It's just one of those days

I'd like to get in my car and drive as far as I can. I don't think there is a word to describe how I feel right now. Way beyond frustration. Way beyond...

Hum de dump day

I ordered a couple lenses for my new camera off eBay last night, they might even be here before the weekend - yay! I'm ready for some more picture taking. This afternoon as a matter of fact, I'm heading over to Memorial Park. They have a 9/11 memorial set up, one flag for every person who died and their biography is attached to the little pole of the flag. I Imagine I'll shed a few tears, 3000 is a big number and to see it all in one place will no doubt be sobering.

When I went down to Wyuka last week they have a new Holocaust memorial. The sheer number of people who died there is just overwhelming too. There was a sign that said if you gave a moment of silence for everyone killed during the Holocaust, it would take 11 years and 5 months. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around a number that large. That many people killed. It's just scary, the kind of control Hitler had over the people. And so many dismissed him or worse yet, embraced is ideas. "Like lambs to a slaughter" is the phrase that kept running through my mind. Sad.

On a much lighter and brighter note, I talked to my brother today for quite a while. Thank goodness we both have Verizon! It's really nice to hear his voice and keep in touch. We've been living in different states for so long it's sometimes hard to remember that we grew up together. My parents never were the kind to perpetuate closeness within the family,possibly because they were both only children. But it feels like since all of us were together for my nephew's engagement party, my life seems more complete, all the pieces of the puzzle are in the box, so to speak. Even though all of our lives are completely different, we all still fit together in a basic way. We all shared that childhood time. My most vivid memory of my brother - today at least - is one where I has having a birthday party, I was probably 9 or 10, and we were all playing Twister in the living room. (Hard to believe that game is that old!) Anyway, when Marc would cry he would hold his breath until he literally turned the most alarming shade of blue - sometimes you had to slap him on the back to get him to take a breath. Well, we're all in the living room with this Twister sheet spread out all over and the front door flies open and in runs a totally blue Marc holding onto the back of his head. Now, I think for the most part my friends were shocked at how blue he was and didn't even notice that he left a blood trail across the whole game. At least they didn't notice for a couple minutes. Marc had been playing with the kid across the street, who had clocked Marc in the head with a kid's rake, causing a nice big hole in Marc's head. And head wounds bleed like crazy. That was the end of that birthday party I think. I don't remember anything that happened after that except when Marc came home from the hospital with stitches in his head. He recovered nicely. But I have to wonder - do you still turn blue when you cry, Marc?

The weather has improved about 10,000 percent since last week. The windows have been open, it's been cooler! Aaaaaaaah. I feel better. It's like after the first couple of days my body realizes the coolness is here to stay and adapts a little. There's hardly any humidity either, it's been wonderful! Steve went out last night and raked leaves then shot some hoops and came in complaining about how hot it still was. Hello... Sit down for 5 minutes and cool off. For Pete's sake...

Well, I've got to jump in the shower and then head out to Memorial Park. Later.

My name is Mindi and I'm a dachshaholic...

This little girl spent almost the entire picnic just walking back and forth along this wall. Occasionally another dog would join her, but she was having fun all by herself.

This little guy's name is Eli. His mama just rescued him from the Council Bluffs Humane Society within the last month. He has 2 bigger brothers (as in golden retrievers) at home. I can't for the life of me remember his human's name! Eli had been picked up by the CB animal control, but when his owners were contacted they said they didn't want him. I like my dogs so much more than I like some people.

Jaime (I hope I spelled that right) with Max and Diamond. They were so cute. Diamond just had a little about 2 months ago, and we saw pictures of her 2 remaining babies, they were so darn cute! Eli was in love with Diamond and wouldn't leave her alone for a minute.

This is Elvis. He and his sister Aggie are about the same as Ben, right around 10 or so. He was such a polite little fella. Of course I can't remember his mom and dad's name either...

This is Aggie. She had a bit of an aggression problem, so she spent most of the evening on a leash. She was the sweetest thing, she just didn't like to have other dogs around her. She's a rescue also, they got her from a rescue in Missouri after she'd been found wandering the streets of Kansas City.


After a 2 hour power nap so I could partially recover from the zoo outing, we went to the wiener roast our Dachshund Anonymous group was having. We just got organized about 3 months ago and this was only the second meeting, but we had a lot of fun. (I had to work the day of the first meetup.) I thought Steve would be pretty bored - he's not the extrovert I am by any means... (LOL) But there were several other men there and one of them also has an interest in amateur radio, so they had something to talk about besides our little doxies! We didn't have to draw straws to see who would have to sacrifice their wiener either, they bought them at the store! Ha ha ha... Ahem, okay... There were about 20 or so people and about 15 dachshunds. We took Ben since he's the mellowest one of the bunch. I was surprised at how many people there knew we had 6 and thought we'd bring them all - holy bald-headed cats! I don't even take more than 2 at a time to the VET if I can help it, let alone all 6 to be let loose with a bunch of other dogs. I'm not too sure how everyone else would handle it. I admit it, my dogs are not well socialized. They're not mean, but they just haven't been around other dogs much. (We're not even going to think about Taber and Buttercup last weekend...) Toby might do okay, if he was in his cart, but he's such a yapper. As a matter of fact, I'm about ready to have him debarked today. I've spent most of the day in bed because I don't feel well, so Steve brewed a batch of beer and Toby sat in the house and cried the whole time. Then Steve took Buttercup and Ruger to the vet and Toby sat in front of the front door (it was closed BTW) and howled his displeasure for a good 45 minutes. He's done nothing but bark and whine all day and I'm ready to wring his little neck. He's lucky he's cute...

Saturdays holidays, easy afternoon..

Conagra had their company day at the Henry Doorly Zoo yesterday. We had a good time, but I'm paying for it today. Too much sun, too much walking, and too many hills. But it was fun!





Don't expect me to tell you what these flowers are, I have no idea, I just thought they were pretty!







































I took tons of pictures of the penguins, but I won't bore you with all of them. I love penguins.











The aquarium was really neat, I took a lot of pictures here too, but this is one of my favorites.
















Elephant. I feel sorry for the poor things, It was probably just my perception, but I felt like the rhino and the elephants are kind of segregated off to the side and their enclosure is kind of neglected.








A couple spider monkeys out on monkey island in the middle of the koi lagoon. I love the monkeys. These 2 were so funny, they'd hold their hands up like they wanted you to throw food at them, but if you did, they couldn't catch is, so they'd try to snatch it out of the water before the fish got it. Nice try little monkeys!






I love this parrot! He was so pretty. Loud, but pretty.












This guy talked. He'd say "hello" or "hi", but only after you tried to get him to talk for 5 minutes and walked away in frustration! Beautiful, wasn't he?


















I just like these. They were beautiful.