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Last login: 9 hours agoKitakami: Irene Onyu is a 52 year old woman from Texas, USA.; Likes 3,119 pages, 63 videos, 581 photos • 105 fans • Received 48 reviews; Member since Jul 30, 2007

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StumbleUpon - SU: The Sounding Board: May 2, 6:53am 4 reviews forums •http://sounding-board.group.stumbleup...; Under new management now folks! Stop by and let me know what you think of the place :)

May 2, 6:52am

The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities: May 2, 6:52am 534 reviews software •http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_...; One of the best freeware sites I've come across so far. I've already hit them for three of their picks :)

Apr 30, 7:04am: Look who came to see her Granny :)

Apr 30, 7:04am: The Four Musketeers: The Tale of the Dog

When I was still a young mom, my husband's dog-who was a fence climber-got loose one day and was ran down. He had loved that dog, an Irish setter, and I could see that he missed her. So, after a few weeks has passed, I suggested we go to the ASPCA shelter and pick another. At first he didn't want to, but between me and the kids we talked him around.

We never made it that far. When we stopped by Northline Mall where his mom worked, another rescue group (CAP) had set up in the parking lot. They must have had a couple of hundred dogs and cats of every description, but we fell in love with one right away. She was-or looked like-a setter/dachshund mix, with the head shape and curly red coat of a setter and a dachshund's body. Beautiful! That was Cinnamon.

Skip a few years...we were all out on a Saturday and my husband needed a haircut, so we stopped by the local barber shop and he went in. It was filling up fast, so the kids and I decided to take a little walk. Wouldn't you know it, somebody had set up outside the convenience store right next door with a litter of just-weaned puppies! My daughter, who was ten, made a beeline for them. She picked up one, a solid white pup with the curliest tail I had ever seen on a dog, and I knew what was coming next. I told her she had to ask her daddy, so off she went, lugging a dog about 1/3 her own size.

I opened the barber shop door for her (she had both hands over-full) and she stood there in the door looking at her father. She said in her best baby-girl voice "Daddy? Can I have a puppy?" Every man in the place turned to look at my husband as if to say 'you ain't gonna tell that baby no are you, you SOB?' All he could do was mumble the usual about taking care of her and that was that. So Tweedledee became a member of the family. She turned out to be the smartest dog we ever had. Never barked at other dogs, but she would raise pure hell if somebody tried to come into the yard.

Now jump a year or so. One of my son's friends was moving, and his parents told him he couldn't take the dog. Now my son had never really taken to the dogs we had, but he loved that pup, so after the standard speech about responsibility, Hairball became the latest member of the family. She had such long hair and such short little legs it looked like she was floating on air.

My husband was the one that named our pack the Three Musketeers, and vowed no more dogs. Don't even ask! So of course he was the one to bring home the last member of the pack. It happened while he was out hunting in the National Forest. He had left the window open on the car and when he got back he was greeted by what sounded like a Rottweiler inside. He worked his way up to the car and carefully looked inside. There was the most bedraggled looking half-grown dog ever, guarding his new home! My husband didn't have the heart to turn him out, so...

I named him Muttley, which the kids changed to Muttley Crüe. He grew into a huge dog with thick, curly black fur. There was never a salesman born who dared to open our gate with him there.

Over the years my dear friends have slipped away from me one by one. Yesterday, the last one passed peacefully, an old lady who I think missed her friends. I hope she is now joined with them once again, romping and yipping, in perfect health...forever.

StyleBites: An Insiders Blog: Men In Heels: The Next Big Thing?: Apr 29, 12:21pm 4 reviews blogs •http://stylebites.blogspot.com/2007/0...; Not a whole lot of difference from cowboy boots ;)

Apr 29, 12:18pm: abcnews.go.com/Health/story [abcnews.go.com/Health/story]
Envisioning a World Without Men

I found the above link to be very interesting, but there are a few things I would like to address concerning the conclusions drawn about war, prisons, traffic fatalities and a few other things.

While it is true that thus far women have not as a rule waged aggressive war, it must be remembered that there were few times historically where a woman controlled sufficient power to do so. Leaving aside the obvious exceptions such as Catherine of Russia and Elizabeth I of England, or Cleopatra VII of Egypt, there is a dearth of examples where it was in the power of a single woman to command armies to battle. This is becoming much less the case. Women are ascending the ladder of power all around the globe, and it yet remains to be proven that we will not abuse said power as readily as our male counterparts. Are we so much less combative taken as a group? Are we psychologically incapable of embracing violence as a means to an end? From personal experience, I find the suggestion ludicrous.

A 97% drop in prison population? Based upon what fantasy? A societal niche will open and women will be committing the crimes their husbands and boyfriends once did. But leaving that consideration aside for now, I can see a whole raft of new laws specifying now legal activities as illegal being passed. I could be wrong on this, but I find that the women I have known (and I am not excepting myself) are opinionated in the extreme. Given the power to do so, we will enact legislation-solely for the public good!-outlawing things we find offensive. So don't look for the prisons to go out of business.

A drop in traffic fatalities? Possible, just. We do possess measurably faster reflexes and we are not as easily distracted, but we are hardly immune to "road rage." There may be a lessening in the rate of accidental fatalities, but we could see a rise in the level of vehicular homicide. Which of course brings us back to prisons...

A final point: women are in the main conservative. It comes with the territory. We are the nesters and the child-rearers. I do wonder if most of the progress made throughout history has required the dynamic stress of two sexes. In a unisex world, would progress halt, or just continue in other directions? How dreary if everything were allowed to continue just the way it is solely because we like it that way.

Lastly, a lot of fun would go out of life. I know, the unisex world wouldn't know what it was missing, but still. For every jerk I have encountered, there have been several polite gentlemen. For every wife or child beater/murderer, there has been an army of men who would have laid down their lives to prevent said occurrence.

And besides...I like being pampered :)