NaBloPoMo

Shameless promotion (13 of 31/13 of 274)

January 13, 2009 by kathi

Axel update! His first show will be on January 30. I won’t be there to see my aspiring butterfly in his AKC debut. I’m a little bit sad about that, but it is really for the best as he will show much better if he’s not looking around outside the ring for me. Plus I will be visiting my parents, who I don’t get to see nearly enough, and who are also half an ocean and half a continent away from the show site.

Now on to the shameless promotion promised in the title! I’m helping with a new Rottweiler publication, Total Rottweiler Magazine. I didn’t think I would ever get involved with another periodical. In some crazed and illogical unconscious attempt to prove that I do use what I learned in j-school, I’ve been newsletter/magazine editor for a couple of different clubs, and copy editor for another niche magazine. Some of those experiences were fun. Some sucked the life out of me.

I guess everyone is allowed to change their mind now and then, though. Total Rottweiler Magazine is off to a good start and I’m happy to be involved! If you are reading this and even remotely interested in Rottweilers, please consider subscribing or perhaps buying a single issue to check it out.

Now that Axel is almost officially a show dog, I have to shamelessly promote him, too. Here’s the ad I’ll be running in the magazine (sorry, it’s a repeat if you are reading this on LiveJournal).

If you click on it, the full sized version will show up (at least I think it will). I tried to make it almost a “teaser” since his show debut takes place after the ad deadline. The magazine is a quarterly, so hopefully by the time the next deadline rolls around, I’ll be able to list him as a Champion!

Change of scenery (12 of 31/12 of 274)

January 12, 2009 by kathi

I am sure you are tired of hearing me complain about the oh-so-lovely winter we are experiencing in Chicago (will it help if I mention that we’ve already surpassed our usual snowfall for the entire winter, and it’s not quite mid-January? No? I didn’t think so), so I am happy to report that a brief trip to Hawaii is coming up in the near future. We need a nice change of scenery. Please ignore the fact that we just had one in November. Hopefully this record-setting winter won’t interfere in a bad way.

The Sumatran tiger cubs born in September at the Honolulu Zoo weren’t ready to receive visitors during our last trip in November. We’ll be able to see them this time, though. Their public debut was in December (during the Obama family vacation, how about that).

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel’s renovation is almost done. Part of the hotel is open now, and more rooms and the ballrooms and restaurants will be opening for an Inauguration Night gala. The grand reopening is in March, but I’m hoping that the Mai Tai Bar will remain open between Inauguration Night and the grand reopening, to accommodate one of our favorite traditions, if nothing else.

On the down side, Hawaii has had its share of bad winter weather as well this year. Frigid temperatures are obviously not involved, but there have been some severe rainstorms and that well-publicized island-wide blackout back in December which was caused by lightning strikes.

You won’t even want to read this blog if we get to Hawaii only to be hit by nasty winter rainstorms. Although I must admit that warm rain beats the living hell out of freaking “wintry mix” any day!

Speaking of a change in scenery, I’ve been feeling that way about online scenery as well. I’ve been spending more time with Facebook, Twitter, CrackBerry and my blogs and journals, and way less time in all VZones worlds and a few forums I used to enjoy. I think I spend about the same amount of time in dog forums, but I don’t “work” for any of them any longer.

In the past, I’ve often been a forum or game moderator or administrator, so when I’d come online, I’d usually have a definite purpose. Not so much any more. In some ways it is great to not be working, but it’s also a strange feeling to not be “needed” anywhere online.

What’s that? Yes, you’re right. I am needed in one place. That website of mine that I have procrastinated on for yet another month. I really do need to get it done before Axel gets his championship!

Changing perceptions (11 of 31/11 of 274)

January 11, 2009 by kathi

Throughout the years that I have owned Rottweilers, there have from time to time been unfortunate incidents involving the breed that make people question me as to why I’d have “those dogs.” “Those dogs” as in dogs that bite people, sometimes with fatal results. Despite the fact that several of my own dogs have been able to change people’s perceptions about the breed, it’s a real uphill battle after a local bite incident.

I wish I could come up with an answer that would stop them in their usually-moronic tracks, but after not one, but two incidents in the Chicago area within the last 10 days where three children were hurt by Rottweilers, one fatally, it’s not only the morons that are asking the question.

I have had a total of six Rottweilers. Their temperaments have run the gamut from love bug to well, asshole. One of the love bugs was a registered therapy dog who visited mentally and physically challenged residents of two group homes. Not exactly a job for a killer.

I try to keep the two current dogs out of situations where they might even think they need to defend me. I don’t believe that either one of them would think that a young child is posing a threat that required a full-on attack. But they are dogs, so when it comes down to it, I really can’t know for sure what they are thinking.

We don’t have children. If the dogs are outside of our house, even when in the fenced back yard, my husband or I will be out there with them. If someone came into the yard, it would either be at our invitation, or in direct defiance of a request to stay on the other side of the gate. In other words, we supervise the dogs and as much as possible, their interactions with others.

Supervision is what is almost always lacking when the full story comes out on any of the dog attacks upon children. Unfortunately in almost every news account I’ve seen about dog attacks, there are a few things in common.

The dog’s breed is played up only when it is a Rottweiler, Pit Bull or other “bad” dog. If the breed is one of the supposed “family-friendly” breeds, it’s not mentioned until much later in the story, if at all. The attacks almost always occur when there is no adult supervision of either the dogs or the children. This fact never seems to be reported initially, though. It never seems to get mentioned until a later report, usually a day or so later.

I am not defending the dogs that injured or killed these children, and I am most certainly not defending the owners or parents that failed to supervise the dogs or children.

I just wish that people would not have that knee-jerk reaction whenever something like this happens, and cast doubt upon all Rottweilers, most of whom will go through their whole lives without harming a soul.

Climate change (10 of 31/10 of 274)

January 10, 2009 by kathi

Sorry to those of you who have had to listen to a previous weather rant over at LiveJournal. This one will be slightly different, if that is any consolation!

For those of you who didn’t already know: I am an idiot who moved from Hawaii to Illinois. Away from year-round pleasant weather and the ocean, and to harsh weather extremes and urban ugliness. Not exactly a Mensa candidate for that move alone (which is sad, because otherwise I could qualify). I did want a change of scenery, and quite honestly, I do believe that everyone should go far away from home for at least a short time when they are young. The change of climate, though? Not so much.

So I do have a lot of weather rants, although you can see they are largely due to my own stupidity.

My rant today is not really about the weather, although I am certainly not thrilled about the snow that fell last night and today. There was quite a lot of it, but the snowblower is functioning (it did give us a bad moment of doubt though) and my wonderful husband took care of most of the snow removal. All I had to do was the front steps. We help one of our elderly neighbors since his grown kids live a good distance away, and one of our other neighbors helped, too.

So that part was fine. The rant-worthy part is how some other people on the block are just plain jagoffs and never help with snow removal. I am not talking about elderly people or people with health issues. I am talking about people who are healthy enough to pitch in, but can barely manage to move their car off the snow route we live on so the plows can clear the road all the way to the curb.

Those of us clearing snow today were all fortysomething and older. There are younger people on the block, and kids of an appropriate age. Where the hell were they?

And while I’m on that topic: do kids of middle school age not shovel snow for extra cash any more, and why not? I know that kids now get “real” jobs as soon as they are old enough, but you would think that kids who are not old enough for real jobs would jump on the chance to earn some extra money. In the almost 20 years I’ve lived in this house, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times an enterprising youngster came to offer snow shoveling, leaf raking or lawn mowing.

We talked, or ranted, about this at work. As mentioned before, I grew up in Hawaii, so obviously I never shoveled snow for extra cash. But my business partners, also fortysomethings, all said they shoveled show for extra cash when they were youngsters. One lives near a school, and still can’t find a useful kid to help shovel. In fact, he said that not only did kids in his neighborhood not shovel, one of them stole his snow shovel off his porch.

Apparently that is an advantage to having Rottweilers often seen in one’s yard. Our shovels have never been stolen when we leave them out!

No snow tomorrow, just plummeting temperatures, so I guess I’ll need another rant topic by then!

Placeholder (9 of 31/9 of 274)

January 9, 2009 by kathi

During every NaBloPoMo month, there are those one or two posts that you write just so you have written something that day.

Well, this is one of them. Between computer issues and connectivity issues, this one’s just sliding in here and promises there will be real posts, with real content, over the weekend!