Dog blog

I can't stop wishing I had a dog. Lately my life is filled up with a little bit of schoolwork (this has proved to be a very easy semester), many hours spent working, nights with Hans spent cuddling or playing video games, early mornings with sunlight pouring in through the windows, and tasty vegan meals I make up as I go along. Our cat, whose name is Kenya because Anne Frank never stuck, is in heat right now and meowling (that's meowing and growling) at a loud and creepy pitch day and night, but we love her nonetheless. She curls up with us on the couch and sleeps at the foot of the bed, and always, always hangs out in whichever room we're occupying (she doesn't like to show it, but she loves us, too). We say goodbye or hello to her when we leave the house or come back home. She makes me feel like i have my own little family. Still, I crave some canine company. I'd love to rescue a friendly little mutt from the local humane society and give him or her a happy home. I'm crossing my fingers I'll get to adopt a dog this summer. It doesn't help that three lovable pooches have my heart already. They live with my parents and ever since I moved out about a year ago I have missed them dearly. I think I'll introduce them here!


First up is Oreo. This lovely lady is "mine" because I picked her out of a litter of four pups at the humane society when I was in the fourth grade. Oreo has one of the funkiest personalities, with so many little quirks. Example: when she doesn't want to be seen (after snooping through cat food or committing some other no-no), she walks in slow motion thinking this renders her invisible. She is afraid of hardwood floors and thunder, and taught herself how to "shake" when she was 9 or 10.


Next is Rose, Oreo's sister who my sister chose from the litter. Rose is kind of a snob, but secretly wishes she was a lapdog. She hates baths and growls at horses (and has been known to go after unwanted trespassers), and seems to be the most sane of the motley bunch. In fact, when Oreo or Avery are being silly, you can almost feel Rose's disdain toward her immature peers.


Avery is the newest addition to the family. I found her in 2008 after road-tripping to Tennessee for fireworks. She was sitting skin-and-bones in the parking lot, and I was helpless against her. The friends I was with agreed we couldn't leave her so we loaded her into the car and brought her home. Then a timid skeleton of a dog, now a fat, slightly obnoxious, attention-grubbing little beast, Avery is the happiest dog I have ever known. She sleeps on her back, feet in the air, snorts like a pig, and will claw the heck out of you if you don't pet her to her satisfaction.

These doggies own my heart, but I think there is room for one more (okay, I have room in my big animal-loving heart for all the dogs, ever).

Who else loves dogs?

Doggie photos courtesy of my wonderful sister, who takes brilliant photos, which can be viewed here.

Bones & Toes

I went for a walk with a couple of friends the other day near a local lake.


I was sure to wear my Vibram Five Fingers. These funky little shoes are amazing. I am oddly a shoe enthusiast but also a hater of wearing shoes. I'd much rather run around barefoot when on some outdoor adventure, but I have tender soles so I'm usually stuck in a pair of clunky shoes. I finally broke down and bought a pair of Vibrams just in time for the warm weather this year, and I absolutely love them! They feel natural and I'm never afraid of losing my balance as I still have access to all my toes, and I feel totally protected so no ground is unsafe. I do feel a little like a duck when I wear them, but that just makes them more fun!


Along the way we found a dead something, perhaps a fox? Poor little guy was right by the side of the road so he was probably hit by a car. My love of bones lead me to snap a couple of pictures of him (I'm a weird vegan).


Skulls are so fascinating.


(I'm still obviously loving the Vignette app on my phone.)

This was my first romp through nature of 2011. I can't wait to discover more places to explore this year.

Applicationz

I can't stop playing with this photo app on my phone!







If you've got an Android OS phone, download Vignette. There is a free demo version but I loved it so much I bought the full version (the first app I have paid for!) so I could take full-resolution photos. It's a lot of fun and saves me the hours I spend trying to make photos presentable with photoshop. Man, this smartphone is helping me find all kinds of new ways to be lazy.

Forgetting

I keep basically forgetting about blogger. This makes me sad because I really like blogger! Things have just been busy, I suppose. I moved into an awesome home with my boyfriend. I want to make a post about my house with pictures and such, but I'm currently sitting in the living room in slight misery because surrounding me is the dumbest, rainiest cold day. It's spring break right now and this is one of my few actual free days and it's cold and pouring and dumb dumb dumb. I haven't taken many pictures of my house really, and today certainly isn't the day to do it since it's so dark and nasty.

In our bedroom we have hung a painting of Snarf from Thunder Cats above our bed. You can see a little bit of him behind me here,