vegan chai

one reason not to baleet your myspace page

so, i got a myspace page forever ago, and i used it for awhile, but eventually got bored and now i mostly forget about it. i've toyed with deleting it a few times, but was always too lazy to bother--plus, i'm one of those "just in case" people. anyhow, those of you who also have myspace pages probably have been spammed by bands asking to be your friend. i pretty much always ignore them. i just delete the friend requests before even checking the profile. i'm a jerk.

but tonight i got a message (not a friend request) from an artist, which i thought was kind of weird and interesting. i had never heard of him before, and in fact didn't realize he was an artist (rather than a random joe) at first... but when i read his message, it was relatively personal, friendly, on-topic, and not at all misguided. he pointed out something we had in common, told me to check out a cover version of a song he'd done (a song i love), and let me know that he'd be in town tomorrow night for a show. i clicked on his profile, and as soon as his songs started playing i was all, how have i never heard of this guy? he's awesome! seriously right up my alley of music-lovin'. i listened to all the songs on his profile, then went over to iTunes and listened to a bunch of samples, and within a couple of hours i had bought a [mumble mumble] amount of his music. and i'm really bummed that i'm already double-booked for tomorrow evening, because i honestly would have tried to rope my husband into going with me to the show.

well done, gregory douglass!

i likes my job, oh yes i do

today was a good day to be at school (for me, anyway). i learned that i've got $1000 extra money to spend in departmental funds, which is awesome because i want to go to a conference this summer (well, i kind of have to because they accepted my paper) and it's reDONKulously expensive. the registration is $300, the hotel is $200/night, and then there's the airfare. so, yay found money!

in the same meeting that i learned about the money, i learned that i'm going to get a shiny new iMac!!! (i'll spare you the obnoxious exclamation points and just leave it at three.) it's tOtally not my turn to get a new computer (i just got one last year at this time--a dell), but i jokingly offered my barely-touched year-old dell to someone who gets a new computer this year so that i could switch to a mac, and he said fine with him (by the way, this generous individual is the same person i was talking about yesterday. i told you he was nice!). i laughed it off because i really was screwing around, but i found out during the meeting today that he was serious and now it looks like i'm going to be an all-mac girl very soon. woo hoo!

and now i'm capping off my evening by reading a thesis proposal about companion animal bereavement. i love that this is a legitimate topic and that i get to be on the committee. i've already sent the grad student a link to IDA's guardian campaign so she'll understand why i'm removing all mention of the word "owner" from her manuscript, and i'm looking forward to helping with such an animal-friendly project.

getting a rise out of vegans

okay, i know i've talked about this before, many times, but it never ceases to amaze me. why is it that some people just can't restrain themselves when they're around me?

tonight i left my office to go to the restroom at the end of the hall. while washing my hands, i heard one of my colleagues (who had just arrived) talking to another colleague (whose office is across the hall from me). as i came out of the bathroom and started walking toward them, i realized that hallway guy was telling office guy about how he had been dealing with some mice in his basement(?), and i also realized that it would be best for me to get back into my office and close the door as soon as possible, because hallway guy has a problem with blurting out inappropriate things just to irritate me. i quickly but quietly got within a foot of my office door before hallway guy noticed me, at which point he said loudly and with gusto, "but thank god i killed all the damn things! i killed them all!"

w. t. f?

he managed to (almost maniacally) blurt these sentences out just as i was getting into my office, at which point i was so frustrated at his obvious goading that i just yelled, "fantastic timing!" and let the door shut behind me. once i was inside my office, i heard him return to his conversation with office guy, wherein he explained the lovely and humane (by which i mean torturous and cruel) method he used to kill the mice: glue traps.

HATERY.

okay, but back to my original question: why does he do this?! he's like a third-grader. this is the same person who likes to tell me how he prepares lamb on holidays, and who used to joke about eating my pet rabbit. and the weirdest part about it all? seriously, i kid you not, he likes me. he cares about my well-being, he has been helpful and generous to me, and he has been a big advocate for me. so what the flipping hell?

senioritis

i'm so close to the end of the semester, and so close to sabbatical, that i think i have senioritis. all i want to do is sit on the couch and help clean off my DVR, seriously. that pretty much describes the majority of my past two days. yikes. good thing i have to go to school tomorrow!

some basic details

thanks for all of the congrats and well-wishing, everyone. i'm still pretty overwhelmed and a lot nervous and a little freaked out, but since i didn't give any details about her last night, i thought i'd better give some now. heidi (we will probably change her name, but haven't decided to what) is two years old, and her birthday was in march (two days after avery's). she only ran two races, both in february of this year, and she placed pretty badly in both. here's hoping that means she has a terrible prey drive! heh. she's pretty small, about 60 pounds, and she's very sweet. she's really well-behaved on a leash, and when we took her to the big fenced area to run, she took off like a goofy crazy galloping silly. she's extremely cute. she definitely seems like an amazing dog and a great match for us, and yet i'm terrified. so that's probably all i'll be saying for a little while, until i start feeling less insane.

guess what?

i'm still too overwhelmed to say anything else! today was an emotional roller coaster and i feel a bit like a crazy person. well maybe a LOT like a crazy person. but this is heidi, tuckered out after a LONG day and ready to go to sleep in her kennel. look at her face! she's got a great face. this face is going to be living with us in a few weeks.

kennel day appointment update

we got a phone call this morning asking if we'd be interested in/able to come to kennel day earlier than planned. our original appointment was supposed to be tomorrow at 1pm, but evidently the 10am family has chosen a dog who's currently in a foster home, so they no longer need to go to kennel day tomorrow. we were offered their spot (which is the first appointment of the day), so we took it! i had made my peace with being the last appointment of the day, and now it's all topsy-turvy. i'm kind of excited because it means we get "first picks," but like i said the other day, i believe that if there's a dog who's meant to be with us, we'll meet him or her regardless of when we show up.

i also found out who will be there showing us dogs (i.e., which volunteers from the rescue organization), and they both seem extremely nice and helpful, so that makes me happy. the only thing that's bumming me out is the weather. it's totally crappy today, rainy and gross, and it's looking like tomorrow won't be much better. i was really hoping for a mild, sunny day. oh wells, you can't have everything!

wish me luck, and i'll report back tomorrow!

albie's new leg

let it be known: i love jenny brown (longtime readers may recall that i once propositioned her, heh) and i love the woodstock farm animal sanctuary, but this article made my heart even more mushy for everyone involved. what a pile of awesome people, for serious. and hooray for albie!

if you'd like to read more about albie, or find out how you can help support him and the farm, you can do so here. enjoy!

omg, kennel day appointment

i just got off the phone with our adoption coordinator at the greyhound rescue, and we have an appointment at kennel day this saturday afternoon. eep! i think i'm about equal parts excited and nervous, which is definitely progress. heh.

i tried to pump her for information about who we might be matched with (because i continue to stalk the petfinder page), but she told me that: (a) she's not sure all of the available dogs are even on the page yet, and (b) five new dogs are going to be cat-tested on saturday morning, so they're unknown quantities at this point, and (c) there's one kitty-family ahead of us on saturday, so she didn't want to even guess at names in the off-chance that we'd get "attached" only to have a dog adopted before we get there. fair enough. still, i'm soooo curious! but in all honesty, i'm one of those people who believes in fate-type destiny-type things, so i generally go the route of, "if there's a dog at the kennel who is meant to be ours, we'll get to meet that dog regardless."

if we DO meet a dog that we click with, we can decide right then and there on saturday to adopt that doggie. at that point, s/he will be paired up with a foster family, and we begin preparing and waiting. i think there's usually about a two-week wait between the adoption decision and the actual homecoming... in between, they go into a foster home so they can learn the ropes of home life, start interacting with kitties, all that good stuff. so we won't come home with a dog on saturday... but still: eep! if you are so inclined, you can begin sending good doggie vibes our way!

i heart my TAs

today we were wrapping up our weekly staff meeting (me + my six graduate TAs) and one of them asked me, "during the week of may 13th are we meeting on that tuesday?" and i said, "no, i was planning to just meet after the final exam that week, since we'll all be here anyway," and then he said, "well, um, could we meet that day anyway? but, um, somewhere else, not here?" and i was kind of confused... i started to get the idea that he meant like a "social" meeting, but then one of the other TAs said, "oh just spill it!" and then he explained that they all want to take me out to my favorite vegan-friendly restaurant for an end-of-semester treat. LOVE.