A new blog from a friend

My girlfriend at work and her cousin (I think) have a blog they created and I'm so envious of them. They post pictures once a week, one from the States, my friend, Ines and one from France, her cousin, and put them together to form a blog post. I am overwhelmed and fascinated by their blog. The difference in images and culture and light and depth, things so similar and so foreign, I can't wait each week to see what they've seen... and there are no words. My blog is all about words and I add pictures to keep people's attention, and here, two women, and all they put up are pictures, images of life in on two different continents, just their everyday. I wonder if I only put up pictures if they would tell a story like this blog does... I feel like a very lazy artist right now, and it's inspiring to see a blog so different than mine and so lovely and creative, and about a woman I know from work, but that I clearly don't know as a person... and I like that person, a lot! What a great gift, my friend! Thank you so much for sharing.

If you have a moment, take a look, I hope that you are as captivated as I am by their creation, doesn't it make you want to write a short story for every week they post?

http://epidemixe.blogspot.com/

Cheers friend!

The Kaiser toddles on...

While I was in Harpers Ferry this weekend, I stopped in to visit with Corey and Konrad. I've missed my friends terribly,~ Shawna, Attila, Ruby and the farm, ~the Fair brothers, ~Corey, Brendan and Konrad, ~Donnie, ~Dean and Steve, ~Carrie, Chad and the girls. Chris and I made some really super friends while I lived there and I'm sorry that I don't live close enough to just drop in when the spirit moves me (which is the best way to receive or be company, in my opinion). SO, last week, I called Corey and set up a visit and was so glad that I did.
OK, so, here's the Kaiser in all of his long legged glory! He'll be 2 years old in mid August, and I'm just stunned by how he no linger looks like a baby... I went away for only a few months and he's now a child...
a child that loves to give you things... hahaha, here he is offering me a very carefully harvested piece of Norman the dog fluff... he's quite thoughtful and serious about his gift giving.
He could have done this all day with Corey... secrets and Mom's breath on your ear is a lovely way to spend the afternoon
well either secrets or buttmunching... the Kaiser was howling! I was howling on the inside, and the three of us were just having a great time on a lazy Sunday afternoon in our (well used to be mine) sleepy little town. Chris was looking through these pictures on the camera and he got to this one and I thought he'd laugh, but he thought it was odd... ugh, men, buttmunching is love. It's something you do with your child, in the company of friends, on a day that just feels good to be healthy, happy and safe. This picture says 'we are living well'. I love it!
This is one of his new things, checking out the floor. He reminds me of a Hugh Prather poem that went something like...
'There were seventy-five people in the lobby and only a seven-year-old girl was finding out what it felt like to sit on the marble floor'. That was from I touch the Earth, the Earth touches me. My friend Craig gave that book of poetry to me for my 17th birthday and I still have it and I still read through it every once and a while. Floors are a very underrated part of everyday living, there's so much joy and creativity you can gather from just checking out the floor once in a while.
So, unfortunately I timed my visit incorrectly and the Kaiser was on a steep decent to a mid day nap.
I love these sleepy moments of watching his wheels turn. I love that his face is on the cool, slightly uneven wood, and his fingers are slowly touching Norman's slick nails, and when his fingers slide off the nails he runs them over soft fur and all the while his eyes are half shut, close to dreaming. Watching children fascinates me...
oh man he was tired... but look at all of his teeth!! Oh he's got a mouthful! hahaha, it was so cool to see him so grown. He was a totally new little boy, with the same sweet face, but a brand new long and lean little body. I put my hands around his torso to feel the difference and he felt like a child, no more baby fat, no pudgy little tummy or sausage legs, he was so tall and coordinated. (and tired!!)
and a couple minuted later, he was out like trout...
oh I love this image... those sleeping feet, the pretty door, and we all go inside, the end...
well almost the end, while Konrad took a snooze, Corey and I caught up and toured their garden.
One of the things i miss most about the country is how I took the farm and our gardens for granted. I missed being able to grow anything this year because I was in transition and I look out at my one scraggly tomato plant that's barren of fruit and I think, next year... but in the meantime, I'm going to start an herb garden for the fall. YAY! Corey loaded me up with fresh summer squash and zucchini, pickling cucumbers, red onions and 2 basil plants. THANK YOU FRIEND!!
and thank you for the blissful visit, it was such a wonderful part of my weekend. See you soon!
Cheers!

We had some fat floating fun this weekend...

We went back up to Harpers Ferry this weekend to take the dogs to the vet and to the riverses. The vet appts. went well. June is fit as a fiddle, Cane got ear medicine for his ear infection and Hank has a pretty severe heart murmur so he's apparently going to blissfully peace out one afternoon while napping on the couch instead of some other more painful death... things could be worse for a 14 year old dog, right? Other than the murmur, he's a fit and happy 14 year old.
Amber is still honeymooning so Babe came with us for another vacation in HF, and we brought her life jacket so she could do some swimming.
Once the vet appts. were through, we gathered up the troops and headed down to the river. Babe was hilarious. She's so slow on land, that I will often pick her up (much to Amber's ire) and carry her places just because I don't have an hour to move from the car to the house, or from point A to point B... seriously, it will take her an hour to walk a block and a half... the jackass... some of it is because she's overweight and has arthritis, but some of it is because she's just stubborn and rolls on her time, not anyone else's... well, in the water, with her life jacket on, she is a little, white, bouyant submarine... she is so fast, I think she startled Cane and June! At one point she zoomed out to play stick with them, and then as she got close, she let out this terrible growl, and Cane and June scattered and beelined for shore to seek out our protection,
and Babe came zooming back to shore with the stick and a very large smile. hahaha, what a buttmuncher!
Hank stayed on dry land and watched it all, parked happily next to Chris.
The Johnny Cash sign is doing well. The last time we were out there, I noticed that some jackasses had started tagging their crappy poorly written handles around The Cash, and thought, what douches, they can't even appreciate good graffiti... well, someone did and went out and covered The Cash and spray painted over all the other trash... thank you random graffiti art appreciator in Harpers Ferry...I like that sign too.
aah, so back to the river. We took the old dogs back inside to nap and grabbed the young ones again and hit the other side of the river for more play. June is ferocious in the water. hahaha look at her going in to eat Cane.
Her river shark mode belies her sweet seal face and her lovely dog park nature in the city. I mean, c'ummon man, look at that face!! Get her in the water man, and it's all over... she's a funny little girl, and I love her to pieces!
aah, I miss Harpers Ferry in the summer. The rivers are low and beautiful, there's usually a breeze in the air, the dogs are in heaven and how can anyone be unhappy knee deep in cool water on a hot day.
I wish we had a river near us on capitol hill... yeah yeah, I know there's the Anacostia and Potomac river flanking us, but one will give you a rash is you're in it for too long and the other one periodically turns up floaters for the DCPD to figure out, and I'm not sure which is worse, floaters or pollution, so I won't say which is which... Anyhoo, check out Cane fetching the stick... he is the most alert one of the pack... throw a stick, or think about eating, and he's on it... he just feels your intention and is right there...
haha, June on the other hand, loves playing with kicked water... she'll chase Cane chasing the stick, but water kicked at her, that's her game... Cane on the other hand just looks offended when you kick water at him... dogs are so funny
So, after making a bunch of pictures, I handed the camera to Chris and said shoot! (I know my watermarks are on this one above and the 8 images below, sorry, I loaded them all into LightRoom and added my standard copyright without changing the ones he made to his name this next bunch was made by Chris). SO, Chris was about waist deep in water and as I headed to shore, June headed towards Chris and check out what he made!! hahahah!!! I LOVE this bunch of images! June loves taking in water, drinking some and then letting the rest sluice through her mouth, it must feel good. We see her do it all the time but have never actually caught her on film doing it until now. Hahaha enjoy! SO in the image above there she goes like a shovel, tucking into the river and then...
and...
but wait...
what's in there!
ooh hahaha, she sucked up some algae and thought it was GROSS!!
hahaha, sweet hound!! (Thanks Chris for making these!!)
oh man, I needed this so bad. I'm enjoying the city, and the dog park, and, of course, I love my job, but there's little that compares to drinking your morning coffee at around 7:30am like this...
yeah, this is a little piece of heaven, coffee, swimming dogs and a river... it doesn't really get any better, why must work be so far away from this! Come on universe, give me a break here... (like I have anything to complain about...I know my life rocks... I'm well aware and quite thankful)
SO one of Cane's favorite things to do is to bay at June, trying to get her to play... here she is panting and taking a break and here's Cane talking crap to her... he's really funny the way he gears up and says, aaaawwwrrraarrrrroooooo... sometimes he ends it with a squeaky little bark and sometimes with a trilling growly end
and a couple seconds later, it works every time... so, once again...
talking smack...
making faces...
and game over...
river shark Junie attacks!
and the days ends with a dance off... think 'Riverdance' in it's most literal meaning (no offense little Irish girls, I know you train so hard, but these kids are naturals...)
Everybody gets dry in the grass on the way back to the house...
we all take a nap
and then go out in the evening to do it all again...
Life is good.
Chris, thanks for having us!
Cheers!

4th of July 2010 in DC

So, I got a few invitations to do stuff tonight, but my memories of 4th's of July's past reminded me that this is the worst day of the year for Hank... this, and New Year's in DC, because everyone sets off fireworks of guns... I'm not kidding, I had a window shot out once on New Year's Eve with what I think was a BB gun (winky caliber, shot a tiny perfect hole right though the living room window back in 1998 or 99)... sweet right...

well, I decided to stay in and I'm glad I did, because Hank is absolutely shattered...
on an up note though, as I was taking out the garbage, I ran into my next door neighbors and they were about to set off fireworks and invited me to watch with them. They're a lovely family and I hope to spend a lot more time with them... well, the grown ups... the teenagers liked my tattoos but otherwise relegated me to their parents generation... old...

hahaha, yeah... getting there... Edward and his wife are the kind of people that say hello to you and emit such kindness and joy that you want to hug them, immediately... (without scaring them away...)
bystanders coming back from the Mall would stop and watch with us for a few seconds, as we were blocking the whole sidewalk and they had to jump out onto the street to avoid the fireworks, and me croughed right in the middle... oops, our bad...
we thought this guy was going to walk right through them but he was just making video, I bet it was fun too, he got really close before jumping away at the last second
I am starting to love my neighborhood... as ill tempered as I was about moving to the city, it's starting to grow on me again... having the dogs here helps tremendously and meeting good neighbors is another huge bonus...
and here are my new neighbors... oh hahaha!!! um, here are the folks that have been here for a while having their picture made by the new neighbor (keeping things in perspective)
Hello Capitol Hill, I think I can stay here a while...
at one point we had block wars going on, one either side of us... there would be a big firework set of on one block and then the next block over would set off one of theirs, it was like watching firework tennis, our heads moving side to side, looking to the sky as we'd all say, oooohhhh.....
oh and Hank, here's what he thinks of the 4th of July... hyperventilating in the corner
until he puked in fear... oh my poor old man... his life is so hard sometimes
it's tough being Hank... happy 4th of July to everyone, hope it was safe and fun... (and that you had a better time than this guy)
Cheers!