holiday card 2013

The story for the front of the card:

One morning Rufus’ human (who we will call Jack, though to Rufus his name is not very important. Rufus has, however, heard other humans call Jack a hippie, which he does think is important. Rufus actually thinks his human is rather skinny. He thinks that if Jack did actually have bigger hips his lap would be more comfortable) said to Rufus:

“Time to get ready, Rufus. We’re going to go get a tree for a family who are taking care of some foster kids and who can’t afford one. I know a farmer who grows them responsibly who’s going to help us out. Then we’re going to take them the tree and visit. You have to be good around the kids and just sit calmly so they can pet you, ok?”

“Yay, kids!” thought Rufus.  “I promise, I promise, I promise!” Rufus barked and barked.

Jack sighed. “Not an auspicious beginning,” he said to Rufus.

Rufus danced while Jack got dressed. He jumped around on his hind legs and pawed the air with his front legs. He raced in circles around Jack, wriggling his butt in rhythm to his own drumbeat.  To Rufus, Jack seemed to take forever to get dressed but eventually Jack had his shoes on and had shoved his arms into his coat.

 “Your turn, Rufus,” he said. He wrapped Rufus’ purple scarf around his neck, and tugged on his Santa hat. “You’re ready to go, Rufus!”  Rufus sat and stared impatiently at the door, willing it to open.

Finally, Jack grabbed the car keys.  Rufus ran out the door to their VW van. He liked to jump into the van through the back doors and race up to the front seat. Once Rufus settled into the seat, Jack put his harness and seat belt on, climbed into the driver’s seat, and after a couple of attempts, got the van started. Rufus stood on his hind legs with his paws on the armrest, and stuck his nose out the window to catch the wind. He loved the wind. It was a long drive to the tree farm. He watched houses flash by, then fields filled with corn, grass for hay, and trees. He barked at horses and cows and parked tractors.

Then he saw the snow. By the time the van drove down the long drive leading to the tree farm and rolled to a stop, Rufus was wiggling in his seat with excitement. Once Jack took off his harness and seat belt, he jumped down and looked around in amazement. Snow banks rose higher than his head.  Snow dusted the swarms of trees, big and little, full and scraggly, all dwarfed by one enormous, towering tree that stood guard over the rest.

Jack’s boots crunched on the snow as he walked through the trees. Rufus jumped into a snow bank and disappeared into the hole he made. He kept leaping, high into the sky, to disappear into the snow on landing. He licked the snow, he ran in circles, he made snow dogs by laying on his back and squirming. He heard the bang of the ax, and when he heard the boom of the cut tree landing on the ground he ran to Jack.

Jack picked him up and said, “Did that scare you, Rufus? I’m right here.” Rufus snuggled into Jack’s arms while the tree was roped to the top of the van. When Jack put him down, Rufus stood on his hind legs, his front legs on the side of the van, and looked up at the tree on the roof.

“Just this once,” Jack said.

So he lifted Rufus up to the top of the van. Rufus wiggled down into the tree, stuck his nose into the air, and rode the wind, purple scarf flying behind him.

It was already the best day ever, and he hadn’t even met the kids yet.

 

Some disclaimers: 

*Please do not let your pets/animals ride on top of your car. This is only a story. No animals were harmed in the making of this card.

*As for whether any trees were actually cut down to make this card, the sticker on the wrapping and the back of the card state that it is fair trade and recycled. There is no reporting of the percentage of recycled content or whether it is post or pre consumer use.

*I’m sure that the VW van in the story and the card has been converted into an electric or hybrid vehicle.

*Lars doesn’t know Rufus, but he thinks he would be fun to play with.

The middle of the card:

 

 

 

 

 

And the back of the card:

 

 



Happy holidays!

D.D. and Lars






 

What? A show with the Hardy Boys AND Nancy Drew?!!?

Before Jane Austen there was Nancy Drew.


My parents would take us to a used book store where we would spend hours browsing (my father in the Westerns, which tells you how long ago this was). My mother would find a new Nancy Drew mystery for me, and then when I was old enough I would search the shelves for myself. I also devoured books from other mystery series, such as The Happy Hollisters, The Bobbsey Twins (yep!), and Trixie Belden. Trixie solved mysteries and rode horses. What more could any young girl want? And of course, there were always the Black Stallion books.

When I ran out of reading material, I would "borrow" my brother's Hardy Boys mysteries. He wasn't reading them anyway.

So imagine my surprise while shopping with a friend a couple of weeks ago, as I rounded the end of an aisle and saw, out of the corner of my eye, a boxed set of the second season of the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. Wowza!





Evidently, sometime in the Seventies, a miraculous TV series brought to life these childhood friends for an hour each week.




Who knew?









Although the stars of the series were supposedly teen idols at the time of the series, the only name I recognized was Shaun Cassidy. I told my shopping companion that I was pretty sure my older sister had him or the other Cassidy plastered all over her walls when she was a teenager. How could I resist a series featuring both the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew?

So I splurged. I watched the first few episodes that night. It's awesome, and cheesy, and totally Seventies. The first two episodes they all went to Transylvania for a music festival, which seemed to have an audience of about 20 people. They then proceeded to travel to places such as Las Vegas, Hawaii, Egypt, Kenya, Acapulco, New Orleans, haunted houses, and secret government bunkers at the top of mountains.

Along the way I saw a VERY young Melanie Griffith and Kim Cattrall.  It took me a while to figure out it was Kim- I kept saying to Lars that I recognized the way she was talking and finally I was all, "OMG! It's Samantha!"

 My favorite casting (maybe of all time!) was Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy Drew. I knew as soon as I

saw her that she was the definitive Nancy Drew, much like Linda Carter will always be Wonder Woman. I never bought the actor who played Nancy Drew in the movie a few years back (sorry,

 Emma Roberts). She just wasn't substantial enough. Pamela, on the other hand, was perfect. So imagine my shock and dismay when, in the last couple of episodes of this second season, Nancy was played by someone else, who was just completely wrong. I looked up the series, and turns out the Hardy Boys episodes were doing better in the ratings than the Nancy Drew episodes to the point where Pamela had to leave the show (not enough work, maybe?). She also was on Dynasty, but since I never had the misfortune to watch it, I can now think of her as Nancy Drew.

http://www.denofgeek.us/tv/20415/the-hardy-boysnancy-drew-mysteries

During the Hawaii episode, Frank Hardy falls hard for a singing windsurfer whose life is in danger. She seemed familiar, yet I was sure I hadn't seen her in anything else. When I researched the actor, Tara Buckman, I found this blog, written by someone who is a HUGE fan:

http://hillplace.blogspot.com/2013/03/fondly-remembering-tara-buckman.html

Turns out Tara was one of the last contract actors for Hollywood. Back in the day, Hollywood studios would have actors under contract for a certain number of years, and might loan them out to other studios for projects, etc.  This is obviously no longer done, and Tara was one of the last.

Anyway, for the third season Nancy was eliminated from the show altogether, and after a couple of episodes in the third season the network canceled the show completely, for mystifying network reasons. Evidently the network ratings plummeted for that night of the week after they canceled the show (refer to the denofgeek link above). Networks never learn.





So the only season I need to obtain at this point is the first season, since I'm not sure I want to buy the third season box set for a couple of episodes, no matter how good they might be. Which, I suppose, could be a hint for a Yule/Christmas/Kwanzaa/Hanukkah (did I cover everyone?) present. It might even fit in a stocking.

Since it's that time of year and everything.