Norm

Norm was our dog, she (yes Norm is a girl) was put down today. Normandy was 16 years old. When we went to the pet store to pick her out, it was on a whim, really Nick had finally pestered my parents so long about getting an iguana they just wanted to shut him up. I have no idea how we went into the pet shop for an iguana and came out with a puppy, but we did. Norm was the chubbiest puppy in her litter, she was also the calmest puppy in her littler (sound like a character from Cheers?). We found out her birthday was the day after the anniversary of D-Day... So the best name for her was Normandy, and we called her Norm for short.

She went on her first backpacking trip when she was a puppy, she even had her own backpack. When we (the humans) went for a swim in a trail-side pond, Norm was so protective of us she jumped in the pond (without ever having been swimming before). Of course when she got out to us, she nearly drowned us! Near the end of our week long trip we hiked 12 (?) miles the last 4 miles were up a steep slope of sand and rock. Norm led the way...

Norm was an amazing camper and backpacker. She was also a wonderful walking partner. She and I would walk the entire outer perimeter of Coronado, several times a week while I was in high school.

My most favorite memories of Norm are from more recently. When I moved home from school I began to notice that when Norm and I were home alone, no matter how sick she was, she would position herself between me and the door. Norm was a very protective dog... ok so she thought she was and put up a good front. But when it came down to it her bark was worse than her bite. She sent more than one delivery person running out of or jumping over our front gate!


Norm had a very expressive face, and I will miss seeing it when I come home. After battling cancer for 2 yrs, she finally decided she couldn't do it anymore. She stopped eating and drinking. The last two days she struggled to stand up. I'm glad she's no longer in pain. I love my dog. I miss her.


I wish I had a picture of her on my computer so I could post it with this.

He walked!

Tuesday Gryph took his first steps, to me!
We were playing in the living room, Jon and I were watching Gryph put "his" (appropriated from the kitchen)blue sauce pot on his head. He put the pot down and stood up to look in his toy basket. Being the silly mom I am, I mimicked him. Gryph thought it was silly and tried to take the pot from me, in doing so he reached for me and took 2 steps to get closer to me! I bawled! I was so happy for him, but also so sad to see him step further away from being a baby! (pun intended)
Jon has been trying to call Gryph a "toddler" for the last 4 or 5 months, ever since he started crawling. I've always argued that he hasn't officially toddled, well now he has, so now he's a toddler!
After the first two steps he took two more to me. We tried to get him to walk to Jon, but he kept sitting down. We let him rest and 15 minutes later he took 7 steps to Jon and the blue pot! He did this in front of our friend Scass (not his first name) and I cried... again... and then got teased for being such a sappy mom!
In the last two days he's gotten really daring and has taken a step away from me towards something else. But only one step. In no time he's going to be running circles around me and I'm going to be hating that he's not crawling.

In the mean time I guess I should by him some shoes!

I can't find pants!

Why don't clothing companies make pants that fit a bigger girl? Why do they make plus sized clothes in "low rise"? Nobody wearing a size 16 or larger should be wearing low rise pants!
I'm trying to find decent looking, resonably priced shorts and pants for the summer... and everything that would be flattering on me is LOW RISE! I spend most of my day bent over, I don't need to show off my crack to the whole world.


Ugh. I just needed to rant.