Hi Maggie! Join the GSD brigade! [link]

I'm a refugee from not-quite the South Shore: I grew up in Norfolk, and if I climbed the pine tree in the back yard, I could see Foxboro Stadium (which we called Schafer Stadium then). But now I'm in the Bay Area, where I don't have to shovel and my Reynaud's Syndrome doesn't give me as much trouble.

Hi Maggie!

Hi Consuela and -t!!

Gorgeous GSD, Consuela. I love the black ones so much. Our obedience trainer has one that I adore.

Hey Maggie! My goodness, really long time lurker with that id number! Yay for extended family, boo for wicked commutes!

so lovely to see people appear out of the woodwork!

I realized I am more of a lurker than not lately. I see many Buffistas on the book of Face, but I miss this place when I come back and read through the conversations I've missed.

I have very little to brag about in my life right now. I work at a job I don't like with people who are ok, but not friends. Money is terribly tight and I get scared all the time that just one more thing is going to put me over the edge.

My building just changed hands and the new owners are not great. I'm not allowed to complain too much because my old landlady is a friend of my sister's, so any complaint is seen as a criticism of her desire to retire.

I rarely see the family that I moved here to be near. I miss Kansas City and the friends I have there. so I'm lonely.

But, I'm still alive, I have a roof over my head, I have the internet, and I have you guys.

Hi Maggie! We too are GSD lovers; we rescued two from Westside GS rescue of Los Angeles. Kaylee is purebred, as far as we can tell, and Newton is a mutt with some shepherd in there somewhere. They would LOVE to have four acres. Or even half an acre.

They would LOVE to have four acres. Or even half an acre.

Oh, man, yeah. I have 2000 square feet total (including the house & garage), so The Boss gets very little room to romp when we're at home. And it's pretty hard to train for agility when I have no place to put a jump or a set of weave poles. It's also hard to do any distance work, so as a result she is pretty unreliable on the recall. (Sigh.)

I love rescues but they are work. Today The Boss had a little altercation with a dog on the trail and the other dog went behind me to sniff or snap at her butt, and when snapping at him -- she got me. Didn't really break the skin, but ouch. Clearly we have to do more work on dealing with other dogs.

Hi, Maggie! Nice to meet you!

I rarely see the family that I moved here to be near.

quester, I feel you on that. I'm not sorry I left NJ, but if I hadn't moved here to be near family, I might've moved to Seattle or Chattanooga to be near my best friends.

I've been doing occasional drive-by posts, but I thought I'd pop in here and say hello.

Hello!

(I thought of stopping there.)

I've been frantically busy at work and haven't had time to do much besides work and sleep. Things are quieter this week, so I'm trying to catch up with what I call "my imaginary internet friends." Same life, same job ... nothing new to report.

In regard to ancestry ... I'm mostly northern European, as far as anyone can tell, one great-grandmother was Cherokee (from the N.C. reservation) and most got here before 1800, so there's no chance of qualifying for any other citizenship. I do qualify for the Colonial Dames and may qualify for the DAR (one 18th century ancestor spent the Revolution in Ireland to avoid the fighting, but there were other possibles) and might even qualify for Daughters of the Confederacy (one great-grandfather ducked out the back to avoid the recruiters from both sides and ended up dying in a barroom fight in New Orleans ... seems it wasn't the fighting he objected to, just on someone else's terms).

And I also need to marry a Scotsman who can get me some dual citizenship.

I'm just sayin' ...

(snerks at Kilter -- that would totally work)

Cindy! Holy doodle, nice to see your electrons here (after all, it was you and Cash and Allyson who kinda pointed the way for me here from the Bronze alladem yeers agu.)

Waves to Todd. (hi!)

My dad has tried to get me into family history for years. He knows I'm just obsessive enough that I would dig away at it. So there's a new site, and I followed him there and started clicking.

(This next part feels more like Bitches) So I said to him "Why did you never tell me your father committed suicide?" He said "what makes you say that?" "Uh, skills, Dad." "And there's all this other awful stuff and I'm only a generation back. How much did you want to know?"

I may not be cut out for this genealogy gig.