I am disHeartened by My Jetta: July 2005

Friday, July 22, 2005

I'm a Single Foster Parent!!!

I'm a foster parent!

I am a volunteer foster parent with Happy Tales Humane Shelter in Franklin and I have just received my first child! His name is Bucky...

He is the CUTEST dog I have ever seen. Not just his looks, mind you; he has the sweetest disposition and temperment. He has a brother named Ducky...

I didn't come up with the names.

Here's Bucky -

I can't relay to you how incredibly smart this dog is. When I first got him, he had just come out of his man part altering surgery and so he was a little sedated. So, I carried him out to my car and he sat in the passenger's seat all the way back home. Calm as a cucumber...if cucumbers are, in fact, calm.

When we got home, I put his leash on him and took him out to potty. Buddy, he hated that leash! I don't think that he had ever been on a leash before - so it is to be expected that he would hate it. Imagine a fish caught on a fishing line...you're reeling him in and you get him out of the water. He's flaying about, twisting right and left, doing flips. That's what Bucky looked like. I was thinking..."This is going to be a long, long night/next day/until he gets adopted."

Once he got the hang of it, though, he was like a champ! We went out this morning for him to do his "business" and he walked outside...into the grass...peed...thought about number 2...it wasn't happening...looked up at me...walked me back to the door...and he was done!

Last night, he sat and watched TV with me but when anyone would come into the room he would run and greet them...tail wagging. When he figured out that they carried with them no food...he would run and jump back onto the couch with me.

He doesn't bark much, in fact, I have only heard him bark once. He was staring at me and so I stared back. Well - Bucky didn't like that one bit! So, he let out this little tiny bark. So cute.
I have to take him to Adoption Day on Saturday so that some loving family will find him and take them into their lives. If he doesn't get adopted, he comes back to me to stay until next Saturday. If he does...then he goes home with that family...and I never see him again.

This fostering program is really a great way to get the benefit of having an animal in your life without having to own one. I am just not in the place in my life right now that I can think about having a dog...but I can FOSTER one!

Okay - back to work...but when I get more pictures of him I will post them!

Monday, July 18, 2005

This Blows...Literally!

So, last year my parents bought a condo in Orange Beach, AL.

This place is great! It's right on the beach and everything...the only problem is...well, it got hit by Ivan not even a year ago, and in less than 24 hours it will be hit again by Dennis.

What is with our luck?!

Since last year, we have only been down there once...and that was to assess the damage. (By the way, Pres. George Bush declared Orange Beach a national disaster area.) Here is what happend after Ivan, a category 5 hurricane, when it hit land:

Honestly...we weren't even hit that bad. There were so many places that were completely demolished. This is the ironic part...Ivan and Dennis are taking the same exact path towards Orange Beach:

Sunday, July 17, 2005

There's Something About Harry...

Well, J.K. Rowling's 6th brick of a book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," hit bookstores midnight on Saturday (July 16). In the first 24 hours this book had smashed all previous sales records - selling 6.9 million copies, at an average of 250,000 per hour! For a comparison, Rowling's last brick sold a mere 5 million in the same time span.

As you can imagine, this was the richest opening in publishing history and most likely the first time that a book outsold the boxoffice. That's right, Harry Potter grossed more moola than the combined estimated take for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Wedding Crashers."

Want Some Harry Stats? (Sure you do!)
*25 Million copies of the first 5 books have been sold in 200 countries.
*Harry Potter has been translated into 60 languages.
*Rowling's estimated worth is 600 million euros. I don't know what this is in dollars - but it sounds like a freakin' lot!
*The films, thus far, have grossed 2.2 billion euros. Again, I don't know what this is in dollars...but I wish I had that much.
*The books have garnered much distaste from conservative Christians around the world. To read one organization's view, click here.

* Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, first published in England as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, has won the following awards:
Nestlé Smarties Book Prize 1997 Gold Medal 9-11 years
FCBG Children’s Book Award 1997 Overall winner and Longer Novel Category
Birmingham Cable Children’s Book Award 1997
Young Telegraph Paperback of the Year 1998
British Book Awards 1997 Children’s Book of the Year
Sheffield Children’s Book Award 1998
Whitaker's Platinum Book Award 2001

* Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets has won the following awards:
Nestlé Smarties Book Prize 1998 Gold Medal 9-11 years
Scottish Arts Council Children’s Book Award 1999
FCBG Children’s Book Award 1998 Overall winner and Longer Novel Category
British Book Awards 1998 Children’s Book of the Year
North East Book Award 1999
North East Scotland Book Award 1998
The Booksellers Association / The Bookseller Author of the Year 1998
Whitaker's Platinum Book Award 2001

* Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban has won the following awards:
Nestlé Smarties Book Prize 1999 Gold Medal 9-11 years
Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year 1999
British Book Awards 1999 Author of the Year
The Booksellers Association / The Bookseller Author of the Year 1998
FCBG Children's Book Award 1999 / Longer Novel Category
Whitaker's Platinum Book Award 2001