Toyota Prius raffle

The Southwest Environmental Center (SWEC - www.wildmesquite.org) is selling raffle tickets for a 2009 Toyota Prius hybrid car!

The tickets are $100 each and only 400 tickets will be sold.

The drawing will be held on 19 March 2009.

SWEC is a local (southwestern New Mexico) non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the habitats of species that are native to the Southwestern borderlands, in the interests of biodiversity and the health of our planet.

The three main areas of effort are -
Desert waters (e.g., Rio Grande river)
Desert lands and wildlife (e.g., Otero Mesa, Mexican gray wolf)
Education for a sustainable society

SWEC operates on a small budget and this raffle is one of the the primary annual fundraisers and thus critical to the continued day-to-day operation of the organization.

Raffle tickets make great gifts for folks who already have everything they need!

Interested parties may contact this blog author for tickets.

Holiday Spirit

2/3 of Wolfpack

Cuter in Person

Here are a few photos of the cutest / smartest / funniest / naughtiest 1-year-old in the house on his birthday ~

I think I said "cookie" to try to get him to look at me ~

Eventually he looked ~ wondering about that cookie ~

For his birthday Bodhi and I jogged 2 miles on the flood control dam and then went to the downtown mall where we bought apples (and shared an apple) and pretzel bread. That evening I celebrated his birthday by going to the whitest place I have ever been in Las Cruces - a fairly new Irish pub called Brigid's Crossing. Maddie pouted at being left out of the fun so all three of us jogged 3 miles on the flood control dam this/Sunday morning and then took a 1.75 mile walk this/Sunday evening. The wolfpack is happier when the wolfpack is exercising regularly.

Here are some other things in addition to the whitest place in town ~

I heard about this on some TV news magazine and it cracked me up ~

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

1 year old

Happy Birthday to Bodhi!

1 year old today!

And Happy Birthday to Kevin - more than 1 year old today.

photos - of Bodhi - soon

Busy Monday

I escaped to Starbucks for caffeine and work as soon as the kids had run out most of their morning energy. There I lamented with the staff about the fact that Starbucks in Las Cruces DOES NOT RECYCLE! It was frustrating to see all of the dozens and dozens and dozens of empty cardboard boxes lying around the store from where they had been unpacking all of their Xmas products. So I loaded all the empty boxes into my car and took them to recycling. More on this story later. I also took two boxes of stuff to a local thrift store and seven books to COAS for credit. Ended up buying one book there - The GenX Reader - An underground look at the twentysomething generation - Explained by those on the inside and dissected by those on the out. I was 20-something when the book was published in 1994 so it is relevant. I also went to Better Life Natural Pet Food Store and bought a vitamin and mineral supplement to give to Bodhi which will hopefully get him less interested in eating dog poop. And I went to Primetime Fitness and renewed my gym membership.

More Later

That was at 2 p.m. and now it is just past 10 p.m. I met Ed for lunch and then took the dogs for a 50-min romp in the desert and then went out to do laundry and then called Mom. Since then have been wasting time and now am going to bed.

I want soon to call Dave and donate blood and get a local public library card. Tomorrow/Tuesday there is a SWEC lunch to meet potential new board members.

Nice Saturday

Yesterday was an unplanned and fun day. The kids let me sleep until 9 - that has never happened before with the new kid. It was probably because I took them for a good romp in the desert late Friday afternoon and then I stayed up late working on Friday night and they sort of stayed up with me. Kim and Cheryl were near the house at an estate sale and stopped by for a short visit on Saturday morning and we planned to get together on Sunday. Then I took a shower (notable because have not had many of these since returning from Chicago) and took Bodhi to the downtown mall for the weekly farmers market and craft fair. We bought pretzel bread and blueberry muffins. We also visited with Kevin and practiced behaving nicely and then stopped by the dog park for a quick run around on the way home. I also talked to Ed on the way home and we planned to meet for lunch after I dropped Bodhi off at home and dropped off the recycling. After lunch we stopped by the stadium to watch part of the last NMSU home game. I stopped by the grocery store on the way home and then cooked dinner for the second straight night (italian sausage, polenta, wilted spinach on Friday; roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, wilted spinach on Saturday) and the third time in four months. The kids and I played for a bit and then we were all in bed by 10 and slept until 8 this morning. Today I worked on academic stuff and cleaning and organizing the kitchen cabinets and we visited Kim and Cheryl and Dakota and Jake for a play date. The kids are now sleeping and it is almost 9 and so I will be sleeping soon too. Nice to get to bed early these days with the colder temps and earlier nights. Tomorrow I want to go to the gym and pick out guest room carpet and order kitchen bar stools and get some good academic work done and do laundry and maybe buy a mattress and a simple temporary bed frame.