The Cast of Characters in Joanie Tales

For some readers, this post will be old news.  But since I’m re-entering the blogging world after a 12-year hiatus, I thought I’d begin Joanie Tales with a clean slate. That means I’m assuming that many readers will know next-to-nothing about me or my family or my crazy life or my crazy crew. Here’s your chance to get to know (or reacquaint yourself with, if that’s the case) the people and canines of my world and the acronyms I use as shorthand to reference them:

DH:  stands for “Dear Hubby” and references my husband of 37 years, love of my life, and bestest friend in the whole wide world.  All around terrific guy!

DTS: “Dear Twin Sister” (yup, my identical twin who, through no fault of her own, lives with us for now and who is also my bestest friend in the whole wide world — love my seeeeester!)

[Sidenote: I get to have two “bestest” friends; you’ll soon learn that Joanie Land is a little looney.]

DFS:  “Dear Firstborn Son” —  our 35 yo firstborn, lives locally

DYS:  “Dear Youngest Son” — our 31 yo youngest son, lives locally

DSD: “Dear Sweet Daughter” — our 32 yo daughter, wifey to DSIL, mother to our grand-babies, lives out-of-state

DSIL: “Dear Son-in-Law” — our DSD’s 35 yo hubby, who we view as a son (no “in-laws” in our family), father to our grand-babies, lives out-of-state

Grands or Tiny Humans: references our three beautiful grandchildren who also live out-of-state.  If referencing them individually, I will refer to them by birth order (DFG, DSG, DTG — “Dear First Grandchild”; “Dear Second Grandchild”; “Dear Third Grandchild” respectively.)

MDSM: “My Dear Sweet Mother” — my 95 yo mother, who still lives on her own in her own home with a sharp, in-tact mind, and a great sense of humor, and for whom I am the primary caregiver (among other paid or county supplied caregivers) for this season of my life.

MDBB1 and MDBB2 or MDBBs:  “My Dear Big Brother #1” (the oldest), “My Dear Big Brother #2” (the second oldest), or “My Dear Big Brothers” (referencing them both) — both live out of town.

Canine Crew:  our existing four-legged Canis-genus family members.  A lot has changed here since I last wrote for LabTails, and at this time our crew includes only three Labrador retrievers (two of whom have been with us since birth), and one silly mutt (his story I will write about sometime).

1. Pinot:  our 11 yo yellow Lab from Elsie’s (one of our former Labs now over the Rainbow Bridge) 2007 litter. We kept her (decided not to place her, then known as “Puppy Black” because of her ribbon color) because our vet discovered her small heart murmur at one of our routine litter-check-ups .  She is more fox-red in color (though a registered “yellow” Lab) and  is the much beloved matriarch of our pack now.
2. Tuc:  our 2008 import-from-AZ boy, now 10 years old, is a whopping 105 lbs of all-love black Lab who hales from Sundancer Labs. He’s my goofy “bubby boy” and check-you-into-the-corner lap dog.
3. Chessie:  daughter of Kenya (another one of our forever Labs who has passed over the rainbow bridge) from Kenya’s March 2010 litter. Chessie is soon to be 9 yo, and is our only chocolate Lab. She is our much-loved Chessie-girl.
4. Merlin:  the little wizard (I will write about his name in upcoming posts) is our 1/2-English-Bulldog-1/4 pug-1/4-beagle mutt whose reason for being part of our pack still confounds me but whose presence warms my heart and makes me smile still. Born in 2013, and brought home to our house in January of 2014, he will turn 6 years old this year.  I can hardly believe it.

Fred: Also included in our pack (though he is a temporary-but-who-knows-how-long member), Fred is my DTS’s  (who lives with us) fluffy rescue of partial Lhasa Apso heritage who is of undetermined age.  He is the youngest and littlest of the gang these days.  He has adopted our pack as his own, and he has no problem running with the big dogs (though he is only 1/4 of Tuc’s weight and size).  We’ll talk about Fred’s Napoleon Complex another day.

So there you have it:  the key players about whom I will blog in this season of my life.

I plan to add this blog entry to the sidebar for future reference, and as time goes on, I may have to amend this list and will do so as needed.

You can now rest easy in knowing you have a Joanie Tales cheat sheet all your own.  And I can use my acronyms with abandon and not feel guilty as I do!

I’ll see you next time, which may be sooner than you think! And next time will be a bonafide blog entry, not just a cheat sheet.

TTFN  (that’s TaTaForNow in Tigger speak, from Winnie the Pooh).

Joanie

(or Joan or Hon or Momma or Mom or Aunt Joanie or Aunt Joan or however you know me) — here it will be Joanie from here on out. 😛 Toodly roos!