So, in all of my frenzied picture posting last night, I left out a few details from the weekend.

Saturday afternoon, I got to hang out with Ed (touretticmonkey) for a couple hours. We haven't had a chance to hang for a couple weeks, so it was awesome to see him. He made some delicious chili, (I'm always well-fed when Ed's around!) and then we took Hayley for a walk to a park to enjoy the gorgeous day. Getting to the park near his house requires walking past the sewage treatment facility, and there is a building on the property with a sign that says "Hog Pen" and has a picture of a pig on it.

( Read more... )

In other news, Ryan and I had received a few Best Buy gift cards over the holidays, and we used them to purchase a.....device, I guess? that is a DVD/CD player, VCR, and receiver all in one, and came with surround-sound speakers. We got that all hooked up, and then Ryan figured out how to hook the computer up to it, too. I used to hate using the computer to listen to music, because our computer speakers were so crappy, but now listening to music on the computer=surround sound!! Awesome!! I am in love with i-tunes.

I do have a question, though. (Actually it's Ryan's question, but I told him I'd ask y'all). In i-tunes, what does "Consolidate Library" mean? Ryan was going to just try it and see what it does, but got nervous when it said that once done, it couldn't be undone. Help?

Last night, we de-Christmas-a-fied the house. One of the benefits of not going all-out on the holiday decorating is that it doesn't take nearly as much time or effort to tear it all down and pack it all away again. :)

Happy Tuesday, everybody!! :D

Have you both tearfully sobbed and hysterically lauged at the same time?

It's a pretty wild feeling, and sounds kinda funky too.

Got the word on Anka's ACL Repair. She goes in on Thursday, and has to stay over night. Estimate=$800-$1000. Yeeeouch. I called my mom and left a message telling her that I'll need to get one of my credit cards back from her. (After I paid them off, I gave them to her for safe keeping, to be given back to me only in emergencies. Ironically, one of the example emergencies I mentioned at the time was a pet needing surgery.)

So, I get home from work, drained from worrying all day about Anka, the surgery, the recovery, the money, the time off work...I have a splitting head ache...and I walk in the door to find utter destruction. Everything that had been on top of the microwave. Destroyed. The phone charger, the doggie ibuprofin, the napkins, the paper towel, the pretty bamboo place mat. And I broke down, and just started sobbing. Wishing I had someone else's life today.

I see the blinking light on the home phone, indicating that a message was waiting. I'm thinking, oh great, it's probably the vet calling to say they made a mistake, it's not $800-$1000, it's $8000-$10,000.

It wasn't the vet. It was a gentleman from the local newspaper. Remember when I wrote This Letter To The Editor? Well, I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but it got published.

Anyhow, this gentleman called to tell me:

"We have a feature called the Golden Pen Award. We pick out one letter to the editor every month that we like or that was particularily well done for one reason or another and have a little brief in the Tribune about it. We want to give you the Golden Pen award for April 2006 for your letter about the Myric Park Zoo, because it was a good presentation of the argument and discussion of what's being proposed."

So, they want a brief statement about myself, along with a photograph, to publish in the paper for this prestigious (lol) award.

And suddenly, being me, and living my life, is alright again.

In response to my last entry, several people have asked "Why"? Along with specific questions about eggs and wool.

( Here goes. )

For some time now, I've been researching and planning a transition from a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet to a Vegan lifestyle.

I intend to make it a gradual transition, just as I did with vegetariansim, and am not going to set myself a deadline, or beat myself up if I slip up now and again, or accidentally buy or eat something non-vegan.

( Here's my plan for starting the transition: )

There's a been a lot of local buzz about a planned project to transform our zoo into an eco-park. There's an article on it HERE, and a lot of comments from readers below the article.

There is plenty of support for the idea, but also a lot of oppositon. The complaints are mostly from people who don't want the monkeys removed, because, apparently, it's a lot of fun for some people to watch old, sad, monkeys lay around on hot concrete a few months out of the year. Another big complaint is that the current zoo does not charge admission, but the new eco-park would.

I intended to add another comment to the jumble, but being the long-winded, wordy gal that I am, it was rejected for being over 150 words. So, I worked on it some more, and plan to send it as an Opinion Letter.

( Here, have a read, if you please... )

Latest Draft:

As a nature lover, and advocate for animal rights, I read the article “Myrick Zoo Transforming into Eco-Park” (April 2, 2006), and both the support and opposition to the plan in the comments on the Tribune website, with great interest.

The current state of the Myrick Park Zoo is atrocious. It saddens me that people care more about exploiting exotic animals for their entertainment than ensuring that those animals are comfortable, happy, and treated humanely. Do those who want the monkeys kept there realize that those monkeys spend the large chunk of the year that is winter in Wisconsin in even more cramped and inappropriate conditions than the filthy, grossly inadequate concrete playground they spend the warm months in?

One of the main complaints is the plan to charge admission to the new park (though the Nature Center would have free admission, as would the park at certain times). I’d venture to guess that a major reason that the current zoo is in such poor shape is that, having been free of charge all these years, there aren’t adequate funds coming in to keep it properly maintained.

The possibilities of the eco-park excite me. I’m more apt to visit and to take children to an eco-park, where we can see and learn about animals existing comfortably in an environment more closely resembling their natural habitat. I wouldn’t visit the current "Monkey Park" for entertainment, but to provide an example of the horrendous ways animals are treated and exploited by humans for purposes of cheap entertainment.

Kudos to the people and groups involved in this project for having this vision, and for caring about the animals and the future of our city.


Unfortunately, they prefer that opinion letters are 250 words or less. My current word count on that is 398 383 281. So, in addition to asking for general feedback (wether positive or negative)on the letter, I'm looking for advice on what to cut out or condense to make it more concise.

Thoughts?