Bethany's Sushi Experience

John and I decided to take Bethany out for sushi tonight.

I sent her a text message earlier today that went something like this: "Your dad and I are taking you to dinner tonight. You must be brave. You must be strong. You must ask Katie which restaurant we bumped into her at last weekend."

Only because I was sending from my e-mail, I went over the character count and the text message cut off after "must be strong." When I got home, Bethany said, "Don't ever. EVER. Send me a message like that again."

To Bethany's credit, she was a sport about the whole sushi experience. (To our credit, we ordered her egg rolls in case it was a total disaster.) We taught her about pouring the soy sauce in the smaller dish, mixing the wasabi in, and how to eat edamame somewhat gracefully. Thanks to her friend, Julia's, training back in second grade, she was already a master at the chopsticks.

The thing about living in North Dallas, is that knowing how to eat sushi is almost a life skill. The other random thing about sushi is that the first time you have it, you leave the experience going. "Well, that was okay." Then, the very next week, you find yourself thinking. "Hmm. I'd really like to have sushi again."

Luckily, we have a quiet, intimate sushi place in our neighborhood where John and I wind up a lot. It is pretty, relaxing, and--most importantly, the sushi is good. Tonight, we noticed that it is picking up in popularity. A good thing. A few months ago our conversation centered on wondering if it would survive. Of course, my joy in this only lasts until I start having to wait on a Friday night to get in. When that happens, I'll edit my comments.

The Wisdom of Superchick

I just got the new Superchick CD Beauty from Pain. This is their fourth release from InPop records. (Love InPop! They keep producing the coolest stuff.)

I ripped it to my media player and it has been going all morning.

This is one of my favorite groups, not only for their sound, but also for their lyrics. Granted their target audience is much younger than me (sigh), but their songs are always encouraging and energizing with sound bytes that hit me later--when my media player is turned off--at incredibly appropriate times.

From the song, Courage... "I need you to know, I'm not through the night. Some days I'm still fighting to walk towards the light."

From Anthem...."Here's to the girls on their boards with bruises and scars. Here's to the girls whose fingers bleed from playing guitar. Here's to anyone who never quit when things got hard. You'll never let them say, "You'll never get that far."

From It's On..."And no matter how you feel, It's what you do that matters..."

And, from my favorite, the title track... "Here and I am at the end of me; trying to hold to what I can't see. I forgot how to hope; this night's been so long. I cling to your promise there will be a dawn."

So, for the rest of the day, if you see me with black wires trailing from my ears, you'll know what's going on behind them. Rock on!

The Wayback Machine

I can't quite remember who told me about this, but it is quite possibly one of the coolest URL's on the web. "The Wayback Machine" at archive.org stores cached pages of the net allowing you to view websites as they were at multiple points in time.

As the webdesigner for my company, it was fun to go back and see the evolution of our web presence.

For example in 1998, I took a Front Page class and developed our very first site from a Microsoft Template. Looking back on it almost ten years later, it seems primative, but at the time, this was cutting edge stuff.

Remember that bandwidths were slow back then, so images were small and there was tons and tons of text. I remember that almost every white paper we had ever written was typed into html. (This was exciting because it was searchable!)

In 2000, we became more polished graphically. Version 2.0 of our site had images on the home page that changed when you hovered over them.

Our former tag line...define, design, deliver...has been copied by at least two other firms. (We could stand and defend that turf--courtesy of the Wayback Machine--but quite honestly, we've outgrown the phrase because it is so linear. It does nothing to communicate our interactive approach to designing venues that create an experience.)

In 2003, we divided our website by markets allowing us to customize our story for different audiences. This allowed us to promote a wider range of services to our church clients without treading on the theatre consultants turf in performing arts. It also led us to tailor information to the things people really cared about. For example, our sports clients are much more interested in HD video than our performing arts clients, and performing arts clients place a much higher value on acoustics.

In 2006, we morphed our website again to create more value for users. The INNOVATION section contains interactive tools and "how to" articles specific to the different markets. Architects and the press can grab images and information at any time of day in whatever format is convenient for them. Projects are viewable geographically through Google maps.

As we continue to build the site, the conversation focuses on developing tools that are useful and making the site far more than an electronic brochure.

The Wayback Machine is an easy place to get lost in. I've been able to catch glimpses of design work I've done for organizations I've volunteered for and contract jobs I've taken. The beauty of the web is that it is continually growing and changing. I'm glad archive.org decided to create a scrapbook along the way.

Back to School

A few years ago, a commercial caught my attention. A father was dancing with a shopping cart through the aisles of Office Depot.

The striking thing was the song playing in the background. It's the most wonderful time of the year. A Christmas song. The incongruity of it in August made me pause. With glee on his face, the father danced Gene Kelly style as he loaded his cart with #2 pencils and wide rule notebook paper. The best part was when the camera panned right to reveal his two elementary age children who were most definitely not sharing their father's enthusiasm.

This morning was the first day of school. Bethany is back to the routine of classes, friends and basketball practice. Moments after this smiling picture, she said. "Oh no! I bet I had summer reading."

It's the most wonderful time, of the year....

Acoustic Cafe

Meet David-the-Artist-Pastor. He's the pastor of Crosspointe in Carrollton. Wahlstedt's background is as a graphic artist. About every six weeks or so David organizes a very visual service called, "Acoustic Cafe." This week David focused on the mystery of God.

David and Kylie Knight--an extremely talented (and hilarious) husband/wife team--performed a series of illusions. Wahlstedt asked David what tbe most asked question is after a show, and David responded without pause, "How did you do that?"

Whether it is the scientific world we were raised in or simply human nature, we have a hard time appreciating the beauty of mystery. Watching David and Kylie onstage, it was far more fun to simply enjoy the wonder of the magic than to try to see the slight of hand.

Wahlstedt introduced us to a composition by Edward Elgar, the composer best known for the piece of music played at graduations everywhere, Pomp and Circumstance. Elgar penned another piece toward the end of his life commonly referred to as the "Enigma" Variations. Elgar dedicated the piece to "my friends pictured within", each variation being an affectionate portrayal of one of his circle of close acquaintances.

The "Enigma" of the title refers to two puzzles. The first puzzle is to determine which of Elgar's friends each variation represents. There also is a second, hidden theme, upon which all variations are based, which is never heard. In a note he wrote for the first performance, Elgar declared: The enigma I will not explain - its 'dark saying' must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme 'goes', but is not played.... So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some late dramas ... the chief character is never on stage.

Elgar died without revealing the explanation. Many great people over the years have tried to crack the code. And many theories have evolved for which common piece of music is the theme. Professor Ian Parrott, postulated that the "dark saying", and possibly the whole of the Enigma was related to 1 Corinthians 13:12 which reads: "videmus nunc per speculum in enigmate tunc autem facie ad faciem nunc cognosco ex parte tunc autem cognoscam sicut et cognitus sum." In English: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.". This verse is from St. Paul's essay on love. The Enigmatic Theme that 'goes', but is not played" "through and over the whole set" is the great and central theme of love.

I left the service today considering my own ability to simply live in the mystery. Everything inside me wants to understand. Wants to know why. It is hard for me to simply trust God to do whatever it is that He is doing without His confiding in me.

No quippy last comment to wrap up this post. Still pondering the mystery.

The Murder Mystery Party

John and I hosted a murder mystery party tonight. It was called "A Taste for Wine and Murder." Having done quite a few of these we have a favorite brand, BePuzzled. There's less improv required which makes it easier and more fun.

I was Tiny Bubbles--on my third husband--the first two having died suspiciously leaving me a wealthy woman. John played my husband, Ralph Rottingrape. A ne'er-do-well who inherited a vineyard.

Our dinner guests played their parts fabulously. Our friend, Steve, was Otto Von Schnapps. Before the party started, he posed on our front lawn and called out to our neighbors that he would be posing there nightly.

Speaking of posing, Steve's wife, Marybeth, played Marilyn Merlot who had some posings in her past she wanted to forget--which of course was revealed during the evening. The thing about murder mystery parties is that everyone is suspicious making it difficult to guess the killer.

Rhonda played Hedy Shablee, a vineyard owner with mob ties and Troy played Papa Vito, an aged vineyard worker from Italy who was bitter that he hadn't been compensated for his life's work. Only with Troy playing him, he sounded less like an Italian and more like an old Jewish man from New York.

At one point in the evening, Steve stepped out to make a phone call to check on his kids and we had a bit of fun at his expense. You see, earlier in the evening, Steve hadn't read all of his booklet and wound up a bit lost in the drama. So...

When Steve came back into the room, Troy said, "he was a nice looking young man, one thing led to another, what was I supposed to do...." Then John added, "Yeah, but Otto (Steve)? You had a fling with Otto?"

At which point, Steve begins feverishly looking through his book to see how he missed this development. Then looking at John replies, "You made me wear this get-up and you made me gay????"

I'm afraid I'm the one who gave it away because I couldn't quit laughing. Troy will say I snorted. (Which I'm certain I did not.)

In any case, we had a wonderful time laughing all night long. At one point in our lives, we threw one of these annually. John and I realized that we bought the scripts for the one we did last night 10 years ago and never got around to it. Rest assured, we won't wait that long to host another one.

The Differences between Cathy and Nancy

Nancy Jumper--of the previous Bic's post--and I are often mistaken for each other at work. Mostly because we are reported to sound identical on the phone. (Having never spoken with myself, I can't verify this, but one day my elderly neighbor called me at work and it took Nancy a good 10 minutes to convince her she wasn't me.)

Since it seems to be a problem, I thought I should post the differences so that people can more easily tell us apart.

Nancy....

1. Knows the words to all songs written before 1994.

2. Wears Birkenstocks.

3. Likes the window blinds at Starbucks to all be positioned at the same height.

4. Believes in relational crosswords.

5. Can hold a 30-minute conversation in Whole Foods with a policeman about why there is hemp cereal in the bulk bins.

Cathy...

1. Knows the words to the songs from a few obscure bands.

2. Wears hats.

3. Thinks the asymmetry of the miscellaneous positioning of blinds is interesting.

4. Believes in competitive crosswords.

5. Has actually eaten hemp cereal from the bulk bins.

The Joy of Bic's

Nancy Jumper and I meet at least once each week for breakfast at this great diner a couple of blocks from our office. Normally the work week is fast-paced and crazy. Bic's gives us an hour to take time over coffee, eggs, hashbrowns and biscuits to catch up on life.

One of my favorite things about a "Bic's Day" is that we get to see Pat, our waitress. She knows our orders without asking and generally hassels us over being late or using too much cream (Nancy) or--the unthinkable--adjusting the "usual" (me). Pat has been waitressing since she was a teenager and is very, very good. It's fun to sit down at the booth and have her meet me with a cup of coffee in her hand.

Nancy's favorite pastime is trying to figure who all the "regulars" are. (Regulars? If it weren't for Nancy I would have never even noticed there were regulars.) There's the group that sits by the cash register who talk formally and clap periodically. I have no idea what that is about, but Nancy's theory--based on the general look of boredom around the table--is that it is some sort of ill-formed networking group. There is a group of men, possibly retirees, who sit at the table near the kitchen with one young woman in a ponytail. Nancy thinks they are pilots (Bic's is near the airport) and that Ponytail works in the control tower. There's another individual whose gender we cannot ascertain, but I try not to guess about that too much.

Of course, Nancy and I have our usual booth in Pat's section. And it is entirely possible that at this very moment, someone somewhere is blogging about the woman who took a picture (with flash) at breakfast this morning.

Lunch with Pres Gillham

I had lunch with Pres Gillham today. This photo is of he and his wife, Dianne. (Just like John and I, they got to go someplace tropical this month!) Pres leads the organization at Lifetime Guarantee (www.lifetime.org). I worked with his ministry summers during college. It was fun to see how it has grown and become.

Besides the fun of catching up with a friend I haven’t seen in far too many years to mention, it was also cool to speak with someone else who works in counseling with churches. Pres and I spent a great deal of time talking about Strategic Dimensions work in facilities consulting. He shared his work in organizational consulting with both churches and businesses.

Peter Senge makes the distinction between viewing organizations as mechanical things that can be taken apart and fixed and viewing them as living organisms which need certain things to be healthy. Pres is taking the latter approach in helping organizations translate their theology (personal convictions and spiritual relationships) into their organizational strategies. Healthy organizations and healthy people grow.

Pres also talked about his personal spiritual discipline of taking a week long retreat each year simply to listen to God. He said he clears his mental desk and from the moment he leaves the gate at the airport he does nothing but listen. Concerns, planning, busyness... All put on hold.

There is an art to this. If you’ve ever tried to be quiet and listen for even 20 minutes, you will find it is a daunting exercise. I can’t imagine seven days…and yet…

What if people in positions of spiritual leadership began to adopt this practice? What if we took our pastors off the Sunday-to-Sunday treadmill and allowed them to breathe…to grow…to listen? Wouldn’t that “leak out” (to use a Ron Martoia phrase) into the organization? Wouldn’t we have healthier ministers and healthier churches?

Pres mentioned the high number of people who leave the ministry never to return. Burn out. Moral failures. Financial irresponsibility. Ousts by committees or elder boards...yada, yada... There are multiple scenarios that result in casualties among people who started their careers with a bright and burning passion to minister to others.

I was excited to hear about Pres’ investment in the spiritual lives of leadership and to find out how his coaching is having impact. Even more excited to hear that his latest book is about the value of the personal retreat.

As for me, my annual personal retreat is usually one day--typically my birthday--and I'm afraid I do an awful lot of talking. Maybe one day, I'll be able to listen for seven, but for now I’m still working on the 20 minutes…

The Beauty of Coming Together

My friend, Jody, was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a quick thing. She went in for her annual mammogram and a few weeks later she was scheduled for a double mastectomy.

When I first found out, I called and asked what I could do. She said, "Do you think you could put something together where everyone could pray the night before my surgery? Something I could invite all of my friends to. Just the women. And I don't want this just to be about me. Oh yeah, and I want Christi to sing."

Last night, I sat at the church with 38 other women by candelight and we sang, read scripture and prayed. Per Jody's instructions, it wasn't just about her. I was overwhelmed at the beauty of watching all of those women with voices raised to God in hope and joy and love.

My church has a prayer wall at the back of the worship center where people can write their prayers and place them between the stones. Crosspointe's version of the wailing wall--a powerful tradition. We oriented our circle around the wall and people wrote prayers for Jody and others, rolled them up and slipped them in the cracks.

The thing is, this gathering was a pretty loose plan. But as each woman arrived, they simply used their gifts and it all came together. Christi is a gifted communicator. She handed out a page with scripture and lyrics and led the gathering. She made everyone feel comfortable as she spoke, and her voice rang out clear and pure as she sang. Nancy Jumper read a passage from Psalms. When Nancy reads scripture, her relationship with God is evident in every word. Kathy Smith does what Kathy does. She welcomed people at the door and didn't leave until all was back in order. Angie slipped off to the side and quietly handled music and lights. I felt very blessed to be connected to it all.

Watching Jody's face as her friends gathered around and poured out love was beautiful.

And today she knows beyond the shadow of a doubt, she doesn't go into surgery alone.

The Knights

John has played softball with the same team for the past decade. The Knights play year round--spring, summer, fall, and winter leagues--with various championships won across their career. One of the coolest things about the Knights is that the core of the team has been together for most of their ten years. The other cool thing is that it is a really great group of guys. Until he started his new job, Gary Aufforth would chronicle their adventures in a hilarious play-by-play called the Knights Day. (Gary, if you are reading this, would you start a blog already, so we can get back to reading?)

A few weeks ago, John's specialty bat, a Worth Mayhem, broke in half during a game and the top went spinning almost taking out the batter on deck before it stuck in the chain link of the fence. The very expensive composite bat is less than a year old, so the company is replacing it, but for now John is either borrowing or playing with a slightly dented aluminum--his batting cage bat--until the replacement comes in.

Last night, Bethany and I got to go watch the playoffs. The Knights brought home a win on the first game, but a rainstorm dropped in and sent us all running for cover, so the fate of this year's season is still undetermined. However, John's new Mayhem is being delivered today, so the other team better be on notice. John armed with a good bat is pretty unstoppable. They don't stand a chance.

Integrated Lives

A few years ago I was surprised by a Christmas card from a business associate in North Carolina. This wasn't the typical...."All of us from 'The Company' wish you and yours a delightful holiday." This was a story about his life over the past year. It told about his wife, cats, new house, and work. Best of all, it included photos. I enjoyed it tremendously.

Then another surprising thing happened. The next year, I received similar correspondence from three other people I had business relationships with across the country. And I began to wonder...what if the Christmas cards are evidence of a bigger trend...the breaking down of the walls between different aspects of people's lives?

With the advent of cell phones, Blackberries, IM, decentralized offices and companies becoming more concerned about the human needs of their workforce--worlds are blending. The days of Henry Ford--who used to punish laughter in his factories--are gone. Workers who once compartmentalized personal and professional lives now seem to do so less and less. It would seem even the definition of the word "professional" is changing.

My guess is that in other eras when people lived over their shops, worked their farms or sold goods in the marketplace, there was no separation. It wasn't work life, home life, social life....it was just life. They had relationships with the people in their community. They knew the children and parents of the people they did business with. People had reputations not only for the type of work they did but also the type of friends and family members they were.

I wonder if this integration creates a better sense of community? If our lives are more integrated, will we be better connected? Will it be easier to know when people were in need? It will definitely require a certain level of authenticity and vulnerability.

And maybe, just maybe, Henry Ford was wrong, and the trend is righting itself. That seems like a very good thing.

Starving Artists

Kara Lennox is a successful romance novelist who lives in the Dallas area. I heard her speak once about a stall in her career where she couldn't sell a thing. She decided her life as an author was probably over, so she stopped writing.

During that time, she went on a cycling adventure down Route 66. That adventure led her to explore others. Instead of writing about life she began living it. It recharged her soul and she began to write (and sell) again.

In my day job, I meet a lot of churches. The challenge is that many of them that are "production-centric" become creatively dry. When you are assembling a new production every seven days, there isn't much time for much else. And if the only thing the musicians, artists and pastors are exposed to is their "church world" they can find themselves recycling the same stuff over and over. Their world becomes narrow. Insulated. Internal provisions run low.

This isn't only true of churches. It happens in business, academia, art... Without fuel, the creative spark dims.

David Wahlstedt introduced me to a great quote by Theodore Zeldin...“Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet they don’t just exchange facts; They transform them, reshape them, draw different conclusions from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn’t just reshuffle the cards, it creates new cards.”

We all need new cards from time to time, and they aren't actually that difficult to generate. The thing is that it takes us being willing to break our comfortable routine. Reading authors we've never read, speaking with people with different life experience...having different life experiences ourselves. That exposure creates richer, deeper, more interesting human beings.

It feeds the creative soul.

The Adventures of Yellowman

John (aka Big Tea) mentioned he would enjoy taking pictures so I got him a camera for Christmas. His first series was "The Adventures of Yellowman." Yellowman--whose natural habitat is John's office--frequently gets bored just hanging out on his perch on the cubby and goes in search of adventure.

John decided he would begin a journalistic effort to chronicle the exploits of the daring young plastic bendy toy. He has become quite good at moving quickly to capture him unaware, and the resulting photos of Yellowman moving wild through his habitat have been amazing to view.

We're never quite sure where we will find him as Yellowman laughs in the face of danger. He leaps, he catapults, he explores. One of his most daring exploits is taunting Kazoo--which could result in loss of limb due to gnawing.

It's possible John could pull down a Pulitzer, but we'll likely go for the quick cash and sell out to the Weekly World News.

"Living in exponential times..."

Take a moment to check out Rex Miller's Mindshift Blog and watch the video under the Worldshift post. It does a great job of visually communicating some of the concepts explored by Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat .

The world is shifting, and the possibilities are as exciting as they are scary.

We have two choices: to hang on to the old world with white knuckles or grab a board and ride the wave knowing we might wipe out but having fun in the process.

You've got to know what my choice is going to be. Surf's up!

Elsa's new apartment

Elsa moved into her new apartment this weekend. It was so cool to see her new place. The apartment is a studio, so it is small, but it is also great. It has a balcony overlooking the pool and the layout is really nice.

The best part is that Elsa looked really happy when I saw her on Saturday. I asked her how it was sleeping there the first night and she said, "Tranquil."

It was a little humbling to see it all come together as everyone chipped in. As if each person had a part of exactly what was needed. There was no duplication in the gifts people shared. All bases were covered.

Elsa was delighted. She sat down at her two-person cafe table--the exact right size for the compact dining area--looked across the apartment, and said "Cathy, I feel like a very rich person."

Watching our community pour out love in such a tangible way, made me feel like a very rich person, too.

The Joy of Nerf Guns

If you don't have a nerf gun at your office, I highly recommend that you get one. Marketing launched a full-scale offensive at Audio a few years ago and the war has been on since.

Of course, if you launch an attack, you have to be prepared to take one as well. One day I was on the phone with a client when I heard the sound of a small electronic motor behind me. I turned around and looked down to see a tiny little tank which immediately began firing pellets at me. When I noticed the little flag attached to the antenna--a red circle/slash (like a "no smoking" sign) over the word "marketing"--I couldn't keep it together anymore on my phone conference and burst out laughing. Of course, I had to explain the whole thing to the client, who fortunately, thought it was hilarious.

It's nice when you can play with the people you work with, and luckily, fun is a high value in my workplace. It's woven into the culture. Little things like Friday afternoon ice cream or the Santa Jihad (long story) can create a sense of belonging. They also help celebrate things about people beyond their ability to be good at what they do professionally. It values personality. For example, I think it is amazing that Jason McKelvey can make a room full of us laugh until we can barely breathe, that Brian Elwell can juggle, that Steve Reed can build anything--including marshmallow shooters from PVC pipe, and that Jim Burdette and Casey Sherred can plot revenge cleverly without going so far that it stops being fun (with the exception of the April 7th Silly String Massacre, but I think Ben Cating and Rick Lavin had a hand in that.)

In the meantime, I've just upgraded to a better Nerf model so that I'm ready for the next attack. Never forget that Erin and I remain armed and dangerous.

The Concept of Personal Branding

I heard the most amazing phrase this week. So amazing that I wrote it on a card and put in in the little magnet-thing on my desk.

Be remarkable or be invisible.

It comes from Seth Godin's book, Purple Cow. The idea is that brown cows are okay, but they are so common as to be mundane. A purple cow--however--is something remarkable.

Jane Chance introduced me to the concept of personal branding. Once you become aware of the idea you start to notice it. Architect, David Schwarz, has his suits and flip flops. Ed Young has his funky patterned shirts. Troy Dungan has a bow tie and Rachel Ray has an infectious smile. (Jane's personal branding includes enthusiasm, a gift for making people feel at ease, and a pink trenchcoat.)

Successful people have packaging.

I once had the VP of Marketing of an international firm approach me at a meeting and say, "You have marketed yourself very well." My response was the professional equivalent of, "Huh?"

He said, "I heard of you before I met you. You are the one with the crayons." Personal branding.

A primary rule of marketing is that your brand has to be rooted in who you really are. In the case of personal branding, it would seem to be even more true. So the question is....if we live in a world of special and unique people, why do we see so many brown cows? Okay, not literally, but stand on a street corner downtown during lunch and you'll find little to distinguish individuals in the pedestrian traffic.

I think it has to do with risk. There is risk in taking crayons to a meeting of professionals you've never met before. Risk in flip flops, bow ties and pink trenchcoats. Risk in allowing others to glimpse the part of you that is different.

Being part of the herd? Now that's safe. And, not the least bit remarkable.

Meet Kazoo

We picked up Kazoo at a flea market. Tiny, adorable, with opposeable thumbs and curious eyes, he was an impulse buy.

Sent home with well wishes and minimal instruction, we learned a lot over the next year. Mostly, how intelligent and social he is. Adding a sugar glider to your family is more like adding a parrot than a hampster. They have a complicated diet, live for 15 years, need enrichment and stimulation, and more than all of that...they are colony animals and should never, ever be sold solo.

A few months ago, we looked into getting "Zoo" a mate, and I ran across a rescue organization called Hope for Gliders.

Hope for Gliders handles most of the glider rescues for a good portion of the state of Texas. What started out as hobby breeding for Angie Higdon and Debbie Dunning soon became a passion for education and rescue for many animals whose owners struggle because they aren't given the information needed to successfully keep these little guys as pets.

In working with Hope for Gliders, Kazoo's life got a total upgrade. We doubled his cage size, purchased toys, improved his diet, and most importantly--got him a mate. (Not that Kazoo considered neutering before his mate came home an upgrade.)

Kayla--our little adoptee--is sweet, but likely didn't get the attention that Kazoo got when he was little. For example, she doesn't know she can glide. While Kazoo is leaping and scuttling around John's office, Kayla hangs out in a blanket in the corner. Our hope is that some day she will feel comfortable enough to explore. Already she is trusting us more, and she is very bonded to Kazoo.

The best part of getting Kazoo a friend is that he no longer barks for me to come play with him at 4am. Kayla now has that shift covered.