Sophie's Story

I've been looking forward to today for several weeks. My sister-in-law is in Minnesota. We are going to have lunch with her and her husband today and spend some time with them. I haven't seen them in about five years. We've talked on the phone, emailed and chatted to stay in touch, but it isn't like meeting in person. Sarah isn't really my sister-in-law. My real sisters-in-law are Doreen and Mertis. Doreen is alright, the less said about Mert the better. Both are quite a bit older than I am and the only thing we have in common is C. Sarah is married to Dean, a fellow musician that C met many years ago. They are so alike and even have similar backgrounds that they might as well be brothers. Sarah and I also have many things in common. We both like flowers,animals and music. I decided to "adopt" Dean and Sarah as my brother and sister-in-law. That's something I've done for many years. In fact I recently became acquainted with a guy who could have bee...

I've read several magazine articles on how to have a good marriage. There are all kinds of pieces of advice some of them contradict each other. One thing that most of them say is that it is good to "date" your spouse even after you marry. This sounds like a good idea to me. In fact C and I try to have a "date night" once week or so. Since we usually work opposite shifts sometimes date night is actually a date lunch or a date breakfast. Those work too especially the date breakfast. It's hard to be upset with your spouse when he's just bought you a two of the biggest, best tasting pancakes you've ever had. That's a topic for another day. C and I tend to be a bit unconventional. Most people go out on a date night and it involves dressing up and eating in a fancy (expensive) restaurant. We do that sometimes. I have been known to put on a dress, slide my feet into a pair of low heeled shoes, put on some make-up and go out. We do this at least tw...

There is a letter from the University of Minnesota sitting on my kitchen counter. They are looking for a few good people to mentor first year pharmacy students. Since I am a preceptor for pharmacy students doing their first rotations in community pharmacy, I got a letter. I'm not quite sure what to do. It would involve ten hours a semester. The student could shadow me, tour my pharmacy, have discussions about pharmacy and pharmacy practice or several other things. This would be time outside the 40 some odd hours I already work and would be volunteer time. There is no question of wanting to do it. I would like to do it, very much so. I wish such opportunities would have been available to me when I was a student. I'm grateful that the current method of educating pharmacists does involve time actually working with pharmacists in the field. It gives them a much better idea of what the actual practice of pharmacy is like. They will leave school much better prepared for life in...

It has been raining here for the past week and a half or so. While I don't mind I would like to see the sun shine a little if only because my plants could use a bit of sun. (and so could I) On Saturday, C and I wanted to go to the Arboretum. Of course it was raining. Instead we went to the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis. The Mill City Museum is on the site of the Washburn "A" mill and located near the banks of the Mississippi River. It is run by the Minnesota Historical Society and features displays relating to the flour milling business that was a big part of the Minneapolis economy. In the summer they have an outdoor concert series called "Mill City Live" It's a very interesting place. The mill area had been damaged by fires several times the latest in 1991. After the city had cleaned up the debris, the MHS (Minnesota Historical Society) built the museum using as much of the original structure and leaving in place as much of the original machiner...

Hi! This is Scamp. A few weeks ago a human asked me if Colby and I paid for writing this column. I said were were not. Then I started thinking about it. It's really not fair. Sophie works and she gets paid. C works and he gets paid. Carrie works and also gets paid. Colby and I do a lot of work around the house. We greet our humans at the door when they return home. We alert them to intruders that are on the property. We wake up our humans when it is time for breakfast. We greet visitors, act as therapists, decorate the house and also help write the column. Why aren't we getting paid for this? Maybe we need to go on strike. I have heard that humans do that sometimes to get a better contract or better working conditions. The problem is that the whole lack of opposable thumb thing makes it difficult to hold a sign. Also we would need to start cooperating with other animals such as dogs, cats, birds and ferrets to make our strike effective. I wouldn't trust Colby not to ...

When I was younger I considered becoming a journalist. My two role models were the late Katharine Graham,publisher of the Washington Post, and Helen Thomas, White House reporter. I admire both of these women because they both worked in very male dominated fields at the time and were quite successful. Helen Thomas has come under fire for a comment she made about Israel a week or so ago. When asked for a comment about Israel she said that she felt the Isrealis should leave Palestine. This is not an exact quote. Ever since she made that comment which has been bouncing around on the Internet she has been taking heat from everyone. Sarah Palin,Rep Anthony Weiner of New York and Ari Fleischer have all roundly denounced her and demanded that she be fired immediately. She has been dropped by the bureau that represents her as a speaker, asked not to give a commencement address that she was scheduled to give and has now lost her job as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. She has apologise...

Hi everyone. This is Scamp. Sophie is having her hair done this afternoon so Colby and I thought we'd write the column this week. Things are going well here. The plants are outside so there is more room on the shelving unit for me to sit. The windowsills are just too narrow for me. There was one plant with dry branches that is finally gone. Good. I think it poked my eye while I was trying to chew on the plastic wrap around the pot. It did NOT feel good. My eye hurt for a couple of days. Thankfully it's better now or Sophie would take me to the vet. I don't like going to the vet. I think the last time I wrote I was trying to train the humans to know when an intruder was approaching. I would jump on to the ledge in the dining room and Colby would run either to the door or into the hall. That is the signal for the humans to get up and do something. We finally have them trained. Yesterday I heard something and jumped to the ledge. Colby ran into the dining room. Sophie got up a...