Richard Engel Named the 2011 Daniel Pearl Awardee « Los Angeles Press Club

Richard Engel Named the 2011 Daniel Pearl Awardee « Los Angeles Press Club

SQUEEEeeeeeeeeeeee!

msnbc video: Engel receives Daniel Pearl award; Craig White retires

msnbc video: Engel receives Daniel Pearl award; Craig White retires

We honor the courage and valor these two men have to bring us
the news nobody else will, or can. Just not sure how much mom
is lovin' hubby's new coif...a little too Hollywood for her brave
bedouin correspondent. No worries, she'll mess it up!

i'm just a little pig and i'm COLD!

Mom, i iZ tucking myself in, see, i got the blanket in my mouth?

Dear Friends in Hot Places,
Please come visit us. Bring those bright yellow bell peppers, please. Did you know guinea pigs do not
make Vitamin C and must receive supplemental vitamin C from those warm places y'all complainin'
about? So, come here. Bring us stuff. Thank you.
Love,
Calvin the brrrrrr....small.

Draw Y'SELF!

Mom gets confoozled when all the animals inSIDE her head go on a rampage to be drawn at the exact same time when all the animals OUTside her head demand to be fed, petted, and allowed to runabout with maps of where the half-sketched little buggerZ are so we can EAT THEM and get her head quiet enough to realize the only aminals that EVAH matter are us!

That is our mission. This sketch from many years ago: We still have not permitted her to finish it. Nor shall we. And, if she does, eat it we will! ARrrgg! We be ArtPiratePigs, Matey, and don'tcha FORGET IT!

works in progress...aren't we all?

rough beginnings to be continued as able...
not so unlike EVERYTHING in life.
PROCESS: start, keep going. stop. start again. repeat
as often as necessary.
And that's all we got for ya, mateys, along with our
favorite Zen saying, so we'll sez it again:
"Fall down seven times, Get up eight."
Day after day.
Week after week.
Month after month.
Year after year.
and, at the end, all we have to show for ourselves
is how much we have LOVED.
it's not about the product, it's about the process.
AND THE QUALITY OF THE COFFEE.
Nevah underestimate the quality of the coffee!

RICK AND "ARTISANS" PREPARE FOR GRAND OPENING!

We haven't been by the gallery all week but know that, for owner Rick, it's "crunch time" preparing for the grand opening of Artisans downtown during Bellingham's famous First Friday ART WALK! We're pretty sure the place won't be recognizable when we arrive and can hardly wait to see what he and the artists have done with it! We know there will be music on this platform where these branches now sit bundled, and plenty of yummy food (Rick is the site manager for our Saturday Downtown Farmer's Market, too!) and LIVE music, with everything he can pull out to make it a Magical Evening for All! As for mom, she found a swirly, layered skirt at the thrift shop like the kind featured in Robert Redford's Sundance Catalog and she wearing her cowboy boots in case the band plays a two-step (because that's as far as she can walk - er- Dance!) with a girly tank top instead of the usual Pacific Northwest "Let's go Climb Mt. Rainier after a coupla lattes!"uniform, worn by all...
This is special: Friday Night ARTWALK GALLERY GRAND OPENING featuring photography of us (and some other pictures she drew with her colored markers)  is COWBOY BOOT-SWIRLY-SKIRT-SPECIAL! Deet! Deet! Deet!

Let's hope she can make it! We have our chilly widdle tails crossed...and our fleece blankets at the ready!

Winter Hath Wrought "Brotherhood"

Taj (on left) and Raj Mahal
"brother up" in Raj's cuddle
cup to stay warm during our
cool (cold) summer nights.

Winter's Returns...June 2011!

Wintry sunset view from our apartment over downtown Bellingham and the San Juan Islands
taken June 30, 2011?! Wasn't there just some kind of Summer Solstice thingy?

Dear Mom,

Why do I sniff cold? We offend summer with our revelry? It's in the mid-40's and now I'll have to share my cuddle cup with Raj to stay warm and he hogs it. What happened? Why that sunset look
like Winter? Did we miss something or did you break summer, Mom? Please don't break summer.

Love,
BrrrrrTaj Mahal

Open Letter in Gratitude for Grief

Dear Julianna,

You don't know us but we know you. For years we and our friends enjoyed the adventures of Wiggley and Ginger "down under" half a world away. We extend our heartfelt condolences for your losses, and we speak with the authority of a herd who have lost three amongst us, as many we take in are already sick or dying...

What you really, really don't know is that you inspired our own blog, PandaPig's Peace Sanctuary: The Way of the Guinea Pig and perhaps even new blogs our own readers have begun from the perspectives of their own four-legged friends...you do not (nor will we even pretend that we do) know the beauty, wonder, and inspiration that you, Wiggley, and Ginger have brought so many. Our personal favorite posts will remain the television reviews they offered up when they stealthily watched T.V. if you were not at home! Those posts were EPIC according to our herd (although we suspect their "getting away with something they weren't supposed to do" was really the most inspiring for the piggies; i loved the reviews!)

And now, you are informing us that Ginger and Wiggley would like their blog to continue.

So, from one of the many you have mentored, unknowingly, into the world of Guinea Pig Blogging, we send you love from YumYum, Calvin the small, Raj Mahal, Taj Mahal, Coconut, and MacNutPie! We have had you on our "Blogs We Follow" until an unfortunate incident a few days ago (o.k. maybe the Editor did it! FINE!) accidentally erased it!
As we reconstruct our new list, we are quietly grateful to bring you back into our world. And you don't even know us.

We only need you to know how loved you, Wiggley, and Ginger were and will always remain.

In Memory of Two Fine Guinea Pigs we dedicate this post to the Magnificently Creative, Talented, Loving Woman, Julianna Koh,

-and Wiggley and Ginger -

We shall Blog On! We shall continue adopting unwanted guinea pigs! And, also inspired by you, Julianna, we have started our own art business to support the Sanctuary...and the Grand Opening of the Gallery who will be featuring us is this Friday Night.

BIG LOVE FROM ACROSS THE "OTHER POND, THE WARM ONE"

Your Friends in NORTHWestern Washington, USA, near the Canadian Border:
YumYum, the herd, and mom, Chana.

Be Good. Do Good. Love All!

Julianna's continuing adventures can be found at:
twoguineapigs.blogspot.com

(We will now ask her permission to use the above photograph we
used without asking her permission and hope she says yes...)

IT PAYS TO ASK NICELY...

And if it doesn't, then WHEEK AND SQUEEE in a shrill, high-pitched soprano that reminds mom of the great Molly Easter Bunny Debacle and: VOILA! let there be cuddles, treats, a nice comb-out, and no small amound of admiration! When youZ a guinea pigula youZ got a reputation to liveZ up to!

{EDITOR: more like "down to..."}

"What? Mom, that you writing when you supposed to be devoting your full, undivided attention on one thing and one thing only according to your Zen mindfulness practices? And that one thing would
be me!"

{EDITOR: "fine! i'll be mindful when i throw up from this migraine!}

"See, enlightenment only a guinea pig away!"

{EDITOR: "thank you, Master Po."}

"Any time, widdle Pukin'GwassHopperMomma."

Enlightenment: only a guinea pig away...

"GONNA HURL, GONNA HURL, CLEAR THE DECKS,
CLEAR THE MESS HALL, A HORK A-COMIN'!"

...only a guinea pig away.

"You're starting to sound like Pete Mertz, the World's Worst
Weatherman alwayZ on UScream when we wanna see somethin'
besides ---- UH OH!"

...only a - (Ewwwww!) MOM! Dat just NASTY! indoor heave sound.
Honestly! i is eating! no manners on that one, none at all...nom-nom-nom!

My Turn...

Yesterday, Coconut got the cuddle and EVERDAY Calvin getz the cuddle or YumYum but today is my day and I am going to Wheek and Wheek until mom wraps me up in our colorful fleece blanket and LOVES ME! WITH CARROT TOPS! And if she does a good enough job, i will help her headache go 'way.

My Name Is MacNutPie and I demand RESPECT! (in the form of carrot top cuddles and then a runabout later with Coconut and then a "cage-and-cuddle-cup-clean-up" before a load o'fresh timothy hay lands adjacent to my bed at bedtime.) We ask for so little...we are a simple rodent.

As Captain Picard would say to his ensign: "Make it so."

"MOM! MAKE IT SO!"

"Please use your indoor voice, MacTheNut...please!"

"fine...make. it. so."

"WHeeeeeeeeeeeeeeK! SqUeeeeeeeeeee! here she com'n to get me!"

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!

indoor voice...shhhh....

"What about Ellie the affalump, too?"

"I'll get her right now."

Mom did: And It Was Good.

MMMmmmm...Cuddling, on a Sunday Afternoon...

There's gotta be a MOTOWN song about this...me and my elephant,
Cuddling...oooooh, on a sunday afternoon.....ooooooh,
"Shaft! John Shaft!"
Yeah...that the one.
Taj Mahal is IN THE BUILDING!

I AM COMMUNING, NOT ABOUT TO SNITCH ON MOM...

Dear Readers,

Few of you really know me, Taj Mahal, because - although many find me the most beautiful in the herd with my abyssinian whorls and swirls all growing in perfect symmetry across my buttery, luscious, chocolate brown coat - Well, I may have told YumYum what mom just did but I am not hiding! Gizmomma sent us the coolest effalent in the whole world to play with and I have found that he is also perfect for cuddling beneath, particularly when one as beautiful as me feels compelled to HIDE, no, I mean, take a nap keeping one eye open just in case...ya know: Just. In. Case.
GizMomma, it's not how it sounds.

GIZ KNOWS! LOL!

Sincerely,
Taj Mahal

"YUM-YUM, C'MHERE, GUESS WHAT MOM JUST DID TO OUR BLOG?!
AIN'T GONNA BELIEVE THIS..."

OOPSIE, BIG, FAT OOPSIE!

MOM ACCIDENTALLY DELETED
THE "BLOGS WE FOLLOW" LIST
BY BEING HERE INSTEAD OF
TAKING HER NAP.

IT WILL RETURN.

WE GUINEA PIGS WILL PUT
OUR LIST BACK TOGETHER
AGAIN ONCE WE KNOW
MOM IS ASLEEP, FOR SURE.

YOU BLOGGERZ WHO WE
LOVE READING SHALL BE
REINSTATED! IT'S ALL MOM'S
DOING, AS USUAL...PLEASE
FORGIVE HER, SHE KNOWS
NOT WHAT SHE DOES.
(PRETTY MUCH EVAH!)

SINCERELY YOURS,
YUM-YUM and Taj, aka: "The Snitch!"

"Mom! How COULD YOU?"
ooops...sssshhh! is the mike still on?
the mike, is it still on? no one heard
that, right? Calvin, was the mike off?
Calvin, wake UP!

Where Love Is A Secret No More!

Photo taken today, June 26, 2011, a day of unexpected sunshine:

Dedicated to Marilyn173, a poem from the founder of my meditation center

up in beautiful Birch Bay, Washington:

"I started alone on the journey of love,

               filled with faith and zeal,

At every step travelers joined me,

               and soon we were a caravan."

                              ~Sant Darshan Singh

one of India's most beloved mystic poets,

from his book A Tear And A Star.

These words reflect our secret-no-more

definition of how humbling it feels to be

 a true, classic MOD: Friends FOR LIFE! 

And, in Hebrew: "L'Chaim, To Life!"

Marilyn, we shall join you Wedsnesday,

and - together - become the wind beneath your wings,

gently holding you aloft above the fluffiest clouds

in the gentlest azure sky, even as you sleep...

and pray that no MOD ever feel alone again!

and pray that no one ever feel alone again, including

all the animals in the world and all the stars in

the universe. And each other...

~humbly (for once!)

1SkatrPie,

Chana and YumYum

Meditating with George...

We guinea pigs know it's cage cleaning time when George comes on. Tonight mom played "Dark Horse" and we knew she meant business! Raj and Taj's cages were cleaned in no time. Until she started dancing and drumming in the air in her overalls...my cage was next and I was so excited! But she fell asleep.

I gonna get her tomorrow! Gonna pick out the soundtrack from "Shrek" because she never falls asleep
listening to that and I want A CLEAN CAGE! Even we guinea pigs miss George. We all hoped for a Beatles reunion LIVE on UStream but gave up sadly once mom quoted George as having said:
"As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead."

On a happier note: HERE COMES THE SUN! There WILL be summer and clean cages with fresh timothy hay for all! Squeeee!

love,
YumYum

LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS...

We wake up with aspirations to climb High Unto Our Heavens on that perfect, sunny day. HA!
John Lennon summed up reality best when he said: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
Indeed!

Might as Well Mention...

While mom doin' all that meditating, we might as well mention that her art falls into categories of both "Outsider Art" and "Migraine Art" so she will be showing this book both to her neurologist and the owner of the new art gallery which, we just discovered, will be heralding it's GRAND OPENING this Friday Night during Bellingham's First Friday ARTWALK! She hopes to attend without a migraine. Lots of deep meditation mom, and play with us, it gonna all be good, we just knowZ it!

A Much Needed, Well Deserved BREAK!

Dear Everyone,

We have just been through a great deal of mayhem here at PandaPig's Sanctuary and have decided that mom needs to meditate more! So, we are giving her a break after she spends her entire Saturday drinking coffee while cleaning our cages, the kitchen, the house, doing the laundry, vacuuming, letting us each out on our respective RunAbouts, (we can only run with certain members of the herd due to us being BoyZ who ALL wanna Be ALPHA MALES and Coconut bein' the only girl; so Runabouts not as simple as they sound!) and we have a long list of "WE wantZ and WeWantZitNow" for her, too.

May take more than one day, one week, possibly gonna take her between a month and NEVAH
to accomplish everything on our "to do NOW!" list.

THEN...we pretty sure she driving up to Birch Bay to close her eyes. So, we may be offline until she opens them again.

Do good, be good, have fun, and keep the back light on for us~
WE'LL BE BACK. And we gonna get ya GOOD!

So, relax on your yoga matZ and dream of flying wing-tip
to wing-tip with owls on high, through deep blue night skies
filled with stars and WONDER!

Sincerely Yours,
YumYum

SOOTY'S REVENGE!

Your Daily Cute: Piggies on Parade!

^^^YOUR DAILY WHAT?!^^^WATCH THIS
AND TELL US IT CUTE: WE DARE YA!

C'mon, we all know Papa sneaked a widdle
sumpin'-sumpin' in Sooty's hay!
Call us whistleblowers, but
until Papa takes care o'his own GrandPigs
we outin' HIM AS THE REAL VARMINT!

{EDITOR: And they wonder why they are
(almost) all neutered...Seriously?!}

"Mom! Why we all (almost) neutered?"

"Dear, isn't it OBVIOUS?"

"But Mom, we could sleep for two

days and you'd get a vacation!"

"YumYum, just watch the video

to see what kind of vacation your

mum would be gettin' OKAY?"

YumYum: "oh."

"EWWWwwwww, oh! oh my."

Thank You for Your Consideration.

{EDITOR: AT NO TIME WAS

IT UNDER CONSIDERATION.}

BBC News | WALES | Romeo guinea pig causes baby boom

BBC News | WALES | Romeo guinea pig causes baby boom

^^^^^SOOTY DONE IT NOW^^^^^^

HEE-HEE:  NOW THAT'S WHAT WE'RE TALKIN' ABOUT!
Especially the part about how his "stamina" amazed his peeps!
HA, Oh, to be Sooty...

"Ode to Sooty"

Two nights a-missing,
two nights to recover...
ARGH, that's the life
for me: SQUEEEEEE!

poem by YumYum
All Rights Reserved.
No reprints without express
written and verbal permission
of poet emeritus. Or hay laced
with what Sooty GOT!

Guinea Pigs Find Better Role Model than a Pirate in SOOTY!

So Sooty went missing, only to be found after having burrowed into a pen of 24 females, creating 43 offspring, which so exhausted the stud that he was only discovered after caviary owners thought to do a headcount in the girl-pen and when it came up 25 instead of 24, where was Sooty? Sleeping!

WE FORGO PIRATES FOR SOOTY AND HIS DARING-DO!

Now, amongst us, the only one with his cajones still intact is Calvin...anybody see that happening?

"....dur...uh...ooh, not so much..."

Anybody else want to chime in?

Calvin: "mom, will you snuggle with me under my fuzzy blanket?"
"Of course, dear."

SOMETHING TELLS US WE HAVE LITTLE TO WORRY ABOUT.

GO SOOTY!

P.S. he only went missing for TWO NIGHTS!
DOUBLE-GO, SOOTY!

PSSssssT! Hey, Calvin, Hear the News?

YumYum and Calvin the small, good buddies, share the secret that Coconut and MacNutPie have decided not to have a Pirate-themed wedding after all.  Normally, they would chase one another around and around with joy together, our senior and newest herd members, but YumYum has a reputation for showing the "new kids on the block" who the Alpha Male is when mom's back is turned; so until he mellows out and experiences a RAPTURE,  Calvin and Yummy still have to share gossip and hay between their little hamster fence...turning out they's the most gossipy pigs we ever met, though, who knew?!

Well, when the world wakes up to the news, everybody gonna know!

Sincerely Yours,
Raj and Taj Mahal tattlin-- NO! telling you a story, sharing.
(Note to Self: yeah! sharing! good one...sharing.)

EVERY NIGHT...

Every night Calvin the small gets all bundled up in his special warm, fuzzy fleece blanket for bedtime stories and
snacks with mom. They lay in bed, Calvin in his blanket, mom under the covers, until mom is almost asleep, and
Calvin already IS asleep with mom's hand usually under him or holding his bum or snuggled beneath his long,
tubular snout...he fusses because mom wakes him up when returning him to his cage but soon settles back down
into his cuddlecup while mom returns to hide under the covers with the memory of his warmth soothing her to sleep.

While Their Owners Sleep...

...nervous little Guinea Pigs prepare for their day. Nice job with the white-out, Jerry!
And that looks exactly like our kitchen: How DID you know? LOL!

P.S. if you ever visit The Great Pacific Northwest(ern Washington State) nevah,
EVAH call it an EXpresso machine! Or an EGGspresso machine, you birders out there.
To our utter mortification, a person visiting from Eugene Oregon did that and thus,
to this day, we have NEVAH, EVAH visited Oregon.  Nor will we.

Thank you.
P.S. also we don't use umbrellas, which we call "bumbershoots" dunno why, really.
Oh, but you CAN wear un-matched wool socks with sandals in the winter.
Dunno why, really, dreadful on men. They betta already be married cuz only
a banana slug would date THAT. And mo-

{EDITOR: "DON'T. YOU. DARE!"}

Meant, and Maggie our fave-oh-fave Airdale Terrier.
Not ALWAYS ABOUT YOU, MOM, HOW MANY TIMES WE GOTTA SAY IT?

(whew, close call, that!)

UH-OH, GLAD WE ISN'T WEDDING PLANNER...!

DEar MerryFanny,

{EDITOR: "COCONUT?!"}

Dear MerryF-

{EDITOR: "COCONUT!"}

DEER MARXIST M---

{EDITOR: "COCONUT?!"}

Hey You WeedNplanR,  Whaddya mean @#$^%*^?

{EDITOR: "Coconut, sweetie, look at this beautiful, fresh yellow bell pepper!"}

SQUEEEEEEE! nom-nom-nom...nom-nom-nom...ommmmmm.

note to mariFUN: we doesn't have tails, sometimes it gives us
a wee, widdle attitude...what can we say? Thank you for the dignified,
genteel chupa wedding you planned for them. Please do not feel
discouraged! We LOVE YOU.

Since I WAS NICE,
P.S. please send all carrot-top accoutrements Fed-X for us to ea-
NO! what i meant was "in case they change their mind!" yeah, right, THAT.
in cASe they change their mind.

sincerely YOUR biggest FAN,
YumYum