Thursday, March 29, 2012

Dinner with the Prez

Regardless of politics, they seem like very fun and cool people to share a meal with.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Cool and Crazy

First, the cool:


Then the crazy:

Monday, March 19, 2012

Interesting Health Tactic

I was going to post the video of the lady on TLC's "Strange Addictions" who drinks her own urine, thinking it's going to cure her cancer, but I thought better of it. I'll just link to it instead.
(Warning: Disgusting content to follow, but it's just too funny/totally weird not to comment upon.)

Seriously? Drinking your own pee for 4 years? And not only drinking it, but using it as a kind of body rub. Unbelievable.

As a quid pro quo, I'll call attention to this amazing story, about a man raised in a North Korean forced labor camp, who escaped and became the only person to ever accomplish that feat. It's an incredible read.

In other news, I hope everyone had a fun and safe St. Patrick's Day; we celebrated in true Irish style, with good friends and some deicious corned beef and cabbage (and Guinness, ala the Prez.)


I'm afraid Bo didn't have as fun of a time.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Skiing Trip 2012


Or at least that's what was attempted. Thanks to an unforeseen blizzard snowing us in deep in the northern Michigan, minus the proper supplies (namely, food and cable tv), our vacation plans were altered a little bit.


 Snowed in! Out of nowhere, 12 inches of fluffy stuff appeared and locked us in. My van, not great in the elements anyway, was hopeless to try the several mile journey needed to get to civilization.


So some of us made 'snow people' while others (me) was able to get some reading done, safely indoors. Where's the snow dog?



Thanks to a generator, we had electricity while we were there; otherwise, it would have gone from bad, skipped worse, and landed squarely on miserable.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Epic Waiter Fail!



Never a good idea to spill a tray of cold beer on probably the 2nd* most powerful person in the world (German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for your information.)

(* I say 2nd, as Germany is the country ultimately deciding on the various bailouts across the Euro zone. A non-cooperative Germany in the near future could mean big global recession.)

Friday, March 2, 2012

A Dog Quad Walks

Warning: Get your Kleenex ready.
Check out these videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H0BPJ-p6lK8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qfJRP24Wib8

A description of the situation from the source: "Sammi was an active, happy 8 year-old Springer Spaniel who had suddenly become a quadriplegic, due to bone growing inside his spinal column and putting pressure on his spinal cord. Sammi needed intense rehabilitation following surgery, where his surgeon was unable to remove the excess bone.

The prognosis for Sammi’s complete recovery was bleak... He could not walk at all, or even hold his little head up. Nobody was sure if he would ever walk again... Full paralysis in pets is, just as with humans, complicated and challenging to treat.

After three months of daily rehabilitation to strengthen his core muscles, including electronic stimulation, electro-acupuncture, assisted standing in the underwater treadmill, and sensory rehabilitation over a therapy ball, Sammi was able to master sitting up from a down position. Treatment was continued to pattern his legs to walk again, while constantly fighting them, as they were stiff and rigid from his neurological condition.

Then one day it finally happened -- he took his first steps, and although he could not even stand and balance on his own that day, through continued rehabilitation, patience and sheer determination, he learned to walk again and never looked back."

It's crazy, but the therapy the dog was doing and what I'm doing is near identical. Pretty cool!