Tuesday funny

I am not sure why this tickled my funny bone so much today, but it did. Enjoy

Meet Miikka!

On Saturday, an event I have been waiting 8 years for finally happened: We adopted a puppy! I love my cats, don't get me wrong, but they didn't fill the puppy-shaped hole in my heart. Well, pine no longer, o heart!

Miikka (no, that is not a typo) is supposedly a daschund/shepherd mix. Huh. We shall have to just wait and see what he ends up favoring when he gets older - at 8 weeks he is cute, and that is what matters! I had wanted a big dog to go hiking with and so forth, but all the bigger breed dogs I looked at were just too hyper, too big, too intimidating to the cats. Miikka is a good compromise - he's a puppy, but he isn't at all scary. I don't know if he will be up to long hikes, but we will find out eventually. I guess he could always end up in a backpack, much as I have mocked people who do that.
He is named after Calgary Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff. We watched him a few years ago in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and liked him and his name... So far, the puppy has proved to be intelligent, and best of all, the cats aren't afraid of him.

Pedestal Rocks

A couple of weekends ago PM (pre-move) we went hiking at Pedestal Rocks and King's Bluff. A big thanks to Greg for the suggestion! It was a great day for hiking - not too hot (unlike this week), not too many people out, no bugs. The trails are up in the Ozarks a bit, so we were up in elevation, which made it nice and cool. The trees were verdant from all the rain we had in May.


The rock formations were fascinating and enchanting. We spent a lot of time stopping to look over the edges of the bluffs, or peering into holes. It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.



Here you can see one of the pedestal rocks that give the trail its name. There were quite a few of these interesting towers, and plenty of bluffs too. I may not like the heat here in Arkansas, but it certainly does have some interesting hiking trails!

Amazing photography website

A professional news service I subscribe to tipped me off to the most amazing photography website: the Shorpy Photo Archive. It is named after the subject of one of the first posted photos. It is a "vintage photography blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s." Some of the pictures are just fascinating, windows onto a different world.

Closing, and an anniversary

This afternoon is closing, and let me tell you, it cannot come soon enough. I woke up at 3:45 AM this morning, and could not go back to sleep - too keyed up, I guess. At 4:30 I decided it was stupid to just lie there, so I went for a walk. After a 45 minute walk, I was drenched in sweat (that being the most humid time of day, and not exactly cool either), more awake, and realizing that I was screwed for the day, after only 6 hours of sleep. It is now about lunch time, and all I want is my house and my bed.

Which is a shame, because it is also our 8th anniversary! It has sort of gotten lost in the shuffle, although we did specifically plan closing for today. Anyway, here is a picture of us taken a couple of weeks ago on a hike.

Almost there...

Today after work we go to do our final walk-through of our house. Tomorrow is the closing. We are all, cats included, ready to be out of the apartment and into a house. As the day gets closer, the apartment seems to shrink, the walls closing in like the garbage compactor that almost gets Han, Leia and Luke in Star Wars. It is definitely getting more cluttered, as things come out to get packed, don't get packed and we lack the energy to put them away again, for just a couple of days. The cats just want to go outside. This is an interesting time of year for them, with all the bugs to watch and chase, and grass to eat, and they are stuck inside, with two crazy humans.

Tolerance and decency fail

On Saturday, while getting my hair cut, I was witness to the following scene:

Woman to Male Hairstylist: Are you gay?

MHS to W: Yes.

Woman: I have a problem with that.

MHS: Then I think we are done here. Goodbye.

After the woman left, without getting her hair done, the male stylist came over to my stylist and was talking about the incident. As he said, "Hello, I'm a guy in a hair salon!" What an idiot that woman was - the MHS was the most experienced stylist in the place, why should his sexuality be anything to her? She isn't dating him, just getting her hair cut. Ugh.