a99kitten's Musings

Started reading my new Vanity Fair tonight (the one with the gorgeous Liz Taylor on the cover) and got to their monthly poll. This one is titled “Admitting Our Mistakes” although I don’t see most of the questions really about that.

It’s funny. I’ve always considered the majority of Vanity Fair readers to be very liberal and comfortable/well-off/just plain wealthy. I am not liberal, at all, but I do love all of the great pictures, fun articles about old/monied scandal and even the gorgeous ads of all sorts of fun stuff to buy :) Years and years ago, I started subscribing solely because of Dominick Dunne’s monthly column. And did think I might cancel once he passed away. But I’ve kept it so far since I did cancel all the rest of my magazines except for Sports Illustrated and Vogue (yeah…a bit of weird mix but that’s me :) )

Anyway, example of questions: “If you could live in a movie for one day, whose life would you want?” Overwhelming winner – Indiana Jones. Caught my attention! :) (sigh…) The other choices in order: Ferris Bueller, Carrie Bradshaw, Don Corleone, Gordon Gekko, Ilsa Lund (Casablanca) and Lara Croft (Tomb Raider). I’m sure a psyche major would have a field day with those answers :)

Other questions:
2. “Do You think it is sometimes justified for the C.I.A. to resort to assassination, or it is never justified.” The majority is sometimes justified. I wouldn’t have guessed that from this crowd (have you ever read the Letters to the Editor?? Fn tree-huggers)

3. Apparently the University of North Dakota retired their mascot, the Fighting Sioux, on the grounds it gives offense to Native Americans. What should happen to other references (Washington Redskins, Atlanta Braves)?

Overwhelming vote was to keep them. Only 12% said retire. That truly did surprise me because tree-huggers are also ridiculously, over-the-top, make-me-gag PC…

3. When you hear the name Robert M Gates, what profession comes to mind?” Computer pioneer was the clear winner. Umm…not Bill Gates people…and hello – aren’t you limousine liberals always all pissy about the Defense Secretary, no matter who it is?

There are a lot of questions so I won’t bore you with more. But I will say some of the answers surprised me. I personally believe (since I personally know people like this) that people will sometimes say things, or agree with things, to not cause controversy in the crowd they are in. But anonymously, the answers might be different. Especially when you live in an area like the SF Bay Area like I do where the dirty hippies run rampant. I am not like this. At all. In any way. My friends either love me or hate me for this reason :)

So I did find these answers (well, some of them) interesting. And points to the truism that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Or not everything is black and white. Or just because you are a staunch conservative doesn’t mean you hate the environment and, in fact, prefer it and the fluffy over most, if not all, people and all of their BS. Oh wait…that might just apply to me :)

Had another fun trip to Maverick’s with the huskies this AM. I slept in so we didn’t get out of the house until 7am. But we were still the only ones out there except the illegal clam-diggers (hate them.) I assumed since it was so hot yesterday, and supposed to be today as well, that more people would be out early. Guess not.

Once we got out to the point, a couple people came out with dogs on leashes. No one that Angelus looked particularly interested in playing with. We did find some fun tide pools for them to soak in and sniff for stuff in. It was super low tide, even lower than yesterday, so tons of tide pools and beach to investigate.

Once we made it back to the other beach, more dogs were starting to arrive – yay! Some dogs from yesterday and some new ones. We thought the chocolate lab puppy, Cocoa, (she LOVED Angelus) was there but as we got closer it turned out to be a different puppy – her name was Kona. She immediately started following the huskies around. Puppies seem to love Angelus. :)

Angelus played and ran and tried to steal balls and lined up for treats from other Moms :) Stormy had to stay on leash (combo of boo-boo still healing from his surgery and he gets a bit more agro when there are a lot of dogs around – he does better with 1 or 2.) He really wouldn’t leave my side if he was off leash anyway so he doesn’t seem to mind.

Once it seemed that Angelus was done and tired we started heading back down the beach to go to the car. There is this big set of rocks that, at low tide, you can walk around from/to another beach and we started going that way. All of a sudden you hear this thunder and from around the rock come 4 greyhounds running full speed. It was SO cool looking. They tore past us and Angelus took off after them. He must have flipped some kind of Hyperdrive switch because he caught up to them going SO fast. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him run that fast in his life. It was very impressive. I mean, huskies run and all but these are greyhounds running top speed. True, in the sand but still. Fast dogs. I wish I had it on video. I was quite proud of my running husky :)

They all came to a stop when they reached the other group of dogs (that we just left) and much wrestling and running (after a cool dip in the water) occurred again.

Then a female Malamute showed up. So, so, sweet. Her name was Faron and she is 5. She was bigger than Angelus. Her Mom didn’t let her off-leash. Northern breeds are runners/roamers – I only recently started letting Angelus off-leash when we are at the beach. And only then when we are at “safe” beaches – far, far away from roads or any traffic. Now that he is 9 he listens to me more ;) And doesn’t feel the intense urge to roam. Having said that, he would take off to chase any type of critter. Northern breeds require leashes. It’s not a training issue. Anyway, this malamute was awesome. Her Mom would let her wade into the water up to her belly and the Mom just walked right in with her. She came prepared with surf booties so she could take her dog into the water. She knew her buddy needed the cool water too. What a good mom :) Faron started howling and talking so the boys responded. All the people on the beach were laughing and saying how awesome that is :) Husky (or Malamute) talking is the best. I cannot handle much barking (which they don’t do) but LOVE the howling and talking. Although it does scare some people. They think it’s aggressive. Those are dumb people.

After some more playing, with Storm even playing with a little black dog named Gree and another female boxer, we decided to head back. On our way, around that same set of rocks, comes this little black and white dog who essentially looks like a mini husky** (which is not a real breed other than maybe some whack job trying to breed/make one) mixed with Pomeranian. I have read about these dogs. They are called Klee Kai. It’s a newer breed. I’m not a fan of making new “designer” breeds or of breeding larger dogs with smaller ones just so you can have mini versions. Not a fan at all. But that’s my own personal opinion.

This little doggie was very cute and sweet and a tough little guy. He thought he belonged with Angelus and Storm and started following us. His Dad had to chase him down and get him from his new found pack :)

We met up with a few more labs, a standard poodle and a few other dogs. It definitely seemed that the boys were pooped and ready to go home. Got to the car, gave them water and toweled them off. Put Storm in the car and then went to lift Angelus into the car when he backed up and looked at me like “what? I thought we were just getting water and dropping the kid off. I want to hang out more!” Dude I say. You’ve been playing like a puppy for 2 hours. Your brother wants to go home and it’s getting warmer out. He begrudgingly let me pick him up and put him in the car with a definite look of “hrmph”.

What a 9-year old puppy he is :) A another good morning was definitely had by all.

**Wikipedia’s entry on Miniature huskies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_Siberian_Husky

This whole things annoys the hell out of me because there is no actual real breed as a miniature husky. I might rant about this subject later :) but this line cracked me up when I read it because, while true, Storm protests STRONGLY on a daily basis against this “fact” as pure fiction meant to starve hungry huskies! : “Obesity must be guarded against as well, as the dogs were originally bred to subsist on smaller quantities of food than dogs of a similar size.”

Bought some fresh white peaches today. I love peaches and white peaches are even better than yellow ones when this perfectly ripe. And this is not only because I love Bellinis :)

I love peach flavored stuff too. The peach flavor gummi bears, gummi rings or jelly beans are YUM! Peach Snapple Iced tea! YUM! And they all remind me of the peach-flavored Jell-O that I used to love as a kid. That smell/taste always reminds me of being a kid in the warm summer. I remember after school, I’d go to my parents’ office and sometimes wander around the neighborhood, the local shopping centers, go play Pac-Man at the local sub shop (highest of the high scores thank you very much.) Thinking back, my parents truly trusted me to never get in trouble and wander off by myself for hours every day. I never did get in trouble so there you go.

I remember I’d go to after school programs for the Student Council (Secretary), sports (gymnastics and track) and baton (yes, I twirled a mean baton) and then on the way back from school to their office, I would walk through quiet neighborhoods. One of my friends would stop at this old guy’s house and he would give treats to the neighborhood kids. Like peach-flavored Jell-O. We would hang out there for like 30 minutes or something and then be on our way. It was boys and girls, mostly around my age-ish (10-12).

Thinking back about it I never felt unsafe or creeped out. He was a nice old guy. We always hung outside on his porch and he was nice. Maybe he had grand kids our age? Or lost someone special our age? Or maybe just a little lonely and a lot nice? Who knows. I don’t actually remember if I ever mentioned to my parents that I did this. But it seems odd that I did and they never checked it out? Especially my Dad. So I must not have. Since I never felt weird, I probably didn’t as it was just part of my day.

The sad thing is if my little brother had told me this when he was little, or if I had a kid and they did this, I would FREAK out. You can’t trust people! Who is this creep! He must be a weirdo pedophile!!! Sad that these are the first things that would enter my mind. But I know they are. Unless I personally knew the guy very well, these are absolutely the thoughts I would have. And I would never let a kid do this. And I find this sad. And depressing. Because there was not a single thing wrong with it. But I wouldn’t be stupid or naive enough to not think it these days.

Maybe when I grew up, my heart did die…meh…who cares?

Today is sucking. Actually…this month is sucking. But that’s no excuse not to look as cute as hell. These arrived for me today:

I am wearing Rock & Republic jeans with brown, pink and white Rs on the pockets with a pink tank and chocolate brown ruffled cardigan from J Crew. All of these colors are displayed on these new shoes. So I did what any girl would do…kicked off the chocolate brown suede Michael Kors 4.5″ heels I was wearing and put these babies right on.

The day can attempt to suck the life out of me but never the cuteness. I’m betting Carrie Bradshaw would approve… :)

I’ve been looking at these for over a month now and yesterday endless had a 30% cash back rate with bing so they became mine! The leather is soooooo soft. Cannot wait for a dress day!

Hot.

These scream my name....

This ad just made me laugh out loud when I needed it :)

Especially funny if you know my love for the blue box…(and not just Tiffany’s)

So, professors from these schools…

1.Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
2 Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
3 Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
4 Department of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

…did a 6 year long study. And they came to the conclusion that if you sit on your ass and watch a lot of TV, you will probably get fat. And have bad-eating habits.

Ummm…I could have told them that without a 6-year long official (and probably pricey somehow) study. Seriously. You needed professors and research assistants and a focus group to come to this conclusion? You people need to get outside of the classroom/lab more. From the study:

“Background
Television (TV) watching is the most common leisure activity in the United States. Few studies of adults have described the relationship between TV and health behaviors such as physical activity, diet, and body weight status.

Conclusion:
The results from this analysis suggest that television exposure is associated with deleterious effects on physical activity, diet, and body weight status in adult participants of the ARIC cohort. Television exposure was associated cross-sectionally and prospectively with physical activity, diet and body weight. “

Full study here:
http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/5/1/68

I see reports and news stories of studies being done on the most inane, ridiculous things quite often. But this? Really? And frankly, it’s not solely TVs fault. Every AM I am up and watch 1 hour show from my DVR. But I do it will doing my cardio on my stepper which is in front of the TV. So I get about 45 minutes of exercise (no watching commercials!) and blow through a TV show that I otherwise wouldn’t have time for. And I think plenty of people sit around and goof off playing video games, surfing the internet, etc. and they probably will get just as fat sitting there doing no exercise as the TV watchers. So again – this study was reeeally needed?

Along the same vein, this week I saw tweets about a t-shirt being sold at Urban Outfitters that some people on twitter/tumblr found funny (like me) and some found offensive. Ok. To each his/her own.

But what I find the most ridiculous is the reasoning behind the bulk of the “outrage” – that it promotes eating disorders. So…being told to “Eat Less” is a gateway to an eating disorder? Every week I see studies (again with the studies) that childhood obesity has reached crazy levels. Adult obesity is always on the rise. The government wants to put in laws telling us how much salt we are allowed to have on our food, or sugar sodas, or junk food at all.

Laws have been passed so that every restaurant has to label everything for calories, fat, etc etc. Because “we” (the people) can’t figure out that if something is super-sized, salty and has melted cheese on is that it might be highly caloric and make our own decision. And we all know that McDonald’s is responsible for making me pull in and eat there every single day and become a giant lard-ass.

So even with all of these things a goofy slogan of “Eat Less” on a t-shirt is evil? Why? It’s not a bad message. Can it be taken the wrong way by a neurotic person who already has a eating disorder? Sure – probably. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad message. It means that person has issues they need to deal with anyway.

It is not bad. It doesn’t say “Starve Yourself”. It doesn’t say ‘Stick a finger down your throat, I did!!”. Or “Eat cotton if your hungry”. Simply says Eat Less. A good message…especially as you are about to get up off the couch to get a bag of chips before watching more TV like the people in the above study…

Great movie. Jeff Bridges definitely deserved his Oscar. I have loved him forever. So, so good in everything I have seen him in. Weird watching him in this character though. Was so like my father. Not that my father was a washed-up country music star but definite similarities. p.s. he also reminded me of Kris Kristopherson!

My dad was a drummer. He played in jazz clubs before he married my Mom. Before he was legal to be in those clubs. When he was still a junior in high school. He played with guys who went on to play/tour with Chick Corea, Edgar Winters, Eddie Van Halen and some other famous guys. But my Dad did the “responsible” thing. He got married, got a respectable job, etc. If I had to guess, he wishes he never did that. Not that he doesn’t love me and my brother or my Mom, I never questioned that. But I know that he always wondered “what if?” He should have made different decisions at many crossroads in his life but didn’t. He should have.

Like Jeff Bridges’ character, he was/is an alcoholic (and chain smoker…they must go hand in hand?) Maybe because of seeing his life play out, I do not buy into that bullshi** psych excuse. Maybe your body chemistry allows you to be more susceptible to being weak to addiction, but that just means you need to be strong. For you. Your family. Job. Friends. Whatever. Whoever. You are not a victim. It’s not a disease. Whatever it is – drugs, alcoholism, gambling, being a weak schmuck, whatever. You are strong or you are weak. Period. “Poor me. It’s just how I am” is not an excuse. My father would kick your ass for saying it. Weakness is not a justifier for stupid decisions.

Life can be tough. Life owes you nothing. Suck it up. Expect nothing that you don’t get yourself. I think these were the best gifts/lessons my father taught me. He would have never won the “Father Knows Best” award. But I will always love him for those lessons.

Bad’s/Otis’ life ended up a bit better than my Dad’s. If you’ve seen the movie, it’s not saying much. And I sometimes cry a little wishing things were different for him. That he made different choices. But then I stop, knowing he’d shake his head at me…

p.s. less emo bullet points to remember:
1. I’d like point out that only country stars (and the rat pack) can live life, be a drunk, basically die, live dead-ish, and come back to life and still consistently make good music. Pop, R&B, dance and rap can suck it.
1.i. old school stars are exempt from statement a
1.ii. “old school” from statement b applies to people decently older than me.
2. you are allowed to get a touch emo when you have such awesome huskies in your life.
3. Colin Farrell is ridiculously hot no matter what he does.
3.i. And he can sing. Who knew?
3.ii. I hate long hair on guys but he’s still hot….
4. yes, I’ve read too many legal docs this week…

This morning was a foggy, wet mess outside. The buds don’t mind but I hate it. I was already a little stressed by 6am as Angelus didn’t run up to be let out in the front yard while I did my stepper before our walk. But he had a busy weekend so maybe just tired? He isn’t a spring chicken anymore, no matter how much he acts like one most of the time. He says to “when my age, you reach, look as good, you will not” :)

But when it was time for his walk, he was ready! And off into the Dagobah weather we went. Got to the harbor beach, where it was low tide, and let them off leash. There was NO one around. So dead quiet. We walked all the way out to where the tide/water line finally was and Angelus kept walking out into the water. You could tell he smelled something. Then *dunk* his head goes and I see him come up with what I know is a chicken leg all mixed up with fishing line and fishing hooks. The people that come out here to fish for crabs use it.

*Begin Rant*

I HATE THESE PEOPLE.

They leave their garbage on the rock wall (empty chicken plastic wrappers, cans, bottles, lunch/sandwich wrappers, cigarette butts, etc..) And even worse they leave their old bait/hooks. So dogs, birds, etc can get all messed up. I’ve rescued a seagull all tied up in the fish line. I’ve helped the Harbor Patrol guys unsnare a couple of them where a hook was caught in a wing or something.

All dogs are going to go for a chicken leg bone just sitting there. Which wouldn’t be the end of the world as they are raw. But it’s the fishing line and hooks that are all snarled up – that can kill a dog if swallowed. Or at least hurt if stuck in a lip, gum, etc. But god forbid these lazy pieces of crap take their garbage to the cans in 3 different places up the beach.

These people don’t even live here. They are not local residents. Not that it would excuse them if they were. But they deliberately drive over here, bringing their mess and irresponsibility, to our beautiful coast line and F it up.

I HATE THESE PEOPLE

*end rant*

Anyway – I yelled “drop it” and to my amazement he did…but then he picked it up again…it’s a chicken leg sitting right there…so I ran into the water about half-calf deep and took it out of his mouth before he got it done. I put him on leash and turn around and see that Storm has one too! I yell drop it and run towards him and he did drop it but stared at it like “oh man…it’s right there!” But I got to him and leashed him and pulled them out.

I kept them on leash for the rest of the beach time which likely annoyed them. And I was soaking wet almost up to my knees. And cold. And thinking to myself “Really Tuesday? It’s going to be like this?”

Grrr.

So this is my day so far. But I’m done eating my lunch now so will get back to work..and the rest of Tuesday…

But still…grrrr.