself. This picture is of three fingerprint-shaped rashes I have on my upper stomach. So weird.

365: The Sleep Sack

Ange and I have a saying around the house. When you need to get wrapped up in blankets so good to stay warm and cozy it's called getting in the sleep sack! Last night we slept with the windows open since it was mid 70s in the Ranch yesterday. It might have been a little over zealous because this morning it was a bit chilly! After I got out of the shower I was feeling a little too Popsicle-like so I had to run and jump in the sleep slack until Ange got out of the shower! We're totally goofy. We know this.

365: My Life is Hilariously Awesome

How many of you have ever had the words anal intercourse appear in your performance/job review (and been ok with it :))? My job is amazing and I'm so happy to be here. For reasons other than anal intercourse, but that's just the cherry on top.

365: So Excited!!!

Tonight's Gambia party went well! Ange and I are super pumped for this trip! Only 36 more days til departure!!!

365: Don'tchawanna Fanta?

We're having our first official pre-departure meeting/party for the students going on the Gambia trip. We went out shopping today to get stuff for chicken yassa and when we were in the ethnic food aisle Ange spied these orange Fantas imported from Mexico! What would a Gambian dinner party be without orange Fanta?!?! We decided we'd roll them in the driveway and dirt tomorrow to make them look "more authentic." Can't wait to get these students PUMPED UP for this trip!!!

365: I Always Get What I Want!!!

Today was a great day. Nothing huge and spectacular happened but I got to spend the whole day with my love and I got everything I wanted. Including these bad boys. Domino's has been hitting the adverts hard in regards to these. They totally worked. We picked some up while we were in Chico and we ate almost the whole bag before we could get home! I highly recommend them. Tasty and delicious!

Thanks to everyone who left me a message, called or texted. It was a lovely day!

And of course thanks to my wife who made the day extra special by spoiling me silly even though she's still coming out of the flu bug that's had a hold of her all week. I love you boogs!

365: Rock On Old Man

Duke doesn't really like to play with dog toys. But he does love some rocks. We went on a walk this morning and he found this rock about a 1/4 of a mile from the house. He scooped it up and decided he didn't want either of us getting it so he ran ahead about 50 yards and kept looking back to make sure we were still coming but not close enough that his rock was in danger. When we finally got back to the house he ran out of places to go and I could finally snap his picture. He tried to sneak it in the house but got in trouble; he knows the rules, no rocks in the house!

365: Awesome Discovery

Since my little boogie bear is feeling under the weather I decided to pick up some Thai food for dinner since it's the only thing she's been hungry for in days. While I was waiting for it to be ready I wandered into some local shops to check out the goods. I found a cool card/paper/gift store and at the very back of the store I saw this awesome rack of gift wrap that was made to look like various metropolitan areas. So cool! Next time I have to give a fancy gift I'm totally getting some of this!