the slack daily

Happy Halfoween!

This SATURDAY, APRIL 28 is HALFOWEEN on Nickelodeon.

...which INCLUDES a little episode called "How to Rock Halloween" written by a not so little me!

Yeah, there might be vampires.  And werewolves. And a giant dance number.  And Kirk Fox looking a little Frankensteiny.  Check it out this Saturday at 8:30pm on Nickelodeon!

It's All How They're Raised...

BAD RAP Blog: Vick dogs: Five years post-seizure. Has the cruelty ended?

For every person who says that you can judge a pit bull's temperment on "how they're raised" (meaning dogs raised in good environments, or from a puppy = good and all other dogs = bad) read this.

If you can't be bothered to click through, I'll give you the highlights:

• The Vick dogs were fighting dogs.  They were horrifically abused not only in the fighting ring, but at the hands of their owners. 
• When Vick was busted, the dogs who were still alive were taken into custody.  For six months, those dogs had little interaction, affection, even sunlight. 
• With time, patience, and the knowledge and understanding of the breed, rescuers like Bad Rap and Best Friends Animal Sanctuary were called in to evaluate the dogs.  This had never been done, because, after all "it's how they're raised" right? But the animal evaluator in the case thought they deserved a chance, and Judge Henry Hudson agreed.
• While the dogs had issues, most had workable issues.  And with that, the dogs were taken in by multiple rescues.  They had, after years of horror and months of isolation, a soft place to land.
• Many of the Vick dogs have gone on not only to be great family pets that get along with other dogs, but breed ambassadors and therapy dogs that work with children, seniors, and the like.

It's not "all how they're raised."  They survived years of torture at the hands of human beings, and yet these dogs still love every human they meet.

 

 

This is why I have a pit bull.

Gettin' Dirty.

As some of you know, I've been dabbling with this running thing.  I don't love running, but races are fun and I'm really good at doing things that I'm not really good at.

The one thing I've wanted to do since I began was a mud run.  The Daddy of all mud runs is the Tough Mudder.  I didn't think I was ready the last time it was in town, and I didn't have a team.  Not that you need to, but the one thing all of these races have in common is that it's fun to do them with someone else.

That said, I signed up for the Merrell Down & Dirty 10k alone.  Will said he'd be there to cheer me on, but he didn't know how he'd feel after the marathon.  I initially had planned on doing the 5k, but with a glass of wine for courage and from the safety of my living room sofa, I thought yeah, I can do the 10k.

I got progressively more nervous as the date approached.

Here's the thing about me - I like doing things that are difficult.  Like, really difficult.  Near-impossible.  And then sometimes I do this thing where I beat myself up for not excelling at the near-impossible thing.  But running has taught me to put that part of my brain away and just concentrate on the HOLY SHIT I JUST DID THAT part.

So the 10k it was.

Games Couples Play

Will and I have a little game we play called "making shit up." And by "making shit up" I mean "getting the other person to believe something that is ludicrously untrue."  And by "we play" I mean "me."

Will also calls this game "you're a damned lying liar."

This is usually after I get him to believe something.

It all started when he asked (rhetorically) after seeing a game of tug-of-war on TV, "what has tug-of-war ever solved?"  I immediately countered that tug-of-war was created to settle land disputes in Colonial America.

(Will also calls this game "Nina being an asshole.")

(I can't help my genetics.)

A short while later I told him that Flair Cleaners, a Los Angeles staple, was founded by none other than the Nature Boy Ric Flair himself.

Woo! Look at those clean clothes!

 

Will soon realized this was not the case.  But this morning, he discovered the following:

 

The more you know...

Bric-a-Brac

I don't know how old I am in Netherlands years.

 

Things from around the Internetz:

Shane Nickerson on marathoning and much more.

Will wants to take Billy Joel on a breakup lunch.