The Trials and Tribulations of the not-so-New Bear Icon

Over the weekend Chris and I actually went out and were social. We skipped the True Colors tour on Saturday, though we knew people would would be there. I was a little wary of going out on Saturday night to the Denton County Bears pool party not only because I didn't know too many people who were going to be there, but also because i was a little mad from not being able to get a haircut. Yep, good old vanity. Seems like all the cheap ass haircut places were full of people, and after working yet another saturday morning, I really didn't want to have to wait around reading stale magazines waiting for the one or two people to finally get around to me.

Sadly, our friend the stylist has left the haircutting industry to pursue other interests. Good for his wallet, though. Good for our hair too, because although he's a friendly guy, he gets a little attention-deficit disorder when he's cutting and kind of forgets spots.

We made it out to the pool party fashionably late, but not so late to chow down (are we not bears?). I met some nice folk, didn't freak out once I got warmed up, and had a good time. On sunday our little neighborhood had a get together out by our pool. Again, it was tough to meet people I didn't know. Even after living here a year and a half, I really don't know any of the neighbors. Only one of them recognized me from walking Joey occasionally. Still, it was good to put some faces to townhomes around the area. People started to bring their dogs and eventually the dogs were swimming in the pool - and none of the people were. Joey stayed fascinated by the water, but didn't jump in. I'm not so sure she really cared for the other dogs, except for the big lab puppy who she felt needed to be put in his place.

I think it's both Chris' and my goal to be a little more sociable and get out more often. Over the last few months we've been homebodies and really haven't gotten out much. We do know people, people that haven't moved away, and maybe it's time we started calling a little more often around here.

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Otherwise, in one of those looking back themes that will crop up from time to time in these 40 days, I find that I don't watch old movies. Pretty much anything prior to Star Wars (1977) is out, and certainly anything in black and white. I know this leaves a ton of really great films out, heck, most of the AFI top 100 are pre '77, but there's just something about old movies that makes me want to go do something else.

This isn't the same for old television shows. I'll be happy to watch a black and white episode of My Three Sons, or Bewitched. I love watching reruns of The Monkees or Green Acres. Perhaps it's just the timeframe involved, 30 minutes vs. 90.

It's not that I've never seen an old movie, there's plenty of old Disney films I've seen, animated and not, say, the Computer Wore Tennis Shoes? There's also Song of the South which I saw on one of Disney's re-releases sometime in the 70's before they pulled the picture for good in the US. I wouldn't make a big effort to go see them again.

that's another part of it, I rarely re-watch movies. I see them once, maybe twice, and that's it. I don't buy many DVD's because I really don't re-watch them. Even my Kevin Smith movies sit in a box, unwatched. The movie I've likely seen the most is either Airplane or Sixteen Candles because they ran on Showtime all the time in the summer during high school. they seemed to show The Wiz a lot, too.

Part of this may be due to my Dad. He's such a fan of John Wayne and WWII movies that he'll re watch them over and over. I don't know how many times I've seen parts of The Fighting SeeBees or The Searchers or Force 10 From Navarone. I never saw Saving Private Ryan because it seemed like it would be the same thing all over again, just with Tom Hanks.

There's something about needing to move forward in movies that's bigger than my need to move forward in music listening. I love to find new music, and listen to what others of you are listening to, but I like to mix that in with favorites across the last 60-70 years. Movies seem to be more of an in-the-moment thing. I caught a few minutes of Deep Impact on cable the other day and I was already thinking that the movie looked dated.

I'm sure I could ask for, and get a hundred different classic movie selections, but really, I'll stick to trying to see new stuff and the movies i've missed over the last few years...like over the weekend watching The Italian Job, which was fun. Of course it's based on a classic Michael Caine movie that I really have no desire to see.

Of course that doesn't mean I want to see every remake, either. At this moment, I'm still thinking of skipping Hairspray.

❅Joey the dog, sometimes known ad Princess McFlippy and HR Puppinstuff, has been sleeping inside these last couple of days because it's a little cold, below freezing here in Dallas. normally she sleeps outside and really, there's a good reason for this. She's a bit on the destructive side. Just a couple of days ago she chomped into Chris' softball glove when he wasn't looking (really, it takes only minutes) and now it needs to be re-stitched.

She has had plenty of toys that she has eviscerated. I know here beaver, the cow-cow, and several toys from IKEA, which lasted longer than one would think and IKEA toy would, have fallen victim to Joey's teeth and such. She loved to toss a toy around, and grab it, hold it and pull it apart like a lioness on the Savannah.

One of her constant items to be attacked is her food bowl. After she's done with the food, she likes to toss and trow the bowl around. She often brings it into the house and throws it. We often worry about Chris' large-screen television getting damaged by an errant toss by the dog. She has tossed several things into the fireplace and has to have one of us retrieve them (luckily we don't use the fireplace).

Last week she gave her bowl it's last toss. This was the one that she's had for several months, and was made of a light, but tough plastic. It was a trouper, but it finally cleaved in two. It had plenty of bite marks and scratches on it. For a couple of days we had trouble finding a good substitute, and she tore through a gladware container and pounded a pie plate into a completely new shape in one night.

I bought her a new bowl on Thursday night. They didn't have any like the old bowl. A few minutes after presenting it to her, she had already chewed the plastic handles off of it and was working on the rubber along the bottom. Just as she's done with other bowls, she tosses it around the yard in the middle of the night. I was hoping the bowl, the hardest plastic I could find, would stand up for a while, but there was no luck, it's already in danger.

I don't want to buy metal bowls because of her tossing it around inside the house, and ceramic bowls pose the same threat. I'm not quite sure what to do, and neither does Chris. Anyone know anything about dog behavior or strongly built bowls?

☂Don't let the media try to make the story about Dick Cheney shooting the friend on his hunting trip be changed to imply that it was the lawyer that was at fault. If Cheney was a good shooter, and really, I know that he is, he would be trained to look before he fired. Still, the media are trying to give him a pass, saying that the lawyer was returning and didn't announce himself. Poppycock. You should always be aware of your surroundings before you fire. Cheney's either going off too quickly or not being observant. Perhaps his reflexes are going, you never know.

Last night we went to have dinner with Drew, and met autumnecho, who's quite the nice guy. I hope he comes to learn at North Texas. There were several different guys at Drew's for dinner, and the conversation was certainly interesting. Lots of talk about fisting and various kinks during dinner, then off to politics as an after-dinner drink. i know not everyone was thrilled about the political talk, but I couldn't find a way out of the conversation, and apparently no one else could either. Joey was very tired after having his audition, so I could tell he was ready to hit the hay. Still, a nice evening.

☀I got a call from Big Ed, who's also here in Dallas. Someone had taken him to the Hidden Door for beer bust, and he had to call and tell me that he had never seen so many men with facial hair in his life. I just laughed and told him it was probably an off night because of the weather. Big Ed's just a bear who doesn't know it.

♥I'm debating the whole Valentine's day thing and whether to make it a big deal or not. I don't think Chris or I are that into it, but it's still a good excuse to do something special. Perhaps we could do something next weekend when i have to return to Houston to wrap up things at the apartment.

☁Chris has has a cold the last couple of days, and today it really presented itself. I haven't shown signs more than a sniffle or two, but I guess now that we sleep in the same bed each night, these situations will happen now and again. Of course I will probably get sick tomorrow morning so I can spend a few days at work coughing and feeling miserable.

This is partnered bliss, isn't it?

☠I have the hiccups.