SueBears.com Blog

OK, now this blew me away! We have all seen the very expensive “must have it this season” bags that celebrities carry their stuff in. Not sure how I got to it but here is a Boggeta Veneta purse/bag that sells for $75,000! You can “browse” this exclusive Italian leather company’s site here if you feel you must have this little number! Apparently, 25 crocodile skins were used to create the bag which offends me greatly. But here it is anyway. I just don’t get it!

Here is a fun site to determine what you Mom’s out there are really worth! It boils down to this - on the left hand side of this site is a section called “Mom Salary Wizard” (love that) that suggests a stay at home mom would earn $134,121 annually. But a working mom would earn $85,876 annually for the “mom part of the job plus whatever their job outside the home would earn. WHOA! Well, we moms always knew we had two (or more) jobs at the same time. I get a break here since I am retired and my family is grown up.

Hmmm, how would you go about collecting that salary? Unionize? It occurs to me that men would never, EVER, put up with this?

I saw this here. The current “Bushism” is “I aim to be a competitive nation.”—San Jose, Calif., April 21, 2006. Wow! All by himself - that should be a good trick!

Don’t Presidents have speech writers and shouldn’t they stick to what the writers write for them? Good idea!

In Florida two adult, nesting, red shouldered hawks were shot by federal agents after attacking at least one guest of an exclusive golf resort. The hawks built their nest near the clubhouse and true to their nature were aggressively persistent in guarding their young. Apparently there were two eggs and the nest was removed with the eggs but it is not clear what happened to them.

It is not my intention here to say what could have or should have been done in this case. But it points out the difficulties inherent in human population continually expanding into wildlife territories. I live in the Los Angeles area in California. There are many hillside, mountainess areas heavily populated by those looking for beautiful landscapes and views. Periodically we have mountain lions (and even a couple of bears) entering these communities (which, of course was originally their territories) and attacking and killing pets and endangering lives of children and adults. Sometimes wildlife personnel are able to sedate and move the animal to a more distant location and sometimes they are shot and killed.

I wish I knew the answer to living in peace with our wildlife but the issue is not simplistic. Even moving the animal to a more distant location means that you have possibly moved it into another’s territory terminating in a terrible fight between the animals.

In Africa preserves have been established to protect animals. But there are never enough personnel to monitor these areas so poachers continue to operate and human population continues to encroach. But the most important issue in preserves is that they destroy the possibility of biodiversity. Animals are designed to migrate to seek mates (thus preventing inbreeding) and to seek new territories. I live near the Simi Freeway which is the major entrance/exit between the Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley, two heavily populated areas. But what people don’t realize is that this freeway was a major wildlife corridor between the two areas providing the opportunity for the biodiversity I just mentioned.

There has to be a solution. I just don’t know what it is!

I love this story! It seems that Dory the rabbit jumped on the chest of Simon Steggall of England as he began to lapse into a diabetic coma. Dory thumped on his chest, licked his face, alerting Mr. Steggall’s wife to the fact that something was terribly wrong. Emergency services were called and all is well. Rabbits really do get a bad wrap and are actually very intelligent and I imagine Dory picked up on an unusual scent. A few dogs have this ability as well. We just don’t give our animals friends their due credit. The photo was taken from the BBC site and is not very clear but that is one very big rabbit. And just in time for Easter too!

My Internet cable connection (Road Runner), digital phone and cable tv is provided as a supposed cost saving package through Time-Warner in the West San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. So far so good. In their infinite wisdom (NOT) they have suddenly decided to remove one of my favorite channels (Animal Planet) from Standard Basic service and move it to Variety 1 service which I don’t subscribe to at the moment. Now anybody that reads my blog would know that Animal Planet and National Georgraphic would be important to me to feed my love of animals and environmental issues. But now Animal Planet and National Geogrphic are separated into Variety 1 and Variety 2 tiers necessitating an additional $5 a month to get both (as well as a bunch of stuff I don’t want). Now I realize that $5 is not budget breaking for me but why couldn’t I have been informed or at least offered packages that suit my needs. I mentioned this to the customer service representative when I called and she brightly informed me that they did notify me of this change on my current bill. WHAT? OH, there it is - just let me find my magnifying glass ……..

When are we going to be allowed to select our own packages that suit our own interests? This would go a long way to improving customer relations. But then that doesn’t bring in the moola does it?

One of the cutest and mostly highly endangered creatures in the animal world is the Giant Panda. There are only about 1600 left in the wild and some 160 in captivity. Tai Shan is the first baby panda to survive at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. He is part of a 10-year, $10 million agreement with the Chinese and his parents will remain here until 2010. It is hoping to negotiate a new, cheaper pact to keep Tai Shan’s parents longer but Tai Shan will return to China when he turns 2.

Pandas are incredibly difficult to breed and remain dependent on Mom until nearly 2. Considering the mom’s window of fertility is only a few days a year it is clear why the reproduction rate is so slow. I was able to see the pandas at the San Diego Zoo last year and these lovely animals are absolutely enchanting in person.

Here is a photo posted by the Washington Post here and there are some wonderful slide shows to view too. In the meantime enjoy!

I don’t usually get into too much political stuff here but I was appalled when I read the headline upon signing on to my homepage (iWON) this morning. Apparently, Bush “defended his Iraq record on Monday against skeptical questioning. He said he could understand people being disheartened but appealed to Americans to look beyond the bloodshed and see signs of progress”! As we enter the fourth year of this war, try telling that to relatives of those lost forever and those returning with life altering injuries!

I believe I have mentioned that I am undergoing chemotherapy at the present time due to a return of my ovarian cancer of 2002. There is an ongoing commercial for a drug called Neulasta on tv with a guy who announces, “I am ready to start my chemotherapy now and I am going to talk to my doctor about Neulasta!” Fine! This drug is a life saver in that it keeps your white blood count up to prevent a dangerous infection. But what they don’t tell you is that it also causes a lot of problems for some people and one of those would be me! It causes a charmer called ” peripheral neuropathy” which manifests itself as burning, shooting pain, throbbing, aching, walking on a bed of coals like feeling in the feet, legs and hands. The last two days have been absolutely horrible and I have had to double up on pain medication just to get by. Now I am not complaining (YES, I AM) but thankfully it is better today and I can function a bit again. If you need to take this drug as part of chemo treatment don’t let this deter you as it will keep you out of the hospital and unpleasant antibiotic treatment but why does it have to be so difficult? Ok, I am through moaning and groaning!

I wrote sometime ago about Pale Male and Lola, a pair of red tailed hawks residing on a skyscraper in New York City across from Central Park. Remember, their nest was abruptly torn down on the orders of the residents. However, amid a world wide protest, it was restored ( at least the framework that held the nest). Not to be deterred the hawks have rebuilt and apparently Lola has laid at least one egg and has been sitting in the nest since yesterday. Pale Male has been delivering food to her so perhaps in Spring they will have a new family. There is a beautiful website devoted to them with incredible photographs by the resident photographer.

Here’s a shot of Lola sitting on the nest and peeking over the top in the center of the picture. Note the gorgeous building these lovely birds chose for their home!