Blue Heaven’s Ch. Silk Stocking

Silky at 3 months in 1994.

Silky the Champion at 2 years

Silky at 5 years

Silky is my parent’s dog. I have always loved him madly – he’s a hollywood hunk and a big love. But he’s 10. 10 for Newfs is generall pretty old. He’s feeling pretty badly now and they are putting him down today. He’ll feel so much better after that and will always stick around. Especially to be with his best best friend in the world, Daisy. This is always outrageously heartbreaking. Here are more of Silky’s family and progeny.

I actually went skiing yesterday. Rich and I went to Mad River and we skiid in the woods all day. THis is a big deal for me. I am afraid of trees. I do things like snow plow, make a turn and stop for  3 minutes, etc. One of the reasons is that even though I have skiid most of my life, I switched over to telemark skiing a few years ago and just don’t have that edge of being able to ski on absolutely anything anymore (yet). But after a few hours my confidence was great. I wasn’t swooshing down through the trees by any means, but I know that I can go in there and be in control and even enjoy myself a little. The rest of the ski area (open trails) was pretty windblown and classic eastern skiing while the woods had gobs of fresh (hard packed) powder. One spot that we skiid on not once but twice was (well seemed!) almost totally vertical for about 150′. So now I know that I can get down stuff like that too. And heck, I can even walk today.

Here are some great videos of awesome tele skiiers skiing in the woods, on the bumps and all over at Mad River.

We actually watched a good part of the super bowl, little of the 1st q and the full 4th q – apparently missed the half time tata show. Anyway, we were really curious about how they get that orange 1st down line and it was darned easy to find the answer on google.

ok so I got invited, just for fun I joined and I think I’m already being “stalked” <g>

This is REALLY COOL!!!

Two scientists have unearthed a complete skull of a mammoth that wandered the English countryside 50,000 years ago — only the second intact example found in Britain.

(caveat – if it’s not a hoax or something…I’m so gullible!)

I happened to flip through the latest Dell catalog that appeared in our mailbox and what should I see, not one, not two, but three photos (on the same page showing off the notebooks displays) of a Telemark skiier! How cool is that?! Since I can’t find an online version of the catalog pics, here’s a great Tele link. (”Pin-Head” is one of the nicknames of a tele skiier.)

three steps forward, ten steps back

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/soccer/01/16/bc.sport.soccer.womens.blatter.ap/

I wrote about Spalding Gray’s disappearance last night when I saw the story on CNN. Tonight, by way of Halley Suitt’s weblog, I was priveleged to read a very beautiful and personal post about this man by John Barlow. Just the title of his post alone is very very sweet indeed.

I worked in media marketing research for many years. What that means is that I worked for some major magazines (and a big ad agency) in the advertising departments. I was part of the team (and sometimes the sole member of the team) that provided research data to the sales force which they used to market the magazine to potential advertisers. So because my job depended on survey results for many many years, I am willing to take the time out of my day to help those that follow in that same occupation. My husband always rolls his eyes when he sees me wasting my precious time doing this, but this is the reason.

This is an awful story  – I adore Spalding Gray.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/15/missing.actor/index.html

It is only speculation at this point.

This is not unusual for highly creative people – many very very famous, of course Virginia Woolf comes quickly to mind. I have a friend who had been autistic as a child, grew out of it (or just adapted to the outside world), was a very energetic woman, talented artist, creative on many fronts (thanks surely to whatever crossed wires had attributed also to her autism) but also suffered severe, inexplicable depression and eventually committed suicide. It was a heartbreaking loss of a person who brought so much joy to so many people.

I rarely clean out my rolodex. Quite often I’ll be flipping through the cards looking for something and come across an old card with the name of a friend who has long since passed away. It makes me very happy to have these unexpected little reminders of my lost friends. It’s almost as though the phone just rang and it’s that person saying “just called to say hi”. Nobody should ever be forgotten.