Stylish Shoes and Foxy Conclusions

In case anyone has been waiting anxiously to find an update on the Edina coyote situation, I have some news.  It is actually cause for relief, which is good, but I am not quite ready to let my guard down totally on the subject.

This morning I was having my breakfast in my parents' kitchen by myself.  My mother had already left for work and my father was upstairs getting dressed.  The thug posse was happily occupied with Dingos in the living room.

All of a sudden, I heard my father shouting my name.  When one's parents start to have physical issues, this sort of shouting can be cause for alarm.  My dad recently had knee surgery, and although his recovery has been just peachy, you never know what can happen. 

After shouting my name, my dad yelled for me to come up there "right away."  Shoot.  I stopped eating and dashed up the stairs to his room to discover him standing in his closet, halfway dressed and looking out the window towards our neighbor's yard.  (Yes, their closet has windows.  Two of them.  Posh, right?)

I peered out the window and squinted (I was not yet wearing my glasses) towards the tree my father indicated.  Sure enough, a small reddish creature emerged into the yard:  clearly a FOX.  But that's not all.  My father instructed me to keep watching, and lo and behold a second fox came out and the two trotted off together. 

To clarify, as the Animal Control Officer explained to my mother, coyotes kill foxes.  If there was indeed a coyote in our neighborhood, there would not be any foxes out parading around like pigeons in an Italian piazza.  Therefore, my father has now surmised that there may be a den of foxes living in our neighborhood. 

This is not nearly as distressing to me for many reasons.  First, foxes are not known to be predators of Jack Russell Terriers and Rat Terrier/Papillon mixes.  (Yay!)  Second, foxes are kind of cute.  Third, it sort of reminds me of the Disney version of Robin Hood.  You know, with the foxes playing Robin Hood and Maid Marian?  The bear who plays Little John and sings the "Oodelally" song?  That takes me back.  My good friend Kellee used to sing it all the time in her lovely and unique tenor voice.  Ah, memories.

So now that I am on a stream of consciousness type of rant, I have realized that one of my current favorite songs also features foxes.  At least in name.  "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes has been in heavy circulation for me for a few months now.  My favorite thing about it is the first stanza (verse).  I am not going to quote or even paraphrase it here, so if you are really curious, check it out.  It is dreamy.

To bring it all back down to earth, my first Zappos.com purchase arrived today!  I have casually perused this site for a long time, but never really had cause to order anything.  However, with the number of formal occasions on the docket for me this summer, I decided to take some action and get some "fun" formal shoes. 

Normally I stick to black heels, mainly because most of what I wear for formal events is black.  I toyed with the idea of getting a pair of really awesome sky-high patent leather red heels, but a friend of mine kindly reminded me that that might be a bit too much for me.  Maybe if I kicked my normal look up a notch and started wearing some more dramatic makeup and hairstyles and went for some less conservative hem and necklines on my clothing.  But these red shoes were borderline hooker-shoes, complete with corset-type lacing up the back.  I think my friend was right to push me in another direction.  Baby steps, people.

Foxy Lego Ants on Power Wheels

Surprises are way overrated sometimes. 

My first example took place yesterday evening.  Upon arriving home with Lena, I felt a sense of relief and calm.  I unloaded the car and prepared to enjoy an evening of reading, relaxing and early bedtime.  Lena had a long day of travel as well with zero nap time, and I was happy that she would likely fall asleep easily.

This calm was quickly shattered when I walked in and glanced towards Lena's food dish.  As of late, my dog has decided that she does not want to eat all of her food at meal time.  Actually, this is more of an afternoon meal phenomenon.  I believe it is due to the fact that she expects a Dingo treat as well and cannot quite understand that the granting of said treat only occurs when she has finished her regular food.  Basically, she will take a few bites before coming to me to gaze imploringly into my eyes.

Normally, I can stubbornly get her to finish her food.  It takes a while.  Last week when we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that she hadn't finished her meal.  Normally I would have taken the time to get her to do so, but we were in a hurry.  It didn't occur to me that leaving it out would be a problem.  Boy was I wrong.

Over the course of the weekend, a colony of ants had discovered Lena's leftover food and was making a feast of it.  I should probably clarify a bit as it may sound like there were hundreds of tiny critters covering her dish.  This was not the case.  But there were enough to be distinctly noticeable.  I immediately emptied the bowl into the garbage, washed it thoroughly and began a frantic vacuum session. 

I believe I was somewhat successful, but I still have to stop and pick up some trap/bait kits today to finish the job.  Yuck.  Lesson learned:  when Lena does not finish her food, it gets put away. 

My second surprise came from the ongoing coyote watch fiasco.  After doing some research, I found the name and telephone number for the Edina Police Department Animal Control Officer.  My mother called him to discuss the urban coyote infestation (of one) only to discover that he had recently been to our neighborhood on a similar report and based on a homeowner photograph believes that it is not a coyote but is in fact a fox.  This does change my overall fear level, but I am still not 100% convinced.

OK, so that is it for the surprises.  At least for the moment.

I had an interesting thought this weekend.  I know, you are all shocked that I had any thought at all, ha ha ha, but seriously.  My mom was showing me a YouTube clip of this little girl singing the song "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros on the Ellen show.  At the end of her performance, Ellen wheels out a pink Barbie Power Wheels Escalade for the kid.  Sweet, right?

The episode took me back to some powerful childhood memories.  No, I never had a Power Wheels and more importantly neither did my brother, Michael.  He was the one who always dreamt of getting one but never did.  I was not as vociferous in my interest, but I do remember quite vividly that I honestly felt that if I could just get my hands on one of those fine pieces of machinery that I would have total freedom.  I could go where I wanted when I wanted and no one could stop me. 

Technically speaking, my first bicycle offered similar benefits, but for some reason the idea of taking off in something that looked more like a car made it more legitimate.

As a result of well-targeted ad campaigns, I often found myself in "need" of certain new toys.  Examples include:  Barbie and the Rockers (my friends had them - I never did), She-Ra's castle, a Barbie Dream House complete with elevator, and Legos.  You could not believe the number of awesome cool Lego kits I wanted to buy, build, tear down and build again.  I reckoned that when I grew up and made my own money, I would be able to buy all of these items that were out of my reach financially as a child. 

Now, I am an adult.  I make money.  I have the earning potential to possess these things.  Yet I have bought none of them.  Why?  Because they are for children and I am not a child.  I doubt I could call up any of my friends and invite them over to play Barbies without them seriously questioning my mental stability. 

Truthfully, I can rationalize away a lot of my toy-free purchases using the above argument.  The only hang-up for me is Legos.  I still walk past the displays with a twinge of excitement and have even picked up a few, just to look.  One of these days I am going to give in and get one.  It won't be a small one either - it has to be one worthy of adult brainpower.  Well, at least for ages 12 and up.  Hopefully this will not start a snowball effect leading to a "Lego Room" in my house which leads to an intervention which leads to me making a massive donation to a children's hospital.

Although the donation aspect is pretty nice of me, if you really think about it.

Safety Concerns

Here I am, posting on a weekend.  A three-day weekend to be more specific!  Aside from the less than stellar weather we have been having around here, it has been a good time so far with one exception.

Yesterday, I arose at a later hour as is my custom on weekends when I have no reason to awaken early.  The house was empty which led me to conclude that my parents had taken the dogs for a walk.  Fine by me.  I went into the kitchen which overlooks the living room which overlooks the front yard and street.  As I gazed unfocused at the view from the window, I noticed a small anomaly.

There it was, the neighborhood coyote, standing in the street straight out in front of our house.  At first I thought it was a dog, but it was unleashed with no human in sight.  When I examined the profile of the creature, I realized pretty quickly that it matched a coyote description perfectly.

To get a closer look, I stepped out onto the front steps of the house (in my full pajama regalia) and stared at it (I don't know if it is a boy or girl).  As I watched, it jogged up into the relatively wooded yard of our neighbors across the street.  A minute later, it emerged on the other side of the yard, crossed the street and went into our next door neighbor's yard.  It then proceeded to lay down next to some shrubbery and scratch itself.

I cannot say that I was in full panic mode at this point, but I was concerned.  I called my father to warn him to keep an eye out when they returned with our dogs to the vicinity and then took a picture on my phone.

Later that day, my dad ran into one of the neighbors and mentioned it to her.  She remarked that she had noticed that the rabbit population had seemed much lower this year and that having a predator was likely helping that situation.  I'm not sure that I agree with this being a good thing.  I would far rather have the plant life of the neighborhood be in jeopardy than the pet population.

On a happier note, yesterday I got a new bike!  It was part of the amazing car deal I experienced last weekend.  If you bought a new car, you got a new bike.  There was a specific bike associated with the deal, but if you didn't want that you could exchange the coupon for a gift card and get whatever you wanted from the bike shop.  I chose to do this.  Not because Trek mountain bikes aren't awesome, but because the Electra Townie bike was so much more my style.

So far, I have only taken in out around the neighborhood, but when I venture out further I will keep you posted if I have any more adventures like those of my youth as outlined here.  I am pretty sure that there are no bike cops in these parts judging from the fact that most of the biking population does not seem to think that basic traffic signs and rules apply to them.  But that is a whole other rant and I am just not in the mood for that right now.

As tomorrow will be a travel day for me, I will likely not post again until the weekend is over.  I hope that everyone has safe travels and fun times.