Archive for the My Life category
July 12th, 2007
After quite a lot of thought and inner debate, I’ve quietly come to the decision that I need a fresh start somewhere. While I’ve enjoyed writing all of these years here at The Naked Truth, I realize that just like the blog before it, I have grown from my experience here and changed and am ready displace myself.
I still have things to say — hell, I still have quite a few opinions and heck, a whole new election year is coming. 
However, I’m not feeling the anger I’ve felt in the past in regards to
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Tags: My Life
May 21st, 2007
I can’t remember the last time I had a good night’s sleep. Lately, it just seems so much worse. I feel so agonizingly tired all the time and my fibromyalgia had been getting better but now it’s back with a vengeance. I know what the doctors said — no rest, no ease of pain. I just feel like everything hurts, even my eyeballs.
This morning I finally accepted the truth.
Aloof is a lot to blame for my lack of sleep and something has
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Tags: the cats, the puppy, sleep deprivation, black cat, retraining a cat, photo blogging, flickr
May 21st, 2007
Yesterday morning, something, crows, I think, brought down my bird feeder. I had been watching birds come and go, but got distracted with the computer for about 10 minutes and when I looked back at the picture window, the bird feeder was on the ground in several pieces.
My neighbor’s bird feeder appeared to be MIA as well so I’m betting it was those rather large crows I saw flying about that morning.
I added it to my Lowes shopping list since I was going that afternoon anyway.
That was a
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Tags: bird feeder, crows, Nemesia, Lowes, fire door, fire code, photo blogging, flickr
May 17th, 2007
Pugly has managed to catch Kennel Cough again even though he’s been vaccinated. He was up all night the last two nights coughing and yesterday morning, he vomited. So instead of daycare, I took him to the vet. The vet put him on home rest and quarantine. No daycare and no visiting the neighborhood dogs.
However, he doesn’t seem to have lost his energy. He’s been chasing his tail and looking for birds and neighbors to bark at. Nor has he lost his appetite. He’s been on carpet patrol
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Tags: the puppy, Pug, dog, photo blogging, Kennel Cough, quarantine, flickr
May 15th, 2007
Yesterday, I was driving down Forest in the right lane and right as I came to The Bike Shop there were about 20 or 30 folks on bikes out front on the lawn. They chose to enter traffic right in front of me at that particular moment and they didn’t seem to be paying attention to oncoming traffic. I generally have no problem with bicyclists as long as they seem to be competent and following the law themselves.
I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting those guys you
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Tags: bicyclists, road hazards, driving, reckless, dangerous, camera, Canon Photoshot S3 IS, photo blogging, flickr
May 11th, 2007
My mother thought a good idea for a Mother’s Day present for my grandmother would be a framed photo of myself with Pugly, but she said that the photos I’ve taken of myself with the wigs on are all so fun that I should do the portrait with a wig on. O.K. No problem. In New Orleans, I used to do the costume wigs and costume stuff all of the time.
O.K. This is Maine. Definitely not the same as New Orleans.
And rural Maine? You cannot go out of your front door wearing a blue page wig, a Indian-made blouse, and blue jeans and carrying a tripod, a camera and a Pug and not have every single one of your neighbors come to the edge of your yard and stare like you’re about to climb up a water tower with a rifle or something.
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Tags: Pug, dog, the puppy, neighbors, dress up, New Orleans, rural, Maine, Mother\\\'s Day, family
May 10th, 2007
I’ve decided to splurge. Like a really big splurge. Not like “Hmmm, it’s Friday; I think I’ll have some sushi” but like “I really am frustrated with this rinky-dink camera and I want to take better photos” splurge.
At first I thought I was desperate for a DSLR camera. You know, with all of the different, really expensive lenses and equipment? For months, I’ve been drooling over those professional-type cameras and their complexities and the brilliant photography I could do with them.
After the suffering I’ve done with my Canon Powershot SD110 and it’s measly 3MP and 2X optical zoom, just imagine how brilliant I could be!
Now, let’s assume that I have $800 to $1,000 to just through at the initial investment of a Canon Rebel XTi and one lens (probably a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6), the zoom isn’t any better than what I have now, though I’d get 8 or 10MP. I’d still have to acquire another lens for better zoom and extra lenses cost about the same as the camera if not way more.
Talk about an expensive investment!
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Tags: Canon, Canon Powershot, camera
May 7th, 2007
I had a bit of a scare this morning. Pugly and I headed off to the garage to load up the Jeep and drive off to daycare and work when the most upsetting weirdness occurred.
At first I thought Pugly was just being his playful self and was going to make me chase him when he wouldn’t get in the car, but soon it was quite evident that Pugly wasn’t being playful at all. There was no wag of the tail, no silly, bounciness
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Tags: Pug, the puppy, temporary amnesia
May 3rd, 2007
I was looking back over the Project 365 photos I’ve taken so far. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve contributed 122 photos to my Project 365 project out of the 470 photos I’ve uploaded to flickr, which has been a subset of the photos I’ve taken — only the best photos or only the ones I considered not the most horrible in the world.
Looking back over a quarter of a year in photos, I was sort of surprised at the memories they triggered. Granted, I’ve added little mini-blogs with a lot of them. For instance, I knew we had a late Winter here, but now I know we had our first real storm of 2007 starting January 14th. And the day I came down with the Norovirus, I took a photo of a license plate — PEPRONI. I have a photo of the first flower to bloom in my garden even though it’s already disappeared. I have photos of 122 moments that might have otherwise slipped away.
And I’ve had fun doing it.
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Tags: Project 365, flickr, photo blogging
May 2nd, 2007
According to Flickr’s mysterious “interestingness” formula, this is my 75th most interesting photo today:
“Dare You To Try To Take This Chair”
(Click on image to see a larger view.)
Tags: none
May 2nd, 2007
This is the type of dog treat that made Wookie so sick. IAMS tartar treats are allegedly 100% edible and digestible. And… supposedly, they are also hard enough that they won’t break into chunks large enough to disrupt digestion.
The treats puff up when they get wet, so Wookie had two 1″ x 1.5″ pieces, floating around (chewed - but undigested) in his stomach for nine days. The pieces resembled wet particle board. The “treat” caused him diarrhea, vomiting and severe abdominal pain. He lost over 10% of his body weight in a week and is still an inpatient at Virginia Tech’s teaching hospital.
So far, we’ve spent $1500.00 and made seven vet visits. (and even now… we’re not 100% sure he’s OK)
If you have dogs… please think twice about giving them these treats. It just isn’t worth the risk.
Uploaded by letskyce on 2 May ‘07, 8.01am EDT.
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Tags: IAMS Tartar treat, Pug, puppy, dog, diarrhea, vomiting, severe abdominal pain, Virginia Tech, Wookie
May 2nd, 2007
Remember when we were kids and in the Summer we’d all try to do odd jobs in the neighborhood to earn money? That was before we were old enough to work in the Winn Dixie or Pizza Hut. Generally, there’d be a lot of errand running on our bikes or babysitting.
But there would be this one lucky kid who cornered the market every Summer on mowing people’s lawns. He’d rack in the dough.
Where is that kid now?
Seriously.
I totally want to hire him.
I don’t think kids do that sort of stuff any more. I never
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Tags: none
April 27th, 2007
A couple of days ago, FW, MJ and I went down to Starbucks to get our morning salvation.
Inside there was this elderly black woman, the kind of woman you look at and just immediately assume is one of those wise old women who has wonderful old stories to share and some sort of fascinatingly wickedly fun past full of adventure and daringness and history, the kind of woman you think must be one of the last remnants of true human compassion, enlightenment, and tolerance.
She wasn’t ready to pay yet as she was searching through her bags — one of those carry-ons on wheels with the pull out handle and a stuffed-to the gills totebag — so MJ and FW went on and ordered and paid and got their coffees. She was ready right as I was stepping up, so she stepped right on up and managed to roll over my foot, but I just smiled, because she was older and I’ve been taught to have patience with my elders. Despite the two cash registers, she managed to edge me away from the counter with her bulk and baggage and by rolling over my feet another couple of times, but I just smiled and waited my turn.
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Tags: WTF, Starbucks, ACLU, coffee, crazy
April 27th, 2007
(Click to see larger version.)
Don’t forget to stop by the Friday Ark too.
Tags: photo blogging, Pug, the puppy, Friday Ark, flickr
April 27th, 2007
I ordered a set of Mini Moo Cards today. I picked out about 30 photos from my flickr account and cropped them down to the itty bitty size of 28mm x 70mm. Basically I’ll get about 3 or 4 copies of each.
On the back of each card in orange print, I put the quote:
“Touch magic, pass it on.”
- Jane Yolen
Then my first two initials and my last name, an email address, and my flickr address.
Now, I’ve got about
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Tags: flickr, mini moo cards, photo blogging
April 25th, 2007
According to Flickr’s mysterious “interestingness” formula, this is my 100th most interesting photo today:
(click to for larger view)
As you can see, Pugly is trying to eat that tree. He’s such a nature-loving, quirky, silly little dog.
Tags: photo blogging, Pug, the puppy, flickr, interestingness, 100th interesting photo
April 23rd, 2007
Pugly had a lazy Sunday yesterday.
(click to see larger image)
Tags: Pug, dog, puppy, photo blogging
April 22nd, 2007
Yesterday was the first sunny Saturday of Spring after a month of false starts and Spring snow snowstorms and Nor’Easters. And while I admit that I understand that Winter came late and wanted to stick around awhile, my Seasonal Affective Disorder was really tired of it all, despite the lovely photographs I managed to take.
So, with Spring literally in the air, while my new neighbors were blowing the remnants of last Fall’s leaves into my yard, Pugly and I hopped in the Jeep and headed down to Portland to the Eastern Prom where everyone and their dog was out and about enjoying the day. Pugly and I took end the sights of the Eastern Prom Trail near East End Bench including The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad. Pugly saw the beach for the first time and got slapped in the face by a wave for the first time, much to his surprise. 
All in all, a great day.
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Tags: The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad, Eastern Prom, East End Beach, Portland, Maine, Spring, photo blogging, Pug
April 19th, 2007
I’m just wanted to say I am planning on coming back on a more regular-like basis. I have a whole lot of opinions and things to work through.
However, behind the scenes here, the blog is a few versions behind and some of the scripts and plugins seem to not be working correctly anymore. So, I’m giving in and doing the upgrade to the latest version ofWordpress and as a result, dumping a lot of plugins because they don’t work with the new and improved Wordpress, and as a result, redesigning the blog — hopefully this will lead to
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Tags: redesign, Wordpress 2.1.3, flickr
April 10th, 2007
I’ve been meaning to stop by for weeks now and let everyone know that I’m alive and well.
(Ironically when I tried to stop by to leave a note, the server was down… grrrr)
Lots of changes going on around here, lots of stuff to deal with.
I’ve had my surgery now. It went very well. The surgeon said that my gallbladder was very inflamed and, of course, full of stones when they removed it (through my belly button — how?) and that I was
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Tags: gallbladder surgery, work
