vegan chai

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.

quick-moving shadows

i am one of those people who constantly thinks she sees animals. i once slammed on my brakes in the middle of a busy intersection because i thought there was a mouse running in the road. it was a leaf. i've learned to laugh at myself, but i still always have the instinct to look at things that catch my eye, just in case.

tonight i was on my way home from dinner with a friend, and as i pulled up to a stop sign at a busy street, i noticed a shadowy figure that appeared to be scampering. my first thought was, "is that a rat?!" i looked carefully at the base of the building where i'd seen the movement. i finally found it again, and it was definitely a little animal who was indeed scampering up the sidewalk, along the base of the building, but it wasn't a rat. it was a tiny baby bunny!

i was a little concerned because it didn't seem like the safest or most natural habitat for a baby bunny, so i backed up and pulled over. when i got out of the car, she just sat there next to the building, watching me. as i got closer i asked her if she was lost, and once i got "too close" she hauled bunny butt up the sidewalk away from me (but toward some grassy yards, which seemed much safer to me, so i let her go). i started walking in the direction from which she'd appeared, in hopes of maybe finding her nest, or her mama, or maybe some siblings... just to make me feel more certain that she wasn't lost and that she was okay. i didn't find any of those things (or bunnies), so i wandered back to see if i could find her again. no dice. she had disappeared into someone's lawn. i decided if she was that spry and alert, she was probably just fine on her own, so i left. she was SO super cute, though! i just had to share.

grocery store dessert

my husband's birthday is today, and he's not a huge dessert person so i didn't bake a cake. but then after dinner i started feeling bad about that, so i suggested we go to whole foods and pick something out of the bakery case (probably our best option at 9pm on a sunday!). we did, but when i got there i was bummed to see that the lovely variety of chicago diner sweets that are usually there were all missing. boo! i'm hoping it just means that they ran out over the weekend, and not that they're no longer carrying them. anyhoo, the husband picked out a creme brulee, and i headed to the cookie aisle, where i found these weird-but-intriguing cookies (the vanilla bean with green tea sandwich cookies). i'll let you know how that goes. i tried their peanut butter sandwich crackers recently and they were fantastic, so here's hoping these are good too.

babysitting

whenever i watch my nieces, i realize how much work it is being a parent. not that i don't know it in general, but the point really gets driven home, if you know what i mean. tonight i only had the youngest (3 months) and i only had her for 5 hours, but i'm still exhausted. i'm a wuss.

on a lighter note

thanks to river selkie, my blog took this test today:

Created by OnePlusYou

...and those of you who know me IRL probably can't read anymore, what with all the tears in your eyes from the laughing. i have SUCH a potty mouth. it's nice to know i can keep it under control when i need to. heh.

vegan krispie bars

so, like a billion years ago (or maybe it was only a month), i got a freebie sample of a glennys krispie bar, which is a lot like a packaged rice krispie treat, only vegan and all healthy-style. i brought it home and put it in the snack area of the cabinet, and kind of forgot about it. (for shame!)

this evening, i was rummaging around, hoping to find crackers so i could eat my way through a tub of hummus, and i came up empty... except that i found the krispie bar. so i eated it. it was really tasty! i heartily recommend! go forth and get yourself some, unless you're the awesome type who has already figured out how to make your own.

anyone got a greyhound for rent?

i think in my ideal world, i'd have a greyhound come live with us for a week, just to make sure i feel we can hack it. i keep second-guessing myself, and (probably over-)worrying about details that are most likely silly in the grand scheme of things. yesterday my sister called me to get some dog advice to pass along to a neighbor, and in listening to myself prattle on for 45 minutes, i realized that i know a lot more about dogs and doggie behavior than i sometimes give myself credit for. which made me feel better, and more confident. but then i slept on it and this morning i had all the same worrywarting going on. i'm annoying.

i'm starting to realize, more and more, that i'm like this in more areas than just potential-greyhound-adopting. i secretly (and sometimes not secretly) worry that i'm not good enough, that i don't do things well, that i'm not worth listening to. and i have a terrible problem asserting myself, although i'm not sure exactly when that happened. i didn't used to be that way, but i sure struggle with it lately. i feel very unimportant. and then i feel like i'm partly to blame for that, because i don't assert myself. because i don't think i matter. vicious cycle and all that.

wow. that was more than i thought i was going to say. back to the greyhounds: anyone got one they'd like me to babysit for the week? i think it could make a world of difference, for serious.

catching up on blogging

if you've left comments for me recently (say, the last couple of weeks) and i haven't replied, i'm sorry! i'm very behind on my comment-answering right now. i've read them all, i promise! i just haven't been able to sit down and reply. i promise to do that soon. i love that some of you talk to me! it makes me feel less like a babbling idiot who is thinking aloud at the bus stop. and all you lurkers, i love you too. *smooch*

in similar blog-related lagging-behind problems... today i noticed that my google reader had climbed to 449 unread posts. YIKES. so, i sat still for a couple of hours and read, read, read until i whittled it down to 83. i still have a bunch of reading ahead of me, but that's substantial progress at least!

let's see, vegan topic... um... i found out recently that we're hosting mother's day here at our house, so now we have to figure out what to feed the family. yay. more on that later, i'm sure.

happy earth day!

tomorrow is earth day. if you love the earth, you really should go vegan. not convinced? well check out this lovely collection of blog posts, facts, figures, quizzes, and awesomeness put together by the toronto veg peeps, and see if you can't be swayed. or, you could read this old classic. or, dig in to the more recent favorite, vegetarian is the new prius, and her follow-up post, a few more inconvenient truths, addressing some of the commentary she received.

feel more confident about your stance now? good! go get yourself a "vegetarianism is environmentalism" tote (or sticker, or shirt) from herbivore, why don't you? and wear it out and about while you leaflet with CoK's cool new pamphlets! activism, hooray!

when people offer anyway

i've talked about this once before, but it happened again today so it's on my mind again. i've been vegan now for three-and-a-half years. my family has known since the beginning (i'd say within the first month). and yet my mom STILL periodically offers me things that aren't vegan, and i can't figure it out. today we had a joint birthday party (for my sister and my husband) on my mom's side of the family. there were two birthday cakes; neither one was vegan. my mom was in charge of cutting and serving the cakes, and when she got to me, she said, "are you going to have any cake?" and i was like, "doy." well actually i just quietly said, "no," but in my HEAD i was like, "doy."

she moved along to the next person, so it didn't create a scene or anything, but i just don't get why she does that. is it because she thinks i'm going to say, "aw what the heck, it's birthday cake and it looks tasty," and have a piece? or is it just that she feels awkward that she isn't offering me anything; like it's rude? i can't figure it out. i probably should just ask her, but i haven't bothered yet. it's just so weird to have to say no, because i feel like that's something she should be well aware of by now; there shouldn't be a question in her mind as to whether i'm going to have the non-vegan cake. i guess i need to start working on a snappy comeback that isn't too sassy.

talking about food

do you ever happen across another vegan type in an unexpected place, and then realize you're doing nothing but talking about food? that happened to me earlier tonight, and we launched into a big discussion about our favorite restaurants, the best place to get vegan pancakes, the best sushi, the whole thing. i love food, so this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but once i became aware that i was doing it, i felt kind of goofy.

more backyard wildlife

today started out rough, but ended up pretty awesome. i had basically 6 straight hours of meetings between 10am and 4pm, which sucked, and part of that involved one of our grad students not passing her comps defense (poor kitten), and by the time 4pm rolled around i was more than ready to go the heck home. once there, we had a little snacktion and when my husband was cleaning up the dishes, he suddenly said, "omg come over here right now, carefully and quietly." he was looking into our backyard, which i couldn't see from my vantage point, so i immediately jumped up off the couch and started making my way over to him. he was all, "hurry up because you are never going to believe this," and once i saw what he was looking at, i totally agreed. there was a massive, gorgeous, ring-necked pheasant in our backyard, just slowly wandering around checking things out. how crazy is that?! i swear, we live in a major city and have a small backyard, but we get the most awesome one-day, one-time-only visitors in our yard.

the pheasant was super gorgeous, and he stuck around for a few minutes so i went and grabbed the camera and tried to get some pictures. they didn't turn out fantastically but you can take a peek if you like. we took the pictures through the glass, so they're not extremely sharp. anyhow, eventually he wandered behind our garage, so we decided to go outside to see if we could get a little closer and get better pictures. we couldn't find him once we got out there (it turned out that he had gone through a line of trees and was now up the hill in the backyard behind/"upstairs" from us), but while i was stalking around looking for him, i noticed something dark in the aforementioned line of trees. i took a step closer and the dark figure turned his head to look at me--it was a kitty, and he looked as surprised as i was. i think he was sitting there, watching the pheasant with NO idea what to do, and he looked at me like, "have you seen this thing?!" i said to the kitty, "oh what are you doing there?" and he decided to go through the line of trees into the same backyard that the pheasant was in (unbeknownst to me), and the next thing that happened was a HUGE scolding from the pheasant, which was mainly a bunch of squawking and flapping from what we could hear. i was concerned about what might happen, so we ran around the block to get to that backyard, and when we got there we couldn't see the pheasant but the cat was hiding under a bush with a hugely puffy tail. heh.

once all the excitement died down, my husband went back to school for awhile and i sat and watched a couple episodes of angel, and then tonight we went to a concert and then out for vegan pizza. yay!

now with more better packaging

if you're a big fan of chai like i am, you may have already seen this, but for those of you who might have missed it... did you know that oregon chai has re-jiggered their packaging? the organic original, which is their vegan flavor, is now called... *drumroll please*... vegan original! for serious! they've updated the look of the packaging and they've slapped vegan right up in the title. how much do i love that? a whole lot. free advertising, yo. here's a picture of an old-school carton next to a new-school carton, in case you're the type who likes proof. whee!

the home visit

am i boring you with all this greyhound talk?

we had our home visit tonight, and i guess it went pretty well. we got to ask questions and "talk dog" for about 90 minutes with a couple who has been living with greyhounds for about four years. they also regularly foster dogs fresh off the track, so they had a lot of good advice about the transition into a home. and they have two boykitties at home, which led to some good conversation as you might imagine.

our own cats weren't super thrilled with their girldog. one of them went directly upstairs and hung out on our bed for the duration (not hiding, not necessarily freaked out--just removed himself from the weird situation), and the other one did the arched-back puffy-tail halloween cat impression, growling and all. the sweet dog was all, 'ruh roh, that cat doesn't care for me,' and she turned away and gave him his space. he totally stood his ground and stayed in the living room with us, and after 5-10 minutes he settled down. his fur all went back to normal, and he just became very interested in her--what is she about? can i get close enough to really smell her? all that stuff. of course, by then, she was a little wary of HIM (heh), so if he would approach her she would get a little nervous and come over by one of us. all in all, though, we were very impressed by him, sticking around for everything and settling down rather quickly.

we did a walk-through of our house and they thought everything looked just fine, so i guess now the next step is to wait until we hear back from the rescue. i think at this point they create an adopter profile about us and start working on potential matches. there is a "kennel day" already this saturday, but i'm not sure things will move quickly enough for us to be invited to that.

in the meantime, it was nice to get a whole whack of questions answered, but now i feel like i need to process all of it and talk to the husband some more. so nervous!

so delicious yogurt update

in case anyone is interested or wondering, i received an email from the marketing director of so delicious yesterday (i guess he found my blog entry). he let me know that there was a bad batch of yogurt that had gotten out, where the lids hadn't been sealed properly. i'm not sure if that's what happened in this case, because i don't remember any problem with my lid, and the piece of fruit i found in my yogurt definitely didn't belong there. it appeared to be a peach, and i was eating raspberry yogurt. anyhoo, his email was friendly and he offered me free yogurt if i wanted to give them another chance, so at least they stand by their product. just wanted to mention it so i didn't feel like i was being unfair!

thinking with my heart

sometimes i wonder if i'm too impulsive about certain things. or maybe impulsive isn't really the correct word. i guess i just wonder if sometimes i lean on that old adage of "going with my gut" when i shouldn't. i mean, even though i tend to be very organized and rational about a lot of things (or at least, i can be when the situation calls for it or i think it will help), there are other things that i tend to let my heart take the lead on... and i'm not sure if that's good or not.

right now i'm thinking about the whole adopt-a-dog thing in particular. i feel like my gut or my heart (or whatever it is) keeps flip-flopping and it makes me confused and worried. i do a lot of research on big decisions (which is good), but i also over-analyze (which can sometimes be bad), and the end result is that my heart changes its mind a lot, and i second-guess myself in what seems like an infinite loop. if i talk things out with another person and force myself to get a little more rational and list-y, i usually feel better... but then an hour later i'll get all sucked into some weird detail and get freaked out again. i'm driving myself a little batty at this point.

our home visit is coming up in two days, and i'm equal parts excited and terrified. maybe i should have led with that.

the long and short of it is, i loved the adoption counselor i talked to last night (who will be conducting our home visit), and i'm very excited to have her here so that we can ask her questions upon questions and start feeling more prepared to make this massively enormous decision. she has two cats and two greyhounds, so she'll hopefully be a fantastic model and resource. she'll be bringing her girldog with her, which will be nice because we'll not only have a Real Live Greyhound in our house (a concrete example rather than a daydream), but also we'll get to see how the cats react to a proven cat-friendly grey.

at the same time i'm scared, because it's one HUGE step closer to getting "approved" and matched with potential dogs, which makes me a little panicky. what if we're not ready? what if we'd be crappy dog parents? what if we're tormented by decision paralysis? i actually nudged my husband to submit the application and get this ball rolling, because i felt that it made more sense to get serious if we wanted the chance to actually talk to people who can answer our questions and make us feel more prepared for whatever decision we ultimately make... and i still feel that way, but i'm scared anyway. i just really don't want to do the wrong thing.

i have these moments where i envision our home with two happy unchanged boykitties (sweet as ever, social as ever, and friends with the dog) and a sweet girldog (nice to the kitties, likes living with us), and it makes me really happy. but then i have other moments where i picture all of this tension and/or uncertainty (translation: failure), and that's not fun at all. and these moments are only hours or even minutes apart, sometimes. it's disorienting and i don't know which way to go; which one to trust; which one to silence.

"humane" dairy

okay. this article irritates me for a variety of reasons, none of them surprising to fellow vegans. one part that is almost laughable is the whole argument that non-"humane"-certified dairies are mad at these guys, because their having the "humane" label might cause consumers to infer that the rest of the dairies are INhumane, and we ALL know that fantastic treatment of cows is in everyone's best interest! right? i mean, am i right?! *rolls eyes*

and we also ALL know that you can't get dairy unless you steal and then slaughter all the boy babies! and then torture and rape their moms and sisters until they stop giving "enough" milk. right? everyone knows that, right? oh wait, what's that? most people don't know that, because the dairy industry is really quiet about that? oh yeah.

anyhow, the part of this article that completely pissed me off was this:

The association spokeswoman said consumers are especially sensitive to farm animal treatment in the wake of a beef recall in February. That recall occurred after another animal welfare organization released undercover video of workers at a California slaughterhouse trying to get so-called downer cows - sick or crippled animals - to stand by shoving and dragging them with forklifts.

The dairy industry has not been the subject of that type of controversy.

because, um, hello? THOSE COWS WERE "SPENT" DAIRY COWS. argh.

the greyhound playdate

we went to the playdate tonight, sans greyhound, and had a nice time. there were 10 doggies there, and it was a lot of fun to watch them scamper around together. we were at a dog training facility, in a big room with mats all over the floor, so they could run up and down and all around. of course none of them got anywhere near top speed, but it was still hilarious to watch them "outrun" the toys that were thrown for them and have to come screeching to a halt. heh.

several of the dogs were very interested in being friends with us. when we first arrived, there were three dogs there, and they all came up to meet us right away. these same three dogs, plus a few others, "checked in" with us (and lots of other people) during the course of the two hours we were there. it was so cute! one of the dogs has only been home for one week, and she is SUCH a lovebug. it was great to talk to her parents (who also have two cats) about her transition. she's doing extremely well already, and they're totally in love with her.

we are still being worrywarts, but i think it was helpful to interact with a bunch of greys and their people tonight. it helped me realize that (of course) every dog is different, and every guardian is different, and that for every weird or bad story you hear, there are lots more great stories. i'm looking forward to our home visit (maybe coming up next week?) so that we can have a dog in our house, as well as a person to talk to about all of our billion questions, in a quiet comfortable environment. i shall keep you posted!

don't come after me, IRS!

i can't believe i haven't done my taxes yet. except that i can, because i'm pretty sure i did it at the last minute last year, too. argh. i always do them myself, and it's always relatively straightforward; i just need to set a few hours aside, find the forms online, and do it. but lately i've had a lot going on and i just keep putting the taxes off. i'm lame. tomorrow (i hope) will be filled with greyhoundy goodness, so maybe i'll make myself do the taxes and consider the greyhound playdate my reward. it might work, right?

i give up

it's a long and boring story, but i've lost this post twice now, so you're getting the super-condensed version.

1. i got a pedicure tonight. it made me very happy. my pedicurist is vegan.

2. the thing i wouldn't say out loud on tuesday? i'll tell you now. we submitted our application to the greyhound rescue.

more tomorrow, i'm sure.

very tired

i keep staying up WAY too late even though i've had to get up early most mornings lately. that's dumb, but i can't help it; i'm such a night person that i just don't get sleepy until it's pretty late. and then each night, without fail, i'm crabby for cheating myself out of precious sleepy hours. i'm a tired kid.

also, i'm very very VERY tired of waiting for spring to arrive. good lord. it's still crappy out, and this winter has been crazy-long. i'm tired of my winter clothes, i'm tired of my winter coats (don't get me wrong, i still adore them, but i want to move into the lighter jackets now!), i'm tired tired tired.

last but not least, i'm tired of waiting for my sabbatical. hurry up, july! i mean it!

two things i did today

1. i finally put stuff back on my office door. whee! i was getting SO confused going to my office; it always felt like i was stopping at the wrong door, all naked like that. i got a new CoK poster (thanks, CoK!) and i found a rad little postcard in support of shac7, and i added a couple of other new things. i'm 95% done; i have one more bumper sticker i want to grab from home, but once it's really finished i'll take a picture for anyone who wants to look (*waves to deb*).

2. something else. i'm keeping it a secret right now because i'm a little askeered. but a little excited. but mostly just trying to be nonchalant. more later (and if you're a detective you probably will be able to guess anyway. ha!).

finishing books

those of you who look at my blog's sidebar and check out the "working my way through" section have probably noticed something: i am SO bad about leisure reading. the same books sit there, month after month. the truth is, i adore reading, but i have a really hard time carving out time to do it. i think i somehow count it as "fun i'm not allowed to have" or "lazy couch time i shouldn't be spending" or something... which is patently ridiculous, because i have no such qualms about catching up on my favorite teevy. but i digress.

the point of today's post is to say that i have FINALLY finished reading gary francione's introduction to animal rights: your child or the dog? and it was really very good. i started it ages ago, then let it languish on my nightstand, on my coffee table, on my desk, and/or in my messenger bag in between readings. tonight i read the final chapter and the appendix and i feel relieved and accomplished all at once. heh.

i also read adopting the racing greyhound by cynthia branigan over the weekend, which was helpful. there were a few tidbits that freaked me out, but on the whole it was useful, i think. next up: retired racing greyhounds for dummies. oh and i really want to make more of a dent in my missing manual book.

off to read!