Winter is here again (UGGHHH)

Like many people who live at tropical or subtropical area, i liked to wonder how it was winter like. During my childhood even funnier, thinking that i could just eat the snow right away because it looks so yummy. I couldn't think how excited to experience having snow on my skin.

Anyway i came here on fall season nearly winter and i kept on eye for my first snow falling. I couldn't wait for that! Every day i kept watching outside through glass door, worried that i would miss that moment. Then finally.....it was coming! Ohh...so beautiful. I still remembered it was during night time when i was totally alone and homesick, the snow just poured to the ground floating around teasing me to catch them. It looked so white and light, flying on the air and landed on the ground. I grabbed my coat and open the door, tried to feel it.........Ohh....it was so tender, melted on my palm and of course cold....so nice feeling. I looked up at the sky and the view was so fantastic, it was like little cute light just coming to you crazily. I was overwhelmed with the new 'phenomena' in my life, snow landed on my face, my hair, my coat. I couldn't resist to taste it so i open my mouth and let it come to me. They tickled my tongue with tender, and cold sensation, it was just plain and cold (of course! i was being stupid).

I played with them on my hands tried to catch them and squeezed them, the sensation was just so good. I guess people just thought i was out of mind or kinda retarded. I didn't mind! But it was not finished.......You don't have any idea how to deal with this damn freezing temperature.

Well let me tell you something about it.......to enjoy the snow is sensational but to deal with temperature is damn hard. You can say we can wear double or triple clothes to keep warm, but imagine if you have to do that all the time for about 5 months (winter in Michigan is longer). I bet you will just crazy to come back to Indonesia enjoy the warm sunny day and thankful that you don't have to face winter there. How to expect to live in so low celcius or sometimes below zero celcius everyday? Heater always running in the car, or in the house, it is helpful yes i agree with you, but when you step your feet out from the door the coldness just right away snap your cheeks. It makes your skin very dry, flaky just like fish's scale and your lips also suffering. You have to always put lotion on your skin and lips balm on your lips otherwise you will feel itchy because of dryness.

One day i cooked rice and just let it out on the counter, after few hours it turned hard on the surface part (seperti intip) and the next day it was totally dry all the way! It happened also with other stuff, like yuka root (singkong). I steamed them and forgot to put them in the fridge, then at the next day it turned hard on the surface but in the center still soft. Damn! ..but hey i got an idea...so i chopped them into chips so they became mangleng! I was so proud of myself for my invention hehehe (silly mode on). Now i understand that low temperature can be used to dry something naturally just like heat/solar energy, before i didnt have that conception. So i tried something else, with chopped apple and.....voila! I made apple chips! So easy and less energy usage, really efficient and friendly environment.

And now winter is here again....the beauty snow and the beast zero celcius. Everytime people asked me here how do you like winter, i would always say i love snow but i hate the cold. How could people live in that damn cold so long ? I guess they adapted to it well, and for me it is still like staying in the fridge for months.

I wish i was in Indonesia right now.....

Gino, little spoiled dog

Something good came to me after thanksgiving day, one of my niece brought us a little cute pet. He is a mixed breed dog between puddle and something (i dont know, and nobody knows). So cute petite creature with long curly hair and hardly walking because of too long nails on his toes and also his long hair covered his eyes. At first i saw him he just stared at me with his big eyes, so innocent and cute can't wait to pet him. His name is Gino Bambino, means baby Gino in italian and we call him Gino. When i talked to my indo friends they giggled and told me that Gino means gigi nongol. Anyway, at first day we took him outside to do his business, he was really excited to show everybody that all the trees around the house are his. It was not only that, even more he peed on the soccer ball lied on the backyard, also at jacuzzi pool, on the fence and also on the berries tree. As we know that naturally dog shows his teritory by peeing on certain things he likes. He does a good job on that everyday.
Gino is kind of dog that really love to be around people and dislike to be alone, even he likes to sleep with us on bed! Only one thing is bothering us, his breath is stink, smells like rotten food. I dont like when he opens his mouth or yawns around me because it stinks. One day we took him to "Pet Resort and Spa" to give him a new haircut (grooming) and also cut his toes' nail, and of course not forgot to ask them how to clean his breath. Unfortunately they said that to deal with bad breath we have to take him to veterinarian and they would give him anasthesi so they can clean his teeth and it would cost us nearly $200. And also they would need us to show them vaccination letter before doing it. Ohh....that's damn expensive and we weren't sure that he got all vaccination he need. We never seen the paper since we got him. So finally after we left him at Pet Resort and Spa for about 3 hours, we picked him up home. Gino looked so different with new hair style, and he couldn't wait to see us, jumped and span around crazily. His hair was much shorter and more straight (i wondered if they do hair rebonding..?), so he looked skinner and smaller than usual. One big change that also became more obvious was his penis looked much bigger after that since the hair covered was gone. Since then i noticed him humped monkey doll that we gave him as his toy many times. Geezzhh.....small dog with big libido.
There is still problem with him related to his status, because government required to all pet owner to register their pets and Gino hasn't registered yet. The consecquence is Gino actually is not allowed to be outside of the house, we have to keep him inside until we have him registered or otherwise the animal police would take him away from us. And to get registered we have to take him first to veterinarian to get shot like rabies (basic one, and apply every year). The reason behind that is to protect environment from disease that can be infected from pet to other pet or to human. By regulating their, will be easier for government to control and monitor. Newly, there is information about neuteur campaign to control the population and some people has done it to their dogs. Should be a good thing for Gino to do that so he will be more behave to his monkey doll.
Pet here is considered to be a member of family, very diferent with their condition in Indo. We treat them humanly even more by spoiled them with many things like their own food, bed, shampoo, toothbrush, even clothes. I give him bath every few days and brush his teeth with special toothbrush for a dog, and after that dry him with hair dryer and cuddle him on bed. What a dog. In this country they provide special park for dogs so they can take them out from houses and collect together with other dogs in the park. A lot of people also like to take them ride in the cars to enjoy the view outside. Many pet stores provide all of their needs including toys, different size of beds, hygiene products (shampoo, medicine for scalp etc), special food treat (i saw once kind of bagel, hamburger, cookies), cute clothes, carrier bag for small dog like cihuahua or puddle. Geezzhh...they are so special.
The things i like here is there is protection for any kind of pet. There is called humane society or animal shelter in every state that rescue them from abandoning. They shelter and take care of them until somebody finally adopt them to be their own pet. I really like to visit humane society near my place and it is sadness to see them have been suffered from abusing or negligence. These organisation try to help them healing the injured/disease, deal also with traumatic experience by training/treating them in good way.
Like Gino, he has been trained for few words like "come here" he would come to me, or "outside" means he would be outside for pee or poop, or "NO" for stopping what he is doing, or "come in" to ask him enter the house. Every time he did something badly and we said "Bad boy" to him he would give us innocent and guilty looking. He is our baby in the house and we all love him. Always laugh at him when he snore during sleeping or when he acts silly asking us to pet him, stoke his hair, or asking us to cuddle him on the couch or bed.
Gino Bambino, my baby boy.....