A very happy birthday to my Mommers!!

That's right December 3rd is the natal anniversary of my dearest mum.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Sad but true

Courtesy of my friend at NOAA

(no he didn't make it)

Next time more blood!

Yeah I know it's a week early but I was at a great Halloween party last night.  I loved Zombieland so much I decided to go as a freshly reanimated zombie this year.  I had a great time with the special effects make-up.

The neck wound was tons of fun to make.  It took hours of prep time but it was worth it.  I had to pour the majority of the blood on my clothes around 10am and wait for it to dry.  Not on me of course, I hung it in the laundry room and hit the really wet spots with a hair dryer.  I started on the latex about four hours before the party.  Once all the pieces were ready it all went together really fast though.  I love the bruise and abrasion make-up it was totally great.

I totally want to do this one again!!!

Fire update

Reports this morning are far less inflammatory, if you'll forgive the pun.  Over 700 combined acres burned and only one home lost (which had been vacant for several months).  Local news reports 4 air tankers and 7 helicopters plus 50 engine crews on the ground total.  They really pulled out the stops on this one.  Had the wind been blowing from the other direction this could have been a major disaster.  THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!  Hug a firefighter.

Ring of Fire

So it HAD occured to me just what a death trap this valley could be with just the two major exits. Today a small window into that possibility. Not truely serious at this time but with a fire buring at each end of the valley one starts thinking...



Around I think 10 or so this morning it occured to me that the sun coming in my office window was remarkably red. Upon walking outside I quickly determined there was a fire IN Ashland. This is a photo "borrowed" from the Mail Tridune's web site as my office is under that cloud of smoke near the right margin of the picture. The fire is buring into the hills (away from town) but at last count was >50 acres and 6+ homes destroyed. Two helicopters and one retardant plane plus ground support fully involved. For those of you keeping track, that's the southern exit to the valley.



Then I find out that RoxyAnn is burning here in Medford. I took this picture with my cell phone on my way home. There appeared to be several spot fires south along the ridge but I couldn't get them in the shot. The planes were focusing on the larger blaze and people had just stopped in the regular lanes of traffic to watch them. Idiots!!! Anyway there is/was a substation under all that smoke and after my time at BPA I wonder if that's where it started. Hot dry air can do amazing things with high voltage lines. Add smoke particulates from the southern fire and Zappo! Man-made lightening.


Once again it's nice to be on the same grid as a major hospital...I'm one of the last to lose power. My house is about a mile away from this one, again, under the smoke *cough*. Not quite the northern exit to the valley but it does inspire images of clogged roads and fiery death.


A little levity in everything though...there are opportunistic ice cream trucks all over my neighborhood so you can grab a quick popsicle while you watch the fire! I must say it is a little unnerving to see all that smoke and hear "The Entertainer" plinking away in the distance.

The PERFECT tomato

I am not a tomato lover. They look delicious but the taste has always been below expectation. But the slurping, yummy noises my parents make over their fresh tomatoes keeps me trying. Over the last several years I've been trying to work tomatoes into my diet in combination with other things I like. Sort of conditioning myself to like them. This year I am even growing some myself. So far they are better than the ones you typically find in the store but I'm still working on the taste thing.

Well last week I found a heirloom variety in the organic section of Safeway of all places that knocks me on my butt...

I did a web search for the organic farm and came up with a name. They are Cherokee Purples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_purple I don't know that my picture really does the color justice but they almost truly purple on the inside.

This is a tomato I can eat on it's own! Mom and dad, please order seeds and share with Katie in return for starts. I can pick up young plants on my annual Morel trip!

Clean Dogs and New Blogs

Mom has finally started her own blog!

http://wolfruncardis.blogspot.com/

Given her gift for story telling I'm very excited to see what's to come.

The weather cooled down just a bit today and so I braved the afternoon heat to wash the dogs. They are always so depressed when I first lift them up on the table but then so darn proud of themselves after getting puffed up by the dryer.

Random Facts:

I'm really love little-known facts and while looking up

this date in history I discovered a few great tid-bits.

On this date in...

1866: Tennessee is the first state to ratify the 14th amendment

(not the first state I think of when it comes to civil liberties but good-on-ya)

1816: The survivors of the Medusa are rescued after 17 days

(remember that painting of the mostly naked, half dead people on a raft by Gericault?)

1553: Lady Jane Grey is deposed as Queen of England

at the age of 15 after a rule of only 9 days

(one of my favorite stories of the backward British monarchy)

Bandon BOB

Ch. Wolfrun Canterbury Tales

Judge: Mrs. Lesley E Hiltz

July 4th, 2009

The photographer obviously tweaked the contrast a little too much. I KNOW my dog isn't that white even on his cleanest days but I'll take it.

Squinting at Mirrhi with his tongue hanging out...yup, that's my dog!

Monkey Underwear

I think I need to get me some of those...

Have a great weekend everyone! I'm outta here!

Spring Storms

We've been having thunderstorms for the last two weeks and fairly intense rain at times. There was a good one Friday night so I thought I'd try out my camera's ability to catch lightening.

I was very happy as I sat on my porch sheltered from the rain to have not been a ticket holder for the opening nights of the Britt and Shakespeare festivals' outdoor theaters. Sure Los Lonely Boys would be fun but not on a bald hillside with no cover and all that electricity on stage. ACK!

Chaucer's New Skill

Yeah, his hips aren't the greatest but sometimes I simply can't help but indulge him. Today he found an old frisbee in the toy basket. Suddenly he loves that thing!

Blue boy's got jump

He was really proud of himself but his feet kept getting caught up in the ring while he was prancing back to me. Smarty came up with a solution though...he learned to flip it over his head on the return trip.

Other things in the air

I'm deviating from the usual dog discussions today. As I sit here sniffing and coughing despite my Allegra D (the D is very important, trust me) I thought some of you might find this interesting. As most of you know I coordinate pharmaceutical research trials for the doctor I work for. Some of those trials are for allergies. That means we need to know what's floating around in the air day-to-day. Well here you go folks...

The photos are a little grainy as I took them with my cell phone through the eye of the microscope but under 40x magnification this is what is making us all sneeze. These were actually taken some weeks ago, there's far more grass out there now. The "Mickey Mouse" looking fellows are tree pollen, conifers mostly, while the oval ones are grasses. The speckledy bits are dust, mold, and other things I don't count because in the Rogue Valley they are constantly present in allergenic levels. I do find some fun things from time to time, bits of wing or a leg slapped off a passing insect like this little guy...remember this is under 40x magnification, that is more pollen beside him, so he got their by floating...

Just thought you might all like to know what you're really breathing out there.

Have a great day and don't forget to change your furnace filters!

Beautiful morning!

It is a lovely morning here and since I'm about through my first cup of coffee its time to start getting ready to putter outside a bit. I finally got around to loading some of the photos from the new camera. We have a pair of Canada geese that have moved in to the pond outside my office. I get there around 7:30 and all week they've been happily gliding around honking little taunts at the red wing blackbirds and stomping down their nesting site. This year I hope they stick around to raise their babies. Last year construction forced them to relocate three days after hatching. Environmental impact from a Buddhist temple of all things!

Birthday Girl!

Happy 8th birthday to my Stormy-Bella-Fancy

a.k.a. C-Myste Nightingale!

Olympus Stylus 7000

I got a new camera!!!

I have wanted one for a long time but have not been able to come up with a good excuse to justify the expense. HA! Well I finally found it...air miles! Yep, since I'm not headed out of the country anytime soon I cashed in a few miles for a spiffy new camera.

I was losing the light by the time the battery was fully charged and my models were more interested in eating grass than looking at the camera. Still, I got a few descent shots in. I have hardly touched most of the features but I really like the on-board photo editing!

Pater Familius

(Papa Bil and Lil' Brandy)

I got an unfortunate call from mom yesterday. Bilbo has had a cough for months now and yesterday they discovered the cause. He has a tumor "the size of a large egg" on his heart that is restricting his lungs and causing mild fluid build-up. It's something like doggie CHF from what mom told me. The vet was rather grim in my opinion considering Bil's in no pain from it and no one knows how long it's been there or how fast it's growing.

Of course he's just as goofy as ever and all comfort measures will be taken when/if they are necessary but it's a sad revelation.

We all get a little crazy sometimes...

"I thought there were only two of them..."

Those are the exact words I heard from three different groups of people after standing in the yard for only about 15 minutes this afternoon. I shouldn't be surprised by how many people notice these funny looking little dogs I suppose. My house, or more precisely my dogs, are a bit of a fixture in the neighborhood. I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of the pack while they were enjoying the late afternoon sun.


My camera seems to have been having trouble focusing. I suspect it wasn't expecting the patches of bright sun that accented several of the shots. Being an Oregon camera, it was expecting clouds today. But I got a couple nice shots of the C-myste girls.

There was some interference with the process. The Dude was being a pest lurking around in the background, sticking his ear in other dog's shots, and sticking his nose in Alice's ear whenever possible.

It has been interesting having four dogs in this little tiny house. Not a bad experience at all but it has had some trying moments. I'm pretty much trapped in the bathroom if I let them follow me in when I shower. It cost me the runner in the laundry room but I have determined that Kacy has a potty emergency at 9:30am every day. No problem, I got my kennel back from the neighbors so now Chaucer happily keeps her company outside while I'm gone. Alice has been supremely tolerant of Chaucer's advances for which I am grateful. Everyone has been getting along fantastically really. In fact, the cats haven't been bothered one bit by the new additions. Access to their litter box is now gated (Alice) but that's not big deal. I even caught the ancient cat (Panda) cleaning Kacy's ears this morning. What excellent critters!

I have been replaced...

Yes, that cute and snugly little dog-buddy in the last post, well he has a new love. ALICE

Since we picked her up, Alice has not had a moment's peace except during dinner. I'm sure she wouldn't have to even chew her own food if she'd just let him regurgitate for her. Her teeth will be nice and shinny for Nationals as she can't breathe without Chaucer sticking his nose in her mouth. Lick, lick, lick all the time. I kept waking up through the night to that soppy, slapping, smooching sound every couple of hours as he wormed his way closer to her washing ears, eyes, mouth, face, feet...just about anything he can get to without being snapped at. Ugh! Tonight we will have to start a kennel rotation so I can get some sleep!

And some people call them Dogs...

On a chilly Sunday morning there is simply

nothing better than my Snuggle Buddy.

The Rock

As some of you know I get to travel from time to time for meetings in hub cities around the country. Usually I get very little time to enjoy whatever city they plunk us down in. Sponsors often go for was is most convenient for them and/or is cheapest so that often means Chicago in the winter (or any time of year really) and Florida during hurricane season. If they are feeling especially thrifty there are also any number of suburbs around the Dallas/Fort Worth area, each with it's own brand of NOTHING to do.

This time however I lucked out. I was allowed a rare west coast meeting in San Francisco! Just a quick puddle jump down after work and a two day meeting in downtown. Now, 4th street directly across from the Bloomingdale's/Nordstrom building would normally be super exciting but my schedule was jam-packed with meetings and what I consider mandatory dinners. Okay I'm not complaining about the dinners, they are usually very good and always involve an open bar. I don't know what you call a rum, pineapple, orange, cranberry, and grenadine beverage but it was quite lovely. Cran-Daiquiri Sunrise perhaps? I'm not usually one for sweet drinks but this one ended up tasting a bit like a pink grapefruit daiquiri. Yummy.

Inebriation aside...on the second day I lucked out yet again...the meeting didn't last as long as originally planned and we were able to explore a bit. Some crazy lady in the lobby bought $500 sneakers *ack*. Never mind the shopping, I went to Alcatraz! It was a snap decision and the fastest wardrobe change the Marriott had seen in a good while I'd wager. Everything just fell right into place and there was just enough time to get to the island, take the audio tour and wander a bit before heading back and grabbing the shuttle to the airport. I wasn't planning on having time for an outing so I only had my cell phone for pictures. For a broke-down old prison it was beautiful! It was smaller than I expected inside but outside the crumbling masonry and strategically planted lilies and creeping vines were fantastic!

Everyone talks about Capone, Stroud, and the 5 or 6 other famous inmates in the last 40 years of it's operation but the older history was far more interesting. The army regularly imprisoned Native Americans there in the mid- to late-1800's for not agreeing to send their children to government schools. They were basically given life sentences and their children were taken from them anyway. The old prison is more like a brick cellar with arches and gates every so often. They use it as a theater now but I would guess it was pretty awful in it's time with no heat or drains. I am generally for the idea of prison being a negative experience but I'm glad we've moved past dungeons as a society.

I probably won't get many more meetings this year thanks to the economy but this was a nice way to start off the year. I'd like to visit Alcatraz again later in the season to see what the gardens look like in sun. It's hard to fully appreciate a place like that on a tight schedule but I certainly enjoyed what little time I had there.