First 100 Entries

The last entry on Halloween was the Menagerie's 100th post. I thought that in honor of the occasion I should put together a retrospective. So, here are the top 16 Menagerie photos from the first 100 entries (as chosen by Eric-- and I only included animal pictures). Vote for your favorite, both of you readers!

These are in no particular order, not even chronological. I had lots of trouble with Blogger trying to get them all uploaded...

1. Raz uses civil disobedience to ensure that Daniela can't work on her computer instead of paying attention to her dog.


2. Is it dinner time yet?


3. Raz looks up from reading the NY Times.


4. Moose meets a pig.


5. Peace in our time: Moose and Raz share the bed.


6. Snow Dog.


7. Moose, Lucy, and a sunbeam.


8. Moose and his duck.


9. How much bed does a Moose need?


10. Moose and Penny play-fight (this one was actual play, unlike their actual fight more recently..)


11. Lucy also loves the duck.


12. Lucy in mid-shake.


13. Is it dinnertime YET?


14. Happy Holidays 2005!


15. Soccer-playing deer.


16. Whose bed is it anyway?


17. Raz enforces the pecking order by sitting on top of Lucy. Lucy looks annoyed.

Howl-o-ween

The Halloween 'spirit' here at the Menagerie has been dampened, both because we've been fighting off illness lately, and because some truly evil person(s) STOLE the jack-o-lanterns which Daniela had carefully and artfully carved (with her new power pumpkin carving tool). We had 3 pumpkins, two of which were carved, and they stole those two, leaving us just one, uncarved and lonely. If there's such a thing as karma, or punishment in an afterlife....

But in the meantime, we captured a bit of video of one of our favorite menagerie-related passtimes: howling. Moose has a very loud, sharp, ear-piercing bark. He also occasionally howls (he is a hound after all). We actively encourage the howling, because it's amusing and less annoying than the barking. Sometimes when all the dogs are barking at some dastardly passerby (no one is allowed to pass by our house without being barked at), the two of us will start howling, and eventually both Lucy and Moose will join in. It's amusing.

So this morning we attempted to coax Moose into doing some howling. You'll hear both of us howling, then, tentatively at first, Moose joining in. Happy Howl-o-ween to all!

Queen Raz and her servant

Raz, being transported in a manner befitting her status....

(I couldn't decide which picture was better, so you get both of them!)

Isn't she cute?

And isn't the dog cute too??

Signs of Fall

It's autumn here in Indiana-- the leaves have begun to change (and a bunch of them have already fallen, with some assistance from some windy weather lately) and we've even had a good frost.

But there's another sign of fall in Indiana, and that's the appearance of large numbers of political yard signs. Neither of us has ever lived in a place with as many yard signs-- nor, in fact, have we ever lived somewhere with as many local offices (we're trying to figure out just what in hell the Perry Township trustee does, as opposed to the Perry Township board members, for one example).

So, for both of our regular readers: how many yard signs can you find in this picture of a yard near our house?

Lotus Festival

This past weekend was the Lotus Festival in Bloomington. This is a wonderful world music festival that happens each year in October. This year Eric and I saw Tuvan throat singers, Tibetan song, traditional Irish music, rockin' Klezmer, Malian acoustic music, Balkan techno-rock, old tyme Americana, blues & jazz, Hindustani slide guitar, tabla and other Indian and Afghani music and dance, gospel music... There was a whole lot to see and hear! We had a great time. Some photos (we'll try to post some videos later)...







That's a sand mandala they had in one of the yurt-like huts built for the purpose of the festival. You could add to the mandala- it was really fun. The next day the mandala had been swept away (because that's what is supposed to happen with Tibetan sand mandalas, meant to symbolize the impermanence of life) and a new one done.

Here's Eric with the SOLD sign on our new house. I'm just posting this cos I can. Finally figured out how to download photos from my mobile phone. As a side note, it was very strange, a day later the "SOLD" part of the real estate sign had disappeared. Like they took it back!



This is a "before" picture of our bathroom. It's getting re-done! Yay! Will have tub, separate shower stall, and a two sink vanity. Yippe!!!!