I would imagine a good shelter would work with you. Get pressure out of your comfort zone, it isn't a good shelter.

A lot of shelters want volunteers to walk dogs and interact with them. That could give you a better idea of the personalities of different dog breeds.

In my experience volunteering at a shelter, the thing you really learn after spending time with dogs is to tell whether they're actively friendly, scared, submissive, aggressive, aggressive because they're scared, uninterested in people, etc.

I had an apple! I get a halo and wings.

Also, Anne & family good Scottish/English WASPs. French/Irish were poor labouring Catholics.

I'm so sorry for your news Scrappy.

I keep looking at the local shelter website and thinking that I want to get a dog.

I've spent the evening looking at dogs at petfinder and chatting with my friend who does dog rescue transport. I'm so ready to get another dog! But not until we get back from traveling in October.

Hubby is watching a Peter, Paul, and Mary special on PBS--yay, pledge week!--and he's getting all teary remembering his youth. I'm only four years younger than he is, but I don't have the emotional reaction to these songs. Then again, I was a naive, inattentive kid growing up in an isolated rural area. He was a military kid eyeball deep in the Viet Nam war and what it did to his family.

Huh, my serious boyfriend in college was a Navy vet who helped with the evacuation of Seoul. I got a couple of nights with him, too, of stealth memories and holding a weeping man.

edit: duh, not Seoul, that's Korea. What was the capital of South Vietnam? Oh, yeah, Saigon. Sort of sounds like Seoul.

Scrappy, sorry about your crappy news.

I'm still way back at the doctor 7 min thing. Grace gets way more than 7 minutes, I think, but I totally want to time it. I get totally LESS than 7 minutes. So I guess we balance it out. The only doc where I consistently get both more than 7 min AND where my time is totally respected is my dentist. He schedules in blocks of .10 increments and actually sticks to it. I was scheduled for an hour long block yesterday and I was in and out before my 60 minutes were up. It was awesome. Except for the filling part. That sucked.

My mother was just telling me they added motion sensors to the alarm because the orchids were being stolen.

Scrappy, so sorry about the news. I hope for much pep.

I was thinking it wad so nice to be seeing some of the people I'll see here for not a funeral...and one of my cousins will be coming to the villa straight from one.So I feel worse because at least I'm not going to one.

My mother could not stop laughing at my sleep wear. I'm wearing this: [link] with polka dots and bows and men's boxers with the batsignal across the front. And socks, in the heat, just in case my feet swell from the flight again. That wasn't pleasant last time.

I'll be sharing a room with "the guy kids...what are they called? Boys?" (my sister, not seeing gender, or rather, fumbling English) at the villa, because otherwise I share a bed, and homie don't play that. So I'm getting my doof on at my parents' house.

Good, I'm tired. Night.