Funny Dogs and Their Bones

Emails to my Dad, Gram and Best Friend, January 17, 2010 (last night)
Email 1: Funny Dogs
I just have to laugh at them. I gave them yummy bones tonight. Razor immediately ran upstairs with his and Booker hunkered down in the living room. They were so happy they didn't even ask me for dinner until 7:30 p.m.! About an hour after dinner Razor got tired of his and decided he wanted hers, so I shut the bedroom door with a shoe in the opening. The thing is, Brooke knows how to push the door open to come in when she wants, but Razor hasn't figured out that trick yet. When I went to the bathroom I saw Razor's little head sticking out the door, if he'd just moved a little bit he could have gotten out, so cute! Finally, Brookie decided she wanted to come upstairs and pushed the door open just enough to come in, and of course Razor immediately ran out to go down and get her bone while she quickly grabbed his. Moments later I heard the loud "bang, bang, bang" as the one he tried to bring upstairs went bouncing downstairs when he dropped it. But he finally made it up here, and now I have 2 happy doggies happily licking away while I read and watch The Golden Globes. I can't help it, they just amuse me.

Email 2: Funny Dogs part 2
Brooke wanted water. Went to the bathroom, by the time we got back Razor had stolen his original bone back.

Email 3: Funny dogs part 3, still laughing
I put Brooke's original bone back in her bed. She was slow to get back from drinking her water. He jumped up and grabbed it again and tried to hoard both bones. I gave it back to her. He stole it again! Good thing she has a mommy to stand up for her. Now he's just giving her the evil eye.

Phone Conversation with Dad this morning:
They slept all night and seemed to have forgotten. But after I fed them Razor raced immediately upstairs to grab his again. I was in the kitchen for a few minutes and when I came out I saw that Brooke had apparently run upstairs and brought hers back down, because there she was licking away again! And now I just looked up and somehow Razor has managed to get both bones, again. These 2 just crack me up!!!

A few minutes later: Brooke came upstairs to reclaim her bone.

A few minutes after that: Razor got up to stretch and Brooke jumped up and claimed both his bed and bone. He wouldn't settle on her bed and stared her down until she got up again. Poor baby was so sad :(

And now Razor is sleeping with his bone.

I always say that when the dogs make me laugh it's "paying the rent." These guys have managed to rack up a lot of credit in the last 2 days!

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MLK Day 2010

This speech will always give me chills. Just seeing the words, "I Have A Dream..." chokes me up. I just read a book with "my" little guy called Civil War on Sunday (Magic Tree House #21). It's a book written for elementary school kids. But it made me cry. When the little boy in the book whispered to the wounded former slave that his great-great-grandchildren would be doctors and lawyers, teachers and principals... The book was written in 2000, so I had to mentally add, "and President of the United States." We still have a long, long way to go to reach a world or a country where all people really are treated as equals. But I am eternally grateful for the brave people like Dr. King who fought so hard to get us as far as we've come. I've watched this video twice already today. I suggest you do the same. I hope it will give you the same sense of inspiration, hope and determination to continue to fight for equal rights that it gives me.

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The Challenge That Started It All

I never intended to have a blog. I participate at Goodreads frequently, so I didn't see a need for a separate book blog. And I didn't think I really have much else to say, unless it was to post pictures of my beautiful dogs. But I mostly just email them directly to the most interested (so I think) parties, and I thought I'd leave it at that. Then I started Twittering. And occasionally I found something I wanted to post for my friends to see that took more than 140 characters. I tried Tumblr, but it's pretty limited, including not allowing visitors to make comments. This became a big issue when I wanted to participate in a readathon. I quickly set up a very basic free blog, had fun during the readathon, and figured that was that.

Except I became friends with a lot of book bloggers on Twitter. And discovered some intriguing aspects to the process. Of course, if you really work the system you can get a lot of free books. But then you HAVE to read and review them. I have so many books I'm eagerly anticipating already, plus several Goodreads groups in which I like to participate. I just don't want to have to read a bunch of books that I might not have chosen otherwise, or have to read them first if I have some new releases or a series that I'd rather focus on.

But what really caught my eye was the ability to participate in reading challenges. Now that's fun! Some of my Goodreads groups do various monthly challenges, but those usually have rules that cause the same dilemma of requiring me to read books I'm not as excited about. But annual challenges, that's right up my alley! And I was off and running, plunging head first into the blogging life.

And the blog that brought all of this into focus? Book Chick City  and her Speculative Fiction challenges. I'll be participating in 2.

The fantasy fiction genre challenge at the Obsessed - 24 book level. This will be very easy for me, considering my current obsession with urban fantasy. I'll stick to adult and YA books for this challenge, no juvenile or graphic novels. Check out my progress on Goodreads.



And the science fiction genre challenge at the Addicted - 12 book level. This will be a challenge for me, as I've been sadly neglecting my sci-fi roots for urban fantasy lately. I hope this will encourage me to explore new authors and to revisit some old favorites. Check my progress here.


Thank you Book Chick City! I'm looking forward to the fun of the challenges, as well as to my future as a blogger. I owe it all to you!

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