On migraines

Do you get migraines? I hope not. I wouldn't wish one on my worst enemy (well maybe my worst...but not anyone else).

Migraines for me are best described as "emotional hangovers." Sudden increases in stress can also result in one. I think it's that the stress/emotion is so intense that it manifests itself physically in the form of a migraine. There's just too much for me to process, so it gives me the headache from hell.

They usually only last a day (half a day if I'm lucky), but they're exhausting, require lots of pain-killing drugs (aspirin works best), and I get light sensitive so I spend hours lying in bed with a blanket over my eyes. There's just nothing else I can do besides wait it out. And I feel drained for days afterwards.

I feel so much sympathy for those people that get migraines regularly. That have to have prescription drugs targeted to keep migraines at bay. I can't imagine having to live with migraines. I can still kill mine with regular doses of extra-strength aspirin and sleep over a 24 hour period. And I don't get them regularly, thank the heavens.

But one woke me up today. I could feel it coming yesterday afternoon with a dull ache between my eyes. I had a bit of a stress increasing shock on Monday, and the stress shows no sign of going away anytime soon, so by yesterday afternoon it had built up a bit. So I did my best to beat the migraine before it hit me (took aspirin before bed, went to bed really really early), but when the pain meds wore off at 3:30/4:00 in the morning, it woke me up. It was that intense. Ugh. Took most of the day for it to subside. And I'll be going to bed early tonight so it doesn't come back.

I really wouldn't wish a migraine on anyone.

You probably didn't know

I saw this on the blog This Fish Needs a Bicycle. She posted a random list of things you probably didn't know about her. I thought it was a fabulous idea, and she told us it was our turn at the end of her post. So here goes. Some of these you might already know, but some of them should still be new, if not a surprise.

I love thunderstorms. I find them magical.

I still sleep with a stuffed dog named Muttsy that my mom gave me in high school. Aussie bit off his nose out of jealousy when she was a puppy. I still have the nose in a drawer.

My favorite color is red and has been since I was five years old.

I don't particularly like shrimp.

I've eaten things I can't identify and actually enjoyed them. Even when I found out what they were.

I'm a romantic at heart. Cliche things like getting flowers make me melt. [But it pretty much never happens.]

I hate Valentine's Day. It makes me feel alone. More bad things related to relationships in my life have happened around that day than any other. But I still give Valentines to people. I rarely get any back (except from my mom).

I love bags and containers. And decorative boxes.

The way someone or something smells is important to me. I associate smells with people and places. The smell of my mom's perfume instantly makes me feel warm and loved. I won't date someone if I don't like they way they smell.

I love the way my dog smells. Her feet smell like popcorn.

I've wanted to have kids of my own since I was 13 years old. I truly want to be a parent someday. And I'm terrified it will never happen.

I love shoes. A beautiful pair of shoes makes me feel sexy.

I enjoy doing things for other people. I enjoy sending care packages.

I'm a night person.

I almost never remember my dreams when I wake up. And I have the same nightmare (which I do remember) every time I run a fever.

I eat ice cream directly from the carton with a spoon. Why dirty a bowl?

I'm terrified of ending up alone.

My mom's meat sauce for spaghetti is probably my favorite comfort food ever. And try as I might, I just can't make it as good as she does. A close second is my dad's cheeseburgers. Which I also just can't make the way he does, even though he's tried to teach me.

I've always wanted to do a triathlon because it combines my three favorite individual sports. My favorite team sport is rugby union. I love watching sports but I'm not a crazy super-fan.

I need to feel needed.

I hate having my feet touched. And I can't stand the feel of things between my toes.

I have crushes on Alton Brown, Anthony Bourdain, Mike Rowe, and Mariska Hargitay.

I can get so lost in what I'm reading that I honestly don't hear anything around me or people talking to me.

I've been reading since I was 2 years old.

I'm only 5 feet, 2 inches tall and have been since I was 12 years old. I have clothes from junior high that still fit.

I'm proud to tell people I'm a librarian. I love my career. But some days I hate my job.

I prefer showers to baths.

My brain (almost) never stops. I'm always thinking about something.

I've always kept myself under tight control. I'm afraid of losing that control over myself. Yet I'm trying to learn how to let go and let my "wild child" out more. And I'm afraid she's too wild or that people won't like the wild real me.

I almost deleted half the things on this list because I thought they were too personal. And being vulnerable is scary.

Your turn.

Misidentification

I bring my lunch to work pretty much every day. And once a week I take stock of what's in my fridge to make sure I have sufficient yogurt, fruit, and other goodies for the upcoming week.

This past Monday was a holiday. And it was bitterly cold. So I did an assessment of my fridge to see if I needed to actually venture outside to go grocery shopping or if I could stay snuggled up with hot mugs of tea all day. I counted my yogurts, the yummy pears in my crisper drawer, and made sure I had enough other ingredients to make 4 days worth of lunches, including confirming I had canned soup as a backup option. No problem. Lunch for the week: check! No need to brave the cold (other than to walk the dog).

So imagine my surprise when I went to get my last piece of fruit out of my drawer for lunch on Friday and discovered that it wasn't a pear, but an avocado. An avocado, people. Yes, still technically a fruit, but not what I expected or planned on. Or what I thought was there based on my fridge assessment on Monday.

OK, granted, they are about the same size and shape. And the pears I had were green, and this particular avocado was more green than not. But still...

How the hell did I mistake an avocado for a pear?!?

Temporary beauty

A Tibetan Buddhist monk is creating an incredible sand mandala at a nearby cathedral. AH and her husband DS had gone on Monday to check it out while DS's father was in town. AH invited me to walk over with her and see his progress as part of our lunch hour this week. I convinced KS to come with us (she had never heard of mandalas before).

The monk creating the mandala is named Losang Samten. He's very gracious, smiling for pictures while he works, and even showing visitors how his tools work and allowing them to give it a try. The tools are amazing. Two hollow metal funnels, no larger than a pencil. Brightly colored sand is scooped into one of them, and when the two funnels are rubbed against each other (they have ridges on the exterior), the friction pushes the sand out the tiny hole at the end. It takes a very steady hand and lots of patience and concentration to form the intricate details. Layers of sand are built up, giving the mandala a 3-D quality that is clearly evident when lighted from the side.

This particular mandala is the wheel of life (alternately the wheel of deluded existence) and is a series of circles within circles. Each section is also divided into smaller sections, with each one taking on different themes and representing different aspects of life from the mind (center), to life situations and conditions (middle ring), and finally human consciousness (outer ring). It is created from the center circle outwards, so as to not disturb the completed sections. When this mandala is "swept away," the sand will be scattered in the Schuylkill River in the hope of bringing peace to the city.

Sand mandalas are beautiful. They are painstakingly created and then systematically destroyed. They are meant to be temporary, representing the transitional nature of life. I understand what they symbolize. I understand why they are created and then destroyed. It's a reminder of how everything, even beauty and art, is temporary. But I always feel a pang of sadness when such an incredible work of art is removed from this world. But it doesn't stop me from enjoying it while it's here.

Pictures can be seen in my Flickr set and KS's Flickr set. KS also blogged about it here on her blog.

Office supply joy!

Right now I'm experiencing office supply happiness! I requested a second filing cabinet, one with two filing drawers. Why? Because I had one, yes, one filing drawer. Not only did this drawer have to hold any and all files, including confidential ones, it also had to hold any valuables because it was the only deep locking drawer I had. Our cubes are open, and while non-library staff aren't allowed back here, it's always a possibility that people wander back here and get lost in the cube maze. So my purse/bag had to go into the only deep drawer I had when I was away from my desk since it didn't fit in the shallow pencil drawer. Naturally this took away from my filing space as a result.

Because of this I had a whole mess of files stacked on my desk, in vertical organizers, in racks, in stacking trays, etc. Some of them are stuff I have to archive for at least a year. Some of the files are current projects or committees. Some are software or cataloging related documentation. Add that to the typical work related files of procedures and policies, reviews, etc. (and my natural pack-rat tendencies) and there just wasn't enough space in that single filing drawer for it all, even if I didn't have to use it to secure my valuables. My files, while well organized (cataloger strikes again!), were taking over my desk, taking away from valuable work space. This was not good, and it was only getting worse.

I assumed my request, which was not questioned (all you had to do was come look and you'd see why I requested the additional drawers), would take awhile. I figured it would be weeks, if not months!, before a second filing cabinet appeared. Mainly because Steelcase (who manufactured my cube-desk) isn't making the product line my desk is anymore (it's old), so they were going to have to order something that would fit under my desk. It had to go under my desk because my cube has only two walls. Visualize my cube as a quarter of a pie. Behind me is either sorting shelves, my boss's office, or open space, so I have no place to put a filing cabinet that wouldn't be in the way.

But I was wrong. In a good way. Apparently someone in the engineering library was getting rid of an extra portable filing cabinet (2 file drawers). So now it's mine. It's happily parked under my desk (it fits!). I even have a key for it!

Tomorrow I will begin the task of sorting and putting everything into the drawers. I've even ordered a box of hanging files in anticipation. It sounds like a good Friday afternoon activity, don't you think?

Sometimes it's the little things in life that bring the most joy.

Other duties as assigned

Today was a day filled with things that can only fall under the horrific line on your job description of other duties as assigned. We all have that line. We all know what it means. I'm a cataloger, so one would think that the majority of my time is spent doing actual cataloging.

Today...not so much. I spent the day doing the following:

1. lots of email
2. committee work (both internal and external committees)
3. trying to track down objects and/or people (often both at the same time)
4. answering questions about procedures and policies (which in a couple of cases also involved tracking them down, see item #3)
5. fielding random questions about software
6. working on the drafts of several proposals (projects, policies, etc.)

Last time I checked, my title still ended with cataloging librarian. Yet, if you read the above list, not one of those items involves any direct cataloging work. I tried to do some actual cataloging today, in between everything else. Unfortunately, every title I pulled from my to-do pile is now in the waiting-for-something-or-someone-else pile. One title was completely checked out (all 10 volumes!). Another one is just a big mess and has now required THREE emails to different centers and people and it's still in the waiting pile. Everything in my to-do pile that I picked up today needs intervention or clarification from a third party before I can finish it. I really really tried to do cataloging. But ultimately today was one of those days where everything else ended up taking over.

Other duties as assigned bites again.

[deep sigh]

A woman's right to choose 2

Feministing is posting highlights from Blog for Choice posts all day today. At the end of one such post, a blogger echoed my favorite bumper sticker on my car, which reads:

Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.

She ended her post with a list of the reasons she votes pro-choice. The last one reads: "Most of all, I vote pro-choice because of my belief in the radical notion that women are people."

You go girl. Women are people that are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves and making sound decisions. No one has the right to tell me what to think or what to do.

A woman's right to choose

Today is the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that gave women the right to choose and access to legal and safe abortions. Happy anniversary!

And yet, the battle to retain those rights wages on. It's not about what I would or wouldn't do if I was faced with such a difficult decision. It's about someone else that doesn't know me or my life telling me what I can and cannot do. Choosing whether or not to have an abortion is a personal decision. Just like choosing to have children is a personal decision. The government has no place inserting itself into my personal life and decisions.

Of course, that's my personal opinion. And you must form your own opinions. But do so in an informed manner. Educate yourself and think for yourself. It's not anyone's place to tell you what to think, anymore than it's anyone's place to tell you whether or not you have the right to to choose whether or not to have a child.

The weight of the shoulds

I had a long list of things I should have done today. I should have done more laundry. I should have finished the dusting. I should have washed the kitchen floor. I should have started going through boxes to purge the extra stuff I keep moving around. I should have gone grocery shopping. I should have...I should have...the list goes on.

But I didn't do any of them. I spent the day working on a counted-cross stitch project, a gift for a friend. And I'm having a hard time not feeling guilty and thinking about all the things I should have done instead.

I remember hearing a fable of sorts growing up, about a girl and her shoulds. Every time she should on herself, another stone was added to the bag she was carrying around. Eventually, the bag was too heavy to carry and she was dragging it. Finally, the weight of the shoulds in the bag was too heavy to move. She was literally weighed down by all the shoulds. The point of the story, of course, is to illustrate that "shoulding" on yourself is not a good thing. That eventually all the shoulds compromise your ability to function.

But the truth is, it doesn't matter that I didn't do any of those things on the list. Nothing I didn't do today is life or death. No one is going to care that there's a bit of dust on the bookshelves (just don't sign and date it, please). The laundry isn't going anywhere, and there will always be more. I'm not starving, there's still food in my kitchen, I have food for lunches this week, so the groceries can wait. I spent the day working on a project and frankly, there's nothing wrong with that.

Now I just have to convince myself of that fact.

Doggie aging

My dog has carpal varus. It's a congenital deformity in short legged dogs where there's uneven growth in the long bones of the forearm (foreleg). It results in severe bowleggedness. Let's put it this way, while Aussie's shoulders and elbows are a good 8 to 10 inches apart, because of the uneven growth of the bones below her elbows, her wrists/ankles touch and her feet turn out. It is something that can be corrected via surgery, but it would have had to have happened before she was a year old. Considering I didn't even get her until she was almost 10 months old, we missed the window of opportunity. It hasn't slowed her down much over the years, but after a frank conversation with one of our vets, we've been watching her closely for complications.

Besides just looking strange, one of the complications is that she's predisposed to arthritis. Her front legs shake, pretty much all the time now. It used to be they shook only when she was tired, but now that she's 12 years old, they shake constantly. To add to the issues, she's not just a short legged but a long backed dog. Long backed dogs are predisposed to arthritis in their back and hips. One of her hind legs has taken to shaking recently, especially when she's tired. She's been on the strongest available glucosamine and chondroitin supplements for years now. Yes, the same stuff us humans take for our joints. And the vet and I have made a conscious effort to do everything possible to keep her at the lowest healthy weight possible to reduce stress on her legs, hips, and back. So she looks borderline thin, but I'm certainly not starving her, and if it means less pain for her, I'd rather have her that way than too heavy. She's still almost 50 pounds of pretty much solid muscle.

But things have been getting worse over the past 4 or 5 months. It's more than just her legs shaking. She fell down the stairs. Like slid down the bottom third onto the landing. There's been days that she's had trouble getting up and down off the couch or my bed. This is the dog that cleared a 3 foot fence as a puppy with a good foot of room. We now have a prescription for rimadyl, which is basically aspirin for dogs. And our walks are getting shorter. After one trip around the block she's pretty much done now. No more hiking for Aussie. She still has moments where she tears around the living room like a crazy thing, chasing her tail and tossing her toys around, but they're shorter, and fewer and farther between now. She's still a happy and active dog, but she's slowed down considerably. And lately I've noticed that one of her eyes is starting to look a bit cloudy, like she's developing a cataract.

I am not dealing well with these new problems. It feels very sudden to me. I know there's only so much I can do, but the idea that my dog is getting old is just not something I'm accepting gracefully. But I'm doing what I can. Besides the drugs, I'm hoping to move to a single story apartment in the next 6 months so we don't have to deal with stairs anymore. And I have more dog beds around the house than I ever thought I would. I admit I'm becoming less strict with rules, letting her up on the bed without a blanket down, letting her get away with things I never would have when she was younger (but she's still a very very well behaved dog!). And I'm certainly more reluctant to take her to a kennel and leave her in an unfamiliar environment with strangers. I prefer to take her with me these days, so I can keep an eye on her, or have her stay with friends. And I may be a fool because of it, but she's my baby dog. She's my family. And it's breaking my heart that she's getting old.

Back to reality...

I'm back to reality from my 4 days of being insanely busy with the ALA Midwinter Meeting. OK, so technically I didn't actually go anywhere since it was here in Philly, but I wasn't any less busy. If anything (or if even possible), I was more busy than previous Meetings.

Having a conference or large professional meeting in your home city is a double-edged sword. On the plus side, you don't have to deal with the stress of travel. All your friends get to see where you live, including the ones that would never be able to visit you otherwise. And I did see friends. It was wonderful to see them all, but as with every conference/meeting, we did not have enough time together as we all had lots to do. Also on the plus side you know where you're going. There's nothing worse than trying to find the hotel where you're next meeting is and ending up completely lost. Or getting lost trying to find your hotel at night after dinner. It was nice to know where I was and where I was going for once.

But on the flip side, having a conference/meeting in your home city is extra work. People ask you for directions. Or where to eat dinner. I haven't been out to eat much, so I had to ask several colleagues and friends to help me compile a list of suggestions. You're asked to do extra local arrangements stuff for groups. And you still have to deal with all the normal home stuff. The dog still needs to go out and other home chores still have to happen. Just because you have a conference doesn't mean your regular life stops when it's local (when you travel you can escape the day to day stuff). You have to worry about public transit schedules both to get to meetings in the mornings and to make sure you don't miss the last bus or the last train home. I actually know people that still elect to stay in one of the conference hotels when their city is hosting just so they don't have to worry about such things. And I seriously considered putting the dog in a kennel for the weekend. Lucky for me, I have awesome friends that were staying with me so we could tag-team the dog care. My friends ROCK.

This was a successful Midwinter for me. Things went smoothly. I saw lots of friends. My ALA committee completed it's work and goals. We worked hard and we've worked for months but it all paid off when we accomplished what we set out to do. The workshop I presented was well received and I got lots of positive feedback. My other meetings went smoothly and things are moving forward. I made new connections with colleagues. A dinner I planned for one of my groups ended up being very tasty, lots of fun, and everyone that attended enjoyed themselves. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's over, but overall everything went very very well.

Now it's back to the grind. I have follow up work to do. So while the official event is over, the related work is just getting started. And I need to pick back up some of the work stuff I put on hold for the Meeting. The next few days are going to be just as busy until I get on top of things again.

Election quiz

So, which presidential candidate do you match with best based on key issues?

87% Dennis Kucinich
86% Mike Gravel
82% Barack Obama
81% Chris Dodd
78% John Edwards
77% Hillary Clinton
77% Joe Biden
76% Bill Richardson
41% Rudy Giuliani
35% John McCain
32% Ron Paul
26% Mike Huckabee
25% Mitt Romney
15% Tom Tancredo
15% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Can you all guess from the results that I'm a liberal? And you know, I knew my preferences without even taking the quiz.

The conference crud strikes early

I've blogged about the conference crud before. It's inevitable. You will most likely get it if you spend any time at all in conference sessions, on the exhibit floor, or on a shuttle bus. If you aren't ever in one of those three places during a conference, well, then you're not in attendance.

This year the conference crud has apparently struck early. Lots of people are sick and have even missed a day or two of work in the past week leading up to the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting (which officially starts Friday). There's been a vicious head cold that's been making the rounds at work. I myself was laid flat out on Monday with it (consisting of congestion, headache, sore throat and a general all over icky feeling). I slept all day on Monday and am much better, although there's some residual congestion hanging around. I have friends and colleagues all over the country that have reported being sick. Most of them have to get on a plane today or tomorrow to come to Philly for the meeting. The only thing worse than catching the conference crud and going home sick is being sick before you even arrive at the conference. Conferences are exhausting, and doubly so when you're not feeling well.

Maybe, just maybe, if I'm now well on the way to recovery (light years better than on Monday), maybe this was it and my bout of the crud is over and done with for this conference. Either that or we're all going to converge and trade germs and go home with each other's version of the crud.

But let's think positive. Let us all hope and believe that the conference crud struck early this year and it's now over and done with.

And then the realist in me says: "sure, and rainbows will be shining out of my butt next week."

Conference scheduling nightmares

The 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting is in Philly this weekend. This means that a large number of librarians will be descending on the city. Large as in somewhere around 12,000 librarians. I have friends staying with me, which is good as I that means we can tag team the dog duties. I'll be making up a chart to guarantee the dog goes out at least three times a day during the insanity of all the conference meetings.

My weekend is packed. It always is. And I always have conflicts. This year seems to be particularly bad. To make it worse, they seem to be concentrated with nothing either interesting or obligatory in between them. So it's lots of conflicts for several hours followed by several hours of dead time. On the upside, I'll actually have several blocks of time to wander through the exhibits this Midwinter Meeting.

OK, back to the problem. I have two conflicting meetings Saturday morning at 10:30. I have three Sunday morning at 10:30 and another two, oops, three at 4:00 that afternoon. The worst part? It's not a matter of deciding which of two potentially interesting sessions I want to try (and I've picked the wrong one before). This time it's about choosing between two (or three) job related and useful sessions. I've tried to do the divide and conquer method with colleagues, where we each attend one, take copious notes, and then trade.

Unfortunately, this won't work for the Saturday morning conflict. Those two sessions don't really relate to anyone else's job buy mine. Damn. I guess it's time to chant eeny, meeny, miny, moe and just randomly pick one as I only have a few more days to nail down my schedule.

New Year's Day dinner reinvented

This year I decided to try new recipes for my New Year's Day dinner. Risky, I know, given how important following the food rules are. But that doesn't mean I can't branch out within the rules. Every year, for my entire life (and I'm not exaggerating), my New Year's Day dinner has consisted of ham, black-eyed peas from a can, green beans, and some potato dish (mashed, scalloped, gratin, etc.). Every year.

I want this year, 2008, to be different than the past few years have been. Really. The past three or so have been a bit rough in a variety of ways, and I want some things to change. So I decided to start with my New Year's Day meal. I know it sounds strange, but you have to start somewhere. I guess I'm hoping that if I change the meal on the first day so it's different than the past years, the year will be different as well.

So I varied my meal as much as the rules allowed. I still had black-eyed peas for change, but instead of canned I purchased fresh in the produce section. They do taste a bit different, and are less mushy, but still delightful with ketchup (it's an acquired taste) and the leftovers I've discovered are quite good on salads.

For my meat, remember, the rules state nothing that scratches backwards, so no chicken or turkey. That left beef, lamb, or some pork product. So I went with a marinated pork loin instead of ham. I'm not very good at cooking beef unless it's ground (always ends up overdone...I need more practice), so I eliminated that. I wanted to get some lamb, but the cuts available just didn't look very good. So I went with pork loin. I decided on one infused with apple-bourbon flavor. It was delicious. And just as tasty the next day.

Where I really went in a different direction was with the greens for money. It's always been green beans, but actually any greens will do. It's just important to eat a big pile of greens so you get your green. So I decided to try a new recipe. Bacon and brown sugar braised collard greens. My mouth watered when I read the recipe title (it's watering again now). I carefully inspected the recipe to make sure it violated no rule. Looked good, no violations (it uses water instead of chicken broth). So I purchased a big bag of prewashed and torn collard greens and two thick-cut slices of bacon. Brown the bacon, add and saute some onion and garlic, then add in water, pepper, brown sugar, and a bit of vinegar, and finally add the greens and cook for about an hour. OMG they are so yummy. Sweet and spicy and savory all at once. I'm still enjoying the leftovers.

I really hope how successful the 2008 New Year's Day meal was is telling of how this year is going to be different.

One spoiled puppy

Aussie doesn't get table scraps, but I do give her veggie bits when I'm chopping up fresh veggies. You know, that tough end of the zucchini or those bits of tomato that are a bit green and hard? Or the slightly bitter ends of the celery stalk? Aussie's jaws make short work of them and according to the vet, they're good for her. Perfectly edible, but they just don't taste very good or are difficult for us humans to digest. But they don't bother the dog and she loves them. When we were trying to get her weight down to the minimum possible and have her still be healthy to put less pressure on her legs and back, the vet told me to cut her food in half and give her salt-free canned or frozen (thawed of course) veggies as filler. And he recommended baby carrots instead of dog biscuits. But those aren't table scraps. She gets treats, but not table scraps. No human food leftovers at home. I really don't consider giving her veggies spoiling. Or the treats I used to train her. She's loved, but there's discipline and she's well trained (which is constantly reinforced). I believe Cesar Milan would call her a "balanced dog" rather than spoiled.

Not so when we visit family. My entire family spoils my dog. My entire family. Grandmother gives her "great grand-dog" pieces of apple and carrot. My aunt's husband gave her pieces of ham because she "politely and patiently waited" while he cleaned the meat off the bone. Patiently waited. Mind you, this is because I trained her not to beg, but to lie quietly out of the way when food was involved. My aunt saved the bits of ham slice edges to give to Aussie after dinner each night. She got bits of Christmas dinner leftovers [ok, special occasion, and I was the culprit in this case, but nothing bad for her like sweets or onions, which are toxic]. And I know people gave her other bits when I wasn't looking. Bits because "she's just such a good dog." [These people obviously don't live with her if they believe she's good all the time...]

Then there was her Christmas haul. Santa brought her a rawhide bone, peanut butter flavored (her favorite). But she also had her own gifts to open. My cousin and his wife gave her a big bag of fancy treats. My aunt gave her a new squeaky stuffed toy (which she will rip into and pull out all the stuffing and then run around with the "shell" for weeks). I explicitly told my grandmother to NOT get her anything this time, that I would bring a bone for her, as last year she gave Aussie lots of treats PLUS a big rawhide bone.

Then there was what my mom sent her grand-dog. When I walked in the house with that package from her Aussie wouldn't let me move until she had inspected every side of the box thoroughly. It took a good 10 minutes of nose work before I could finish walking through the living room and put the box down on the table. Mom had apologized ahead of time for the squeaky toy she sent, but there was more. Oh yes, there was quite a bit more. A chicken flavored "health bone" with all sorts of vitamins and minerals in it. Aussie enjoyed that on Christmas Eve.

The Rogz squeaky toy is named "Rogzette." Rogzette is a "sportimal" K9 beauty and surfer queen. That's what the label says. She looks kind of like a cross between a dog and a rat, but with no tail, pink spiky hair and a pink bikini. The most disturbing aspect of Rogzette is the little knot of silver thread that's supposed to be a belly-button ring. And no, I'm not joking. Nor did I make Rogzette up. Go look for yourself. Aussie has managed to kill the squeaker, and is now working on ripping her apart and gutting her. She's currently trying to rip the pink bikini bra top off to get at the stuffing.

But perhaps the most interesting gift from my mom were the two packages of strange brown objects that smelled very good to Aussie. So I read the labels. Roo heart. Lamb puff. Lamb ears. Beef hide. OMG. Lamb puff? WTF is that? [I don't recommend Googling it by the way...unless you enjoy being disturbed] I asked my mom about these two little bundles when we talked on Christmas. They're very common dog treats in Australia. I guess kind of like pig ears here in the U.S. But still, um, yeah. And no, I still haven't opened them and given any to Aussie. I can't decide if I'm disturbed by them or not. And frankly I'm afraid of how they might smell.

Aussie will never lack for treats and spoiling as long as my family is around. Never ever. By the time we get through this year's haul it will be Christmas again and we'll have a whole new set of treats and toys! Yes, Aussie is one spoiled puppy. Secretly? I admit I think she probably deserves/earns it.

Completion of the phone and internet saga

I am writing this blog post from home! Yes, you read that right, from HOME. Using my nice wireless(!) home internet connection from Verizon. The setup and activation was painless, smooth, easy. A sharp contrast to the 12 hours I spent on the phone with AT&T trying to get my DSL set up and activated with them.

So it's done. Finally finally done.

Although, according to my AT&T account (checked online), they might actually owe me money. I wonder how long it will take me to get that...of course, I'm sure that will change and I'll end up owing them some service charge or another.

No matter. I still feel so beyond triumphant to be free and clear of AT&T. And positively gleeful to have home internet access again!!

Happy New Year!

May 2008 bring you all that you hope and wish for and more. And may it be filled with good friends, lots of love, and good memories.