Dog Lover

I used to be a dog "liker". Dogs are just fine and I like having them around, but basically, they're expensive, they're smelly, and a pain in the neck to walk.

I was a dog lover when I was a kid, until I got bit. We had gotten a German Short-haired Pointer named Max from some people who had been neglecting him. God bless my Mom because we already had two other dogs at the time when we acquired Max. Max was totally sweet and I used him as a pillow. We would lay on the floor together and I would rest my head on him. Some other friends of the family had lost their dog, so we sent Max to live with them. It wasn't an ideal situation for Max because I think he spent a lot of time outside by himself. When we were visiting their house I was so excited to see Max and I made the mistake of getting on the ground in front of him and trying to hug him. Well, it spooked him a bit and he snapped and bit off the tip of my nose.

Boy was I surprised!

There were a couple of surgeries and some embarrassing scars, but you can hardly tell now if you look at my face. So since then I like dogs very much, from a respectful distance.

Even when Frank and I moved in with Mike and Nixon, I was a bit frightened that Nix would bite me or Frank. But, he really grows on me. He smiles, and makes this moaning sound when I leave him. Now that he's so old (15 this year) he's much less nervous than he used to be, he's pretty laid back and sleeps most of the time. My nurturing instinct makes me want to care for him and make sure he's healthy and comfortable. It makes me cry when I think he won't be with us some day, and I know that when he goes I'll want to have another dog, probably two.

Now I'm a dog lover again. Thanks Nix.

Super Vacations

One thing we did this summer was take some super vacations. My mom was so generous to rent a house in Cape May for anyone to come and stay the week.
We spent some time on the bay side, visited the beach, ate, drank, and just completely relaxed. Even Maggie came! It was nice to have the dog with us on vacation because it felt very 'homey'. Tina's friend Rosie came for a couple of days and they took Frank to the water park so Mike and I could go fishing for the day. Mom and Judy (Mike's mom) took a history tour of Cape May. I hope we get to go again some day because there was so much to do.

Towards the end of the summer Mike and I took a trip to Miami for our fourth wedding anniversary. Every year we try to celebrate by gifting a traditional anniversary gift to each other. The traditional gift for fourth anniversary is fruit and flowers, so in addition to some gifts (he got me a flowery shirt and some earrings that look like bunches of grapes and I got him some chocolate dipped fruits and a pepper plant) we went back to the Fruit & Spice Park that we had visited when we were on our honeymoon. It was very romantic! Go see my flickr for more pics.

Okay, I'm back

Hi everyone! I'm sorry I've been so out of touch. I can't believe I haven't blogged anything since July!

We took Spanish 101 at the beginning of the summer. We audited the course so we didn't have to worry about grades, but I still studied very hard. I've discovered that learning a new language is not something that you get from a class, but that a class will help give you a boost on your journey to incorporating another language into your life. It's definitely a life-time pursuit. Our other classmates were of all different ages and levels of aptitude and it was a great experience. Our instructor was a woman whose native language was German! She was very patient and focused mostly on conversational Spanish. If she were here right now I might understand a third of what she's saying.

Books for Pleasure?

Wow! I had almost forgotten how wonderful it is to curl up with a book. After reading nothing but math text books for the last 5 years I've been hesitant to read anything, but once I got into the swing of it again I've been tearing through some things.

The first was a memoir written by Joe Robison. He's an adult with Asperger's Syndrome that went undiagnosed through his very disturbing childhood. It's a good story because he ends up becoming a guitar technician for KISS and ultimately leading a fairly happy and stable life.

Then I read a book by Tony Hendra, also a memoir. After getting busted at 14 with his hands down the dress of a married woman, Tony develops a lifelong friendship with a monk who guides his spiritual life, death and rebirth.

The first book brought me around to Running With Scissors. A memoir written by Joe Robison's biological brother. This one was much more disturbing than the first since Augusten couldn't escape his crazy mother the way Joe had. I just had to keep reminding myself that it was a true story because parts of it were really bizarre.

What's next? Who knows.