From Booking Through Thursday (via A Bluestocking Knits):

Pick up the book that is closest to where you're sitting right now.

1. What are the book's title and author? "Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training, Volume One" by Steven R. Lindsay.
2. Turn to page 127. Locate the third paragraph, first sentence. Type that sentence here: "Another important function of sight is to scan the environment for biologically important changes in the dog's surroundings not detected by the other senses."
3. Does the sentence make sense out of context? I think it DOES! (oops, sorry, that just kind of happened...)
4. Seeing it sitting here by itself, out of the book, is it funny? Sad? Strange? Does it make you want to explore its source? Not really any of these things. I think it's a nice, complete idea that reflects the depth of information in this book - and it also reflects the books readability.
5. Are you currently reading this book? I was and then life got busy. Most of my reading time is during meals and my interest in reading dog training books waxes and wanes. I've often used this book as a reference but a few months ago decided to start at the beginning and read through to the end. This was good, because the first chapter is on physical and emotional developmental stages in puppies and I learned a few things that could explain some of Katy's strange behaviors...(but some things may never be completely explained.)

The book thing is a tad more interesting than what I was originally going to post - a home-made picture in homage to Princess Sparkly Pony. I love the Princess - he is so funny and makes me laugh out loud.

Everything I know about "zen" I learned from my doggies.

This little game is called "Doggie Zen".

The concept?

To get the treat, you must give up the treat.

We are not a pinnacle. Natural history is not a great tree reaching forth with many arms to produce at its uppermost tip a flowering end product, Man. It is not a timeline starting with fishes and ending with us. We did not leave apes and monkeys and everyone else behind. We are not special, we are not the end, we are not the product, we are not different or separate or superior. Evolution is not an ascending ladder with the heavenly human on the last rung.

- from PinkRabbitSays

A thoughtful friend, who feels that I am not enlightened about what a pleasant place Iraq is becoming, sent me an email with a list of the wonderful things that we have wrought in this lovely new bastion of freedom and democracy. The email finishes with the old, lame argument that blames media bias for keeping folks like me in the dark.

Yawn.

So, I did a very quick search on media bias and found this wonderful article (be sure to read Part Two as well). It's serious, but irreverant and spot on (I think).

I like question #6:

6.) Liberal spin. Corporate spin. Texas spin. Zionist spin. Republican spin. Hollywood spin. American spin. Anti-American spin. We want it out, out, out. Spin, that's bad. But critics smart enough to detect spin are smart enough to see--and in fact, they do see--that claiming, "they're spinning!" has itself become a form of spin, a popular one, which would seem to throw spin detection, never a clear cut thing, into total incoherence. Does that bother you, or is it only my spin?

AP Photo

My stepmom, a wise woman and retired public health nurse, said to me today, "As a psychiatric nurse, our job would be to document the facial expressions on a person who behaves that way."

Ellie is now one year old! Or approximately that old - based on the vet's estimate of her age when she was rescued. Sept. 1 was picked as a good day for a puppy birthday.

She's a wonderful pup and both Katy and I love her so much. So smart and funny. And now a wonderful swimmer - having taken the plunge last Wednesday to my delight. She now swims like she's been doing it forever.

So, this has been my life since Ellie joined our little family - wrestling and playtime all day long:

And one to grow on!