Pretentious Players

And their primates. When I first heard this headline: "Pet Lemur Bites 3-year-old boy", I thought "wow! How odd? How would a boy and lemur meet--the zoo?" Then my second thought was the exotic pet trade and I wasn't disappointed: Lemur story.

Leave it up to a professional athlete to use his mega paycheck to do something stupid. Jog my memory--when has something similar happened before? What possesses a parent to think one day "you know what will make an awesome pet for little Johnny?A quite possibly endangered primate with nasty pointy teeth. I'll take this wad of extra cash and flaunt my affluence by going down to the neighborhood Madagascar and purchase an exotic find!" *whistles* then *spits out tobacca*.

WTF? If you have some extra cash that you want to dispose of why don't you put efforts towards SAVING endangered species and EDUCATION?? I'm sure that pretty penny used to purchase poor Zoboomafoo would have done a lot better applied to his habitat and educating the world about the primate plight!

OR
at a minimum, buy me a new car or put MY kid through college.

(OK. Maybe I'm just jealous I don't have my own personal primate playmate. Shucks!)

AZ Meanderings

As a park ranger, I get around---the United States! I often visit Arizona and have realized with some remorse that I haven't been on a hike there in about 2 years! Maybe it is my reputation as a death march drill Sergeant, but I can't seem to muster up enough people to make a hiking outing! You take people on one little 6-8 hour trek through the desert wilderness and they stop taking your phone calls/answering your emails! When people go on outings with me, about 2-3 miles/hours into it, they remember that they had a birthday party to go to, some other civilized event to attend,they have to use the restroom, or they're hungry. Whiners and pussies!Come on people!Well, maybe they have some reason to fear/loath enjoying nature with me:


Notice the guy with nasty pointy teeth in the middle of the trail? I like to call him Sunny the Sunbather! Earl Grey was ahead of us and luckily set the rattler off to warn us!

But not all trail visitors/natives are so testy, take the regal horned toad for instance. He/she has such a cute ambling demeanor and striking red colors:

In the Superstition mountains, cholla give nice texture and contrast to the wildflowers and brittlebush after a rainy season, but they can be nasty little bastards. Earl Grey got a huge,fishhook-like barb stuck in his paw on one trip. He is much more careful about his bounding explorations now!

Picacho Peak between Phoenix and Tucson is chilly and still after a rain:

Last, but not least! You have to enjoy the splendor of the Grand Canyon. Even though I haven't hiked in awhile, I still enjoy visiting the canyon from time to time. Now, where are my hiking boots.....

Missing Morki

And Mindy (I couldn't resist)?

A couple in AZ got their car and dog stolen (http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/stories/KTVKLNews20070720_stolen-dog.931f2d5a.html)

How pretentious do you have to be to:
1)--Have a hyphenated name: Constantino-Ganier. Either you want to keep your maiden name or you want a married name, but make up your mind!
2)--Name your dog a name that rhymes with the breed. Morki the Yorki is Dorki.
3)---Take your Yorki mix shopping with you like you're a Beverly Hills Celeb!
4)--Violate two major environmental rules by simultaneously: wasting energy and polluting while leaving your car running in the parking lot!
5)--State that you just want your "baby" back---You don't want your $30,000 infiniti back? And your dog isn't your "baby"! I love my Earl Grey, but I never confuse him with my CHILD!

If you see Ganier's 2001 Infinity I30 with Arizona license plates 733-LGK just point and laugh!

Seriously--I don't wish any ill will on the pup. You can't pick your owners/parents!