Last night, after everybody was in their respective bedtime locations (crate, basket, end of bed and bed), Regina started barking. Loudly. I rolled over, said shush, and noticed that the porch light had come on (it’s motion activated).

And for some reason, possibly because I had been watching a Law & Order marathon, that scared me to death.

Normally Reggie doesn’t bark, so several loud, shrill and pointed barks at the door is highly unusual.

And the Chop has been in NYC since Sunday.

So I opened her crate and systematically went to every window in the house, in the dark, to shut and lock them. Then, since our French doors seem awfully easy to break into (at least to me), I pushed a heavy cabinet in front of it.

I put Reggie back in her crate, but moved it closer to the bed and decided to sleep on his side (next to her), turned on the AC in the bedroom and tried to will myself to sleep.

Five minutes later I retrieved one of the military knives my father gave me for protection and slipped it under my pillow.

This morning I felt like an idiot, but the truth is, I felt incredibly vulnerable. We live on a very quiet street, and our house is up a little hill, set apart with woods and a stream behind it and I don’t honestly know how well our neighbors could hear me if I started screaming. (Some of them are old, lol.)

Before I met the Chop I lived quite easily alone (however it was on the second floor, with people above and below, and the doors had several locks apiece), and part of me wonders if I’ve gotten less of an independent-take-on-the-world-bring-it attitude since we moved in together.

And I don’t particularly like it, lol. So, independent women who previously lived alone but are now living in sin/married, did we change or is it dependent on perceived safety (locks, second floor, etc.)?

Need to waste some time? Go here. Have fun.

Earlier today I ran across an article that detailed danah boyd’s ethnographic research into Facebook and MySpace, but I don’t remember where. Maybe Boston.com?

Fortunately, one my favorite bloggers (who I just recently found and who is an incredibly entertaining writer), Accordion Guy went to her presentation at Harvard and blogged about it on his other site, Global Nerdy.

The most interesting bit in my opinion? Her research concluded, among other things, “that there is a sharp divide between the MySpace and Facebook cultures: Facebook is working class and subculture, which Facebook is upper-middle-class and college-bound…. Note that the U.S. military is banning the use of MySpace, but not Facebook. They’re banning what the soldiers are using, not what the officers are using.”

MyEvilSpace is loud and garish and cluttered, while Facebook is clean, simple and has Google-type ads.

Her research is really fascinating and I’d say dead on. I hate MySpace because it is just ugly, but I am ambivalent toward Facebook. Actually, when I was in college I even got a page on it, simply to look at my friend’s pages.

I had a slew of spam comments that showed up in my email this morning, so dutifully I opened the blog and started deleting.

Then I realized I haven’t posted in a week, which of course makes me a very bad blogger. I would sit here and say, “Oh, I’ve been busy, work’s been a bitch, the dog and bf are taking up my time, yada, yada,” but the truth is, I kinda forgot. And then I realized (on Wednesday) that I had nothing interesting to share.

Which sucks, because it’s now Sunday and I still have nothing interesting.

Last week was the first day we picked up from our farm share, and the dog there tried to hump Reggie, who was not very impressed. I never realized that iceberg lettuce had lots of curly green leaves surrounding the pale green, compact part you get in the supermarket. I’m assuming they take them off when they are washed, but I dunno.

We were supposed to leave for vacation with the Porkchop’s family yesterday, but his work is evil and so we had to cancel. Now he’s leaving today for NYC through Wednesday, and he’s not very happy about it.

My homepage, when I turn on a browser, is Boston.com, and this morning, I briefly scoured the front page, searching for something exciting to share.

Prince William and his former girlfriend are probably back together.. eh, not that exciting. It’d be more entertaining if he was dating Britney or Lohan, or someone equally troubled.

Part 1 of a 7-part series, “The Making of Mitt Romney”? Upon further inspection, it appears the writer has been paid by the Romneys to a) fawn all over him, b) fawn all over Mormonism and c) annoy me. Hello, how is this journalism?!

And then of course, there is this little gem… say hello to the Ugliest Dog in the World. And no, I’m not kidding.

Father’s Day for me consisted of 1) IKEA for three hours with J, 2) BBQ at J’s parents (where her dad proceeded to perfectly Dog Whisperer Reggie and it was ridiculous, lol) and 3) go fishing… for the first time… and catch five fish.

😀

Apparently I am never invited to go fishing again, seeing as how J and her dad only caught one fish apiece. 😉

The best part?

Coming home to find that the Porkchop and J’s sugar had finished putting together our new furniture pieces from IKEA.

Being in love means you never have to put together furniture again. And it’s awesome.

Fishes, in order of catching.. (by the last one, J was not interested in taking pictures anymore, LOL).

One of the best parts of our little jaunt to the Cape was that Regina could frolic on the beach and wear herself out.

One of the not-the-best, but still OK parts, was that we had to take her with us everywhere. (Information I did not have prior to renting this place.) This was irritating simply because we had her crate and she would’ve been fine for a couple of hours… but fortunately, Ptown is incredibly dog-friendly, and not only did we wear her out on the beach, we wore her out walking around town.

And she met dozens of new friends, had biscuits fed to her by the handful and praise lavished upon her goofy little head. In short, they all loved her and she them.

Readjusting to reality has been tough, to say the least.

This was on our last morning, when we were leaving.
She was bound and determined to go back to the beach.

Oh, also, does anyone have any good recommendations for futon matresses? We don’t have the space for a full bed in the second room (hi, bookshelves and cd racks galore), and we don’t want a crappy futon that everyone will despise.

I stumbled across this on another blog, and it is amazing. This little 6-year-old is an incredible singer.

From the “Britain’s Got Talent” show, with Simon Cowell (who, incidentally, is stunned and in awe of this girl).

It’s that time of year again… Kate Spade Sample Sale.

I was going to be good and only get one, but then the adorable Porkchop said eh why not when I asked if he thought two was too many. 😀 So I am getting two super cute new bags for less than the price of one normally.. yay.

The Chop is good like that. When we were on the Cape, I restrained myself from getting any art from the galleries (if you know Ptown, there are dozens). But the last morning we were there, I dropped him off to get coffee, circled around, and there he was, standing with coffee and a brown paper wrapped picture frame.

It’s hanging above me now and it’s quite lovely, so I can’t be too mad at him, even though we are supposed to be saving right now. (We’re going to visit his family, then out to the West Coast for a wedding, and let me tell you, tickets? Nightmare.)

Anyway, why are you still reading?! GO SHOP.

The thing about vacation: it sucks coming back to work. Really, really sucks.

And not because I’m busy. On the contrary, I am bored. So bored. Everyone is at a conference for the week, I have nothing to do but wait to send out emails, wait for the issue to be completed in print so I can do it online and wait for the design fairy to inspire our newest website (um. I am weird).

Because I am so bored, I wrote my boss’ blog post today, because getting her to do it is like trying to convince Regina that eating cat poop is disgusting. Granted, I wrote it under my name, but it’s still annoying.

My contract clearly states they won’t make me write anything, and here I am, writing away.

Boredom kills.

One of my favorite things about PTown is that it is run by the gay community, and if there is one thing I love more than coffee and vodka and Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Buns ice cream (oh dear god, it’s awesome), it’s the gays.

I adore them. They make the world better.

Anywho, so last night the Chop and I went into PTown around 8ish to get some dinner.

If you’ve ever been, you know that Commercial Street along the water is where all the cute little shops and restaurants and galleries and bars are, and also where everybody hangs out all day and night. It’s fantastic.

We were a little worried about finding a place to eat where Reggie wouldn’t be a problem, but PTown is for the gays and the gays love their pets, so it wasn’t a problem at all.

Walking back to the car, Regina ran into a new friend, a cute bulldog that was about her size. Her owner was a very fit and adorable gay man and he and I hit it off right away.

At one point I asked him if there was a good doggie daycare to leave her at so the boy and I could shop (the shopping here is the best), and he grabbed me around the shoulders, pulled me in and said to Chop, “Oh yeah? You two going ring shopping? Eh? Eh?”

Of course the two of us were highly entertained by this, whilst the Chop laughed, shook his head and said, “Oh boy.”

Good times. 😉

Sadly, I didn’t get his number and so my new BFF is lost to me. However, he did give us a good recommendation for a daycare, and so perhaps we will see him when we go shopping. 😀