Would you read my cat's blog?

Noe and I joke all the time about starting a blog for Ralph. I guess we missed the boat on this one. Check out this story for CNN.com:
Even Your Dog Has A Blog

ASCP Raid

Hey guys, I just wanted to draw some attention to this article published today on the ASPC website: ASPCA AIDS IN ANTI-CRUELTY RAID OF RECORD PROPORTIONS.

This article is about the rescue of 516 ailing cats...from a cat sanctuary. You would think a cat sanctuary would be a good cause, right? Well, unfortunately not all good intentions pan out and this 'sanctuary' was obviously not equipped to deal with massive numbers of abandoned animals, some needing extensive medical treatment.

Please be careful when donating money or exposing animals to these kinds of establishments. Do as much research as possible. If you want to make a contribution to help animals and you can't find legitimate information on a particular sanctuary or rescue group, donate instead to the ASCP or better yet, your local Humane Society - they need it. The Humane Society of Huron Valley is a pet cause of mine (no pun intended) and they could definitely use the help. And the ASCP will use your donation to help stop mass abuses such as the one in the article.


Other good animal rescue groups in the Ann Arbor area (I haven't found the ones in Groton yet, although I am working on it) are the Mosaic Feline Refuge, a no-kill shelter operated by Rita and Peter Heydon and the Ann Arbor Cat Clinic, which offers both an adoption program (Ralph and Sunny - picture above - came from this program) and does work with ferals. You can reach Mosaic by calling 734-663-1618 and visit the AACC on the web at www.annarborcatclinic.com. Contact them from specific donation or adoption information. You can find the Humane Society of Huron Valley at www.hshv.org.

I am sorry if this seems preachy, but I really hate hearing about animals in trouble and I also wanted to warn you that not all 'rescue groups' are what they seem. Thanks for reading!

Some food for thought...

Mangetout, the organic place across the street, has been open for a couple months now and I haven't made it over. I am thinking about trying it either today or tomorrow. I'll give you the update...here's the link: http://mangetoutorganic.com/Home_Page.html

Also, I wanted to mention this earlier but it didn't fit with my basketball post: Stop & Shop has started selling Haloumi cheese! For those of you that are not familar, this would be the Greek goat's milk cheese that I have probably grilled for you at some point during a summer barbecue. The fancy cheese shop downtown carries it, but I am THRILLED to be able to buy it at the grocery store. Try it out if you haven't already - just slice it, brush some olive oil on it, and throw it on a grill or in a frying pan until it starts to turn golden-brown. YUM.

March Madness

So...the posting is slow going this week as I am experiencing some technical difficulties with my computer and keep getting booted off the internet. Bear with me!

That said, I can't post pics from the St. Patty's Day parade until this problem is solved, because the uploading process is where the booting off happens.

For now...let's talk some hoops.

I spent an agonizing three hours filling out my bracket yesterday at work only to end up changing half my picks last night, then logging back on this morning to change them again. By 10:00 AM I had three different brackets - all with different national champions - circulating in two different pools.

My yearly bracket process also involved multiple phone call/text messages with my father. Up until this year we were able to conduct this process in person. One of us would grab the giant bracket from the Free Press and fill it out. The other one would come through and scratch off/revise about half of it. Subsequent arguments, gloating, and the occasional cash exchange would ensue.

This year, because of my move to Connecticut, dad and I had to have our usual pre-tournament discussions via phone and text. You should try expressing your doubt about Notre Dame's second-round abilities in a text message sometime. Or having a discussion about UNC vs. Tennessee while driving. NOT convenient or safe!

Dad and I usually ended up with a fairly similar Final Four and the same national champion - it's the beginning rounds where we like to expend our argumentative energy. Let us not forget 2007's memorable Vandy fight - I wanted to take them (I think) three rounds, Dad wanted them scratched after one...I emerged the victor in that instance.

(However, in all fairness, if I am going to use Vandy as an example, I should also point out that I stupidly had MSU upsetting UNC last year, which, as dad kindly pointed out yesterday, more or less knocked my bracket out of first-place contention in any pool.)

This year we kept the arguing to a minimum - it was more discussion. How far to take Wisconsin, can MSU beat Pitt, is Kansas going to get upset early on...pretty tame.

Anyway, I don't know what dad ultimately ended up with for his Final Four, but I have three different scenarios going on three different brackets. NOT because I want to better my odds (only one has money riding on it) but because I am that insecure in my picks this year.

Some things I HOPE will happen (probably reflected on at least one of the three brackets):

• Wisconsin will make it to the third round and duke it out with Georgetown for a crack at the Final Four
• Michigan State, led by the scrappy and wonderful Drew Neitzel, will beat Pitt in the second round and have a spectacular showdown with Memphis
• Georgia will ride the momentum they have going at the moment and beat Xavier to get out of the first round
• Uconn will hang until they meet UCLA in the third round

As you can probably surmise, I think the Sweet Sixteen has the potential for the most exciting games of the whole tournament. In my eyes, this is where scrappy meets superb and you get a real showdown. Not that the Elite Eight and Final Four aren't spectacular - but Sweet Sixteen is where I think we'll max out on entertainment.

As soon as I get my graphics capabilities back, I'll post or link to my brackets. Let me know how you guys are doing!

A few items of interest...

First of all: THERE WILL BE A NEW POST TOMORROW! There is a good reason for my lack of posting; I picked up some freelance copywriting work from a design firm in Norwich and that took up my evening writing time/creative energy. But I have finished my assignments for the time being, so it's back to blogging.

I have also been too swamped at work to even scan the headlines to find news items to blog about - my fallback when I am feeling a lack of creativity. This is doubly disappointing because I love current events. (I did hear a good NPR interview the other day with a guy who trains dogs on movie sets, but unfortunately didn't retain enough info to blog about it.)

Also, for those of you who don't know, my house was toilet papered this weekend. The last time I TPd someone's house I was just out of twelfth grade and I thought I was too old for it then. It may have been humorous had the perpetrators not known that Noe was already in a terrible mood. He did not find it at ALL humorous, as the perpetrators have since realized. Lesson learned: Don't poke Noe when he is in the zone!


On the good side: I attended New London's first annual Saint Patrick's Day parade on Monday and will be writing a blog about it as soon as I get some pics from Doyle. Also, I signed up for golf lessons, which should provide some excellent blog fodder. AND I am almost finished reading The Six Wives of Henry VIII and am planning to highly recommend it.

So tune in tomorrow, where you can also see my NCAA tournament bracket! I was a third-place winner last year, pushed out of the top two spots soley by my hope that Michigan State could get out of the second round. Unfortunately, I have not been paying as much attention as I usually do to college basketball leading up to the tournament, so I have no idea how my bracket is going to fare this year. Stay tuned and find out!

He wasn't that great on Dancing with the Stars but he has some good thoughts on blogging

I recently stumbled across a link to a blog post by Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and contestant on last season's Dancing with the Stars. You can read this post, titled "Blogger and Newspapers, a Lesson in How Not to Brand and Market" here.

Mr. Cuban recently banned newspaper bloggers from his locker room. He feels that newspaper blogs discredit the names and reputations of their newspapers because Mr. Cuban feels that one should "never, ever, ever consider something that any literate human being with Internet access can create in under 5 minutes to be a product or service that can in any way differentiate your business."

It's an interesting concept and one that I hadn't given a lot of thought: do bloggers have any place in the real news industry? I'm sort of leaning toward Mr. Cuban's view.

What do you think?

http://www.blogmaverick.com/2008/03/13/blogging-and-newspapers-a-lesson-in-how-not-to-brand-and-market/

Lazy Sunday (and Monday, and Tuesday...)

First of all, I want to apologize for the rather sporadic and lame blogs of late. I have been busy and, when not busy, fairly burned out. As most of you know, I had a houseguest weekend before last (my awesome cousin Katie - check out her blog and her FABULOUS artwork - of which I now have a custom piece of - here). Then I proceeded to be so slammed at work that the last thing I wanted to do was turn on the computer when I got home. As for the lack of weekend updates, well, that was a combination of too many drinks at Hanafin's and good-old fashioned laziness.

Speaking of which, my eight readers, you really need to read me the riot act if you don't start seeing some running posts on this blog. I am scheduled to run the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon (half-marathon) on May 3rd and so far my training has consisted of a few Hip Hop Hustle classes, twice-weekly kickboxing, one tennis lesson and some sporadic three-mile runs. I am going to go out a limb here and say I am probably NOT in good enough shape to run the Mini at this moment in time.

Now, I have managed to pull off some pretty spectacular (insert saracasm) athletic feats in my time, such as joining the soccer team senior year of high school without ever having touched a soccer ball in my life and playing 11 minutes in goal in my first indoor game. I ran the Detroit half-marathon last year on very little training and I ran Nashville and Indy on back-to-back weekends.

However, the older I get the harder it is to do anything with a complete lack of preparation (this observation is not strictly limited to athletic endeavors - procrastination has started to work against me in general.) On those rare occasions thatI have gotten on the treadmill lately, it's been rough going.

So starting tomorrow, I am going to log at least 15 miles a week. This can be broken down into three five-mile runs, five three-mile runs, or a number of other combinations. The only potential problem is if I don't run at all during the week and find myself having to run all fifteen on Saturday. If I do this for the rest of March I should at least be back in the habit of running and can appropriately increase and taper off through April and (fingers crossed) be somewhat prepared for Indy in May.

I will update you on my progress. And I promise not to lie in my blog.

Now for the good news: I found a place that has reasonably-priced small group tennis lessons! Yeah, it’s only once a week and the instructor has nothing on Ryan and Gary, but that’s not the point. The point is that all the lamenting I’ve done about not getting to play and all my threats to sell my racquet on Ebay have been in vain – I don’t have to give up tennis. I am hoping that I can be good enough by summer to play with Noe and not A) throw my racquet or B) cry (both of which have happened before). Things went pretty well this past weekend, so my hopes are high.

All right - enough fitness blogging. Other people (like Lisa!) do it much better. But I will keep you posted on my progress and cross your fingers that I can stick to my fifteen mile-weeks. I need all the help I can get!