These are some of the best friends anyone could ask for- they're always happy to see me, always ready to love and be loved, to cheer up, and to alert me to danger. They keep me warm at night, and provide me with lots of fun and entertainment. They even catch mice! 
Lilly
Skittles
Little Boy
Lilly adopted Little Boy as her own
Just as Skittles had adopted her
Lilly
Skittles
Little Boy
Lilly adopted Little Boy as her own 
Just as Skittles had adopted herToday was uneventful, peaceful even. It was just me and the dogs- Significant Other is off playing Army for the weekend. I slept a great deal- getting over the flu will do that to you- and then I did a few constructive activities. One of them was reading Rolling Stone.
There are few things in life that give me the deep pleasure that reading Rolling Stone does. I've been subscribing to them since I was nine- in fact, it's one of the things I asked to get for my birthday that year- and I've been hooked ever since. I've seen some of the worst cover ideas EVER ( like the Jonas Brothers- seriously, why?), and I've seen some of the best as well (25th Rock Hall of Fame, Green Day, Obama, etc), and it's kept me well informed of many, many things. Hell, it's even inspired me to go out and make a cold purchase on a CD from a band I'd never heard- and thank God for that. I've found that their movie critics and I don't agree on how many stars most movies should get, and thus it helps me make an informed decision when I'm contemplating having my wallet raped by the local cinema. For instance, RS said that No Country for Old Men was one of the best films of the decade- and I disagree strongly. I can't read Cormac McCarthy, believe me I tried, and I couldn't sit through the movie, either. The Road wasn't even given consideration from me. It's not personal- I just think the books are boring as hell and McCarthy hasn't proved himself enough to be a badass like e.e. cummings and not use punctuation ever.
Also on the subject of reading, I'm trying to slosh my way through Alas, Babylon. This is a book required of most high school students around here, and one that I'd never heard of until I moved to this area. It's actually proving to be quite good, especially for required high school reading, but still, it retains that air of 'school'. It's a sci-fi apocalyptic novel set in the early 20th century, when the Russians were the major evil in the world. I haven't finished it yet, but it's pretty tasty.
I finished Flow, and while I think it is very important and interesting, I think the editors should've done a better job of cutting it down- there was far too often when the same thing was repeated over and over. It was easy to get bogged down in the book, but once you got the gist of things, you could skim over the repeats and get on with the cool stuff. Plus, the cover is effing cool. It gets a 3 star rating (out of five).
Back to RS, though...
This issue that I was reading had a fantastic spread on Darfur, and anyone not in the know on the subject should read it. Hell, I almost went there two years ago as a relief aid worker, and I still learned things that I did not know in that article. It brought to the forefront the necessity to step it up over in Sudan- worldwide, not just the U.S. The people there now are only maintaining a very, very shaky status quo that could easily be erased any day. Bashir, the leader of Sudan (who sanctioned the genocide) is that asshole kid that points at his sister, his finger a quarter of an inch away from her, and taunts "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you"- the kid that really, really should have his ass whipped, even though technically he's not totally deserving of it. This is nothing new in Africa- it's been going on for time immeasurable- but for the first time it's become public theatre, and the ones that are the most dangerous are moving off the stage and into the seats. They're going all over the world, and it becomes more and more apparent all the time that things are only going to get better when the good people finally say: "okay, fuck this. Let's dance, douchebags" and stop taking their shit.
On a happier note (sort of), I also read about Herbie the Elm today. Herbie is a 240 year old Elm tree that lives in Yarmouth, Maine. He has a keeper who is 101 years old; the man has been fighting to save the tree's life from Dutch elm disease since the '50s and has, by and large, succeeded. Herbie has had something like 10 bouts of Dutch elm disease, and every time this man has brought him out of it. He considers the tree his friend, and it's one of a dozen or so that he managed to save from the axe. Unfortunately, though, Herbie is going to be cut down the middle of this month. It's going to be a sad day for tree lovers like myself. I'm going to go down to a local nursery and buy an elm and plant it in Herbie's memory. 240 years is a long, long time. I know this is long, even rambling, but in the event that there's someone out there who reads this and would like to know about reading material (or see a little bitty glimpse of my life), this is probably your kind of post.
There are few things in life that give me the deep pleasure that reading Rolling Stone does. I've been subscribing to them since I was nine- in fact, it's one of the things I asked to get for my birthday that year- and I've been hooked ever since. I've seen some of the worst cover ideas EVER ( like the Jonas Brothers- seriously, why?), and I've seen some of the best as well (25th Rock Hall of Fame, Green Day, Obama, etc), and it's kept me well informed of many, many things. Hell, it's even inspired me to go out and make a cold purchase on a CD from a band I'd never heard- and thank God for that. I've found that their movie critics and I don't agree on how many stars most movies should get, and thus it helps me make an informed decision when I'm contemplating having my wallet raped by the local cinema. For instance, RS said that No Country for Old Men was one of the best films of the decade- and I disagree strongly. I can't read Cormac McCarthy, believe me I tried, and I couldn't sit through the movie, either. The Road wasn't even given consideration from me. It's not personal- I just think the books are boring as hell and McCarthy hasn't proved himself enough to be a badass like e.e. cummings and not use punctuation ever.
Also on the subject of reading, I'm trying to slosh my way through Alas, Babylon. This is a book required of most high school students around here, and one that I'd never heard of until I moved to this area. It's actually proving to be quite good, especially for required high school reading, but still, it retains that air of 'school'. It's a sci-fi apocalyptic novel set in the early 20th century, when the Russians were the major evil in the world. I haven't finished it yet, but it's pretty tasty.
I finished Flow, and while I think it is very important and interesting, I think the editors should've done a better job of cutting it down- there was far too often when the same thing was repeated over and over. It was easy to get bogged down in the book, but once you got the gist of things, you could skim over the repeats and get on with the cool stuff. Plus, the cover is effing cool. It gets a 3 star rating (out of five).
Back to RS, though...
This issue that I was reading had a fantastic spread on Darfur, and anyone not in the know on the subject should read it. Hell, I almost went there two years ago as a relief aid worker, and I still learned things that I did not know in that article. It brought to the forefront the necessity to step it up over in Sudan- worldwide, not just the U.S. The people there now are only maintaining a very, very shaky status quo that could easily be erased any day. Bashir, the leader of Sudan (who sanctioned the genocide) is that asshole kid that points at his sister, his finger a quarter of an inch away from her, and taunts "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you"- the kid that really, really should have his ass whipped, even though technically he's not totally deserving of it. This is nothing new in Africa- it's been going on for time immeasurable- but for the first time it's become public theatre, and the ones that are the most dangerous are moving off the stage and into the seats. They're going all over the world, and it becomes more and more apparent all the time that things are only going to get better when the good people finally say: "okay, fuck this. Let's dance, douchebags" and stop taking their shit.
On a happier note (sort of), I also read about Herbie the Elm today. Herbie is a 240 year old Elm tree that lives in Yarmouth, Maine. He has a keeper who is 101 years old; the man has been fighting to save the tree's life from Dutch elm disease since the '50s and has, by and large, succeeded. Herbie has had something like 10 bouts of Dutch elm disease, and every time this man has brought him out of it. He considers the tree his friend, and it's one of a dozen or so that he managed to save from the axe. Unfortunately, though, Herbie is going to be cut down the middle of this month. It's going to be a sad day for tree lovers like myself. I'm going to go down to a local nursery and buy an elm and plant it in Herbie's memory. 240 years is a long, long time. I know this is long, even rambling, but in the event that there's someone out there who reads this and would like to know about reading material (or see a little bitty glimpse of my life), this is probably your kind of post.
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