Get the free hour-long Tiger Shark Mix 5: “Nightmare Before Halloween” featuring music from ghosts like Michael Jackson, monsters like Alice Cooper, and plenty of the living dead.
Read More
This is a little late (meant to post before the holidays), but good nonetheless.
Almost every time my wife and I take our three rather large dogs (Diva's pictured, as puppy, to the left) to a friend or family member's house, I grapple with whether or not I really want to deal with them (the dogs, not the people.) They can be a lot of hassle and work, but in the end, they usually win. So I try to be as considerate as possible to our hosts, though it's not always the easiest thing to do. This New York Times article has some entertaining stories and tips about taking your pets on vacation with you, especially on holidays to friends' or relatives' houses. And though I do refer to my dogs as members of my family, I hope I'm not nearly as extreme as some of the owners in the story. An excerpt:
Difficult guests are no longer limited to humans. The boundaries between humans and animals have been so eaten away by pet therapists, pet designer outfits and pet bar mitzvahs, that it has reached a point where devoted owners, who treat their animals as privileged children, lose all perspective on the pet’s role in their social lives.
More American households have pets than ever — 68.7 million of them in 2006, according to a new survey by the American Veterinary Medical Association, up 12.4 percent from 2001.
Among dog owners, 53.5 percent considered their pets to be members of the family, the survey found. For cats, the number was 49.2 percent.
And the term “family member” should not be used lightly. Ari Henry Barnes, who works in a New York law firm, is so devoted to his cat, Romeo, that he wipes the animal’s behind every time he does “a stinky boom boom.”
Many four-legged family members are routine travelers.
Derek Welsh, the president of www.bringyourpet.com, a “pet-friendly” hotel and lodging directory, estimates the number at roughly 10 million a year.
“If you do get a green light, bring a lot of treats for both your dog and the human host.”Grogginess, grogginess, please go away. Grogginess, grogginess, please don't come back another day.
After 5 days away from work, I had one heck of a time getting back into the swing of things this morning. Though my grogginess probably wouldn't have been helped with the addition of grog, I felt like I could've used some to help me navigate the treacherous waters of work. Luckily, I came across this article called "7 ways to restart your day", which will hopefully help me feel better about waking up early and slogging away every weekday.
Among the tips:
As soon as the alarm rings ...
Spend your first 15 seconds awake planning something nice to do for yourself today.
Get up
The longer you lie there, the more you ruminate, the darker your outlook is likely to become, says Christine Padesky, Ph.D., coauthor of "Mind Over Mood." So get vertical and make a cup of coffee, take a shower, feed the cat ...
Drink ...
Two glasses of water upon awakening, the time when our bodies are dehydrated, says Susan M. Kleiner, Ph.D., author of "The Good Mood Diet." Dehydration causes fatigue, which affects your mood.
Move it
Just a few minutes of movement -- a fast walk, for example -- raises energy and reduces tension, says mood expert Robert Thayer, Ph.D., professor of psychology at California State University, Long Beach, and author of "Calm Energy."
Investigate
When you're dogged by anxiety or the dread you woke up with, try to pinpoint what's causing it. If you can figure out why you're upset, that's halfway to feeling better.
Be kind and thankful
Do something nice for a stranger or friend and see if you don't feel better about yourself. Also, jot down three things that you're grateful for. It seems so simple, but counting your blessings just has a way of making you remember the sun is shining.
Laugh at yourself
Look at your own life and try to appreciate the absurdity of what doesn't go exactly according to plan. Acknowledging how little control we actually have over what happens is sometimes a most freeing gift to yourself.
Hope this helps (you and me!)
Also, this blog has some good points about work and vacation. Additionally, timeday.org is a good place to check out and advocate for. Timeday.org is the website for Take Back Your Time, a major U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment. Sounds good to me!
Read More