Ozzy

I was looking at some other blogs recently… I’m not a real blog surfer, but checked out a few… and one thing mine lacks is pictures.  I added pictures to quite a few of my posts last year, but that kind of fizzled out lately.  My favorite post of mine is the one called PEEEEAAAKK!!!. I have dozens of pictures of autumn leaves in my local area of upstate New York. You should check it out.  It should be under October 2007.  Now it’s summer and I don’t think I took any pictures at all of winter or spring.  Oh well, maybe next year.

But, I have a picture of my son’s new snake:

A lot of people are so afraid of snakes that they won’t even look at a picture of one!  Well, maybe not a lot of people, but I know at least one.  But, our snake is really cool.  His name is Ozzy, after THE Ozzy.  He’s a Mexican Rosy Boa.  He doesn’t do much when he’s in his cage, but if you take him out, as you can see in the picture, he likes to explore. 

Here’s another picture of the adventures of Ozzy (NO! Not THAT Ozzy):

Pretty cute, huh? Maybe “cute” isn’t the word most would use. 

Ozzy does not bite.  That’s a good thing, right?  He hugs, isn’t that nice?

As a mom, people wonder how I can allow an animal such as this in my home.  The only thing I can say is that when we got a dog, I knew I would be the one ultimately responsible for its care.  But, when asked about getting a snake, I washed my hands of it.  If it gets out and runs away or dies, it is not my responsibility.  If they don’t feed him and he starves to death, it is not my responsibility.  If he is a she and has babies, my kids better find good homes for them… I have nothing to do with it (except to take pictures once in a while).

The worst part about having a snake is that it eats mice.  My kids have to feed him a mouse every week or two. That’s pretty gross, yet interesting, to watch.  But, my husband goes to the pet store and buys frozen mice and they have to be warmed up in hot water before feeding.  Otherwise, the snake will know it is dead and won’t eat it.  They take the thawed and warmed up mouse by the tail with tongs and dangle him in front of the snakes nose.  He suddenly grabs him and squeezes the “life” out of him.  Then, when he’s ready, he unlocks his jaw and swallows the little guy whole.  YUCKY!  But, then you get to see the mouse slowly being swallowed since he is about twice as big around as the snake.  That’s kinda interesting.

Ozzy lives in a “cage”, a glass tank with a screen top clamped down, to keep him in, of course.  He has a heat lamp that’s on all the time.  He is a desert snake so he has to stay warm… although it’s plenty warm without it right now.  He doesn’t need much water.  I’ve never seen him drink. 

A couple of years ago we had a baby snake, the same breed as Ozzy.  Her/his name was Rosy. I think we had her about two weeks, maybe a month, and she escaped.  She didn’t have the clamps on her cage, but we didn’t think she was big enough to get the top off, but I guess we were wrong cuz she is GONE!  For a few weeks after that, none of our friends would visit us.  Go figure!

Our pet doesn’t follow commands or do tricks or even know his name, but the best part is I don’t have to take care of him.

I’m going to try to put pictures up more often.  I hope you return to see them.

Peace.

Women & Men in Film

This is one of the best things I’ve gotten in an email!

Check this out… it is so cool!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEc4YWICeXk&feature=related

Here’s one of the men:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdzkSP9ewY

If you look, you’ll find the lists of names.

Sex and the City (2008) ***

I have been eagerly anticipating the release of this movie for quite a while. I just started watching the HBO series about 18 months ago and was hooked. So, the fact that I waited three full weeks after its release may surprise people, but I had a pretty good reason. Besides the fact that I’ve had some full weekends during June, I was waiting for my friend Pam.

Pam is my friend with whom I see most movies. Sometimes I go with my husband, sometimes my kids, and sometimes all by myself, but mostly with Pam. Earlier in the week, before the movie came out, Pam and I went to see… uuuummmm… I don’t remember… but anyway, she told me she had never watched Sex and the City. She gets HBO, so I don’t know why she had never seen it, but at that point I told her, “You have got to watch at least a few episodes on HBO on Demand. Then, we’ll go see the movie. You’ll love the show!” And I know that she would. So, I gave her a few weeks. The other day she told me she and her sisters planned to go see the movie today and asked me to come along. My father, step-mother, and sister had already seen it and my father told me that my sister never watched the show and hated the movie. My step-mother and Dad did watch the show and loved the movie. So, I was a little worried about Pam.

I needn’t have. Pam is not my sister. She loved it as much as I did. I think the reason I liked it so much is the love I have for every single one of the characters and I really missed them. Their personalities haven’t really changed after five years… Carrie was a little less humorous in the movie, but she had a good excuse. And Big was a little more sensitive than in the series, but it’s obvious that he’s in love, so that explains that.

This movie was everything I was hoping it would be. There were quite a few hilarious lines and situations… Pam has a laugh better described as a cackle that everyone in the theater heard several times over the movie dialogue. There were some really good sex scenes… nothing too serious… most just to keep up with the series’ style. And we cried a lot as well.

I love Kristen Davis. When Charlotte was mad at Big, you KNEW it.

I love Steve. He’s just so adorable.

I love Samantha. But, hers was the only storyline I wasn’t really satisfied with. She’s a terrific friend to Carrie, though. I love how supportive they all are to each other. I have some good friends… GREAT friends, but I don’t think I’ve ever been as close to anyone as those four are.

One other disappointment, but not a biggie, was Stanford’s limited appearance in the movie. Did he even speak? I don’t remember.

The one character new to the movie was Loiuse, played by the fantastic Jennifer Hudson. Her character was really cool. I was going to say unnecessary, but that’s not really true. And her song at the closing credits sounded sensational!… Maybe another Oscar for her! (If she wrote it, that is).

The movie was quite lengthy, but I could have sat there another two hours if they wanted to make it that long. I’m not saying it was technically a great theatrical masterpiece, but for a chick-flick, it was very entertaining. I had a great time watching the old gang… Let’s have another one next year!

So long, Spark

It was a sad day, but we had to get rid of our dog. I hate to say it, but things are much less stressful since.

It happened about two weeks ago…but, probably should have been done sooner than that. Sparky had bitten quite a few people. I can think of at least 10… two of them were serious. Even the ones that weren’t serious were painful, though. It seems I always kind of defended him each time. He was being protective… or thought he was anyway. Now I know better… that protecting us from our friends, or even strangers, when we aren’t in danger is not a good reason to bite anyone. His other reason was sometimes what I think they call “food aggression”. That’s not good either because if you’re taking away his dog food, that’s one thing, but if he’s into something he shouldn’t have, that’s another.

Dog bites aside, he had many other behavioral problems. He would dart out of the house any chance he got (sometimes went after the neighbors in their own yard); he was housetrained, but not enough to let us know when he needed to go out sometimes (we’d take him out and stay out with him for five minutes or more, come in, and then minutes later find fresh dog poop behind the living room chair… his favorite spot); and he barked all the time. We’d take him for long walks and those times he’d do better, but not always. If we put him out back, he’d bark and dig. He knew both were wrong, because I trained him. But as soon as I was out of his sight (he knew when I was too far to discipline him) he’d start digging or barking. He had his own pen where he was allowed to dig, but the barking drove everyone nuts. I tried collars for the barking, but after a while, he either ignored it or got used to it. It was frustrating because he knew when he was misbehaving, but also knew when he could get away with it… when he was out of our reach. And he was difficult to discipline because he was so damn fast! I took him to group dog obedience classes and hired a private trainer once. He was great when she was here, but didn’t respect us in the same way.

All that said, I loved playing with him and cuddling with him. He would sleep in our bed at night, under the covers, in the bend of my knees. He loved to play and do tricks and go for walks. I miss him and I don’t miss him. It’s much, much, MUCH more peaceful around here without him. But, I’m going to want another dog someday.

Tags

What the heck are tags? I don’t think I understand this concept. I think they are words you add outside of your post that let potential readers know what subject or subjects your post is about. I’ve only actually done that once, until now. That was my post about my family’s trip around the upstate New York countryside last fall. I added “autumn leaves” as a tag. So, on my stats page it shows “Number of tags: 1″. OK, so that makes sense, but I swear that at one point my number of tags showed like 10 or something… maybe not, but I’m pretty sure. So, what gives?

I know this is a lame post. I just want to see if I get any more hits if I add a few tags to it. If so, maybe I’ll add tags to past posts. Then, I’ll delete this lame one.

Peace.