Buggin' you - where buggin' is lovin'

A little Massachusetts and Beers history, thanks to the magical powers of the internets.

Posted by Juana at 8:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Bo and I went for walksies, and I played with my camera again by the Connecticut. I added more pics to my flickr doggy sitting page. Here's Bo's nose.

Posted by Juana at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Check out the latest in kitty/doggy festivities in and around the Turners Falls household.

Yesterday, Tio Pepe on crack. (Maybe Mom has a book on Crack Kitties?)

Neighborhood kitty watches Bo while we go for walksies.

Bo is oblivious to the neighborhood kitty.

Proof that Bo is Bo.

Scaredy Cats

Posted by Juana at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm Bo Doggy sitting this weekend! The kitties are fine technically, but showing clear signs of being miffed (Lucy) and petrified (Tio Pepe). We're all still alive though, and Bo seems to be settling in ok. Here are some pictures highlighting our first day.

Bo got cold!

Lucy got mad!

Tio Pepe got scared!

Posted by Juana at 4:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm having too much fun with my new camera, the snow, and my new best friend, Bo. Did I mention I get to doggy sit Bo in January?! Smiles all around. Here's my latest adventure today. I'm still working out how to improve focusing and taking pictures in low light settings, but every time I shoot, I learn more. Even though several photos are still fuzzy, I kinda like them. And by default, if there's a doggy or kitty in the photo, then it's great, because even if it's fuzzy, they ARE fuzzy, so it just works.

Here's a brief sampling:

Flags in the snow honor the fallen.

Pretty

How much is that sad poodle in the window?

Bo Doggy goes wild eating sticks

Posted by Juana at 2:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was spazzin about the snow this afternoon (as every girl from the Willamette Valley should), and when I power bugged my neighbor/MFA comrade when he was in a writing zone, he was kind enough to let me steal his awesome dog Bo for a walk. We had great fun. And we met the lone goose in the Connecticut, chillin with the duckies. See all of the evidence here!

Here's Bo, checking out the start of sunset:

Here's the goose, checking out duck butts:

So far, I must say Turners Fallsians know how to deal with snow (unlike Seattlites who are just dumb, mostly). Bunches of folks had their snow blowers, snow shovels, and snow plows out. That's right, not just the town has snow plows, but many folks have their own, or run a business of snow plowing. Bunches of rigs had them mounted to their fronts. If I ever get in a jam, I'm going to call the Plow Frau, who I saw today, because the name is poetical. I hoofed it to the hardware store (yes, tons of stuff is within walking distance here!), and bought a snow shovel and snow broom/sweepy thingy, and I uncovered my car after I found it looking like this:

I gave it a snow mohawk on the roof (too dark to get a photo), and then drove it a few feet in the parking lot, just to get my snow driving training wheels on. I didn't need to go anywhere, but it was nice to know I could if I had to. If I had been truly stuck, the police station is just across the street. I'm sure some strapping young officer would have come to my rescue. We can hope anyway.

Posted by Juana at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

More festive photos for ya'll. Yesterday, I put the kitties on the windowsill so they could make funny noises at the birdies that were outside flitting around on the trees. Happy red berries for birdies. Happy cute little fuzzy wannabe killers. Killers shouldn't be cute, but they can be under the right fuzzy circumstances.

Today, mega snow! These photos are from my front window. UMASS announced it was a snow day, no classes. Kinda less thrilling when I didn't have any classes scheduled anyway, but still nice. I'm going to walk around out there in a bit once I get bundled up.

Posted by Juana at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's time to vote for your favorite university mascot, and guess who's in the finals?! That's right the glorious UMASS Sam the Minuteman. Vote Now! Be sure to watch Sam's video. Sam can do the tree pose! Sam is a hit with the ladies! Sam knows how to party! (We're #9)

Posted by Juana at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I got a pro flickr account, so now it's much easier to organize my photos by topic, just go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/bugginyou. Click on the photo album looking "set" on the left that you want to see and weeee!

And since I'm here, I'll give you an update. Lucy's on my lap (oh wait that's not new). I've got snot (oh wait, that's not new either), and I slept in, completely confounding the universe and its laws. Anyway, the weekend was fun -- I went to live lit (and the party afterwards which seems to be the real reason people go...), and saw a Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz play, House of Desire, performed by UMASS theater students. It was kind of a Shakespearian romantic comedy type thing-- not bad for a 17th Century Mexican Nun!

The poetry reading at the laundromat yesterday went well, and was good fun, and people seemed appreciative of my stuff. I managed to read before my cold went super snotty on me, which is good!

Since I'm snot bound -- send me a note! Say hey!

Posted by Juana at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Just a note to say I went for walksies this afternoon and took a bunch more photos of Turners Falls. I started out with a spirtual mindset and took pictures of all the churches, then found myself exploring new territory along the river more south of where I usually take pictures, and met a chipper Turners Fallsian kitty. I also got some lovely Tio Pepe shots in -- looking kinda freaky and wigged out, but that's why we love him, right? Here's a sampler:

Tio Pepe:

Friendly Turners Falls Kitty Buddy:

Beauty by the River at Twilight:

Posted by Juana at 2:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Howdy!

The latest updates on Massachusetts Life:

--Last Friday, J and I went to Emily Dickinson's grave in Amherst, which is very near her old house which is now a museum (I hope to go there soon), and we read her poetry there and generally thought about death and eternity and stuff in the snow. Then we went to Lady Killigrew and had hot tea and a good pee and I bought a used reference book on poetry. Gotta stop reading poetry that rhymes. Here's pictures! (I'm still getting used to FlickR .. hopefully you'll find all the EM photos.)

--J and I went to Boston last Saturday. We drove to a suburban subway stop and headed into town, had a traditional Irish breakfast for lunch at an official Irish pub, roamed the streets, checked out famouse people dead in historic graveyards, saw massive amounts of cool paintings at the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and then had yummy Chinese food in Boston's Chinatown. There's tons left to see and do in Boston and we only had 1 day, but it was a fine introduction. Here's pictures!

--On Sunday, J and I went to Shelburne Falls and saw a super cute little town with an amazing falls on the Deerfield River. We shopped a bit, checked out the falls and the many potholes in the river, then had a yummy breakfast for brunch at the Bridge Street Cafe that everyone should go to. Then we went to North Adams to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, also known as Mass MOCA. A very cool setting, and cool art too! J and I both liked the paintings on display from an art studio in Berlin ("Live After Death: New Leizpig Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection), and the Becoming Animal exhibit was a trip. Here's pictures! (I'm still getting used to FlickR .. hopefully you'll find all the Shelburne Falls photos.)

--This weekend there's another installment of Live Lit on Friday at Amherst Books, a Turners Falls Art and Icicles gallery/art weekend thingy, and a poetry reading (and other arty stuff) in a laundromat. It's the laundromat below me, and I get to read for 5 minutes along as will bunches of other folks, including my landlord and a fellow MFA-er at UMASS. I will report back on what it's like, should be fun.

--Oh, and it will probably snow at some point in the next 3-4 days. Wee!

Coming soon:

Cat Meditation (looking for recommendations on how to get videos from my camera small enough to post on the internets.)

Posted by Juana at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)