Elise Sereni Patkotak

So Blue goes out on the porch this morning after breakfast. She sits down facing the sun. Her eyes close in what I assume is a combination of contentment and trying to keep the sun out of her eyes since her mother refuses to buy her sunglasses.  A few moments later, I look out and there she still sits, eyes closed. I think, “Now there’s a happy dog” and go back to feeding my birds. That’s when Blondie comes bounding up the steps from the yard. Blue never moves. Blondie stops short when she sees Blue sitting silently in front

Tonight the Anchorage Assembly gets to debate and then vote on whether or not some people in our community have the human right to have their civil rights protected. I don’t know about you, but I would sure hate to have that be a subject of debate about my rights. I take them so for granted that it’s hard to imagine that for some people they are not a given but something society may, or may not, give them. That is just so wrong.

Never, ever declare one child the cutest ever for so long as any grandmoms out there have your e-mail address. It makes the Jerry Prevo gay controversy seem low key by comparison.

On Friday night, a friend e-mailed me the address of a website where her son had posted pictures of the van he’d recently remodeled quite creatively. But she must have typed the words incorrectly because my server couldn’t find her server… or something like that. Anyhow, I started searching the web using a variety of variations on the words she’d written only to come up with some Japanese company that certainly did not carry a picture of the famous van on its website.  After almost two hours of doing this I realized how little of a social life I have

As I continue to try to coax my flowers to pretend they are glad to be alive, I understand why my mother had plastic plants.

Spent time with a friend from my childhood this week. We grew up about three doors apart. We marveled at how our parents only ever kind of knew where we were and that was just fine with them and us. Because where we always were was in one of the alleys on Mississippi Avenue in Atlantic City. So if we went looking for one another, the parental unit contacted would always have one response. “She’s playing in the alley”. After that, it was up to us to find which one. And no one worried about us playing out on Mississippi

Had my second summer visitors this week. A friend from childhood who was beautiful then and is still beautiful now. Looks about twenty years younger than she is.

Why the hell am I the only one who looks my age?

The scuttlebutt is that the legislative leadership of this state – and I use the word “leadership” with tongue firmly planted in my cheek – has decided to not try to overturn Palin’s veto of energy money from the federal stimulus package in order to let her save face after her dramatic announcement earlier this year that she would reject more than half of it.

Hmm… let’s see how that works out for us. Palin gets to save face. The legislators get to tuck their tiny little balls firmly between their closed legs and scuttle away from a battle with

Got this in my e-mail. It’s a website worth checking.

Hello,
I’m sure that you are already aware of the situation, but we are trying to get the word out about the Anchorage Ordinance AO NO. 2009-64, which our city Assembly will be voting on June 9th. The purpose of the bill is very simply stated and long overdue for our community; it extends protection from workplace discrimination to include veteran status and sexual orientation. However, in the few days left before the vote, Rev. Jerry Prevo of the Anchorage Baptist Temple has vowed to strike down the ordinance, using