AR people are the best ever!

I've had a crazy, busy few days, so I've been a remiss blogger. Our wonderful friend Anthony Marr arrived this week for a brief visit. We've had a lot of time to visit and just "hang out", which has been very nice. When he first arrived, he was quite ill, but after a couple of days of lying low and resting, he bounced right back. We took him to see Allegrea's art exhibit as soon as he was up to it. Her work is so beautiful, that I really enjoyed seeing it again and being able to share it with others. Dej was able to go with us as well, and as she's an artist also, she really appreciated it.

Thursday morning, Dej and I had to be at the nearest UW for her first college visit. This was a pretty easy one, as it's local, and also happens to be the college where I teach. She went to a class, American Government, and she seemed to enjoy it. She got to choose from several different classes, so I was glad she found one that was of interest to her. She was a little whiney about having to get up early to go to "school" and sit in a class on her day off. How the poor girl suffers. She really liked the big art studio/class room, and since she will probably spend a lot of time there, I was very happy about that.

Thursday night, Anthony, Allegrea, Luciana, Mark, and I went to the Puppy Mill Round Table in Madison. This was sponsored by the WI Puppy Mill Project, The Alliance for Animals, and the Dane County Humane Society. About 30-40% of the attendees were breeders. Of the 12 WI legislators invited, none bothered to attend. As our Federal government no longer even bothers to keep up the pretense of being "by the people, for the people", our state government seems to be following suit. The round table event became a bit heated and rowdy, as the breeders were ill mannered and heckling the speakers. A group of Amish puppy mill sadists were there as well. It quickly became clear that the breeders were there in an effort to align themselves with "the good guys" and distinguish themselves as being different from puppy mills--the "humane" choice. Strangely enough, though, these breeders who claimed to care so much for the animals they pimp and sell, were loathe to have any sort of regulations/inspections that would apply to them. It was actually a clever marketing ploy. No thanks, though, we don't care to be associated with them in any way. Many attendees brought their adopted dogs, victims of breeders/puppy mills, and we enjoyed visiting with them. They were so very damaged--both physically and emotionally--but absolutely precious! The dogs were an excellent visual reminder of why we were there. Luciana had fun with Allegrea and Anthony. She loves to talk to and play with them.

Here's the link to an article in the Capital Times about the puppy mill round table: http://www.madison.com/tct/news/257233

Friday night we had our get together in Anthony's honor. We had a great time with our AR friends and were happy to introduce those who hadn't yet met Anthony. Mark made his award-winning chili (the recipe from the first year he won), and I made a taco bar. There was plenty of good vegan food and drinks for everyone. We really enjoyed having so many of the friends, who we love and respect, all together. We were disappointed that Dej wasn't able to join us, but she spent Friday and Saturday in Sheboygan for a debate meet. L had Hunter stay overnight, so she had someone to play with while the "grown ups" talked.

By the time everyone left and we got things reasonably cleaned up enough to go to bed, it was around 2. The kids were asleep at that point. Shortly after 3, we were awakened by L telling us that H accidentally hit himself in the nose and they couldn't get it to stop bleeding. It was a sudden and rude awakening. We went down to find blood and bloody tissues on the floor, and H bleeding profusely. L told him to pinch his nose, but he thought it would hurt so he wouldn't try it. He let me pinch it though and then took over himself when he found it wasn't painful. It stopped bleeding after a few minutes of that. We got the room and H cleaned up, the kids settled again, and returned to bed at around 4. It was a very short night.

H stayed throughout the day on Saturday until it was time to drop L off at my parents' for date night. We were starting a bit early, meeting Anthony and some friends of his from Elkhorn for an early dinner. We ate at Nee's, which was as delicious as usual. M & I had lard na (which I always get because it's so good). We had some great conversation and really enjoyed getting to know Bev & Greg. They are also AR people, who we met briefly on Anthony's prior visit. I'm sure we will be seeing them again--hopefully for our next Petland protest.

Today was chore day, as Sundays usually are. Anthony came over for pizza and a last social visit before he had to start the drive to Denver (straight through!). H was here again today, and he & L played outside for quite a long time. They made pine cone/peanut butter/bird seed treats for the outside critters and made "carrot cake" for Annabelle (our guinea pig) and Thumper (our rabbit). They also did some work in the spy lounge (an area that they created for themselves in the workroom of our basement) and did some ghost hunting upstairs. They had quite a productive day. We were all sad to see Anthony go this evening!