People ask all the time about what really goes on at ARNO's no-kill shelter so we have decided to bring you some daily snipits of life at Animal Rescue New Orleans just so you get the real poop-scoop.

We're Penny and Mimi, two incredibly smart, sleek and very popular feline residents who basically run the shelter and did we mention beautiful? We're strictly volunteer just like the rest of our crew and sure, okay, the humans put in a lot of hours and they do a lot of work, but really, they only do what we tell them to do and so far, that's worked out just fine. We sometimes get into a little bit of trouble like the time Penny took a ride in the back of a U-Haul to another city, and then there's Mimi, well she is the sneaky one and she likes to follow our humans as they walk the dogs and tease them or sometimes she likes to play chicken with the cars they drive, but it's all in fun. Just about everybody on the planet loves us both…..really, it's easy to see why, don't you think?

Listen, Penny's about to head out to ARNO's cleaning tent to make sure our humans are getting those litter boxes and dishes done, and Mimi is making sure we get a mouse for the computer…what? No mouse needed for a laptop? That's crazy, you always need a mouse, right Penny? Anyway, check back soon and you won't believe the things we are going to show you that goes on at this place, we're thinking about calling up the head rat over there in Florida because once Penny sheds that baby fat, we're sure there's a movie deal in this for us!

Meow,

so we meet with brother but after meeting biza who was nursing a serious hangy..well i was pulling the "you choose ur pals over me jana.. u have to pay for it", and it was working. but still meeting with someone who is under the influence is not all that fun. anyway he bought me lunch...which for me was very tasty as i crucified him for his so called wrongs. anyway i told him in like one hour i have to meet another pal (brother)...oooohhh all the beer took a turn and was forgotten. " who is he. why are u meeting him".....n the 21 Q went on.

" when u go out with ur friends do i stand in ur way?. when i make time for you, you decide to go see them, so am also making time for my friends!!"..

end of discusion.

the guy looked like he would die. but the lunch went well and as i promised once i was full and satisfied i took my leave. but i made sure i was late, brother has to jua his also not on beck and call.

i arrived late n he did not look amused, i flash the million dollar smile...nothing...mmmhh i should have worn a skirt, flaught the legs,,,that never fails to work..but eeehhh the look on his face told it all...that wouldnt have worked.

so i decide to start on small talk...but he keps on brushing the topic...basically lets get to the agenda of todays meeting which is..am still not taking ur apology...why?...i whine...am so sorry that will not happen again...Jeez have i ever begged like this, or apologised ever ever...

" am still not taking that..u dont trust or have faith in me....", brother

he said the million dollar Q?...

"me not trust u...would i be here if i dont?" m8m8

"you dont!" brother

ok now this is going to be hard...once brother makes up his mind nothing will change it.am still yet to figure out how we got to the next part of the conversation coz i was getting desperate,

" am still confused about the other chick who i was supposedly told about at the bash....bla, bla..." m8m8

n that was it!!! pandora... " why did you have to go ask other pple instead of asking me...eehhh honestly that shows.... " brother

and it hit me...my pal went and opened his mouth and told him i had asked about...no...its not even that..he is the one who told me about the chick...then i went to confirm.....arrrggggghhh...i swear the dog...am so going to kill him.....but brother is so pissed i need to cool him down

"but honestly dont u think if i was not really intreasted in u i wouldnt be bugging me..i really lo...like u (if i use that word it may land in problems)...i really like you.

" you dont trust me or have faith in me..that is evident..." brother

anyway we went on back and forth...and well i can pat my self because he softened up. so he said that he will get back to me to tell if am forgiven...mmmhhh i can safely assume am forgiven...since he decided to come to my place over the weeknd....its birthday..n well its about time...

so what about biza....he got really freaked out...he kept on calling me..the man has a womans instinct...he believes there is something going down and that he is loosing me...well can you blame a sista...ok a player is a  better word....but can i help it :)

Long live Mimi!

the whole change of scenario started on Thursday when i decided this we are trying out story is taking the snail pace, so i decided to push the boat a bit to sea, but as i have come to learn do not push a brother or he will run. i complain how am not seeing us going the same direction in this "dating" scenario, how he seems his heart is not here...bla bla bla..and the usual end of the mail, lets just be friends. and for sure that is what i got. though honestly deep down it not, but well he decided to take it seriously. but i thought as usual come that evening or the next day he will call and say something. apparently  nothing happened. so i swallow my pried and send him another mail saying am sorry, and how i can i make it up to him, reply lets us just be friend!!!

on a normal basis i would have just gone with he flow keep quite coz i know he will call. but this game has taken another level. i think he was so serious when he said he wanted things to work. anyway so i write another saying how sorry i am and i really want things to work. i almost pull the one of u owe me for all the time u dissed me and came back and i still took u back.

he doesn't reply so as a friend advices me call up the dude, offer to cook him dinner or take him out. for the record am broke so there is not taking the brother out, cook him dinner...mmmhhh i have a weakness for him..we may end up in bed something am not ready for rite now.i call him up and he is on his way to nairobi but he has to got to a relatives place who died in an accident, (i hope so).. so wee plan for the next day.

as i try to think of how to spend such a lovely Friday evening, biza calls.. biza is the other party who really likes me. i like him to but am not seeing much future with him. anyway he says his car broke down and is wondering how we shall go for dinner. oooopsss i had forgotten about that. dont worry sweetness we can do it another time. long story short i end up going home feeling so totally confused and very sober. which anyway is a good thing since i have class the next day.

class the next day does not happen, i wake up with a crazy flue, i cant even talk. good excuse not to go for the class. but my exams are so round the corner....mmmmhh will make it somehow.. after much dildaling in the bed i wake up clean up. i sure hope the brother is remembering. in the after noon biza calls and ask if we can meet. i tell him am kinda busy but i will holla. i head to the office so that when brother calls i will be in the town vicinity. but after much thought i text biza and tell him i will be done by six and we can meet. anyway i may be waiting for a brother who will not even show up. well what goes round come round, both of them cancel on me. brother is tied at home and biza is derailed by his pals, and wee can only meet at 8ish. what am i to be doing all that time i town alone. ass thoughts of how am going to lenga both of them, my nephew calls and offers to throw a few pints, which i accept gladly.. yaani my life is not going well. its a Saturday am all dressed up and the best thing i can do is go out with  my nephew...aaiiii..something is wrong. could it be the way i am never serious and take guys for a ride, and God is punishing me. it reminds me on friday i met my bro.i love that man, its juts he is my brother, but we all know the good ones are either ur bro, guy or married. anyway we were debating about the chick who no one in the family like at all, (he disputes this but i believe he is just with her to prove a point) any way with the rate things are going for me i envy her. so he was saying the problems with divas like me (that's the way he describes me..lol) we are full of drama. we have too many men in our lives that we loose the ones who are really serious with  us because we do not want to loose all that attention.yeah rite!!!!

but as i write that now it makes sense. take the brother for instance the night he told me he really wants to be serious with me, it was under the stars....ok outside there house but i mean there were stars, and the nigh was clear...anyway point is he looked into my eyes and said he really wants this to work. and what do i do, i laughed. that was the best my lips could produce, instead of smacking a kiss to seal that.

so today we are to meet. i really hope so, coz i need to jua where i am with him. so much for being a diva if all i do is mess up men who love me....

wawa, "hi, you looked stressed? anything i can do?"

m8m8, "stress is an understatement, i need help with this figures. can u?'

wawa, " mmhhh perhaps not me..but i know someone who can help. can i ask them?

m8m8 , " sure!"

at this point i dnt care wether i look daft to stranger or not,and anyway they are strangers and i have enough worries in my life to add that to it. so the mysterious guy walks over to me, bends down n whispers to my year, " i was told u needed my help", i look up with the look of please dont  come here thinking ur the prince in shinning ormour...but one look...mmmmmmhhh....souver....mmmmhhh darm...confusion in my head....the numbers were easier to deal with....

ok compose sistar dnt look like a blonde...focus...

"yes, am..i...am ...ok here is the deal..i have no idea how to work out this figures...wawa has told me u could help...so, can u?...."

he smiles...."yes i can...where is the problem persay?....

the rest is history..but not what ur thinking...it was start of a series of tom and jerry games...gal likes boy, boy likes gal but none is willing to admit it. and when they do admit none is willing to swallow there pride to allow the whole rship to workout.

days turned to months, months to 5 years...and the games still continues...until recently we decided this udaku of wasting each others time will have tostop its either this is going to work out or not. so we have started working out things, but the thing is we are people people..none of us want to commit to one person. so i decide to take the bull on the horns, and well we can say it backfired on my face. why is it when u tell am man to decide whether we are serious or not he runs?

anyway...thats is just my way of starting this...yes its not an nobel prize winner but i will get there.

After going for a swim off a private yacht in Capri on Wednesday, Mimi had a team of towel boys and girls on hand to dry her crazy bones. Isn't that Nick Cannon's job?

Just like babies, invalids and the elderly, a diva must be properly taken care of.

We have been school supply shopping with the older two girls so far. There's just something so great about $0.20 crayons. I probably should have purchased another set of drawers to hold all of the crayons and markers and paints we've purchased. The thing is, come next summer, we will have to scramble to find any left to use. Oh well, that's why we stock up so heavily when they're cheap.

Mimi should find out who her teacher and classmates are today. We're going to a good bye party for some dear friends tonight and the house just so happens to be next to the school, so we can go look. We have a meet the teacher night on Wednesday and then school starts on Thursday. I am really hoping that she's in AM Kindergarten so that I can take her and pick her up from her first day before we have to take off. If she's in PM, I'll only get to drop her off and I'll probably cry the whole way to Utah for not getting to talk to her and hug her after her first day.

Baby begins preschool this year. She'll go two days a week and I'll get to be in the room one day per week. She is very excited and can't wait to go buy her very own backpack. We go to back to school night on her birthday and then she starts after Labor Day. (as it should be, thanks Ms. K)

It's too bad that this last full week of summer is so stormy here. We did spend three hours at the pool on Tuesday, though, so that should get us through to Sunday when we hit a water park with a bunch of friends. It's kind of our last hurrah.

...Avete presente 'Mimi' (Beaker) del Muppet Show? Grandioso! :)

Quanti momenti piacevoli passati davanti alla TV in compagnia di questi simpatici pupazzi!! Alcuni di voi li ricorderanno certamente: Kermit la rana, Miss Piggy, Gonzo l'alieno...

I Muppet sono pupazzi creati da Jim Henson, regista e produttore cinematografico, protagonisti di due trasmissioni televisive di successo nate negli USA e poi trasmesse un po' in tutto il globo: il Muppet Show e Sesame Street.
I Muppet solitamente sono costituiti da uno scheletro di polyfoam ricoperto di tessuto e capelli di nylon, gli occhi sono realizzati con galleggianti da pesca e palline da ping pong come nel caso della rana Kermit e Beaker! Sorpresi?

Alla società di Henson si devono anche pupazzi apparsi in produzioni molto celebri, basti pensare alla saga di 'Guerre Stellari' (Yoda...) e al film fantasy 'Labyrinth'.

Il personaggio che preferisco è appunto 'Beaker' ('Mimi'!), l'assistente del Dr. Bunsen Honeydew... 'Beaker' normalmente comunica attraverso una serie di "mi-mi-mi" pronunciati ad una tonalità piuttosto alta, il che lo rende irresistibile!!!

Nel video di oggi ritroverete proprio Beaker in veste di cantante, purtroppo senza molto successo... E dire che ce la mette tutta; superba l'interpretazione, la mi-mi-ca, la gestualità.
Da rimarcare la performance di Animal alla batteria! :)

the heartrending, poor-me tale,

mastered the art of the sad, sob chronicle about his life

I believed him because

I wanted to believe

I wanted to love

I wanted to be loved

I wanted to be sucked dry

and bled

again and

again

and again

I believed him because

My heart dared not disbelieve

My heart longed for the passionate

Prick to let the blood flow

My heart was his and I gave it freely

Not knowing or unwilling to know that

the spell was a curse of eternal blood-letting

A curse that would be broken only with the

love of a true warrior prince that could tantalize and

satisfy the anemia of emotion left inside

Only the true warrior prince could ward off the spell

that bound me for what seems like an eternity of

Pale faced existence and free me to want something

Different.

Merzbau é um destino obrigatório, uma netlabel que procura a diferença, merece a visita e a escuta dos seus álbuns. Na minha breve estadia ouvi do mais calmo ao mais puxado... um mix de áudio e de artistas representados, que primam pela qualidade, das suas instalações sonoras que tem em comum sons electrónicos e cordas de guitarra, sejam acústicas ou eléctricas ... uma visita obrigatória, sendo que todos as releases desta netlabel podem ser adquiridos no formato físico o que é uma mais valia para quem quiser guardar para recordar. Visite com tempo, o site é simplista e minimalista, mas peca por ser demasiado minimalista, falta informação que poderia ser útil aos visitantes, como por exemplo o que é a Merzbau e links dos artistas mais bem feita. Destaco claramente a agenda, que para quem tiver tempo e disponibilidade, é garantia de tempo de qualidade.

test tube, netlabel bem portuguesa, mas que assumiu o inglês como linguagem de divulgação, vagueia por sons electrónicos, rock e ambiente, com uma lista de releases com uma assiduidade espetacular e sem dúvida uma colecção de links de meter inveja... e que eu digo e assumo que os vou ver. Site minimalista, bem estruturado e que merece estar nos favoritos de todos os browsers, cujos donos gostem de musica. chamo a atenção que aqui existe mais laboratório e que o ouvido mais duro e comercial, poderá nao conseguir digerir alguns artistas.

test tube (or '| - apostrophe+pipe - for short) is a Portuguese netlabel, focused on presenting new artists who are exploring new sounds. Be they electronic, acoustic or other. We are not restricting ourserlves to any particular style.

Let's think of test tube as a test tube - literally - for emerging sound languages.

enoughrecords, mais uma netlabel portuguesa a transmitir em inglês, representa artistas do mundo, incluindo portugueses, um site minimalista identico aos anteriores, dá destaque às releases e apresenta todo o conteúdo na página inicial juntamente com todas as releases, é mais imediato, mas menos user-friendly (menos amigo do visitante). Os sons que por lá ouvi são interessantes, ambiente e electrónica parecem compor as instalações sonoras, que assim às primeiras batidas me parecem ser bastante comercial, e dignas de muito airplay. com tempo um site a visitar... cuidado com o trafego gerado pelos downloads ;) porque facilmente nos perdemos por ali.

mimi, a record label. sons electrónicos de Portugal e do Japão, segundo o site diz que tudo começou assim:

Tudo começou quando assisti a um concerto de música e dança tradicional japones para comemorar os 460 anos de amizade Portugal-Japão organizado pela Embaixada do Japão em Portugal.

Depois do concerto, pensamos porque não continuarmos esta amizade usando a "nova música". E assim nasceu a MiMi.

MiMi é uma netlabel que tem como objectivo divulgar o que se faz em Portugal e no Japão relativamente às novas tendências da música electronica (electronica, i.d.m., glitch, noise, digital hardcore, experimentalismo) . Também é uma forma de trocarem-se experiencias musicais entre músicos dos dois países.

Sons interessantes, uns mais comerciais outros mais de laboratório como se uma instalação plástica se tratasse, um local interessante a visitar, embora seja gravissímo não ter onde adicionar aos feeds, tão importantes hoje em dia ou mesmo um local para se inscrever na newsletter. Uma lista de links riquissíma talvez fruto da sua longa existencia online.

Si este año Operación Triunfo se ha caracterizado por algo, ha sido por la mala educación, la vulgaridad, la falta de saber estar y sobre todo, la ausencia de respeto, hacia concursantes, jurado, trabajadores y público. Esto no es nada nuevo. Pero cada día es una muestra de las monstruosidades que crea la fama inmediata y el no saber aceptarla. Y en esta edición, pocos se salban -y entre ellos Virginia, sin lugar a dudas-.

Hoy todos hemos podido leer en la página web de Telecinco cómo algunos de la llamada "Generación OT" se comportaban de manera infantil, agresiva y vergonzosa al quejarse de los blogs de la ya mencionada página, y negándose a colaborar con ella debido a su disconformidad con el contenido. Con comentarios como "Telecinco.es, la web donde nos putean" en boca de algunos de los concursantes -gracias al blog del Juicio Final por publicarlo- hoy han demostrado, una vez más, que ellos son un ejemplo a seguir, pero en toda regla -nótese la ironía-. No dudo en que no es necesario añadir que este comportamiento ha venido por parte del conocido grupo formado por Iván, Pablo, Mimi, Sandra y Anabel, siendo los tres primeros los más distantes y repulsivos con aquellos que han gastado horas, días, y meses hablando de ellos, y, por qué no decirlo, promocionándoles. No es necesario repetir el segundo párrafo. Las personas, hablan por sí solas, y en esta ocasión, lo que se ha escuchado han sido gritos, y no hablo solamente del "Corazón Contento".

We started out well and the drive up was uneventful and loooooong. It took about twelve hours to get to our campsite.

For the last hour we started driving toward some weather that our friend in the other van referred to as the "Black Doom of Death". The photos don't really do the darkness of it all justice.

Then something amazing happened. As we crossed the state border from Nebraska into South Dakota, there was a bend in the road. As we rounded it, the sky looked like...

It was all very dramatic and we took it as a good sign. We finally arrived at our first campsite and checked in. As soon as we had both paid in full, we turned to go out to the cars and saw a sign on the doors stating that there were no wood fires allowed in their campsite. That was a shock to us since it hadn't been mentioned anywhere on their website or anywhere else. We opened the door and found that it was not only pouring down icy rain, but hailing, too. Luckily, by the time we drove over to our spots it had subsided and we set up camp. It went much better than last time. The girls passes out pretty quickly and Dad and I and our friends sat around in the dark with no fire until it started to sprinkle again. It was great to fall asleep to the sound of the light rain on our tent.

We woke up dry and I called around to other local campsites to see if they allowed campfires. We found one two miles away that did, so we packed up camp and got our prepaid nights refunded to us. Bubba shot this one of us saying goodbye to our first site.

This was the view right at our new site.

After we got our new site set up, we headed out to the Mammoth Site. It is a live dig site and was fascinating to find out about how all of the Mammoths died in that site and see them being dug out.

Next we headed down to road to Cascade Falls. It is a simple little roadside park. When we walked down a short set of stairs, we saw a cascading waterfall that made three separate pools. There were a bunch of people already swimming and we hopped in. Mimi had been talking about swimming in the waterfall for months, so I was thrilled to watch her finally get to do it.

That evening, after a super windy storm roared through, we cooked some dogs and brats on our crackling fire, followed up by s'mores made with Reese's Peanut Butter cups and chocolate marshmallows.

The next day we decided to go to Mount Rushmore. As we were driving through one area, we came around a corner to see

After that we drove past Crazy Horse and saw it from the highway. After that, the next stop was Mount Rushmore.

We stayed there for a long time, reading exhibits, watching films and eating ice cream. Bubba was in heaven and telling us fact after fact that she had previously learned in her book and that she read off of the exhibits.After that we went into town a bit and rode the alpine slides. Everyone had fun on them even though many were fearful of the old chair lift that we rode to the top.

We headed back through a park that had a super windy road that zig zagged up a high hill. At some points, we had to sound our horns going through tunnels because the road went down to one lane. It was a big adventure, but worth it when we got to the lookout at the top.

That night the rain held off until after supper, but it poured for a good hour. Our campsite turned into a muddy swamp. The kiddos fell asleep during the storm, but after it stopped, we grown ups got out, started the fire back up and sat around it until the wee hours, enjoying the stars and lack of bugs for a change.

The next day was cave day. We drove down the road just a little bit to the Wind Cave. It was in the mid to high 90s outside, but a refreshingly cool 53 degrees down in the cave. We went down about 200 ft. at the lowest point of our tour and walked down about 300 steps. The younger two girls were nervous about the whole cave thing at first, and were a little nervous when they turned out all of the lights at one point, but other than that they loved it.

Once we finished walking the cave tour, we headed to Evan's Plunge. It's an indoor water park that's fed by the hot spring. I think "hot" is a relative term. It was not hot, but more lukewarm. There were slides and floating crocodiles and swinging rings and sprinklers and the kids all had a blast playing in the water for hours.

As we were pulling back into the campsite, we saw this.

The guys ran up the road and borrowed some wifi from our previous campsite to check the weather as it was looking very bad and the lightning was pretty intense. They came back with a forecast full of hail, high winds and lightning. We decided to pack it up and hit the hotel so that we wouldn't be stuck in our tents evening and night. Suddenly we heard the storm sirens from the town going off, so we decided against packing up neatly and just tore it all down and threw it in the vans. Here's the empty site about ten minutes later and the sight inside our van (which was a disaster).

Would you like to know the irony of it all? It rained less that night than the other nights we had toughed it out. In fact, I'm not certain it ever really did more than sprinkle on us. Oh well, it was nice to sleep in a bed and have a shower that I didn't need to wear shoes in.

We decided that there weren't any other must sees on our list the next day, so we decided to head south a bit and find some fun stuff along the way. We stopped at Carhenge, which I was so hoping we would get to see.

We ended up in North Platte, NE. We were going to go to a go kart track, but ended up going out to our one really nice meal and swimming in the hotel pool instead. The next morning, after a big breakfast, we headed home. We were all very glad that we had gone a few hours south the day before, as we ended up at home around 5:30 that evening instead of closer to 10 or 11. We drove 1600 miles, had a blast and miss our friends a lot, but have plans for a camping trip closer to home with them next summer.

bevor ich weitermache... möchte ich erst einmal ein paar Wünsche loswerden:

Wunsch Nr. 1: Meine Töchter endlich mal wieder sehen!!!

Wunsch Nr.2: Mit Mimi, Tini und Angy wieder einmal an einem Tisch sitzen können, reden, über alte Zeiten!!!

Wunsch Nr.3: Mal keine Angst mehr vor Gerichtsvollziehern haben... Kohle Kohle Kohle... scheiss Welt!

Wunsch Nr.4: Meine Betsy noch einmal zu sehen... Terrier!

Wunsch Nr.5: Mit meiner Traumfrau (rote Haare, lebt im Emsland), auch endlich einmal klar zu kommen!

Wunsch Nr.6 Das Land meiner Vorfahren (Rumänien) endlich kennen zu lernen!

Es ist zwar noch nicht Weihnachten... ich wünsche es mir ja auch nicht gerade erst jetzt, sondern seit vielen Jahren (ausser Wunsch Nr.5).

Cuuuuuuuuu

Der Arschkartenabonnement

That picture is so cute.

So, it would seem that Viz has picked Dogs up. I've dug around a little but I can't get very specific information, except that it's slated for release in spring of 2009. I don't know if Viz is taking all of the series or just the first volume, but I would assume it's the whole thing since it is so short.

I'm not sure what my opinion is on this, yet. For one, it's exciting, because I'd love a US release; it would make things a lot easier. And, we're that much closer to an anime. Hopefully they'll wait until the manga finishes though, so we're not stuck with another Nana or Deathnote. On the other hand, a US release entails horrid translations. Plus, they'll probably edit the manga so that it's suitable for younger audiences to increase their demographic and drive sales. Damn capitalism.

Dogs is a great manga and I hope they keep it as is with a quality translation that is as true to the original script as possible. We'll see what we end up with, though. Keep those fingers crossed.