must see: the earthlings

DISCLAIMER: the bottom of this post contains disturbing images. there is a warning before that section of the post, if you do not wish to see.



have you heard of the documentary "earthlings"?

image source.

apparently it was released in 2005, but i never heard about it, until i read an article in the seattle p-i about the mistreatment of the elephants at woodland park zoo and saw a reference to earthlings in the comments section.

i watched the trailer online...



okay, i lied. i watched about half the trailer online, until i got to the part showing dogs, raccoons and foxes skinned alive in china for their fur, and i felt like vomiting. it was horrifying and disturbing. the images of animal cruelty, abuse, slaughter...

it wasn't that i didn't know this is a sad reality of the world we live in. it's just it's so easy to ignore. bury my head in the sand, so to speak.

anyway, i knew i had to watch earthlings.

i ordered it on netflix, and it sat on my coffee table for 6 days, daring me to watch it.

finally last night, with butterflies in my stomach, i put in the dvd, and cuddled up on the couch with bondi as my little spoon, and pressed play.

it was beyond disturbing. profoundly grotesque.

and i think you should watch it!

i know, i know. you will say "you can't bear to watch it" it's too awful. blah blah blah.

~*~this is me on my soap box~*~ if you eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, and steak for dinner... if you wear cute patent leather shoes and carry a lovely coach handbag, if you have a designer dog (or any dog), if you've ever been to the zoo or the circus or the rodeo, if you live on this planet we share with non-humans... you owe it to yourself to be informed.

~*~this is not me preaching~*~ telling you what decisions to make for your life. i do not judge you for your choices.

~*~i will not lie~*~ i eat chicken and turkey and eggs and milk and cheese. i wear leather.  

i am just as complicit in the torture and suffering of animals as the next person. and that is exactly what it is. torture and suffering. but i know... and i choose.

i choose not to eat mammals.

i choose to adopt my dogs from the shelter.

i choose to volunteer at sarvey.

i choose not to support seaworld or the zoo.

i choose to support defenders of wildlife.

and...

i choose to share this powerful documentary with you.

fyi: you can watch the whole movie documentary online here: www.earthlings.com

here is a summary (from wikipedia):

EARTHLINGS is a multi-award winning feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) while illustrating our complete disrespect for these so-called "non-human providers." [...] the film is narrated by two-time Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby. [...]

With an in-depth study into pet stores, puppy mills and animal shelters, as well as factory farms, the leather and fur trades, sports and entertainment industries, and finally the medical and scientific profession, EARTHLINGS uses hidden cameras and never before seen footage to chronicle the day-to-day practices of some of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit. Powerful, informative and thought-provoking, EARTHLINGS is by far the most comprehensive documentary produced on the correlation between nature, animals, and human economic interests.

Phoenix has commented on the documentary that, "Of all the films I have ever made, this is the one that gets people talking the most. For every one person who sees EARTHLINGS, they will tell three."

consider ~this~ me telling three.

here is what people are saying who watch the earthlings:

"earthlings is the definitive film of all time that americans don't want to see."

"for those who watch the earthlings, the world will never be the same."

"earthlings is nothing short of a masterpiece"

"it is a rare experience to be changed by a film. earthlings has that power."

"the most powerful movie i have ever known."

WARNING: Below is a preview of certain disturbing images in the movie. 
DO NOT SCROLL DOWN IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO SEE. 

images courtesy of google "earthlings" images

lovely surprises!

We spent the past weekend in Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands enjoying gorgeous views like this:

I have stories and pictures to share later, but I will just say I was surprised by a few things.... like, I *heart* private beaches (read: no tan lines)! Well, that's not really so surprising but I just wanted to make y'all jealous.

Oh, and SURPRISE: I don't do well with bossy Type A females who are probably a lot like me but obviously I'm less obnoxious because duh, I'm awesome.

Saturday evening, while Joe and I were enjoying the sunset and a lovely dinner, I received an email from my hilarious mom who had her own lovely surprise.

I have something crazy to share :) David and I were sitting at our fire table, under the 100 foot evergreen tree that comes through our deck, just finishing up dinner, when suddenly a giant half eaten catfish bounced heavily off David's head and landed with a splashy muddy plop on his plate. I kid you not. We then noticed the crows flying around and causing trouble. They must have made the eagle in the tree above us drop his dinner! In the words of your cousin Isaac, "THAT doesn't happen every day!"

Yes, that is seriously a half eaten catfish that fell from an eagle's talons to my dad's dinner plate.

Well, apparently it hit him on the head first.    

Can you imagine???

One of the lovely perks (surprises) that comes along with living in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest.

Tomorrow, I'm off to San Diego bright and early for work. I asked Joe if he would take me to the airport for shits and giggles. (BTW is that an expression anyone else uses? Just me?) I have to be there by 6:00am so I naturally assumed he'd so say no way jose but I must be a really good girl because he agreed. And I was surprised! Especially since there's no way I would take him to the airport that early, and I told him as much.

I KNOW, I KNOW, I'm terrible... and some of you bloggers are like crazy wake up at 4:00am for workout peeps and 6:00am is like sleeping in. For shame.

Anyway... see how I tied this totally random post all together??!! *so proud of myself right meow*

blogger: fail!

Hi lovelies!

It's been well over a month since I last graced you with my presence here.

Blogger: FAIL!

excuse #1: I'm a new mommy to this lovely pup who keeps me on my toes with his silly antics.

Joe's dad came in town for 10 days (excuse #2, and that alone deserves its own post!) and introduced him to the laser pointer... Yeah, thanks for that!

Lil' Homie will chase that damn thing for hours. (And here I thought only cats chased those things.) If you stop playing with him, he just stares at the floor and waits. It's a little disconcerting...

PS the photo in the bottom left corner above is (L to R) Sophie, Homie, Tanner and Bondi. Sophie and Tanner are my mom's pups. We decided we needed a picture of all the dogs after a couple "pomtinis" and I believe this was Take 14.

excuse #3: I have this whole JOB thing that's quite an inconvenience... plus I've been traveling for work. See!

Well... that's enough excuses. Now here are a few collages courtesy of Picnik from our Memorial Day Weekend camping trip (yes, I know that was a REALLY long time ago)...

...And a few fun events Joe and I have been to here in Seattle.

Well, that's all for now! I promise I'll be back with exciting adventures and funnies soon.

i'm a bear.. hear me GaaarrRRR!!

We have plans to go camping/backpacking this Memorial Day weekend. Joe is an avid camper... being from Idaho and all :-)

Or should I say was, since we have only been camping together two times in as many years?

The first time we went with another couple overlooking this algae-infested pond beautiful lake and it rained the whole time.

Oh, and the chick we were with went and took a dump in the woods and came back and put her used TP in the fire. Let's just say no one wanted to cook smores! It was a 'shitty' experience.

Our second backpacking/camping trip - just the two of us - went much better, but it's been almost a year now since we've been.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not that i don't like camping trips.

It's just hard to find the time... But we're going this weekend with a group of friends for 3 nights! With 3 dogs (yes, 3 - I'm dog sitting for friend and don't ask how i thought that would be a good idea, but I digress).

One of my friends, a transplant from Cincinnati, is coming along and she has never been camping before, so she is basically making the stockholders of REI very happy "getting ready" for this trip. Yesterday she sent me over her list, which REI conveniently supplied, of everything she "needs" for camping. I tried to assure her that she did not, in fact, need an headnet or flares, but I think she just wants to be prepared :-)

Yesterday was a long day. I was tired,but it was Tuesday so off my lil bro Gabe and I trekked to Sarvey Wildlife like we do every week. I didn't get home until well after 11:00pm and Joe was already dozing off on the couch with a glass of wine. I was too exhausted to be jealous. We got in the shower and I started to tell him about my day. I was laughing about the thought of my friend showing up with a star identification map, an ice-axe and head lamp in tow.

Joe was laughing with me, until I got to the part about the head lamp.

"Uhh... you'll probably gonna be the only one without a head lamp."
"Why would I need a head lamp? I have a flash light!"
"They're just super convenient, you know... for night hikes."

Okay, first of all I DON'T believe I will be the only one without a headlamp. Just saying. But more importantly, why the HELL would we go on a "night hike"? Isn't the whole point of hiking to enjoy your surroundings?

And I don't know about you but I like my ankles - I've liked them for a long time. The way the are, ya know. Not broken.

The only way I'm going to be doing any hiking at night is very quickly if I'm.. ya know.. running from a rapist or a bear or something..

So I told Joe all of the above. I was tired and cranky so I pretty much said it just like that. And then I threw in, ya know... just for good measure:

"YOU can go hiking at night with your precious headlamp. I will be drinking whiskey by the fire. And Homie's staying with me, because Homie doesn't go night hiking EITHER!!!"

Did I mention I love camping?

Anyway, I went to bed for some much needed rest and I slept. Until 6:30am when Joe's iHome awoke me from the most amazing dream ever (so annoying) and Joe barks "Hit the snooze".

See, Joe gets up (and goes to bed) before me, and I like... no I NEED... my morning sleep. It's my best sleep. It's my - if I don't get it you don't want to be around me - sleep.

Now, usually I don't even wake up to Joe's alarm. Usually I'm a pretty heavy sleeper and Joe just reaches over me and presses the damn snooze button himself.

Probably since I was having such an amazing dream God awoke me to punish me for making fun of that girl who pooped her pants in my second grade class.

Anyway, so I pressed the snooze button... and tried to get back to the part where Bondi and I were running off into the sunset to frolic with sparkle unicorns and rainbow butterflies....

*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP* 6:37AM

I rolled over and looked at Joe, waiting for him to, oh I dunno, shut the goddamn alarm off.

Mother-pooper's still asleep!!!

Well this morning, Joe snoozed his alarm from 6:30AM until the time he actually got out of bed at some point over an hour later!! And by Joe I mean me because I am the one who actually had to reach over every time and press the damn snooze button. Because Joe was ignoring me!!! Despite the fact that I was screaming and bitching and carrying on (no I'm not proud, just honest) every time the alarm woke me up. 14 times.

I am one of those people who, when upset, needs to be Heard. Validated. Acknowledged. Pacified. All I got was a few annoyed grumbles and that WOULD.NOT.DO.

So I did what any crazed, sleep-deprived, PMSing normal girl would do. I unplugged the alarm and chucked it across the bed at Joe. Oh yes I did. And I said that alarm would be on his side of the bed from now on. "GaarrRRR!!"

So what did Joe do? He calmly plugged the iHome back in... got out of bed and said "You are out of control."

Finally... victory!!! Joe is up and getting ready and I get to go back to bed!!!!

And then do you know what happened? 7 minutes later, like clockwork, the piece of shit went off again.

Tell me is this iHome like super human? I unplugged it!!! Don't you have to reset it or something?

So from bed I gave my best... "GaaarrrRRRRRRR!!!"

Yes, I ROARED.


Speaking of, I am thinking I need to beware of Bears this weekend... something Brick said in Anchorman.

Wishful Wednesday - Dream Room (i'm biased)

It's time for Wishful Wednesday, courtesy of my IRL lovely friend Miss Kelsey.

'I wish' I could come home to...

this bedroom each and every night!

I LOVE the bamboo construction and funky low profiles. Just my style :-) I would want it with different (maybe Bamboo?) floors and a shaggy white carpet...

I'd have to throw in this "Chiffonier" ... I just learned this word a few months ago and basically refers to really tall dressers like the one above. It would be PERFECT for all my little clothes.. not like pre-college weight, but you know.. socks in top drawer, then undies, then bras, then bikinis, etc. etc.

Okay, okay. Full disclosure: I'm a little biased.

I helped design this furniture!!! 

Yup, our family company makes this bedroom collection and we sell it on Costco.com here.

Plus, I helped develop the flash product demo for it... check it out, but just warning the music get's really annoying. I take responsibility for ensuring the inclusion of a MUTE button :-)

It's my most favorite bedroom collection we sell, and I would totally have it in our little house, if our bedroom was just a teensy bit bigger. Because of the low profile overhangs (which I love) the bed takes up quite a bit of space... maybe in our next house!

Of course, to complete the dream bedroom, the window in the picture would need to look out upon this view, and not the fake skyline we painted for our furniture showroom :-)

 image source.

To play along with Wishful Wednesday next week, head over to Miss Kelsey's blog The Seattle Smith's!

homies where the heart is!

I know, I know... you have all been wondering if I was run over a truck. I did spend a week in Las Vegas, which is a close equivalent, but alas, I AM ALIVE!

The real reason I have been so MIA is....

.................. I'm a new mommy!

Not THAT kind of mommy, but a mommy to this little guy:

 Friends, meet HOMIE.

I apologize in advance, all these pictures are gonna kinda suck because I can't find my camera at the moment. That's another story (which incidentally has nothing to do with Vegas, shocker!)

Anywhoodles, we weren't exactly looking for a new puppy, but we had talked about it. Remember, that's why we moved! From Feb 18:

Background Info: Our apartment lease is up in a couple weeks, so Joe and I have been looking for a house to move to... with a yard... so we can get Mr. Bondi a little brother/sister that Joe will insist on naming "Homie"... which I think is the worst name for a dog ever, but I digress. 

Well, we waited a good 2 months so I say that's responsible.

What happened is about two weeks ago  I insisted we decided to go to Tuxes and Tails, a big charity auction put on by the Seattle Humane Society.

I wore a snazzy dress and Joe looked quite handsome and we mingled with a bunch of well-to-do Seattleites. There was delicious food and champagne.. and wine.. you get the idea.

Then once they get you all good and liquored, they start parading around with all the adoptable dogs. Ingenious. (The thing about this event is you can put a "hold" on any one dog you see and you have until noon the next day to adopt him/her. This is a huge factor in why I finagled us into going, because it is almost impossible to get a puppy from the pound otherwise.) Anyway, at some point in the evening we saw "Thunder":

I was in love!

We put a hold on him and drug our asses to the shelter bright and early Sunday morning and adopted little "Thunder" who Joe lovingly renamed "Homie" ... Now I do not take credit for this name (though I do have to admit it's grown on me) and I let Joe go with it because:

(a) He's always wanted a "Homie"
(b) He's paying the vet bills
(c) I get dibs on naming our first non-furry child

Bondi did not take to Homie very well. Bondi is a VERY only child and the first couple days were rough for him. More rough than the time he hid in the bathtub, aka Bondi's Terrible Tuesday. The sad part is little H wants nothing more than to follow B around, nuzzle up with him, and be just like him.

Riding in the car goes like this: Bondi sits in the front, as usual. Homie whines to come sit in the front. I help him up. Bondi abandons co-pilot seat with an audible groan and goes to the back. Homie whines to go sit in the back with Bondi. REPEAT.

You can see Bondi's totally annoyed in these pictures:

In the past few days, things have notably improved (probably now that Bondi realizes he's not being replaced). Here are some of Bondi's more tolerant moments:

Anyway, I know this is excessive sharing, but here are some of my favorite shots of Mister Homie (who, not to brag, but has only had 4 accidents in over 2 weeks and already knows SIT and COME)...

Besides the fact that we're totally in love with him, we love how perfect a fit he's going to be for our furry family. Can't you tell how much Homie looks up to Bondi?

Someday, Homie. Someday!

on rugby boys and anorexia

Last night my friend Ash propositioned me with accompanying her to the Eastside Rugby player auction. Yes, you read that right... they actually were auctioning off players for "labor or lust" at FADO in seattle. Beefy hot boys, drinkies and prizes?? Twist my arm!

We walk in to see all these rugby players dressed up... some in tuxes, others in chaps! We grab one of the auction preview booklets and read up on how it works...

If you "win" the auction, you get "roughly 4 hours of their time"... Some suggestions they give:

• Help moving or yard work
• Designated driver for evening
• "Arm Candy" for an event
• You have no friends

So I thought that maybe I could get one of these MEN to help out with some of our new house's "issues" ...

SO I promptly texted Joe:

Me: Babe I'm at the lust and labor party... I'm gonna buy a rugby player :)
Joe: WHAT? NO ur not. I'll be right there...
Me: No baby he's gonna do labor... Remove the raccoons from the roof.. in his undies!!
Joe: Hope he has a job cause he's going to need to help you pay rent

Hmmphff. And I thought that was such a brilliant idea!

We got finagled into buying raffle tickets. $5 for an arm's length!! I must have really long arms because I WON!!!! Not once, not twice, but three times... "a ladyyyyy"

First time up I won a set of 6 wine glasses! SCORE... because Bondi is always breaking 'em when he's had too many. (Joe is always blaming the dog for his stinkies, so I figured.. ehem, well anyway...)

Second time up I won a bottle of wine with a bird on it. Seriously, that's what they called it. Whatevvs, I'll take it :-)

Third time up I'm feeling a little guilty that I keep winning?? Okay, I'm over it. Give me that Jameson shirt!!

Somewhere in the midst of all this, the rugby team auctions off this stick figure girl named "Ciara". I kid you not she was 5'9" and not a pound over 95. She was like Olsen twin intervention * Someone get this girl a cheeseburger * a bear hug'll break her * kind of skinny. And I am not just saying this because I'm one of those girls who hates on skinny girls. Legit, this girl had the fuzz growing on her arms... just sayin'...  NOT.SEXY.  


Apparently I was not the only person who felt this way, because they couldn't get the bidding above $45. Seriously... way to bruise the anorexic chick's ego.. she's probably not going to eat for a week now!

Ciara promptly disappeared off stage and I went to potty. I sit down to tinkle (damn, and I was so close to another post without mentioning pee/poo) and notice the girl next to me is quite an explosive pee-er (peer?). Like... PSSHH - PSSSSSSH... or maybe she has really bad diarrhea? (Eeew I hate that word). Don't judge me but I peeked under the stall and what did I see?? Oh yes, miss The chick's distinctive heels facing the toilet. She's anorexic AND a puker. Lovely.

The next couple minutes were followed by gagging sounds and more pukeyy noises. She was definitely making herself throw up. How do I know this??

1. It was only about 7pm - too early to be drunk and involuntarily puking... on a weeknight anyway
2. I went to DUKE.  Bulimia is to Duke as Herpes is to ASU.  Actually, that's not even accurate... only 1 in 4 peeps have STDs at ASU... the whole eating disorder thing is much more prominent than that at good ol' Duke. No joke. And this is a whole other post, but I digress..

Anywho, I felt a little awkward and debated waiting until she was finished to "confront" her. How would that go? Maybe give her a reference for a psychiatrist? But that didn't play out in my head so well...

She was taking her time in the stall (presumably waiting until I left) so I blurted out "You are wayyy to skinny to be making yourself throw up" and waited a few seconds... *Silence* So I walked out.

Now that I think about it, that didn't come out so right... like, if you weren't so skinny it would be just fine to make yourself puke? And this girl probably thinks she's a lardo. So ipso facto (or ergo facto? whatever...) she definitely can justify it all in her peach fuzz covered effed up little head.

Next time I think I'll just keep my mouth shut, and my eyes on the beefy hot rugby players and raffle ticket numbers prize.

UPDATE: Just to clarify, since some of you asked... Ciara was NOT a rugby player... (DUH!) She was one of the girls they auctioned off as 'lust' not labor..