Chanel, the wiry-haired dachshund who held the Guinness World Record for oldest dog, died Friday, People Pets reports. Chanel was 21, according to her owners, Karl and Denice Shaughnessy. Chanel gained notoriety this past spring after an appearance on the Today show where she was presented with an official certificate as the world’s oldest living pooch. She will be [...]

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.. After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed [...]

UPDATED 8/18/09: To see paintings I did, check out What's Your Hobby--I used to Paint on my Karen & Gerard Zemek blog.
Harry made a really nice painting easel when my mom watched the painter on channel 25 so she could paint as a hobby. She ordered his books and bought some oil paint and enjoyed just copying the pictures from the book. Harry would set it up for her right in the living room! I too began to paint some of the pictures and found it to be fun. Harry made wood frames for many of the pictures mom and I painted and we put them around the house. Here are some of the pictures done by mom:







The books gave clear step by step instructions as to how to do it and what colors to use. Although both mom and I tried following these instructions to a tee, our paintings resembled the pictures in the book, but never exactly, which is okay. We had a lot of fun trying!

When I had to clear out everything, I found these paint books and the easel in the basement. I kept the books and the palette dad made with the thought that I could probably sell them on eBay or if not, I may want to paint again one day. The easel though was kind of big and Gerard was already worried our house would soon be crammed with junk like dad's was because every time I went over there, I'd bring things back home with me and have to find a place for them--usually the eBay room in the basement. This though, I just couldn't think of where to put it so unfortunately, it got thrown out. Watch the video I made of me using the easel and dad making an appearance at the end in his suspenders that I hated. I thought they made him look like an old man. He was always supportive of everything I did.


I regret now that I didn't put it in the garage at least and hang on to it. My advice to those who have the task of cleaning out a house and getting rid of things, when you get to the place where you just want it to end, take a break. That's when I made some bad decisions and ended up tossing out things that now I wish I hadn't. It's hard to know what to keep and what to let go, especially since a lot of it is just stuff that may just have sentimental value. Don't discount that. My advice based solely on my experience is that if in doubt, keep it "for now" and after the grieving process, you can decide then if you will ever use it or if you should throw it out. You can always throw away things later, but once you throw it out, you can't get it back!

(You can order My Funny Dad, Harry by clicking on the "buy book" tab at the top of this blog.)

Poet Ken Wolman’s dog, Cid, died Tuesday. He wrote a poem about him Wednesday. We’re publishing it here, with his permission, Thursday. Wolman lives in central New Jersey. SOBBING UNCONTROLLABLY IN PUBLIC PLACES” (after a title by John Engman) I started to write a love poem or some bullshit variant of a love poem but then the dog got sick and died the same [...]

In some cultures, a man like Winston Branko Churchill might fill a slot called "mendicant monk" or "wandering ascetic."

In ours, he died a lonely, self-inflicted death.

M. notes a similarity between his life and David Guterson's novel The Other. Life imitates art (although maybe Churchill never read that book). Still...

It is another case of suicide in beautiful settings.