Everything I know about "zen" I learned from my doggies.

This little game is called "Doggie Zen".

The concept?

To get the treat, you must give up the treat.

We are not a pinnacle. Natural history is not a great tree reaching forth with many arms to produce at its uppermost tip a flowering end product, Man. It is not a timeline starting with fishes and ending with us. We did not leave apes and monkeys and everyone else behind. We are not special, we are not the end, we are not the product, we are not different or separate or superior. Evolution is not an ascending ladder with the heavenly human on the last rung.

- from PinkRabbitSays

A thoughtful friend, who feels that I am not enlightened about what a pleasant place Iraq is becoming, sent me an email with a list of the wonderful things that we have wrought in this lovely new bastion of freedom and democracy. The email finishes with the old, lame argument that blames media bias for keeping folks like me in the dark.

Yawn.

So, I did a very quick search on media bias and found this wonderful article (be sure to read Part Two as well). It's serious, but irreverant and spot on (I think).

I like question #6:

6.) Liberal spin. Corporate spin. Texas spin. Zionist spin. Republican spin. Hollywood spin. American spin. Anti-American spin. We want it out, out, out. Spin, that's bad. But critics smart enough to detect spin are smart enough to see--and in fact, they do see--that claiming, "they're spinning!" has itself become a form of spin, a popular one, which would seem to throw spin detection, never a clear cut thing, into total incoherence. Does that bother you, or is it only my spin?

AP Photo

My stepmom, a wise woman and retired public health nurse, said to me today, "As a psychiatric nurse, our job would be to document the facial expressions on a person who behaves that way."

Ellie is now one year old! Or approximately that old - based on the vet's estimate of her age when she was rescued. Sept. 1 was picked as a good day for a puppy birthday.

She's a wonderful pup and both Katy and I love her so much. So smart and funny. And now a wonderful swimmer - having taken the plunge last Wednesday to my delight. She now swims like she's been doing it forever.

So, this has been my life since Ellie joined our little family - wrestling and playtime all day long:

And one to grow on!

The pile of squares that will soon be headed down south:

Flowers are so easy! They're beauty just sits there waiting for my camera's shutter to open. The fresh-cut flowers available at the local farmer's market have come to be one of my favorite Saturday morning purchases.

Going to Chicago for the weekend! Yeah!

Here's a little something that's pretty funny.

Another dog picture. I couldn't resist. This is such an *ellie* picture - she'll charm you with cuteness then jump up and kiss you!