Recently I read one of the BEST, fun, most enjoyable books about a celebrity dog you'll ever read: Crusoe, the Celebrity Dachshund: Adventures of the Wiener Dog Extraordinaire
I can't say enough great things about Crusoe's first book. Reading about his adventures put a smile on my face. Such a personality! Such a handsome dog! Such adventure and fun!
We have a black and tan Dachshund named Tyler in our family, who is very much like Crusoe- fun, happy, energetic and awesome.
I tried to read 2 pages a day, just so it wouldn't end -and I look forward to re-reading it over and over, and to Crusoe's second book! Maybe on the next book tour he'll come to the Baltimore/Washington area. We LOVE Crusoe!!
- If you haven't experienced the joy of Crusoe check him out on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crusoedachshund/?fref=ts
Being the avid dog and mystery lover I (Rob) am, I recently finished my third book in the Melanie Travis mystery series called "Jingle Bell Bark" by Laurien Berenson. I enjoy this series and the characters in the book, especially because the lead character, Melanie is a dog parent (who just gets involved in murders and helps solve them). She has great supporting characters like her Aunt Peg who has a kennel and also shows standard Poodles in competition. Melanie is a single mom with a 3rd grade son, ex-husband that comes around, a boyfriend, and others. This mystery takes place around christmastime, but really has nothing to do with the holidays (that's just a background to the story). Instead it involves a mystery of why Melanie's son's bus driver doesn't show up for work one day. The book is pretty fast-paced and you really want to get to the end to find out who the murderer is in the story. It has some twists in it, and a surprise ending. It was another enjoyable mystery in the series. - Rob
BOOK SUMMARY: It's Christmas again, and Melanie Travis barely has time to pencil in
some holiday festivities. Especially once she finds herself making a
list of murder suspects--and checking it twice. . .
This year,
all Melanie wants for Christmas is a dull moment. Between her son Davey,
her teaching job, and showing her Standard Poodle puppy, Eve, there
just aren't enough hours in the day. But when Davey's usual bus driver,
Henry Pruitt, disappears and is replaced by a surly, pierced,
twentysomething, Melanie is concerned. The elderly, amiable Henry was a
friend to all in the neighborhood, so she decides to check on him. .
.only to find that he died two days earlier, under suspicious
circumstances.
As if that weren't bad enough, Henry's two Golden
Retrievers are now bereft of both master and home. Melanie can't just
abandon them, so she brings them to her Aunt Peg, the most stubborn
woman on the planet, who's now determined to find out the truth about
Henry's death, no matter what it takes. Soon, the indomitable Aunt Peg
has Melanie leashed to another murder investigation. And unless she
sniffs out this Scrooge of a killer fast, a lump of coal in her stocking
may not be the worst thing Melanie gets this Christmas. .
Recently we rented and really enjoyed the movie "Mr. Holmes." We both didn't know what to expect but it was quite good. We give it an "A-" and call it a Must-See! The performances by Ian McKellen and the young boy in the film were outstanding. It was a great and touching story.
ABOUT THE MOVIE: Long-retired
and near the end of his life, Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) grapples
with an unreliable memory and must rely on his housekeeper's son as he
revisits the still-unsolved case that led to his retirement.
Recently Tom (whom I call Mr. Monk) came across an article about things you should never touch at a restaurant, so we're reprinting the article here. Once you read it, you may never eat out again. :)
(Source: sarahwillettchang.tumblr.com)
Mr. Monk's Solution: BRING WIPES!!!! (Really)
Here's what we call: Mr. Monk's 8 Things You Should Never Touch at a Restaurant
1) The table - Charles Gerba, PhD, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, found significant numbers of E. coli and
coliform bacteria on restaurant tabletops — enough to present a danger
to the public, particularly young children, the elderly, and people with
compromised immune systems. The numbers were even higher after the
tables were wiped down — suggesting a direct connection between dirty
rags and bacteria. The solution? Ask your server not to wipe your table
before sitting down.
2) The menu - It’s hard to avoid touching a menu — which is probably why it’s one of the germiest things in any restaurant. A 2013 study found that menus are an ideal vehicle for different types of bacteria. E. coli can survive on a laminated menu for up to 24 hours, and salmonella up to 72 hours.
3) the ice in your drink - Restaurant ice makers aren’t cleaned nearly as often as they should be (ideally once a month), and may be harboring bacteria. The bottom line? Ask for your soda without ice — your stomach will thank you.
4) The lemon and lime wedges in your drink
Whether you request it or not, restaurant drinks often come with a slice of lemon or lime. But a 2007 study
found that 69.7 percent of lemon wedges tested showed some type of
microbial growth — either on the rind or the flesh. Why? By the time it
reaches your drink, a piece of fruit may have been handled by multiple
people — plus there’s no way to ensure proper handwashing practices have been followed.
5) The ketchup bottle and salt and pepper shakers
“These
are most likely never wiped off, and if they are, it is with a cloth
that has been used to wipe off the table, chairs, trays, and has been
‘rinsed’ in a tub of dirty water,” Duberg says. Beyond that, it’s
impossible to know who touched these before you (and whether they washed
their hands). You’ve got your antibacterial wipes, right? If you need
that ketchup, give the bottle a once-over before pouring.
6) The tray -Just like the condiment bottles and menus,
trays are rarely wiped down (and when they are, it’s with that same rag —
yuck). Duberg suggests you avoid touching your tray as much as
possible. “When eating in a fast food establishment with trays, “she
says, “I use hand sanitizer before touching my food and never touch the
tray after I sit down until after I am done eating.”
7) The buffet -Yes, buffets are as dirty as you thought they
were. “It is a rare day when I will eat at a buffet or a salad bar,”
Duberg says. “There are very few assurances that the food has been kept
at the proper temperature (hot or cold); the remaining food from the
container being replaced is often scooped into the container of fresh
food, and the serving utensils are usually reused over and over again.”
These latter two actions can carry bacteria, which have been multiplying
all day, from one batch of food to the next. All you can eat? It may
not be worth it.
8) The bathroom -It seems obvious, but the bathroom is often
a reflection of how clean the rest of a restaurant is. Duberg suggests
checking to see if there’s a cleaning schedule posted on the door. “And
use the sniff test,” she says. “If it smells dirty, it most likely is —
wash your hands with lots of soap and water, dry with a paper towel, use
the paper towel to open the door, and use hand sanitizer at the table
before eating your food. Reminder: People who are not feeling well often
go into the bathroom to vomit or have diarrhea, and may not wash their
hands as well as I do.”
As someone who has collected comics and graphic novels for the last 30 years, I recently found a great
comic strip and graphic novels with a gay-themed group of characters who own and manage a bed and breakfast. It's all PG-rated and is filled with a variety of characters (some come and go, because it takes place in a bed and breakfast). I urge you to give "Kyle's Bed & Breakfast" a read. - Rob
SHORT VIDEO INTERVIEW: Recently the writer/artist/creator of Kyle's Bed & Breakfast, "Greg Fox, joined Jonathan
Griffith for a chat about the online strip and the latest collection
"Without Reservations", now available in book form. (interview below) This is an 11 minute interview and gives you a good background on the series and characters.
WHO IS GREG FOX? Greg began making comics at 12 years old, publishing his first strip
at age 14 and continuing to illustrate and write comic strips through
high school and college. He received a B.A. from Geneseo College in upstate New York. His illustration work has appeared in comic books for such companies as
Revolutionary Comics, Triumphant Comics, and Marvel Comics. He is also
the writer/artist for such comic strips as "Manic Music", (based on his
experience in the rock music world), and "An Angel's Story.")
You can also read the BI-WEEKLY comic strip at http://kylesbnb.blogspot.com/
(Below the video is one of the most recent on-line comics)
There's nothing like the special bond between a dog and a human, and this touching story is about a bond between them who were both injured in the military and are recovering together.
In the News: Fort Hood Soldier and Dog Recovering after IED Explosion
Source: KCEN TV, Waco, Texas (http://www.kcentv.com/story/30726912/fort-hood-soldier-and-dog-recovering-after-ied-explosion?autoStart=true)
FORT HOOD -- If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one speaks
volumes. The touching photo is a snapshot of Fort Hood Military Working
Dog Rocky lying on a hospital bed after being hit by an improved
explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan. But what sent the picture into a
viral frenzy was the Purple Heart that was placed on his collar. It
belonged to his handler, Specialist Andrew Brown, who was also injured
in the blast.
The show of respect from one injured soldier to
another propelled the picture and their story across the internet and
into the hearts of those who shared it. It didn't take long before the
photo had more than 100,000 likes and was shared nearly 150,000 times.
"I think they're overwhelmed with the support," said Col. Ross Guieb,
Commander of the 89th Military Police Brigade.
Brown and Rocky are
with Fort Hood's 720th Military Police Battalion, and had just deployed
as a team to Afghanistan in October. They were searching a building for
explosives when they were hit by the IED blast. They were both taken
the hospital for non-life threatening injuries. It was there that the
touching photos were snapped and posted to Facebook.
Rocky recovering
"The bond
between a Military Working Dog and their handler is probably one of the
strongest bonds," said Col. Guieb. "That handler does everything for
that Military Working Dog. Sometimes they don't see eye to eye because
they each have their days, but at the end of the day I think that bond
is very strong."
Brown arrived at Walter Reed Hospital in
Washington DC last Friday to continue his recovery. Rocky is still in
Germany with a broken leg and other wounds. He is expected to return to
the U.S. in the coming weeks to be reunited with his battle buddy. It's
unclear if Rocky will do his recovery at Fort Hood or somewhere else.
"So
far so goo in terms of rehabilitation," said Guieb. "We are excited to
get them back, and we are excited for all the support."
As for the picture, Guieb says it should serve as a reminder that sacrifices continue to be made daily by our troops.
"There
are still soldiers deployed, and they are in harms way," he said. "And
this exposes for everyone to understand the Military Working Dogs are
part of what we do as Military Police."
Video: http://www.kcentv.com/story/30726912/fort-hood-soldier-and-dog-recovering-after-ied-explosion?autoStart=true&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=12073887
Our
friend Elvina recently sent us an email that revealed the history and
origin of a number of sayings that we grew up with. Of course, we didn't
know the origin of these sayings, so it's fun to find out how they came
to be. This is part 3 of 3.
HOGWASH Steamboats
carried both people and animals. Since pigs smelled so bad they would
be washed before being put on board. The mud and other filth that was
washed off was considered useless "hog wash."
CURFEW The
word "curfew" comes from the French phrase "couvre-feu", which means
"cover the fire". It was later adopted into Middle English as "curfeu",
which later became the modern "curfew."Curfew originally denoted a regulation in force in Medieval Europe by which fires were to be covered over or extinguished at a fixed hour in the evening indicated by the ringing of a bell.
In the early American colonies
homes had no real fireplaces so a fire was built in the center of the
room. In order to make sure a fire did not get out of control during the
night it was required that, by an agreed upon time, all fires would be
covered with a clay pot called-a "curfew".
A curfew was also a cover for a fire, such as this one, made in the Netherlands in the 17th century:
BARRELS OF OIL When
the first oil wells were drilled they had made no provision for storing
the liquid so they used water barrels. That is why, to this day, we
speak of barrels of oil rather than gallons.
HOT OFF THE PRESS As
the paper goes through the rotary printing press friction causes it to
heat up. Therefore, if you grab the paper right off
the press it’s hot. The expression means to get immediate information.
BARGE IN Heavy
freight was moved along the Mississippi in large barges pushed by
steamboats. These were hard to control and would sometimes swing into
piers or other boats. People would say they "barged in."
I'm a huge (DC Comics) superhero fan and I got excited when
I saw this new trailer for the new CW Network TV Show called DC's Legends of
Tomorrow.- This is like a big Christmas present to me!
The TV show is
about a group of superheroes that time travel to stop an immortal despot named
Vandal Savage. It incorporates a bunch of great heroes I've loved for decades:
Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the Atom, Firestorm and Professor Stein, Rip Hunter Time
Master, and a new character called "White Canary" that came out of
the TV show Arrow. Two of the Flash's villains are also on the team: Heatwave
and Captain Cold.
The trailer is
really exciting, and I can't wait for it to start in January, 2016.
As a kid, I've (Rob) always found dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals fascinating. In fact, I used to have quite a collection of
little plastic figures and knew many of their names and the periods in which they lived. So, this latest science news was really exciting to me!
We May Resurrect The Mammoth Sooner Than You Think
Wooly Mammoths Credit: Longnow.com
Source: Huffington Post 12/18/15
"Dr. George Church, a molecular biologist at Harvard University who is
working on such projects, estimates that a variation of the first new
woolly mammoth (which disappeared some 4,000 years ago) may be born as
soon as seven years from now."
Of all the varied and incredible possibilities presented by the
controversial new gene-editing technique known as CRISPR-Cas9, perhaps
the most intriguing are efforts to bring animals back from extinction.
Candidates for de-extinction, as the process is known, include species
like the passenger pigeon (the last one died in captivity in 1914), the
dodo (last seen in 1662) and the sea cow (1768, a mere 27 years after it
had been discovered by Europeans.)
These projects are not pipe dreams.
Dr. George Church, a molecular biologist at Harvard University who is
working on such projects, estimates that a variation of the first new
woolly mammoth (which disappeared some 4,000 years ago) may be born as
soon as seven years from now. Like other proponents of de-extinction, he
hopes the animals will play a key role in slowing or reversing climate
change.
If you've seen "Jurassic Park" (and is there anyone who hasn't?),
you’re already familiar with the basic idea behind how it would work.
First, scientists would retrieve DNA from the frozen remains of a woolly
mammoth that was preserved for centuries in the frozen tundra. Then
they would splice that DNA into an Asian elephant genome -- a step that
Church’s lab completed earlier this year. The two species are so closely
related, Church said, that if mammoths were alive today, they could
successfully breed with elephants. If Asian elephants' DNA were tweaked
to more closely resemble that of their ancient relatives, they might be
able to give birth to a furrier, fattier hybrid.
A month after Church’s lab announced its gene-splicing success, an
international group of scientists published a paper showing they had sequenced the woolly mammoth’s entire genome,
drawing a "road map" for changing an Asian elephant's chromosome to
make it more mammoth-like. With CRISPR, making those changes is faster,
cheaper and easier than ever before. The method allows researchers to
change, delete or replace genes in any plant or animal (picture the
precision and ease of the find-and-replace function in a word document).
Church and other scientists in the field say this work is decidedly
not about creating Mammoth Park. The hope is that these "cold-adapted
Asian elephants" will be capable of repopulating the vast tracts of
tundra and boreal forest in Eurasia and North America, a goal they feel
will help protect endangered Asian elephants and at the same time revive
an ancient grassland in the tundra, which could prevent the melting of
Siberia's permafrost.
Of course, the project is not without its critics. Duke University
conservation ecology professor Stuart Pimm called the idea “molecular
gimmickry” in an opinion piece for National Geographic.
“At worst," he wrote,
"it seduces granting agencies and university deans into thinking they
are saving the world. It gives unscrupulous developers a veil to hide
their rapaciousness, with promises to fix things later. It distracts us
from guaranteeing our planet’s biodiversity for future generations.”
The Huffington Post caught up with Church to talk about the potential
for de-extinction efforts to help delay climate change, the ethical
quandaries inherent in the work and his response to the critics. This
interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What’s the latest in the world of de-extinction?
The way we’re framing it these days is we’re bringing DNA back from
the past to improve modern survival and diversity. So rather than
bringing a whole species back, you can augment current-day species.
Because in practical terms, you have to have a modern-day host anyway,
so you might as well help that host while you’re at it.
My favorite example is the Asian elephant. It has two big threats to
its existence -- it's going extinct, just like the mammoth did, and it’s
mainly because humans are exacerbating all of its other problems.
The whole point of the project is merging modern molecular techniques
with environmental conservation projects. So, for example, bringing
back alleles from the mammoth, just bits of DNA, that can make the
modern species compatible to cold.
Courtesy of longnow.org
Building a mammoth out of an Asian elephant begins with three major adaptations.
So how does it work?
If you do bring the woolly mammoth genes into the elephant, would it
just naturally migrate to northern territories?
The precedent is the bison. The bison was essentially extinct
worldwide, with just a couple hundred left, so you needed a plan that
included land all over Russia, Europe and North America. And now there’s
500,000 of them, so ranchers and conservational land and so forth can
accommodate the bison. It will probably be even easier for the mammoth,
because it’ll be even further north, where there are even fewer people
and fewer demands on the property. It’s not like we’re going to build a
city or a factory in Siberia.
And it would help the environment — it would help restore the rich
ecosystems that are based on woolly mammoths and grass, rather than what
many ecologists consider a much poorer ecosystem that we currently
have, based on trees and moss. Do you think these projects could be one of the keys to reversing climate change?
That’s going to be a multi-pronged effort. But this could be one of
the major prongs, because the Arctic tundra has about two and a half
times more carbon trapped in it than all the forests of the world put
together. So if it melts, that carbon gets released. And if that gets
released, it would be the equivalent of burning down all the forests of
the world two times over.
So anything you could do to stabilize that would be good. In the case
of the elephants, they’ve done experiments where they’ve set aside
plots of land and do a treatment similar to what mammoths could do [to
the habitat], using tanks or tractors to knock down trees and punch
holes in the snow. This has resulted in a 15 to 20-degree lower soil
temperature -- and that would stabilize the carbon and buy us a few more
decades of time to figure out other solutions. What’s the history of the idea of reviving extinct species?
First there was "Jurassic Park." Then there were breakthroughs in DNA
sequencing that allowed us to inexpensively decode ancient DNA as far
back at 7,000 years. And now we have the exact DNA for these ancient
species and, in some cases, we have appropriate hosts that are pretty
close.
There were three steps. One was the basic idea, then the second step
was new sequencing methods -- some of these are things my lab helped
develop -- and the third step is new synthesis methods like CRISPR that
allow us to test ideas that come out of the sequencing. What was your reaction when you saw "Jurassic Park" back in the '90s? Did you think it all looked possible?
I read Crichton's book in 1990 and saw the movie in 1993. I was
pleasantly surprised that the "dinosaur DNA" in the book was actually
from a bit of bacterial DNA (not dinosaur DNA) that I worked on in 1978
as part of my Ph.D. thesis. By 1990, my lab was 3 years old and the idea
of sequencing ancient DNA was 6 years old. The idea of genome
engineering by homologous recombination in animal germ line was 1 year
old.
It looked possible to me, especially since my lab was focusing on new technology for genome sequencing and genome engineering. How did CRISPR change the game?
CRISPR is about
1,000 times cheaper than previous methods, and that can change
everything. It sounds like its just a quantitative difference, but it
can result in whole new capabilities. We’ve made 15 different genetic
changes already in the elephant genome using CRISPR. This would have
been very hard to do prior to this.
And CRISPR is not the bottleneck anymore -- it’s growing up the
embryos and making sure that they’re developing normally. That’s the
bottleneck. Sergey Brimov, the Russian ecologist and a major proponent of
de-extinction of woolly mammoths once wrote “All [that] is needed is to
cross mental barriers.”
That’s almost always what’s needed. Do you think we have a mental barrier when it comes to reviving extinct species?
I think there are some people whose job it is to cross barriers. I’m
one of those people. We have to think out of the box in order to make
new sequencing and synthesis methods, if nothing else.And
in fact I’m a little less extreme in feeling that everyone has to think
differently. Usually it's sufficient that a few people think
differently and then they work out the details so it’s a very compelling
case.
I think the reason it’s hard to change people’s hearts and minds is
that, until you have a few de-extinct mammoth DNA put into Asian
elephants, and you can see that they are now woolier and better adapted
to the cold and so forth, then you can say, "okay, now let's scale it
up." And that’s the point you have to start convincing more people.
It doesn’t hurt to start talking about it now because it could be
here much faster than it seems. Some of these technologies happen ahead
of schedule rather than behind schedule. What’s your estimate for when we’ll actually see the first woolly elephant?
CRISPR turned out to be easier than expected. The growing of embryos
is harder to predict. I would say it will probably take us five years to
work out the embryo development part, and then it takes at least two
years to go through full gestation. So we might be seeing the first new
baby elephants in seven years. Maybe a decade. That’s pretty soon. What will we call them?
I call them cold-resistant Asian elephants. What are unambiguously
woolly mammoths are the DNA we’re drawing inspiration from and literally
moving from the computer back into Asian elephants. What the hybrid
will be called will be up to popular decision making that’s outside of
my realm. I’m not going to call them mammoths unless somebody insists.
They’re elephants with mammoth DNA. What do you think the biggest ethical issues are?
For me, it almost always it boils down to safety and efficacy,
whether it’s a human medicine or some ecosystem intervention. For people
first, and then other species a close second.
In this case some of the things that come up are, "Won’t they be
lonely?" Well, the answer is, you make a whole herd of them, the way
that was done with the bison -- there are 500,000 bison. We could easily
make tens of thousands of these elephants. Another question would be,
hasn’t their environment disappeared? Isn’t the reason they died off
still here? And I think the answer is, probably the northern part of
Siberia is adequately cold. The fact is, it’s not too warm for the Asian
elephants [in their current climate], it's too cold for them. Are you
harming the current endangered species? And I think our intention is to
only help them. What is your response to those who call this work “molecular
gimmickry”? Or those who say this is a distraction from the work that
needs to be done to protect the biodiversity that exists today?
Well, that’s a very vague critique. Here’s a very specific way of
protecting the biodiversity in Asian elephants. If they have a better
way of protecting Asian elephants, I’m all for it. We’re trying to
reduce the loss of the babies to the herpes virus and we’re trying to
give them cold resistance to expand their range. I don’t think that’s a
distraction or a gimmick; that's a goal.
The variation on that that I’ve heard is that this takes funding
away, or it makes people think that they don’t have to protect current
species because we can always bring them back. But the fact is we’re not
bringing back species -- [we're] strengthening existing species. That
may turn into full de-extinction in the future but only because it’s
inexpensive and it has value.
We’re not just saving the Asian elephants here. If the ecological
experiments are correct, these are keystone species that are missing
that would stabilize a whole variety of species, plants, microbes and
animals, that are all dependent on the keystone species, which is, in
this case, the mammoth. You can call them gimmicks if you want, but
they’re goal-oriented environmental conservation strategies.
Our Weimaraner Dolly, and younger Dachshund Tyler always love to cuddle, and we don't pose them for pictures. Today,
January 2, 2016 we were in the den and they cuddled up together and we
were able to get a couple of pictures of them. Franklin, our older
Dachshund, prefers the comfort of Daddy Tom's legs to stretch out on.
Over the holidays I (Rob) enjoyed a great United Kingdom (written and based) Victorian mystery called
"Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St. Stephen" by Emily Brightwell. For anyone who likes Downton Abbey, you will likely enjoy this book and the entire series.
The series is about an Inspector during the Victorian Age of England who employs a house staff who loves solving mysteries. The lead character, Mrs. Jeffries, is the housekeeper who has a keen sense of detective work.
This particular story has quite an interesting twist at the end that I didn't see coming!
This is the third in the series that I've read and each novel is better than the other because I get to know the characters a little more each time. The books are pretty well-paced and well-written, although for U.S. readers, you may have to look up a couple of words that you may not be familiar with. Regardless, all of the books I've read in this series are enjoyable and I recommend "Feast of St. Stephens."
BOOK SUMMARY: A Yuletide dinner in West Brompton should have been a festive occasion,
until the host, wealthy Stephen Whitfield, dropped dead before the
second course. Now Mrs. Jeffries and the busy sleuths must rally in
support of their Inspector?especially since the clues are harder to find
than a silver sixpence in a plum pudding.
Being a former Bostonian, I (Rob) thought this was pretty interesting. I don't ever remember seeing any white squirrels, though. In the news: White squirrels in Boston aren’t albinos! A video by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife explains the rare sight.
People have been spotting an unusual critter outside Massachusetts General Hospital—white squirrels.
Tom French, assistant director of the state’s Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, explained in a video released Wednesday that that the squirrel’s unique coloring comes from a genetic abnormality.
The squirrels are not albino, he said, since they have dark eyes.
French said color abnormalities in gray squirrels are most common in cities.
“Camouflage for species that get hunted is
a very, very important survival factor,” he said. “Having one color
versus another in a park where they’re not that many predators, or on
the lawn of Mass. General Hospital, it really doesn’t matter.”
I'm a simple guy who enjoys the simple things in life, especially our dogs. I volunteer for dog rescues, enjoy exercising, blogging, politics, helping friends and neighbors, participating in ghost investigations, coffee, weather, superheroes, comic books, mystery novels, traveling, 70s and 80s music, classic country music,writing books on ghosts and spirits, cooking simply and keeping in shape. You'll find tidbits of all of these things on this blog and more. EMAIL me at Rgutro@gmail.com - Rob
Recently I read one of the BEST, fun, most enjoyable books about a celebrity dog you'll ever read:
We have a black and tan Dachshund named Tyler in our family, who is very much like Crusoe- fun, happy, energetic and awesome.
