And women earn 76 cents for every dollar a man earns.

I’m a bit peeved after reading the book, The Wishing Year, by Noelle Oxenhandler. It is an non-fictional account of Ms. Oxenhandler’s journey into making three wishes come true in a year’s time. Despite being a self describe Buddhist, Ms. Oxenhandler throws “desire is the cause of all suffering” to the wind and spends the next twelve months purchasing books and following the advice of eccentric people to make her dreams come true.

That’s fine- different strokes for different folks. I’ve become amused at the Law of Attraction people who are reading the Secret, “putting it out to the universe”, etc as if this concept is somehow new to materialistic American culture.

What I do take issue with is Ms. Oxenhandler’s categorization of the Snow Belt in Western New York where “the sky is gray nearly three hundred days a year - and not a mobile, light infused gray, but a dense gray in which there is not the least glimmer of light.”

She refers to moving back to California (her home state), like this: “Why is it that some people don’t seem to wait for that sense of divine clearance, for some kind of license or permit that falls from the sky, announcing to them, “you’ve suffered enough. Now you can have what you wish”?

Suffered enough? Gee- tell us how you really feel about Western New York.

Perhaps her misery had something to do with the fact that she spent her time in this neck of the woods married to a mime. Seriously. A mime.

Included in her weather prison, Ms Oxenhandler states that she did her undergraduate studies in a college south of Lake Erie in Ohio. From college in Ohio, she moved to Toronto for her graduate work. If so, why does Sonoma State University list her BA as being granted from the University of California Santa Cruz in 1973? What is the BA from Ohio? I’m curious because I’d like to fact-check her weather complaints. She states that she went to a college “south of Lake Erie in Ohio”, which is funny because all of Ohio is south of the lake. I guess she’s really proud of her alma matre?

Really, to be more accurate, Western New York does have a majority of days that are “Partly Cloudy”. This would *not* be the opaque gray sky she speaks about.

Anyway… the rest of the book was just a rehash of all the Positive Thinking books, videos, cd’s, etc. that have been floating around our society lately. I didn’t get much from it. Sorry.

Approximately 65 days until Mr. Softee returns.

Aw… no wonder everyone is talking about this! If you haven’t seen it- here it is:

My small & furry animal farm has reached a population of 4. There is Woobie, Celia (guinea pigs) and Alice and Springer (rabbits).

Each day they get fresh veggies. I decided to try to grow the most popular vegetables indoors to save on cost and to make sure they were getting nice clean fresh veggies.

Today I planted spinach, loose leaf lettuce, and parsley. I planted them in a mixture of potting soil and miracle grow seed starter. I used old milk jugs- cutting holes in the bottom for drainage. Because there is no sunlight in this urban building, I am using an 18″ fluorescent grow light and a grow light bulb in a lamp.



I should be ready to harvest these plants in 45-48 days so I’ll keep you posted!

Hey, I’m having a countdown to my 40th birthday and birthday party! The party isn’t planned yet. But there WILL be a party. Anyway, today I gave myself a very important gift. I had my front teeth fixed so that I can smile again!

Maybe one day our husky will talk and sing like this… he is very close!

Um, honey? I think the puppy is getting too big to pick up!

Meet the baby of our family, Diego. Well, he came to us named Diego. Really, his first name is “Dammit” and his middle name is “Droppit”.

Diego is only four months old! He came to us a couple of months ago, a very sick little boy, and afraid of people. We’ve been working very hard with him and had many trips to the vet- but he is starting to really shape up!

He’s going to be a very smart and handsome boy! Only our second son in a long line of girls!