Fish tales January 26, 2009
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Dogs, Superfluous musings.add a comment
My boyfriend gave me a betta as an early birthday present this weekend. 
I used to have one in college when we first met. It feels great to finally have a pet – our first one together. Named him Leo McGarry – after the chief of staff in The West Wing. We’ve been watching the show on DVD via Netflix and loving how well it parallels with the current political situation. That same day, after we set up Leo in his fish bowl, we sat down to watch an episode of the fourth season and the character Leo McGarry said in a conversation with the President that he doesn’t like human names for pets. Hah! Perfect.
For the record, we love Toby Ziegler as a pet name, but we are saving that one for the Boston terrier we will someday adopt.
Puppies and red wine October 3, 2007
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Dogs, Grad school, Life, Reminiscing.1 comment so far
No, they don’t have anything to do with each other. But I’m having a mellow night and this will turn into a steam of consciousness entry anyway, so I didn’t feel like putting forth the effort to create a suitable title.
About puppies. Nate and I have been talking about getting a dog for some time now. In the spring we did a lot of research, visited the shelter a few times, bought a few books and browsed local breeder Web sites. We settled on a Boston terrier. But we were never quite ready for one – we haven’t yet researched the details of the local pet day care and vets and have yet to sit down and budget properly. It’s sad because in the mean time, a good friend of ours bought a pug puppy and now a colleague of mine adopted a lab mix – just a few days ago. At first our goal was to have a puppy (or an adult, rescued dog) by the end of summer. We are now well into fall… Time flies but we have to do our homework in order to be properly prepared.
The second part of my musings this evening have to do with fall itself. I’ve always liked baked pumpkin – the way my grandma made it with a bit of sugar sprinkled on top and toasted to crisp brown/deep orange in the oven. But yesterday I had my first pumpkin flavored drink of the season and it felt like a brand new appreciation for the squash. And earlier today I have my first craving this autumn for a hot chocolate with cinnamon. I had two – the second one home made with dinner (the first was a Starbucks treat). And I’m closing off the evening with a glass of red wine – it has a certain spice to it that reminds me of the warm red wine with herbs sold by the glass at Christmas markets in the biting cold of German towns and cities. It’s almost winter and I think it will be a charming one. I’m already wearing my fingertips-free, elbow-long knit gloves at work some of the time.
Tomorrow should be an interesting new. I am resolved to finally spend the day researching graduate school programs. We’ll see how far that gets me given my long list of chores. I’m taking a couple of days off work and there seems like there is so much to do when all I really want is to curl up with some more cinnamon-enhanced hot chocolate and alternate my day between reading The Hound of The Baskervilles and napping.
