The New Girl (or, One Toke over the Line)

About a month ago, we decided it was time to adopt a puppy. Meet our girl -- Flame Carson Jersey Beck. Flame was her given name, Carson is the Shag girl she reminds me most of, and Jersey because she's spotted and she grazes, like a cow. Weird, right?

Flame is a rescue pup. She's almost a year old, and she's a Brittany/Terrier. I got so excited about the Brittany part that I completely overlooked the Terrier, which means a strong chase instinct! Living with a Terrier and cats is, um, interesting. Alex, in typically Alex form, marched right up to Flame as soon as she got here and smacked her in the nose to let her know he was in charge. He later bit her on the ear, and now that they've established some boundaries, they get along famously (and by famously, I mean Alex chews on her tail and she no longer tries to hunt him). Flame and Ben are still discussing their boundaries. Ben hisses at her, but she's too distracted by the fact that he looks like a squirrel to attempt to overcome the language barrier. Good times. Fortunately, Flame gets more responsive every day and she's awesome with people, even tiny ones, so we think with more training she'll be a pretty awesome dog.

The first of many exciting dog walks (nature is a Terrier's buffet). Note pretty Brittany coat!

Snout.

Love my pups!

The House Unveil

This post is mostly for my mom, who keeps asking what I've done to our house and to whom I keep promising pictures. I've also got some pics of the house when it was empty, so I can do sort of a before and after thing. And by after, I mean after Ikea, of course!


Living Room Before -- Large and In Charge


Living Room After -- This room has met its match with the large and in-charge Expedit bookcase! Other newbies in this room: couch from the Ikea as-is section, end table and coffee table. Papasan is also new but not Ikea. I'm thinking of painting this wall yellow, as in sunshine. Thoughts?


Another shot of the living room. This wall is going to be the same blue from the game room (next set of pics). The lamp was my grandmother's and is the color I'm thinking of for the back wall.

Game Room Before


Game Room After



Master Bedroom Before


Master Bedroom After


Guest Bedroom Before


Guest Bedroom After


Dishwasher Before


Dishwasher After

The Becks Do Disney

Just downloaded our pics from the Disney vacation. Yeah, yeah, two months later, but better late than never, right?

I like the way this pic turned out -- it's the organ from Pirates of the Caribbean!

One of us is trying to get ready for a day of Disney fun. The other one is lollygagging and taking pictures. Guess which is which.


Just one of the many pieces of Lego awesomeness at Downtown Disney.


We're having fun, dammit!


A much more believable set of having-fun faces.

Ask about the day my mom shut down the bat exhibit.

Happy tourists in front of the Tree of Life. I took about a million pictures of this tree -- it was covered in amazingly detailed carvings of animals.


Entrance to Dinosaur, my favorite ride. My poor niece didn't like it so much; this was the second dinosaur-themed ride to make her cry in about the span of one hour.
And finally, and this one made me laugh. Two months later, and I'm not quite sure we decided to take this particular picture. Maybe it was because every time we turned around there were more singing and dancing animals, so the sighting of something normal like a cat doing normal cat stuff demanded a picture. I have no idea. But it still makes me laugh.

CSA Week 1

We received our first batch of delicious local goodness from our CSA last week!

In addition to sausage and eggs, here is a list of the produce in this week's allotment:

• Arugula and mixed salad greens
• Green garlic
• Kohlrabi
• Lettuce
• Parsley
• Radishes
• Strawberries
• Sweet Potatoes
• Tatsoi

Suffice to say, we have been feasting this week! Our CSA membership came with a cookbook as well, so we've been trying new and exotic recipes to go along with our new and exotic foods. Last night we had sweet potato risotto, and tonight we had fresh greens over pasta. Later this week we're making a sausage pizza, and we're enjoying plenty of fresh salads and berries as well.

So far we're big fans. My only concern is that we may have too much food and not be able to eat it all! Oh, and the occasional garden slug, but I guess that's the price you pay for going organic.

First of Many Posts on Food Inc.

As many of you know, I had the opportunity to view the documentary Food Inc. a few weeks ago and was deeply impacted by it. So deeply impacted that I haven't fully formulated my response to it, as I feel that the issue at hand is just too serious and far-reaching to be reacted to impulsively. For example, is corporate control of the food supply a necessary evil? Can an organic and local food movement be sustainable, and can it feed a hungry world? I have no idea.

But for at least one post, I'm going to defend big agriculture. Know what's more cruel than milking a dairy cow? NOT milking a dairy cow. This week I was privileged to spend quite of bit of time with some Wisconsin dairy producers. I was hesitant going into this... given my love of cheese and my current distaste for some of the policies utilized by corporate agricultural, this had the potential to go badly. Food Inc. hyped the animal cruelty that undoubtedly exists in the ag industry, particularly where animals are treated as commodities instead of well, animals. What I found, however, was a group of farmers who respect their animals deeply. On these dairies, animal health and well-being was always top of mind. Part of this was from an economic standpoint -- an upset cow doesn't milk -- but I don't think money was the only motivator. One producer talked of the disappointment of losing a calf, but said the most important thing was that the cow was OK. Another told me that if a cow was upset, it wasn't her fault -- it was indicative of something he (the producer) was doing wrong. I saw the inner workings of milking parlors and learned all the steps that are taken to ensure cow comfort. Large animal and agriculture producers get a bad rep sometimes, but in Wisconsin, the dairy cow is queen.

Many more thoughts to come on Food Inc. to come, but for now, this hippie is enjoying her cheese in peace.

Your Kitty Don't Dance and Your Puppy Don't Rock n' Roll

Meet Marty's new pet sitter! That's right, kids, three times a week the lead singer of the Canadian band Toronto whose video was once on MTV and can still be seen on VH1 will be coming to our house to give the perfect dog his potty break.

Here's more band info from their Wikipedia page. Pay special attention to the first bullet point -- they wrote a freaking Heart song!! And since she's still an active recording artist, here's her current site.

Far out man. Far out.

One Last Dig Before I Let It Go

Saw this on another blog today and it made me giggle. Chortle actually, almost to the point of falling off my chair. A more mature person might have abstained from continuing to circulate this image; however, if you read my birthday posting, you're probably not expecting maturity out of me.

Congrats to Ty, Tyler, Wayne, Danny and the rest of my boys! (Ty and Wayne, come back. Please.)