Radioactive?

My brother Mike is a doter. He took wonderful care of our mother and now of our dad. He spoils his nephew (Wolf), Uncle John, the kid-cousins and pretty much everyone he knows, (including myself) rotten.

His dog, Shasta, is as extremely well taken care of and so are his two newly acquired cats.

A few examples...

His cats, Cuddles, the one he inherited from Lois our favorite neighbor, and Floyd, the one that traded in his old owner (traded up in my opinion), were shedding quite a lot. I attributed it to the change in weather, but Mike set out to find a solution to the problem.

Since neither of them were fond of being brushed (can you say kevlar gloves and sleeves needed?), he went to Pet Smart and bought them kitty treats that were guaranteed to prevent excessive hair loss in felines.

There was one catch...you had to get them to eat them. Neither cat was at all interested in the crunchy delights, in fact they avoided them like the plague...going so far as to walk around them on the floor or even leave the room altogether.

Mike, in his infinite wisdom, decided that the treats were RADIOACTIVE so I agreed to take them home with me.

My cat, Emily, did NOT find them radioactive, in fact she loved them so much that she carried the bag around in her mouth...she loved them so much that I have recently bought stock in the company.


Not long after the ill-fated cat treat adventure, Mike went online in search of the perfect cat condo.

A few weeks later it arrived in the mail. Standing almost 7 feet tall it had seven levels upon which were situated a house, a cave, several pedestals of varying sizes and a hammock. Yes...a hammock. :-|

Once again...RADIOACTIVE

Apparently Emily is immune to radiation.

Help!

I haven't had any time for blogging or anything else lately. Today I had some downtime, before going to job #2 and when I tried to view blogs (my own included) I was unable to do so.

I'm not sure when this started...a friend from Canada said he's not having the same problem, so I'm not sure if this is my computer (and the dreaded Vista) acting strangely or if there is a problem somewhere else.

So...I'm asking that you please let me know if you had the same problem and if so, how did you fix it.

Thanks so much!

It takes many colors to make a rainbow...

As most of you know, I'm the proud mother of a wonderful gay man.

On my recent trip to visit him, I was lucky enough to be able to attend PrideFest 2008. It was an incredible gathering of incredible people who were there to celebrate diversity.

I could NOT have had a better time. I was loud and I was proud!

The photos that follow were taken at the parade held on Sunday, June 22 in beautiful downtown Denver.



































































I cried a dozen times during the 10 hours we were in downtown Denver, hanging out with my son and his friends.

I cried for joy at the beauty I saw, the hands of the young lovers entwined...the parents marching in support of their gay children...the children marching in support of their gay parents...the mothers and grandmothers arm in arm...all of those things made me cry.

Other things made me cry too, but not for joy: the words of my son's roommate who said Pride weekend was the one weekend of the year that he could hold hands with his lover in public without fear of being mocked...the people holding rude signs and chanting "repent sinners" as the parade passed by their "church", and most of all, I cried when I thought of all the young gay men and women who had to move from states like Montana and Wyoming to find a modicum of acceptance in the big city.

I wish I was a poet, or even a writer...I'd have profound words to say...words that would make a difference, but I'm not and I don't and I can't.

Next year Pridefest will be held on June 27th and June 28th in downtown Denver and I'm going to be there. Once again I'm going to be loud and proud.

Yea or nay...

Someone stop me before I do something I swore I'd never do...

Let me give you some background info...

I had a fantastic time in Denver with cousin Sadie and my son Wolf. We spent most of one day in Boulder at the Pearl Street mall. We went into an amazing toy store...


We spent over an hour in there, playing with everything that moved...










and gawking like the tourists we were at everything else.




We finally left the store (and no they didn't ask us to go) and Sadie bought us all ice cream (I was too busy eating to take pictures) and we continued walking...

We came upon a hat kiosk and the kids tried some on. I took a few pictures and then got into the act myself...



By the end of it all, we had tried on nearly everything in the kiosk, including a pope's hat, a hat with buffalo horns, a chicken cap, a gigantic pink flamingo hat, beanies, scarves and even an alligator hat. We talked in funny accents and clowned around like a bunch of nut cases. I haven't had that much fun since I was a kid.

Afterward we went into a shop that specialized in henna tattoos. We thought it would be funny for me to get one and then send a photo of it back to my co-workers in Forsyth, so I paid a paltry sum of money and got my tat.

The photo I took shows it with most of the liquid henna still on and isn't a true representation of how cool it looked after the chunky stuff fell off. For some reason I didn't take a photo of the finished product the next day, but I really liked the way it looked and so did the kids.

I suppose you know where this is going now...

The "tat" is fading and I find that I miss it. I am actually considering getting a permanent one just like it...but would like you, my faithful readers (both of you) to tell me what you think.


What say you...yea or nay?

Exactly what I needed...

Lately I've been feeling extremely frazzled. So much to do, so little time to do it in. Work has been beyond hectic and so has life.

Technology has taken over; the computers and printers, fax and copy machines...I can never seem to get away from them. And the worst, it seems, are the phones. We have 10 phone lines in our office and some days the ringing doesn't stop and people call my cell phone for work as well.

No matter where I go, it seems, they find me. I sometimes find myself thinking...if that d*mn phone rings one more time, I am going to toss it out the window!

Luckily, just as I was reaching the breaking point (OK, some might say I was already there), a friend asked me to ride to Denver with her.

Hurrah--road trip!

I packed lightly (for me), picked up my kid-cousin Sadie (age 9--almost ten) at our house in Billings, met my friend at the Holiday Inn and headed for the big city lights in her rental car.

We had a few misadventures along the way...can you say a four hour wait for Enterprise to decide to replace the two completely bald tires (one of which was completely flat on BOTH sides--heehee) on our rental vehicle in Sheridan, WY...and arrived in Denver around 9 pm. Off to a late dinner we went and then to bed to get ready for a fantastic weekend!

As always, Wolf had great adventures planned. The first stop on our whirlwind weekend tour was Central City, CO, well known for its gambling halls and fancy hotels and less well known for its incredible scenery and amazing cemeteries.

Yes, I said cemeteries.

My son has always, as my mom used to say, paddled his own canoe. His idea of an adventure is not to sit in a smoky casino, it is to explore the great outdoors.

In one of his many adventures he found these two very old, very rustic side-by-side cemeteries and thought we would enjoy seeing them as well.

He was right.

Here Sadie and Wolf head up the path to the cemetery. It was ungroomed and unkept, for the most part, and incredibly large. I am no judge of acreage, but I'd have to say it covered several square miles.

There was no way to take a photo that would truly represent how much area the two cemeteries covered.

I was surprised by how much enthusiasm Sadie showed during the trip, although she adores Wolf so much, she'd probably have had fun doing anything with him.

This is a very small part of the cemetery. It extends into the grove of Quaking Aspens to the right and to the left as well.

This is one of the many unusual headstones we saw.

The trail extended for what seemed like miles. We walked for nearly an hour and a half and didn't come to the end of the property.

This old mine building was roped off, but we thought it was quite interesting. Sadie wanted to go exploring, but Wolf told her it was dangerous so she stayed away.

This monument was to one of twelve miners who died in the Sleepy Hollow mine disaster in 1895.

This is a close-up of the bottom of the stone.

I thought this was interesting for some reason. Life coming out of death or something like that...

I loved the way the stone looked with the flowers around it.

The saying on the bottom of this stone really touched me...

How incredibly true, don't you think?

The graves of young children brought tears to our eyes, especially Sadie.

Nels found an unusual headstone. I thought it was a tree when I saw it from a distance.

When you think about the tools they had to work with back then, these stones are even more remarkable in my opinion.

I think this is beautiful.

My two wonderful traveling companions.

Sadie and I found an old building that had only one wall remaining. Wolf decided he needed to take a picture of us.

Wolf as we were getting ready to leave the cemetery. I told him when I died I wanted to be cremated and have some of my ashes spread here. I can't imagine anywhere more beautiful.

I really want to thank Wolf for this part of the adventure. All of it was amazing and wonderful and enjoyable, but getting me away from civilization and back to the past for a few hours was exactly what I needed.