Happy Birthday, Carmen!

I can't believe I didn't post on here for Carmen's birthday. I am a bad mother. I hang my head in shame. Anyway, Carmen was 5 on February 11th. FIVE! Can you believe it? I don't know how that happened, I really don't. I thought I'd post some baby pictures of her for your viewing pleasure.







Isn't she a cute little thing?

Today was the Washington Whippet Racing Club's first race practice for 2007. My friend and fellow owner of two of Carmen's littermates, (the one who watched my girls while we were in Hawaii) thought it might be fun to have a little party in honor of our 5-year-olds. So I got a cake and she brought some turkey and we all had a little celebration. It was pouring down rain half the time while we were practicing and my birthday girl only got to run one time, but a good time was had by all.

A friend at work forwarded me an article with the following statistics. I am horrified.

The following statistics about book publishing and reading were found on www.parapub.com, the Web site of self-publishing guru Dan Poynter. They'll give you an idea of what you're up against if you want to write books for a living.

1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
57 percent of new books are not read to completion.
70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance.
70 percent of the books published do not make a profit.
(Source: Jerold Jenkins, www.JenkinsGroupInc.com)

Each day in the U.S., people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
(Source: Veronis, Suhler & Associates investment banker)

EIGHTY PERCENT of families did not buy or read a book last year??????? FORTY TWO PERCENT never read another book FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES??????

OMG.

Stuff on My Sophie

Flowers!

I took my camera to work and took some pictures of the tulips that Marmalade brought me for my birthday. Aren't they beautiful? I got so many comments on them and people would just hang out by my desk and bask in their beauty. They made us all happy.

It's Groundhog Day!

I just love that movie.

So Phil didn't see his shadow and it will be an early spring. Yay. I'm sure Phil was thrilled to be dragged out of his warm crate at the butt-crack of dawn in the middle of a Pennsylvania winter by a bunch of weirdos wearing top hats simply to tell them (in groundhog-ese, of course) his prediction about how much longer winter will go on. He was probably all, "Hey! I was in the middle of a good dream! And spring starts on March 21st, you idiots. Look at any calender and you'll see that. Now put me back in my warm bed."

Check out the FAQs on the groundhog.org site. While Phil is cute and all, it kind of makes you wonder how someone started this tradition. According to Wikipedia, the tradition in the US is derived from this Scottish poem:

As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop

I don't see anything in there about groundhogs, do you? Do they even have groundhogs in Scotland?

All I can say is a good thing they use groundhogs and not whippets for weather forecasting on February 2nd. Whippets would be all, "Who the *bleep* cares if you can see my shadow? It's 6:00 in the freaking morning, it's freaking cold out here, and I don't freaking care about this whole freaking holiday thing anyway! Let me back in my bed...NOW!" and then streak off to bed so fast you'd think they WERE a shadow. Well, at least that's what Sophie would do.

Anyway, hope you had a great Groundhog's Day. Now go watch the movie.

And the Release Date is....

... drum roll please...

... more drumming ...

... long moment of suspense ...

... the audience is listening ...

JULY 21, 2006! Yay! I can't wait!

... loud cheering and applause ...