Friday, March 23, 2007

Class Book Page




Click on this picture to enlarge. Take a look. Is my life really this boring? Help me figure out how to sass up my class book page! Please, readers, you both are my only hope!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Snow Cones

Where does the time go? It feels like a lot has happened this week: Ruthie's birthday (today!), March Madness, some school shenanigans which made me very excited to graduate, our first 75 degree day followed immediately by a winter storm complete with four inches of snow, and Satchel got neutered. Oh, and I taught Satchel how to 'give me five'.

Satchel is dealing quite well. The cone seems to be the most annoying part of the whole thing, and unfortunately he has two weeks more of that. It's not just that he can't lick at the affected area, which is why he's wearing the cone. It's that he's already so low to the ground, the cone hinders him from doing things like running up the stairs. The bottom lip of the cone gets stuck on the edge of the step in front of him, and he gets wedged in. Funnier is we've been going out to run in the snow because he loves the snow. But now when he sniffs and raises his head up to continue walking, he scoops up snow in the cone. By the end of a walk, he has a generous pile of snow inside the cone and between the layers of the cone where it's fastened together. We then sit on the couch and wait for it to melt.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Is it really worth it to get a bid in the NCAA tournament if all the commentators can say is how much they didn't deserve it? I do feel bad for those poor poor Dragons of Drexel, a campus I pass every day on my way to and from school.


Update: one week of hanging in the desert left my puppy so overstimulated, he's been sleeping pretty much all day and all night since we got back.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Wild Kingdom



We're back in sunny Palm Desert (temperature 84 degrees), a stark contrast from snowy Philadelphia. This house is in a breathtaking setting which emphasizes the desert's natural beauty, as opposed to most of the other developments around here which favor overwatered lawns and other non-native plants. With that landscape style, and just because we are in the desert, there is wildlife all around. This is very much to Satchel's delight, and very much to my terror. Coyotes have absconded with dogs larger than he, and they do not appear to be very frightened of humans. For this reason, we don't take him outside our enclosed courtyard at night, and I am always on the lookout for anything larger than the already massive jackrabbits. But beyond coyote anxiety, I also have to keep him from chasing and/or even eating the large amounts of wildlife which abound. By my count, he has tried to eat and/or chase bees, lizards, frogs, rabbits, and one very lucky cricket. Fortunately, he is not very coordinated and these wild animals have survived attacks from animals far more savvy than a city-raised cockapoo. But just in being here, he is becoming more of a wild animal himself. Beyond these futile attempts at 'hunting', he also has discovered that digging in the dirt is far more satisfying than digging on my couch or digging into my jeans pocket.

On a totally unrelated note, those of us who were lucky enough to listen to NPR's All Things Considered yesterday got to hear a journalist named Libby Lewis report on the Lewis Libby verdict. I assume they brought her in special for that assignment.

Pictures from our awesome hike above!