Whew’s Girl

Poochess Petunia's Doggy Tricks (#43):

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:31:00 +0000

Tired of your humans' same old routines? Looking for a little xtra attention? Wanna mix things up this evening? Well, this tip on another "poo"ch trick will get you all that & more!

First, refuse to go "#2" all day, no matter how many times they take you outside. It may be hard, especially if you're used to goin' in the morning, but where there's a will there's always a way.

Second, after everyone goes to bed, poo in your kennel. Then eat it. Then barf it all up. Then eat that. Repeat until what you're retching out has the consistency of foamy, sticky, chunky mashed potatoes and is the color of caramel. (Don't worry, the taste gets better each time. ;-)

Now, whilst barfing up your guts, make sure to make LOTS of horrible noises to ensure waking at least one of your humans (especially if the only one who's home is the deaf one.) Humans love to take an active roll in all tricks!

Once a human is up and realizes what's going on, they will do their part to take you outside as quickly as possible where you can then wretch out everything you've eaten in the last year under the bushes and then bury it!

OK, so there are a few cons to this trick. One is that you can't exactly control how long you'll be barfing. It could go on for about an hour, and (upon further reflection) if it's been raining lately, you may want to consider the weather patterns before doing this trick as rain at, say 4-6am in the morning, can be very cold and take some of the fun out of it. Another drawback is that you may end up going #2 every few minutes, the consistency of which is quite similar to that which you were barfing- but maybe a bit runnier. At that point, you most likely won't be interested in eating it (one must have standards, after all).

By the time you're done doing your business outside, you get to snuggle up to a warm dryer in the laundry room whist you're human makes interesting comments and noises as s/he prepares a freshly cleaned kennel with another set of clean bedding. They may sound disgusted and angry, but don't worry- they love all the excitement!

At this point you should be significantly tired and ready for a sound sleep. And if, by chance, you feel yourself in need of going #2 again an hour or so after your human falls back asleep. Don't worry, they'll hear you whining and rush to take you outside where you can do your business all over the front lawn area. (They become quite attentive for some reason after you've been pooing and vomiting all over the place.)

Well, that wraps up the "how to" for trick #43. Stay tuned next week for tips on how to access the cat's litter box before your human wastes perfectly good used litter by throwing it out!

Bug Story

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:33:00 +0000

So, MSG & I have played with a few caterpillars out here that looked pretty cool. Here's one of the more interesting ones. Another one I was playing with had all these feather-like blond plumy spikes all over it. I was commenting to one of the ...locals at the humane society about how cool their caterpillars are out here. After hearing my descriptions of those two in particular, she told me those two, specifically, are quite poisonous and could have hospitalized or killed me if one of their spines had pierced my skin...

{insert explicatives here}

by illustrator Jeffrey Thomas

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:30:00 +0000

(thought these were cool; click link to see more)

Drout no More

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:59:00 +0000

I've been loving all the rain, especially the storm last night- hours of thunder & lightening! Unfortunately, all the rain these past few days have been pretty rough on people with washouts all over the place and even a few deaths from flash-flood activity. As, for MSG & I, we're OK and just trying to stay outta everyone else's way.

Baby Tiger

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:23:00 +0000

The cuteness hurrrts!

The Future of Pizza Delivery

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:17:00 +0000

San Jose Museum of Art Sand Mandala Creation

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:48:00 +0000

At the San Jose Museum of Art

Friday, September 23rd through Sunday September 25th, 2009

Two Buddhist monks from the Tibetan Children’s Education Foundation (TCEF) will construct the mandala, sacred to the Tibetan culture, in the museum’s atrium. The presentation begins Friday at 11 a.m. with a blessing ceremony. The construction will take place Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. concluding with the destruction of the mandala and the distribution of the sand. Admission to the viewing is free and open to the public; regular museum admission applies to the galleries. The San Jose Museum of Art is located at 110 South Market Street in San Jose.

For more information call 408-294-2787 or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.

Lead sand mandala artist Venerable Ngawang Chojor, assisted by Lama Paljor, will construct the mandala. Created by hand, sand mandalas embody traditional meditative designs that represent the universal qualities of harmony, balance, community, and pure wisdom. The monks work every day until completion. After drawing an outline of the mandala on the wooden platform, the monks lay colored sands over the design using traditional metal funnels called chak-pur. There are many types of mandalas, all with outer, inner, and secret meanings.

About - Mandala Makers
Venerable Ngawang Chojor
Born in Tibet, Venerable Ngawang Chojor currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a senior monk of Namgyal Monastery, the personal monastery of the Dalai Lama. Beginning his studies at the age of thirteen, he trained in all the traditional arts and became a lead teacher in ceremonial arts for apprentice monks. Ven. Chojor has constructed sand mandalas throughout the world, including the World Trade Center in New York and other locations throughout the United States, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan, and China.

Lama Paljor
Born to Tibetan refugees, Lama Paljor is a monk from Zhekar Choede Monastery in Kalimpong, India. He is the founder and director of the Zulik Sikkim Educational Hostel and the Good Star Academy primary school in Sikkim, the town of his birth near the Tibetan border. He has traveled to such places as France and New Caledonia to construct mandalas.

GBACG Bazaar this Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:21:00 +0000

Are you looking for some great new or used costume items?

Do you need a new hat, gloves, fabric, or a finished outfit?

Do you want to learn some new tips and tricks?

Do you want to be where other people know your name and understand your fascination with costume?

If the answer to any of the above is “yes”, you MUST join us at the

GBACG Bazaar on Saturday, August 29th!!

Come and shop for your next great set of gloves, or a hat, or a whole dress. Meet and chat with other fabulous costumers. Oh, and learn a sewing trick or two from our very own guild members. This will be a fun event so please tell your friends!

Costume: Costumes are not required but are always admired!

Menu: Light refreshments will be served.

Tickets: This event is free to members and only $5 for non-members at the door. This is a great event to bring new costuming friends.

Location:1249 Marin Ave., Albany, CA 94706

Our venue this year is the lovely and newly remodeled Albany Community Center. Parking is free but limited, so please try to carpool. The closest BART station is El Cerrito Plaza. It is approximately a 7 block walk from BART to the Albany Community Center.

Art Hotels

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:42:00 +0000

At some point, I'd love to stay at the one in San Francisco: http://sfhoteldesarts.com/index.php

Le Bal des Vampires

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:08:00 +0000

I'm going to try and be in the Bay Area in time to attend this event.

Who wants to go?!?

Movits

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:50:00 +0000

ARJ BARKER "Sickest Buddhist" Music Video

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:31:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:55:00 +0000

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Cat vs. Big and Little Boxes

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:24:00 +0000

The videos of this little cutie were found thanks to Will:

And here he is being such a sweet boy considering he's almost as big as the lady holding him and he could easily take on Godzilla. Looking at him you can here him say "C'mon lady, not the ears, not the EARS!!"

attack of the killer belly!!

Randall's 100 Top Novels List

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:49:00 +0000

- Which Have You Read?
I checked (✓) the one's I've read and put those I've seen as a movie in italics.

( ) A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M Miller Jr
(✓) A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
( ) A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
( ) A Farewell To Arms – Ernest Hemingway
( ) A Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne
( ) A Passage To India – EM Forster
( ) A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man – James Joyce
( ) A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
( ) A Time to Kill – John Grisham
(✓) A Walk In The Woods – Bill Bryson
(✓) A Wrinkle In Time – Madeleine L'engle
(✓) Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
( ) American Gods – Neil Gaiman
( ) And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
(✓) Animal Farm – George Orwell
( ) Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
( ) Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
( ) Casino Royale – Ian Fleming
( ) Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
(✓) Charlie And The Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
( ) Clear And Present Danger – Tom Clancy
(✓) Count Of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
( ) Deliverance – James Dickey
( ) Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
(✓) Doctor Doolittle - Hugh Lofting
( ) Don Quixote – Miguel De Cervantes
( ) Dracula – Bram Stoker
( ) Exodus – Leon Uris
( ) Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
(✓) For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
( ) Foundation – Isaac Asimov
( ) Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
( ) From Here to Eternity – James Jones
(✓) Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
( ) Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
(✓) Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
(✓) Hamlet – William Shakespeare
( ) Heart Of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
( ) I Robot – Isaac Asimov
( ) I, Claudius – Robert Graves
( ) Illusions – Richard Bach
( ) Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
(✓) Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
( ) Lonesome Dove – Larry Mcmurtry
(✓) Lord Of The Flies - William Golding
( ) Moby Dick - Herman Melville
( ) Mort – Terry Pratchett
( ) Neuromancer – William Gibson
( ) Of Mice And Men – John Steinbeck
( ) On The Road – Jack Kerouac
( ) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest – Ken Kesey
( ) Rabbit, Run – John Updike
( ) Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
(✓) Romeo And Juliet – William Shakespeare
( ) Shane – Jack Schaefer
( ) Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
( ) Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
( ) Stranger In A Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
(✓) The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
( ) The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
(✓) The Bible
( ) The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
( ) The Call Of The Wild – Jack London
( ) The Catcher In The Rye – J.D. Salinger
(✓) The Chronicles Of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
( ) The Color Purple - Alice Walker
(✓) The Complete Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
(✓) The Dune Trilogy – Frank Herbert
( ) The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
(✓) The Grapes Of Wrath – John Steinbeck
(✓) The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
( ) The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood
(✓) The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy – Douglas Adams
( ) The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
( ) The Hunt For Red October – Tom Clancy
(✓) The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint- Exupery
( ) The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy – J.R.R. Tolkien
( ) The Name Of The Rose – Umberto Eco
(✓) The Old Man And The Sea – Ernest Hemingway
( ) The Once and Future King - TH White
( ) The Red Badge Of Courage – Stephen Crane
( ) The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
( ) The Shining – Stephen King
( ) The Sound And The Fury – William Faulkner
( ) The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
( ) The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
( ) The Trial – Franz Kafka
(✓) The Wind In The Willows - Kenneth Grahame
( ) The World According To Garp – John Irving
( ) To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
( ) To The Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
(✓) Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
( ) Under The Volcano – Malcolm Lowry
( ) War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
( ) Watchmen – Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
( ) Watership Down – Richard Adams
(✓) Winnie The Pooh - AA Milne
(✓) Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
( ) Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert Pirsig
( ) 1984 – George Orwell

Did you Know

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:49:00 +0000

Buggy Moral Code

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 07:54:00 +0000

Dude w/ Camera Eye

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:23:00 +0000

Benji & Lacey Schwimmer

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:23:00 +0000

Edwardian Ball 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:13:00 +0000

These are some pics from The 2009 Edwardian Ball held in San Francisco. If you'd like copies or to see more pics of guests who put my costumes to shame (below is just of Sat night's event- it lasted all weekend; more pics are pending from Noelle) follow the title link above to the main and/or photographer's website.

Nancy and Aaron

Me

Toga Info

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:04:00 +0000

The toga, a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a cloth of perhaps twenty feet (6 meters) in length which was wrapped around the body and generally was worn over a tunic. The toga invariably was made of wool,[1] and the tunic under it often was made of linen. After the second century BC, the toga was a garment worn exclusively by men, and only Roman citizens were allowed to wear the toga. After this time, women were expected to wear the stola.

Follow title link for more details on:
1 History
2 Significance
3 Varieties
4 Modern usage
5 References
6 External links

Coraline Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:12:00 +0000

(click on the title above to go to the interview with the movie's director)

The Courage Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:44:00 +0000

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Happy Valentine's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:52:00 +0000

A few months ago I was at BestBuy with some friends and looking for various music. I told them I really liked this song from some wine commercial, so we spent a good hour on BestBuy's computer searching youtube for it. We never found it, though. However, on a fluke I just did. I was searching for art supplies of all things when a link mentioned the song! And, it is appropriate for the up-coming Valentine's Day festivities:

Parson's Mirrors Costume Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Amber) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:48:00 +0000