romping through the tall, wet 'plains'

this morning max and i went out to our regular field not far from our apartment complex and with the recent rains and spring season, the grasses and flowering plant life has gotten quite tall. i could barely keep track of max as he happily bounded through the field; catching occasional glimpses of his tail and the top of his head, i wondered about what 'critters' he was disturbing. it didn't take long for the nesting birds to chirp their annoyance as they flew out of the brush. with specks of pollen on his nose and lots of dew on his fur, he looked like he just came in from a storm although the sun was shining and it was a glorious morning. aah, the smell of wet doggie fur! he has not seen any puppy shampoo since the fall and is definitely ready for his spring bath! since we no longer have a back yard, he may have to go into the bathtub. we'll have to see about that one.

crazy drivers driving me crazy!

i was almost in an accident this weekend - a small blue VW bug was in the right lane, i was in the middle lane, when the driver put on the left turn signal and then proceeded to make a left hand turn right in front of me! i had to stomp on the brakes and was sure i would hit her; she wasn't trying to get into the lane i was in, instead she was attempting to make a U-turn. she failed and hit curb on the opposite of the street. she was then blocking traffic and had to back up!

max comes home today!

due to finances, i had to wait til this payday to make my pet deposit so today i get to bring max to the apartment. i have really missed him but i know he will miss our old backyard :( usually, as soon as i stop walking, the pounds start adding up but believe it or not, i have actually lost a few pounds during the last two weeks. i will be taking pix of max in our new home and posting them soon. there are plenty of sidewalks where we live now although we are no longer in walking distance of the river; that's the saddest part of our new place but we have a car and who says you can't drive to the river and then have a great walk around the water and surrounding city parks.....

i only want to eat happy animals, is that wrong?

in the past, i have grappled with vegetarianism and have pondered, recently thanks to my newly converted vegetarian daughter, the idea of 'eating dead animals'. i grew up eating meat, in fact, it was not a 'meal' according to my father if there was no meat. now as an adult, and with the responsibility of feeding my children, we have chosen to go the natural, organic, no pesticides/hormones and no antibotics route. partly this is for health reasons - our son had several 'super bugs' in the NICU and we were advised that we should avoid any thing that would further jeopardize his immune system. while i do not feel 'guilty' for eating meat, i do want the animals to be treated well and slaughtered humanely. this is very important to me. i want the cows and chickens to be able to enjoy the fields and range free and i want the end of their life to be as pain free as possible. is this too much to ask?

census? what a load of CRAP!!

census? i thought it was about numbers- NOT

..okay, so i got a call from my brother [we are 6th generation tejanos] about the census, and he says 'hey sis, what are you doing about question 8 and 9?' and i'm like, i haven't even opened my yet! anyway, there are some very RANDOM questions that i feel don't have anything at all to do with 'counting' people - they want to CATEGORIZE everyone, okay, not everyone just anyone who might speak Spanish or have Spanish sounding surname! The 'yellow' brothers and sisters are pretty much covered with japanese, chinese, korean, vietnam, all have their own check boxes as well as our 'red' brothers and sisters - you know the ORIGINAL AMERICANS. anyway, where's the box for candandian, german, irish, turkish, sudanese, nigerian, etc. nope, this census is about finding out where the 'brown' people are coming from - i guess the government finally wised up that many of those crossing the rio grande only traveled through mexico and are not really mexican? well, i will probably get someone at my door as i REFUSE TO BE A PART OF THIS SH*T!. i am putting down that we have 3 of the HUMAN RACE living in our apartment. really now, how can i choose one over the other? according to the census, my children cannot be 'white' and 'hispanic' but their parents are 'white' and 'hispanic'.....actually, it all depends how far back you want to go.......as a Tejana [a person born in Texas of Mexican descendant] it means that i have both 'old world' and 'new world' blood in my veins. mexico is not a homogenous country - the mexican people are a combination of spanish, indian [native american if you wish], and african peoples with germans and italians mixing in large numbers during the 1900's. their father is 'american' with german, french, and who knows what else in mix! really, we are just one HUMAN RACE.

don't like the weather? wait a minute, it will change

i do believe that phrase was made about our beloved texas - rain this morning, and now windy and in the 40's when just on thursday it was sunny and in the upper 70's - swimming weather for us in san marcos! today, you don't want to be outside, the wind is biting, it feels like winter but the sun is shining. a friend of mine told me they have had 250 inches of snow where he's at - i can't even imagine.

'taco' meat & meatless tacos!

when my daughter went 'total' vegetarian [she stop eating mammals first], one thing she missed was tacos. to try to minimize making 3 separate meals to satisfy everyone in the family, i made taco meat & meatless taco filling at the same time [different pans of course]. it was fairly easy as i just had to reverse the order of cooking. for example i used to brown the meat first then add the veggies and spices, now i put in the veggies and spices first, divide some for the meatless tacos, and then add the meat to the pan. using 'grillers' instead of the 'crumbles' makes for a better taste but more importantly, better texture for the meatless tacos. my daughter loved them and it was great to have the whole family sit down for the same meal...now if i could only get my son to eat pasta and more veggies, it would be perfect!