The Great Thaw

Warming Up

So, Gunter, predictably, isn't entirely pleased with the new addition to the family. They both slept in the kitchen last night, but in the morning Andreas found them in separate beds. I hope Gunter adjusts to Dieter, because it is making me sad to see him so disturbed. Dieter couldn't be a happier though. He is adorable. And pretty much potty trained! Well, at least he always runs outside to go potty, which is pretty cool.

Cutest things in the whole world

Fierce!

Dearest Faceless Masses

I have finally come to a decision!

I know where I am going to move. These were my criteria:

1) I needed a place where I could get these things on a regular basis:

Lebanese!
Pho!
Bibimbap!
Ramen!

AND

Where I could ride my bike all over town and take these things for leash free romps in the park:



I've decided. Now I just need to find a place to rent.

Here? Near Belmont:

And then industrial space here at this cute little collective in the SE?:



(Of course if I rent both of these I won't be eating any of the above for a very, very long time.)

Louisville resident?

Should I become a Kentuckian? Is that what they are called?

Should I rent this cute little apartment?




In this cute little building?


Yes? No? I've heard it's cool. The cost of living is cheap, cheap, cheap!

I'm Going to Get Married when I'm 80, too!

My Papa (aka Papa Bald) got married this last weekend. It was just the excuse we needed to get all gussied up to eat and drink more than was good for us. It was also a great opportunity to meet my newest and cutest nephew, Cairito Burrito, who is the worlds smallest muscle man. I wish I could get him into a leotard for a photo-op.

Here he is in the arms of his hot-mama!


This is my other sister and her spawn, oh, I mean progeny.


Does she not look like a 1950's advertisment for milk or something else that is totally wholesome? I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up as one of the creepy ads of white people they always have in the Suguo's in China. I can see it now, hanging over the big bank of fake grass on the side of the escalator.

Here is Bodi-kins, planning dastardly deeds.


The Parental Units:



2 of my 5 siblings:

The brother (1 of 3):

Ah, the blushing bride and the handsome groom:


Just keeping in real (back at you, jonna, neener neener neener):

Deet Bug - Revealed!

Back to Black

I'm afraid I wasn't really a blonde. Not at heart.

Poetry Friday!

Her Kind

I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.

-Anne Sexton

Dieter the Magnificent

2nd cutest pug in the world! The breeder says he is really tiny and will probably take after his mom, who is a tiny, petite pug. But that is what we thought about Gunter too, so we'll just have to see. He's been eating solid food and drinking some goat milk so the weaning process is going well. She says he's pretty lively, which is good. I've seen pugs who are kind of lazy and non-responsive. But he looks alert! When Gunter was a little, little puppy I went to visit him at the breeders a couple of times before he was old enough to come home, and he was the smallest little bouncy ball. At one point he couldn't really walk very steady, but he could sort of bounce, but only backward. It was so cute. I can't wait to see Dieter and Gunter together. I'm not at all worried about Gunter being gentle enough to play with him. You should have seen him with my baby niece this last week.

He was awesome. Didn't scare her at all. No barking no pawing or jumping. Just some gentle sniffing and a few attempts at licking her face. She would bat him in the face and he would just sort of look away. Best pug ever. He did seem a little bored though.

Poor Boo Boo

No dignity, no dignity at all.

then you shoulda put a ring on it

I've been obsessed with Beyonce's Single Ladies video for a while. And then I found this:

Gunter and Dieter Friends Forever

Dieter is 3 weeks old! And walking well, but no solid food yet. He's quite a little chunky monkey. Can't wait until he is big enough to squeeze!

And a video of Gunter of course!

Poetry Friday!

I Knew a Woman

I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,
Or English poets who grew up on Greek
(I’d have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek.)

How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin,
She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and stand;
She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin:
I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand;
She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,
Coming behind her for her pretty sake
(But what prodigious mowing did we make.)

Love likes a gander, and adores a goose:
Her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize;
She played it quick, she played it light and loose;
My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees;
Her several parts could keep a pure repose,
Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose
(She moved in circles, and those circles moved.)

Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay:
I’m martyr to a motion not my own;
What’s freedom for? To know eternity.
I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.
But who would count eternity in days?
These old bones live to learn her wanton ways:
(I measure time by how a body sways.)

Theodore Roethke

I'm a Bat, I'm a Pug!

IF Illustration

Theme: Contagious

I want this!

I want to buy this house and move to Nashville. Should I?


I don't really like brick, but this is priced so good, three bedroom, finished basement and work room which would be perfect for my studio workshop. It would be awesome!

Daddy Jack

This, dear readers, is my father. He sent me this photographic portrait of himself today via a text message. Since he specifically suggested that I not post it on my blog, here it is.

Poetry Friday!

Bone

1.

Understand, I am always trying to figure out
what the soul is,
and where hidden,
and what shape –

and so, last week,
when I found on the beach
the ear bone
of a pilot whale that may have died

hundreds of years ago, I thought
maybe I was close
to discovering something –
for the ear bone

2.

is the portion that lasts longest
in any of us, man or whale; shaped
like a squat spoon
with a pink scoop where

once, in the lively swimmer's head,
it joined its two sisters
in the house of hearing,
it was only

two inches long –
and thought: the soul
might be like this –
so hard, so necessary –

3.

yet almost nothing.
Beside me
the gray sea
was opening and shutting its wave-doors,

unfolding over and over
its time-ridiculing roar;
I looked but I couldn't see anything
through its dark-knit glare;

yet don't we all know, the golden sand
is there at the bottom,
though our eyes have never seen it,
nor can our hands ever catch it

4.

lest we would sift it down
into fractions, and facts –
certainties –
and what the soul is, also

I believe I will never quite know.
Though I play at the edges of knowing,
truly I know
our part is not knowing,

but looking, and touching, and loving,
which is the way I walked on,
softly,
through the pale-pink morning light.

Dieter Tries to Escape

So the lady who I'm getting Dieter Pug from sends me picts of him every week and this is by far my favorite of the last batch. There were a bunch of these with a head on view, and in this one it's obvious that he's had just about enough of being photographed and is ready to move on. Cute! His eyes are just opened, so he's still really, really young. He's the smallest of the litter, which I like since Gunter was also the runt and he turned out perfect.

On a slightly related note, Andreas and I have started kayaking lately and we've come up with a new name for otters: Sea-Pugs!