Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Peanut butter & dog food sandwich? Anyone?

This is actually a post about something besides the release of my book! This has been me lately: "Blah blah blah Dreamdark blah blah blah Blackbringer. . ." So, here are 5 things that are NOT about Dreamdark.

1. Peanut butter and dog food sandwich
That is what Leroy had for dinner tonight. He hadn't been showing any interest in his dogfood, a glomp of wet goosh into which was mixed his arthritis medication, and so I slathered some bread with peanut butter, slorped on the dog food, and stuck another piece of bread on. Yummy. He was so delighted with it!

2. Tiger Farms
This one sucks. Out and about today, I happened to pick up the Asian Reporter, a Pacific Northwest weekly of Asia-related news, which reported this: the international ban on trade in tiger parts for traditional medicine is under threat in China, where "businessmen" are putting pressure on the government to overturn it. That's bad. Very bad. But the part of the article that really nauseated me was the fact that there are legal tiger farms in China, where Siberian tigers are bred for use as parts in medicine. There are some 5000 captive-bred tigers in China now, while there are scarcely more than that estimated to remain in the wild.

In other grim tiger news, read this link about the sad state of tiger conservation in India.

3. Hero Rats! (this one is much cheerier!)
Awesome news that humans don't always suck. In fact, they don't suck a lot. And here is one of the non-suck times. On PBS's Frontline/World tonight was a segment on the "Hero Rats" project run by a Belgian researcher in Tanzania. He's been a rodent-lover since childhood, and has turned that love to training African giant pouched rats to sniff out land mines! These rats are BIG, and they're so cute, they live around 8 years and are super trainable. Did you know that a landmine explodes somewhere in the world about once an hour? (Okay, an example of human suckage) And Africa has more than anywhere else. So these rats go out on leashes and sniff out mines and scratch the ground!!! And they're almost always right. I love it! Weetjens, the researcher, is now training rats to sniff out tuberculosis. Check out this: a human lab technician can test about 20 samples for TB in a day; a rat can sniff about 2000. You can watch that segment here.

4. My sister the snake surgeon!
Yes, this is my sister Emily about to cut open a rattlesnake. I'm not sure why. Probably to implant a radio tracking device. She's a professor at Cal Poly (for you non-West Coasters that's the California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo). Her website here has lots of great herp photos and things of interest to would-be field biologists.

5. Ridiculous tall shoes
You might know that I have a problem. An, er, addiction to artificial height. My tallest platform shoes are 6-1/4 and I've been wearing them quite a lot lately. Wellllllll. . . I felt the need for some "summery" stilts, so I ordered some. That is, four pairs. Ulp! However the blasted shoes site emailed today that two of them are on back order! DAMN! See, the problem with platform shoes is that it is very difficult to find shoes that are TALL, but not "stripperish." I don't want thigh-high red patent stilettos. No. It's tricky, this quest of mine. Especially considering that anything below four inches -- okay, 4-1/2, is just way too short. Ha! Anyway, here are the ones that weren't canceled (check out that witchy heel on the not-so-summery pair):










6. Pink hair!
I know I said there were 5 random things. This one is a bonus: PINK hair. That's what I'm thinking now, instead of blue. I am totally going to do it!

17 comments:

Deirdre said...

Although it's far too early in the morning for my sensitive stomach to read about dog food sandwiches and snakes, I did anyway and it was worth it. Ah, the things we do to tempt our pets to eat.

Love the shoes - those heels are wicked fun.

Rhonda the Stitchingnut said...

Oh my those witchy shoes are so SALEM! And you don't wear sneakers or sandles?

Anonymous said...

wow!

Those witchy shoes are awesome! I love the heel!

Pink hair! yay!

Great random post!

Alex S said...

That sandwich sounds totally delicious! I am going to make that for David when he comes to visit next week from Michigan! That could be the first recipe in a very interesting cookbook: Little Sister Sandwiches for Big Brothers.
When are you doing your hair?? Its time for action! hop to it and I hope by the H.P. party it will be all done. Did I forget to tell you that I shaved my head and painted my scalp orange and green polka dots around the entire former hairline? It looks just fantastic. THere are gold sequins inside each dot. And thank you for that little redeeming story about rodents who usually make me feel very queasy. As for the tigers, I hope anyone who hunts them crashes into karma sooner rather than later.

turquoise cro said...

My mom and dad fill up a hole in a tree out back of their yard and lots of critters have been showing up for this feast of peanut butter + the neighbor's dogs! LOL I've seen these rats before + I've seen dogs sniff for cancer! Those poor tigers! PINK hair??!! GO for it! How permanent is it? I think it would be a colorful change! O! doesn't those shoes hurt something???!!! Your ankles?!! I gave up heels a long time ago but I am much older than YOU! tee hee ps. I had to chuckle about the green quill! I'm on Chapter 15! I'm taking my time! I'll miss all those characters when it ends!

turquoise cro said...

O! How RUDE!!! I forgot to mention your sis! I'm going to your sis's to seeeeeeeeee those herbs!!!right now! I LOVE herbs! but ick! for snakes!!

turquoise cro said...

LOL I thought YOU said herb! but I LOVE turtles! sooOOOooo thanks! I'll QUIT commenting now! tee hee

Heather said...

Oh come on! Thigh-high red patent stripper stilettos are ALL THE RAGE this summer! Hee hee! If you came to Downtown East Vancouver, BC - you'd fit right in!

P.S. I looked for your book at my local Chapters here and THEY DON'T HAVE IT YET! Boo!

Casey G. said...

Do you think people who see the cow as sacred, feel the way we feel about the tigers, for how cows are treated for food?

-Casey G.

Roz Foster said...

I've been addicted to listening to audio talks/books while I work for about a month and half now and your podcast (WLMA speech) was one of best things I've heard. Great stuff. I identified very closely with what you said about being a perfectionist and never finishing what you've begun. One of the audio books I've been listening to is Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, which talks well, too, on being a perfectionist. Jane Yolen's "Just write the damn book!" also hits home.

You're ever the inspiration, chickadee.... Pink hair sounds exciting and adorable! I'm thinking of shaving mine!

Unknown said...

Freshman year of high school I had green hair, not one of my best looks perhaps, but one that needed doing at the time. I LOVE colored hair, and I say go for it!

Also in high school, I had a crush on a girl with pink hair in some movie (no idea which one now) which made my gay friends happy, and now brandon happy too, cause boys always seem to love it when their girls have girl crushes!

Michelle (a.k.a. la vie en rose) said...

you are so imaginative and creative...what a delightful post!

love those black buckled shoes...too cute!

meghan said...

PINK - definitely! I am jealous. I am a hair coward!

I hope Leroy is feeling better soon!

I have the same shoe problem only different. I have BIG feet and I can't get nice heels for my size feet. I can get lots of cross-dressing shoes but no nice delicate ones. sigh.

Anonymous said...

Oh, those witchy-heeled maryjanes would look great with a cape and a pointy hat! Unfortunately, I can't wear heels of ANY height anymore, so I'll just have to live out my shoe cravings vicariously through your posts - so please post photos of the back-order pair when they come in, lol.

Did Leroy do that doggie peanut butter licking thing? Where they lick the roof of their mouth for about 10 minutes afterwards? Glad it got him eating again.

As for the other items, way too many people suck way too often. Calling a person a rat, seems to be more of an insult to the rodent than the person. Isn't it amazing that they can smell those kinds of things? It's like a hero superpower. Are there any superheroes with extreme smelling abilities? If not, there should be.

Your sister sounds awesome. I can't look to closely at the photo, though, or I might faint. I'm not a snake kind of person - and rattlers normally terrify me - but that one just looks so helpless lying there. At least he had a good doctor. :)

Claudia said...

Oh my goodness, look at that scary rat! Nothing compared to those shoes though!

Lucy said...

LOVe those shoes! Being only 5' tall I am addicted to artificial height too! Being a hairstylist I need to ask you.... Did you do the pink hair yet? (love the idea better than blue) but wanted to give you a quick tip.. Don't bleach out your whole head first. Instead do a heavy highlighting of pink. It will save your hair from being damaged. hope that helps :))

London Accountants Lady said...

Goodness, what a surreal selection of things, the first one makes me feel a bit queasy!