Homegrown Democrat

I'm embarrassed that I missed this before (being an NPR and Prairie Home Companion fanatic), but thanks to Lewis I came across this today. It's a few months old, but good reading nonetheless. I want Garrison Keillor to adopt me.

I just received his book "Homegrown Democrat" from Amazon today. I have a few other reads in front of it, but if anyone is interested I'll pass on my thoughts when I've read it.

One of my heroes ...

If you're not familiar with Mark Morford, he's a colmnist with the San Francisco Chronicle. I faithfully read his columns on Wednesdays and Fridays on SFGate.com (you can subscribe to his posts as well). He is outspokenly liberal, sarcastic, in-your-face, and intelligent. He regularly writes in support of the gay community - and he's straight. I really admire this man and his writings. Check out today's column about the gay marriage debate and the "rationale" behind the argument against gay marriage. And then e-mail him with your thoughts. Oh, he gets plenty of hate mail - so if you disagree with him, he won't be offended. But if you do like him - let him know that, too. We need more straight people like him fighting for us. I wish I could speak out (write out?) with his style. He makes me want to do just that.

Oh, and speaking of straight allies - check out Atticus Circle as well. I just came across this today. It made me smile. There is hope.

One more baby step in the world ...

Today, the South African Parliament legalized same-sex marriage.

I know that it will happen here eventually, but it seems strange to me that the United States, self-proclaimed Superpower of the World and Compass of Humanity, is so regressive regarding civil rights. We (well, some of us) try to fight the good fight, but we continue to fall behind. I'm too tired to write any well-thought-out political post today, but I will soon.

A very dear friend of mine lived in Capetown last year for a school term ... maybe she'll post some comment on her views on how this reflects South African culture and why this is so different from ours. She has an amazing view of the world and I'd be interested to have her input.

Miss Otis Regrets

I was updating my iPod and came across one of my favorite ever Bette Midler songs. (What? Okay, so I'm a big fag. You have a problem with The Divine Miss M???). Here's a video of her performing this in Las Vegas (with her backup girls, The Harlettes). If you have never seen her in concert ... oh, you must. She is a force of nature.



If you have seen her before, you'll enjoy seeing this again. Oh, and my favorite line ever:

"What's the matter, Soph? AIN'T YA GOT A VASE???"

(Bonus points to anyone who gets it ... )

Doggies, doggies everywhere ...

Kali got her stitches out this morning and is doing beyond great. Now on to training her ... we've let that slide a bit in the interest of just getting her healed, and it shows (especially her housetraining).

I've mentioned that we have two other dogs as well (also Weimaraners), so I thought I should introduce them. Kali's had enough attention lately, and our two older girls are feeling left out.

Scott got Stoli when she was just a pup, and she's now 10 years old. But she refuses to believe that she's NOT a puppy. She's been like this all her life. She's spoiled, yes ... but she's well-behaved, beautiful, and loves nothing more than to just cuddle. Her name was suggested by one of Scott's co-workers and it stuck. She has the most pitiful-looking puppy-dog eyes when she's trying to get her way - which is always. And, yeah, it works.




We got Kitty after Scott and I met, when both dogs were about 18 months or so. Kitty was raised in a family with small kids (they seemed to pump them out year after year), and that family would get a puppy or two, then get rid of them when they grew to adulthood and get a new puppy. She wasn't well-cared for; she was overweight, had some skin problems, and got no affection whatsoever. She was only allowed in the kitchen to eat and sleep in her kennel, and was punished if she even tried to set foot on the carpet. We know she's had a litter, even though we were told she hadn't (it's pretty obvious). About a year and a half ago she got very sick and we almost lost her. Luckily she recovered, and is the most incredibly grateful dog ever born. She has the run of the house but is very respectful, she sleeps on the bed when we let her (all 90 pounds of her), and her favorite thing in life is to go camping with us and be by our sides 24/7. She's amazing. Oh - her name? When I first started dating Scott, whenever we would see a big dog out and about, he'd call it "Kitty" (as in "here, kitty kitty ... "). So after trying to come up with a name for this huge dog we'd just adopted, he jokingly called her "Kitty" and she came running. She's just a big baby - but she takes care of us. Both of them are great guard dogs (a good thing in our neighborhood), and I think they're teaching Kali pretty well, too.


Next time I post about our family, I'll introduce the cat who has thumbs. Seriously.