Elise Sereni Patkotak

Well, it turns out that duvet I wanted to order… that one that cost $68 and showed a shipping cost of $110… was not from an American company but from a Chinese company. I found this out when I received a response that was very short and in very stilted English… but then, I probably couldn’t even do minimally stilted Chinese so I have no room to talk on that count.  At any rate, the message said to go and order that the problem was handled. I was a bit skeptical but went back to the website and ordered the

It used to be that when you lost a pet, you kind of kept your grieving private for fear people would think you were silly to be crying over a dog or cat or snake or fish… But now our world understands how precious these creatures are in our life. They bring love and singleminded devotion on an amazing level to us. Offering condolences and understanding the loneliness and pain that accompanies the loss of a companion animal is now openly acknowledged.

And that’s what gives me hope for this crazy world. Despite all the ugliness that sometimes invades our

You’d think what with Sarah Palin and all that the rest of the country would now understand that we aren’t located west of nowhere or east of the moon and that shipping things here is almost the same as shipping things to any other state in America… except, of course, for Hawaii which has that whole ocean thing going for it.

But no, apparently our gal, temporary Sal is not enough to convince people we exist in the real world… well, having written that sentence I can now see why they still might not believe we are in the real

As Congress prepares to go back into session and finally get a grip on the deficits that are strangling our economy and our children’s financial future, I think we should stop for a moment and take a look at the latest frivolous spending that they have in their crosshairs for elimination.

Yes, middleclass Americans, I’m looking at you when I say that. Because the same people who felt the deficit was not as important as giving millionaires a tax cut have decided that the deficit is now so important they need to consider taking the mortgage tax interest deduction away

Oh lord! I leave for the wedding in three weeks and I still haven’t bought something to wear to either the wedding or the rehearsal dinner. It seemed as though I had so much time because the date was so far off but WHAM! Here it is and I have to go clothes shopping.

I should have become a nun. They have it so easy. No clothing decisions to make. No worry about mix and match. And god knows they don’t ever have to wear a bra under all those layers. If only they’d allowed sex and drugs and not

Pretend you are going to give your dog… also affectionately known as Slut Puppy… her favorite thing in the whole world – a belly rub. She flops on her back, legs akimbo, tongue hanging out the side of her mouth, tail beating furiously. Reach your hand almost to her stomach, then stop and walk away. Watch dog jump up, run in front of you and flop, belly up on the floor about a foot in front of you. Repeat hand feint. Walk away again. Watch crazed dog repeat her actions. Do this until it becomes too hard to resist the

It was not until my house started getting painted that I started to realize how many nooks and crannies can get filled with dust and bird feathers and I never even notice. But as each room is cleared out to be painted, there is always one place in it that can only be called a complete embarrassment. How did this happen to the daughter of a woman who once scrubbed the design out of the linoleum on the floor in front of her stove? Oh wait… that’s probably why it did happen.

College Village Animal Clinic here in Anchorage is the kind of place I wish all my human doctors would emulate. The vets and other staff there are among the kindest and nicest I’ve ever met. Maybe it’s directly related to the fact that you have to love animals to work there and animal lovers in general tend to be nicer than the rest of the population. I don’t know. What I do know is that with every pet I’ve had to bring there to cross the Rainbow Bridge, it was the docs and the staff who made the journey a

Blondie is freaked by explosions. Hell, let’s be truthful here. Loud noises cause her to run to the back of my clothes closet and try desperately to dig into the carpet until there is a hole big enough for her to crawl into and put a cover over it. So New Year’s Eve at my house she gets an extra special treat with her meal… one of momma’s little helpers… a pill that makes her smile blissfully as she snores loudly… until the first firecracker goes off. Then she awakens with a start and the rest of New Year’s Eve

I was never quite sure about this new social media. Being somewhat anti-social, I liked that I could control when I interacted with people and when I could just shut the modern world down and disappear into Dickens’ world. But reading all the wonderful and lovely comments from so many readers over my loss of Blue has made me a convert. What a great community of people you all are. Thank you for all the love and sympathy you’ve extended to me. Blondie and I hug each other a lot and talk about Blue’s enthusiasm for food if not for