http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog (What ISN'T this blog about???*) Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:06:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en  This is a photo of a possible future cosmo, in a discontinued shade of brazen scarlet. It’s growing in my front yard under the rebar tepee. For weeks now, I’ve complained that seeds are a micro-managing mishegass, that I wish I could just blow money on bedding plants, that the ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=27 Tomorrow is the best day of the entire year. I think this because I’m a gardener. For non-gardeners (gardn’ters?) tomorrow is Some Dumb Saturday—go to Costco, play soccer, see that Will Ferrell movie, whatever it is you people do. Here’s what I'll do instead: --rise before the alarm rings, feeling how I ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=23 Gumbo earned the alpha dog title after one solid year of jockeying for position. At four months old, he came to live with us--four humans and two older dogs, one a three-year-old male, the other an eight-year-old female. When adolescence hit, he began to challenge Jack, the male, who outweighed ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=22 I signed up for regular weather e-alerts because weather events trump all others in terms of sheer excitement. My father put Radio Shack weather radios in just about every room of his house—yes, bathrooms--and they sent out piercing shrieks whenever a tornado might be hitting the plains. His idea of ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=21 It was my turn to get a dog. I met Gumbo online, through the Denver Dumb Friends League. I had said I wanted the kind of dog who cocks his head sideways at you when you say something interesting. This one did. He also knocked over an office chair ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=20 Seeds are miraculous and all that, but I’m an instant gratification gardener. When Lowe’s sends me a 10% coupon, I heed its embedded, subliminal instructions: save money by buying enough plants to fill the cargo area of a mid-size American car. Dig holes all over property and go nuts. Three ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=19 I’m getting out of the dog writing racket. It’s gotten sinister. It began when Gumbo came home from the dog park with a yellow rubber racquetball-sized dog ball, equipped with an inner squeaker and mounted atop two large, rubber feet. He brought this thing into the house, placed it on the ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=18 Barking up the right tree, for a change. This fall, I’m writing a big ol’ moneymaking bestseller. You may have heard this is not just an “impossible dream” but a “pointless crapshoot.” Believe it all you want, Mr. Crabcakes, because I have a simple, workable plan. Dogs are big earners, publishing-wise. Not ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=17 My father never gave me a present that didn’t plug in or require batteries. When some schmuck broke my heart, he’d take me to Radio Shack to buy me a special weather radio that screamed out tornado alerts. He bought me an electric pocket thesaurus that spat out off-the-mark synonyms ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=11 Dear Friends, Blogs are about life. I live in Austin. They say Austin is full of famous musicians. They’re right. Even though I had once been a musician and a nightlife writer, I wasn't thinking about music when I moved to Austin. I was thinking about claustrophobia. After ten years on three ... http://www.robinchotzinoff.com/blog/?p=15