For Lucy

Meet Lucy, the best family dog. A fierce guard dog with the heart of an eternal puppy. The Nagels adopted her a few years back and she took to the role of family pet perfectly. Gentle and playful with the kids, but always ready to protect them and all of us at any moment.



Sadly she is gone now. Her kidneys failed and she was put to sleep last night. She was truely a member of the family and will be sorely missed by all. Rest in peace dear friend, you remain forever in our hearts.

Wait...that's not entertaining me....

I have waited anxiously with Pria for this movie since I saw a trailer last year. A movie about a dancing penguin. It's original, it's cool, it's animated so my daughter will LOVE IT. But wait...it has moral points? It has a story line...I paid 32$ to see a complex and very notably environmentally minded slap in the face? Huh?! Yes, that was running through my head as Chris, Pria and I sat in IMAX for the movie. Now it was amazing to see it in IMAX. And the first little bit was totally cool. But towards the middle you realize that you are slipping into The Salem Witch Trials era....penguins praising "The Mighty Guin" for more fish...and banishing Mumble from the group as they viewed him the cause of the lost fish. Then comes the X-Files Moulder worthy moment of Mumble proclaiming "It's the aliens!" So along you go with the determined penguin to find the aliens and talk to them. He chases the fishing boats out to sea and continues to chase them until he washed up on a distant shore. He tries to talk to them...fails...then Ah! It hits him...I gotta dance! So the world (the modern actual world) takes immediate notice of him and sends him back to emperor land...to get this...teach the other penguins how to dance for the scientists who now study them. Ok. Now I'm so on board with the dancing penguins...it's a cartoon after all, make it unbelievable and fun. But why does it have to have a message? Why does it have to have an outlandish one? I mean come on...over fishing happens. It's crappy but it happens. But the penguin hierarchy is like a bunch of protestant priests? Now by the end it got better...okay fluffy ending of the weirdo outcast being the savior of their race and it taking some outlandish behavior to make us realize we were affecting them.

But it's a kids movie...why can't it be fun like Cars? The big morals there is not to be a hot shot jerk. It doesn't take much to get it...Pria got it. "He's sad...lightning wasn't nice to him." Hey lesson learned and it's fun.

And the beat goes on...

It's monday. Mondays are okay I guess...nothing great about them. This one is just blah. Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm on the umpteenth with little if any sleep. It's stressful and annoying. I have little if any patience and find myself constantly exhausted. The warm milk, soothing baths or evenings of enya humming through my ipod don't seem to quelch the insomnia. Where a day or two without sleep is do able, constantly it's not fun. I am spent mentally and remembering to shower and brush my teeth consume all available resources. I don't write at night, I don't take pictures...I don't even play any video games anymore. I'm that "done" with life. How can you force yourself to go to bed when your mind and body just don't want to go? Sleep is needed soon...because sanity is quickly leaving.