Elise Sereni Patkotak

My poor puppy. Yesterday he had to have teeth removed and things on his neck lanced and things around his butt trimmed….there is no growing old with dignity anymore, is there?  On the plus side, he got good drugs, he can still see out of one eye, with all the hair removed from his ears there is every chance he will at least pretend to hear when I call and he got to be cuddled all night under a quilt while sitting on my chest snoring. And he is milking it for all it’s worth.

Global warming be damned.  We woke up to snow covered lawns here in South Anchorage this morning.  Which kills the idea I had of putting my mosquito eater up today.

So I’m reading the weekly religious page of our local paper to see if I’ve accidentally been saved when I wasn’t looking and lo and behold there is an article about a group of nuns who have started an “Adopt a Sister” program to help pay for the care of the elderly nuns in their order.  I read a little further and lo and behold it is the nuns who taught me in grade school – the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco (you had to be able to spell all of that before you moved from kindergarten to first

Just another thing on my list of things I never want to do again in this lifetime. Ever. Because there is nothing like a firm and lithe young lady coming in to the room and bringing you ever stronger bras to hold up all that’s sagging while hers stand at attention with no help.

is it called good with a capital G? I’m betting that for Jesus, parts of it had to be pretty miserable.

to wish someone a happy Good Friday? 

Is it true that the Apostles were the first OPEC and that they declared Fridays and Lent meatless times to increase their share of the fish market? And will I go to hell for even asking this question so close to Easter? Well, if I do, at least I won’t go alone. I have a whole cabal of young cousins who apparently find this a fascinating question to debate via e-mail. And with each successive missive I receive I realize just how much I really do like them and am so proud to be related to them. I just don’t

I’m assuming that anyone who knows me knows that I am a bit crazy about birds…all birds, every kind, shape, variety and sound. God gave them the gift of flight and I think I’ve always been a little jealous about that.

Anyhow, I volunteer with a group called Bird TLC that provides rehabilitation for wild birds here in Anchorage as well as education programs with birds that cannot be released.  And with spring just around the corner, we have something called Baby Bird Season upon us.

Baby birds who have lost their home or their mom for some reason are