Cesar Millan and Scooby-Doo have turned 40!  The world renowned dog behavior specialist and beloved iconic cartoon character celebrated turning 40 together at their very own birthday bash at the East Valley Animal Shelter in Van Nuys, Calif.

Dog behavior specialist Cesar Millan is best known for his hit television series Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan on National Geographic Channel.  The Cesar and Ilusion Millan Foundation promotes the adoption of abused and abandoned dogs at shelters and rescue organizations.  The foundation also provides direct funding for spaying and neutering programs and the humane education of children of all ages.  For more information, visit MillanFoundation.org.

1.  Making Bags

2.  Making Sandwiches

3.  Making Merry

27.  The vegetarian boy’s Mother called off, two older boys turned up… no-one dropped out and I have absolutely no idea who The Last One was.  I am Toast.  Charred and chewed.  Ringing head. Rabid sciatica.  Twitching eyelid.  Compulsive hair twiddling.  Hope you’re ok.  So. Up at the crack.  Son 1 aged 4y 11m with one goal. Doing The Party Bags.  I read to Son 2 aged 2, but we finished too soon. The second we got to the kitchen, Son 2 started unpicking the bubble wands Son 1 and The Man had just carefully sellotaped to the Scooby Do bubbles. Son 1 screamed.  The next thing to go in was the sweets. ”Can we eat them?” said Son 1.  ”Yes. If you eat your breakfast you can have them as your treat in Tonic, Treat and Teeth.”  They gorged parma violets and lollies and chews.  Son 2 gobbled boiled sweets. Choked. Spat out.  The advantage of eight months’ reflux hell is the best gag reflex this side of an eating disorder.     Son 2 happily plopped sweets into each party bag. 

The Man was a Marvel.  He started making sandwiches at 0830, went down into Town twice, made all the party food – sandwiches, vegetable fingers, topped strawberries, packed up all the stuff, made two trips to the Church – with Son 1 – and presented it all beautifully. He was singing as he washed up 15 minutes before we had to go. A Magical Moment which is going in The Album.

And The Party.  27 + children, 24 party bags, 30 balloons and a bouncy castle. Acoustic Armageddon.   Son 1and Best Friend were, by several streets, the Worst Behaved Children there.   The Bouncy Castle Man, because I asked him nicely, turned up 45 minutes ahead of start time so Son 1 and a handful of friends could have a Good Old Play before the rest of the guests arrived.   I thought it would calm them down.  Nope.  They were orbiting at sub-atomic speeds, and then the Gentle New Children from Son 1’s reception class arrived with their bewildered parents.  The Children’s Entertainers were amazing. Party games, a puppet show, magic tricks.   Son 1 had the time of his life.  Son 2 less so… he needed me to help him enjoy it and although I did my best I couldn’t always do it. Nanna just sat on her chair throughout, watching.  I had Great Help.  Son 2’s wonderful Godmother queened it in the kitchen with The Man, serving squashes, teas, coffees… and, when I got up the nerve, beer and bucks fizz. She washed up, she did the party bags.  She’s a miracle.  Best Friend’s Mother got the most outrageous gossip from her chatting.  All to do with ex-boyfriends, impossible overlaps between Reception Dads and Breastfeeding Group Mums, and a jaw-dropping “I should have chosen you” moment.   Bloody Hell. If “He” goes off with “Her” it’ll be my fault.   And the present pile, oh God the present pile.  It was for two children remember…. but a small, church hall table piled with 50 plus presents does not look good.   In my defence, Son 2 had money for the Children’s Hospice instead of presents for his christening. And I promise they’re having goats next year.   ”Did you like your party, Son 1?” “Yes I really enjoyed it.”  And still they both span bedtime out to get more time with Mummy.

1.  Nothing But Blue Skies

2.  Obstacles

3.  Here Is The Rainbow

We are improving.  We can get out of the house a bit earlier, and in to School a bit earlier.  A bright, fresh morning with a blue sky. Son 1 aged 4y 11m is still in shorts; I was in a silk print frock. I have no idea what Son 2 aged 2 wore. He was in his pyjamas when we left, and in his (different) pyjamas when we got back. A completely different set of parents dropping off when we are On Time, as opposed to There By The Skin Of Our Teeth. I’ve never seen any of them before.  Although I do think it’s quite funny that it is, indeed, Always The Same Ones who are late when we are.

At lunchtime I went out to shop for party food.  M and S. No I didn’t remember the bloody vouchers. Or the bloody carrier bags.  I gained three more party guests on the way.  One is a little vegetarian boy who usually comes with his vegetarian parents.   I’ve been vegetarian for 26 years and even I don’t really know what we eat. I bought quiche and  Cheese and onion savoury rolls.  I don’t want little 5 year old X to sit and stare at the table and not have a choice.  “I can’t decide if Son 1 aged 4m is going to be a vegetarian or not,” I said to the Breastfeeding Counsellor, way back in Jan 2005. “Well you don’t need to decide yet do you?  He’s 17 weeks old.”  “Oh it’s not for now, I’m making baby food for the freezer for when i go back to work and I’m just starting 9m in the Annabel Karmel book.”  I was a bit more in control in Those Days.  I went for meat.   I didn’t want him to be the odd one out at parties.

When I picked him up he had made me a bar of soap, and completed his sticker chart for a Certificate Of Achievement. “I’m the first to get it in my class,” he said.  For two weeks he has talked of nothing else. “I am going to smile so I can get a sticker.” “I am going to help so I can get a sticker.” He seems two years older than he was two weeks ago.  I let him talk me into a trip to Tesco, because I needed serving plates for tomorrow. He behaved impeccably.  Threw a few Smoothies squashies and cheese stringie things into the trolley, but I kind of regard those as collateral damage if I’m barmy enough to take him shopping. Back home, The Man had remembered to buy serving plates too. The phone kept ringing, Another three party guests.  We are now up to… er… 25.  I can do 24 Scooby Party bags. 24 Scooby plates and 24 Scooby cups. After that it’s Tesco Value. They won’t all come. Sweepstake anyone?  I think 7 no-shows on the day. Maybe two we’re not expecting to turn up. I am The Woman Who Cooked Her Baby Food Four Months In Advance.  I will take a carrier bag of Spares.

Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins Trailer and DVD Release Date – Film …

On September 22, Warner Home Video will release Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins direct to DVD. This new movie combines live action and CGI to tell “how Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma joined forces for the first time”. …

Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins stars virtual unknowns Robbie Amell, Nick Palatas, Kate Melton, and Hayley Kiyoko, with Scooby himself being voiced by Frank Welker. Director Brian Levant previously helmed The Flintstones and its sequel …

On September 22, Warner Home Video will release Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins direct to DVD. This new movie combines live action and CGI to tell “how Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma joined forces for the first time”. …

Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins stars virtual unknowns Robbie Amell, Nick Palatas, Kate Melton, and Hayley Kiyoko, with Scooby himself being voiced by Frank Welker. Director Brian Levant previously helmed The Flintstones and its sequel …

Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins coming to Blu-ray and DVD via Warner Brothers, reported by Digitalchumps.com.

10 Great movies with dogs.

1. 101 Dalmatians (1996)

Great all-star cast: Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels and the screenwriter was John Hughes.

The acting is amazing and there were some very clever scenes.

2 Lassie (2005)

This is a classic from your (the parent’s) childhood. Hence, it has to be mentioned.

3. Beethoven (1992)

Comedy about Saint Bernard

Laugh out loud comedy with Saint Bernard and set in the suburbs. It stars Charles Gordon, Bonnie Hunt, Stanley Tucci, Oliver Platt, and the screenplay was written by John Hughes

4. Dr Dolittle (1998)

A vet who can communicate with animals and stars Eddie Murphy.

5 Lady and the Tramp (1955)

A classic romance story, but it involves two dogs.

6 The Mask (1994)

One of Jim Carrey’s earlier works. Stanley Ipkiss’s best friend is a dog. (Also Cameron Diaz has a role.)

7 Scooby Do (2002)

A live animation with a dog who can talk. It star Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rowan Atkinson, and Isla Fisher.

Amazing acting by Matt Lillard who is Norville ‘Shaggy’ Rogers.

8 Toy story (1995)

One of Pixar’s earlier works. The dog is a toy, but still the special effects are great. Voices by Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, etc.

9 The adventures of Milo and Otis (1989)

A pug tries to find his best friend, a pug named Otis.

10 Cats & Dogs (2001)

A war between cats and dogs. Very clever.

Stars Jeff Goldblum and Elizabeth Perkins. Voices from Tobey Maguire, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, and Jon Lovitz.

Cole woke up from his nap feeling a lot better.

This topic of America’s Next Top Blogger is brought to you courtesy of Ram at http://foodhere.wordpress.com/ . He wanted a dialogue between Harland Sanders, Toller Cranston, and Scooby Do. Yea, this is definitely out of my comfort level, so bear with me people. I wasn’t even sure who Toller Cranston was….I knew the rest, well mostly Scooby! J

Setting the scene:

Scooby Do has just helped himself to Shaggy’s Special Brownies off the counter. He is now doggy dreaming on the couch.

Scooby (sleep talking as brownies dance in his head): MMMM me love brownies.

Harland Sanders (appearing out of nowhere in Scooby’s dream): Don’t you want some Kentucky Fried Chicken?

Scooby: MMMM chicken.

Harland Sanders: It is finger licken good! Scoob, I will trade you some chicken for some of your brownies…

Scooby: Ok.

Toller Cranston: Hey, I want some too!

Scooby: Who are you? Are you Brian Boitano? I loved that Southpark song.

Toller Cranston: I am not Brian Boitano! I don’t even look like him.

Scooby (singing): 

What would Brian Boitano do
If he was here right now,
He’d make a plan
And he’d follow through,
That’s what Brian Boitano’d do.

Shaggy (shaking Scooby hard): Scooby, want some chicken? I just got back from KFC! Hey! Did you eat all my brownies?

Scooby: Yea…and they gave me the weirdest dreams….Mmmm chicken.

 Well, Ram, hope this did it for you…as you can see, I don’t have much experience with the “magic brownies”

So it appears the wonder of Scooby Doo evaporates sometime between the last episode you watched pre-puberty and your re-introduction when your kids turn it on.
I just saw the “Gold Paw”, a 2005 episode where The Gang goes to investigate a gold monster haunting Fort Knox. IMDB describes the episode as the monster turning people INTO gold so it can STEAL gold.
General Nessmeyer needs The Gang’s help to find his stolen dog and the guards he had watching his dog were turned into solid gold.
STOP! Are these are the stupidest thieves on the planet? They can turn humans into solid gold – which sounds perfectly legal to me – but THAT is the distraction to steal a friggin’ dog? What does Fido do? Shit the Hope Diamond?
And then the old 70’s episodes come on.
Mama Cass and a Haunted Candy Factory? And she’s selling cookies? Is it a 70’s wink-and-a-nod to dropping acid? And can we stop with the fat jokes?
There’s the one with Phillis Diller, whose cartoon alter-ego isn’t that bad looking. I’d do her. She’s no Lois Griffin, but it’s the friggin’ 70s. Middle aged cartoon women didn’t get attractive for decades. You got Wilma and Betty, and then what? Have you seen Andy Capp’s piece of ass?
And after an hour of watching The Gang chased around an abandoned mansion by the gardener in a rubber mask, they catch him in a Mouse Trap complicated contraption and the cops show up and I’m thinking, “What was the friggin’ crime?”
Just what law was broken by running around a deserted mansion wearing a rubber mask and turning on a projector that shows a ghost walking through walls. Kinky? Sure. Criminal? Hell no. Technically, the gardener (or museum curator) has some reason to be on the grounds they are haunting. Isn’t it The Gang that is trespassing?
Yet, the cops inevitably take away the gardener in handcuffs.
And what’s with the bad guy always having the jaw line of Jay Leno? And why isn’t Fred fighting in Vietnam ……

Tomorrow brings The Great North Run. Its the largest half marathon in the entire world and was inspired by the Round the Bays Race of New Zealand. Its the 28th GNR and it looks set to be one of the best and will feature a host of celebrities as well as our 2012 Olympic hopefuls.

Being well versed in classical history (yes, there is a wealth of knowledge behind this DSLR), here is a little story: The name ‘marathon’ come from an ancient Greek story of Pheidippides who ran from a town called Marathon, the 150miles back to Athens to announce the Greeks Victory in battle over the Persians (native to modern day Turkey and the Black Sea region) and having past on his message; dropped dead. This has more then likely been exaggerated over the years but still…

Your intrepid photographer will be at the race (taking photos of course, I’m far from fit enough to participate) so I’ll be in at work for 6am tomorrow so I can get home before the roads close. Handily enough the race ends at Bents Park Road here in South Shields which is just a short walk away.

I also received my new Kata Bag yesterday so I’ll be able to bring both my telephoto and my wide-angle lenses so as to cover every possible shot, perhaps some Eastenders stars or the token guy in a Scooby-doo outfit, sweating his way to the finish.

Last year as I recall the weather was quite nice but took a turn for the worse with a spot of drizzle later on (move over Sian Lloyd). Sadly the ET60 lens hood I’ve ordered wont be here in time so I’m hoping there wont be any rain. I’m also hoping it isn’t as un-seasonally freezing cold as it has been the past two mornings.

Good luck to the staff from Tesco, South Shields who are participating!!!

Stay tuned for some good photos I’ll be posting here some time in the coming days…

Sorry for the lack of posts, friends. School officially started today and I’m off and running.

What’s been going on in my love life? Not too much. Got a text from a boy I like last night wishing me luck on my first day today. We texted for a little while, but alas, he’s not too close by…oh, and he’s taken. It’s all innocent and friendly, I just happen to have a crush on him. Another one of the Boys on the Stoop actually remembered it was my first day and texted me to see how it was today. I was actually surprised he reached out to see how I was. It was really nice to know he was thinking about me!

Also, I used the ‘r’ word with ColoradoBoy tonight.

“Running.”

I texted him, “We should go running!”

What was Miss March thinking?! Am I going insane? RUNNING? I don’t RUN, I WALK. He’s an active person, and while I’m active as well, he’s into hiking, rock climbing, and biking while my activity consists of running up and down the stairs at school and my treadmill. I suggested we go to the boardwalk for a run sometime soon; that wouldn’t be that bad. It’s a beautiful place to run. If one were to run. Which I don’t. At least not for periods longer than three minutes, which is a whole song and then I’m done. Again, running? Really? All this stress must be getting to me.

It was like a moment out of Scooby-Do, “Rut Ro!” I sent the message and then looked at my phone and thought, why didn’t I just say, “let’s go to the boardwalk”? Why did I have to add “run”? Luckily he’s the sweet type of guy who would just poke fun of me if I died running on the boardwalk and not actually make fun of me. There’s a difference, you know.

Come to think of it, I think I said running because I do actually want to keep active, and I knew he would never, ever get me rock climbing or mountain biking, so running was the best of the worst activities I could think of. Am I making any sense here? Maybe I’m just an activity-wimp.

Have you ever gone out on a “limb” for a guy and done something extreme that he likes to do? (Yes, I’m well aware that running is not going out on a limb or an extreme, but I’m generalizing here).

I knew what eminent domain is, but I didn’t know what cities are using it for now.  How many made for TV, comedies, and kids movies have there been where the  hero/heroine has to stop the evil developers from moving in and destroying the quaint hometown/small mom-and-pop store/diner/wildlife preserve?  There were probably more than a dozen episodes of Scooby Do that used this theme.  Who knew instead of dressing up like a ghost, they could have gotten Old Man Parker to move out just by appealing to the corruptibility of city officials?  Who needs local flavor when you can have clonetown and lots of tax dollars?

These cities are the new Sheriffs of Nottingham:  steal from the little guy to give to the development conglomerate.

I’m fucking exhausted again.

I spent yesterday in an otherworldly fug, as a soporific automaton, the entire days energy was spent putting up the blog, having online slanging matches with a few tits and then keeping my head upright and blinking at my desk. This is what happens when you’re living over the top of spoilt unemployed caveman with no human contact save the occasional visit by his idiotic dad, presumably to drop off ready meals, cash and teddies, who doesn’t have any fucking regard for anyone outside of his own spiteful cuntish little fucking self he will die he will die.

At 5pm I blasted back home on the Black Bitch ready to confront the little fucknuckle that had woken me three times the previous night. I was so angry, in fact, that I hit over a ton in 30 zone which even by my standards is obscenely stupid.

After getting off my bitch and wrapping her in sweet smelling soft green canvas, I took off my helmet and let myself in. I checked the time just in case I needed to recall it for the police.

I rapped hard on his door. Nothing, then a stirring. Almost a minute later tentative footsteps approached and I heard the latch release. The door opened gingerly, only a few inches, then a bit more, so I could at last see it’s fucking bulbous tool of a head.

“You woke me up” HE said
“You fucking WHAT?!!” I yelled, “Last fucking night YOU woke ME up 3 fucking times, you… you… you played your fucking guitar ALL FUCKING NIGHT…”
I glared at him, the door closed a little. I fought the urge to push my crash helmet into his mouth.
“Well, I get inspired…” He whined like a 5 year old being told off for not making it to the potty in time.
My toes curled in my boots and I shoved my teeth hard into my lip.
“Inspired…?” I hissed the word with genuine malice, this was useless, there was nothing more I could do here, it was like conversing with an outpatient. I made the decision to take this up with the council on the spot “…well, I need to fucking well sleep, no more guitar.” And that was that.

That night all was silent, I watched some TV after meeting Frank in the local for a couple, took a long bath, made a scooby doo type sandwich for supper and watched BBC4. I went off to bed at 11 and read a quarter of an excellent graphic novel recommended by a mate called ‘Fell’ and went off to sleep.

I dreamt about all sorts of things, Alex James and I travelled through the Proms in the Park in a Tram, my mate Jamie was repairing his Mini in my offices at work, Myfwt and I had a row over where or not to resuscitate a pensioner when all of a sudden this dreadful noise started from behind a thin pale blue door. I went over and banged on it, Cunt answered covered in sweat holding a Gibson, glaring at me.

“If I was President, I’d have you killed.” He said

Just as I was diving screaming into his throat I woke up with a start in perfect silence, pitch black darkness. It was 4.18am. It would be another 4 hours before I got back to sleep, 5 minutes after I was due to get up for work. You just can’t win can you.

Piqued may be late tomorrow due to meetings. Finally, just before the clip, I’d like to remember Alan Coren who died last week. Bloody bad show I say.

Great song, great video.