Absolutely beautiful!
Morning, all. Nice last-minute op, Mork; I could see Ralph pulling you by the diapers back through the fence. Smart doggie!
I didn’t grow up with dogs; we had cats. Our first was a black cat named Jumper who lived with us when we were in India; I’ve never asked my mom what we did with him when we returned to the U.S. when I was nearly 4. I’ll have to ask her. I assume he moved in with another family. Then we got a Siamese named Melinda, who we had for a couple of years. She was a funny cat, absolutely loved to be brushed – with the vacuum cleaner brush! Alas, she was hit by a car when I was 6 and didn’t survive. I still remember how awful that was. Then we immediately got a new cat, a Siamese we temporarily named Princess until we could come up with a better name. Nearly 23 years later, when she finally left us for good, she was still named Princess. :sniff: She was a wonderful cat, full of personality and affection.
Princess would let anyone in the world brush the sides of her face endlessly – except for one person. My parents hosted a college-aged church youth group on Sunday evenings at our house, and Princess would sit in the middle of the room for a while, then move around from person to person getting brushed. Until Bill would try. She would turn up her nose in disgust, no matter how often he tried. At one point, long after he’d graduated, he came back to visit us, and to everyone’s delight and amusement, she recognized him immediately and once again refused to let him brush her! We’ve never figured out why.
Pets are wonderful!
Anyway, I’m up and caffeinating and trying to transcribe a bickerfest otherwise known as a deposition. This one is achieving new lows of childishness, since there’s no judge present in a depo to make the lawyers behave:
Lawyer A: Objection. That question is not relevant.
Lawyer B: Yes, it is.
Lawyer A: No, it’s not.
Lawyer B: Yes, it is.
Lawyer A: No, it’s not.
etc.
Envy me my exciting job, people.
I’m applying for the Peace Corps right now. Envy ME dammit.
Where I grew up, they’re called “pussywillows,” I assume because they’re fluffly like little kittens.
snort
Sounds like my part-time job. I work with four and five-year-olds. 
It was nice seeing you Saturday at Ladew, Mama Tiger. We didn’t get a chance to talk much, but it’s nice to put a face to the name.
I lichen your photo tour, kai. Speaking of bears, I dreamed I had a bear(N.O.S, a 1000lbs Grizzly) crashed out on my bed, along with Maggie and lucretia.
Great OP and lovely pics, Kai, I like to see the kind of places other people live.
It’s a sunny Monday over here and today is a public holiday so no work for me. Just as well, I had a busy weekend and I still have lots of things to do.
On Saturday morning we went to visit the Sikh Gurdwara in Handsworth. It was the first time I’d been in a Sikh temple in the UK and it turned out to be a very interesting morning. First of all we had a brief talk from one of the elders, telling us where we would be going and what they were going to show us, and a bit of history about the Sikh religion and the temple we were in. Then we went into the main prayer hall where they have continuous readings of their holy book - reading the book from cover to cover takes around 48 hours so the readers take 2hrs each to read the book aloud while people sit in silence to pray and listen. We only stayed for about 10 minutes, just to listen and soak up the atmosphere. The room was very large and brightly decorated with lots of red and gold designs on the walls. We were told that people can have a reading of the scriptures dedicated for them and this will take about 3 days to complete, during which time the sponsor of the reading bears all of the expenses of the temple. It’s a very popular thing to do because it helps amass the plus points you need to get into heaven! Apparently at that particular Gurdwara you can put your name on the list for a sponsored reading but you won’t actually get one until about 2012!
The prayer room was followed by a short talk in another of the halls where we were told a bit more about what Sikhism is all about and we had a chance to ask questions about it and about the temple etc. Afterwards we went up to one of the smaller prayer rooms which meant we had to go outside and walk across the roof of the building to get to the room which was inside one of the domes at the top. They particularly wanted us to see this room because the domed ceiling contains a huge chanelier housed inside a hand-made cut glass setting. The “dome” interior was made by one man who spent over a year working on it and it contains around 150,000 separate pieces of cut glass put together in a kind of mosaic style to create the pattern. The pattern is mostly clear glass but also contains some blue flower designs which are reflected in some of the other glasswork on the ceiling and around the walls. They then sent off pictures of the glasswork to China where they had a carpet specially woven which also carries the same designs as the glass.
Once we’d managed to drag ourselves away from the beautiful interior of the domed room, we went back inside the temple building and down to the Langar hall via the enormous kitchens where we could see the women preparing meals. The tradition of Langar is peculiar only to the Sikh religion - the name means “free kitchen” and they will feed free of charge anyone who comes into the temple. The food may be quite simple but it is plentiful - we had saag (spinach) and dhal (lentil/chick pea soup) with raita (yogurt, cucumber and spices), chappatis and naan bread. We also had some very sweet cakes for dessert and warm chai to drink. All the time, there are people walking around the dining hall with big bowls of food trying to get you to eat more of it!
After lunch, it was time to leave and head back to do the afternoon’s errands before going into Brum to meet a friend for drinks. On Sunday, three of us headed up to Manchester to a friend’s birthday party - she’s well known for throwing excellent parties and this one was no exception. There was a gazebo in the garden to house the bar, and the garage had been converted into a disco complete with glitterballs and fancy lighting. Inside the house, one of the guys had set up a karaoke machine and 'im indoors gave us a few examples of why a drunken Scotsman should not be allowed anywhere near karaoke!
We finally got to bed about 4am this morning, then we were up a few hours later to caffeinate before meeting friends for brunch and then the drive home. Fortunately it’s only about an hour and a half to get there so it wasn’t too bad. I do hate driving when I’m hung, nay draped, over though.
The rest of my afternoon will involve ironing, resting and possibly watching crap telly. Our friend Debbie who put us up for the night made moussaka and fruit crumble yesterday for us, so we have leftovers for dinner tonight. I can’t see anything wrong with a day on which I don’t have to cook at all.
Right, I’ve bored you for long enough, I’m off to make more tea and do the heap of ironing before I completely lose the will…
Since there were two MMPs, I’ve merged them both, keeping the title of the earliest of the two. So, the replies are a bit mixed, but that shouldn’t be too far from normal when it comes to MMPs. 
It’s in the news already, Sean. The local (well, sixty miles away; we’re far too small to have our own news) tv station had a little story about it last week. It was very much a “this kind of thing could never happen here” angle that they put on it. A bit naive of them, I thought. However, one of my aunts works at the school, and all lurid details we know of come from her, since she is a gossip.
Two wonderful OPs, Mork and kai!
BooFae, your experience at the Sikh temple sounds wonderful. The only temples I’ve been to are Buddhist temples, but I always loved the serenity - and the food - that one found there. Not to be irreverent.
My brother wants to go see Spiderman 3, so we’re going to see the one at noon. I have tons of work to do, but Spiderman comes first. Plus I feel bad for my brother because he’s stuck at home most of the time.
I apologize for not visiting with you Saturday, BibKitty – without nametags, I didn’t realize it was you! I was quite annoyed with myself when I saw the group photo label and realized we’d missed a chance to get to know each other. Next time for sure!
It’s two, two MMPs in one! Like, wow, man! Trippy!
No I am not smokin’ le weed. I am trippin’ out over resumes and job apps. I’ve been workin’ on job apps all morning. I think I fried my brain.
Anywho, great OP Mindude and kai! The pics of Kodiak are breathtaking! Such beautiful country. Alaska is on the list of places I wanna go cause everybody’s who has ever been says there’s no way to describe it you just gotta see it. Pets… so many in my life. None right now, but growin’ up we had dogs, cats, gerbils, snakes, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, turtles, fish… we had it all. Especially dogs. When I die and go to that happy place where all the dogs are waitin’ for me to show up, I shall be covered head to toe in doggy kisses.
Tonight I’m having dinner with some other folks who are in the process of the job hunt. I was talking to a friend who is doin’ this right now herself and she said sump’n about a couple other people who we both knew were lookin’ and so, she spearheaded the idea of us gettin’ together, thus tonight’s dinner. Should be fun and good to just talk about what everybody’s doin’, how it’s all goin’ and all that good stuff. I could live without it bein’ at Applebee’s but still it should be good to do this.
Ok, back to doin’ stuff. Later Y’all!
I grew up with both a dog and a cat, but the dog wasn’t really a “people” dog. She’d been abused as a puppy and just never really got past that. The cat, Tige (short for tiger), though was a love. He wandered into our yard when I was ~6 and ate some bread we’d thrown into the compost pile. We figured he had no home so we fed him, and that was that. He stayed and was just a wonderful, loving cat. (We lived in a really rural area and knew everyone around so if he’d belonged to someone, we’d have heard from someone.) He was the kind of cat who knew if you were upset about something and would come cuddle to make you feel better.
He got hit by a car when I was young, but survived, just losing an eye. Unfortunately, he didn’t learn his lesson about cars (nor did we learn to keep him inside), and he died when I was ~15 after being hit by a car again. Poor Tige. 
(Note: Since I’ve moved out on my own, all my cats have been indoor cats. I learned my lesson!)
It was a rainy weekend here, but that was ok. It gave us an excuse to stay inside and be lazy. We did wash the windows though. Ick! There was more black stuff on the inside of the windows than the outside! Yuck.
We also picked up some plants for our deck/balcony/patio/whatever. A purple and white fushia to hang by the door - I looooove fushia. And for the last windowbox - the other 3 have herb seeds that we’re waiting to sprout - some snap dragons and lobelia. It’s going to be really pretty in a month or so. Assuming I can keep the fushia alive. Mom wouldn’t even try growing them because she always killed them, despite having a green thumb. But I think they’re so pretty so I got one last year and it survived from just after the 4th of July through Labor Day. So I’m going to try really hard to keep this one alive from now through Labor Day. We’ll see! In any case, it’s really pretty right now.
Loved the pix of Alaska, kai!
And great story of the visit to the temple, BooFae.
Back to work!
I miss my first dog. My parent’s’ current dog lives in luxury my first puppy couldn’t even imagine. Mork, that was lovely.
I really like the rock pics, kai. I love big rocks and water. So pretty.
I have just eaten an enormous lunch, and instead of cleaning the kitchen I think I’ll have a nap. This is making my normal desire to nap all the time much worse. It does seem to have killed the insomnia, too.
Other Quasi-Daughter phoned yesterday to say she’s coming tomorrow. At what time? No idea. Yay.
I loved the photos, kaiwik! I also would love to be able to see Alaska some day. The only common sight, for me, from your photos were the mallards. We’re awash in them here. I saw a pair in the parking lot of the grocery story for some reason. There aren’t even any lakes or streams close. Silly old ducks.
FooBay, neato trip to the temple. I rarely have seen places of worship outside my own, but I’ve very interested in religion and have enjoyed the various ones I HAVE been to.
I had to have my 14-year German Shepherd put to sleep last year. Mike, like all my dogs, was a rescue. He adored me, but suffered from separation anxiety. When left alone in the house he’d work at the windows until he unlocked them, opened them up, and let himself out of the house. He never went off the block, but one lovely neighbor would call Animal COntrol. The last time I got him out cost me $500. But I loved him, and he loved me. In the end, he had what seemed to me to be a neurological issue, causing him to drag a leg. A vet (not my usual, but a sub who looked about 14) insisted it was arthritis. Arthritis that develops ovre night? I told her I thought it was neurological, but she poo-pooed that (although she wrote it in the chart). The arthritis med she put him on gave him a huge ulcer, and I couldn’t get him better. I cooked special food, I hand fed him, but he lost so much weight. When th etime came to put him down, my regular vet did it. She gave him an anesthetic shot and said “He has no feeling in his back legs”. It was probably a slipped disc all along, so I lost him for nothing. Well, damn. Now I’m crying.
StG
Woohoo! Twice the MMP, twice the flavour!
canineservant - Heh – oh, Ralph loved people food, too, but he was content to eat his own dog food with vigor. Never fed him beer though, but it’d be funny watching a dog knock back a cold one straight from the bottle.
tashii - Sounds rather like Ralph, except most of the time it was just my dad and I, so he would guard the door against passersby who may come in and try and take me away. He didn’t bark often, but he whenever anyone got too close.
Nava - Aw, that’s cute. I’ve always had a special place for Shepards because of Ralph – actually, I think I owe my love of animals in general to Ralph, being that he was probably my first contact with any, and thus a positive experience. I’m always worried with I see small children around small animals because they always seem to play so rough with them, not really knowing any better. I’m concerned for the animals, but also for the children, who may end up getting bitten/scratched if they do something the animal really doesn’t like.
Kai - Wow, those are some great shots! Alaska looks like a beautiful place. I love the forest shots – I’ve always had a thing for the beauty and serenity of dense forests, but the whole area looks breathtaking, especially where the forest meets the water. The explorer in me would just love to hike through miles of those trees.
Tigs snork Somehow I find the juxtaposition of manicured, suited lawyers in a sober proceeding devolving into an “is not/is too!” argument hillarious. “No, your evidence sucks!” “Nuh-uh! You couldn’t even prove mens rea! Moron!” “Yeah? Well your witness is a crackhead!”
Yeah, I could imagine Ralph half-dragging, half carrying me by my nappy to the back porch door. I think my parents were a little more watchful over me after that, but Ralph definitely got the Good Doggie medal for his daring rescue.
I also have cats who love to be brushed, but none so much as Dutchess, who will go and sit on the sink in the bathroom (because that’s where the brushes are kept) and patiently wait for someone to come in, whereupon she will mewl pleadingly for a good brushing.
Rebo - Now there’s a devoted dog. It’s funny how that works – that’s rather similar to when one of our cats got herself knocked up. She’d gone under the dresser to give birth to a pair of kitties, but she was having a difficult time delivering the third and was in pain, so she was constantly following us around as we tried to do what we could to comfort her. (The third turned out to be a stillbirth, which is why she had such trouble delivering) She wouldn’t leave our side for anything no matter the pain she was in. Fortunately it all turned out alright in spite of everything.
StGermain - That’s sad, and I’m sorry to hear about Mike. I’d have asked for a second opinion from a seasoned vet, especially if I thought it was something other than what the interim vet diagnosed (which sounds like it was more of a guess than anything).
Whew. Mega-busy day today. I’ve been writing this response for the last two hours, bits at a time between calls. On Friday, we had to move every floor-based movable object out of the offices so the cleaners could put a new coat of wax on the linoleum. This morning we came in and discovered that they were so half-assed they’d need to sit down in pairs. Swaths of floor under the desks (which were perfectly accessible) were wax-less, and what wax they did applied ended up looking mottled and striated and spotty, like they were in a hurry to get home. This is on top of the fact that they didn’t clean the floors very well, so now there are hairs and bits of dirt in the corners and around the wall bases with a nice waxy sheen to them. On top of that, they actually made the effort to move the refrigerator in the break room to wax under it, which necessitated unplugging it from the wall. They moved it back okay, but they forgot to plug it back in, so everything in the fridge is spoiled. We’re going to be calling the cleaning company to tell them to get their asses back in here and do it right – on top of compensation for the lost foodstuffs in the fridge. I only had a couple of yogurt cups and a 1L of premium milk in there (probably about 2/3rds full) but still. Morons.
My weekend was spent mostly doing a bunch of video editing. Saturday night I started feeling pretty sick – stomach pains. Not quite gut-wrenching, but I dosed myself with some Pepto and Gravol, and it eventually went away thank Og.
Okay, back to the trenches.
For about 3 months when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, we owned a Basset named Winston (for Churchill, not the cigarettes) He was a lot of fun and a very silly puppy. He thought the kitchen trash can was his own private treasure trove and would head for it after coming in from every walk. He always seemed disappointed when there was never anything new for him in it.
But my gramma couldn’t stand his barking and we had to get help Winston find a new home. That was the only time I’d ever owned (or been in a family who owned) a dog. After Winston, I had a hamster named Pepper; he only lasted about a year. Then in 6th grade we got the 2 Seal point Siamese kittens, Si(mon) and Am(brose).
As for spring, I’ve been outside for exactly 30 minutes since 4/23. What year is it?
Therapy continues to go well, they may be kicking me out as early as late this week. I hope I get to stay longer, tho. I’m not very confident yet.
Anyway - off to check my email before my online session expires. Manana, all.
What lovely OPs.
I grew up having owned a few dogs. My first dog we had when I was just an infant. We lived in Lawton, OK at the time. We had the dog, along with a big black cat. I don’t know what happened to Penny the dog, but Pederlay the cat was killed by a tarantula.
For a short while we had a wolf-german shepherd mix. My mother made my dad get rid of him really, really fast. Next we got a cock-a-poo named Smokey. He was a love and was extremely protective of us. He was also extremely smart and considered himself an alpha dog. And, truly, he was. It would be quite interesting to see him with neighborhood dogs. He was always trotting at the head of the pack and had no problem putting an interloper in his/her place. He almost always the smallest dog in the group too. It was quite comical. A couple of years after we moved to Tacoma, someone poisoned him. I was crushed.
After Smokey, we got a dog named Pierre. My mom got rid of him while we were at summer camp. He dug too much for her taste. We were extremely angry with my mother and sad at having lost Pierre.
Next came Prince. He truly was a Prince of a dog. He was just a mutt, a poodle terrier mix, but followed me everywhere. His love knew no bounds and again, he was extremely protective of me. He could climb fences like a cat. We had him for a good many years, and in fact was still at home when I moved out. Unfortunately, one day he just up and disappeared. My mother has a very strong suspician that her neighbor’s pit bull got him. Any time that pit saw my dog, he would charge at him, snapping, growling, saliva flying. It was frightening. She saw evidence of a struggle in her yard. She asked my neighbor about it, but he was extremely evasive and couldn’t look her in the eye. He moved not long after that. I was heartbroken, because I’d spent the last 10 years with that dog.
For a long while in my adulthood, I didn’t have any dogs. Now I have Cap’n. A lovable, goofy, black lab mix. He is protective of all of us, but especially me. No one messes with mama! He is extremely affectionate and wants nothing more than lurves and skritches and wants to love you right back with big, wet, furry doggie kisses.
kai, those were lovely pictures. I hope to visit Alaska one day.
I am home today. Dammit! I had work to do, but I have one of my headaches. I should have known it was coming. I had a big headache on Saturday, and no matter what I took, nothing would make it go away. We visited our friends, and I had a great time, but the headache certainly diminished it some. Yesterday, I was really feeling blah and listless and my head had a vague ache and my vision was off. I kept thinking my glasses were dirty.
Today I woke up to tunnel vision, and a pukey tummy. Sigh…
By tomorrow, I should be better, although I’ll probably feel like a wrung out rag.
St. Germain, I’m sorry about Mike. He sounds like he was a wonderful dog.
Let’s hear it.