Another Bone for the Blog

1. MUSIC!! If you hear music when you come to my blog, you are not hallucinating. As disappointing as that may be for some of you, I have simply added a sparkly new feature called a PlayList to my blog. If it annoys the living daylights out of you, scroll down and hit the pause button. Your honest feedback will inform my choice as to whether or not to keep this feature.

2. Have you ever sent a three sentence e-mail at work and gotten a response back that clearly indicates that the last two sentences, however brief, pithy and concise, have gone unread? Boy, is that annoying, and it happens ALL THE TIME. Message to the offending parties: you could decrease the amount of time spent on e-mail if you read them the first time. I hate to use this word, but here goes.- duh.

3. Short of camping out all day in a blind yesterday, I needed to figure out how to get pictures of the birds that I so desperately want to take pictures of. Being wild animals, they all scatter when I come out the door with equipment, that in their minds, might resemble a gun. So, I consulted the internet regarding "nature photography." What was the internet's recommendation? Lots of patience and a damn blind- two things of which I am in short supply.

4. My lovely Curt is an extreme lightweight. This is his birthday weekend- 47 years. So last night at dinner, Curt has one margarita to celebrate his birthday eve. One. So what happens? On the drive home- and thankfully its me driving- Curt is thrashing around in his seat, dancing to Shalamar's Dancing in the Sheets on 80's on 8. The next songs come on and he's over their making sounds like "NGEEEEEEE! Neee! N,n,n, NEEEEE!" to the guitar solo and making up alternate version of song lyrics, much to his own amusement. Happy Birthday, honey. Reason number #4309 that I adore you.

5. You may or may not know this about me, but I cannot bear suffering of any kind. Suffering, physical or emotional pain, whether it be affecting humans or animals, just ruins me. It is one thing, that despite all my indignation and bluff at certain religious and political figures, instantly reminds me of our shared humanity and makes me extremely humble. (Yes, if I saw James Dobson get hit by a car while crossing the street, I would indeed stop to help him, even though I might first entertain the thought of hitting him one more time to put him out of the collective misery he has created.) That is why this week's earthquake in Haiti has just about ruined me. Even though I can't do anything right now except screen the charities I donate to carefully, I'm going to work with some of my connections at Habitat for Humanity and see if there is something I can do six months from now. And that leads me to ask what is enough? Am I doing enough? How far is far enough to go in helping these people that cannot catch a break? When do I know? I struggle with these questions every day and not just about Haiti- the guy down the street, the dogs in breeding mills, the chickens in cages. How do you know?

6. And on that note, let me add a bit of levity, stolen from a fellow blogger: