It’s an african hunting dog, actually housed at the zoo, with the rest of these critters..
A common prairie dog
Black swan and koi
One of many beautiful peacocks
We were at the Omaha Zoo for around 3 hours, early enough not to catch a lot of heat. It was scout day, so we got in for a discounted price. 
I could see where this site would be helpful for people trying to put together “looks”… people like me, who get home from shopping and wonder “what was I thinking?”
I am deriving some perverse pleasure from this article, where Mutual of Omaha has finally decided group health insurance doesn’t pay (or earn them money, anyway) and has decided to sell off that piece of the business to Coventry HealthCare, a much larger insurance company.
Mutual claims that only the claims payers in Woodward, OK will lose their jobs. I’m not sure how that will be, since many people occupy jobs in the Group Insurance Division… collecting premium, underwriting policies, taking customer service calls, creating insurance booklets, etc.
Secretly, I am hoping my former CEO runs the company into the ground, but that’s not nice, is it.
It’s camping season. Well, almost. That means the camper is coming out of storage and is coming home for a once-over before our first camping trip on Mother’s Day weekend. We have a spot in Iowa all picked out.
We also have 4 days in Northern Nebraska reserved over the 4th of July holiday
This year, we have decided to introduce our golden retriever to the joys of camping. I wonder if she will enjoy fishing.
I enjoy sleeping in the middle of nowhere with the windows open and the crickets singing in the woods. The only thing I’ll miss is my wireless Internet connection. Oh, and my bug-free bathroom.
Yesterday, we took a 3-hour drive to visit my brother and his family in Kansas City. The little one over there is my nephew. I don’t want to blow his cover, so don’t ask me for any names.
We spent 4 hours with my niece, nephew, my Mom, who is visiting, my brother, and my SIL, who is recovering from back surgery.
They all seem to be doing quite well, and the 4 hours went very fast.
My mom got up early that morning and made Ghirardelli brownies… to die for…
We visited this park, where the kids played softball and on the swings and jungle gyms. We caught pictures of a turtle and a gaggle of geese.
The highlight of the visit, I think, was having my niece run out of the house when we got there, all excited and screaming in delight at the sight of us. She has a high-pitched little voice that’s fun to hear.
The Little Kid handed down her first bicycle, and my niece was all-too-delighted.
Kansas City is a nice place to be. 
For some reason, I just really enjoy large cities. And, of course, the smell of barbeque is always in the air. As luck would have it, on our way out of town, we found a place called “Bandanas” to hook up with some barbequed beef, gourmet potato salad and some creamy coleslaw. My daughter wanted to know if we could come back for lunch tomorrow.
Before we knew it, we were home and heading to bed. It was a good trip.
I am a big fan of Rascal Flatts. I’m not sure where I originally heard this song, but here’s the House version from YouTube.com
Allow me to introduce you to Roscoe. He is a German Shepherd Dog mix.
Roscoe had spent much of the first 6 months of his life at a dog pound in Kansas. A rescue worker in Omaha spotted his picture on the Internet and decided to go get him. When she got home with him, she called us, because we’d been looking for a german shepherd. We went to the rescue worker’s house and picked him up.
Roscoe was a sweet boy, but he loved to torment our Golden Retriever. He would grab her by the neck, pull out bits of her tail fur and generally turned her into a psychotic heap by the end of day 1.
We kept telling ourselves that things would get better. In fact, sometimes they did play, but then Roscoe would end up with all the toys and Ginger would be behind the chair before too long. When they slept, he would be on one side of the room and she would be on the other. It was a sad situation, always having to run behind Roscoe and tell him to leave Ginger alone.
We tried the Dog Whisperer trick of laying Roscoe on his side and telling him to behave, but you know what? It wasn’t that Roscoe wasn’t behaving, really. It was that Ginger didn’t know how to draw the line. She was afraid to, really. (Well, ok, the tail-eating thing wasn’t that nice!) 
After 3 weeks, my husband decided Roscoe needed to find a home without an overly submissive dog to interact with. So, on Monday, he was returned to the rescue home and on Thursday, he was adopted to a man who had wanted to see him the same day we picked him up. He was excited to have the chance to have Roscoe.
I talked to the rescue lady today because she wanted to give our adoption fee back. We refused. We told her to use it for the dogs.
The rescue lady said that Roscoe had been doing really well with her 3 dogs, who let him know when he had crossed the line with them. He was even taking manners lessons from a Jack Russell Terrier.
My response was that our Golden must be neurotic, then, because she would cower behind my husband’s chair and wouldn’t come out even to go to the bathroom.
By himself, he was so sweet, and sat on my lap several times while he played with his toys.
I miss his fuzzy face, but he’s where he’s supposed to be.
Oh, and Ginger is back to her normal, bouncy self.
The only thing I could have asked for would have been not having him to sing a final song.
Don’t get me wrong.. he’s a good entertainer, but the voice. I couldn’t do much better, I’m sure, but hey, I’m not getting up there to sing.
Variety is the spice of life.
In my cupboard, I have this many spices: Maybe 20.
Rack or no rack? a wire rack, so I can see who’s who.
Alphabetize? Yeah, no.
Which spice do you use most often? I use an all-purpose mix
Which recipe? broasted chicken
It’s like the pot calling the kettle black.
Coffee or tea? Coffee or iced tea
Do you make coffee at home? Yes
If you make tea, loose or in bags? bags
How many kinds of tea do you have? probably 5 or 6. I really just like black tea, though.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
I use my stovetop: To cook things on.
I use my oven: Normally all year-round.
Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
Soy or cow? Cow, but every now and then, soy is good for drinking.
Skim or whole? Skim.
How many gallons a week? One or two
Three items in my freezer (right now):
Frozen Waffles
90/10 Hamburger
Corn from Schwan’s
Three things in my fridge (right now):
Fruit Gels (for the little kid, mostly)
Pina Colada yogurt
Skim Chocolate Milk
Item I am most chagrined about: Those many bottles of condiments. How old are those things, anyway??
Item I bet no one else has: blue cheese crumbles
Lisa
punctuation
