Hi everyone.
We just got a new puppy in addition to our 16-month old, and I have questions... lots of them.

( Background, pictures, and looong list of questions )

you can publish your photos as a comment to this post, if your photo was shot on:


to publish your photo (please choose one and resize it to 700 px!) just copy this text:and click here: http://community.livejournal.com/day_on_earth/285622.html?mode=reply
don't forget to write the location and country in the subject of your comment.

[yesterday] [year ago]

Yeah, I know, it's fashion. Still, I could totally wear a SACK by cutting out the bottom and some little slit for my eye! Look at me, teacher! I'm so creative! NOT!

Lara Torres, just WHAT were you thinking?!?!?!



Source: Reuter's Strange and Unusual Pictures; Picture 14 out of 20

www.myspace.com/lakemusicmusic
www.myspace.com/karlblau
www.myspace.com/frenchquartermusic

15 x Thanksgiving
15 x Stock (umbrellas, flowers)

Dressing for quinoa:

Juice of 3 limes
one tiny clove of garlic, pressed
olive oil, slightly more than the volume of lime juice
Salt and pepper
.5 tsp agave syrup
1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds, ground up fine

In a glass jar, let the pressed garlic sit in the lime juice and salt for 5 minutes to break it down. Add oil, pepper, agave and shake to combine. Add the pumpkin seeds, shake again, and toss with cooked quinoa.


This is unbelievably deep and rich.

so, my dog has developed a quirky new habit. Now, when he steals something, he runs to his crate to play with it/eat it. This sort of defeats the purpose of putting him in his crate for a time out, since he is already there. It makes me laugh, but I'm sort of at a loss as to what to do for a time out, other than close the door on him.

Also, I take my dog to a dog park to burn off some of the terrier energy. He runs like a lunatic, but is well behaved about it- doesn't trip anyone, doesn't bark, doesn't chase other dogs, etc. He runs for a long time, very fast. But winter is coming with the crazy NE snow and I want to try and replicate this exhaustion without us both freezing outside for two hours. Any idea how to get him to waste a similar amount of energy inside for the days when the weather is just unbearable?

via baritonejeff - Today's (well yesterday, GMT) poetry prompt is "should"

Should

Every woman remembers the moment
when they learned how things are.
Mine
at nine,
meeting a friend of a friend
and her granny,
uncomfortable with both -
the girl who looked at me strangely
and turned her top lip under,
the old woman with hair of steel
and the smell of starch -
then granny saying to me

"That needs ironing"
and my reply,
"I don't know how to iron,"
and her snap back,
"Well, it's time you learnt"

and somewhere in my nine-year-old heart
a voice said
yes, there, that's it,
now.

I promised felephant (hereafter at his request to be called James) that I would come along to see his group the Diversus Guitar Ensemble when they were near my neck of the woods. The premise of the group is simple: 22 guys (including a few gals) playing guitar. WIth a few extra vocalists. Not my thing at all, I would have thought, when I went out tonight.

It was f(*king brilliant.

The arrangements were done by members of the group themselves, as well as some commissions from young composers (including a lovely tone-poem from Piaras Hoban, and I don't usually grok modern music at all). The auditorium was packed full of people and the couple behind me appeared to be fans of James, they were constantly praising his writing skills. James himself I recognised very quickly from the Afro hairstyle I had seen in the picture. He arranged one of the pieces, Raymond Deane's "Seachanges" which is apparently on the Leaving Cert Music course, and did a very good job of it too. There was the whole range of music out there, from Debussy to A Day in the Life.

I went backstage afterwards to introduce myself and felt like the creepiest stalker weirdo that ever existed. ("No, seriously, I know him off the internet!." "Right - SECURITY!") Speaking to the accomplished and beautiful female vocalists, and dodging cohorts of handsome men, I finally tracked James down in the foyer. We spoke briefly - I felt quite odd introducing myself, even though I'm an internet veteran - and he was very kind and welcoming. I hope the group had a nice piss-up afterwards. I went home - via Tescos where I picked up some shopping. Ah the glamorous life of a recessionista chick.

In short - Diversus Guitar Ensemble - recommended. And now I have met another LJ friend, albeit briefly!

From the Fresno Bee, California:

The 240-194 roll call Saturday by which the House voted to prohibit federal funding of abortions in a Democratic-written health care bill.
A "yes" vote is a vote to prohibit federal funding of abortions.
Voting yes were 64 Democrats and 176 Republicans.
Voting no were 194 Democrats and 0 Republicans.

http://www.fresnobee.com/news/national-politics/story/1702900.html

We are in the process of researching tooth cleaning items for Tyler, (that's his pic as my icon) I have never actively brushed his teeth. I have talked to my vet and there are a lot of products out there.. what works for you guys?

I'd like to ask a favor of everyone - consider it a birthday present for me today.

I haven't been talking about what's going on in my life lately, because I just can't stomach making one of those whiny entries you see on your flist, roll your eyes and go on to the next one. I've just preferred to leave it on the inside and try to pretend it's not there.

But I've been struggling especially hard with this lately, but I've been struggling with it one way or the other all my life.

There's just something about me that puts people off. I had no friends in grade school and junior high, but it wasn't just the school - I was unpopular everywhere, in every social group I was in - church kids, etc. It's been like this to one extent or another most of my life. It got better when I was older - I had a few friends in high school and have been involved with social groups since then - and I used to think it was because I had more social skills, but honestly, I think it's just that people are nicer when they get older, and don't have the honesty of children to tell you to your face what they really think. So I assume they like me, when they really just don't have the guts to tell me the truth. Relationship wise, apart from my second marriage, I can't find anyone who wants to spend time with me more than a day or two a week, and my relationships tend to fall apart anyway in any case after a year or two.

What I never could figure out was why. Am I inconsiderate? Obnoxious? Annoying? Condescending? Too intense? Do I try too hard? Not hard enough? What? I really would like to know. I can't change or deal with it if I don't know. At this point I constantly second-guess everything I say and do and wonder if I did something to annoy or piss someone off. It makes living inside of my head a very unpleasant place to be.

This entry is open to everyone, comments are screened, anonymous commenting allowed, IP logging is off. So please, whoever you are or however you feel about me, consider this your golden opportunity to anonymously give me your honest opinion. Nobody but me will know.

I'm not asking for sympathy here, or reassurances of how wonderful I am - that's not going to help me right now. What I need is honest help, because I'm at my wit's end right now.

Thank you.

I made chicken in the crock for dinner tonight - my son's request for his birthday dinner.  I did my usual thing - put some cut up carrots and onions in the crock and set a whole chicken on top. But I thought it seemed a bit boring - same old, same old, you know.  So I cut up an apple, stuffed half of it inside the chicken (it was a BIG apple) and put the rest around it.  (This turned out to be a VERY good idea because when stuffing the apple into the chicken, I discovered I'd forgotten to take out the giblet package... OOPS!) 

Then I rubbed the chicken with some lemon juice and a bit of olive oil, and then I sprinkled paprika liberally over the whole thing.  I added a cup or so of water and a chicken stock cube (since I'm temporarily out of homemade) and cooked on low for about 8 hours or so.

I served it with a salad, noodles, and crusty french bread.  Somehow the apple and lemon juice really perked up the chicken.  And the paprika gave the skin a nice reddish brown color and some extra flavor.  My husband said the chicken tasted even nicer than usual, and my mom-in-law (who isn't really a huge chicken lover) even had seconds!  In fact, there is very little in the way of leftovers (which is both good and bad - I was rather counting on having enough leftover chicken and noodles to make a casserole for dinner tomorrow, darn it!)

52 Icons:
01-19: Girl Number 9 (Spoilers)
20-32: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
33-52: Misc, mostly Icontest entries (Torchwood, Amanda Seyfried, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eliza Dushku, Fashion, Stock)

Preview:


Here@realmofsilence

Entry will remain public for about two weeks.

Sorry I didn't start promoting and things earlier, I kind of forgot that I was going to go on holiday with no internet. Oops!

So hello! Me in brief: ( All about meee )

Just a reminder, intro posts are currently very welcome just to get some chatter going here. Please do go ahead and introduce yourself :)

Actual post:

Something I've been thinking about lately is 'the thrill of the chase'. I've heard a lot of talk over the years of lurking in polyamory and other communities about NRE, but this seems to me to be a slightly different idea as it ends when the relationship is established.

I'm currently (very casually) involved with someone who adores the time when you're just getting to know someone, slowly opening up, and the sexual tension is so thick you can taste it, and you're not quite sure what's going to happen next. For me, that was a really fun time, but I'm actually happier now that we're more comfortable and all we need to do to get each other into bed is ask. For him, it's less exciting. I'm hoping he'll find someone else to get that excitement with and that will spill over into our interactions too. If not then oh well, I guess he'll have to deal one way or another, since I'm certainly not going to play hard to get :P We're still seeing each other and it's still fun, but he misses that intensity a lot.

I won't be heartbroken if this doesn't work out to be a long term thing, but it would be nice if we could make it work. And this isn't really something I've run across before. So I'm curious about:

* How do you feel about 'the thrill of the chase'? If you/your partners are very into it, what has that been like?
* Does my theory about excitement spilling over match your experiences, or do you find that having that excitement somewhere else makes the established relationship(s) where you already know what's going on look pale in comparison?

Ailz cleaned out the gas fire in the front room and lit it. We haven't used it in ages.  It gives a pretty good impression of a real coal fire- and is comforting.  I'm sure it burns money. We spent most of the afternoon in there. Ailz was doing a cross-stitch. I was doing a crossword and sleeping.

Later we watched the second half of Revenge of the Sith. We didn't seek it out. We were flipping through channels and there it was. George Lucas has spent so long in the laboratories of Skywalker Ranch, fiddling with pixels, that he has forgotten how to work with actors.

I've started reading The Kindly Ones- Jonathan Littell's enormous novel about the German Invasion of the USSR. He is very good on the muddle, the absurdity, the sheer happenstance of war- and the ease with which perfectly decent people- in those circumstances- fall into a habit of atrocity.

you can publish your photos as a comment to this post, if your photo was shot on:


to publish your photo (please choose one and resize it to 700 px!) just copy this text:and click here: http://community.livejournal.com/day_on_earth/285189.html?mode=reply
don't forget to write the location and country in the subject of your comment.

[yesterday] [year ago]

Hi, azjournal.

So, I've been on LiveJournal since 2001. My activity levels on here have decreased substantially over the past few years. Social networking sites and other blog sites really seem to have taken a lot of the excitement and energy out of LiveJournal. However, after partaking in some of these other online activities, I have found that none are nearly as satisfying as this very site.

I am looking to become a regular and active user of LiveJournal again, and was hoping to add new friends who are also regular and active users. If you match this description, I'd very much like to be your friend. I miss the days of having pages and pages of friends list updates to read. Now, I am lucky if I have three or four updates a day.

Anyway, I really do think there is still a need for LiveJournal, and I hope other people are starting to realize that while sites like MySpace (which sucks), Twitter (which is lame), or Facebook (cool, but not that intimate) have their places among the Interwebs, there is also a need to be able to have this very special community that actually requires people to think and read and write - even if it's about the silliest or most serious of things.

Thanks for listening, and hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers!

Teasers:



click for the rest of the batch

Please don't forget to credit: toocuteicons

Membership is moderated, and remember, no hotlinking!