Here I am posing with a baseball trophy. I think this one was for “graduating” from Little League, which in retrospect is pretty silly. But the trophy is not the flashiest thing in this pic - those Miami Dolphin colored sneaks are quite stylish. I wonder if I could find a pair like them now...

Puppy #4 now has a name, and one that fits her well... Bella. She’s feeling comfortable now and seems very happy with her new home (and neighbors).

Meet my new neighbor, Puppy #4. She doesn’t have a name yet, and that’s how she’s labeled on her collar. Needless to say, she’s adorable. Stay tuned for more...

I like bagels. Cheese bagels in particular. Unfortunately for me, they’re tough to find. Cafe International in Cranston, shown above, has an amazing cheddar cheese bagel, but it’s not exactly local for me these days. I do stop there every time I have to go to the Warwick/Cranston area in the morning though. And for the record, there doesn’t appear to be anything “international” about the place. The next best thing to that is the asiago cheese bagel at Panera Bread, but sadly the rumored Westerly Panera has yet to materialize, so it’s a bit of a drive to get one of those too. This morning I was really craving a good bagel, so I drove down Route 1 to Bagels and More, which sounded promising but disappointed. Like the chains around here (Dunkin Donuts, Tim Hortons and Honey Dew) there was not a cheese flavored bagel in sight. Sigh.

Here I am “going green” at a young age on an electric bicycle (of course, a bicycle that doesn’t need to be charged would be far more green). When we were down in Florida visiting our grandparents, my brothers and I would get a kick out of this electric trike. We abused it quite a bit, using ramps to get it up onto two wheels and trying to keep it that way as long as possible. I’m sure we must have damaged it a few times (though I don’t remember any specific incidents), but fortunately for us Larry was a pro at patching things up to keep us out of trouble with our grandfather.

So I was laying out by the pool the other day at M&D’s, and to get Jasmine to stop trying to make us play fetch, I commanded her to lay down. As usual, she obeyed, but that didn’t stop her from trying to get me to play. She dropped the ball on me, and when I ignored it she picked it up and dropped it on me again as if to say “Hey stupid, throw the ball!” Instead, I took it and placed it directly in front of her face as in the photo. She then tried to get it, but for some reason she did so in slow motion. It was so funny. Of course, right when she was about to get the ball I would move it away and make her do it again, much to my amusement. In the end, however, Jazzy won (as always) and got the ball. There’s no matching her relentless focus. She just never ever stops until she gets it, like some sort of canine ball-fetching Terminator.

Here’s a pic from the 90s of me wearing a goofy hat. I don’t remember whose hat it was, but if I ever decide to become a farmer I’ll try to find one just like it.

Way back again, this time in time and space, as the whole family packed up and drove off to the United Nations in NYC. To tell the truth, I don’t remember a whole lot from the trip, but we sure look like we’re having fun! You can’t make it out in the photo, but the black shirt I’m wearing had “Providence” written across it in a slanted column. Oddly enough, I don’t ever remember going to Providence in my youth.

I am once again a proud uncle, this time to my first nephew, Ryan. He’s a beautiful baby boy, and as you can see he’s already been reading my blog, judging by the big yawn.

Okay, I admit it. I get an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts every single day. I can’t help it! Sometimes I bring Jazzy with me and she drools while going through the drive thru because she knows she’s getting a munchkin. Yes, we are hooked on DD, but it has nothing to do with their latest promotion, Bases Loaded. If you haven’t played it, here’s the deal - on the outside of your iced coffee is a little peel-off paper. You have to peel it off right away or the condensation will make it impossible. Once you do so, you will have a coupon in your hand that is relatively worthless ($1.99 for a little frozen pizza or something). But on the cup will be a 12-digit alphanumeric that will allow you play the computer “game” and maybe win big prizes. So you go online and type in the code, which allows you to choose the pitcher you’re going to face. You have a choice between Jonathan Papelbon of the Red Sox or Joba Chamberlain of the Yankees (I suggest if you look anything like Kevin Youkilis that you choose Papelbon). Then you watch as a computerized version of the pitcher strikes you out in three pitches. I assume that if you’re a winner you’ll get a hit and win a prize, but since that never actually happens I can’t be sure. I would literally have just as much of a chance of getting a hit off of them in real life, which is to say no chance. It’s just not any fun, and it brings back flashbacks from Babe Ruth league when I was a kid. Ugh.

Blog update: For those of you who have this blog bookmarked, please make sure that you re-bookmark the site with the above address and not with www.tonykulla.com. I am going to use the “tonykulla” address for a different site in the future, and it is not likely to link back to this blog. Thank you for your cooperation. :-)

Welcome to Mars! Actually, welcome to this delightful view of the poison ivy on my finger. What’s that? Thanks for sharing? Oh, you’re welcome. I haven’t had poison ivy in a long time, so I looked it up. It turns out that it’s not contagious and doesn’t spread on your skin if you scratch it. It’s still annoying though. I’ve resisted scratching it, but it hasn’t been easy.

So far this year I have heard two standout albums. The first one is by Alanis Morrissette, entitled Flavors of Entanglement. Like most of her albums, you have to search through to find the gems. Currently, I have a six song rotation from this one, segments of which are played in the above video (Citizen of the Planet, Versions of Violence, Not As We, In Praise of the Vulnerable Man, Moratorium, and Tapes). For most albums, six is very good. But in this case it’s much better than that, since some of her songs resonate with me so much that I swear she read my mind and feelings before writing them. I know that a lot of people don’t care for her lyrical style and themes, but I suspect that it’s more a personality thing. I’d bet people like me that can be overly introspective (and often unproductively so) just ‘get’ her. She’s one of the few celebrities that I would actually want to sit down and talk with for hours over dinner. For those Alanis fans out there, here are my top ten Alanis songs (not counting the new album’s songs - I need more time to evaluate their place)...

1. You Owe Me Nothing in Return (Under Rug Swept)
2. Everything (So-Called Chaos)
3. Hand In My Pocket (Jagged Little Pill)
4. One (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie)
5. So Unsexy (Under Rug Swept)
6. Not The Doctor (Jagged Little Pill Acoustic)
7. I Was Hoping (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie)
8. Mary Jane (Jagged Little Pill Acoustic)
9. That I Would Be Good (Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie)
10. That Particular Time (Under Rug Swept)

Here’s Jazzy with her newest friend, a male Goldendoodle that lives across the street. He’s still just a pup and his name is Fonzie. Cute, eh? I’m actually surprised that my neighbors know about Fonzie at all, since they are in their mid-20s. I looked it up and Happy Days aired until 1984, which is a lot longer than I thought the show lasted but not long enough for them to have seen it live. So they must have seen it on TV Land or something. Either that or they’ve spent some time in Italy, where the show apparently still airs on Fox according this street banner in Rome. In any event, Fonzie is a welcome addition to the neighborhood and is always excited to brawl and chase with Jazzy and Anney.

Today was the annual Four Kulla Bros. golf outing in Woodstock, Conn. Amazingly, there were no fights and some decent golf. Go figure. As always, it was great getting together with my bros.

Yesterday I had one of those days when I’m grumpy for no reason. Today, however, is all sunshine and kittens. Well, except for the kittens. And it’s a bit cloudy. :-)