You know how weather tends to ruin outdoor events. I didn’t think it would happen this Saturday. The sky was clear, the wind was calm, I thought it was a perfect day to drive out to the Pittsfield Balloon Rally. I was excited to see a dozen hot air balloons lift up into the sky. I was going to take great pictures!

But I arrived to find that The Rally was most likely not to happen. The wind was perfect, it was only about 1 mph. Only problem was, it was in the very wrong direction. The wind would carry the hot air balloons directly into a small but very wooden mountain.

They did launch a balloon called the Irish Rover.

But then they decided that it was too risky and just tethered the ReMax Balloon so that spectators could be given rides at $10 a head.

The ride was so popular that they inflated my favorite Balloon of the evening, Wild Ride. It had silhouettes of Giraffes and elephants on it. And it was just a really pretty hot air balloon.

They had better luck on Saturday morning, watch the video here

The hot air balloon festival is an important fundraiser for the Rotary club and it certainly attracts a crowd. I couldn’t get over the commercial aspects of the festival. Complete with greasy food vendors (major tummy ache from the fried dough) and a small midway section.

The commercial aspect of the festival bothered me a little. I wish it could have been a family event with the focus mostly on the hot air balloons. I didn’t mind the craft fair, or the rotary club booths, but I hate to see teenagers spending money they should be saving for college on overpriced oversized stuffed animals for their girlfriends. Goodness I sound old.

My full set on Flickr can be found here.

You know that proverb “cleanliness is next to godliness”, I think Cooper doesn’t want to imply that he’s even slightly like the man upstairs.

When I got my Android based cell phone I was excited about being able to send emails from my Google account, send and receive Tweets, and check in on my friends on Facebook. I quickly started adding Apps to the phone. Before I knew it, I had installed an app called FourSquare.

The front page of FourSquare describes it as:

Foursquare on your phone gives you & your friends new ways of exploring your city. Earn points & unlock badges for discovering new things.

It is considered a social networking site (much like twitter and facebook). Wikipedia describes it as follows:

Foursquare is a web and mobile application that allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location. Points are awarded for “checking in” at venues. Users can choose to have their check-ins posted on their accounts on Twitter, Facebook or both.

The best way I can describe it: A social networking site that combines using GPS technology to check into locations, usually businesses, to gain points, badges and mayor-ships. You can choose to let your friends see where you have been. You can leave tips about locations and meet people who are “mayors” of the location.

From what I can tell a mayor is someone who has checked into a location more than anyone else.

Some comments about my first couple months of participating in FourSquare

• First and most  importantly it seems a little stalker-ish. When you check into a location your friends are alerted to where you are. Hopefully none of your friends are secretly infatuated with you. It’s a lot easier than finding out your crush’s schedule in high school so you can accidentally “bump” into them.
• It seems geared towards frequenting businesses. So if you don’t eat out or shop often, you don’t check in often.
• I would love if it was more of a scavenger hunt kind of game. Instead of focusing on repeat visits to the same location,I would like if it focused on visiting unusual locations around us. Examples, statues, historical locations, and other points of interest.

Have you tried FourSquare? If yes, what is your opinion? If no, would you try it?

Recently I started been reading a blog called 1000 Reasons I’m a Crap Mom. It is adorable. Being constantly bombarded by parenting tips she is constantly reminded of her failings as a mother.

I don’t have children. I have pets. And even as a pet owner I have my failings. So its probably best that we are putting off having children. So imitating my inspiration I bring you 10 Reasons I’m a Bad Pet Mom.

1. I let my pets self feed. Yes I have a fat cat. But I don’t feel a need to put him on a diet. First my other cat is a skinny little thing, second what is the point of making my poor ex-stray fear he will starve. My dog is self fed and he is skinny as anything. So 2 out of 3 pets are skinny enough, that is a 66% success rate right?
2. My animals have to ask to be fed. It doesn’t matter if I filled up his dish ten times the night before, HappyCat always greets me with yowls as I come down the stairs in the morning. This usually means his dish is empty. This is also the real reason my pets are self fed, I cant really be bothered to feed them regularly enough.



3. My dog feels a need to steal from the trash.  We keep trying to break him of it, but he does it anyways.
4. My animals feel a need to drink out of the toilet. We keep trying to stop them but its so funny to see a cat trying to drink out of the toilet without falling in. I’m not sure what is wrong with their water dish, it is usually full when we catch them drinking from the magic fountain.



5. My dog plays with non-dog toys. His favorite toys tend to be soccer balls too big for his mouth and plastic water bottles he finds on the side of the road.
6. I don’t give my pets routine. Apparently animals thrive on routine. We purposefully tried to keep Cooper off a routine when he was a pup. I didn’t want him to get upset if we came home late, or didn’t take him to a park on Sundays.
7. My pets live a double standard. Cats are allows on furniture, dog is not.
8. I don‘t let them do what they want. Audrey wants to go outside, so shes not allowed. HappyCat wants to stay in the house, so I try to take him out. Cooper wants to be with me at all times, so he’s left alone in the house.



9. I’m terrible with a brush and nail clippers. But they don’t seem to enjoy it anyways so why torment them (mats and sharp claws that is why).
10. I love leaving my pets with strangers. Go on Vacation, get someone else to take care of your animals. Preferably with very lax instructions like, feed them this whenever you feel like it and if they get sick here is their vets number.

Why are you a good or bad pet owner?

On Saturday Cooper and I hiked to the Summit of the highest Mountain of New Hampshire. We came down the Tuckerman Trail, which was so crowded I was thinking that people could link up arms as they climbed up the trail.

• “Did he actually summit?”
• “Do you think that was a full poodle or a mix”
• “Shouldn’t he be in pom poms somewhere?”
• “He’s small for a big poodle”
• “Ohhhhh Cute!!!”
• *Discrete* attempts at taking pictures of dog.
• “Are poodles part mountain goat?”
• “Can I cuddle with your dog?”
• “World energy crisis solution: harness your dog”
• “That is the coolest poodle EVER”
• “Can I borrow a couple of your dog’s legs”
• “If a poodle can make it to the top, so can I”

And the best compliment I can be given:

• “What an exceptionally well trained dog”

A couple questions made me want to give a snarky response:

• “Does he like hiking?”
• “How can you be sure he’s not tired/hungry/injured?”

First of all, we probably do 90%+ of our hiking off leash (thus tons of well trained dog comments). This allows Cooper to set his own pace. He’s been hiking since he was 9 weeks old and has gradually increased in distance and difficulty.

As an intelligent dog he will often run ahead and lie down and wait for me to catch up.

As for feeding and watering him. I regularly take breaks to offer him food and drink. Often he just wants to get back on the trail and looks annoyed that I’ve stopped for any reason at all.

Injury wise, I also pay close attention to his gait/pace. I am prepared to carry all 36 pounds of him down the mountain if I have to. I have in the past. When we hiked Mt Tom this winter he developped ice feet. It was painful enough for him that he sat down on the trail and wouldn’t walk. I carried him down for a mile wrapped in sweaters until his feet thawed out.

And finally, clearly he loves it. Watch him as he bounces around from rock to rock. There’s a reason lots of people compared him to a mountain goat.

So to those who said nice things, thank you. To those who doubted that I had my dog’s best interest at heart, I hope you are now a believer.

When I get inspired to blog and have great posts all lined up, my computers seem to kick the bucket. Last time my Dell stopped working, my dad gave me his old laptop so I could still type (ok it was for homework not for blogging but who is counting). Now that laptop seems to be refusing to power up.

And while the Dell works for browsing, typing on it is difficult. I have no space or backspace key.

I’m trying to figure out what happened to my dad’s old Compaq Evo 610c. My previous laptop happened to be of the same model and died of the same fate. I also happened to still be in my closet.

Because I’m broke and because I’m a nerd, I spent a good part of the day disassembling the laptop trying to find a failure point. No such luck.

In the meantime I’m posting this from my cell phone. I’m sure I’ll do more nerdy investigations tommorrow.

Have you ever had to disassemble a computer?

Dear dog,

I know you have spent your life from 8 weeks of age on with a high quality, fancy lens, high speed shutter camera in your face.

How about an example:

So when I’m trying to take a picture of you with a low pixel, built in lens, takes forever, cell phone camera can you please keep still long enough for the picture?

Maybe we will have to try sedatives or something… Can dogs have ADD? How about ADHD?

OK, Thanks!

I love listening to audiobooks that I download from our local library. The library has a huge selection of books available. I often pick young adult and children books because the drama is usually less intense and they are often shorter quicker reads.

Another aspect I love about Young Adult books is that they are often written as a series. When you fall in love with the characters you get to continue following their stories.

I’ve recently started blogging book reviews of books I’ve been reading in a subsection of this blog.

Everyone who has not been hiding under a rock has heard about the Twilight Series. But here are a few of my favorite book series. Some are more successful than others.

Favorite Young Adult/Children Series

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Author: Rick Riordan

Official Site | Wikipedia Article | Movie Site

Percy Jackson is a demi-god and discovers this fact in the first book when strange things start happening. He realizes that the Greek Gods are real and that they are alive and well. He gets drawn into their world just like the original Perseus did.

It may be a book about adventure and history, but it is also a book about a bunch of misfit children who find friendship and their way in the world after a lifetime of being different.

This is a great series reminding us of the stories of Greek mythology. It is full of characters from legends of old and adventures set in modern times. For example, God of War Ares is a leather wearing motorcycle tough guy.

Start with: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Books currently in Series: 5 (4 companion books)

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The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Author: Carrie Ryan

Official Site | Wikipedia Article

Mary is a teenage girl living in a Post Apocalyptic World. She lives in a fenced in colony surrounded by a mob of Zombies. She longs for a world where she can be free.

This is also an epic story of a love quadrangle with two best friends fighting over two brothers. Move over Twilight, these kids know how to long for each other.

Written beautifully I’ve only read the first book of the series. But I look forward to reading The Death Tossed Waves as soon as it becomes available.

It does deal with some more mature aspects of life (love, death, marriage), so I would recommend the series to older teens and adults.

Start with: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Books in Series: 2 (3rd releasing March 2011)

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Gallagher Girls

Author: Ally Carter

Official Site | Wikipedia Article

Cammie Morgan is what is a known as a pavement artist. It’s a spy term for someone  who blends in so well to a crowd that no one notices them. Why would a teenage girl be described in Spy terms? Because she attends an elite school for young girls who will become the worlds most advanced Spies.

I have to admit, I fell in love with the first book I’d tell you I love you, but then I would have to kill you the moment I picked it up. The story is engaging, captivating and not at all believable. It has it’s fair share of humor and I adore Cammie and her classmates. This is book that was meant to be put on the big screen for kids to enjoy.

I would encourage this book to middle school girls. To show them that being smart can get you places when you get older.

Start with: I’d tell you I love you, but then I would have to kill you
Books currently in Series: 4

I love the details in old barns. (I used picnik’s 1960′s filter on these pictures)