Written By:  Andrew & Becx Eide


On February 27, 2012, we received a small package from Andrew's sister, Starr, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw these two adorable pig figurines.

Starr knows that Becx loves piggy related items and she knows Andrew loves salt & pepper shakers. Usually she will send a salt & pepper shaker set to Andrew and something piggy related to Becx. About half the time Starr will send a piggy salt & pepper shaker which accomplishes adding to both our collections with one item.

These pigs, however, are not salt & pepper shakers. They are figurines and here are their approximate measurements:  1.5 inches high...2 inches long...1.25 inches deep. They are really cute as you can see by the photo in this article where they are looking into the camera.

Please enjoy the photos of our little piggy figurines Starr sent to us.

Remember also that as we reach the end of February 2012 and launch into March 2012 to return in March to read our articles here.

The main topic theme for March 2012 will be Things That Go March (or Marching).

We won't go into a description about it...but if you think about marching things...mainly Army Ants then you can imagine what we have in store for you.

See you in March!

Pit Bull Puppies

Written By:  Andrew Eide


We have a "friend" named Frank who lives in the Condo complex across the street from our Apartment complex. I say "friend" but he is more of someone I tolerate because he has the sweetest dog, a Pit Bull Terrier named Rudy, and I am nice to Frank so that I can associate with Rudy the Pit Bull dog. Rudy is about 8 years old and about 6 months ago Frank obtained a Pit Bull puppy he named Sasha.

Sasha recently went into heat and before Frank knew what happened Rudy got into the romantic mode and decided to see if he could make puppies with her. Yep...Sasha did get pregnant and she had her puppies on February 25, 2012. We found out about this when we were taking a walk on Sunday, February 26th, and we saw Frank taking a walk with Rudy and Sasha. Frank told us that Sasha had 8 puppies and he invited us over later that afternoon to see the puppies.

So I posted photos with this article so that you could see mommy Sasha and her 8 puppies. When these photos were taken the puppies were ONE DAY old. Not every day you get to see puppies this young.

In the first photo in this article you see Sasha in her doggy bed inside the Condo with the puppies nursing. If you look in the middle of the pile of puppies sucking on mommy's teats, you will notice that one of them is flat on their back, little feet sticking up in the air, but they are happy they are getting some milk.

In the second photo you see a close-up of the puppies nursing with mommy. In the last photo you see a close-up of the only puppy which looks like daddy Rudy (sorry I didn't get a photo of Rudy on this trip). Rudy, the daddy dog, is brown and white and this puppy that Frank is holding is the only one of the 8 which came out brown and white like Rudy. All the other puppies came out black and white like Sasha the mommy dog.

As you can also see in the last photo...while Frank was holding who I call RUDY JUNIOR you can see the head of mommy Sasha in the photograph. As soon as Frank picked that puppy up Sasha jumped out of her doggy bed to follow him around to make sure he didn't hurt her baby.

I was able to hold Rudy Junior and I was handing the camera to Becx to take a photo of me with the puppy but just at that moment both Rudy and Sasha went to her to sniff her. Then Rudy decided to give her a lick on her leg and she turned around so I was unable to give the camera to her. I thank Frank for allowing us the joy of seeing these 8 one-day-old Pit Bull Terrier puppies.

Written By:  Andrew Eide


We went to visit my Mother at the Lone Tree Convalescent Hospital in Antioch, California, on Saturday, February 25, 2012. Mother's birthday was February 24th and she turned 88 years of age.

I wish to tell you about this visit today but first I would like to give you a little history of how Mother came to be in the Convalescent facility.

Mother returned to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003 or 2004 to live with my Brother and my Sister In-Law. Around 2005 or 2006 it became apparent that Mother was in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Her doctor determined that the best situation for all involved was for Mother to be placed into a Convalescent facility where she could be monitored, and treated, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I returned to the San Francisco Bay Area in August 2009 and from that time to today Mother has been in the advanced stage of Alzheimer's. We talk to her and we are not sure if anything we say actually registers in her brain or not. So we always talk to her, hold her hands, and kiss her hoping that she can actually understand what is going on but that she is unable to communicate with us.

For instance the usual we get from her is a light laugh or chuckle but rarely words we are able to comprehend. On this visit on February 25th both myself and Rebecca were surprised at the reactions and comments we received from Mother. Here are three of them:

I told Mother that she had three children: Jim...Starr...and me (Andy) and that I am her baby. She responded by saying You are my baby! We were shocked and pleased at that response. During our visit she said it again.

While we were talking with Mother and I again mentioned the names of her three children she said Starr...Starr which means she registered my sister's name at that time.

The last was that we noticed Mother's television was unplugged so we asked the Maintenance person to come and plug it in for us. We noticed that Mother kept looking at the television which was at the person's bed next to hers. Mother motioned, twice, with her hand toward her television and she made hand motions which told me she wanted her television to be turned on so she could watch the television. Unfortunately her television appears to be broken so I contacted my brother who said he would check on it on the 28th.

Mother really latched on to Rebecca on this visit. She reached out to ask for Rebecca's hands and they held hands for a long time. Rebecca commented to me that Mother was squeezing her hand so tight and didn't want to let go. That is so sweet.

In closing I want to tell you that my Mother looks great for 88 years of age. Her skin is soft and smooth. She has a light fair complexion with very few lines and wrinkles which, if you realize she is full-blooded Sicilian Italian, is remarkable since most Sicilian Italians are dark-skinned with deep lines. We asked that the Salon person give Mother a manicure and nail polish on Monday, February 27th as Mother enjoys having her nails looking nice.