Archie Hong, R.I.P.

Today at work I found out that Archie Hong died. Any initial anger towards my family for neglecting to tell me until this moment quickly dissolved and I had to escape to the bathroom for a good cry. Archie was a Jindo, a Korean breed similar to an Akita or Shiba Inu, that's not very common in the States.

Archie joined the family during my freshman year of college. I loved the band Velocity Girl at the time and so I named Archie after their guitarist. Yes, Archie was a girl and she was also friendly and loving and unconditionally loyal. She perfected the high-paw and was a great mom to her pups as well. Goodbye Archie.

i'm so mad

i missed the puppy bowl for the second straight year. i was too busy eating hoosier tenderloins and garrett popcorn. i'm so pissed.

at the end of the day we sit on the verandah and drink a beer

From CNN.com

Dutch brewers launch dogs' beer

A small brewery in the Netherlands has launched a new beer designed to bring cool relief to thirsty dogs.

Kwispelbier, marketed as "a beer for your best friend", is made from a special brew of beef extract and malt.

The beverage is a creation of pet shop owner Gerrie Berendsen, who wanted her dogs to share light refreshments with her after a day's hunting.

The beer is non-alcoholic and fit for human consumption, but costs four times as much as a Heineken.

"Kwispel" is the Dutch word for wagging a tail.

Ms Berendsen, who lives in the eastern town of Zelhem, commissioned the small local Schelde brewery to make and bottle the beer.

"Once a year we go to Austria to hunt with our dogs, and at the end of the day we sit on the verandah and drink a beer. So we thought, my dog also has earned it," Ms Berendsen told the Associated Press.

smokey links

Best. YouTube Movie. Ever.


Gastrokid food blog
Jackson Pollock interactive thingy
Sonya Thomas Halloween Costume on EatFeats competitive eating blog:
Listmaker has some good linkage up too.
Latest Obession: Kabaya Woodmate Petit Living Furniture

my dan and my hamachi

together at last! one of these two was won over by the other one on saturday. take a guess.

thank you everyone for a really amazing birthday weekend.

things you're not quite sure how to tell a stranger #1

this morning during a terrible morning commute (where I waited 20 minutes on a freezing F platform outside for a train only to have it be completely full and after another 10 minutes, i realized another train was not ever going to come and so i left the station and walked to the R) i noticed a long white strip on a guy's pair of jeans. he was walking up the stairs in front of me and as i closed in on the gap between us, i realized that the patch on the back of his left leg was one of those stickers that lists the waist and length of your jeans. 34 36 was neatly printed in two columns over and over. i couldn't imagine this was left there on purpose. i mean, this guy looked rather hipstery - the detailing on the back pocket was nothing i had ever seen, leaving me thinking it was yet another new, boutiquey high-end jeans company. for the next 30 seconds, i hemmed and hawed as to whether or not i should tell him. i know if it were me, i would be thankful for the notice, but i couldn't tell with this guy. would be he thankful, or would embarassment overhwhelm him and make him turn mean? in the end i didn't tell him and no, i don't feel guilty about it either.

The Dog Days of Summer

I can not believe I'm going to be out of town while this is going down. Fahq!!!

then and now

faces of the red sox nation

nineteen-eighteen! nineteen-eighteen!

i guess it was a bit anti-climactic, after the marathon division series and alcs, but who cares? the red sox are world series champions. believe it.

highlights:
manny ramirez's double finger points while being awarded the mvp throphy
pedro carrying around the trophy in a daze
curtis leskanic making "snow" angels in the infield
mike timlin carrying dave roberts on his shoulders
francona crying during a post-game interview
derek lowe giving pedro a noogie

lowlights:
all the lowlights come courtesy of fox. their coverage was unbelieveable sucky. my two favorite:
cutting to jimmy fallon and drew barrymore kissing during the on-field celebration. boooo!
showing the same dumb fan in the black sweater sitting behind the cardinals dugout.

just one of those days

on this date 18 years ago, jesse orosco threw his glove high up in the air after striking out marty barrett for the last out of game seven in the 1986 world series. the mets were winners and the boston red sox went home incredulous losers. ten year old hong made a lot of whooping noises in her room, where she was watching the game on a tiny portable television, and got yelled at by dad who told her it was past her bedtime.

two decades later, i still love the mets, but tonight i'm going to be rooting for the sox nearly as hard as i'd be if it were the mets in the series. i am a sucker for feel-good stories and this one is the feel-goodest of all. it's a chance for the team to complete the greatest post-season comeback ever.

i want to see 90 year old grandmothers who still score games with shaky handwriting getting embraced by middle aged men with pot bellies and firemen moustaches. i want to see grown men openly weeping in their wives' arms. I want to see men who make $15 million a season be reduced to children, uncontrollaby sobbing with joy. i want to see pedro do another champagne dance, only this time with nelson de la rossa tucked under his pitching arm. i want to see papi lead a victory run around the field. i want to see mark bellhorn, well just because he's kind of cute. ugh, did i just say that? don't you think he looks like rufus wainwright's bad seed brother?

by the way, there's going to be a lunar eclipse tonight.

danke schoen, darling

i'm not going to be able to get any work done today. my coworker christy sent me pictures of Danke, the world's smallest dog, who was featured on Channel 4 this morning. that led to me finding the site's Feedroom, which is filled with video clips of a monkey riding a sheepdog, another world's tiniest dog candidate and a pug-fest. oy.