From Steve

Dear all, Internets still screwed but: (1) I am halfway, the worst half, through on the book and if I have a peaceful week– unlikely– I could be all drafted in a week. (2) As of last night they will pay my way air & in- country to go to Almaty for the Primitive Dog …

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An American Vacation

At six a.m. Saturday, I was sipping coffee in a deck chair above a sea oat-covered Florida sand dune, staring into the Atlantic ocean. The sun, already shining on Helen and Darren, lit lingering rainclouds from below to the color of smashed plum. The waves rolled and a good breeze pushed back the tops of …

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Well, Dang…

I feel like I’m 5.4 Random Things in debt! But this is fun. I’m learning things about my blog partners I didn’t know. To keep the chain letter going, I’ll finish my job. 1) We just had our kitchen remodeled. It’s much nicer than it was, with a new tile back splash, granite counter tops …

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Eight Random Facts About Steve

Steve here. I had dreaded being tagged with this meme and was ducking Dr Hypercube when Patrick came in on my blind side. But it turns out that when I brainstormed it with Libby I had more than “2.6”. So: 1) I am the oldest of nine children. The last two (twins) were born after …

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Dillard / Macdonald

Dillard / Macdonald One of the books in my “pile” is For The Time Being by Annie Dillard, a writer I’ve come to think of as a soul mate to Helen Macdonald, but without any better justification than this imprecise observation: Most of us connect words and ideas with the standard tools. We use stout, …

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Eight (count ’em, 8)

Eight (count ’em, 8) Some quirk of Blogger prevents me from putting a title to this post in the proper place. But you get the picture. Patrick has graciously infected us with another blog-cootie–a blootie, if you will—called Eight Random Things. The rules of this meme: Explain the rules; name eight random things about yourself; …

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2Blowhards on Hobbies

We are pleased, as Her Majesty says, to be mentioned again at 2Blowhards! Steve’s post on bully whippets made the latest round of blogrolling by team member “Michael.” This regular feature (called Elsewhere) is something I watch for at 2BH, sure to provide a captivating sample of the Web in lighting-round format. Tagged to the …

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Future Trends and More Merle

This blog may bend the boundaries of our Querencia, but I’ll try to wrangle it back around. According to AP, “The Pew Research Center survey on marriage and parenting found that children had fallen to eighth out of nine on a list of factors that people associate with successful marriages…” The survey charted other trends, …

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From Steve

I’m still having SERIOUS server problems. I just can’t load big sites like Daren’s, Carel’s, Pluvi’s (well, I can if I am willing to refresh for a half hour or more and if it doesn’t disconnect– which it does literally hundreds of times a day, some times three or four times a MINUTE!) I also …

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New Dog Book

Steve’s friend Ted Kerasote, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award, has a new one at B&N I could not resist. Merle’s Door, Lessons from a Freethinking Dog, is parts memoir, polemic and canine biography. It is also an unapologetic love story and, I admit, a tear-jerker there toward the end. Merle is a mostly-lab …

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