Monday, July 31, 2006

Look at what I can do...

OK, here is my first ball of handspun yarn. It took me about a week to spin it; I had two ounces of the roving, and wound up with about 25 yards of yarn. It's not very even, but I had fun! I've already started on the next batch of roving, of course!



Before I rolled it into a ball, I had it in the skein, drying:


And finally, a detail shot:

Friday, July 28, 2006

Oh, get over it already!


'Breast' Cover Gets Mixed Reaction

By JOCELYN NOVECK
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 27, 2006; 5:55 PM

NEW YORK -- "I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.

These readers weren't complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing, on a wholesome parenting magazine--yet another sign that Americans are squeamish over the sight of a nursing breast, even as breast-feeding itself gains more support from the government and medical community.

Babytalk is a free magazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo--a baby and part of a woman's breast, in profile--inappropriate.
(Read the rest of 'Breast' Cover Gets Mixed Reaction)

My favorite quote from the whole story was this:

"I'm totally supportive of it _ I just don't like the flashing," she says. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."


Yeah, they probably hate that! I suspect she actually means she didn't want them to accidentally see a breast that SHE didn't want them to see.

At any rate, I think people really just need to get over this issue. I've seen nursing women relegated to bathrooms (Eww! Would YOU want to eat in the bathroom?!?) and asked to leave restaurants just because they are feeding their baby. Just ridiculous.

When I was nursing my children, I was reasonably discreet and usually covered the baby/breast conjunction with a little blanket, but there was no way I was going to the bathroom to nurse. It says a lot about how puritanical and life-denying our culture really is that this is such a big deal. Isn't this 2006? What is wrong with people, anyway?

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

The Salt, or the Ketchup?

I just read this article in Parabola magazine regarding the work of Christopher Alexander. What most fascinated me in the article was a question asked by Alexander in his book, The Phenomenon of Life:

Suppose you and I are discussing this matter in a coffee-shop. I look around on the table for things to use in an experiment. There is a bottle of ketchup on the table, and, perhaps, an old-fashioned salt-shaker, both shown [below]. I ask you ‘Which one of these is more like your own self?’ […] you, your own self, in your totality.



I make it clear that I am asking which is the better picture of all of you, the whole of you: a picture which shows you as you are, with all your hopes, fears, weaknesses, glory and absurdity, and which - as far as possible - includes everything you could ever hope to be.



It may seem like a random question, but if you take it seriously, it is quite interesting. Apparently, more than percent of Alexander's subjects gave the same answer. As it turned out, it was my answer as well.

So, are you the salt shaker or the ketchup bottle?

Monday, July 24, 2006

Too. Freaking. Hot.

So it was 103 or 104 degrees (Farenheit) yesterday in Portland. It was intolerable. And today isn't much better... it's 95 and rising.

On top of that, my car will not start... oops, more later. The auto service is here to save the day!

Friday, July 21, 2006

Friday's Feast

Friday's Feast: a meme


Appetizer

Fill in the blanks: I fidget when I try to sit still.

Soup
Name something you use to make your home smell good.

Incense... except my husband hates it. He's not being a jerk, he just has a lot of environmental sensitivities and breathing problems, so I really can only use it in certain areas of the house, and especially if he's not home and not going to be home for a few hours. Scented candles are RIGHT OUT! He can't even stand them to be on the same floor as he is. A lot of them are too strong. Anyway, the thing I can use and that I do like is Trader Joe's air freshener. It's a sage and lemongrass scent... very nice, and good for when the dog farts!

Salad
If you could receive a coupon in the mail for 50% off any product, what would you want it to be for?

Yarn. Good yarn. Or books. Wait, can the coupon be for yarn and books?

Main Course
Besides sleeping, what do you spend the majority of the hours of your typical day doing?

Working. Isn't that just a terrible answer? I can't help it, I'm American. We work our asses off. Or we're supposed to.

In truth, my workday is probably evenly split between goofing off and actually working. I'm trying to improve that ratio (in favor of work, that is; see Demotivated post below.) I spend a great deal of time on the web... surfing and working and reading and researching. Yeah, I love to research stuff.

At home, I spend most of my hours semi-watching TV. I'm not really that big a TV fan, but Hubby is handicapped and can't really do that much in the evening. So he sits and watches TV and movies. So there are some shows that I actually care about watching, some shows that I watch with Hubby, and a lot of shows I sit through so that I can just be with Hubby. In the latter category, I do a lot of getting up to do other things during the show: let the dogs out to pee, check email, have a smoke, grab a basket of laundry, help the son with his homework, etc. And of course, when I'm sitting watching TV, a lot of times I'm really knitting and sometimes looking at the TV.

Dessert
What can you hear right now while answering these questions?

I heard one of my co-workers talking about a movie he saw last night at our local film center. Now I hear nothing but the click-clack of my own keyboard and an occasional squeak from my boss's chair. It's a pretty quiet day here at the office. And thank god, Friday is almost over.

Blog problem

Well, I'm trying to figure out how to fix a little problem with my blog template. The background image at the top does not seem to display in Firefox, which is my preferred browser! It used to display OK. Argh! I wonder if it's just my computer... I'll have to try it out on some different machines, but if anyone knows why this is going on, please let me know. Thanks.

De-motivated


I don’t think "demotivated" is a word that appears in the dictionary, but I saw it in yesterday’s Dilbert.

Anyway, I want to have a better attitude at work, but I am seriously demotivated. No one at my company has had a raise in 5 years, and no sign of one coming anytime soon. I’m a good, but imperfect, employee, interested in improving my work performance because I will feel better about myself and my job if I do. But the wage situation is so dismal, it’s hard to keep that want going.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Voila!

OK, here she is... the finished Wobbly Circles tote.


I knit this up on US13 needles, in Lamb's Pride Worsted. I used not quite two skeins of the amethyst, and less than a skein each of the orange, blue, green, and pink. (Can't recall the official names of those colors, but that's the jist of them.) I only bought the main color, because I had the rest in stash already. So it's also the first time I've been able to knit something significant from stash. Nice!

Wobbly, side two



I finished Side Two of my Wobbly tote last night... then I stitched her up, and felted her, and she's drying on my kitchen table. Woohoo!

I understand it takes her a while to dry, so, luckily, I still get to practice my patience. Oh, goody.

Anyway, the final photo will be up in a few days....

Monday, July 17, 2006

To spin, perchance to dream

I just ordered this: Skeintily Clad's Learn to Spin Yarn Kit

The Very Exciting sell copy is below. And yes, I did hear about in Bust.



Want to try making your own yarn? Here is everything you need to start making your own, all in one box! As featured in Bust Magazine (April/May '06)

    it includes:
  • 1 beginner drop spindle. Can be configured 4 different ways, so you can try out different spinning styles.

  • 1 oz each of FOUR different breeds of wool. 2 are handpainted, 2 are white. This wool sampler gives you a chance to start with an 'easy' wool and work your way up to scrumptious merino. NEW: all wool in this kit now comes from local, independantly owned farms. You get a chance to try a variety of types of wool, but also support indie business!

  • 'So You Wanna Spin Your Own Yarn?' Spinning Instruction booklet written and illustrated by Skeintily Clad! unique, can't be found anywhere else. This is completely unique and not available from any other beginner spinning kit out there.

  • Informational pamphlet of my favorite resources for spinning and dyeing.


Colors vary in every kit. If you have specific requests, let me know and i will try to accomodate.

Very attractively packaged, it makes a wonderful gift for your knitting friend that mentioned wanting to learn spinnig. Maybe your SnB buddy? Hello, Secret Pal gift?! Also a great gift for crafty kids, its SO easy for them to pick it up and get started making their own yarn!


OK, so I'd been thinking about learning spinning for a while now. Not like a serious need or anything, just one of the vague and nebulous ideas bouncing around up there in my noggin. But then, Hubby discovered a show called Knitty Gritty on the D.I.Y. Network.

"Hey," he said. "Look, here's a knitting show for you," and he flipped the channel. Yes, indeed, he flipped it to a knitting show, which he then proceeded to watch with me. What a great husband, eh?

Anyway, my point is that they were doing a show on spinning. They showed how to make a drop spindle out of a wooden dowel, an eyehook, and a couple of old CDs. And of course, they demonstrated spinning with the drop spindle, as well as with several big spinning wheels. They spent considerably less time on the wheels, because they are big and expensive and I'm sure people who use spinning wheels aren't the beginners this episode was clearly for.

Then, when I saw the mention of this kit in Bust... well, that just sealed the deal. I hope it gets here by the end of the week, and then I can play around with it all weekend!

Friday, July 14, 2006

Too Good for Marriage

Too Good for Marriage

By KENJI YOSHINO
Published: July 14, 2006


LAST week, New York’s highest court voted 4-to-2 that a legislative ban on same-sex marriage did not violate the state Constitution. In doing so, it added to the patchwork of state rulings on the issue, including those of Indiana and Arizona (which similarly upheld legislative bans) and Massachusetts (which struck down a legislative ban).

What’s noteworthy about the New York decision, however, is that it became the second ruling by a state high court to assert a startling rationale for prohibiting same-sex marriage — that straight couples may be less stable parents than their gay counterparts and consequently require the benefits of marriage to assist them. (click the title above to read the whole editorial)


Naturally, it pains me that the court struck down gay marriage. But what interesting reasoning.... In this opinion piece, Yoshino eventually concludes that this reasoning is given because it just sounds better. You know, less bigoted. I agree. Because since when do we give special rights to people for being unstable, immature, or otherwise unfit? You know, "special rights," like the "special rights" anti-gay bigots are always accusing glbt folks of wanting.

I think this decision is really quite a stretch. It has become increasingly clear that there is just no good reason for denying gays the right to marry. Our marriage laws clearly violate the civil and human rights of gay people. They should be changed at once. It's that simple.

Super Cool: Pandora Internet Radio

Pandora Internet Radio

This is pretty damn cool, if you like music. Pandora Radio is a result of the Music Genome Project.

Tim Westergren, the founder of the Music Genome Project, describes the project:

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.


So basically, you type in an artist or song that you like, and Pandora creates a radio station with music that shares the same musical attributes. You can rate each song (thumbs up or thumbs down), so the radio can get to know even better what you want to hear and what you don't want to hear. You can find out why Pandora has chosen any song. You can create up to 100 personalized stations.

Very cool.

So far, I've created the following radio stations:

Tori Amos Radio
R.E.M. Radio
Prince
Elliott Smith Radio
David Bowie Radio
Depeche Mode Radio
The Coral Radio

And just now, I am listening to R.E.M Radio... Pandora is playing a song called Big Darkness by a band called Crooked Fingers. I've never heard of them before, but I like what I hear so far.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

StopIE

StopIE: Help stop Internet Explorer, the world's most popular and worst internet browser

Internet Explorer's Main Problems

There are countless bugs in Internet Explorer, but here are the main reasons to choose a free alternative.

  • Prone to viruses and worms

  • Renders pages incorrectly. Web designers then need to spend extra time working so that pages work in Internet Explorer. This puts costs up, and slows the web down.

  • Doesn't let people resize certain text sizes. This means those with poor sight cannot read small text on many sites.

  • Far slower program than other web browsers

  • Far larger program than other web browsers

  • Isn't as user-centric as other web browsers. It lacks many handy features such as tabbed browsing and integrated search

  • Doesn't support PNG images properly



Me? I recommend Firefox. I love the tab feature and the addons. In fact, I found this StopIE site by using a Firefox addon called Stumble Upon. While we're talking about how awesome Mozilla is, I'd also like to mention that my favorite email client of all time is Thunderbird, which, like Firefox, is completely free.

Earth Day Footprint Quiz

Earth Day Footprint Quiz

I know it's not Earth Day, but try this quiz anyway. My results show that I do slightly better than average, but I've got a long way to go. To decrease my footpring somewhat, I plan to replace more of our incandescent bulbs with those compact flourescents.

My results:

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 5.7
MOBILITY 0.7
SHELTER 7.7
GOODS/SERVICES 5.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 20


IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.4 PLANETS.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Casanova update...

Casanova continues to do well. He is happy and seems to be back to his usual good mood. He enjoys going outside and sitting in the sun on nice days. His diarrhea has even gotten better. Very strange.... but we're grateful for whatever time we have.

A few knitted items...

OK, here's my most recent finished project:





This is a set of bibs and burp cloths I made from Sugar n'Cream and Peaches & Creme cotton yarn. They're for a former co-worker who's having a baby next month. They were really fun and easy to work up. Despite this, everyone I've shown them to at work seems quite impressed. Hehe!
















Then I have two other projects on my needles. One is another square for my Log Cabin blanket, ala Mason-Dixon Knitting (the bibs and burp cloths are also from MDK). I'm working this up in Blue Sky Cotton, which is really soft and lovely to work with. I'll make a dozen of these squares... hopefully, that will make a big enough afghan to cover our queen-sized bed... if not, I can always make a few more to make it bigger.



Finally, we have the first side of my Wobbly Circles Tote. This is a "first intarsia" pattern from Interweave Knits. There's a Wobbly Knit-Along, but I don't think I started mine in time to join. I started it maybe a month ago, snatching the Spring Interweave Knits just before they took it off the supermarket magazine rack! Whew!

Anyway, it is my first intarsia. It was frustrating at first, the colors tangling and all. So I asked my favorite knitlist for advice, and they assured me that my yarn would tangle no matter what I did, and that I should just deal with it. I also got the recommendation to do what Kaffe Fassett does, and just "let it hang."

So that's what I did: I just let strands of the colors hang off the back, no bobbins or butterflies or anything like that. Since I'm working this up in Lamb's Pride Worsted, I soon realized that it was a great time to practice my spit-splice!

The fact that the bag will be felted in the end gave me the confidence I needed to try spit-splicing: after all, I thought, even if my splice is weak, once the bag is felted it will NEVER come loose! So I worked on it, and finally got the hang of it. My spit-splice is beautiful, if I do say so myself. That also means fewer ends to weave in. Woohoo!


That's it on the knitting front for now...

10 reasons why gay marriage should be illegal

10 reasons why gay marriage should be illegal

01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.


No, I didn't write this, and I don't know who did. But I like it. A lot.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Stuff on Louis

As featured on stuffonmycat.com:

Happy Birthday, Son!

Well, actually, he doesn't read my blog anyway. But my son turned 15 this weekend, and I measured him to see how much taller than me he is now. I'm 5'6", and it turns out he's 5'7" now... hmmm, I thought he seemed a bit taller than that. Still... it's weird when your kid gets bigger than you!

Thursday, July 06, 2006

This ought to work on kids, too...

What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage

By AMY SUTHERLAND
New York Times
Published: June 25, 2006


AS I wash dishes at the kitchen sink, my husband paces behind me, irritated. "Have you seen my keys?" he snarls, then huffs out a loud sigh and stomps from the room with our dog, Dixie, at his heels, anxious over her favorite human's upset.

In the past I would have been right behind Dixie. I would have turned off the faucet and joined the hunt while trying to soothe my husband with bromides like, "Don't worry, they'll turn up." But that only made him angrier, and a simple case of missing keys soon would become a full-blown angst-ridden drama starring the two of us and our poor nervous dog.

Now, I focus on the wet dish in my hands. I don't turn around. I don't say a word. I'm using a technique I learned from a dolphin trainer.

I love my husband. He's well read, adventurous and does a hysterical rendition of a northern Vermont accent that still cracks me up after 12 years of marriage.

But he also tends to be forgetful, and is often tardy and mercurial. He hovers around me in the kitchen asking if I read this or that piece in The New Yorker when I'm trying to concentrate on the simmering pans. He leaves wadded tissues in his wake. He suffers from serious bouts of spousal deafness but never fails to hear me when I mutter to myself on the other side of the house. "What did you say?" he'll shout.

These minor annoyances are not the stuff of separation and divorce, but in sum they began to dull my love for Scott. I wanted — needed — to nudge him a little closer to perfect, to make him into a mate who might annoy me a little less, who wouldn't keep me waiting at restaurants, a mate who would be easier to love.

So, like many wives before me, I ignored a library of advice books and set about improving him. By nagging, of course, which only made his behavior worse: he'd drive faster instead of slower; shave less frequently, not more; and leave his reeking bike garb on the bedroom floor longer than ever.

We went to a counselor to smooth the edges off our marriage. She didn't understand what we were doing there and complimented us repeatedly on how well we communicated. I gave up. I guessed she was right — our union was better than most — and resigned myself to stretches of slow-boil resentment and occasional sarcasm.

Then something magical happened. For a book I was writing about a school for exotic animal trainers, I started commuting from Maine to California, where I spent my days watching students do the seemingly impossible: teaching hyenas to pirouette on command, cougars to offer their paws for a nail clipping, and baboons to skateboard.

I listened, rapt, as professional trainers explained how they taught dolphins to flip and elephants to paint. Eventually it hit me that the same techniques might work on that stubborn but lovable species, the American husband.

The central lesson I learned from exotic animal trainers is that I should reward behavior I like and ignore behavior I don't. After all, you don't get a sea lion to balance a ball on the end of its nose by nagging. The same goes for the American husband.

(Read the rest of: What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage)


I may have mentioned sometime in the past that I have two children, both teenagers now. My daughter, 17, just graduated high school, but my son, who will be 15 in a few days, just flunked out his freshman year. Of the 24 credits he should have earned, he earned 3. Yes, that's right, just the three.

This is not just about adjusting to high school. This is a battle we've been fighting for years now. My son has never done well in school. It's not because he's not bright--he's exceptionally bright, something he tells me he's really sick of hearing. But he doesn't do the work. Indeed, he spends more time and energy getting out of homework than it would take to just do the work. I've tried to explain that to him, but he just refuses to get it.

So, anyway, he has to go to summer school. Unfortunately, he can only make up one class in summer school, but it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Plus, it's algebra, so he should be able to handle that OK. He's capable of doing it, and there won't be any big projects to keep track of. That always seems to mess him up.

This morning, I woke him up to drive him to school. Unfortunately, it turned into our usual morning fight:

Me: Get up, it's time to get ready for school.

C: OK. (Remains in bed.)

Me: Get up, please.

C: OK. (Remains in bed.)

Five minutes pass.

Me: Get up, please.

C: OK. (Remains in bed.)

Five more minutes pass.

Me: HEY! PLEASE, will you get up?!

C: I AM!

Me: NO! You are awake, you are looking at me, but you are in bed. That is NOT UP! Get UP and get into the shower!

Five more minutes pass. No, I'm not kidding!

Me: C! Get up right this minute and get into the shower!!

He finally gets up. He gets in the shower, and stays there for 15-20 minutes. He gets out and goes into his room with a towel on.

Me: C, you have only five minutes to get dressed before we need to leave.

C: OK.

Three minutes pass.

Me: Are you dressed? Go brush your teeth, we have to leave in two minutes.

I open his bedroom door. He is still in his towel, but he does have a pair of boxers in his hand.


Me: What? Aren't you dressed yet? We don't have any time left? PLEASE hurry up and get dressed! We need to leave!

C, still in a towel with his underwear in hand: I AM getting dressed!

Finally, we leave, ten minutes later than I wanted to. He tells me I'm mean to him. He says he doesn't have any trouble getting out of bed at his dad's house. I ask why, and then he says I'm too nice when I ask him to get up.

My head explodes.

What?!? Am I too nice or too mean? You can't have it both ways.

It seems like C's always in trouble because of school work. So for summer school, we're going to try something different. Instead of punishing him for not getting his work done, I'm going to let him earn computer and/or video game time for homework. I think maybe a half an hour for every assignment completed. Maybe a carrot will work better than a stick, although generally I feel like we've tried everything already.

And lest you think the article above has nothing to do with my post, I will definitely be trying some of the techniques Sutherland mentions: completely ignoring it when he talks back to me, maybe? I'm afraid if I ignore his staying in bed, he just won't get up.

Sigh. We'll see.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Hold that phone, mister!



Ah, yes... a reprieve.

We cancelled that nasty vet appointment. What a relief!

I got a phone call from my daughter Monday afternoon--after several days of refusing food and puking up whatever he did eat--Casanova was begging her for food! I told her to feed him whatever he wanted to eat. She gave him a slice of whole grain bread, a bit of sliced turkey, and half a can of prescription dog food. He ate it all and kept it down.

When I got home, Cass was playing with a dog toy in the kitchen! He did his little welcome home dance for me, and clearly was feeling really well.

Obviously, he's not cured of cancer, but he was doing so well, we just couldn't keep that vet appointment. I know we'll probably still have to put him to sleep soon, but we've gotten a temporary reprieve, and we are glad to have just a little extra time with our sweet little dog.

Hooray!

Monday, July 03, 2006

Casanova, you're a fine dog



This is Casanova, our French Bulldog. He is 11 years old and suffering from intestinal cancer. He's been pretty OK since he was diagnosed this spring, but over the weekend he really took a turn for the worse. Hubby and I talked about having him put to sleep, but we wanted to have the rest of Sunday--our only day off together--with him.

Casanova (sometimes "Gas-anova" or "Kissy-nova") was a show dog in his younger days. He was a "finished champion," which meant he had won several shows, and his breeder was done showing him. She also decided not to breed him anymore, as his front legs were just slightly bowed and she didn't want to propagate that quality in her line anymore. Anyway, when he was about 3 years old, his breeder placed him with us. He was actually supposed to stud out one more time, but that never wound up happening. Too bad; we would have loved to have one of his puppies. But Frenchie's have very small litters and are very expensive, so maybe that wouldn't have worked out anyway.

When we met Casanova, he ran to us and jumped up on our laps, and started kissing Hubby and I all over our faces. He was so sweet! The breeder told us some stuff about him (that he gets excited and nips people sometimes; that he would eat anything we would give him, so be careful he doesn't get fat; that sort of thing). We took him on home, and I don't think he ever looked back.

After a week with Casanova, I would say to Hubby, "How did we ever live without one of these? I want a dozen just like him!" He is simply the most loving and joyful dog I have ever known. In eight years, I have never seen him angry. He loves everyone, but especially Hubby and I (in that order). He sits and just gazes at us sometimes. When he first came to live with us, he slept with us, and he loved it if we would both cuddle him in between us. If we started kissing and hugging, he would bark at us to let him in, too! He especially likes to cuddle up real close and gently nibble our earlobes, or the tips of our noses. He is very funny and charming.

It all seems like just yesterday, but of course it's been about 8 years.

We have an appointment to take him to the vet this evening. I will really miss him.

And I sincerely hope we're done dealing with death for a while. In one year's time, we've lost two cats, two dogs (yes, counting Cass), two friends (and one in the year prior), and a parent (Hubby's mother). At this moment, no one else we know is terminally ill or particularly aged, so maybe we can get on with LIFE for a while.

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