TECHNOLOGY

It's crazy to think how far we humans have come. Remember cassette tapes? Beta and VHS players? Floppy disks? The cool drive-up bank tubes that you placed into a slot that then got suctioned to the teller? Toilets that you had to flush yourself?

I remember how cool it was to get call waiting on our home phone. Now, most people don't even have home phones because cell phones have taken over.

And gone are the days of a cell phone that just makes calls. Now you can listen to music, take pictures and video, surf the web and cook dinner.

Amazing if you think about it. And new stuff keeps zooming up every day! You buy the newest, coolest ninjaist Cyborg Zomboid (or whatever) phone and you get home, finally figure out how to get the stupid thing to work and BOOM! They announce that version 2.0001 is coming out next week and it is sooooo much better than the old geezer phone you bought today and that you should rush right out next week and buy the new better version for $1000 bucks. I mean really....

But if you ARE one of those who is gaga for gizmos, you probably have A LOT of phones laying around collecting dust. Know what you should do with them? Give them to us!!! The GRCGLARescue will receive anywhere from $5-$100 for your used cell phones! The more recent the model, the more we get, so come on Seeker-of-the-new, give us your phones!!!!

And for those of you who are the exact opposite and have had the same cell phone since LiLo had a career, maybe its time to upgrade and then give us your old one.

But don't keep this to yourself!!! Ask friends, family, neighbors. Ask co-workers. Have a Comm department at your work? Ask them for any used phones!! One of our volunteers even went to a wireless store and asked for their trade-ins and got a bunch!! This is easy money! And the best part? All proceeds are going to Team Bethany and will help us reach our $1000 a mile goal. And the even bester part? Those funds WILL BE MATCHED BY OUR WONDERFUL A.D.!!!!!

So I'm gonna go round me up some phones. The list of locations where you can drop your phones off is listed on our site or you can go here: http://www.grcglarescue.org/RP_WebDoc.asp?ttid=295

When I get home tonight, I'm gonna watch a VHS movie on an analog TV with no remote, while listening to my Walkman and talking to my Mom on my rotary dial phone (yes...I'm a multi-tasker!)

What movie you ask? I'm thinking E.T. That movie is one that could never be remade because nowadays, E.T. could phone home quite easily. But he would definitely get hit with some serious roaming charges!!!!

Be well everyone.

Peace Out

SERIOUS TIME WITH BETHANY (not to be confused with nappy poo time with Bethany...that's later)

HOPE...Hope. Say the word out loud. What do you think?

It's not really a pretty word as just a word, if you think about it.

HOPE

It rhymes with dope and scope and mope and grope. All not really great words (although grope can be good if it's from someone yummy and dope is turning it's image around and can be used to describe things that are good...like "Man, that song is dope!" (Unless it's rap then its just dopey...but I digress).

HOPE

What makes hope beautiful is its meaning. Hope is the thing that we all have and I think its one of the things that makes us wake up everyday and do the things we do. We hope for health. We hope for love. We hope for success. We hope that the Bears win the Super Bowl (some things we hope for are easier to come by than others)!

HOPE

I have adopted 2 wonderful dogs through this amazing Rescue. As the 2.2 of you who read this blog know, my first doggy was Summer. One of her many nicknames was Snarky Barker because she was a bit cranky towards other dogs. Because of her age and her snarkiness, she wasn't an easy placement. She was in a boarding facility on behalf of Rescue for over a month until the dog (god spelled backwards) genie granted my wish to adopt my sweet Baby Sums.

HOPE

I have said in the past that I am a bit obsessive. And although I joke about it...it is entirely true. I look at our available dogs page almost every day. So I'm usually aware of the dogs that are on our site for long periods of time and worry much more about them when they need a foster home. I knew my dog Sweetness, who was Boston on our site, was available for a long time. He needed a foster home almost the entire time.

HOPE

Sweetness is deathly afraid of other dogs. And I'm not talking slightly afraid. I am talking extreme, blinding, crazy terror. It makes me sad when I think about him living in a place where every moment of every day, he spent in fear for his life. Are any of you deathly afraid of something? I mean paralyzingly fearful? Sweetness lived surrounded by the thing that scares him more than anything on this planet for OVER TWO MONTHS!

Although I wasn't ready to adopt another dog so soon after Summer, Sandy told me that Sweetness (Boston) was growing older by the day...almost unrecognizable from the day he was brought in to Rescue. In tears and sobbing, I told Sandy that I would pick him up that Saturday as a foster only. Of course, I failed miserably!

HOPE FOR A BETTER LIFE™

Because of my two babies, the Hope for a Better Life™ program means a lot to me. Because of their need to be an only dog, Summer and Sweetness spent over 90 days total in boarding. 90 DAYS! At $18 a day, boarding Sweetness and Baby Sums until they were adopted cost Rescue over $1620!!!!! And they still came to me Snarky and Fraidy!!! I can only imagine how Sweetness in particular could have benefited from the Wags N Wiggles 4-week residential training program. And how better spent that boarding money could have been to help him get better. I know that things happen for a reason and I love him so much and can't imagine life without him, but I would rather have not had him in my life if he could have gotten out of Boston Hell sooner.

HOPE FOR A BETTER LIFE™

The GRCGLA Rescue now has a program that can help other dogs that come in to our organization with fear and/or aggression issues. Goldens that would have otherwise been euthanized because they were unadoptable due to their behavior challenges now have HOPE! Because of the GRCGLA Rescue's Hope for a Better Life™ Program these dogs will get a second chance to be loved and cherished. They will (hopefully) learn through this amazing program that whatever was done to them to make them afraid is in the past, and nothing but love and obsessive devotion is in store for them in the future.

HOPE FOR A BETTER LIFE™

Of course, amazing programs need funding. I am just flabbergasted that an Anonymous Donor has offered to MATCH EVERY DOLLAR DONATED TO TEAM BETHANY to go to the Hope for a Better Life™ Program. EVERY DOLLAR! So that means if you donate $10, its actually............$20! (Sorry, had to take my shoes off for that one!) $100 is $200! $500 is $1000! 1 BILLION is...well I don't think the A.D. would match a billion but I got a little carried away!

I'm wondering why this A.D. wants to be anonymous. I would love to meet them and give them a big old hug and smooch! Sweetness says that maybe they are germaphobic and wouldn't want a kiss from me. I tell him that WHO WOULDN'T want a smooch from ME!?!?!

Then Sweetness says that maybe its a corporation, a huge conglomerate and I would have to give out A LOT of smooches and that would take up time that I should be running and I tell him....good point.

So, A.D. whomever you are, thank you for this amazing gift. YOU ARE HOPE to so many Goldens. I HOPE you know how much your very, incredibly generous matching gift donations are appreciated by us all!

Now...as promised....it's NAPPY POO TIME!

BE WELL EVERYONE!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

I hope all of you Daddies out there had a wonderful day with your peeps and pups!

So my training begins tomorrow.  Don't get me wrong, I have been running for months now.  But actual full-on, no excuses, get-off-the-velcro-couch training starts tomorrow.  I'm tired just thinking about it!!!

The good part of training is I DO get to eat pretty much anything I want.  When you run progressively increasing miles 5 days a week, you burn A LOT of calories. 

Last year I swore off candy, cocktails and ice cream.  This year, I'm only gonna do candy and ice cream.  I decided giving up cocktails was a tad too extreme!  You don't want me going completely coo coo, do you?  I blame the lack of consumption of alcohol to my saying that I would do this again so shortly after I finished the first one!  Coo Coo for cocoa puffs, I tell ya!

So I'm gonna go enjoy my last day of freedom.  Maybe go to Cold Stone, get a scoop of ice cream, with candy on top.  Go freeze my brain...maybe when it thaws I will have come to my senses.

Be well and Peace Out!

ARE YOU INSPIRED?

 As I started my run around the country club today, a group of cyclists passed me going the opposite direction.  This in and of itself is not an unusual site.  There are a lot of bike clubs in this area that use San Vicente and the West side as their playground.

But as I continue I see more and more cyclists.  Like Hundreds.  I go about halfway around the country club when I see a sign.  The Aids/LifeCycle San Francisco to Los Angeles Bike-a-thon.  It is a 7 day, 575 mile bike ride to raise money to help (hopefully) end Aids.

There were cyclists who were wearing mohawks on their helmets in every shade.  Rainbow 'hawks and neon 'hawks.  There were some that had stuffed animals or feathers or bright red afros attached to their helmets.  Others had squeaky toys that they squeezed throughout the ride.  Some had what I'm guessing were heavy duty pipe cleaners sticking out...kinda making 'em look like lighting bolts coming from their heads, and my favorite...a PLANT!

Some were dressed in crazy outfits.  I saw a lion and a tiger and a bear (oh my).  I saw a man with so much cra....stuff on him that he looked like a pinata.  I saw a man in a riding outfit made to look like a tuxedo.  It was fun to watch as they passed me by.

When I was running the marathon last year, it surprised me how much some stranger saying "great job" helped keep me going.  So I thought it only fair to pay it forward.  I would only see them on part of my route, but every time I was on San Vicente, I would clap and shout "good job" and "way to go" while giving a thumbs up.

Since I was running and chewing gum, I was taking a great risk trying to shout and clap and thumb at the same time!  I only stumbled once...providing comic relief to those tired riders.

Not only was it amazing to see literally hundreds and hundreds of cyclists riding for a great cause, but it was amazing that I got a couple of cat calls, whistles and a, "Daaaamn, baby!!"  even though I wasn't at my most attractive.  My boyfriend doesn't have to worry though, they were all from women!

It was an inspiring run for me.  It made me think how great it would be to some day have hundreds of people running to help our goldens.  I just checked their website and they raised over 11 million bucks!  Can you imagine?

So I'm hoping that you all are inspired to get out there and train for any of the Long Beach events, or inspired to get signed up and become our number one fundraiser!  The marathon is 18 weeks from tomorrow (YIKES!).  We can do this!  And although we might not get close to 11 million $28,000 is a completely obtainable goal!  (the leading fundraiser for AIDS/LifeCycle has raised over $52,000!  If any of you raise that much, you can have as big a portrait as you want!!!!)

Get Inspired, Be well and Peace out!

CHALLENGES

So last year, I put forth a challenge to all of you to eat lots of ice cream. ICE CREAM! The only condition was for every scoop, you put a buck into a jar and give it to Rescue.

To put it nicely, you guys TOTALLY sucked!

The only reason we got any Scoops donations was Sandy walked around Dogtoberfest and GUILTED those of you who were there and had cash left to give it over!

So this year, I am putting forth another challenge and this time, since you all are challenge CHALLENGED, it's an easy one. (Although people, I thought eating ice cream was pretty darned easy...and yummy!)

I am challenging all of you to be the top fundraiser for the GRCGLA Rescue through active.com!!!!!!!!!

If you go to http://www.active.com/donate/GRCGLARescue2010, you will be taken to our fundraising page. At the top is says "become a fundraiser".

You can sign up to fund raise EVEN IF YOU DON'T PARTICIPATE IN ANY EVENT!

You can post a picture of your favorite golden baby and say why you love the breed and why you are raising money to help our wonderful baby goldens! (If you have any questions, let me know)

Then you can send it to every single person you know and ask them to help YOU win!

And what will you win?
The winner will get 2, yes TWO 4"x4" pet portraits done in oil, done by yours truly.**

With her permission, here are portraits commissioned by Rescue's own Jo B:

If you are a super duper spectacular fundraiser...and I mean WICKED, NINJA GOOD (I'm talkin' at least $2500) we can discuss one bigger one.

So folks, are you up for the challenge?

Be well and get busy!!

**I paint from your original photos. Originals will need to be approved by me. Close up photos work the best.

The Marathon Guru

As most of you know, Marty Friedman, aka, The Marathon Guru, aka, MG, aka, G, aka, The Slave Driver, played a very important role in helping me get trained for last year's marathon.  I should probably add Attila and Crazy Man to the list because not only has he once again offered to crack the whip on me but he has told me he will help any of YOU that are interested in milking him dry of expertise!

I will warn you in advance that he is very serious about running and he has no problem telling you that you are a total and complete slacker...if you are!

But all kidding aside, G has a plethora (ooh ooh...one of my favorite words!) of information that is helpful to any runner, whether a newbie or someone who can make it around the block.  If nothing else, he has proven to be a great motivator (Get movin' Lead Legs!)

So if you have any questions for Marty, you can email him at the following address: mjfriedman2@verizon.net

I know that he takes Hershey's Kisses and Reese's Peanut Butter cups as payment.

Be Well Everyone!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope that all of you people mommies and doggie mommies had a wonderful Mother's Day!

I have had a few people ask me how the half marathon went...proving that no one is reading this!

And that's ok.... since no one reads this thing...I thought I would give poetry a try:

The sky is blue
the grass is green
I'm really glad I have my spleen

My knees don't knock
my eyes don't cross
Sweetness thinks he's the boss

My eyes are green
my hair is short
Football is my favorite sport

I hate my neighbor
his name is Michael
I wish I could ram him with my cycle

I love Goldens
I love cheese
Give me lots of both please

Some say I'm weird
Some say I'm quirky
Too much caffeine makes me jerky

I could go on...But I won't.

I will save the rest for the next time I feel like no one is reading this thing.

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!