I'm From Milwaukee and That's Not Funny
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Topper's LiveJournal:
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| Saturday, July 11th, 2009 | | 9:06 pm |
Near Miss
All my posts lately have been about animals. So...why not? Here's another: Tonight while walking Bailey we came upon two little girls, each about seven years old. One was riding her bike back and forth across a section of sidewalk as fast as she could, and the other would let out a loud, piercing, no-Mr.-Bates-please-don't-stab-me scream every five seconds or so. Every time she would scream, she would run in one direction or the other, yanking her harnessed toy poodle with her. We stopped. Bailey looked up at me and then pulled me across the street so that she could avoid the dangerous combination of screamy girls, fast inexperienced bikes, and little nervous pissed off dogs. Well, when we got abreast of them (on the other side of the street), the screamy girl let out a piercing scream and raised her hands to her face like one of those teeny-boppers from the 50s screaming over Elvis. Naturally, she dropped the leash, allowing the poddle to bolt into the street, making a beeline for Bailey. Now our street is part of a network of streets that avoids a major, slow intersection. Lots of traffic comes down our street, often at speeds up to 50 MPH (we are a residential street). So, as bad luck would have it, the poddle darted out straight into the path of a 4x4 truck that was going WAY too fast. There was a squeal. I knew what was about to happen. Bailey knew what was about to happen. Judging from its posture, the poddle knew what was about to happen. The only one who didn't know what was about to happen was the screamy girl, who merely turned around and started screaming and darting again. But luck of lucks, the truck stopped in time with no less than six inches to spare. The poddle stood there dazedly, so I called to her to get off the road. She did. While she and Bailey were sniffing each other's butts, the screamy girls father came running out of the house and retrieved the leash. First he apologized to the driver (who was going too fast anyway), and then he apologized to me. But rather than going over to the screamy girl and telling her to shut the f*** up and pay attention to the responsibility that is a dog's life, he merely told her that he was taking the dog inside. Personally, I would have seriously punished that little snot so that she knew the gravity of what almost happened, but I guess it's none of my business. I'm just glad the dog was okay. | | Friday, July 10th, 2009 | | 7:23 pm |
Yoikes! My Lover Has Gorgeous Classmates!
Right now L is hosting a dinner party for some of his old college chums. (Which reminds me...I'd better hurry this along, as I will be missed soon.) Anyway, imagine my surprise when I was introduced to one who is a dead ringer for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fogbear! Gotta run! | | Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | | 9:09 pm |
New Katie Kitty Update
Katie has fibroid sarcoma, an aggressive cancer that started in her bone. The vet said she could operate, but it would mean taking off half of Katie's skull, and I wouldn't wish that on a young kitty much less and older one. For now, L and I are treating her as normal, although her face is becoming misshapen. She still eats, still jumps up on my desk, and still head butts me. We take that to mean that she's feeling fine overall. But...the vet said the day will come fairly soon when she will stop eating and/or will hide all the time. When that happens, it's time to take her in. Right now, she's crouching on my desk, trying to figure out what the shadow on the wall is. She hasn't any idea what's the matter. I think that's what makes this all the more sad. And yet her plight serves as a lesson to us all: she will eat and jump and purr and swat at Bailey and nap in the sun right up until the end. Shouldn't we all? Current Mood:  sad | | Monday, July 6th, 2009 | | 7:34 pm |
Katie Kitty Update
The vet doesn't think it's an infection. While she certainly did her best to not betray her thoughts during Katie Kitty's exam, L says her (the vet's) face said it all. The vet took a sample of the fluid from the lump and said we would know results in about a week, but it's most likely not an infection. Maybe it's me (and L, actually), but I think it actually looks bigger today. It's hard to say. Today I found myself daydreaming about whether or not animals know that they're sick. Obviously they can feel pain and discomfort, but what about things that go on that don't cause pain, like a tumor or diabetes? Katie is right now stretched out in her favorite spot on my desk. I'm wondering if she knows what's going on, and she's wondering if I've got any tuna I'm not using right now. We love this cat. | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 8:29 am |
Katie Kitty
Katie Kitty has a huge lump under her chin, right up against the jaw. We didn't see it before, but I have been noticing that over the past week that her pretty little kitty pout has become disfigured, elongated on one side of her face. She's been very tired, too. Last night while I was petting her, I felt the lump and thought "Now what is that?" Has anyone ever heard of something like this before? I fear it's a tumor. | | Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | | 6:48 pm |
Vacation...All I Ever Wanted
"You are about to take a very pleasant, satisfying vacation." -- Fortune in a fortune cookie I had the day before friends arrived.After years of trying to get them to come down, Larry and Jason, my two best friends, came from New Brunswick for a visit. All I can say is that it was a phenomenal week -- by far the best week I've spent in an extremely long time. (Some photos of the visit are on their website. Check them out!) You may recall that I've been preparing for this visit for a long time. If you cannot recall, go back and read a few entries. Go ahead...I'll wait.... Done? Okay. So for the past six months I've been preparing for this visit: painting, redecorating, landscaping, cleaning, washing, repairing, planning. And on June 20, 2009, they finally touched down at Chicago O'Hare into my welcome arms. The visit itself was a wonderful whirlwind of activity: day trips to get our feet dirty in Chicago* involving a first-ever train ride for Jason, a few days in the Wisconsin Dells which gave Jason his first-ever round of miniature golf and a magnificent sunburn (Jason evidently has a lot to experience), wonderful meals, crappy meals, car trips, several rounds of the Golden Girls Trivia Game, etc. Interestingly, often we would split into two groups of L and Larry and Jason and me. But it was a joyous event to have them here. I miss them so very much already. After their departure, I noticed that Bailey the Dog was looking around for them, often hopping up on the guest bed to sniff around. Lonely and figuring there was something to this, I also hopped up on their bed and sniffed around. Sure enough, the sheets still carried their scent and I fell fast asleep in an unusual, on-my-knees-and-face-down position for about a half hour. Then I started cleaning up, beginning the preparations for their next visit some day in the future. Guys -- come back soon. * There is only one thing in Chicago that is good, and he lives on Clifton Avenue. Otherwise the city can go to hell. The traffic in that God forsaken burg ruins everything. Everything. | | Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | | 10:22 pm |
The Devil We Know...
It's easy to think of this Moussavi guy in Iran as being a total reformist. In hearing people talk (in person and on the Internet), there's a misconception that he and his supporters want to overthrow the Ayatollahs, the Guardian Council, establish a regime friendly to the West, and play nicey-nice with the world. You know, this is not true. He is not looking to do any of that. He has stated that he does not "recognize the existence" of Israel (an unrealistic position at best). He does not want to stop Iran's nuclear program, and he's not trying to establish a secular republic. He was vetted by the Iranian authorities before he ran for office, meaning he did not present any real threat to the existing power structure. In short, he's really no different than Ahmandinnerjacket or whatever his name is, except maybe Moussavi would be a bit more eloquent (then again...maybe not). That's not to say that there aren't Iranians who don't want friendlier relations with the West. I wonder what percentage of the people protesting in Tehran DO want friendlier relations with the West. It's just Moussavi isn't the guy to fulfill those hopes. What he is, though, is the focal point for some nose-thumbing at the current Iranian authority by all sorts of people with all sorts of ideolgies. So a message to the guys around the water cooler I overhear emphatically endorsing Moussavi: Moussavi's not our friend. Regardless of who "wins", when the dust settles I think we'll find that things are not much different. | | Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | | 7:26 am |
| | Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 | | 6:33 pm |
Off to Toronto!!
Hey, everybody! I'm off to Toronto for my NEXUS interview. If they like me, I'll be issued a frequent traveler card that will whisk me across the border on future visits. Whisk, I say! | | Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | | 7:02 pm |
That's Eighteen Miles Round Trip
Today I biked to work. As the title suggests, the total trip was 17.5 miles farther than any bike ride I've taken since I was 15 years 364 days old. There's a sense of accomplishment here, but my legs are currently visibly throbbing. I fear tomorrow. In reality, though, who doesn't? | | Sunday, May 31st, 2009 | | 7:35 am |
As Heard on Milwaukee Radio
And now -- your 99.1 WMYX forecast! Tonight! Clear with periods of rain. Tomorrow! Mostly sunny to partly cloudy with more rain!"Wow! Sunny but cloudy enough to rain. I guess at this time of year that about covers all the possibilities. | | Saturday, May 30th, 2009 | | 9:49 am |
Boooooored Bored Bored Bored
Since the beginning of the year, L and I have been sprucing up the joint here for a visit from my two bestest friends from Canada. (Secret message for said Canadians: THREE WEEKS FROM TODAY!!!!!!) Most weekends have pretty much been a never ending round of cleaning, vacuuming, closet-cleaning-outing, painting, furtinure buying and arranging, decor critiquing and rearranging, gardening and flower bed planting, window washing (ugh!), and all sorts of other stuff...you get the idea. As of right now, there is only one major thing left to do, and that's shampoo the carpets. After that...well, after that I'm all done. This is kind of weird. There's actually nothing left to do. As odd as this will sound to my friends who read this journal, my house is spotless -- all that's left to do is maintain the cleanliness. So what do I do today? Well, I could clean.... No, that's all done. I could scrub.... No. Done. Well, we still have to.... No? L is on vacation right now, so it's Bailey Dog and Katie Kitty and me. Bailey thinks we should go on a two day walk or a ride in the car to Seattle. Katie thinks I should pet her for the next week. I'm not so sure about either one of those things, but after I give the bathrom its weekly scrubbing, what on Earth am I going to do with myself? Current Mood: bored | | Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | | 7:52 pm |
I *Heart* You, Michaelle!
One of the things I've had a hard time with lately is conflict. Conflict, of course, is almost inevitable, but there just seems to be so much of it lately. I simply have no capacity to listen to arguing, especially because lately it's become fashionable to hyperbolize the character of your opponent until they become Satan himself. Look -- Supreme Court Justice Nominee Sotomayor is a racist! Arlen Specter is a traitor (although it's hard to betray a cause you don't believe in)! The Canadian Governor General is an Arab wife beater! "But Topper," you muse as you settle into your wing-back chair holding a brandy snifter. "WTF?" Well, here's the story: in case you didn't know it, the EU recently banned seal products. OK. For me, this is not really high on my list of nail-bitingly worrisome policies, but if you live in a community where seal hunting is your livelihood, I guess I can see the problem. Anyway, in a show of solidarity with her country's Inuit population, Governor General Michaelle Jean sliced open a freshly-slaughtered seal and ate a chunk of its heart. It may be that she was telling the truth when she said that it was "delicious" -- maybe she was being diplomatic. Note that this was not a baby seal, and it was killed with a gun, not with the vicious pronged harpoons that could be used. Environmental groups, PETA, and other animal rights groups were quick to slap a few lables on the GG. "The fact that the governor-general in public is slashing and eating a seal [...] I'm convinced that this will not change the mind of European citizens and politicians," declared Barbara Slee, an anti-seal hunt campaigner at the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Brussels. "It sounds like [Her Excellency] is trying to give Canadians an even more Neanderthal image than they already have," said Dan Mathews, Senior Vice President of PETA. Further, his group went on to equate the GG's actions as being like "taking part in the beating of women in the Middle East because it is part of local practice." Now you wait just a minute, Campaigner Slee and Senior Vice President Mathews. Let's stop a moment and get a grip on reality. A few facts.... 1) Her Excellency did not run after a seal and slash it like she was the Bride of Chucky. First, it was cleanly shot. Then, she butchered it, which is a lot better than what happened to the cow that wound up in your Big Mac. 2) Animal organs and viscera are eaten all the time. Sometimes the dish is blatantly described (liver and onions) and other times they are coyly camouflaged as another word (giblet gravy...which is served in school lunches). 3) As often as I encounter stocky, furry men in Toronto, it has never crossed my mind to call Canadians "Neanderthals." I don't think anyone in the world has that conception. 4) Killing a seal and eating its heart is killing a seal and eating its heart. Beating a woman is beating a woman. They are not the same and you know it. Furthermore, suffering and cruelty (perceived or actual) are not currencies against which you can judge other actions. You can't say "Beating a woman is worth three seal killings." That's a spurious argument meant to invoke an emotional response, hopefully the same response you feel when you see video of a woman being beaten. So you see, people, let's call things what they are. If you find what she did disgusting on its face, that's fine. Frankly, eating fresh seal heart makes my stomach twist, but on the other hand we slaughter, gut, and eat animals by the millions every day. To infer that the GG is evil or less than honorable because of what she did is flat wrong. And one other thing: I believe that all living things should be treated ethically. Animal consumption, while wrong for many people, is nevertheless something humans do and have done for centuries. There's a right way to treat animals and there's a wrong way. I believe that if a seal hunt takes place it should do so in a way that does not allow the seals to suffer inhumanely. Granted, a quick death sure would make some seal's day pretty bad, but I think that humanely killing a seal for consumption is the same as killing a cow or a chicken. Finally, a big BRA VO and hollow clapping to the Toronto Star for the most shameless bit of yellow journalism I've ever read. Here's the first paragraph from the original article (linked to above): "First she gutted it. Then she had the heart pulled
out of its furry, flabby carcass. Finally, she swallowed
a slice of the mammal's dripping organ."You know, it's funny...when I talk about "dripping organs", a seal's heart isn't what I mean. In any event, this article was deliberately written to make the GG sound like a ghoul and you know it. Shame on you. | | Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | | 7:16 pm |
You Moron! Even *I* Would Marry Betty!
I read Archie Comics from -- oh, geez -- like age 3 until I was in my early 30s. I was still subscribing at 27, but to be honest, the size of the thicker books got thinner and thinner until they were little more than standard comics. I love(d) Riverdale and its inhabitants. And even still the box where I tossed the books after first reading gets hauled out from time to time for another look. But this shocking bit of news has me absolutely floored. ARCHIE IS GETTING MARRIED!!!! Current Mood:  shocked | | Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 | | 8:35 pm |
| | Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 | | 6:18 pm |
| | Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 | | 10:03 pm |
If You Haven't Said the Word 'Sash' Lately, Read This Post Out Loud
I just saw a guy on Bearciti who refers to himself in a picture as a "sashmate", as in "this is a picture of my sashmate and I." Yes, he's got on a sash -- he's a "Mister Something or Other 2007". I have nothing against sashes (or their winners) in and of themselves; after all, the Queen wears one and I have one in my family colors, but "sashmate"? Are you kidding me? The very word makes my fingernails curl backward. Really, after looking at the rest of his pictures, the sash should say something like "TOPPER THINKS I SHOULD KISS HIS ASS - 2009". | | Thursday, March 26th, 2009 | | 6:19 pm |
Back to Greenbacks
Well, today I did something that I rarely do, something that I can count on one hand all the times I've done it before. That's right, I changed my Canadian currency back into US dollars. This might not seem like a big deal to any of you, except perhaps to those of you who know me very well indeed. Usually once a piece of Canadian currency or coin hits my hand, it stays there until I get it back home to Canada. Any time I feel glum I trudge down to the local bank and buy a few Canadian notes and it cheers me up immensely. When I get home from a trip to Fredericton or Toronto, I just toss whatever cash I bring back into my little rosewood box for the next time. You know, I don't like money as money per se; I'm not greedy (well...not especially greedy). I like a banknote as a work of art, or as a representative of a vacation to come. I like looking for signature combinations and outdated designs. In other words, I'm not a Midas -- I'm an art collector! But today it was all backwards. I passed over the colorful cash to Roy, my second-to-usual teller, and he was so stunned that he rang in the sale in reverse, as if he were selling to me rather than buying from me. It was a bit depressing. But I have several uses for this (quite frankly) ugly cash with old, dead men on one side and old, dead buildings on the other. L's and my anniversary is coming up and I know juuuust what to get him. My sister is about to turn 40 and we'd like to get her something nice. I can pay off the small balance on my credit card. So it's a good decision, and I feel like I did the right thing. It's just a rare thing. | | Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | | 6:43 pm |
*urp*
Chocolate chips + empty stomach = major heartburn | | Monday, March 23rd, 2009 | | 8:21 am |
Toronto: Fifth and Last Days
Saturday dawned quite pleasant. I forgot to mention that on Thursday I went to Bears of Toronto Game Night at some bar on Yonge north of St. Clair. My part of the table didn't do any gaming, although I saw the extraction of game boxes on either side of us. Nevertheless, I had a very pleasant time talking with two guys and their Australian friend whose accent seemed straight outta Milwaukee. ANYWAY, the BoT had a Saturday brunch day at yet another bar near Yonge and Bloor, and guess whose table I sat at? That's right -- the same two nice guys I sat with on Thursday. I was a little bit puzzled by the bags of mystery chemicals that were passed out by a guy at another table (pretty sure they were make-up and glycerin [maybe wrinkle remover]), but most guys tested the products on their hands and declared them glamourous. As I am already glamourous, I chose to leave mine behind. That evening I met Dave and Mark for dinner at a yummy Asian restaurant that proved that the three of us weren't the only tasty dishes in the place. After that we checked out the lobbies of some prospective future home-towers for Dave and then went for my usual bedtime ice cream snack. Sunday Dave and I met for breakfast and then went with his friend to the Toronto Art Expo. I have a tendency to poop out at places like that -- it's hard to explain, but I just go suddenly tired. But nevertheless it was still an interesting show and Dave's friend's mother is an artist who works in an interesting medium to produce beautiful works. Then there was that awkward time where you are checked out of your hotel but it's too early to go to the airport, so I just bummed around on the Fruit Loop (i.e. Church Street), eating ice cream and making goo-goo eyes at people. Then I came home. It is good to be home. I missed L. I missed being able to call envirobear any damn time I wanted to. But I'm home now, and Bailey-dog and Katie Kitty are thrilled, as is L. I learned some personal lessons in Toronto, which I will expound on later. BUt for now, I'm going to pet my puppy and have a good breakfast with my other half. |
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