There has been another addition to our little family of late, and I thought that past readers of the 'House would appreciate an update:

As you all know 2005 was a sad year as we saw the passing of H. Plant. His memory stays alive in the greening of Spring foliage, the lushness of Summer lawns, and with the dropping of fall leaves we remember his little game of drooping over the clay pot to get my sympathy and attention to his watering.

Well, imagine my surprise and joy while walking through a Lowes garden shop and seeing what could only be described as the reincarnation of HousePlant himself! In all of his green glory in a puny little thin plastic cup there he lie all drooped over and practically laying on the store shelf. It wasn't the dark color or the distinctive ribbing of his leaves, but his posture that caught my eye. I picked him up carefully, holding him up to the glare of the warehouse florescent lighting and peering deep into his soil and asked "is it YOU?". I thought I heard a small sigh. It was love, love at first sight and I proudly carried him over to where Paul was waiting with the shopping basket. "Look", I offered him up to the big man. "It's just like my old plant." "It's pathetic" was the reply. " No no, it's a game he plays! It's just that he appears to be REALLY GOOD at it!! Let's take him home!"
And so it was to be, a new member of our little family. As I gave him a drink of water, it was Paul who was mixing a miracle-gro cocktail and before the water was even finished draining out the bottom, Paul had found him a bigger pot, loaded it with new soil and was transferring our new friend. By evenings end Plant Jr. had perked up and was looking around at his new digs.

My goal in life...

Is to be the person my dog already thinks I am...


If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
-Will Rogers

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.
-anonymous

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.
-Ben Williams

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.
-Josh Billings

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.
-Andy Rooney

We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made.
-M. Acklam

Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate.
-Sigmund Freud

I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.
-Rita Rudner

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.
-Robert Benchley

Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog.
Franklin P. Jones

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons will.
-James Thurber

If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise.
-unknown

My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to $3.00 a can. That's almost $21.00 in dog money.
-Joe Weinstein

You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'Wow, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'
-Dave Barry

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
-Roger Caras

If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then give him only two of them.
-Phil Pastoret

Who can argue with that?

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.

Vandalization

Sacrilege!

I am once again hooked on American Idol. Love to guess who goes, who stays. Love to watch their personalities emerge and evolve. But nobody will take the place of….

Bo.

But I am crestfallen this morning. Heartbroken. I browsed a little looking for recaps from last nites show, and there at the bottom of the page was a link to past contestants. Had to do it, just a little peek at pictures of my boy. Maybe I'll find something new. And then I find THIS, this abomination staring at me from the page. How could he do such a thing?! My image of him has been defiled!

The homage to Bo has been desecrated. The temple has been tagged, and the idolatry forever tarnished. I am deeply disappointed.

Jodie Foster

The resemblance of our voices was "uncanny" to my doctor this afternoon.

Funny, huh?! I guess you needed to know the sound of my voice before hand, but what is coming out now is different. Very different. Like Jodie Foster's? That makes me almost want to keep it this way. My b/f says he likes it, he thinks it's a smokey, d-j sort of sound. I like the reference to the effort it represents. My doctor says it's reflux-pharyngitis, or "singer's voice".

At Christmas time I caught a simple little cold and it resulted in laryngitis. No big deal, I've had it before. When the cold went away, the voice stayed. It seemed to get better, then would flair up again. Mostly it was just low and raspy. The high notes went away. A month later still the same. Two months later. Three months. Four? Ok, maybe something more sinister is at work here, and only a real check up will calm the growing fears. So today I had what could only be described as a worming tube that is fed down a horses nose, throat and stomach to do a fiberoptic laryngscopy. Ok, it didn't go down ALL the way, but it may as well have. The worst part was to have to make singing sounds while it was there.

So when it was all done he proclaimed that nothing sinister was at foot. No tumors. No cancer. Isn't that funny how your head begins to get away from you when something bad begins to happen? In fact, as far as I could tell he gave me a clean bill of health except for the voice. And this was caused by: Acid reflux. How can that be? I don't even get heartburn unless I force it upon myself with pizza and extra hot wings. He said most people don't know they have it either. So the combination of acid in my pharynx plus all the projected talking I do has caused nodules to form on my larynx. Over the counter Prilosec and Dr's prescribed voice rest and I will be good as new in…… THREE MONTHS. What? Take these pills, change your diet and DON’T TALK OUTLOUD for 3 months???? How on Earth can that be accomplished when my livelihood is working in a parking lot speaking over running motors and to people in helmets??
What I'm thinking is that Jodie Foster is pretty successful sounding just the way she does….

Andy Warhol says:

We all have 15 minutes of fame coming to us. But what about 15 minutes of STANDING next to fame? I wonder if that counts?!

Calvin

This was a failed experiment on blogger with an animation. It's a series of 6 or 7 sequential pictures that loop to show Calvin making a yard full of snowmen, then diabolically grimacing when he's seen what he's done. It makes me laugh, I use it as a background on my PC. Unfortunately it only shows the first one. I left it up because it still makes me smile!

A Chuckle of Jokes

A murder of crows, a crash of rhinos. Old hat. How 'bout some new ones?

An attitude of teenagers.
A brace of orthodontists.
A clutch of mechanics.
A drove of cabbies.
A flood of plumbers.
A quarrel of lawyers.

Any others?

(thanx Readers Digest)

Remembering Sid

We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, the young son spoke up, "I know why",
he said, "people are born and live a long time to learn how to love others and be nice, right?" The four-year-old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."