puppy

Christmastime at the Careyfornia

As promised, there will be lots of photos of my new nephew, Chazz this week! Claudio & Ryan arrived Friday and Chazz quickly acclimated to the West Hollywood lifestyle. By today, he was getting good at dodging the paparazzi and hobnobbing with all the celebrity dogs at the dog park. Eva came Saturday for her annual tree trimming sojourn, and the decorating of the official Careyfornia Christmas Tree was underway. Ryan and I picked out an nice 7 foot tree for $25 at Home Depot and we strung 2200 lights, before hanging over 350 ornaments, (Rockefeller Center, eat your heart out!) Claudio, aka, “The Grinch” didn’t help much, but he did manage to put the top on the tree without knocking it over, as this video will attest. I had to redo it though.

The day in pictures… (I’ll post more of Chazz on Wednesday. We’re going to see Frost/Nixon now.)

I tried to dress Christmas-sy, but the shorts gave it away!

Notice the Hollywood sign above Ryan’s head!

Joy to the f*&*%*g world!

Deck the halls with Chazz

He looks like the Grinch’s dog here….wait, he is!

I’m An Uncle

When Claudio & Ryan moved here last summer and bought a big house with a big yard, I encouraged them to get a dog. They weren’t sure at first, because they wanted to be able to travel unimpeded. I assured them however, that I would take care of the dog whenever and for however long they needed me to. I mentioned the idea again a few weeks ago, and one thing led to another. Since Ryan’s birthday and Christmas were coming up, Claudio and I secretly strategized, and earlier this week, a puppy was sent into the front door of their house (as a surprise) with a big bow around his neck. Meet my new nephew, Chazz!

Vicious Disclaimer, I know! Sorry Ryan!

Rest assured you will be seeing many more pictures of this dog on this blog in the years to come. I sent Claudio & Ryan this email the other day. (Warning, it’s not for the faint of heart!)

Carey Anthony

Don’t Teach Chazz This
2 messages

From: Carey Anthony

Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 10:48 PM

To: Ryan, Claudio

The Masturbating Dog

From: Ryan

Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 7:46 AM

To: Carey Anthony

oh i am speechless.

Lil Chazz was in my lab watching as well, I had to cover his gorgeous eyes and earmuff that clip.
I’m now going to have to put a parental lock on youtube so I can filter what the new love of my life is being exposed to.

P.S. Cougars (i.e. Claudio) and puppies don’t mix – I’m AFRAID to let little Chazz out of my site. What if he tries to steal a lick or two from ‘ol coug’s saucer of milk?? He could be lunch! Oh the worries and woes of parenting!!!

Finally, you may have seen this heartbreaking storty of the “hero” dog from Santiago, Chile all over the news today. Oreo, would have been proud!!

Culture Shock, Idols & Puppies

I flew to “Sweet Home” Chicago today. I haven’t been home in over a year, and since I have a conference to attend downtown this week, I flew in early to spend some time with my Mom and my brother and niece. Before leaving Los Angeles thought, guess who I ran into at LAX??

My old buddy Jason Castro

The plane to Chicago was virtually empty, so there was a lot of room to spread out. The girl in front of me had the cutest puppy with her, and the kids on the plane all had a ball playing with the puppy, as did I.

It was a beautiful day for flying:

The Port of Los Angeles

This cutie’s Dad is a doctor at UCLA and her Mom’s a school counselor. Super nice folks!

My brother picked me up at O’Hare, and brought me to his hometown, about 60 miles west of the city. It might as well be Iowa though! There’s one tiny biker bar in town, which as you can see from these photos is the “hot spot”. I find it hilarious that I left West Hollywood this afternoon, in the middle of Gay Pride weekend, and tonight I’m in a Harley bar 2000 miles away in Elburn, Illinois watching drunk Midwestern girls dance on the bar. Oh, and it was karaoke night. LOL

As I don’t drink, I was a little out of my element!

The guy in the middle is (I suspect) the only gay guy in this little town.

This pretty much sums up the mind set here

That’s my little brother on the right

A robin laid some eggs in his back yard…Spring in the Midwest
Virginia Tech – One Week Later – And Onward

From: Bine
Date: Apr 23, 2007 4:51 PM
Subject: Monday
To: Carey, Eva, Carolina

I arrived safely here in Blacksburg. After dropping my backpack off I went to see Lindsay and we talked until 3 am, which was really good. So I was a bit better prepared for campus today. my bike ride into school was easier than I had thought, but it took me a while to enter my office building. And it is amazing, our floor is full with cards from school-kids throughout the country, some are even from Portland, Oregon!
At 9:45 this morning we all went to the drill field for a moment of silence. Very powerful. The media was asked not to take pictures and to leave campus sooner than later and as far as I know, most of them have left. This makes it all a bit more normal. Yet there is still a lot of police around, even FBI is still investigating…which is actually hilarious as those guys really look like out of a movie…gee!

My advisor came to my office today, tears in his eyes, gave me a hug and told me that he was so happy, that it didn’t happen on Tuesday. We sat in my lab for quite some time and talked about all the good people we have lost and exchanged stories. After that I felt better about being back. And now I am actually glad, not only because Alan is arriving here soon, but because we actually had the chance to do something. One professor had sent out an e-mail today:

EWR Grad students,

I’m trying to get volunteers to help two of our own survivors, Lee
& Nathaniel. Lee & Maria just bought a house, but haven’t been
able to move in yet because they wanted to paint the walls and get new
carpet first. Nathaniel will then be able to move in with Lee & Maria.
I think it would be great if we can pitch in and help.

If you can spare an hour or more, please stop by their house at 1100
Golfview Drive later today. Painting will start around 3:30 or 4.
Thanks!!!

Of course a bunch of us went there and helped painting and this was such a great feeling. Lee (btw, this is not my room mate Lee) told some stories about last week, which were hard to bear but helped him to get it out.

True, we are far from a normal life here on campus. We still miss the ones we have lost, but it is actually helpful to be back. Also for the professors, they did an still do an amazing job trying to guide and help their students. Counselors were coming into every classroom today, to talk to the students. Professors stand in front of their classes, in tears, trying to give answers which they can’t but the interaction and the understanding of the students is a big help.

There is also a lot of talk about the funerals. And all the stories are so positive. Southern baptist, Jews, Hindu are going together to a Muslim funeral. The only religion that combines everybody at this very moment and this very place is love and grief.

I showed/forwarded Carey’s blog to a lot of people here and they really appreciated what you have done.

I again want to thank you guys for being such wonderful friends!

I love you so much and I appreciate our little family! I feel very lucky

love,

Bine
And now, because I want to put something on this website for the first time in a week that will make people smile instead of cry; I present to you my cousin’s new dog:
Drum roll please

Ah, the innocence of children and puppy dogs! Let the healing begin.

Andy & Roxy

Tommy & Roxy

Tressa & Roxy

Welcome to the family Roxy!