Sunday, August 31, 2008

Dog Park Days

Athletes go to the gym. Kids go to the playground. Fat people go to bakeries. Christians go to church. Old people go to Bingo.

Where do dog people go? That's right, the dog park.

Upon moving to Eugene, I was ecstatic to learn that it is home to several dog parks, three of which Luna and I have been to. How about the top 10 things about the dog park:
10. Only at a dog park in Eugene will a nine-months pregnant woman be asked, "When is your dog, err, baby due?"
9. I saw a dog leap into a mini pool and promptly projectile vomit his dinner, covering a span of two feet.
8. Everyone loves, and I mean LOVES Luna.
7. In two days I picked over $15 worth of blackberries. Today I made them into a pie filling for later this week.
6. They have a sign up sheet for watering the trees.
5. It's a great place to work on training a dog. Especially off-leash training.
4. The dog park hottie. He's this guy I'm totally infatuated with. Tall, slender but toned, rolls his own cigarettes, dark hair nicely complemented by dark skin, intense eyes, sideburns to squeal about, and he'll play fetch with his dog until his dog is too tired. From what conversations I've eavesdropped on, he seems pretty smart, too.
3. I love dog park hottie so much, he's getting spots four AND three in this list.
2. I get to play with tons of different dogs!
1. Luna can howl to her heart's content.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Greatest American Dog

Lately I have been watching some pretty awful television. My favorite guilty pleasure as of late is definitely "Gossip Girl".



I have also been shocked to find myself watching One Tree Hill, QVC (no joke!), and Big Brother. But my FAVORITE new show is Great American Dog. It's this show where dog owners and their dogs all live in a house together (ala Big Brother...or Real World). They must compete in obstacle courses and activities that test their ability to train their dogs to new skills and tricks. After a judging process, a pair is elected off. The last ones barking (ha!) win $250,000.

I have a difficult time choosing my favorite cast members, but I've settled on two!

Travis and Presley (mostly cause of Travis's good looks and Presley's cute boxer attitude)
and

Laurie and Andrew! Andrew's sweetness is infectious.


I don't like how on the show the dogs are encouraged by their owners to do something that scares them, makes them uneasy, or or just isn't really natural for a dog to do. Having SAID that though, it has revitalized my hope of training Luna to be the "greatest American dog." I've got her off leash trained. She rarely howls now. Tonight we worked on sit, stay and lay (with *some* success).

Maybe next season you'll see my sweet little Beagle and myself on the show!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Pulling a Brooke

Sometimes I pull stunts that "only Brooke would do." Liiiiikkkeee...throwing away my driver's license last weekend when I cleaned out my car.

Last night was no different. I gave myself a pedicure with hopes of painting my nails some awesome, flashy color. While at Rite Aid, I stared at the black "night" nail polish daring myself to be edgy and cool. Instead I got light pink. But this is not the point of the story.

I went looking for nail clippers, and I opened up my little box of odds and ends and delighted found these little incense coals with powdered incense my mom had gotten me.

I eagerly poured the incense onto the coal, grabbed a lighter, and lit the powder. It smoked and created a little ember. Then the coal started zapping with electricity....or something! Little orange veins of fire started popping up all over the thing, and I felt my fingers start to burn.

Terrified I chunked the coal into my sink and turned the water on. Half of it disintegrated into a thin, black powdery liquid. The rest lay waiting. Smoking.

Not knowing what this thing would do if it went down the drain whole (there's no stopper in the sink), I got under the sink digging around for a stopper and found it. I plugged up the sink and filled it up with water.

I went to push the stopper out with the little device you normally would use.

Nothing. I had a sink full of black water and a potentially lethal powder, and it wasn't going anywhere. Panicking, I got a cup and started taking water from the sink and throwing it into the tub, leaving dark black streak marks all over the place.

sigh.

The plus side is, I found at Rite Aid!!

Let's Get Political...Political


It is no secret that I'm a left-leaning, freedom-loving, change-desiring peacemonger. In following, it should come as no surprise that I wholeheartedly endorse (not that my endorsement means anything to you or anyone else) Barack Obama for President.

Last night I was moved to tears several times by Michelle Obama's speech to the DNC. I know that these conventions are meticulously planned, and I acknowledge that her speech was probably previewed by TONS of people involved in the campaign before she presented it. However, the words rang true. One of my favorite parts in particular was when she said that THIS time, we can vote with our hopes and not our fears. Since I've been able to vote, I have done so to PREVENT something from happening. I have voted to keep freedom at home. Sadly, the tides always turned the other way, and my faith in and regard for the American people has slowly deteriorated.

I think we, as Americans, have slowly chipped away at what freedom, truth, hope, and honor all mean. It's not entirely our faults either. Led by individuals who haven't always been great role models (Republican, Democrat or otherwise), we as a people don't know WHO or WHAT to turn to for guidance. Some people turn to religion, some turn to their job, some to drugs and many are still looking, shading their eyes in the sunset of freedom as they gaze across the canyon, the abyss.

Well this is my chance and others' chance to look toward the future with our goals and hopes in hand. To me, Obama represents a much needed paradigm shift in our government.

However, this whole election will be marred by the everpresent ignorance of others. People are constantly looking for ways to bring Obama down, and they are getting more and more base with every slackjawed insult they throw his way. I just stumbled across a rather obnoxious blog, with many reasons why they won't vote for Obama. The list was comprised of junior high, petty faultfinding and propaganda, and they only cited other blogs as the basis of their research.

If you disagree with Obama's policies, that's one thing. But please, stop spreading propaganda and lies. You can check yourself HERE.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Hi-Ho It's Herbal I Go

Although I hail from the South, I don't particularly like sweet tea. For that matter, I don't really like regular tea. I always associated it with cigarettes, leather pouches for cigarettes and lip stick marks, an association which can probably be attributed to my grandmother (the same reason I associate the smell of fried food with her multi-dimensional glass table, and big jewelry with hugs and kind eyes). I did enjoy drinking tea with orange juice as a kid, a concoction my dad favored when he would come in from working in the yard or his garden.

However, I first fell into the hot tea canyon in high school when I tasted Aveda's tea.

Aveda's Comforting Tea


Since then I have off and on treated myself to hot tea, perhaps when I have a cold, when I'm reading a book, or when I just want something tasty and warm to heat me up on a cool night.

Since moving to Eugene, I have encountered teas and herbs in many different fashions. I was having problems sleeping for awhile, and decided to try out Yogi Tea's Bedtime blend. I loved it so much, I got my mom six boxes of it for her birthday! I drink it ALMOST religiously, and I swear within 30-45 minutes of drinking it, I can barely hold my eyelids open. Yogi Tea is made here in Eugene, making it ALL that much more awesome for me to drink.

My friend Candice, who is leaving Eugene to go home for a few weeks before starting Herbalist school in Arizona, is an herb genius. A friend scraped his foot open, and next thing you know she comes over to him with herbs wrapped in some wet cloth with instructions for him to keep it on there for 30 minutes.

When I recently complained of problems unique to women, she of course had a solution other than Aleve, Tylenol PM and punching the nearest guy. Yesterday I went to pick up some furniture I bought from her, and I left with not only a bookshelf, tv stand, and weaving loom, but a dropper bottle of herbal extracts and a jar of black cohosh tea! What a nice treat! I also bought some Yogi Tea for this particular problem, so for my afternoon tea at work, I added a few droplets of the extract into my Yogi Tea, and...well I'll let you know!

Happy Tea Drinking!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Charla Charla

I love speaking Spanish, and I love most things Latino. The music, the food, the richness of culture..all of it really appeals to me. When I moved up to Eugene and was looking for activities I enjoy as well as people to do them with (book clubs, dog groups, etc.), my good friend Abbie suggested looking at http://www.meetup.com/ for a group.


I found several groups I was interested in, but never actually participated or attended the events. UNTIL I found a Spanish Speakers group that meets up for "charlas" or chats. I went this past Sunday and took chicken fajitas (ok..texmex, whatever). We dined on an array of hispanic food, talked in English and Spanish, and made plans for future meetups.


I'm really glad I went. It was a pretty diverse group of people, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.


Wednesday, August 6, 2008

sigh

I'm not usually much of a conspiracy theorist.

But I do not think Bruce Ivins is the Anthrax Murder. Just throwin' it out there.

http://conspiracytheory.itsverycool.com/dr-bruce-ivins-the-perfect-patsy/911/2008/08/04/