My Pet Rant

Shopping for dog collars for Tasha inspired me... I saw so many $50+ dog toys while I was out (toys that were just going to get mutilated if the dog has any self respect at all), I've decided to dedicate this blog entry to insane things people buy for their pets.


How about Swarovski crystal pet collars? $75
How about a Swarovski crystal encrusted brush to match?But you don't want Fi-fi to get cold, so how about a $65 puffer jacket?
Tired of all that pet hair in the car? How about this $150 brocade pet blanket. I don't think I spent that much on my OWN comforter...

Not crazy enough yet? What about this automatic, programmable pet feeder? That's right... just in case you can't remember to feed your pet (or if you're just never home to be with your pet) this little whatsit feeds the pooch while you do whatever it is you do that makes you too busy to scoop out food. It can be set for up to 3 feedings a day!
To go with it, why not try this pet fountain that keeps water constantly fresh and aerated throughout the day? It filters the water, so you don't have to. Install a doggie door and, by golly, you never have to come home at all.

Owen and Tasha

Remember a few posts ago... I said I really hope it
works out, Jazz? Well... it did.
However, I've also decided that Jazz is a terrible name.
Her new name is Tasha.

Owen and Tasha

The Bud

Amanda's Garden Picks #3

Coleus is the best plant ever. No-- I'm serious. Coleus grows in the dark or in full sun and it's friggin' pretty.


Ivy geraniums. They bloom all season and love full sun.


Icelandic poppies. They are a full sun plant that I can't seem to keep alive for very long but they bloom all season and they are delightful. Not good for cut flowers though, as the blooms don't last indoors.

Amanda's Garden Picks #2

I can't wait for my gardens to come back! Things are finally reaching up through the soil, but not far enough for me to take any photos of my own garden so I still have to live vicariously through others.

Snapdragons are probably the easiest annual to grow, right up there next to pansies. They need full sun.








German Bearded Irises, as those who have visited SoKel in June are aware, are some of my absolute favorite things to grow. They only bloom once a season, but they are worth it. Another full sun plant.

Gladiolus are really ugly until they bloom and they are not a front yard plant as I discovered last year. If you have a garden for cut flowers, however, these look fantastic in a large vase and they are really tall and striking. (However, in the garden they flop all over the place and look messy) Full sun.

Peonies are a gorgeous perennial that sadly only blooms once a season. Another favorite, they also love full sun but mine are in partial shade and do just fine.

Headed to NYC

I'm headed to NYC next Friday to visit my friends!!! I'm so excited!!!

There are few things as beautiful as Central Park in April.

I'm not sure what it is about New York that makes it so magical-- but it has a personality all its own. Even the dumb, touristy stuff is amazing.

Where are your favorite places in NYC?

My Flower Garden Picks... part 1 of many

There are few things in this world that I love more than gardening. I am seldom happier than when my dog and I are wandering through my gardens. Though I don't have any pictures of my own garden (because Maine looks like death in March) I thought I'd post my favorite plants to get my spirits up. My first is bee balm-- though I haven't had tremendous success with it thus far. If you can get it to survive those first few years it spreads and is quite lovely. Like it's name suggests, it attracts buzzing visitors aplenty to your garden which is good for your plants.

Begonias are another favorite, though they prefer shade and will burn right up in the sun. I usually try to keep some along the side of my house and in my new shade garden out in the back yard. They are vibrant, ruffled, and continue to bloom consistently all season.

Clematis is a plant I haven't tried yet, but I am madly in love with them. I'm hoping to add a few to the garden this spring. They are available in a number of purples, reds, and blues and are happiest in the sun.

Coneflower comes in red, yellow, or purple. They are also a sunlover, but bloom all season long. They also attract bees galore, and are great for flower arranging because their stems are nice and sturdy. I've had a lot of success with them-- they're pretty hardy.

I have to say, I wouldn't reccomend putting a hydrangea in a wheelbarrow-- but they are really beautiful plants. I just got mine last year and I can't wait to see it bloom again! It was a consistent bloomer all summer (it's called an endless summer) and it needs a LOT of water. It can do full sun, but prefers partial shade and needs a lot of attention.

Gerbera Daisies are a great, easy to grow, bright, happy flower. Though they take a while to regenerate if unfertilized, they are a sun lover and once you cut one another one is usually about a week to two weeks from blooming. They're on the higher end of the price range for an annual,

but they are worth it.

Getting your hopes up...

Sometimes you can't help but get your hopes up-- even when you know you shouldn't.

I really hope it works out, Jazz.

Borders: A place filled with evil

Sometimes you just have a hankering to see a particular movie-- a thirst that can only be slaked by watching THAT particular film. Yesterday, I had such a thirst for Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic: with Steve Zissou."

Since I didn't own the film, I left my house in search of it. I tend to buy movies rather than rent them because of how expensive it is to rent and because there are some movies I can watch over and over again and never tire of them.

For some reason, I headed to Best Buy first. I was sure they would have it, but after talking to 3 sales people I was informed that they don't carry it. Royal Tennenbaums? Sure-- and for 15 bucks, Darjeeling Limited? Of course! But The Life Aquatic: With Steve Zissou??? No!

I left that filthy place, and headed to Borders... where I did indeed find a copy of Life Aquatic, BUT for $32.99. I laughed out loud and placed the movie back on its shelf and left. Now, I love Borders... I do. I can't help it. I love books and their selection is incredible-- but I couldn't bring myself to pay $32.99 for a DVD, no matter how much I wanted to watch it.

So finally, I went to Bull Moose, where I should have gone in the first place, and the special edition 2 disc set of Life Aquatic was *drumroll please * 22 bucks. So, I saved ten dollars and ninety-nine cents (and Bull Moose is on the way home) going to the smaller business AND got the version of the DVD that I wanted. So, I think to myself why would Borders do that? Are there really saps out there who will pay 33 bucks for a DVD???

And then I realized the awful truth... A few years ago, Hamlet came out on DVD and I went straight to borders and paid about 35 dollars for it. I wanted it so bad, I paid a RIDICULOUS amount of money for it. Well, you know what, Borders? You're mean and I don't think you're very ethical. There, I said it. I think that you charge way too much for your DVD's and that you should apologize: not just to me, but to every poor sap who spent more than they could afford on a DVD. Did you ever stop and think, Borders? Did you? Y'JERK!

Robin Williams

Robin Williams had heart valve replacement surgery a week and a half ago. He apparently was experiencing shortness of breath while on tour and they discovered he had an irregular heartbeat.

This man is, in my opinion, one of this century's greatest, and the thought of losing him inspired me to have a Robin Williams marathon this week. I kicked it off last night with "Death to Smoochy." Tonight I'm planning to change it up with "Hook" followed by "Birdcage." Tomorrow is "Dead Poets Society" and if I have time "What Dreams May Come."

What are your favorite Robin Williams movies? Have you noticed how many times the man gets to fly in movies? It's pretty astonishing. =)

Cantus, the Wandering Minstrel

My favorite muppet-- Cantus the Minstrel, performed by the late Jim Henson. The lyrics of his songs introduced me to poetry.

The most memorable one for me is, Let Me Be Your Song:

Music grows in the rose
Rock and rain and the blowin snowstorm
Everything seems to sing
Everywhere I go...

I'm ready for spring

Though I do have a few tulips that are beginning to peek out from under the mulch in my garden-- I am impatient! I want my gardens back!!! I'm so desperate for flowers I've resorted to buying them at the grocery store and searching the internet for signs of spring.

To hell with the Kindle 2: A BOOK IS MORE THAN A TEXT

There's a new device on the market called The Kindle 2. Basically, like an MP3 player for text. I can't contain my horror. Now I realize that with all new technologies there are people who resist them, and in the end those people end up looking like buffoons; but go ahead and mark me with the scarlet B. I don't want one.

It's not just the text of a book that makes it a treasure-- it's the smell of the pages, the texture-- it's the aesthetic experience of viewing the font. The size and weight, the color... all of these things contribute to my love of certain volumes. I like that they are separate from eachother-- complete between two covers... not a file on a digital whatsit. I can lend them to friends, pencil in my reactions in the margins... I buy almost all of my books in hardcover-- especially when its something I know I will reference for many years to come.

A few examples of my treasures:

I love Virgina Woolf.

Alright-- I said it. I did. Want to know why?

"Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size. Without that power probably the earth would still be swamp and jungle. The glories of all our wars would be unknown. We should still be scratching the outlines of deer on the remains of mutton bones and bartering flints for sheepskins or whatever simple ornament took our unsophisticated taste."

"I refuse to allow you, Beadle though you are, to turn me off the grass. Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."

"I do not beleive that gifts, whether of mind or character, can be weighed like sugar and butter, not even in Cambridge, where they are so adept at putting people into classes and fixing caps on their heads and letters after their names."

Dr. Jim Watson

Dr. Jim Watson (along with Francis Crick) discovered the structure of the DNA double helix. However, they was lazy and didn't do all of the work, and Jim was especially sneaky, zipping off to snoop at the university where Rosalind Franklin, the REAL hero of the DNA story, was showing her chemical and mathematical findings to her colleagues. Somehow, he did this without being noticed... almost as if he were actually a fly on the wall. Their first attempt was wrong, but their second attempt (after Maurice Wilkins, one of the major inventors of the atom bomb, showed Jim Rosalind's photos of an x...) was right and they got the Nobel Prize, but Rosalind Franklin (the real genius behind it all) died before the world found out. Jim Watson also predicted that fertility treatments and test tube babies would become common practice by the 90's.... which it certainly did. So-- either Jim Watson can see the future or he is a genie.

Aside from being a total jerk, this guy is a racist, and a proponent of a modern version of Eugenics where, and I quote "all girls would be pretty." His continued existence drives me crazy. He can't keep his mouth shut... Someone should really help him with that. It wouldn't be hard-- if the muppets could restrain John Cleese, scientists should be able to put a collective hand over Jim Watson's mouth.

But I'm not just mad a Jim-- I'm nervous about messing with the genome. We're not quite there yet, scientifically, but we're close-- and as I said in a discussion board posting to my fellow classmates, though I think people are smart enough to take steps toward genetic perfection-- we're simply not moral enough. If you've read Brave New World this won't seem bizarre to you, but here's my fear:

Humans start playing with genes, but only the rich can afford genetic manipulation of their children-- so the rich become beautiful, super intelligent, and no longer susceptible to disease. Sounds great, right? But what about the rest of us? And if our country continues to refuse to change over to socialized medicine, won't it just be that much harder to get health insurance? Think about it. It would create a new race-- homo sapiens would become the slaves of the over-race simply because we would have to work so hard to produce what they could do without thinking. It would be the end of the world as we know it-- and what a terrible world it would be.

What are you afraid of?