Wanted: more puppies

Dog parks are not enough.

Poor Jack got his face boxed by my boy cat (Puppy --- I know, it's confusing.) the other day; he may be fast enough to pin a mynah bird, but he's no match for a pissed off cat. Fortunately Puppy's smackdowns are more educational than murderous or Jack would be missing an eye by now.

He's got a huge crush on Honeygirl --- & who wouldn't? --- but she doesn't like being jumped on. She's game enough for a little nose-sniffing, but Jack consistently loses his cool & tries to jump on her, causing her to hiss & run away... & then Puppy comes over & lays down the law.

While Jack is being raised with cats, my cats were not raised with anyone else except me. Jack will probably have a rough time fitting in with them, although he's already gotten the knack of breaking eye contact when Puppy gets in his face.

What we need are more dogs. Yes. Jack needs a brother or a sister --- preferably a sister --- & they can jump on eachother. That didn't sound right. They can play together, make dog friendliness together, chase mynah birds together. Right now Jack relies exclusively on me for company since he's not popular in the feline club & my grandparents don't really go out into the yard. Thing is, sometimes I sleep. And there's poor Jack, waiting all morning just for someone to say hello to him.

I've been back & forth to the Humane Society, checked Craigslist, the Advertiser classifieds, & even Kijiji. If I wanted a pit bull or some chihuahua mix I could have an entire pack of dogs by now. Apparently chihuahuas have a lot of sex. Ideally I'd like an Akita or a Chow (as with Basenjis, Chows are one of the breeds I've determined I will own one of in this lifetime.), & was saddened to hear of Henry Kapali's retirement from Akitas; damn his neighbors.

My vet gave me a list of breeders. I've got to remember this some time during daytime hours so I can make some phone calls.

Plumb.

I find new music in all kinds of ways.

A couple of weeks ago I was shopping in Longs & was arrested by the overhead music. I ended up stopping under a speaker & memorizing some lyrics, which I then Googled when I got home.

And so I discovered Christian/Rock/Dance singer Plumb, mother of 3 in Nashville. Her voice makes me think of Amy Lee channeling Sarah McLachlan. Naturally, I bought her current CD, Blink, which contained another very likeable song, "Always." The video here is for "In My Arms," which first caught my ear in Longs, but the images there are from some video put together by a fan. Looks like an interesting show though.

The rest of the songs on Blink were nice, but this is a 2-song CD for me.

At her MySpace I listened to another song from an earlier CD, "Cut." Unlike the majority of her songs on Blink which are obviously sung to her kids, "Cut" is apparently about self abuse. Her vocals are quite haunting; the CD (Chaotic Resolve) arrived today. Chaotic Resolve was a great first listen pretty much in its entirety. It's high energy, strong vocals girl stuff; I especially liked "Real Life Fairytale."

At right is the official video for "Cut." A little lacking in volume, but you can turn it up.

In other news, my remastered copy of Avalon arrived, & is not only remastered... it's a hybrid SACD! Quite frankly, though, it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as my 30th Anniversary Dark Side of the Moon. Well, I suppose there are CDs & then there are CDs. If the original AAD was shitty enough, I don't imagine anyone could remaster it sufficient to make it sound like magic. Ah, Bryan Ferry. I love him. I need better speakers.

And then my Fiction Plane arrived as well. This is Sting's son's band, & Cathy & I saw them opening at that epic concert in February. I haven't opened this one yet; you can't rush music listening.

I guess they kinda sound like The Police. Joe Sumner definitely sounds like his dad.

I'm just kicking myself over & over again because I can't believe I missed the Lifehouse show at Pipeline. Dammit dammit dammit. I just plain old forgot. Someone please kick my ass.

My hibiscus.

Here's a bloom from one of several hibiscus bushes I grew from seed back when... I think I must have been in high school.

I pollinated a single white hibiscus with a single pink/red hibiscus. And somehow got this double with a frilled filament. There are a couple other surviving hybrids in my grandparents' yard, each one a little different from the other in color. Unfortunately hybrids are usually sterile, so there won't be any seeds coming from these guys, although slips can be made.

Sometimes I wonder if my creations were humans rather than flowers, if they would be grotesquely twisted mutants rather than rare & delicate specials. Sometimes I also think I should have gone into botany.

Why did I do it though?

I seem to recall at the time feeling that the plants in our yard, at least, were getting a lot of sex.

You think I'm joking.

Oh, it's peculiar

Heh, apparently it's my birthday, according to the message I got at 12:30 tonight from Lisa & some others.

Blogchex went down without warning a few days ago. I shoulda known. I totally shoulda known. Chavvon Smith had reassured me by email that my blog was safe, but this was when I got nervous because Blogchex had been in Alpha for over a year. Did I back up any of my stuff? No. Should I have known? Yes. Am I an idiot? Screw you. Yes.

Maybe it's a message. I just deleted my MySpace last month. All those carefully accumulated self-aggrandizing bits of data, gone. I didn't even bother to take a look at what I would be depriving the world of. But The Long Way Home... oh, my literary masterpieces of sarcasm & wit! Gone, Daddy, gone! I'll have to find a new place to justify my existence now.

Maybe Blogger is safe. You think?