Most times, I think Keith Olbermann is a whack job. My husband likes him and watches him pretty regularly, and I always tell him that being a Democrat and watching Keith Olbermann is like being a Republican and watching Bill O’Reilly.
Not very objective.
And as much as I love to listen to people with whom I agree, I find that most of the time, I prefer to get my news from other channels. I mean, come on. I love me some Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, but that’s not where I get my news.
But this? With this, Olbermann has won me over.
I could go on and on about my feelings about Prop 8 in California, and the issue of gay marriage throughout the United States, but today, I’m just going to go with: Yeah. What he said.
Because he’s right on. And it gives me goosebumps.
Tessa loves Bobos.
First, she loved to tear them apart. We had several Bobos that didn’t make it too long in our house. Well, some of them still hang around, but they are only shells of their former selves. Their stuffing? Completely removed by one destructive dachshund named Tessa.
But then came Halloween Bobo, purchased in September 2007. For some reason, he was different, and changed Tessa’s perspective about these little stuffed creatures. Halloween Bobo became Tessa’s best friend.
In June, my dad gave Tess another, smaller Bobo, and she’s since befriended her, too.
Bobos? Tessa’s best friends. Her favorite things to play with. Frequently, she even brings them to bed with her at night. Adorable, really.
So, up until last night, Tessa had two Bobos. Big Bobo (aka Halloween Bobo), and Little Bobo.
Then came what has affectionately been dubbed “Giant Bobo.”
Last night, my friend Lesley stopped over to bring Tessa a few special “get well” gifts. First, she got to enjoy a couple of gourmet dog treats (which looked good enough for us to eat), and then she was presented with the newest member of her Bobo family.
This thing is hilarious. It’s pretty much as big as Tess, and she loves it. Immediately got to work chewing on it, growling at it, and doing her best to run/jump with it in her mouth.
Then, when she grew tired, she got to work snuggling with it, too.
So cute. Thanks again, Lesley. :)
I started reading The Time Traveler’s Wife a couple of weeks ago when we were traveling to and from Charlotte to visit friends. I got about halfway through the book, but when we got home, life got in the way a little bit and I hadn’t picked it up since.
Well, on Sunday, I finally had the opportunity and the desire to sit down with it again, and frankly, I couldn’t put it down. After work yesterday, I ran home, curled up in my pajamas and fuzzy socks, snuggled with Tess and a warm blanket, and finished it.
This is such a good book.
It came highly recommended, a book I had seen described as “the best book I’ve read in a long time,” and “my favorite book I’ve read this year.” But I’ll admit that reading the synopsis on the back, I still didn’t really know what to think about it.
A time traveler? I thought maybe I’d be dealing with a character traveling wayyy back into time, into different centuries, cultures, and who knows what else. And to be honest, I didn’t know if I’d be into that. But it turned out to be so much better than I thought it would be. And it’s true what they said. It’s now become one of my favorite books.
The Time Traveler’s Wife is the story of Henry, a man who has some kind of genetic abnormality that causes him to get displaced in (or to “travel” through) time, and his wife, Clare, who is frequently left behind. When time traveling, Henry is living his life out of order, while Clare is left to live hers in chronological time like the rest of us. Henry’s time travels are not deliberate; he cannot control them. At any moment, he can disappear into the past or into the future, and he has no idea how long he will be gone. Neither does his wife.
Within the first few chapters, I came to understand Henry’s time travels and how they work, and understood the author’s method of storytelling. After that, it was not hard to follow. Niffenegger has created a story and has told it in a way that is so original, with characters who are so likeable, that I could not help but fall in love with this book. It is not your typical sappy love story. In fact, I didn’t think it was sappy at all (do not judge the book by its back cover!).
I write for a living (not creatively, though), and like to write, so my husband has said to me before, “You should write a book about/like… (fill in the blank).” The fact of the matter is, I am just not that creative. Reading a book like The Time Traveler’s Wife just solidifies my thoughts on that. While I was reading it, I was frequently in awe of how Niffenegger pulled it off. Many parts of the story are only given to you in pieces at a time, and you can only make complete sense of them once years have passed in the book. I found myself wondering, How the hell did she come up with this? How could she possibly have mapped this out in her head?
With that said, there was one part in particular that I thought was entirely too predictable. I’m also not sure I was completely in love with the ending, but I think that’s mostly because I was so captured by the story and really wanted more.
I would like to say so much more, but don’t want to give anything away.
This book gets two thumbs up. Way up. And I’d love to discuss it in the comments if anyone out there has read it. Speak up! And if you haven’t read it, and want to… stay out of the comments until you have. :)
Oh! This book is also being made into a movie starring Eric Bana (AKA Hulk from that crappy Hulk movie), and Rachel McAdams. I’m not so sure about Eric Bana in this role, but I *heart* Rachel McAdams, and I think she is the perfect Clare. I saw somewhere that it might be released around Christmas, but I couldn’t find confirmation of that on IMDB, so who knows.
Until then… read the book!
I had to put “the cone” on her before leaving the house this morning. Unfortunately, she can’t be trusted to leave her incision/stitches alone while unattended.
First, I had to bribe her with a homemade peanut butter treat to distract her while I wrestled her to the ground and somehow managed to attach the torture device to her neck. Once released, she proceeded to jump and roll all around, trying to get it off of herself.
She looked pitiful.
And then, of course, I took pictures. (Dog mama of the year, I tell ya.)
I then offered her another treat to get into her crate, and she bumped into the crate doorway and had trouble getting in. (She did get it eventually. She’d become a rocket scientist if it means she gets a treat.)
She then proceeded to whine and cry as I was leaving and I felt like an asshole.
I’m going home for lunch so she’ll get a short reprieve, only to have to put it back on for another four hours this afternoon. Poor pup.
This weekend was nothing but a whole lot of lying around with Tess. My ass was firmly parked on the couch for most of it. Which was, incidentally, very nice. The weather was cold and pretty rainy, so that made it even better.
As I blogged about on Friday, Tess was pretty drowsy after coming home from the hospital. She was pretty out of it, glassy eyed, etc. so she spent most of the evening sleeping (when she wasn’t making her incision bleed.) We were happy to cuddle her.
On Saturday morning, she scratched at her incision again (only like one or two swipes), and she actually popped the knot right out of one of her stitches. We decided a cone/lampshade/Elizabethan collar was in order. Michael drove to the vet to get it, and the vet techs on duty for the weekend refused to give him one because they said with a neck surgery, it would actually interfere with her incision. They said we needed to bring her in to have them figure out a way to keep her from scratching them.
We were pretty furious about this because the vet tech I had checked out with on Friday told me that we could just come by and get one if we needed it. If I had known then that I would have to bring my poor, traumatized dog back to the vet in order to get one, I would have refused to leave without one in the first place.
So, we were forced to load Tessa in the car with us and drive to the vet. The poor thing absolutely freaked when she saw that we were pulling into the vet’s office. When we walked in the door, she actually let out a little cry that was enough to break my heart. Luckily, upon seeing her, the vet techs agreed rather quickly that a cone would actually work (thankyouverymuch), so after putting it on her, we were able to leave pretty quickly. We then proceeded to remove the cone as quickly as possible and made every effort so she wouldn’t have to wear it for the rest of the weekend.
Once home, she gladly crashed on the couch again. We watched Armageddon since it was on TV (seriously, do movies get any more shitty than that one?).
We made dinner, I baked homemade dog treats, and then we watched Ironman.
Somewhere in the middle of all of that, we realized that she had somehow popped yet another one of her stitches (the two lower ones were clearly untied). We didn’t want to pull them out, even though they weren’t doing anything, so we decided to leave them.
No worries, though… a couple of hours later, Tessa magically took care of them herself. One minute, she had the threads in there, the next minute, they were gone. No clue how she did it, but she now only has two of the four stitches remaining. Her incision looks to be healing quite fine, and the accidental removal of the stitches didn’t cause any bleeding, so we’re not that worried. Just watching her a hell of a lot more closely now that we know she’s a Houdini.
We laughed at her funny stance on my lap.
Then we crashed on the couch for the second night in a row.
This morning, we woke up and decided to take Tess for a walk. The vet said we didn’t have to restrict her exercise at all, so we figured she could handle it. We did our normal “long route,” which is probably a little over two miles. Little girl took it like a champ.
Once home? You guessed it, back on the couch. We watched Blue State, then watched the Bills lose yet another game. (Our optimism for this season is now over. I knew it’d come to an end sooner or later.)
I spent the afternoon and evening reading my book, and meanwhile, Tessa was still sleeping it off. All in all, a good weekend.
Especially for Tess. (Which was the whole point.)
I’m not looking forward to leaving her and going back to work tomorrow.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
