Book Club and other readsV

Book club went well last night. I was really relieved that I was able to get out of the office in plenty of time to give the house a good sprucing up and to get the frozen party food in the oven. The turnout was a little small. Only three other women but the conversation was still lively and fun and fortunately everyone LOVED the book. Unfortunately we didn't talk about the book itself that much which was a little too bad because I Claudius has a lot of interesting aspects to it; the narrative structure, the greedy and insidious characters of Livia, Tiberious, Sejanus, and Caligula, and the debauched and corrupt government. Oh well, I am really glad I read it and I am planning on reading the follow up book, Claudius the God very soon. Also, I highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in Roman history it is surprisingly a very entertaining and easy read. Because the topic is kind of academic in nature I thought it would be deep and a little arduous but it is a lot like an ancient version of the Sopranos.
Next month's book is the much shorter "One Writer's Beginning" by Eudora Welty. At only 114 pages it feels almost like cheating since the majority of our books have been well over 300 pages this year. It will give me a chance to finish the Philip K Dick novel I am reading and the whole other stack of novels I have sitting on my bedside table. Also, one of our members has just had a baby so I am sure she will appreciate the shorter book as well. I am looking forward to the book not onl for it's brevity but because I have never read anything by the witty southern writer before and I hear her non-fiction and short stories are inspiring.

YAY!!

I am as happy as a puppy in an empty house with a pillow to shake around! We got the contract! We got the contract! Things are going to work out for the ole company. All that hard work was worth it and now I can fully enjoy book club tonight and have a glass or two of wine to celebrate. Woo Hoo

I am back

I have had that last post halfway drafted since Monday but have not had a chance to finish it because I have been buried by work. On Friday we got a request for a proposal that was due Tuesday. So, we have been working practically around the clock to get it finished. I thought we were free and clear Tuesday at noon but yesterday they sent a counter offer so we had to spend another 12 hours redrafting the original proposal. Phew I am tired. Although, as sick as this is going to sound, I really got a kick out digging down and doing some serious writing, it was kind of fun. It wasn't fun though to miss my friend's birthday party on Monday though. And it wasn't any easier when CornyT and the gang kept calling to see when I would be done before 9:30 or if I could take a break and run over for an hour or so. The answer to all of those questions was unfortunately no and I didn't end up leaving until 1:00 AM that night. ugh. Luckily the final proposal has now been sent off which is just in time because I have to host book club tonight. I am looking forward to book club because I loved the book, I, Claudius, but I am worried that I will be too tired to articulate anything very interesting to say about the book. I also have 60 more pages of the book left so I am going to try to cram them in at lunch today. Well I better get back to work. More posts to come soon.

Busy Weekend at the Shelter

This weekend I was an extra devoted shelter volunteer and came in on Sunday for "field walking" training in addition to my regular shift on Saturday. Saturday was a typical day at the shelter. I walked most of the usual dogs; Otter (aka Mr. Bitey) who was a little calmer, Bianca, and some new dogs Zoro, a feisty yet fun pup, and Elmer an extremely laid back shepherd mix pup. I did learn something interesting about the auditorium where we are allowed to take the dogs off leash and play with them. The auditorium is a large gym like room that is divided in half by a wooden divider on wheels, one-half is our play area and the other is an open space that has been converted into an office area for all shelter volunteers. During my play session with Zoro, the feisty pup, the ball bounced in the corner of the room where the divider meets the wall and as he approached the corner he vanished. Huh...how is that possible!? The corner swallowed the puppy? From my bewildered stupor, I heard a surprised giggle and someone say "Hey how did you get over here?" On more careful inspection, I noticed the divider wall was a good 6 to 7 inches from the wall- a huge chasm for a small and wily puppy like Zorro. When I came in on Sunday for the field walking class I noticed they had a folding chair leaned up against that gap in divider.
The field walking class was fairly dry; here's a collar, adjust the collar, put the collar on your dog, and walk your dog outside. Although those collars do make me a little nervous because they are really hard to adjust especially on a squirming dog, they will take me a little time to get used to. Unfortunately, there was some drama at the beginning of class. We were each given a dog to practice walking with and adjusting collars for. One woman noticed her dog, Bianca, (a real sweetie I had walked before) was shaking and coughing and thought she should go to the in-house clinic. About 10 minutes later a volunteer came running in telling the woman not to touch her new dog and to immediately go home and wash her clothes. Bianca had distemper, an extremely contagious and serious dog virus. They immediately scrubbed the halls and kennels with bleach and sent most of the volunteers home. Fortunately, we were able to finish our class and I received my little sun sticker indicating I am now a field walking volunteer. Sadly, an email was sent Monday informing all the volunteers that Bianca had to be euthanized due to a severe case of distemper. The shelter tries so hard to be careful with diseases but it is hard to keep all those viruses out. Oh on a much happier note, Otter was adopted over the weekend by a family with kids which I think will be perfect for his activeness as long as the mouthiness doesn’t become an issue.

Four Things That Made Me Smile Today

1.This morning 0ur office manager left a post-it on my monitor that said "Happy Friday Angella, Have a great day!"

2. CornyT giggled at a movie and his laugh always makes me smile. Ah sappy huh?:)

3. Mamie sent me three very cute postcards just to say hi!

4.Livia jumped on my lap and snuggled down without me having to coerce her.

OK now it is your turn. What three things made all of you smile today. Leave me a comment and let me know.
:) :) :)

I am Firmly Convinced the Farm Animals are Taking Over

Now this is getting ridiculous. First, a goat strolls in my yard like she owns the place and now a Donkey has tried to car jack my Dad. What's next? Oh... I don't even want to think about it.

Fall Blooms??

I am sure you all have missed hearing me whine about my yard lately and are dying to know how it is doing? Thanks, for asking, it is doing great. The flowers in the center flower bed are blooming like crazy, the grass is as green as a golf course, and new growth is popping up all over the place. Yeah, I am an expert gardener. All I have to do is walk around the yard once or twice a week and I get amazing results. This morning at about 5 I got even more insight into the source of my new found green-thumb when I was awaken by the familiar clip, clip, clip noise of the sprinkler system. In my half-asleep stupor, I thought to myself, didn't the sprinkler come on yesterday, and then flashes of the bright flowers came to my mind and I jumped up and ran to the garage to look at the sprinkler controller. Yep, for about 2 weeks the yard as been watered every day. Some conservationist I am. Well I can sit in my beautiful yard as I write the check for that obscenely high water bill.

Lazy Sunday and Babysitting

Yesterday it was a little overcast and dreary, so I did what I love doing most on a cloudy day and curled up in bed and read for a few hours. After I finally decided to get out of bed, we watched some TV and ate lunch at about 2. There are a ton of things I should have done around the house but it was so NICE to just read and relax. Next weekend, I will fix the caulking in the sun room and help CornyT chop down the thorny bushes growing on the side of the house. I wasn't completely lazy though, I did vacuum the house and I baby sat my friends 1 and 1/2 year old in the evening. A couple of weeks ago, while chatting with our friends with the little girl, it came up how little they get to watch movies much so I offered to babysit their adorable little girl when they needed someone. And boy did they take me up on the offer. Surprise, surprise:). It has been fun though cause the little girl is really easy to watch and we all had dinner together before they went out so it is a win-win for everybody. The baby is a big Momma's-girl and she was a little stressed about Momma leaving. Everytime she would go into a crying jag about Momma I would try to offer something to distract her like a popsicle or a her baby-doll but she would push it away and say "NO! Momma" once or twice. Eventually, I would do something really silly, like sing a song or do a little dance and she would forget about Momma for a while.

It is amazing how TV can be the best distractor though. I turned on the TV and she was immediately transfixed by the screen. Some reality show was on and she watched it like it was a Disney movie. I soon put on a Disney movie, Lady and the Tramp, because I didn't want her mind to be corrupted by reality TV:). Lady and the Tramp is cute but it gets a little old when you watch it twice in a row. Oh well it put her to sleep. Poor kid though, while she was sleeping CornyT came by - he had to do some work on his class, so he wasn't there for most of the babysitting- and I took the opportunity to use the restroom. While I was in the restroom she woke up and was apparently horrified to just see CornyT smiling down on her because she started screaming. It took another viewing of Lady and the Tramp to calm her down. CornyT felt kind of inept.

Austin Happenings

Since I claim that this blog is partly about Austin, I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of the major events that have been going on. First of all this weekend is the Austin City Limits music festival. The festival is only about 6 months old but is already quite a big event. Thousands of people from all over the country flock down here and bake in the Zilker park heat after being coated with a layer of dust from the nearby soccer fields. CornyT and I went to the first year but the prices increased with the popularity and we have been less and less interested in dehydrating ourselves in the name of music. However, it is still an Austin phenomenon. Not quite as crazy as the SXSW but getting there I think. They probably started this festival because it is impossible to go to the actual ACL tapings. Apparently, they announce when the tickets will be distributed on a local station and if you are lucky to hear when and where the tickets will be given out and you actually get one it is still unlikely you will get in because they give more tickets than they have room and it is a first come, first serve thing.
The other event this weekend is much sadder. The former governor Anne Richards passed away this week and her memorial service is being held at a city park and she is laying in state in the capitol. Regardless of politics this woman's life long goal to empower minorities and women is inspiring to me. She has started a young woman's leadership school here in Austin and was one of the first leaders in Texas to appoint women and minorities to government positions. She once said that she didn't not want her tombstone to read (I may not have the quote completely right) "She kept a clean house" but instead to read "She gave people opportunity in government." I greatly admire the nerve it must have taken to enter politics during a time when women were not as welcome in politics. Especially, in a state like Texas. I am sure it would have been a lot easier to take the easy path of "keeping the clean house."

Shelter Update 9 16 06

This week was not quite as chaotic as last and I followed all the rules this Saturday. Every one of my cages were closed today. However, I did have one close call with last week's escapee, Bertie, today she almost jumped out of her kennel while I tried to keep her kennel mate from escaping. Yikes, that would have had been bad news because she is about 5 lbs and recovery from surgery, poor thing.

Bertie (Escapee 2)

I did have a great session with her kennel mate, Boyd. First, he snuggled in my lap for the longest time and then we played with a chew toy in auditorium. OH he was fun, I love playing keep away from dogs, they're so cute when they're determined. He was a little mouthy but not nearly as biting as the lab mix Otter who I played with today. I have walked him before and he has been energetic but not quite as wound up as he was today. After we left the potty runs he went straight to the first toy bucket he saw and started pulling toy after toy out of the bucket and throwing them around the dog volunteer office area. I then gathered up all the toys he had thrown around and we went for a play session in the auditorium. He was pretty good at first but then he became really bitey and scratched my arms up a little. He didn't respond to my loud squeals of complaint. During our training we were told to squeal like you are hurt when a dog "mouths" you. Usually they stop and even seem a little alarmed by your reaction. Boyd reacted in that way but otter just kept jumping around. At that point, I took Otter back to kennel and wrote up a recommendation for him to be reevaluated to a higher color so they can work on improving this behavior.

Otter (Mr.Bitey)

Before I began volunteering with the Humane Society, I never thought I would worry about the bowel movements of a dog. But today I found myself fretting about such things. The first dog I walked today, a border collie mix named Domanique, did not go at all yesterday and she didn't this morning either. That can't be good. Although, she seemed healthy- runinng around and barking like crazy. That is weird though. I think I will send an email this week checking up on her.

Domanique

Happy Birthday Mom

Have a great birthday Mom!!

Some Louisiana Pictures

The following posts are some pictures I took on our trip to Baton Rouge. I have been lazy about getting them off my camera and onto the laptop.
This is the little puppy that followed us around on our walk.

Congratulations

Friday night I had a nutty dream that my friend Aimee and I had to transport RVs across the country for some kind of weird job.
She called me Saturday afternoon while we were out and I thought it was so cute we were thinking of each other around the same time. Today, I found out she was calling to tell me that her and her boyfriend had just gotten engaged that day! I am so excited for them. And excited there will be another fun wedding to go to next summer.

Giving the Cat the Cold Shoulder

For months now, Livia has been a much better pet. She has slept through the night without bothering us, she has been playful and affectionate and just very low maintenance and sweet. On Saturday however, she reminded us of why we named her Livia in the first place. In fact, I have been reading Robert Graves' I'Claudius for book club and discovering just how duplicitous and untrustworthy the historical Livia really was. So I can say that on Saturday her behavior was true Livian nature. She started out so sweet rubbing her head against my cheek, purring all the while and when I called to CornyT to look at our adorable little head snoggle she suddenly reared back and boom, bit me under the eye. CornyT was furious. I was stunned and disappointed. She didn't break the skin but it did smart a little bit and of course my trust and affection were injured more. For the last 4 days, we have essentially been ignoring her. At first, we just let her in to eat but we are gradually letting her in the house for longer. CornyT was certainly angrier about it than me. I felt guilty, like I must have done something to upset her. But then I came to my senses and realized she is just a cat doing her cat thing. I am convinced that I am much better suited to be a dog owner. I am way too hands on for cats. They are overwhelmed by my constant attention and petting. I remember as a kid our friends' kittens would always run from me and I would spend half my time trying to fish some terrified cat out from under a bed or from behind a sofa. Not a lot has changed, down deep I am still that exuberant 7 year old who just wants to pet the kitty! However, my 32 year old self is going to have to learn to be a little more cautious around her now.

Belated Shelter Update

Now that I have exchanged links with the Bestest Blog people in an attempt to generate more traffic over here, I suppose I better actually write posts on a regular basis now. I am not sure if exchanging the link will actually attract more attention to the blog and most readers will probably be bored to tears by my ramblings (only family will tolerate paragraphs and paragraphs of my swooning over puppies, I am sure) I thought I would see what would happen. Anyway, that being said let me commence with the boring puppy yammering. This Saturday's morning at the shelter was not my most shining moment in volunteerism. If you remember, my training was only a month ago and much to my embarrassment I have already forgotten a lot of it. One key item that slipped my mind was to close the kennel doors after I removed a dog. Much to the chagrine of the hard working staff trying to clean the kennels, I left doors open right and left confusing the hell out of them. From what I can tell an open kennel door means the kennel needs be hosed down. So all my open doors meant they were hosing kennels twice and leaving no dry place for the dog to be returned. I found this all out when I tried to return Shags, a sweet, energetic Bearded Collie (a lot like a sheep dog) and asked the staff member, Emily where I could put him. She sternly told me I had to put him back in the wet cage because of my error and that next time I should bring him in from a closer door to prevent the other dogs from going berserk when I walk him next to their cages. I felt so bad for poor Shags having to sit in a wet kennel. To make matters worse, the next dog I decided to take out for a walk was a wiley Dachsund ( in a kennel with another dog- I should just stay away from dogs sharing kennels) who slipped from my grasp and went running through the kennel. Yep, my second escapee. Unfortunately, this time I wasn't so lucky and my bumblingness was found out. The speedy little dog went tearing through the room with me close behind, turned a corner and ran right into the irritated Emily who picked her up in one fluid motion and handed her to me. She simply shrugged when I explained she had slipped out of her leash and asked me to move out of her path. Ugh, well I was certainly not an exemplarly volunteer this week but there is always next week.

Bestest Blog of All Time

I just put a link here to Bestest Blog of All Time. This site collects tons and tons of blogs and features a blog of the day. I have found some fun blogs in just a few minutes of surfing around the site. Two that stood out for me have been flip this body and Tales from an Animal Shelter. My interest in the latter one is obvious but I was surprised by my interest in the weight loss blog. In reality, the writer's weight loss goals are just a fraction of what she posts about. Mostly the posts are cleverly written tales of her adventures as an actress and cube monkey and it really appeals to my voyeuristic nature. I am also impressed by her lengthy posts and her ability to make so many comments to other people's blogs. Hopefully, you will have as much fun as I have had discovering new blogs and exploring more nooks and crannies of the web.

Nice Day to Walk Your Goat

The other evening, I stepped in the living room to ask CornyT something and framed perfectly in the window was a goat. Yep a goat was in my front yard, and not a cute little pigmy goat but a big Nannny, milking goat. Her owner was loosely leading her by a long rope and strolling on the road. However, he didn't bother stopping her from feasting on my flower bed until I whined from the window, "hey don't eat my flowers." I was flabbergasted. Where did the goat come from? Do goat's get restless if they're not walked? Did he want to enjoy the cool evening (the first in a while) and thought it would be even more pleasant with his goat? Was he trying to save feed money by taking her by everyone's flower gardens? Well, he was definitely doing his part to "Keep Austin Weird."

New Orleans Sunday

The last post ended kind of abruptly I know. I realized it was taking me a while to get the post done (I started Wednesday now its Friday) so I thought I would break up my stories about the weekend. Our trip to New Orleans was fun but a little disappointing. We only went to the French Quarter because it hit CornyT and I that we didn't really want to be tourists to some one else's disaster so in order to be respectful we stayed in the traditional touristy areas. These areas were not that visibly hit by the disaster and it was a little hard to tell what damage was caused by the storm and what was just normal wear and tear. The disapointing part came when we realized the FQ is just really not that interesting during the day, it truly does come alive at night but is a little sleepy and smelly in the day. We planned to have lunch at a famous Bourbon street upscale restaurant but discovered they were closed on Mondays and wanted to check out Jazz at the Preservation Hall which is also closed on Mondays. So we wondered around in the heat, ate an over-priced buffet, and I got a little crabby. After a calming hour or two in some air conditioning with snacks and stuff, we decided to drive around the Garden District and then head back to Baton Rouge for dinner and yet again another movie. The Garden District was beautiful and very confusing. Street signs were messed up (taken down or put in the wrong area) in places and quickly got lost and stuck in a less than great part of town. I did see some evidence of the storm, boarded up houses, the famous spray painted Xs and messages from survivors to workers- we are still here 9/30/05. A little chilling and I just feel so sad that those people had to go through that. It is still so hard to believe that just 9 hours away we were all leading such normal, comfortable lives when there people's homes and livelihoods were being destroyed.
But enough of the sad stuff. That evening we had a really yummy Middle Eastern dinner and watched the over-hyped, camp film Snakes on a Plane. Mamie was more eager to see it than us and I think we ended up liking it better than her. Well, I have to say I liked it better, I think CornyT was pretty disgusted with it too. Don't get me wrong it is a TERRIBLE movie but firmly in the category of so bad I you have to laugh movie. Despite the campy enjoyment I got out of it I am SO glad I only had to see it once. Some folks here in Austin were not so lucky. In an effort to be performance artsy and garner some attention to get on the "SOAP" DVD, a local theatre and theatre group sponsored "Snakes On a Day" where people volunteered to watch the movie 24 hours straight. This blog documents the insanity that ensued during that day. We are a little weird in Austin and that is why I like this town so much.
Well I better get back to work. I will catch up on more blog entries this week.

Louisianan Weekend

This is the weekend where my personal blog and Mame's Americorp blog converge. On Mame's blog I discuss what her living arrangements, Americorp team and duties are like. Here I will just tell you silly stories about what we did and how great it was to see Mame. She looks adorable in her BDUs (Battle Dress Uniform) and her gvt issue combat boots. When we first arrived at her camp the three of us went on a hike around the bayou and made a little buddy. As I was talking to Mame she suddenly gasped and said oh and CornyT said hey little buddy. I thought they were hallucinating. What was in that Ozarka they drank? But sure enough there was a romping little puppy who wanted to go walking with us behind me. He was the cutest thing with a little tan head and a white body. We thought he looked a little like a floating puppy head. He didn't have the best manners though, he barked at other people on the trail and tried to chase cars that passed by. After he attempted to catch two pickups by the bumpers, I finally carried him for the rest of our walk because I didn't feel like starting the weekend with a smashed puppy. When I set him down in front of the place we first saw him we thought for sure he would run off to his campsite and we would be done wih him. But NO he insisted on following us all the way to Mamie's shed. This wasn't such a bad thing because her teammates were thrilled to see him. When we left the shed to go to dinner he was gone and we are just operating on the assumption that he found his people and is now safe back home. We won't think about the 'gator that may have munched on him or the pickup that may have treaded over him.
After walking we joined her entire gang for dinner at a restaurant in Livonia (near the camp) called Not Your Mamma's Place. The food was great and the service was slow. Pretty much like every restaurant in Louisiana. CornyT was intriqued by the funny name and found out from the waiter that there is another restaurant in LA called Your Mamma's Place and the brother of that restaurant's owner opened this one and thought it would be funny to call it Not Your Mamma's Place. Cute.
Out of the kindest of our hearts CornyT and I let Mamie sleep-in on an actual bed until about 10:00 AM on Saturday. We also didn't want her to feel left out so we kept sleeping as well:). After we pried ourselves out of the cool hotel room and braved the Louisiana heat we made both CT and Mame's dream of having a Waffle House breakfast a reality. I have had many a Waffle House hash brown and patty melt so it was old hat to me, but I it was yummilicious, cheap, and oh so bad for you. We spent the rest of the afternoon touring an old colonial Plantation and visiting the Baton Rouge museum. That evening we had a cajun dinner at Parrain's and watched Little Miss Sunshine. Mame and I loved the movie. We really related to the family; first they were from New Mexico (Albuquerque), second they had serious car troubles culminating in a intermintant, involuntary horn honking disaster which was particular poignant to Mame and I cause something very similar happen to the two of us once in my old Dodge Charger. Anyway, I highly recommend the movie- so funny, sweet, and a little sad.

Shelter Update

I just thought I would share with all of you that the sweet chow, Cole who has been at the shelter a very long time, was adopted yesterday. There is a picture of Cole further down this blog. Apparently, the woman who adopted her was looking for a mellow girl she could "grow old with" (her words exactly). Sounds like a perfect match.
Oh I do love that shelter. In fact, this weekend CornyT and I are driving to Baton Rouge to visit the Mamester, and although I am excited to see her I have been a little sad that I am going to miss my doggie day. Yes, I know I have serious issues. So, I have devised a solution. Today, I have worn some less than perfect jeans (not quite grubby but close) and tennis shoes to work and as soon as they let us out early for the holiday (they typically do) I am going to put in my two hours at the shelter. The funny thing about working with almost all men at a software company is that even in this casual, "weekend-like" I still looked over dressed around the flip-flop, short wearing developers.