The Yuck Factor

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think that I am a fairly capable woman. I mean, I'm not fixing my own car or anything, but I am perfectly capable of taking it to the shop (please kindly overlook the fact that currently I have 2 cars in the garage in need of an oil change,) I have successfully had contractors change my siding, garage door and fence since Matt's been deployed, I scoop the puppy poo in the backyard when it gets unruly, I balance the checkbook, I pay all the bills (mostly with Matt's paycheck) and I can even kill a reasonably sized spider.

(Some of the spider we used to get in our yard and even some in Japan were freaking ridiculous. And in South Texas I'd frequently see tarantulas walking across the highway.... those ones don't count.)

However, I ABSOLUTELY draw the line and turn into a total wimpy shrieking girl when something like the following happens:

Upon returning from work today I finally mulched the front flower beds (a task I've been putting off for a good three months) and when I was done I hoped into my awesome little backyard pool (see here, complete with ridiculous blue inflatable killer whale) to cool off.

As I floated around Kirby rolled in the grass and Brutus tore up and down the gigantic hill that is our backyard. Then Brutus became particularly interested in the bottom of one of the trees. I thought to my self, "How cute he's going to dig."

How very wrong I was. Instead he reached down and picked up a dead bird that had apparently fallen out of the tree. (Maybe it passed out from the heat...?) um, ew. Memories of this dead Robin my brother and his friends had found once with worms crawling out of the eyes flashed through my mind and I freaked out.

I jumped out of the pool and chased Brutus inside then I got a shovel and bagged the nasty maggot filled mess, put it in the trash and proceeded to take a shower for a good 30 minutes. seriously. gross.

This is exactly the type of reason why I got married. I can handle the every day stuff, its those rare out of the ordinary events that I can't handle..

Animal House

As you probably already know. This is my dog, Brutus. He is a 10 month old Shiba Inu, named after The Ohio State University's mascot, "Brutus Buckeye," but the name fits him well because although he is a fairly small dog he thinks he is very tough. You might even call him a brute.

In this particular photo the strange way he is peering over the arm of the sofa is because this week we have a guest in our house.


This is Kirby. He is a 6 year old Welsh Terrier who belongs to my friend Christina. Christina got married back in October and is finally going on her honeymoon to Aruba. Needless to say she needed someone to watch her dog, and I guess she figured that my life needed just a little more pet fur in it this week.

If you are wondering, yes, he is sitting on the bathroom floor. It gets hot here in Poway and he seems to think it is nice and cool in there.



You are also probably aware that long before a puppy ever entered my life I had cats. My friend Olivia suggested that when Kirby came the cats might just pack their bags and skip town.

You see, first I moved them to a house that doesn't have a patio they can sit on, then I brought a puppy into their lives. After that I sent their Daddy away, the weather got stupid hot and now I am bringing another dog around to chase them and who may occasionally snack out of their litter box.

So far they are handling alright. K.C. mostly has taken refuge on top of the fridge.











Chase has been hiding under the bed.






Come to think of it, that seems about right for him.


Anyway, Brutus and Kirby are getting along just fine. They are about the same size and they both share a common passion for tennis balls.

My only real concern is that my own dog is such a little wuss. You'd think he could maintain dominance in his own house, but he hasn't. Kirby has claimed this house and all the toys in it as his very own. (Not to worry, Brutus gets him back by eating all his food.)





So, here they are playing fetch together. I've tried it with both 1 and 2 tennis balls. In either case Brutus mostly just follows Kirby and only rarely brings a ball back himself. This video makes me laugh also because you get to see them go slipping across the kitchen floor, which, for dog owners is always a good time.

Trainer Speak

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (a mysterious galaxy, completely foreign and unknown to most of my So Cal peers known as "Ohio,") I was a young girl of, roughly, eleven years old who decided that when she grew up she was going to be a Shamu trainer. This is her story (and it isn't going to have a thing to do with how "anything is possible if you believe!")

There used to be a Sea World park in North-Eastern Ohio, near Cleveland in a little town called Aurora. The park was only open in the summers (because nobody in their right mind would want to be at an amusement park in Cleveland when the Lake affect snow roles in,) but believe it or not is was actually opened BEFORE the park opened in Orlando. (If you think about it is makes sense, back in the 1970's lots of people, Midwesterners in particular, took vacations and day trips in cars. People weren't jet setting off to Miami nearly as often, unless they had the extra 4 days necessary for the round-trip drive.) Anyway, this little town was about 4 hours from where I lived, but a mere 60 minutes away from my Grandparents' house. This meant that pretty much every summer when I was small, we made the family trip.

I remember when I was little asking my parents why they would call Shamu a "Killer" whale when it was quite clear to me that he was very nice to his trainers. My mommy must have been very smart because she explained to me that it was because they are very good predators and hunt and "kill" their food. Since their food does not include humans, the trainers, and everybody in the audience at the shows was safe. Looking back I'm not sure I much would have cared if Shamu did actually turn around and eat his trainers because I thought those whales were FANTASTIC.

I liked Sea World so very, very much that when I turned eleven I decided to give up presents in favor of taking a trip to that fantastic park. For your amusement I have posted some photos from that trip below, taken with my very cool hot pink 110 film camera. (Oh stop laughing you know you had one too!)

Here is my brother, Steve, and I posing on what I've always thought was a statue of a dolphin, but upon revisiting this photo now, I am not entirely sure it isn't a Sea Lion. (My wasn't I a scrawny geek of a child. Notice the stylish faux alligator skin off-white loafers I sported with my fabulous pale pink short set. And we're not even going to start on the dork sitting next to me...)


The Shamu show was combined with the Dolphin Show, as it was at all the parks at the time. The entire stadium was covered (an idea which they have used in Orlando and I really wish they'd take to San Diego.) The pool was a half circle with a diameter of maybe 60 feet and the slide out was shockingly small at approximately 10 feet squared. From the photo below its hard to believe one of the whales never reached over the rail and dragged anyone in.


I find the following photo to be the most amusing as it was clearly taken during the finally of the Sea Lion and Otter Show, which apparently was a "Spooky Castle" theme, when the Walrus comes out. It is interesting to me as well to notice the spelling on "Clyd's" name. Hmmm.

Anyway, getting back to the point of this whole thing, I decided in middle school that I was going to be a trainer some day. This dream continued for several years, until right around the time I took biology in high school. At the time I couldn't imagine anything beside Marine Biology that I could study in school that would lead me to this job. (I'm positive that idea was planted in my brain by my mother as well, because she generally was the sort of parent that told you how she thought it was going to be, and well, you had no choice but to believe her.) Anyway, upon completing 9th grade Honors Bio with an awe inspiring grade of C-, I slowly let the dream go, eventually in favor of teaching and music.

Little did I know that I'd eventually marry a sailor who'd get us stationed in San Diego. Nor did I know that when I moved to San Diego circa 2003 having completed graduate school and my teaching certification, there would be absolutely zero teaching opportunities available and that same sailor would randomly remember having heard about my former Sea World aspirations and suggest that I go work there for a bit. (Seriously, it was his idea, not mine.)

Upon starting in Education I immediately resumed my trainer aspirations. However, I absolutely bombed the swim test (seriously people that water is cold!) and eventually ended up moving to Japan. Now though I am back, its just for fun during the summer. However, as I mentioned in my post a couple days ago, many of my friends have successfully worked their way into training positions which allows me to on occasion pretend that I achieved that long lost dream.

Now, for you viewing pleasure here is some video Steph took of what might have been.



(It's divided into 2 videos because Steph accidentally stopped the camera in the middle, but it is all one thing.)

I think it is especially important to note that I am absolutely ridiculous in this video. My voice has gone up at least 3 octaves, I can't seem to stop clapping like a moron and I have the absolutely cheesiest grin on my face. At the end of the second clip you actually hear me talking about how stupid I sound. I am convinced that karma is mocking me by giving me this voice for all the times I have made fun of the insane enthusiasm of the trainers. Apparently, I am just as bad as they are, if not, perhaps, worse. I would have made a fantastic trainer, if only....

Fun times behind the scenes at The World

For those of you who may have been confused yesterday by the fact the fact that I keep a camera in my purse at all times, here's why:

You never really know what's going to happen during the day, and yesterday was proof of that. I ran into one of my friends who works as a trainer for the arctic animals at Sea World. She and I haven't seen each other in quite awhile, so she invited me to stop by and visit. While I was there she helped me to get some very cool pictures. Matt is currently laid up in Bahrain for physical therapy because he has a herniated disk in his neck, so I'm hoping by posting some fun photos that I can cheer him up a bit.

First, Stephanie asked the Seals to go to the back so she could work with the whales. This was what they did.

That's right. They didn't move at all. Lazy seals. Not wonder they get eaten by sharks all the time in the wild.

Anyway, then Ferdinand came over to say hi!

And gave me a little kiss and a hug. The best part is he closed his eyes... hehehe!


Steph had me ask him for some behaviors, including this:


We got some video too, which I might post later, but then we went to visit the Arctic foxes. Here I am getting to know Boris. He was hungry. (Please don't show these photos to my dog, he gets jealous easily.)

So, you see, it was a very good thing I had a camera with me at work yesterday.

A Fetching New Camera :)

A few days ago I found myself needing to replace my everyday digital camera. This particular camera of mine lives in my purse and on my way into Sea World the other day I put my soda in my purse so as to free up a hand. By the time a got around to retrieving it, the soda had burst and was slowly leaking diet cherry vanilla doctor pepper all over the contents of my purse. Thankfully, the purse, my blackberry, my ipod and my wallet all survived the ordeal. My camera? Not so much.

At first it appeared to be ok. Then it wouldn't turn on. Then it turned itself on and started singing little beeping songs. Then it would turn on but none of the buttons would work. Finally, it dried out the rest of the way and started taking normal photos again, but no longer had a functioning flash.

This camera was rather cheap to begin with and had annoyed me from the start, despite its user friendliness, because it did not have a scuba diving case available. Needless to say, I reluctantly made my way to Best Buy the other day and purchased a new one. (This one DOES have an available scuba case, which I ordered as well.)

When I got home I played around and created the following:



What Brutus hears "blah blah blah blah? blah blah blah BALL? Ball! blah blah Ball!"

For anyone who ever read Far Side cartoons in the 80's I'm sure you'll remember the one about what dogs really hear. Here is the evidence straight from my house.

That's right, apparently this new camera takes short videos so that now I can preserve the silliness of my dog for all to witness. And Shibas are supposed to be smart dogs....

Anyway, since it was quickly becoming obvious to me that he didn't have the first clue what I wanted, and was perhaps just looking at me wondering "why is she so tall?" or "why it is so hot?" and possibly, "what on earth is that little shiny silver thingy she's holding?" I tried a different approach.

Here is the second attempt, taken, after he was already playing with one of his (apx 3 dozen) balls (which float in and out of our lives at their own leisure, between large spans of time spent hiding under the couch.)

Cute, isn't he? :)

Next I should probably use this camera to take some photos.

Blogging revisited

Apparently, all the cool people I know have decided that it is important to share the finer points of their daily lives with anyone who would care to read them via the Internet. As a relatively fashionable girl, I figure, if this is something everyone else is doing, well, than surely I should be doing it too.

Actually, I had a livejournal for years which I've since abandoned, and on occasion I have been known to post a myspace blog, so I'm not completely new to this particular bandwagon. I'm just well, starting fresh on a new platform. I figure there is a descent chance this is a better way to procrastinate then obsessively checking the blogs of people whom I may or may not actually know.