Citizen Smarty Pants

So I just finished my first book of the year, just making my one book a month goal. Phew. Luckily, the book, Citizen Vince, was such an enjoyable and quick read. My favorite type of book is not a particular genre but is anything that is a little smart and a little entertaining. Not to say I don't read books that are not "smart" or not entertaining, I certainly do. But when I can find that combo I am at my happiest. Citizen Vince is historical fiction set in 1980 (yes, over twenty years makes it nice and historical, scary) a few days before the Carter Reagan election. Jess Walter captures the spirit of that time so well and does a beautiful job of rendering the whole psyche of the country through some unlikely characters. At the center of those character is Vince Camden a New York thug dropped in small town America through the Witness Relocation program. Through Vince Walter explores identity, American values and morals. He asked the question of who we are as Americans, what makes us vote for a candidate who may not necessarily want baby sitting our kids. I think what I took away most from the book was, we still can't get away from the romanticism of a cowboy in charge, interest rates were 20% percent in 1980 (we may have it bad now with the dollar taking a beating but 20%!!! Oh MY GOD), and heroes should not have to kill the bad guys (kind of a spoiler). I highly recommend it!

Neurological Mysticism and New York Thugs

Every year I have a goal to read a minimum of one book a month. Since I have been keeping track I have only stayed at that bare minimum once. Typically I am between 16 and 25. Last year I think I was at 18; slow year but I was a little busy. So this year I have no excuse, no major event to plan and I am not even volunteering much so I am ashamed to say that it is January 25 and I haven't even finished one book yet. I have however started three, so the likelihood that I will finish at least one of those is high, I hope. I started with an old Louise Erdrich book I had laying around the house, the only book of hers I haven't read. Oh I tried to get into it but this one, Tales of Burning Love, had none of the interesting conflict that characterized her earlier work and just a lot of tedious unrequited love. Yawn they're bad for eachother they can't stay away from eachother YAWN. So faced with going to the gym with no ipod (missing headphones) and no book, I grabbed a book out of CornyT's back seat, Why God Won't Go Away. He couldn't believe I actually wanted to read one of the texts for the class he taught (special topic religion and science) and we both figured I would dump it when something better came along. To our surprise I love it. The book has educated me on the anatomy and physiology of the brain and makes a cogent argument for the neurological capacity for spirituality. The authors also argue that the need for archetypal stories is biologically driven and necessary for our survival. Interesting stuff and I am about half way through. However, I am setting it aside for the moment to read Citizen Vince. I reserved it from the library when I was desperate for a read and now I feel obligated to finish it so the brain book is on hold for the moment. Luckily, I am loving it so far. Only 25 pages in but I am so taken with the fresh voice and the compelling plot. I love it when I find a book that is entertaining and smart- the ultimate combination.

In the swing of things

Well we all back to work and a little bitter about being pulled out of our cabin paradise of long naps, long walks, and lots of leisure time but reality isn't all that bad I guess. Work is incredibly busy for me right now. We are one month out before our big release that has been about 6 months in the making and I have a big document to complete in about a week. To make things more complicated we are going to Connecticut this weekend to Nephew 2s barmitzvah and are celebrating a belated Christmas. Getting any work done there will be a little hard but I have a long battery on the laptop and plane rides are boring anyway. Who wants to read a book on a plane anyway:).
So, anyway I digress, in the spirit of New Year's here is my list of resolutions:
* Blog more
* Find more ways to express my creativity
* Volunteer more
* Send work for publication
* Manage Grady's allergies

Merry Christmas 2007/Happy New Year 2008

We spent Christmas in the Ozarks. Grady and CornyT and I rented a cabin and spent four days getting away from it all. The trip was ideal. When we weren't snuggled down by the fire sipping hot chocolate with Irish cream, we were taking the dog for hikes in the mountains. Rarely do things turn out as well as you hope but this little retreat in our charming mountain cabin could not have gone better. I also was pleasantly surprised by the book I brought. At first, I wasn't so sure about the book club choice, Suite Francaise, but two chapters in I was completely hooked. I finished soon after we got back from Arkansas and it was my 16th book 2007 and I think it might have been my favorite. All and all I really loved her keen sense of character and her ability to shows all sides of a very complicated historical event.

Itchy but not mangy

I read recently that Austin was ranked as one of the worst cities for allergies. I never new what a scratchy throat and watery eyes felt like until I spent a couple of years in the Texas capital. In fact, the first year I was afflicted I was convinced I had a bad cold. It wasn't until the following year when I had the exact same symptoms that it occurred to me that it was the infamous "cedar fever". Well turns out that our canine pals also suffer more acutely in Austin and as I learned today my breed of choice, Golden Retrievers are even more at risk for skin allergies. Poor Grady. Looks like we are going to have to take him to a doggie allergist and have his skin tested. We did get some good news from the vet: the mange that the puppy had was Demodectic mange, the non-contagious type. Yay. I also decided that I am definitely switching to this vet full time now and will take Grady and Livia to him for now on. He was personable, seemed knowledgeable, and didn't charge me for the visit because he just referred us to a specialist. He did give me some FREE prednisone and a little topical spray for the red patches. Wish I had found this guy 7 months ago. While we were waiting in seclusion (you say mange and you get your private waiting area) I read a chart explaining the age rate in cats. It's not quite the even 7 human years like it is for dogs, and according to this chart Livia's 7 years is actually 51 cat years old. Oh and I found it amusing when I told the vet that we were the first foster parents for the puppy now known as Xena he said " that puppy is quite a handfull isn't she". ha ha it was nice to hear someone agree with us and we weren't just being hard on her.

I must have too much time on my hands

The wedding planning must be over because I just spent a good five minutes watching a cat nap.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid315932962/bctid422561510

And then I spent good time watching this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYuX1rFOMvM

I should probably find something more constructive to with my time.

Matilda's Legacy

Despite her misbehaving ways I think the crazy puppy has found a "forever home". Good thing too because I am sure she is probably tired of moving around. She spent one week with us, one week with our friends who rescued her from the mean people next door, and almost 2 weeks now with her current foster mom. The road was a little uncertain for the pupster and CornyT and I were working really hard to find her a new home. I plastered her picture on the internet and put a poster up in my office breakroom. All that exposure and we only got one phone call. However, I think it was the phone call that convinced her current "foster" mother to make the big committment. In fact, she said she would either keep her or find her a new home. YAY- the poster in the office went down today! The puppy did pick up a few things along her journeys; a new name, Xena, and mange. The mange though I think she spread around a little. Grady is scratching a lot and has brown stuff on his belly. I am going to take him to the vet this weekend. I had wanted to get a second opinion on my current vet's exclusive steroid treatment so this gives me good impetus to do so. Hopefully, this vet will be a little more friendly. I thought that my current vet was pretty good with the animals and Grady seemed to really like him but he barely said more than a few absolutely, necessary words to me. I tried to tell myself it was probably because he was just more comfortable with animals than with people but it is off putting when you ask questions and he just shakes his head and talks to your pet. I am also a little unsettled that he doesn't have an assistant and I have never seen another patient in his office. This has it's upsides I never have to wait to see him and I can always get an appointment when I need one. But it is still a little disconcerting... Anyway, we'll see what the next vet says about Grady's allergies and prolonged prednisone use and maybe he will tell me and not Grady.

Happy Thanksgiving

WE have had a very relaxing and cozy Thanksgiving holiday. Yesterday we stayed home ALL day made. I don't think I even brushed my hair! We made a beautiful turkey dinner, drank mimosas and played the Wii. What a day. Grady was so perplexed that we were home all day and he was overcome by the temptation of all the food on the table that he could not take it and he stole a stick of butter off the table. Bad boy! I caught him doing it and chased him into "his room" and pulled it out of his mouth. Later he stole the box the butter came in from the recycling. Wow who knew he was so crazy for butter. Well I hope all of you had a great holiday.

My Impressions of L'Atelier in Las Vegas

Originally, we planned to honeymoon in Peru directly following the wedding. However, when CornyT landed a teaching gig at a local university we had to rethink that plan. University's tend to frown on their professors missing 5 classes in a row. This dilemma coincided with our viewing an episode of Anthony Bourdain's: No Reservations featuring the fine dining available in Las Vegas. Bourdain's show made the gaudy and smoky wasteland of Vegas seem like an epicurean's heaven. In addition, we had been spending the last six months addicted to the Bravo show, Top Chef and were starting to really get into the world of snobby foodies. So, we opted for a low key, restfull, gastronomical honeymoon and it turned out it really was just what we needed. We are still doing the planning for Peru and intend to go there in the Spring of 08 but I am glad that we ended up taking a lazy trip right after the wedding, because the planning and the festivities reall took a lot out of us:).
Initially, we were only going to visit Thomas Keller's Bouchon. Bourdain's description of this restaurant left the biggest impression on us and we were very excited to try the famous chef's bistro offerings. But Corny T did more and more research and he got us reservations to a great restaurant every night we were there. During the wedding, CornyT's sister-in-law urged us to go to Robuchon's and so as almost an after thought he got us a reservation for the first night we were in town. This last minute addition turned out to be the most extravagant and interesting meal of the entire trip. I had never had a nine course meal before and had never had anything quite this elaborate. What a treat and what a great way to celebrate a truly fabulous event as marrying my CornyT. The next morning we furiously took notes over a typical, purely utilitarian, mediocre Vegas breakfast buffet. Below I have pasted my impressions of each dish in the nine course meal. CornyT has promised to put his musings in as soon as he has time. So here it goes, my pathetic stab at food writing:)



Amuse Bouche: Frothing Foie Gras

My first experience with foie gras was this frothy little "shot glass" of port, foam and foie gras. Foie gras would become the theme of the weekend but this was my first time to ever have the duck liver delicacy. The waiter explained that the chef recommended digging deep into the glass with a spoon to get all the flavors in one bite. I am not sure if I did an excellent job of this- it kind of took me two bites to get to everything- and I think my experience would have been a little more explosive had I gotten all the ingredients in one bite. However, once I got to the foie gras at the bottom my mouth was happy.



LA LANGOUSTINE: Langoustine carpaccio with roasted poppy seed dressing

This was the most artistic dish of the evening. The thin, almost translucent meat was spread across a square glass plate and sprinkled with an orange poppy seed dressing. Alone the poppy seed dressing had a unremarkable flavor but the unique texture and subtle flavor of the lobster meat paired well with it making this one of the most unusual dishes I have ever had.



LES HUITRES: Poached baby Kussi oysters with French « Echiré » butter

Ahh the oysters. This was one of my favorite courses of the night and I still get a little flutter in my heart when I think of the blend of the subtly flavored oyster with the tangy butter and dash of lemon. Ohh so good. The three baby oysters were presented soaking in a light butter sauce in their shells atop a bed of coarse salt with a wedge of propped in front. To eat the oysters you poured them into your mouth drenched in the butter sauce. These flesh was firm and weighty in the mouth and the flavor was the subtle tanginess of a perfectly fresh oyster. The acidity from the lemon underscored the flavor of both the shell-fish and the butter sauce. A perfectly elegant and simple dish.



The EGG Dish (or L'oeuf)

This was even a little more unusual then the langoustine. Three layers starting with foam, poached egg, mushrooms, and puree of parsley were presented in a parfait glass. Oh and if I haven't mentioned before foam was a big part of this meal. Light flavorful, yummy foam. My only complaint about so many dishes with foam is that the whole meal starts to have the same texture and feel. With this egg dish we were again told to dig down deep with our spoon and retrieve all the flavors in one bite. Again, I got this in sections rather all in one bite. Typically you think of parsley has having little flavor but in puree form it is a surprising explosion of taste. Overall this dish really stayed with me because it was so unusuall and the textures of the foam and the poached egg were really surprising.

Asparagus Cappaccinno
This was a light green, frothy soup with a distinctive asparagus flavor with chunks of guyere cheese. The cheese was excellent but the flavor was a little disparate because it didn't melt completely in the soup. Where it did melt it was an amazing and startling pairing of flavors. All in all though, I felt like this was the most ordinary of all the dishes.

Halibut
This description is really can suffer from my lack of notes and faded memory. The fish was presented topped with finely diced spring vegetables. This course was a little difficult to eat. Each bite of fish scattered the veg and it was hard to get a taste of the fish and the veg in one mouthful. The Lemon thyme used to flavor the veg didn't seem to mix throughout the veg and some bites would be bland while others were really tangy. The halibut itself was perfectly cooked and tasted incredibly fresh.

Veal Piccata
This was the main dish and the one dish that CornyT and I did not share. He chose the quail while I chose the veal. The thin layer of veal was topped with an arugula salad. The veal was very tender but without a strong, memorable flavor. The standout of this dish were the Robuchon mashed potatoes. I read one blog that described them as sublime and there really is no better way to describe them.

Papaya Sorbet
A pink puree presented in a small bowl topped with a peak of banana sorbet. The was a perfect light dish after the previous heavy meals. The papaya flavor was subtle but complex and the delicate banana paired well. Just for pure bursts of flavor this was my favorite dessert dish.

Coffee Ice Cream
This final dessert was a scoop of coffee colored ice cream surrounded by mousse and topped with crumbled chunky brownies. The ice cream was a delicate texture and the mousse had a broad flavor. Not the stand out dish of the meal but a nice end to an amazing meal I will certainly not forget.
After we waddled away from the table my only serious complaint was the coffee. Geesh I am shocked that such a superb restaurant would serve such weak, mediocre coffee. CornyT told me I should have sent it back but I hate doing that and I was so lost in the whole experience that it wasn't until we reflected on it all later that I thought what a disappointment that was. But don't get me wrong I still LOVED this meal want an amazing experience.

Giving this another try

Ok I have tried to get back to blogging about 3 times now since we got back from our honeymoon and I have been interrupted each time. So, I am hoping that I can finish this post and get back into a habit of blogging again. It is nice to have all the wedding preparation over and to be married and rested and relaxed from our Vegas honeymoon. About a week after the honeymoon we introduced a new complication to our life; a three month old, puppy our friends rescued from a neglected life on a 6 foot rope tied to a bus with no real food or water. A recent city law was passed to protect dogs from spending any time tied up in yards but unfortunately the city never responded to the two calls our friends made. In a perfect world the city would have responded immediately and given those people a fine for mistreating an animal but our friend worried the pup, we now all call Matilda, would not survive that long. So, after a weekend of watching the neglected puppy starve out her kitchen window she walked over and bought the puppy from the people. What a big heart. We worried that our friends and their three cats would have a hard time with the little gal so we volunteered to take her. We also had a better set up with crates, food, treats and a buddy. Grady loved the companionship- they played and played. His favorite game was putting her entire head into his mouth. She was adorable but we have learned that one dog is enough for us- good to know actually. Now she is spending the holiday with a friend of our friends with the hope that they will bond and become the best friends. I hope that it works out for Matilda's sake. And for the friend too because having a dog is such a rewarding experience.

Good Reads

A week ago an invitation to Good Reads appeared in my in box and I haven't been able to stop thinking about all the books I have read, how I liked them, and all the books I want to read. good reads is kind of a MySpace for the bookworm. Have you ever heard of better site for me? Two of my favorite things books and friends. If they added dogs to this site some how it would be PERFECT for me:). So, on top of obsessing about my own reading habits I am now fascinated with all the books my friends have read. And I can't help competing a little for most read spot. So far, corynyt has more books on there then I do but I think that will soon change. Ha our relationship is not competitive at all. The next step is to go on there and review all the books I have read and note when I read the book. What a clever idea

Round and Round

When I was little we had a house with an open floor plan and a spacious living room and kitchen (or at least I remember it as roomy, my parents probably have a more realistic memory). The kitchen had an opening to the dining room and the hallway so you could make a circle starting in the living room through the kitchen out to the hallway and back to the living room. I would spend hours on my three wheel bike, knotted sock in hand, rolling around and around that cirlce with our border collie puppy chasing nipping at my big plastic tires and sliding on the wood floor. I must have been three but I still have clear memories of that little black and white blur barking and panting as I maneuvered my little trike.
Now I live in another house with an open floor plan, this time it is an office with doorways on either end of the living room and it also makes a nice circle in the house- a perfect dog chasing circle. Actually, it was CornyT who discovered the joys of getting Grady to chase him around the house with some chew toy dangling behind him. But I was soon with him running and squealing with our seventy pounds of happy dog at our heels. The memories of my childhood came flooding back and now I play the game almost every night for at least a few minutes. They say Border Collies are smart but I never remember our pup letting me get a headstart and then turning directions as I come out the other side. Very clever Golden. When he does surprise me I inevitably squeal with utter delight and turn around and run. CornyT once asked if I was exagerrating my enthusiasm for Grady's benefit and I sheepishly confessed that no, it was pure, genuine glee. To help me with my worthy opponent CornyT has now taken to calling out from the couch the direction Grady is headed. Yes, it is sad that I have to resort to cheating to get the upper hand on a year-old Golden but maybe he should learn English!

Catch Up

Well we are getting closer to the big date, the invitations are out and CornyT bought a suit. We found a fantastic suit on an Italian suit at the local outlet malls. Usually those places have terrible selections but this time we got so lucky and found the exact color and style we wanted. So now we will be clothed and ready to go in a month and a half. The only thing missing are the rings and firming up the after wedding travel plans. On this cool and cloudy labor day morning, I am enjoying my day off by taking a break from wedding plans and catching up on all the fun internet browsing I haven't had time to do. Lately, every time I am on the web I feel obligated to look up hair styles, wedding rings, or travel packages. I shouldn't sound like I am complaining. It is fun to do all the planning and I think we will all have a great time.
This weekend we ran a few wedding related errands, getting new tires (fun), spending quality time with Grady, having dinner with friends, and catching up on Heroes dvds. What a fun show. Last night we finished the episode revealing Horn Rim Glasses guy's back story and sulu's secret past. Corny T just reminded me we have head up north to look at wedding rings and have lunch- mmm Indian.

Update on July

Whew July was busy. I neglected a lot of things such as volunteering, blogging, and bathing...(Ok I took a bath once or twice) due to a visit from my mom and other wedding and work related stuff. After I wrote the last post, Mom drove down and spent my birthday with me. While she was here she helped me paint the entire living room(just what I needed, someone to help and to motivate me), made my wedding dress, and helped furnish some of my empty rooms. She was amazing. We all missed her when she left, she helped so much. Grady was really bummed when she left. He had enjoyed having someone to hang out with during the day and she took him outside for lots of playtime. So my giant living room, den, dining area is now a soft, minty green color that Behr calls Turtle dove. It looks so nice and really adds a lot of light and color to the whole house. When Mom left she said she wanted to see at least two other rooms painted by the time she came back for the wedding. Well I took her seriously, and this weekend I painted the kitchen, celery sprig, (a really bright, almost grass green) and the hallway/alcove Silverado Trail (a warm purple). The alcove counts as a room right? Those rooms are small so I thought it would take me no time at all since mom had taught me to be a master painter. Yeah, it still took me the good part of two days to finish. I think I will take a break for a while before I do the rest. No matter how confident I feel I still am not crazy about painting. Such messy work. Or at least when I do it;). Well at least I had the place all freshly painted for bookclub last night. We discussed the March by E.L Doctorow. I loved it but it got mixed reviews from the others. The writing is great but the narrative is a little inaccesible. Not really plot heavy more moody. For Aug we are reading Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux. I have never read him but I remember the movie leaving a bad impression so we'll see how the book is. In other reads, I am 3/4s through HP7. So far, I am loving it but I think 6 was a little better.The good thing is that nobody ruined it for me this time.
So three more months to go till the wedding. And things seem to be falling into place. We have the invites, and now have to mail them out. Tomorrow we go for a tasting at the cc and will pick our menu for the reception. I think once I get the invites in the mail I will feel like we are almost done. Yay.

Dreading the Holiday

Yes, you read that right. I am actually not looking forward to two days off because I need to finish painting the house and honestly I would rather work than paint. When I was a kid I hated painting with my parents. But when I bought my own house I thought for sure I would love pickign my own paint colors and painting my very own wall. Nope, it still stinks. I painted my tiny little bathroom over the Memorial day weekend and discovered it is still boring, tedious, tiring work. If we weren't buried under wedding bills, I would hire someone to do it. Oh well, I will load up the latest Lincoln biography CornyT has been raving about and put on the old clothes and pretend it's fun. I would take pictures of my efforts but for some reason my digital camera is on the fritz. Something is wrong with its ability to power up. I have put brand new, fresh out of the package batteries in twice now and I am still getting the little out of power symbol (battery with a line through it) and then it immediately powers down. Very depressing turn of events because of the before mentioned wedding bills and the need to have a nice camera for both the wedding and the honeymoon. Anyway, I will quit whining and try to enjoy my raining, boring, back breaking holiday:). PS if anyone coming to visit me in the next couple of months would like me to hold off on the painting and would like to help me, I could probably be convinced to wait. Umm just an idea and you know who you are. Happy Fourth All!

Farewell Alamo

On occasion, I like to use this space to evangelize about my dear city and in all my gushing I am sure I have brought up the Alamo Drafthouse Theatre at least more than once. How could I not go on and on about this theatre. I had never lived anywhere, where I could get a beer, a burger and watch silent movies while a real band played the sound track or sing along at the top of my lungs to the Buffy musical episode or catch a burlesque act. And I have so many fond memories of meeting my pals underneath the big ass "The Alamo" poster in the lobby. That is where I solidified a lot of my Austin friendships while standing in line with hundreds of other young Austinites waiting to watch the sinus guys goof on Tom Cruise's teeth or the iguana in the Terminator (it's a funny iguana trust me). Now the Alamo is another victim of the gussying up of the Austin down-town. Driven out by inflated rent, the Alamo is finding a new home in another theatre downtown called the Ritz. I don't know much about it but I hear it is nice and will be a fitting replacement and at least the business establishment that considers Joss Whedon's birthday a day worth celebrating is not gone from Austin forever. But it's still sad to know that original location will be a over-priced yuppy bar.
The Alamo is well known for having all night events and the last night was of course no exception. I always thought that being in a theatre all night watching every Buffy episode or all 6 Stars Wars movies sounded like great fun but when I actually got to the point of buying the tickets I always wussed out. I knew deep in my heart that by 1 AM I would be cranky, uncomfortable, and pining for my pillow top mattress. So, we didn't even attempt to get the sought after tix to the last show. However, a couple of my friends are just that crazy and they looked exhausted yesterday but had a blast! They watched the old Earthquake movie with sound equipment that made the whole building shake and wine glasses creep their way to the edge of the tables. That's the kind of fun stuff we will miss. But when one movie reel is removed another is replaced, right?

Wedding Chores

We recently returned from the first of three weddings we will attend this year. (One of course being our own:). Our friends hosted a beautiful, day-time wedding in Maine on a gorgeous local estate. Their ceremony was outside under a gazebo and incorporated a lot of personal touches that I would love to steal. However, they will be at our wedding so we should probably come up with something of our own. I am thinking a conga line around the terrace would be a blast. Just kidding, I am trying to make wedding planning more manageable and have a little more fun with it. I am assigning one wedding chore to do a day. Chunk the whole process up a bit. Since I have implemented this plan I have felt a lot more in control. I don't what I have really accomplished but I have at least called more people. I did talk to a friend of a friend who arranges wedding flowers and I had SO much fun talking about flowers. I love flowers. Especially bold, dark red flowers and she was just as excited about red stuff as I was. I was going to get wholesale flowers and do it myself and although that would be a lot of fun. I have never done that before and have no idea what the learning curve would be like so this way I don't have to worry about it. Plus, I think they are reasonable and willing to work with my measly budget.

Pup and Circumstance

After 8 weeks of lessons in sit, down, watch, loose leash walking, leave it and stay our boy successfully completed his first obedience class. Well, like CornyT said he got a pity diploma. Grady definitely needs to return for graduate courses but he kind of got the basics down. He sits and stays pretty well if he isn't too distracted. He does need more work on the leash walking. Today he demonstrated his education by dragging me into the street where I proceeded to trip in a pothole and slide across the street for about 6 inches all while my neighbor looked on in horror and said "that dog is kind of big for you." Yes, that was money well spent:). Well it least it went to the shelter who is now having even more problems. On top of the quarantine scaring away adopters, the air conditioning has broken and it may take months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix. Poor shelter, things were going so well at the beginning of the year with a balance sheet in the black and a donation for kitty condos.

Shelter Struggles

Two weeks ago, on Saturday May 19th when I was skipping my usual shift at the shelter to take Grady to the Golden Retriever rescue group picnic, the humane socity volunteers found a dead bat in one of the dog runs. The bat tested positive for rabies and the poor shelter has been practically shut down for the last two weeks. Over half the dogs have been placed in a 90 day quarantine and only special volunteers can walk those dogs to the special runs. Other volunteers, like myself can walk pre-adopt dogs and do other little chores around the shelter. If I had been at the shelter that day I would probably been interviewed by the health department but I don't think the volunteers had to get rabie shots. Or at least I hope not that would be horrible. Anyway, the whole thing is really bad for the shelter and all those poor dogs who will have to spend over 3 months in the shelter without a chance of being adopted. All the puppies that were not in the shelter when the scare occurred are placed in kennels out on the patio for people to visit and hopefully adopt. From the emails it sounds like there are still a good amount of adoptions every week so at least people have not been scared away. What an unfortunate thing to happen to the poor shelter.

This just in

My dog is absolutely adorable, but I have to share this guy with you and my new favorite cute site, the Daily Puppy. Actually, since this is a Golden pup, I am sure my boy looked a lot like this guy only about a year ago. Now he is a big, gangly, 70 pound pup.