boxofdelights

I dreamed I had agreed to take care of a friend's dogs during the workday, so my dog would have someone to play with and her dogs wouldn't eat her house. They were pit-bull mixes, but not inclined to the slam-dance play that pit bulls often do, so I thought it would work. The great thing about this dream was the dogs' names, which were Boney and Parallelepiped.

Aiko is doing okay as an only dog. The woman who gave him to me was sure that he was a nervous wreck because she had no other dogs, and I think she was right, but while he was living with Tai Aiko also became securely attached to me. My husband said, "When you first got him I thought you were nuts-- well, I still think you're nuts, but you've done really good work with him."

My two old dogs weren't young when I got them. I had them for seven and eight years, which was as much as was reasonable to expect. When they died barely a month apart, I was determined that my next dog would be a puppy, but I'm mostly over that now. I'll take whoever the universe sends me. Hey, universe! I'm open!

This is the best thing I've ever seen.

Sledding crow. From othercat.

A few days ago, Neal asked me, "Is it twenty-five?" I looked around, puzzled. Is what twenty-five? "What year is it, 2011? And it was '86?" Oh! Right! Wedding anniversary! And it was '86. "Happy anniversary," he said, "for what it's worth."

We are still friends and good co-parents, which is what I wanted. And I couldn't have done it without him.

Also just past is my ninth LJ-versary. I plan to keep crossposting, and to keep reading those of you who post there, but, mentally, I've moved out. Dreamwidth is home now.

However I do not have a native understanding of the split between subscription and access filters. I think it is an excellent idea! It just doesn't do anything for the way I use DW. There was a while there when I was subscribing without giving access as a way of saying, "I would like to read your posts without presuming that you want to read my posts." That would work if I were meticulous about noticing and granting access to anyone who subscribed back, but I am not meticulous. So I think from now on I'll unite subscribing and giving access, and hope it does not seem presumptuous.

I'm planning a trip to Portland to see Nixie next semester. Would any of you like to hang out with me?

Nixie was here for Thanksgiving week. She had a tilt-table test, because she fainted again at school, so now we know she doesn't have postural hypotension. Not sure what the next step is.

Mungo turned sixteen, and got a set of wheels: a second-hand bike.

There's a movie I love, called Wilby Wonderful, that you can watch streaming, with commercials, on Hulu:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/59586/wilby-wonderful

sasha_feather mentioned that it's also streaming on Netflix.

It is written and directed by Daniel MacIvor, who goes very light on the existential despair, for a Canadian filmmaker.

It has Paul Gross looking nearly as unattractive as is possible when you are Paul Gross, who gets to say ( the best line in the movie: )

It has Callum Keith Rennie, which is why I watched it, but not why I'm recommending it. Callum Keith Rennie has been in lots of bad movies and you don't see me recommending them, do you? All right then.

It's sad and sweet and funny, and morally complex, and humane:( spoiler )

And if you watch it, then you can read there's a warm town in the shadow of you.

Kitsu ate some dinner last night! And then she went to the water bowl and drank! She is still a Very Old Dog but she's not quite through here.

Yesterday we got whomped with snow, a big wet blizzard in an unseasonally warm fall, and I did not leave the house, or even get dressed except to put extra layers on over my pajamas. Today my son wanted to go to a track team dinner, so my husband had three hours to kill waiting around for him, so we went out to dinner. Well, first I discovered that my catalpa had lost two big branches, one of which had completely blocked the sidewalk, so I had to move those before I could go anywhere. And then I discovered that my next-door neighbors had lost an entire tree, which had knocked down part of their fence and blocked the alley. The whole walk into town was like that, though most people were not slugs like me and had already moved the downed limbs that could be moved without endangering yourself, but all the trees were still carrying a heavy snow load and many were leaning over the sidewalk and occasionally creaking.

But I did make it to Rasta Pasta, and ate ridiculously good Spicy Jammin with Tofu, and then my husband came back to my house and watched the first episode of Slings & Arrows with me. He had to limp off (he had surgery on his ankle again) as soon as it was over, so I didn't get to ask how he liked it, but I have hopes[*] he'll want to watch the rest. He laughed at "Canada's Greatest Hams"! He was paying attention!


[*]Do not worry for me. I have two teenage children; I am an old hand at sharing something I love with someone who says, "Uh, sure, it was okay."

I made the call to the vet who does at-home euthanasia. Tai had a hard time standing up this morning, and then a hard time settling down even after all his morning meds. I decided that if tomorrow morning was harder than this one, I would have waited too long.

Tai has a bone tumor. The vet says chemo is not likely to do much good without amputation. Since he's a big dog and it's a front leg, amputation is not likely to have a good outcome. (Also he is an old dog, and had already lost mobility from nerve damage from a biopsy last year.) So our goal is to make him as comfortable as possible for as long as possible.

I was so irritated with him last week, when I had gum surgery and he peed in the house five times. Now I just want him to stay. Pee on the floor whenever he feels like it. Just stay.

Life is short. Love each other lots.

Today was supposed to be a day of cleaning all the things. Instead I spent the morning writing porn and thinking about Callum Keith Rennie too much[*].

I did a load of laundry. And cleaned Aiko's ears! That counts! And I responded to five questions from sasha_feather:

Comment with "me me me" and:
- I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
- Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
- Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.


1. Who is your favorite member of MCR, and why?

Ray. I love his hair. /shallow

2. If you were fighting zombies and/or werewolves, what would be your weapon of choice?

The power of flight. My fight-or-flight response is 99 and 44/100ths per cent flight.

3. Do you have any pets? If not, do you want them?

I do! I have three dogs, which is not the ideal number of dogs (that would be two). They are all German Shepherd mixes and (which is more important) all other people's discards.

I like cats but I am allergic to them.

4. What's your dream vacation destination?

New Zealand. It looks so beautiful. /shallow

5. Rec me a book off the top of your head!

Off the top of my head + I have no idea what you've read and what you like = AIEEE!

Okay. I'm going to recommend Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping. It's one of my favorite books of all time. I stumbled upon it at a time when I was reading mass quantities of stuff because I had almost nothing else to do: no job, no friends, no kids no dogs no garden no internet no life. I love it because it is about being odd, being other, striving to be normal when you don't have what everyone has and you don't know what everyone knows. It has powerful imagery, which I remembered even when I didn't remember the title or author: a passenger train derailing on a bridge; autumn leaves accumulating in the corners of a house; what it feels like to be outside at night in the cold, and to stop resisting being outside at night in the cold.

I hope you read it and tell me what you think of it.


[*]And when I say 'too much' I mean, for example, I think about the fact that he was born in England to, presumably, Protestants, who didn't move to Canada until he was four. So he's probably intact. Yet none of the RPF I've read about him features his foreskin. Isn't that strange?

I do so love having a friend to whom I can say, "You and I are of Elinor Dashwood's party on that question."

You should all go vote in the NPR BOOKS: Top 100 Science Fiction And Fantasy Poll. I dithered for days but finally settled on

The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
The Female Man, by Joanna Russ
Kindred, by Octavia Butler
The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
Little, Big, by John Crowley
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Parable Of The Sower, by Octavia Butler
The Pride Of Chanur, by C.J. Cherryh
Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban

And you?