These are the “Before Groom” pictures of Yogi, a recent surrender at Humane Society of the North Bay, who needs a permanent home. He was very patient with me as I trimmed his long hair with Shea’s assistance. He was a little anxious and deserved a better reception than the two fosters gave him, but he is taller than all the other dogs in the house, so it probably helped him not be intimidated as much as he otherwise would have been. When I first met him in the shelter, he kind of resembled a (cute) sloth in his crate.
Here are pictures of Yogi after he got groomed. I think he really loves his summer cut, which I suspected I would not get done in one day, but I gave him several breaks so that he could overcome his anxiety.
Happy retirement to two amazing tobacco activists — Ted and Brian — married to each other and wisely retiring on the same day! Congratulations also to Amaya for her taking over LGBTQ Minus Tobacco. I know you’ll do more amazing work as a leader in tobacco control. I’m so happy to be connected with this community in the Bay Area after volunteering in tobacco control decades ago in New York.
After working remotely for more than four years, I finally had a good excuse to fly down and see our gorgeous campus in Duarte, California. I had sometimes waved to the building from the freeway when driving by on my way to vacation in Palm Springs, but on this day I had the privilege of speaking about my pro bono tobacco activism at the Pride Health Symposium!
This is the presentation of my life! In it I summarize decades of pro bono activism in tobacco control that I’ve done, but most importantly it exposes so much of what Big Tobacco continues to do to poison humans all over the world. I also concentrate on the strides that have been made locally in the Bay Area in the last several years, but since I started this in the 1990’s it’s always been about fighting the industry worldwide. My presentation is 50 minutes long and that’s after I had to cut it back. I was so honored to speak at the Pride Health Symposium at my employer’s campus for the Board I joined for LGBTQ employees. I gave this in late June for Pride Month, but I work on this issue all year long. It’s highly personal and I’m very proud of it. I can almost not believe I got through it. Thank you to so many for your support!
Here is the official video of the presentation I gave:
I was also recently asked to join the Board of Pride in the City, which is the LGBTQ employee group. My closest fellow co-workers also came from far and wide to support me, which was so heart-warming. I am very lucky to work with such great people and such an important institution fighting the scourges of cancer and diabetes every day!
This beautiful kitty in the driveway today let me pick her up. She was so sweet and a little skinny. I had to run to another event, but I hope to see her again. She knows she can trust me now. I also noticed her tests were engorged, so she might have a litter somewhere, and maybe she was just hungry. No clipped ear and no collar, of course.
