Canine kids are doggone special

By Tammy Malgesini

Staff Writer

Published on August 29, 2017 7:55PM

We sang a rousing round of “Happy Birthday” Monday morning in celebration of Lucifer’s eighth birthday.

While we didn’t throw a big party and invite all the neighborhood dogs, we did give Lucifer and the General some canned dog food. They get the good stuff on special occasions. The following morning, I swear the General looked at me like, “What gives!?” when I placed a bowl of regular food at his feet.

While both of our dogs are part of the Malgesini pack, Lucifer, a black German shepherd, is John’s dog and the General, a 5-year-old tan/black German shepherd, is mine.

After having Jeter, my 13-year-old German shepherd, put down in April 2012, I was initially hesitant to get another dog. I didn’t think I wanted to go through the difficulty of losing another canine kid. Lucifer helped me through the grief process and I’m grateful the General joined our pack. I can’t imagine life without my sweet boy.

The General is definitely the most intelligent dog I’ve ever had.

However, he has issues.

I used to think it was pretty amazing that he never had an accident in the house. Seriously, house training was a breeze. But later, it became apparent he had some quirks when it came to going to the bathroom, which I shared about in a past column.

The goofy guy also has tactile issues. I think he exhibits symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder or maybe even autism. My friends laugh when I say that, but think about it, dogs get other “human” diseases.

The General will only drink out of certain dishes. When he was about 9 months old, a paper towel fell into his water bowl by the daybed. He jumped down and stared at it.

“Take care of that,” he seemed to be saying. So, I squeezed the water out of the paper towel and threw it away.

He had a look on his face like, “That’s it, that’s all you’re going to do.” Honesty, I don’t know what more I could do. But he never drank out of that bowl again. He would jump over it, run downstairs and get a drink and then come back upstairs. After several more weeks, I finally removed the bowl.

And, playing hide-and-seek is hilarious. When I peer out and see him running frantically looking for me, I want to yell out, “Dude, use your sense of smell!”

What’s even more entertaining is when Lucifer hides with John. Seriously, this 95-pound dog will stand perfectly still in the shadows. I swear sometimes Lucifer even flashes an eye-roll while watching his brother searching for them.

John and I readily admit our canine kids have us wrapped around their dew claws. It’s all good — the boys always happily greet us when we come home, they rarely talk back and as long as they have food, water and the occasional belly rub, they’re happy.

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Tammy Malgesini is the community editor. Her column, Inside my Shoes, includes general musings about life. Contact her at tmalgesini@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4539.

Selfies and beers and friends, oh my!

By Tammy Malgesini

Staff Writer

Published on August 16, 2017 6:49AM

While selfies may have increased in popularity over the last decade, millennials certainly weren’t the first generation to snap photos of themselves.

When Oxford Dictionaries announced “selfie” was selected as the Word of the Year in 2013, efforts were made to track down the word’s origin. According to Slate.com, Oxford identified a 2002 science forum post on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s website as the earliest known example of the word’s use.

Evidently, a young Aussie man took a photo of his stitched up lip, an injury he suffered while drunk at a “mate’s 21st” birthday celebration. “Hopey,” aka Nathan Hope, apologized for the photo’s lack of clarity, “And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”

Hope denied coining the use of the word, saying it was merely common slang to describe a picture you had taken of yourself. The thing is, self portraits — whether by taking a picture while looking in a mirror or with one’s outstretched arm — have been around for ages. As far back as the early 1900s, the Kodak Brownie Box camera provided opportunities for people to take self-portraitures.

I must say, however, the use of cell phones or digital cameras are much preferable in the art of the selfie.

Back when telephones were attached to walls and a thing called film was widely used, photographers didn’t have the luxury of instantly seeing what they had taken a picture of — thus affording them an opportunity to delete anything they didn’t like. Sometimes a roll of film remained in a camera or sat in a drawer for months before being developed.

Lacking the ability to view photos immediately could prove to be quite embarrassing to people who liked to take photos while also imbibing in too many adult beverages. I know this from experience.

A particular selfie taken in the early- to mid-1990s featured part of my face and more. Let’s just say, it could have qualified for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue … uncovered. The unfortunate thing is, it was taken with a film camera — someone else’s film camera.

By the time Kaci Parker had her film developed I had long-forgotten even taking the photo. If the truth be known, I likely forgot mere moments after snapping the picture.

Although my entire face wasn’t caught on film, her neighbor Suzy Tosten immediately knew it was me. When she told me about it, I was mortified. Being the friend that she was, Suzy said she would get the photo and the negative.

When I got to work the next morning, I went to Suzy’s office to see if she had retrieved the items from Kaci. However, before I could even get the words out of my mouth, I looked down and on her desk in a picture frame was the photo.

While they say a picture’s worth a thousand words, I only needed one … a four-letter one.

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Tammy Malgesini is the community editor. Her column, Inside my Shoes, includes general musings about life. Contact her at tmalgesini@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4539.

Fairgrounds move results in chance to reflect

By Tammy Malgesini

Staff Writer

Published on August 1, 2017 10:19AM

I’m looking forward to the Umatilla County Fair taking place in its new digs at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center

I’m especially excited about air-conditioning where the open class entries will be displayed. I’ve done my share of sweating in Price Hall while judging photography since 2006.

To get a short reprieve from the sweltering heat, I used to head over to the senior center — where they housed the horticulture exhibits — to use the restroom and cool down.

With this year’s theme of “New Faces, New Places & Old Friends,” I was reflecting about fair memories. Before I started working at the East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald, I used to enter my work in the photography division.

Each summer, Carol McIntosh and I would talk about what we were going to enter, where we found deals on mats and start doing the countdown to taking our entries in. We were like giddy schoolgirls, fussing over our photos.

Anticipating how my photos were viewed by the judges, I’d get excited after dropping off entries on Sunday. It seemed like it took forever for Tuesday morning to roll around, marking the opening day of the fair.

Then, I found out Carol used to sneak into Price Hall the night before the fair officially opened to check on her photos. One year, she talked me into going in. I got caught and was sent away.

When I went home, I called her and we had a good chuckle. Carol somehow cajoled me into changing clothes, putting on a hat and going back. And, you know what happened?!? Yep, I got stopped at the door again.

Other memories over the years include a couple of big storms during fair week, including in 2012 when Carol Greene and I were at the Farm-City Pro Rodeo. The hourly weather forecast predicted a 10 percent chance of rain and a drop in temperature, so I grabbed a jacket as we headed out the door. It was a beautiful night.

Was!

Suddenly, the sky darkened, there was booming thunder, jagged lightning and the wind began to wreak havoc on my hair. An announcement on the loud speakers directed people to take refuge in Rankin Pavilion.

Carol and I darted in and out of the crowd like Marshawn Lynch during his heyday with the Seahawks. As the torrential downpour persisted, we realized we were gonna have to hunker down in the sheep barn.

When the rain let up a bit, we made our way to the senior center — hey, I was in survival mode and I knew they had the best facilities. We took selfies and I sent a text to my husband. His response, “It looks like there’s a 100 percent chance of rain now.”

Another memorable experience was attending the Uncle Kracker concert in 2010. I had just survived the worst case of cabin fever after breaking my shoulder.

The concert was my first real entertainment after sitting at home for nearly two months. With four VIP tickets — which somehow multiplied like Jesus feeding the multitudes with five loaves of bread and two fish — a bunch of my friends and I had a crazy fun time.

I’m looking forward to creating more memories at the EOTEC facility. See ya at the fair!

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Tammy Malgesini is the community editor. Her column, Inside my Shoes, includes general musings about life. Contact her at tmalgesini@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4539.