cody bear’s friends

an update….not much to say, so i will take the boring details of my day and pretend they’re exciting.

we had a visitor stop by my house today, and while i was showing her my back yard, see spotted from about twenty feet away….a very rare night blooming plant growing through the branches of one of my run of the mill trees. how exciting. i shall have to keep a better watch on it.

i got a mother’s day card from my dog in the mail today. one from my cat a few days ago. neither of them work….so they should have partnered up and got a “from the both of us” card.

as you know i just took up photography. well, today, for the first time, i uploaded 2 to a professional photo processing company and am getting them actually printed. i think they’re suitable for framing!

yesterday dominique was sent packing on america’s next top model. fine. how did she even get on the show to begin with.

so, those are the random and boring updates. truthfully, i just wanted to put tonight’s picture of cody bear on line. i just brushed him, so he’s extra soft and fluffy.

oh! duh!  i almost forgot this really titillating detail:  i got my new copy of bark magazine today!

…time for conan o’brien. night night.

…the fastest bear is a cody bear, of course.

morning all!

i parked myself in one spot in the back yard and just took pictures of cody bear running by me this morning.

the entire time some little dog was yelping like a freak a couple houses away.  i think he was cheering cody bear on or antagonizing him, because it just made the bear child run faster…

ok, now i need to wrangle him in and get ready for work.

warning: if you HATE bugs, read no further. no gross pictures though.

okie dokie. got the warning out of the way. scene: it is sunday at four p.m. 2 of my girl friends, a and m, arrive with beer, specimen bags and a canon digital rebel. when 3 lovely ladies get together on a sunday night the topics include: jerky coworkers, puppies, boy friend’s parents (the irritating variety), global warming, absent minded professors and….bugs.

big ones, bugs with large mandibles and ….bugs that taste like cinnamon.

it started with the cinnamon bugs. pentatomids. “they do NOT taste like cinnamon” i demanded. well, they agreed, essentially it depends on their diets. apparently they can taste like orange or melon, too. and….apparently you can use them to flavor your food. “why wouldn’t you just use cinnamon?” i asked….naturally.

anyway, we 3 crazy chics hop on line to look at camel spiders, jewel beetles and search for the largest arachnids and insects.

earlier that evening we looked for more sleeping bees and filled the baggies with ….diseased plants, of which i have a few. no worries, i mostly have healthy ones!

rest assured, during all of this cody bear did work the room. he took turns sleeping at each of our feet or next to us on the couch for routine cuddling.

“excuse me…. BUGS?”

what else happened today? started the day with recall class for cody bear. great fun! (mental note: its already flea and tick season!)

my best pal stopped by and FORGOT THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC about dogs….AGAIN! that’s ok. we discussed getting the trek’s breaks fixed over limeade.

later i met with my landlord. he’s so great! he is going to put a new fence up and lighting to protect me from the mentally deficient thief and snoop! annnnd….he wanted to confirm that if i get a new dog for more protection….that i adopt from a shelter!

all this took sooo long, i didn’t have any time to get work on a site done or do any house work. bummer. behind again. but still,….its good to have good friends.

also, a side note: a. is mindy’s mom. mindy is home. she got home yesterday after 5 days in icu. it looks like she will make it! but, she is still very down and will be on meds for a while and a special diet and special care the rest of her life. the kidney damage was great, but….being feisty and having peope/parents/personal assistants to visit her morning and night in the i.c.u. have helped her pull through.

so, i’m sure her dog ‘rents would thank you, so i will for them: thanks for the well wishes for her pet food ailment recovery!

i’ll close by saying that i’m not as tough as the other ladies…my head itches at some of the bug chatter. i might get up early to give cody bear his frontline treatment and do a sweep for spiders.

night night.

no! i’m not talking about my cat!  here are some prickly pear cactus blossoms!

there are several different varieties…

my friend a told me that in the evening i could look in the flowers and see a bee settling down for a night’s sleep. i didn’t believe her, but she said yes, i could get up early and watch as the blossoms opened again, and there would be bees sleeping in there. “suuuuure” i said….”have another beeeeer” i thought.

i was taking pictures of blossoms tonight, and i was up close to one when all of a sudden, the anther started jiggling!

the honey bee was in there, getting comfy. he was crawling around deep inside the flower, finding just the right positioning before the petals enveloped him for the night.

i went from blossom to blossom, finding more sleepy bees. i don’t know what time they get up, what time the flowers open. i don’t know if i will remember to even look and to say “good morning honey bee.” (honey bee was one of loki’s dozens of nick-names!)

but the first gift was having a friend that told me about this crazy behavior. the next gift was being there with my camera when the bees hunkered down for the night.

i love my bees.

ok…i didn’t make it: i can only go SO FAR without making fun of the fdls morman chic haircut!  but i did well on the rest!

put the canon in the kombi for trip to dog park AND grocery-getting.  here’s the kombi in the park:

as a plus…ran into my friend gardner on the way back from the grocery. he had a bicycle babywagon full of produce.  at first, …i freaked out he had another kid…but then i realized it was veggies!

wasted no paper today and only used the car to and from work….

here’s a cactus:

it is important to note that cody bear wastes…not at all.  he INSISTS his kibble bag is recyclable…and he drinks water.  he won’t read the paper, drink soda, order things that come in boxes or plastic bags.

….ok….thanks cody bear….as if you weren’t already cuter than us…now you have to be more environmentally friendly????

the previous mystery plant game was fun.  if you’re new to the site, see here and here.

this plant was given to me as partial payment for the website i am working on that i mentioned before.  they’re an organic farm and friends of mine.  i’ll do their web-site and they were going to pay me with vegetables.  well, THIS plant is one of my top five favorite plants and i have always wanted one!

what is the EXACT name of this mystery plant????

our past winner was livingisdetail. and i think she was content with her prize….

i’m super excited with my new client: a local organic farm!  they’re friends of mine and i am so glad they finally decided to do a website!  their veg are amazingly delicious and diverse!

i love their farm and i wish they would adopt me and cody bear.  it would be great to quit my job, pack up our stuff and move to their beautiful land, about an hour outside of town.

truthfully, cody bear is a city dog. i don’t know if he would last very long in the wildlands.  for him….off leash, without a bag of yummies sans tweezers and filtered water is wildlands. but i digress….

look forward to pictures of herbs, chunky root veggies, crisp leafy greens and succulent fruits!

a couple weeks ago i mentioned i was becoming obsessed with getting the perfect bee shot.  after seeing what my friend a’s “macro” can do, i’ve resigned myself to honey bee mediocrity and will return to focusing my lens and my efforts on….dogs.

but, i did get some pretty good shots, just not as amazing as hers.

she took this one:

it looks like he’s wearing leg weights….but its pollen.  quads be damned.

here’s my shot:

funny thing, our pix got better AFTER we each had a couple pints of beer.  i wouldn’t recommend getting schnackered and then going out to harass some africanized honey bees, but i felt safe with her.  she know’s her bees.  in fact, she appears to be getting in the minds of the bees.  she is at ONE with the bees.  can even identify them by the buzz they make.

oh, the bees were buzzing, as were we….

such a great weekend, with the cardinal, the bees, the bobcats.  wish i didn’t have this cold, but other than that….life is good.

well folks….the results of the mystery plant contest are in, and….LIVINGISDETAIL is the winner! this is her second big blog win this week!(details)

it is, in fact the DWARF jade, portulacaria afra, or, as we call it “elephant’s food.” its my favorite plant. (my favorite plant used to be hens and chicks). the dwarf jade is NOT the same as a regular jade plant.

jade plants have much thicker leaves.

elephant’s food makes a great bonsai plant, too, unless you kill bonsai like i do.

so, congrats livingisdetail! your prize is…….

this tiny virtual elephant’s food, portulacaria afra!

sent via blog with regards from your friends, cody bear and me!  with your blog in the background.