My puppies

My mom took Won Ton to a specialty vet down in orange county today. He had to get some deep bone scan on his wonky leg so we could figure out what was wrong. Turns out its just arthritis, which is good because it doesn't require surgery and it isn't life-threatening, but which kind of sucks because its chronic and hurts him. But it's good to know he's going to be ok! So, to celebrate, gratuitous pug pictures!

To Have and To Hold: Faith Leaders for the Freedom to Marry

The junior rabbi at my synagogue is getting married at the end of the summer. This may not seem like a big deal at first, until you realize that my rabbi is a woman, and so is her fiance. The amazing fact that these two women are going to be recognized as spouses in my synagogue, and indeed, in all of the Conservative Jewish movement, makes me so grateful for everyone who has worked so hard to get us to this point and so proud of the path Conservative Judaism has taken. I know we have so much further to go--and that I will be at the polls come November voting to extend this right to all people--but let me just say that I am happy for how far we have come.
Read a Washington Post article on the decision to allow gay marriage in conservative Judaism here.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from my recent trip to San Diego.

Sam and me (and a lion!) at the Wild Animal Park


Lion cubs playing


Momma lion


This was the most beautiful cat ever, called a Caracal. He was just hanging out on the lawn a couple yards away from us, playing with his chew toy.


This cat can jump 12 feet into the air! Check out the back flip action...


Pretty giraffe (and mini giraffe in the corner!)


Cheetahs


I'm covered in Lorikeets! It was so much fun!


Meerkats!


Sam and me, and a gorilla in the background.


Big gorilla man.


Me comparing my hand to that of a gorilla.


And, of course, the beautiful San Diego beach

I promise!

I will get back to blogging regularly, I promise! Eep!
I was in San Diego this past week visiting Sam and it was lovely! Now, I know San Diego is not th The Middle of Nowhere and I did have computer access, but I just wanted to enjoy the vacation and not worry about much else. And, I did! We lounged around on the beach, went to the Wild Animal Park (pictures to follow), played Wii Sports, went to the beach some more, and generally had a great time. It was so beautiful down there, and really nice to spend time with him and his family.
The Wild Animal Park was awesome! The park is structured in essentially two parts, a zoo-like section when you first walk in and the 1600 acre reserve section where the animals literally just roam freely about...its amazing. Sam and I payed a couple of extra bucks to take a tram ride around the reserve section of the park and boy was it worth it! Besides separating the predators from the herbivores, the Park pretty much lets the animals just run free. Though they have their own territories that they have defined, they essentially all overlap with each other, free of fences or barriers or anything. They get to truly behave like they're in the wild, which helps not only their mental health, i'd imagine, but with the transition back into the wild if such a transition is planned. The park gets between 300 and 500 animal births a year--pretty much at least a birth a day!--and we got to see a gazelle that was only just a couple of hours old. I'll upload my pictures tomorrow...I got some really good ones!
So, since coming back from San Diego on Friday I've pretty much done nothing, which is both lovely and a bit boring. I did some more shopping with my mom--always lovely--and helped her get ready for a fancy dinner she and my dad went to tonight. I'm also in the middle of reading a couple of books and have been watching my share of crap TV. I tried to read some of the Animorphs series that I loved so much as a kid today, but I couldn't find the box where we stored them all...I'll probably try again tomorrow.
Time to try to sleep now. Take care!