Today in My History

2000: Paternity Leave
2001:  Cousins
2002:  In Your Easter Bonnet
2003:  Shrove Monday
2004:  Shock and Awe
2005:  The Great Houdini
2006:  Where's the Canine Prozac?
2007: Crunch
2008: Baby Watch

IN MY OPINION
Avenue Q

Books Read in 2009
 
Updated: 3/27
"Run For Your Life" 

A Day with Bri from Bev Sykes on Vimeo.

and on You Tube

Look at these videos!
Dog in Blue Sweater
What a Wonderful World
Extreme Shepherding
Amazing Magic Trick
Ode to Joy

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New on My

Bri's Christening

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Mirror Site, for RSS feed:
Airy Persiflage

Bev's 65 x 365

Swurl

 

 

Premio Dardos Award

 

 

HOW MUCH ARE THOSE DOGGIES IN MY WINDOW?

1 April 2009

Well, as I walked in the house tonight, after my eight hour drive from Santa Barbara. I was greeted with six extremely enthusiastic wiggly bodies:   Sheila, Lizzie, William, Princess, Harry...and Tot.  Ashley had told me she was taking Diana home with her, but after I fired up the computer I learned that the puppy had not survived.  She was always the weakest of the Royal Puppies and Ashley said she had a bad reaction to the new medication.  She apparently didn't recover.

Oddly, I feel sadder for Ashley, who had both of our puppies die on her last time she dog-sat for us, than I feel for the loss of Diana.   I really never did think Diana was going to make it.  But her siblings all seem very healthy--and even look a lot furrier than they had been when I left here.

It's great to see Tot, who will be here for awhile.   She seemed genuinely happy to see me again.  Of course, I was her "mom" from the time she was about 3 weeks old, so we have a special bond.   As I write this, she is asleep with her head on my foot.

So anyway, it seemed logical that the new look for Funny the World for April should be dogs.

The drive up from Santa Barbara went very well.  I decided to make a side trip and drive through Solvang, that Danish Village where Bri was christened two weeks ago. 

It's a real tourist trap, but I rarely go there, and I decided pick up something for lunch at one of the local bakeries so I didn't have to stop on the rest of the ride home.  I was listening to Michael Connelly's "The Lincoln Lawyer," and it was so engrossing that I chose to drive up the very boring I-5 instead of the busier Highway 101.  I-5 has very few landmarks and is kind of like driving across the desert, but it's perfect for following a story.  I almost didn't notice when I passed by that very "fragrant" feed lot near the Harris Ranch.

As predicted, pulled into the driveway at just about exactly 6 p.m.   It felt SO good to get home .. and the kitchen was so clean that I almost didn't recognize it.  Ashley had gone waaay above and beyond!

There is also a new logo over in the left column.   This is the Premier Dardos Award, which was bestowed on me by Jim, of Jim's Journal, and I thank him very much for it. 

The description is as follows:

Premio Dardos means "prize darts" in Italian and is awarded for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary and personal values in the form of creative and original writing. The rules are:

1. Accept the award by pasting the graphic on your blog along with the name of the person who granted the award and a link to his/her blog.

2. Pass the award to another 15 blogs that are worthy of acknowledgment, remembering to contact each so they know they have been selected.

And so I am awarding Premio Dardos award to fifteen of the many blogs that I read.  I may have linked to all of them recently, but that was before I had an actual award.  I'm also only going to include blogs that don't have (to my knowledge) HUGE followings.  Thus, I will not be including blogs like "Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords," "Pioneer Woman," "Joe. My. God," or "Living in the Bonus Round" (sorry, Steve).  But I will make sure that these are blogs which update fairly regularly (thus, I am not including one of my favorites, Marn) and are not password protected.  So here is my list.   These were chosen either for great writing, or creating a reall community around the blog, or longevity, or being a blog where you almost always learn something new, or just 'cause I like 'em.  The list includes (in no particular order):

1. JoyZeeBoy
2. The Dahn Report
3. Poop and Boogies
4. Sillama
5. Life on a Small Island
6. I Do Things So You Don't Have To
7. Thoughts Outside My Head
8. Red Nose
9. Snug Pug (it's her birthday--go say happy birthday!)
10. A Place of My Own
11. Chez La Laquet
12. Laura's Blog
13. Thingmababy
14. Rolling Dog Ranch
15. Hi, Tony - this last isn't strictly speaking, a blog, but Tony Kahn has just started chemo for his recently diagnosed lymphoma and writes so eloquently about the experience, that I wanted everyone to read it.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on getting videos from Bri's birthday edited for a video...just don't feel like tackling it tonight!  I'm hoping she is better by now.  She had a temp of 101 at the end of the day yesterday, poor baby!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

I stopped at the Memorial to James Dean,
near the spot where he lost his life.

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MILES TO NOWHERE:  104 miles