Bi And Large

Yeah so like the title says... we got a dog today!

And I got all excited and text messaged a bunch of people and had like three people ask me "Uh Who the hell are you?" Which surprised me... since I use my cell phone all the time now. Apparently not as much as I thought since a few people didn't know the number! Anyway yes it was me. And we have a DOG!

Her name is Charlotte Apple Fitzgerald. Charlotte is the name she came with and it suits her, so it's staying; and Amy said her middle name had to be Apple. So Charlotte Apple it is. She's a young (5 months) St. Bernard and she's GORGEOUS.

Story:

OK so we've been talking about getting a dog since we moved into this house, which was the week before I got pregnant with Iris. We've kind of slowly been looking into it and reading up on different breeds and stuff. We both knew we wanted a large dog but we hadn't really narrowed it down past that. Pete and I both grew up with lots of dogs - him with German Shepherds and me with everything from bichons to cocker spaniels to labs to newfoundlands. There are several dogs in our neighborhood and the girls are VERY good with them - not screamy or jumpy or pokey, just calm and respectful most the time. It was time for a dog!

This morning we spent the day at the zoo. Which was WONDERFUL by the way, but we all got way too hot and sticky and tired. We just overdid it. So we come home, get the girls settled down for a rest, and came up to the office to sit in front of the computers and vegetate for a while, trying to wind down. I ran out of websites to stare out so I started paging through Craigslist, which always has a lot of super interesting stuff on it. I stumbled upon a listing for a st bernard puppy, in a town close to ours, and opened it. There were pictures and she just stole my heart. I sort of nonchalantly asked Pete if he ilked the look of her, and he said "Hey, do you want a dog?" We looked at each other and grinned. I emailed the poster thinking that such a gorgeous dog so far down the list was probably spoken for already.

I hit send and went to the bathroom. While I was peeing, maybe 3 minutes after sending the email, we got a phone call from her previous owners. They said they had had some pretty shady replies to their post but we sounded like a good home for her, and did we want to come over after dinner and see her? So we did (except we were so excited we didn't eat, just went basically) and met the most WONDERFUL family. Their kids were 4, 2, and 5 months - not too far off ours! The girls LOVED Charlotte at first sight and so did we. And, what a great family she had been with. We enjoyed our visit and I think, hopefully, everyone left thinking this was the best thing for everyone. And just like that, we had a dog. I'm still a bit in shock!

The family she came from had only had her 5 days. It turns out they also got her off a Craigslist posting, and she was not in great shape when they picked her up. The owner smoked nonstop around them, and lived in a really filthy place, and the dogs she had were dirty and unhappy. They were just bundles of dirt, hairmats, and burrs. They said she had another dog, a little dog, and it was hardly recognizeable as a dog. So they took her home, got her cleaned up, bathed, groomed, etc. Supposedly she has AKC papers but since the first owner seemed so shady who knows what will turn up. Anyway the family loved her, and their kids adored her, but they live in a townhouse with no yard which doesn't work with a st bernard. Plus, young dogs are a LOT of work and they had enough human babies to keep their hands full. So they decided she just couldn't stay. Which is where we came in!

She's HUGE but she's housebroken and learning some commands really fast. She's gentle with the girls and they think she's amazing. A good chunk of our yard is fenced so already she can run and play in the grass off leash and she's so happy! She was just wriggling and bouncing with delight tonight. We made a late night run for a giant dog bed, cleared a corner in our room for her, and right now she's zonked out with some new toys on her giant dog pillow listening to Pete snore.

Ludo the cat is NOT impressed. He is doing a lot of sulking and hissing and generally expressing his dismay. But I think he will adjust.

Now I just have to get to the vet, and find some obedience classes for her. Tomorrow's jobs! I'm just really happy!

Pictures are uploaded into the Other Stuff album. There's just a few from this evening when we first came home, hopefully we'll have more as the days go by!

Jeezus Maril, or Marli, or however the hell you spell your name today.

STOP STALKING MY BLOG YOU FRUITCAKE! I'm not going to ask you again.

Don't make me have to go to moderated comments. What a pain in the ass for everyone you're turning out to be.

(Hey and by the way, don't you even READ the blogs you're spamming? Why in God's name would I want to improve my fertility? For the love of pickles, I'm doing anything I can to get away from it! We're SO done with that stage.)

Well we're doing a pretty damn good job of relaxing this long weekend so far, after such a horribly long week. Saturday we did basically nothing all day, just napped and puttered in the garden, and it was lovely to just do NOTHING for a while.

Today Pete let me sleep in, and around noon or 1:00 Greg called and was headed over for a BBQ. The weather is *perfect* - about 75 and sunny with a slight breeze and bright blue sky. We cleaned up a little, Greg and I ran out for groceries, and boy did we ever find groceries! One of the things I love most about Greg is that he is not the kind of friend who asks, "Potato salad or macaroni salad?" He just puts both in the cart! He also does a really excellent job on the grill. So here is what we had for our feast. Keep in mind now there were only 3 adults and 2 kids eating this.

4 half-pound sirloin steaks, spiced

6 chicken drumsticks in BBQ sauce

8 hot dogs with buns

Gorgeous garlic cheese toast

6 ears of corn

2 GIANT buckets of deli salad - potato salad and macaroni salad

A large jar of dill pickles

Watermelon slices  at least a 30lb melon

Chocolate brownies with chocolate chip frosting

Beer

Wine

Rootbeer and Coke

It was a *feast.* We ate until we were sick and then we talked until we could eat some more. We sat on blankets out on the grass and the kids played on the swings and it was really just a perfect day.

Tonight is "movie night" in our neighborhood. Every Memorial Day, our neighbors across the street get an old projector and a sheet and set up a movie in the backyard. Everyone in the neighborhood brings over a blanket or some chairs and snacks and we all hang out in the backyard watching a movie under the stars together. Since it has to be dark to show the movie, and it's not dark until past 9:00, it's too late for our kids. But beforehand another neighbor (down the street 2 houses) holds a neighborhood BBQ so everyone eats together before the movie; and has drinks, chips and hot dogs and the kids all run free and crazy in their yard. After we cleaned up a little from our feast, we went over there to just sit and chat and let the girls play with their friends for a while. It's SO nice to just walk across the street to see friends. We grabbed a can of soda and talked and laughed; Iris played in the playhouse and Amy went on the swings and followed the bigger kids back into the marsh / watershed that's back there to blow cattails and look for turtles.

Amy told me excitedly this evening "We went to TWO parties today!" and it's true! We're so blessed to be surrounded by such great friends and neighbors here. The support is incredible and the security of knowing everyone around and we're all looking out for each other. I'm lucky. And it's summer at last, and the mozzies aren't too bad yet, and life just doesn't get any better!

I talked to my dad AND my mom tonight and things have improved again which is excellent. They killed off the original bacteria, although she has picked up a staph infection in the hospital. Fortunately it's not the scary resistant staph, just normal stuff, and she can go on oral abx. Her wound is closing and everything looks good, and all going well they plan on discharging her tomorrow morning! So yay! She's still upset about spending more time in the hospital but hopefully getting home will help her feel better. Today she felt good enough to go for a walk outside with my dad and that lifted her spirits quite a bit!

Me news: not much. I did get my new dishwasher on Saturday, finally and it's gorgeous. I love it and it has a TON more space than my old one did, and all kinds of cool features! So this is a plus.

We've had good weather and has the kids outside a lot. I had a nice walk with Amy the other night where we went around our block twice (around our block = going past 8 houses) and during that little walk we were stopped for a chat by 4 neighbors. One brought out a new cat to show off, one had pictures of her daughter's prom for us to see, one introduced us to friends and their dog. I LOVE this kind of neighborhood. Everybody knows everybody else. True community.

I've been feeling out of sorts lately and it's bothering me and making me kind of grumpy. I've also been very apathetic about gardening this year (except my blueberries!) which is VERY unlike me. Tonight I forced myself to go out with Amy and at least buy the stuff to put her garden in for the year before it gets too late. She chose strawberries, cherry tomatoes, pumpkins, capsicum / bell pepper, and cauliflower. Thankfully I think she will eat all of those things!

Tonight while running to the nursery we stopped for a quick bite to eat and the family sitting at a table near us were obviously VERY shocked by seeing a fat chick out in public. Eating no less! All through the meal their kids stared at me and whispered to their parents and pointed. Which doesn't bother me as much as parents who then tell their children "try not to look at it!" or some such nonsense like that. Yeah, I look different. So you noticed. Smart kids! It's not a bad thing, and I'm really a very nice person. I smiled and waved at the kids. They looked terrified. Which gave me another because that means they have been taught, directly or indirectly, that fat is a really awful, terrible, scary thing. Now, this kind of thing happens ALL the time. Almost every day. And usually I can either brush it off or make a 'teachable moment' of it. (When I overhear kids say things like, "Wow, she's really fat!" I love to grin and say, "Thank you!") But right now I'm feeling vulnerable and it just made me feel self conscious. That and angry that there are still grown ups out there who would probably never dream of teaching their kids that people with different skin tones or ages or abilities are so threatening, but they give their kids the belief that fat is a blight on the earth that happens to very bad people, and you shouldn't get too close or make eye contact or you might catch it. Oy. Enough about that though.

Things are fine overall. Mom is better, and I have a clean kitchen again, and plants to put in the ground, and adorable children. It's all good.

Mom's still in the hospital

She's fine, as in she's not in any danger or anything, but she's very very disappointed and depressed. She wouldn't speak to anyone all day today. I feel bad for her.

They have been able to find 2 different strains of bacteria in her infection (one gamma positive and one gamma negative, whatever that means) but they have NOT been able to identify either strain. So the worry is that she may have a type of resistant bacteria, and if so they can't release her on oral antibiotics. Until they figure out what's going on, they need to keep her on the IV abx and keep a close eye on the wound. On top of that, she hasn't been able to fight it off quite as well as they would like to see. It's draining OK, but still infected. her WBC count is still up and she still has a fever, although it's mild.

Enough to keep her stuck in the hospital.

I'm sorry for her because she missed the wedding, and time with her family, and because she's scared and uncomfortable. Hopefully tomorrow things will look better for a discharge. They are talking about giving her IV abx at home, like they did in 2004 for her; but that time she was home in a wheelchair with an attached IV for 4 weeks after she was able to leave the hospital. My brother's wedding is coming up and that does NOT sound conducive to mother of the groom stuff. (Not that anyone else would care, but she might very well curl up and die if she wasn't the star of her baby's wedding!)

Anyway still in a holding pattern, but nothing real serious or anything. Please keep her in your thoughts!

I got some bad news today - I called my mom this morning because I was frustrated with the dishwasher stuff and wanted to vent, and my dad answered the phone This is WAY out of normal because my dad is very much a workaholic. He works 80 - 90 hour weeks, more when he's stressed, and he has refused to leave work in emergencies before. My mom is back in the hospital with the same kind of infection that almost killed her and left her disabled a couple years ago. This time they caught it earlier (By the time we got her in to the ER last time she was unconscious, septic, and in organ failure... she stayed in a coma for a few days and in the hospital for more than 4 months, and couldn't walk again until last year.) This time my dad and sis got her in as soon as they noticed her "flu" had turned into a 103 temp and she had a red swollen spot on her abdomen. Somehow she's got an infection there. She is a Type 1 / juvenile diabetic, and has lived with diabetes for 50 years now! Which is impressive, but it has taken a toll on her body, and infections really can turn fast into a problem for her now. Especially since her bout with sepsis.

They drained it and put her in a few IV's of antibiotics, zofran for her nausea (the infection makes her puke, and she can't keep her blood sugar stable that way) and some really good pain meds to help manage her pain. The infection was bad enough she had a terrible headache and backache. But she has stayed conscious and is even aware enough to be worried that she will miss my cousin's (Sammy's, for those who care) wedding tomorrow. My dad hadn't called my brother or me, so I know he's REALLY worried if he forgot that. The few days she wasn't expected to live in 2004 were really tough on him and this brings back some hard memories I am sure.

Anyway I'm waiting on a phone call to let me know if they caught it early enough that she is fine after the abx, or if she needs more care than that. If it's the latter, I will probably be going out to California for the weekend at least. I'll try to keep updated but I am not 100% sure what my internet access will be like. If nothing else I will email OK?

Thanks for your good thoughts everyone!

So today is HOT and muggy and gross at our place. It was mid-90's yesterday and never really cooled off. It was already 80 when I woke up this morning. Icky.

We planned on just staying inside with the A/C running and getting the house in shape today. I put on a load of laundry and a load of dishes, and the girls started getting bored and squirrely. So, I decided that since we have overdue library books we could take them back. I packed everyone up, we took the books back, the girls played at the library for 15 minutes or so, and we headed home for lunch.

When we got home the girls wanted to go straight out back to play, so I let them. I went back through the garage and opened the house door - to a cloud of acrid black smoke! Yuck! I couldn't see any fire so I raced around the house trying to find where it was coming from and grab the cat / hamster. (Both are fine, if a little ticked off, BTW.)

As it turns out, it was our dishwasher. Now, this dishwasher has been on the way out for a while. It's original to the house, so 20 years old, and it looks / acts it. But money is really tight since we went to Australia this year, and it works OK, so we haven't been able to justify replacing it. It has a large rubber stopper thing on the bottom sprayer, about 5" across. And somehow it managed to throw off this rubber gasket thing while it was washing dishes, and it landed on the heating element. And then during the dry cycle, it caught fire. Burnt rubber and smoke, now there's something I enjoy in my house every day. It ddin't get out of the dishwasher thankfully, so we're all fine and the hosue is fine. I'm very grateful. But it ruined not only the dishwasher itself but a lot of the stuff in it. I know I have to replace all of the silicone kid stuff washing in there; I tried scrubbing some of it and the grey color and smell wouldn't come off. I don't know yet about the dishes. They look pretty bad. I'm going to be sad if I have to toss all of them because my new giant mug from Mother's Day was in there :(

Anyway that's my exciting story of the day. Three cheers for credit at Home Depot, right?

Mother's Day was lovely, by the way. Pete went out of his way and brought all kinds of stuff. They woke me up with coffee in bed and there were cards, flowers, and gifts! Some handmade stuff that's so precious, and photos that the nanny took of the kids which are adorable, a new giant mug for my morning coffee, and a bird feeder. It was wonderful! I'm a lucky mom and I have such a wonderful family :)

OK back to breathing burnt rubber. I have all the windows open which BITES in this muggy heat but what are ya gonna do. How gross.

Someone had WAY too much fun with Flash, and the result is the BEST.

TIMEWASTER

EVER!!!!!!

Seriously it's an "impossible quiz." So far, as of this writing, Pete and I have gotten to question 60. Someone online said they made it to 80. Who knows how far it goes. It's crazy. And addictive. You might not think so, but oh, you WILL come back to it....

http://www.gamershood.com/flashgames/2902

Tornado season is upon us. Our sirens sounded tonight, and Kansas was hit by two days of tornadoes in a row, leveling parts of the state. Which makes me think of Pat Robertson, always good for a laugh; and his theory that homosexuality causes natural disasters. He's a winner that one.

A friend passed along this link today and it was such a good chuckle, I thought I'd share it here too.

Do Unnatural Acts Cause Natural Disasters?

Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, recently warned Orlando, Florida, that it was courting natural disaster by allowing gay pride flags to be flown along its streets. "A condition like this will bring about ... earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor," he said, apparently referring to his belief that the presence of openly gay people incurs divine wrath and that God acts through geological and meteorological events to destroy municipalities that permit gay people the same civil liberties as others. (Robertson also warned Orlando about terrorist bombs, suggesting the possibility that God may also employ terrorists.)

Before Pat and his Christian cronies get too carried away promulgating the idea that natural disasters are prompted by people who displease God, they should take a hard look at the data. Take tornadoes. Every state (except Alaska) has them--some only one or two a year, dozens in others. Gay people are in every state (even Alaska). According to Pat's hypothesis, there should be more gay people in states that have more tornadoes. But are there? Nope. In fact, there's no correlation at all between the number of gay folks (as estimated by the number of gay political organizations, support groups, bookstores, radio programs, and circuit parties) and the annual tornado count (r = .04, p = .78 for you statisticians). So much for the "God hates gays" theory.

God seems almost neutral on the subject of sexual orientation. I say "almost" because if we look at the density of gay groups relative to the population as a whole, there is a small but statistically significant (p < .05) correlation with the occurrence of tornadoes. And it's a negative correlation (r = -.28). For those of you who haven't used statistics since 1973, that means that a high concentration of gay organizations actually protects against tornadoes. A state with the population of, say, Alabama could avert two tornadoes a year merely by doubling the number of gay organizations in the state. (Tough choice for Alabama's civil defense strategists.)

Although God may not care about sexual orientation, the same cannot be said for religious affiliation. If the underlying tenet of Pat's postulate is true--that God wipes out offensive folks via natural disasters--then perhaps we can find some evidence of who's on God's hit list. Jews are off the hook here: there's no correlation between numbers of Jews and frequency of tornadoes. Ditto for Catholics. But when it comes to Protestants, there's a highly significant correlation of .71. This means that fully half the state-to-state variation in tornado frequency can be accounted for by the presence of Protestants. And the chance that this association is merely coincidental is only one in 10,000.

Protestants, of course, come in many flavors--we were able to find statistics for Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and Other. Lutherans don't seem to be a problem--no correlation with tornadoes. There's a modest correlation (r = .52, p = .0001) between Methodists and tornadoes. But Baptists and Others share the prize: both groups show a definite correlation with tornado frequency (r = .68, p = .0001). This means that Texas could cut its average of 139 tornadoes per year in half by sending a few hundred thousand Baptists elsewhere (Alaska maybe?).

What, you are probably asking yourself, about gay Protestants? An examination of the numbers of gay religious groups (mostly Protestant) reveals no significant relationship with tornadoes. Perhaps even Protestants are less repugnant to God if they're gay. And that brings up another point--the futility of trying to save the world by getting gay people to accept Jesus. It looks from our numbers like the frequency of natural disasters could be more effectively reduced by encouraging Protestants to be gay.

Gay people have been falsely blamed for disasters ever since Sodom was destroyed by fire and brimstone (we have been unable to find any statistics on disasters involving brimstone). According to a reliable source, the destruction of Sodom was indeed an act of God (see Genesis 19:13) and was perpetrated because the citizens thereof were, according to the same source (see Ezekiel 16:49-50), "arrogant, overfed and unconcerned [and] did not help the poor and needy"--not because they were gay. Now Pat would have us believe that gays are the cause of tornadoes (as well as earthquakes, meteors, and even terrorist bombs) in utter disregard for evidence showing that Baptists are much more likely to cause them.

I say "Kudos!" to Orlando. Despite Robertson's warning that Orlando is "right in the way of some serious hurricanes" (hardly a revelation), note that it was not struck by the very destructive Hurricane Andrew a few years ago. And amid the recent conflagrations (that's fires) in central Florida, which occurred just after Pat sounded his alarm, Orlando was spared. Keep those flags waving!

As any statistician will tell you, of course, correlation doesn't prove causation. Protestants causing tornadoes by angering God isn't the only explanation for these data. It could be that Baptists and Other Protestants purposely flock to states that have lots of tornadoes (no, we haven't checked for a correlation between IQ and religious affiliation). But if Pat and his Christian crew insist that natural disasters are brought on by people who offend God, let the data show who those people are.

Janis Walworth
July 16, 1998

I'm running on four hours sleep for the third night in a row. My head was SO not loving it today. Ouch.

So today, instead of trying to accomplish stuff at home, I packed up a picnic lunch and took the kids on a walk to the park. (As an aside, one of the things I love about the Twin Cities is the amazing park system. Supposedly there is a park within 6 blocks of every house in the metro, making playgrounds available to all children. That's cool!) We have a nice little one at the end of our road, about 1/3 mile away. Packed Iris into the stroller, had a lovely walk in the sunshine, and stayed at the park for like 3 hours! The kids had a great time playing and swinging and sliding and climbing and I got to chill in the shade and nurse my headache. I didn't get a damn thing accomplished today as far as my laundry pile goes, but hey. It made the day a LOT easier.

Pete came home all smiles and he had a huge success today. He (his company) works for large clients all over the world providing marketing, and Pete is manager of a team doing the internet version of this - essentially website creation and management. His main client is one of the biggest health care providers and insurers in the US. Right before we left for Oz late last year he was really struggling with his company not providing the resources he needed and not making this company a priority. Pete managed to hang onto them as a client purely on his charm and reputation, with no support whatsoever. And today he sold them on a new, major project worth $200K.... putting his total for the year so far (May 2nd!) over $1 million He pulled that all off by the skin of his teeth and completely on his own, and I'm SO proud of him. He's a very honest guy, and he is someone who WILL deliver if he says he will. People trust him, and this is a nice way of seeing that. He is so proud, and I'm proud of him. Now he's just kicking himself for not insisting on a percentage when he originally accepted his salary there!

Anyway since I feel like death warmed up, and he is bouncing off the walls, he's gone out with the girls to pick up celebratory dinner and wine. We need to restock the wine fridge anyway, so this is good! Can't wait to see what he comes home with.

Oh, and I am taking a nap, because my guess is I am SO getting lucky tonight