Pledge to go Veg!

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/7day_veg_pledge?c=weekly_enews

I am not a vegetarian - let me say that up front. I like meat, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, all of it. But I do believe that the meat, dairy, and other animal farming industries are not held accountable and are in need of a major overhaul. As one of the biggest industries in America is its also one of the most unregulated and unmonitored. My hope is that with all of this "going green" craze, people will also push for humane animal farming. So I like to read up on this issue through different sources, one of which is PETA. They are no doubt quite radical in their approach to instigating changes - and I may not always agree with their approach, but I believe in their intentions, and I believe in their undeniable results. So with that said, I invite you to click on this link to read about a current campaign. The 7 day pledge simply means that you pledge to go vegetarian for 7 days. If every household went vegetarian for one meal a week the impact would cause an immediate shift in the animal farming industry, our environment, and in your own personal health. If you need recipes check out my link for vegetarian recipes at Go Veg

And if you need 30 more reasons, watch this

Saluting Animal Moms on Mothers Day

According to writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the trials of motherhood make moms the great vacationless class. Although she may have been talking about the human variety—the moms who are near and dear to us—other animals show the same tireless dedication to their children. PETA hopes that this Mother's Day, while you are praising your family's matriarch, you'll also remember that some of the best moms in the world are found in the animal kingdom

Northern Fur Seals:
Fresh from foraging for food, moms have to find their young quickly in a sea of hundreds—or possibly thousands—of seals, so both mother and pup depend on their uncanny powers of vocal recognition to find one another. Both will call out and answer, responding selectively to one another until they are reunited.

Elephants:
The TLC that these mammoth mothers bestow on their babies is among their most engaging qualities. Always ready to give an affectionate caress, a gentle nudge in the right direction, or a cool bath to help their babies beat the heat, doting moms maintain constant touch with their young ones, never allowing them to stray too far from their side. Mothers even stay in touch with their adult kids and enjoy close relationships with their daughters that can last up to 50 years.

Cows:
For cows and their calves, it's love at first sight. The first minutes after birth are spent developing a bond that will last a lifetime. Throughout life, mother and child maintain social contact and regularly enjoy each other's companionship. Their attachment and affection for each other is so deep that if they are forced apart, they both suffer severe stress. Moms have been known to escape their enclosures and travel for miles looking for their calves.

Dolphins:
Dolphins are known for graceful synchronized swimming, but dolphin mothers and their babies also synchronize their breathing for the first few weeks following the babies' birth. These dedicated moms may nurse their young for up to 10 years and will also mentor less experienced females by allowing them to babysit as practice for when they have babies of their own.

Cheetahs:
Let's hear it for single moms! These lightning-fast felines have their paws full caring for their cubs all on their own. Not only does mom protect her children from predators while she is nursing them, she also hunts for them from the time they are weaned until they are 14 to 18 months old. Overly active offspring can make the task of hunting even harder: Cubs often scare hunted animals away with their animated antics, leaving mom so worn out that she sometimes falls asleep in the middle of a hunt.

Chickens:
Nurturing begins in the nest for these caring moms. Mother hens will turn their eggs as many as five times an hour and cluck softly to their unborn chicks, who chirp back to her and to one another from within their shells! Once chicks hatch, devoted moms use their wings to shield their babies from predators and have been known to refuse to leave their nests during a fire if they have newly hatched peeps.

This Mother's Day, please take a moment to recognize the unique bond between mothers and children of all species. For tips on practicing kindness and compassion in honor of all animal moms, please visit PETA.org.

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13, I mean 2, childhood memories.

13 Childhood Memories

I couldn't make it to 13 so here's 2! :-) Maybe I'll add to the list as I go along.

1. BBQ and lots of it Dad was in a different cookoff every weekend. As much as we might have complained about being lugged around, sleeping in campers, and permanently smelling like mesquite smoke, as kids we really did love it. My mom might say differently, but I think just as much of her that hated it loved it. She too would compete in the fajita or beans cookoff and placed several times. Man, Dad makes some damn good bbq. It'd be one thing if he wasn't winning, but he was a constant threat to the other wannabe's. The name of his team was "Whodathunkit BBQ". Clever, who woulda ever thunk that they could make such awesome grub. Other than food there was all sorts of festivities - for example, the ugliest feet contest, the male hula contest, and the white water raft race (sans the white water) where Dad was trampled and a chunk of his nose was gouged out. I'm sure we whined a lot about these weekends, but it was definitely a fond memory, and an early education on how to have a rockin good time after 30.

2. Mom singing in the car Nowadays you’d never catch my mom singing in the car – its rare if the radio is even on, or if it is on it’s the jazz station or talk radio. But I have a vivid memory from my childhood of my mom singing in our little 79’ Honda civic hatchback. It was probably a warm Saturday afternoon, running errands around town. The radio was always on a country station - songs that nowadays are considered “country classics”. I like to recall these fond memories when we go to karaoke. Usually if the crowd is younger in age on that particular evening, they’ll just kind of nod along, clueless to what they’re hearing. But I love singing these songs on the nights when I'm feeling a little homesick.

KooKoo for Karaoke

As you may or may not know, we’ve recently become obsessed with Karaoke. One mans cheese is another mans cheeseburger. Now before you laugh, there are a lot of reasons why we love this so much. First, it was something we both got to be new at. When you date later in life your interests are pretty much full grown, so if they’re not the same it makes it hard to plan something you’ll both enjoy, rather than one conceding to the other just because you love him/her. Walker is great about being up for new things and scenes, so when I mentioned karaoke, he was hesitant but willing. Actually I’d been popping in on my own while he was working nightside and I think his curiosity finally got to him – either way, he was game. And voila! Our love for karaoke was born. There is another reason we love it so much – because people intrigue us. Both analytical by nature, we love to see the way karaoke blossoms peoples personalities. If you’ve experienced karaoke w/us before, you know the myriad of folks that come to our little haunt. You got old people and young people, great looking people, and mousy looking people, hip and not so hip – but karaoke is a place where everyone is accepted and everyone encourages each other to be brave and try that new song, even if you can only hit two of the notes. It’s not always pleasant to listen to; but it is so pleasant to see the way people come out of their otherwise squeamish shells, and take a jab at being outgoing. For a city where so many are away from home it’s a great stand-in family, and one that we look forward to seeing each week.