Day 228

They say the secret to happiness is staying busy. I heard it on TV this morning while I was eating breakfast. Apparently, doing something mindless keeps you happy just as effectively as doing something important too. I've certainly got the "doing something mindless" part of the equation down pretty well. I just don't enjoy staying busy all the time. Some of my most enjoyable moments are when I'm doing absolutely nothing. Janet ought to be happy. She is constantly busy. If I'm busy, it's only because I am disciplined enough to finish everything I start. In a perfect world, I would prefer to just sleep eighteen hours a day like the dogs do. To me, Dot and Dash are actually pretty good role models.

No rest for the weary tonight. Dalmatian Rescue is hosting another of our Casino Night fundraisers. I'll be spinning the roulette wheel again. We haven't had a Casino Night for quite a while, so I'm a bit rusty on the odds for all the different bets you can place. It's a simple game though. It all comes back quickly once we get started. Roulette isn't all that different than investing. You hand over your money. You spin the wheel. You lose your money. There are ways to beat the dealer at blackjack, but with roulette the house always wins. Although the basic odds of red or black turning up are 50/50, the two zeros on the wheel guarantee that the house eventually wins.

I ought to be real happy now because I stayed busy the entire day doing mindless things. I spent a couple of hours this morning trying to get the big production printer unclogged again. When I finally got the printer working, I couldn't think of anything I needed to print. Typical for me. I did need to do the laundry though, so I did that instead. Add in the usual Saturday grocery shopping and that's about it for the day. At least I don't need to fret about missing Dr. Who while I'm doing my stint as a roulette dealer this evening. I think the series is over for the year.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 227

I'm really pretty easy to please. It doesn't take much for me to change a bad day into a good day. I took the large Dalmatian Rescue banner over to FastSigns to be printed this morning and the technician told me that I had prepared the files for printing better than 95% of his customers. Yeah! Admittedly, this is not a big deal, but it made me feel good. Did I wonder what the other 5% of the people had done to make their files even better than mine? Nope. It is probably this kind of "good enough" attitude that has kept me at the helm of an obscure little company that nobody knows about instead of becoming the next Donald Trump.

With the Dalmatian banner crossed off my "to do" list, I drove over and showed Kevin my three logo concepts for his watch repair business. He liked them all and picked one to develop further. I was pleased, because with a little finesse, the idea he picked could make a very nice looking logo. I left Kevin with the logo comps and went home with two watches he'd finished repairing.

I stopped and got gas on the way back and noticed that the price had come down a bit this week. I overheard someone at the next pump talking on his cell phone and asking how large the tank on the car was so he'd know how much gas to put in. This confirmed my opinion that people can't do anything without their cell phones anymore. Jeez, is it that hard to fill up your tank? I've also heard long cell phone discussions in the grocery store about whether to get medium eggs or large eggs. I just pick up some eggs and put them in my buggy. It's easy.

I guess I just don't understand the need for constantly staying in touch. I will admit that telephones still have their uses though. After I returned from all my errands, I got a phone call myself. It was from the National Geographic people. They want to give me the job to complete the story about the dog and goat. I probably won't make any money doing this, because they still want me to rent HD equipment for the segment. It will be fun though. I'll finally be able to tell people that I've shot something for National Geographic. Hey, maybe someone will think I've been to the South Pole or something. I don't need to tell them I just took pictures of a goat.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 226

I don't think my financial adviser likes me. I have a passive/aggressive approach to investing. I generally follow my adviser's recommendations, but I'm quick to hold his feet to the fire when things turn sour. We had one of our periodic review meetings today. The conversation went like this. I would say something like "Look at this stock over here. It went up like a rocket the day after you told me to sell it." He would counter with something like "Well, look at this one over here. It's still going down after I got you out of it last month." Back and forth we'd go. With the possible exception of Apple and Kinder Morgan, there weren't many success stories. This has been a terrible year for investing. The market shows no clear direction. It just keeps zigzagging sideways on declining volume. I hate to give up though. I finally agreed to try a couple of new suggestions, probably just so I'd have something to yell at my adviser about the next time we get together.

I think I've come up with several nice looking logo ideas for my watchmaker. I set up a meeting to show him the preliminary concepts tomorrow. I hope he likes one of these ideas. You never know with logos though. They are totally subjective. The client either likes them or they don't. If a website design isn't approved, you can usually salvage the navigation or the basic architecture. If a logo isn't approved, you just start over.

I'm about ready to start over with the grass in the backyard. I had things looking pretty good last year, but this year is another story. What the dogs haven't killed this Summer, has died on its own as a result of the hot weather. I need to belong to some sort of "sod of the month club" where new St. Augustine sod would just be delivered to my backyard every month. Grass just doesn't last very long at our house.

All my usual Thursday website updates got delayed this week. They're all supposed to arrive tomorrow. If they do, it's going to be a very busy day. Even a hectic Friday is still a Friday though. I'm happy to see this week finally wind to a close.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 225

More employee pictures today. Every company has a different approach to these pictures. Some make a big deal out of the whole thing, sending out memos weeks in advance with instructions on what to wear and when to show up. Other companies are so casual that they've totally forgotten that they even called me by the time I show up with my cameras. I'll spend half a day shooting pictures at one company and ten minutes doing exactly the same thing at another company. It all depends on what they want.

The primary objective of today's photo session was to get things done quickly. The pictures turned out nice, as they usually do in situations like this. Being in a hurry is fine. I start to worry though when the employees want to change outfits or start asking me if I can make them look different in Photoshop. Some people worry entirely too much about getting their picture taken. So, what makes a good portrait anyway? Surprisingly, it has little to do with what you actually look like. If you're comfortable with how you look, you're going to take a good picture. If you're uncomfortable with how you look, your picture will probably be terrible. Happy people take much better pictures than unhappy people. If you're having a bad day, try and see if you can just skip the employee pictures. I'll come back later. Some people ask me why their pictures are never any good. I feel like telling them that it's probably because they don't like their job.

Dash wouldn't stop barking at obedience class tonight. Our teacher asked me what command I used to get him to quit barking and whining. Hmm. I guess I don't know the "stop barking" command. It usually works better if I just ignore him for a while. This wasn't good enough tonight though. Tom tried to get Dash to be quiet himself, but he didn't have any better luck than I did. Personally, I just think Dash was having a bad day. He probably wouldn't have taken a good picture today either. We'll come back later, and chances are he'll be fine.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 224

Do you ever feel like a car that's stuck in first gear? Things do move along, but ever so slowly. Today was like that. I had to take Dash to the vet for another ultrasound exam. Our appointment was at 2 PM, but we sat waiting in the lobby until almost 3 PM. Waiting for doctors almost seems to be one of those inviolable laws of nature. It doesn't matter when they tell you to come; you're always going to wait. Considering how bad Dash can be for something as simple as a bath, he was actually extremely well behaved for the ultrasound exam. He's got a weak heart valve that leaks a little bit when it closes. We're still trying to determine if this is serious or not. I have a feeling he'll be just fine. If you've ever had a stress test or echocardiogram done yourself, you quickly realize that nobody's heart is perfect.

When we got home from the vet, I decided to finish the Dalmatian Rescue banner I've been working on. This moved along ever so slowly as well. Ordinarily, I could design something like this in less than an hour. Unfortunately, the banner's 10 foot by 3 foot size made it impossible to create the monster PDF file I needed using my ancient copy of Quark Express. Rats! I had to use Adobe InDesign instead. I don't use InDesign very often and of course I have never bothered to read the manual. I prefer to use the trial and error method. In this case, it was mostly errors I encountered. I eventually figured out how to get the huge PDF file to print correctly though, so this is one item I can finally cross off my "to do" list.

More rain today. We were doing fine on our evening walk until a bolt of lightning landed right across from us on the other side of the lake. Both dogs immediately turned around and headed for home as fast as they could. It was a good thing the dogs were in a hurry to get home. As soon as we reached the front door, the rain started coming down in buckets. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow morning: sweeping water off the roof again with my big push broom.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 223

I talked to my bank today and they told me that the number they gave me the other day was correct and that the Germans were wrong. Unfortunately, the Germans are the ones who still have my money. I wish my client and the bank could just agree on a number. This shouldn't be this difficult. Unfortunately, even the most mundane task can end up being difficult these days. I've stood in line forever while a cashier tried again and again to get a bar code to read on their scanner. I've even occasionally had trouble buying stamps at the post office. I'd like to get myself one of those "easy buttons" you see on the Staples TV commercials. I think someone forgot to give me my easy button.

I had coffee at Starbucks with my friend Alan this afternoon. Alan never fails to introduce me to something new and interesting. Over the years, I've come to depend on him to provide me with a preview of what I'll be doing this time next year. Today, Alan was telling me how he had just finished publishing his own book on a website called Blurb.com. He showed me the book and it looked beautiful. I had never heard of blurb.com before, but I immediately began thinking of books that I'd like to publish myself. Apparently, the business model for book publishing has changed radically in recent years. Publishers don't need to find the next Steven King and sell millions of copies at Barnes & Noble to make money anymore. Nowadays, they just need to convince everybody on the planet to create their own book and give copies to their five best friends for Christmas. Alan's book looked so pretty that I'm going to have to do one of these things myself.  I'll probably be the only one that buys it though. That's usually the way it works with me.

I wish I could figure out a way to get Dot to overcome her fear of bad weather. What started as a fear of thunder and lightening has now morphed into a general fear of rain. It rained today, but I could barely hear the thunder. It was way off in the distance somewhere. The distant thunder was enough to set Dot off though. She went through her usual routine of barking and hiding under my desk. We bought an Anxiety Wrap for her a couple of years ago and it actually works, but usually by the time I can remember where I put the darn thing, the rain is over.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 222

It was another dog filled Sunday. After we finished walking the Dalmatian Rescue dogs this morning, we took our own dogs up to the new Wagging Tail dog park in North Dallas. We've tried to go to this park before but it's always been closed. This time the park was open and it was definitely worth the trip. The place was large, clean and well maintained. It was much nicer than anything we've seen in our part of town. Everything is nicer in the suburbs though. I don't get out to communities like Frisco, Allen or Flower Mound very often, but when I do, I'm always amazed at how clean and pretty they are. Dallas used to be clean and pretty when I first moved here, but I think the people who kept it that way have all moved to the suburbs. Dallas still has the history and the heritage, but the suburbs now have better restaurants, better schools and much safer streets. Even though it's a long drive, we'll come back to Wagging Tail. The dogs loved it and it's ten times better than the city run park only a few miles from our house.

I got a letter from my German client today saying that they couldn't pay me yet because the bank identification number I sent them was wrong. Jeez, I got the number straight from my bank! What do they want? I wonder why big companies can't just pay me using Paypal? I like Paypal. It's certainly the easiest way to get money from one country to another. Big companies never do something the easy way though, especially if there is a convoluted, bureaucratic alternative available.

Next week is going to be busy. I've got something scheduled out of the office every single day next week except for Friday. Some days are meetings and other days are photo shoots. I should be happy that I'm staying busy, but all I can think of right now is that I'll only have time to eat cold cereal for breakfast on Wednesday.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 221

I spent the afternoon looking on the Internet for stock photos that I could use for a large banner I've been promising to design for the Dalmatian Rescue group. You'd think I'd already have all the Dalmatian pictures I need, but I couldn't find any of my own that would work for this banner. I can usually enlarge my files to at least 30x40 inches, but the resolution isn't good enough for a banner that is ten feet long. I like working with stock photos anyway. They are great idea starters. I'll often see an image that I would  never have thought of myself and it will take the ad or campaign I'm working on in a whole new direction.

So far, I've been more of a buyer of stock photography than a seller of stock photography. I'd certainly like to change that. Come on guys, let's download a few pictures. They're cheap! You could use them to make a birthday card or something. So far, turning stock photography into another source of revenue has been more difficult than I thought. The stock agencies want photo releases for everything and I seldom bother to get them. About the only thing I can send to the stock agencies are pictures of flowers and bugs, because just about everything else requires a model or location release. I guess I could have ring binders full of model releases and charge for prints like other photographers, but it's so much easier to just give the client a CD at the end of the job and tell them they own the images. That's what they all want anyway.

Tonight is the fifth season finale of Dr. Who. I was planning to watch the show at 8 PM and then let you know what I thought about it. We were still eating dinner at 8 PM though, so it's on to Plan-B. I'll do the blog first and then watch the show when it's re-broadcast at 11 PM. It sure seems like this season was over awfully quick, but then the entire year seems that way. I can't believe it's almost August already.

While the dogs and I were walking today, we saw what appeared to be the world's longest kayak. The boat was being towed to the lake on a huge trailer and had four separate cockpits with space for four paddlers. I have a kayak myself and can't imagine why you would want to go kayaking with three other people in the same boat. To me, the whole point of kayaking is to enjoy a little peace and quiet, away from other people. What do I know though? I never understood the point of tandem bicycles either.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 220

I had my first meeting with my new medical clinic customer today and it went very well. I always enjoy these initial stages of a new project. The client is all excited because everything still seems possible. I'm equally excited because I have a blank slate to work with. Later, things always get more difficult, but I try to maintain the initial excitement as long as possible. I've done a ton of websites for veterinarians, but this will be the first site I've designed for medical doctors. I hope everything goes well, because this project could make a great case study to show other doctors. A lot of veterinarians already have attractive, functional websites, but the websites of most medical doctors are still abysmally bad. If I can do something that raises the bar a bit, this project could be a real opportunity.

I'm glad it's Friday. Somehow this has seemed like a very long week. There weren't any big deadlines, but I seemed to slip a little further behind with each passing day. I still have one unfinished project to tackle this weekend, but that can wait a little while longer. Tonight is devoted to Dr. Who and good food. I enjoy going to Central Market on Fridays and picking up interesting looking things to eat for dinner from the Chef's Case. It's kind of like going out to dinner without having to make reservations or actually go anywhere. Tonight I picked up several types of Quinoa salads which were delicious. I've never had Quinoa before. It's a grain like seed from South America that's a bit like Couscous. Quinoa is supposed to be extremely nutritious, but I probably canceled out all its nutritional value by also picking up some scrumptious looking barbecued ribs while I was at the store.

I can tell that Dash is frustrated and really misses his weekend visits to the dog park. He's starting to pull the yellow cover off his tennis balls again. If the weather cooperates this weekend, we'll resume our quest to find the perfect dog park. It's such a shame that Unleased went out of business. I think it's going to be a long time before we see another indoor dog park in Dallas.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 219

I thought I'd seen everything until the dogs woke me up last night with loud, insistent barking that usually means there's a noise they want me to investigate. I actually did hear a weird noise, so I grabbed a flashlight and went outside to see what it was. At first I thought one of the outdoor faucets had sprung a leak, but when I listened more carefully, the noise was coming from behind the greenhouse. It was the air conditioner compressor. I turned off the power and went to take a look. Jeez, what a mess! Evidently a rat had gotten inside the enclosure and was sitting on top of the fan blades when the compressor kicked in. The inside of the unit looked like someone had thrown a rat in a blender. There was no damage to the air conditioner, but there was plenty of damage to the rat.

Today was another employee picture day for one of my clients. I don't make much money doing these pictures, but it helps me keep my webmaster business going. Several years ago I noticed that most people weren't updating their websites very often. After a while they would decide they didn't need me anymore. I started offering free picture updates as part of my basic web maintenance package and all the sudden people started updating their websites all the time.  Basically, words are of little interest to many people, but everyone seems to love pictures. I probably spend too much time doing these employee pictures, but to me it's good practice. When I do get a good paying photo job, I find that shooting tons of employee pictures has made me faster, more consistent and much better at lighting than I used to be.

It's almost time for the Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament again. Actually, the tournament isn't until September, but time goes by quickly when you've got to line up sponsors for each hole and beg people for silent auction items. I'm not as good at finding sponsors as some of the volunteers, but some years I still manage to snag a few. Insurance agents will usually sponsor a hole. Maybe the Land Rover people will play this year. I find that if I ask them to sponsor a hole right after they're hit me with a big repair bill, they usually feel guilty enough to play.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 218

I went back to the doctor today and got my blood work finished. I made sure to go early in the morning, so I'd have plenty of time to come home and eat my usual big breakfast. I don't mind fasting, but I hate to miss breakfast. Sometimes I wonder if there's really any point to my quest to become healthier. Life without bacon in the morning and a martini in the evening still seems like it's missing something.

If you're involved in any sort of artistic endeavor, you need to go out and get an iPad immediately. For the second day in a row, my iPad has been instrumental in helping me land a new job. Today, I needed to take a couple of watches to my Omega repairman to get fixed. I took the iPad along too, because I wanted to show Kevin pictures of some other watches I was hoping he'd work on. Kevin liked the iPad and after showing him the watch pictures, I used some other examples of my work to demonstrate what the gizmo could do. He ended up asking me if I could design a new logo for his company. You bet! Logos are great. I never turn down an offer to design a logo, because it almost always leads to other opportunities down the road. The other opportunity in this case wasn't very far down the road at all. By the time I left this afternoon, we were talking seriously about a new website as well as the logo.

On the way home, I dropped the sample tapes I promised the National Geographic Channel in the mail. I'm not very optimistic about getting this job, but it's always worth making an effort. You never really know what people are thinking. I've been awarded jobs where I didn't even think I was a serious contender. I've also lost plenty of jobs that I thought were in the bag.

I thought the dogs would be terrible in obedience class tonight, since they skipped class last week. They both did well though. I was pleasantly surprised. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised about the entire day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 217

I went to the doctor today to get my final blood work done before starting my Hepatitis C treatment. I've been avoiding this treatment like the plague because of all the horrendous things I've heard. I don't really look forward to losing my hair or feeling like I've got the flu for six months. No blood today though. The nurse who was going to draw my blood told me that I shouldn't have eaten breakfast this morning and to come back tomorrow.

My trip to the clinic wasn't a wasted effort however. This time, I finally managed to catch the attention of Freddy, the office manager, and get him to listen to my quick pitch for redesigning the clinic website. This was the first time I've used my iPad to make a presentation and it worked fabulously. I was able to show samples my design work and visit several websites I've done quickly and efficiently. My whole presentation lasted less than ten minutes. It worked too! I've got a follow up meeting with the clinic's owner this Friday to get further input and finalize the budget. I think I've got the job.

My German client said they can't pay me until they have my IBAN number. Jeez, what's an IBAN number? I stopped by my bank on the way home from the doctor to see if they knew what my number was. I didn't really think they would be able to help, since the closest thing to international banking that takes place at my branch are all the illegal aliens ahead of me in line trying to cash checks without any form of identification. The manager was very helpful though and knew exactly what I needed. It turns out I have all sorts of ID numbers I never knew I had.

I need to write a website bio for one of my clients tonight. You'd think that people would prefer to write their own bios, but typically they just send me their wife's name, where they went to school and the number of pets they have and then I make up the rest. I also write the bios for the dogs on the Dalmatian Rescue website. Frequently I say the dogs are two years old. I don't have a clue how old they actually are. Stray dogs may know their own age, but they never share their secret with me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 216

I ought to start a company called Obsolete, Inc. If you needed a photo, I'd make you a nice one using a Nikon F2 and Kodachrome film. If you needed a video, I'd shoot one for you using a very nice analog Sony DXC-637. If you needed a website, I'd build you a well designed static site using nothing but HTML. Sure, I'm aware that there are newer and better ways of doing things. I just don't like them. So, why do I bring this up? The National Geographic Channel folks called me today. They really liked the video footage I sent them. In fact, they were interested in having me shoot the entire episode about the dog and the goat. There was only one little snag. They kept asking me all these questions about HD-video. Could I shoot the episode on HD? How much experience did I have shooting HD-video? What kind of HD equipment did I own?  Could I send them some examples of shows that I'd produced on HD?  Well, I lost that job I guess.

I'll go ahead and send them DVD's of some shows that I've done. I doubt that it will make a difference though. Virtually everything I've done is 4x3 analog video. What they want is 16x9 digital video. The world has moved on without me.

There was some sort of Dr. Who marathon on the BBC Channel today. I left the TV on all day and watched the shows while I was doing my other work. My feeble attempt at multi-tasking I guess. Truthfully, the only reason I could still work while I was watching Dr. Who was that I'd seen all these shows before.

If you're a guy like me who has a lifestyle that consists of nothing but walking Dalmatians and spending long hours in front of a computer building websites, you need a certain amount of science fiction to keep you from going stark raving mad. When I started my company, I watched all five seasons of Babylon 5. Then there was Lexx and Farscape. Now I mostly watch Dr. Who. I never liked Star Trek at all. By the time Dr. Who had finished saving the planet today, I had finished most of my website work as well. It was a reasonably enjoyable day.

I need to figure out how to snag this National Geographic job. Sure, I could go out and rent the HD equipment they're looking for. I don't know if that will do the trick though. I think they want someone who lives and breathes digital video. That certainly wouldn't be me. National Geographic Channel: meet Mr. Analog.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 215

Beemer, who is also today's Dalmatian of the Day, turned out to be a great little dog. We don't get new dogs in the rescue program all that frequently now. It's hard to believe that we used to be looking for homes for as many as 25 dogs at a time. That was back when the Disney movies were popular and it was profitable for puppy mills to breed Dalmatians. There are still plenty of puppy mills, but now they are breeding the Chihuahuas and Pugs that are so popular these days. I'm glad the Dalmatian frenzy is over, because dogs like Beemer have a lot better chance of finding a good home.

Today's kids must still watch the 101 Dalmatians movies though. Whenever children see Dot and Dash they certainly get a lot of attention. We were going to take the dogs to a dog park today, but it was just too hot. They both got a bath instead. Our evening walks are much shorter now, because the dogs can't take the heat. People can't take the heat either. When we were walking this afternoon, we saw an ambulance come and take an older man away. It was probably heat stroke. We see EMT trucks come to the park quite often in the summer. The heat can be brutal. This is the time of year when I really start to wonder why I ever left Seattle. During the years I lived in Seattle I didn't even have an air conditioner in the house. Once you got used to the rain, the temperature was always comfortable.

I'm never comfortable with the weather in Texas. When it's wet, I complain about the water on my roof. When it's dry I complain about the heat. I didn't move down her for the weather though. It was a good place to work. Of course, now I find myself complaining about the difficulty of finding work as well, so maybe there's just no pleasing me.

I don't want you to get the wrong idea though. It was still a very nice weekend. Dinner was delicious tonight. There are clean sheets on the bed. The dogs smell good again after their bath. As soon as I post this, I'm going to go relax and watch a few British Comedies on Channel 13. Life's OK.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 214

When I was getting my car repaired earlier this week, the service manager said I ought to stop by this weekend and take a look at his own highly modified Defender 90. Since the Land Rover dealer is close to the grocery store where I do my Saturday shopping, I did swing by and take a look this afternoon. Wow! This car has had so many custom modifications that you could probably drive it on the moon. Most of the custom-made lifts, rock sliders and winches were totally useless for city driving, but they sure did look cool. I wish I still had the kind of income where I could waste money in such grand style. This car was totally over the top and I loved it.

I think women get a bad rap for wasting money. Sure, they may think a $500 pair of Stuart Weitzman shoes are absolutely essential, but this is pocket change compared to the way men waste money. A man will think nothing of dropping $10,000 on a bass boat, or the world's largest flat screen TV. There must be a thousand blogs out there with titles like "My Frugal Ways." These blogs are filled with ideas about clipping coupons and tips on how to get free samples of peanut butter. Coincidently, they are all written by women. Men don't think this way. Men would rather have a new Harley Softail, or in the case of my service manager, a Land Rover you could drive to the South Pole. I'm still a little suspicious of men who drive a Prius. Real men just aren't this practical.

The only practical thing I did today was mow the grass early in the morning before it got too hot. This is the middle of July in Texas though. It was already way too hot before the sun even came up. I needed to get a new coffee filter today and I tried my best to be practical by taking one of those blue coupons that I get in the mail every week to the Bed Bath and Beyond store with me. Unfortunately, I left the coupon on the kitchen table like I always do and ended up paying full price for the coffee filter. Why is a coffee filter worth $14.95 anyway?  If I was practical and businesslike, I would just go to Starbucks and drink their overpriced coffee every morning while I efficiently checked my e-mail on the free Wi-Fi. That seems to be what everybody else does these days. That doesn't appeal to me though. I'd rather waste half the morning grinding my own beans and making pancakes and sausages.

We've got a new Dalmatian coming up to the K-9 University kennels tomorrow. I need to remember to take my camera and get his picture up on the website. The new dog's name is Beemer.  If a woman named this dog, it was probably because of the way he smiles. If a man named the dog, he just named it after his car.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 213

I picked up Janet at the airport today. I did manage to make it to the right airport too, with the help of a couple of Post-It Note reminders in the kitchen. I haven't been to Love Field in a while and I couldn't find the parking for arriving flights. It turns out they didn't have any. They had something called "Cell Phone Parking" instead. You just pulled into a lot near the terminal and waited for your arriving passenger to call you from their cell phone and say something like "Hey, I'm standing in front of the terminal now." Then you would just drive up in front of the terminal and pick them up. Cell Phone Parking would have been a great idea if I had a cell phone. I ended up parking far away in the departure lot and taking a long walk to the terminal. I probably should have just gone to Las Vegas with Janet in the first place. As it turned out, the week certainly didn't end up being anything worth staying home for.

I don't know whether to root for the bulls or the bears anymore. Now that I've taken a short position in the market, I can make a little money on a terrible day like today. On the other hand, I still have my long positions too, so the best I can ever do is break even.  Going short just allows me to hedge my bets a bit and hopefully limit my losses. I just hate all this volatility. One day the market is up a hundred points and the very next day it is down two hundred for no apparent reason. Nothing has changed about the companies or the economy. It's all just reading tea leaves these days.

The dogs sure seem happy that Janet has returned. Maybe life with me got a bit boring by the end of the week. Or, maybe it was just the box of special dog treats in Janet's suitcase.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 212

I got my car back today. My mechanic told me I was lucky. "Usually, when we see this kind of thing," he said, "the car catches on fire." Great!  If faulty oil cooler hoses were a problem, I wish someone had given me a "heads up" about it, so I could have replaced the hoses before they broke. I guess I really was lucky that my car didn't catch on fire, but it was hard to be all that exuberant about the situation when I knew I was paying $1000 for basically replacing two rubber hoses. "It was mostly labor," the service manager said. "The hoses were hard to get to."

I shouldn't complain though. The Land Rover folks treat me well and they've kept my car running for a long time. Truthfully, car repairs are a bargain when you compare them to something like health care. If car repairs were like health care, my mechanic would fix my car and then tell me I could never drive to Houston again. This is what I hate about health care. They charge me a ton of money, give me a few pills and then tell me I can't eat bacon or drink martinis. What fun is that?

Dash probably thinks the same thing whenever I take him to the vet, but all he can do is bark about it.  He narrowly avoided going back to the vet today when an angry Mockingbird dive bombed him on our morning walk and pecked him on the butt. I think Dash is the Rodney Dangerfield of dogs. He gets no respect from other animals. Dot, on the other hand, is respected by everyone. She's very quiet, but all she has to do is give an animal a certain look and they don't mess around with her. Dash and I both know that the women run the show in our house.

With my car back in the driveway and a happy ending to the goat story, life seems to have returned to normal. I've still got to figure out how to replace the client I lost this week, but I'll eventually think of something. When I was young, I could get clients just by being charming. Needless to say, that doesn't work anymore.

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Day 211

Today was discouraging. I lost one of my very first website accounts. We'd worked together for many years, but the company decided to take everything back in-house to save money. This isn't the first time this has happened, and it probably won't be the last. The economy is terrible and if someone has to choose between me or staying in business, it's a safe bet they're going to choose staying in business. What I do isn't rocket science. I lost one account last year when my client decided to give the work I was doing to his kids. The kids actually did a great job.

A friend of mine who works in retail tells me that whenever he asks the rhetorical question "How's business these days?" he always gets the same answer. No matter what business his customers are actually in, they always tell him "I'm working twice as hard, but only making half as much money." It's certainly true for me. When I started my company, $40,000 was considered an extremely low price for a TV commercial. Ten years later, $10,000 was considered a low price. Now people are offering to do local TV commercials in Dallas for $1,000.  I don't know where this depressing downward spiral is going to end, but it certainly is getting harder for a guy like me to make a living these days.

One of the producers for the Unlikely Animal Friends show that airs on the National Geographic Channel called me today. They want to use some of the pictures I took of the reunion between the dog and the goat on their show. I've seen the program a few times and it's pretty good. I put what I had in a FedEx envelope and sent it to their office in Washington DC. With any luck, you might see my name on the show's credits in a month or two.

So, I lost a good client who was paying me a nice monthly retainer, and in exchange, I got a chance to give away my video for free to a cable channel. I guess that sounds fair. I also found out about my car today. The good news is that I didn't destroy my engine. The bad news is that I will be paying Land Rover's usual exorbitant rates to get the car repaired.

You'd think with all this bad news today, I'd be doing a little belt tightening. Nope. I went out and bought a belt at Culwell & Son instead. Actually I bought more than a belt, but I needed something to cheer me up. Some people eat ice cream when they get depressed. I buy things.

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Day 210

I went down to DG Fast Channel this morning to get a duplicate master made of the video I shot yesterday. I'd never even seen the footage until today. With all the humidity problems I'd had with the camera, I was afraid the the tape might have been damaged. I didn't want to risk running it through my tape machines until I had a protection master in my hands. Everything was fine though. As it turned out, I actually got some pretty good shots of the big reunion of the goat with the dog. I'm still not sure what the National Geographic Channel wants to do with this footage, but at least I won't be embarrassed when I send it to them. I've heard that the show Unlikely Animal Friends wants to do an entire segment on Judy and Minnelli later this Summer. I'm sure that the three legged dog will be part of the story now as well. It would be nice if some of the video I shot yesterday makes it to the final show. I'd be surprised if my footage survives however. I'm sure that Unlikely Animal Friends will bring their own film crew to Dallas and recreate the entire story from start to finish.

I spent so much time on the goat story today that now I'm behind on some of my other jobs. I've actually got too much time on a couple of these jobs, so I'm not worried about missing any deadlines. I'll probably be caught up again by Thursday. The problem with having too much time is that everything about the job except your budget always ends up changing. I'd rather have a tight deadline. On jobs with amorphous deadlines, you can count on doing a lot more work for less money.

Dash had to go to the vet again today. Nothing serious. Ever since we discovered that he had a weak heart valve, we've been experimenting with his diet in hopes of finding something that provided more protein but didn't cause the crystals in his urine to return. Today he just had a routine urinalysis to check for crystals.

I didn't hear anything about my car today. I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news. I know it will be bad news when it comes time to pay the bill.

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Day 209

Today was an absolute shambles. Late this morning I got a call from East Lake Pet Orphanage asking if I could drive down to Hutchins, Texas and film the goat being released. Evidently the owner of the goat and the Great Dane had been located and he wanted to surrender the pair for adoption. The owner had only one stipulation. He wanted the orphanage to take a third animal that was also friendly with the goat. The third animal happened to be a dog with three legs, just in case you thought this story couldn't get any stranger. I was supposed to photograph the reunion of these three animals.

I took a quick shower, threw the cameras in the car and headed out. Then I remembered that they had said to film the event, not photograph it, so I turned around and headed over to the storage warehouse where the much heavier video equipment was stored. I was a little late at this point, but still thought I could make it on time. When I was driving down Central Expressway, I noticed that the oil light on my car had come on. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw gray smoke pouring out of the tailpipe. I quickly pulled off the freeway at the first exit and discovered that all the oil had leaked out of the engine. The car wasn't going anywhere.
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Luckily, a friend was able to meet me and we transfered all the equipment to his car and continued toward Hutchins. I thought I'd probably missed the entire event at this point, but when we finally arrived, nothing had happened. The rest of the media had gotten the wrong directions to the sheriff's goat jail and hadn't even arrived yet. I thought nothing further could go wrong at this point, but I was sadly mistaken. The day was so humid that moisture was forming in the tape transport mechanism of my camera. I kept getting a "Slack" error, which if you know anything about Sony Beta-SP cameras, isn't good. I ruined two $40 tape cassettes before the moisture evaporated enough for everything to work properly again.

As the afternoon dragged on, I was afraid my car was going to get towed to an impound lot for being improperly parked before I could get back to it and have it transported to the Land Rover dealer. I had to go back to the pet orphanage and film the second half of the reunion too, so I didn't actually get my my car to the dealer until almost 6 PM.  I made it about five minutes before the dealership closed. Luckily, they had a loaner car waiting for me, because I didn't know how I was going to get home at that point.

By the time I got the dogs out for their evening walk, it was dangerously close to the coyote cutoff hour. Worries about coyotes were nothing compared to all the horror stories the tow truck driver told me on the way to the dealership though. Every time I spent any time with tow truck drivers, I realize that Dallas is a lot more dangerous than I like to think it is. There are evidently a lot of things happening out on the roads at 2 and 3 in the morning that you just don't want to know about.

Just whan I thought the day's excitement was over, I saw a lizard scurrying across the living room floor. Lord knows how a lizard got in the house. I managed to catch the beast before the dogs ate it. I hope tomorrow is a boring day and nothing happens at all.

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Day 208

For several weeks I've been seeing these strange little holes all over the park and wondering what caused them. They were all about six inches deep and six to eight inches in diameter. The holes looked too deep for squirrels to dig and dogs would never be this industrious. Today I discovered the answer. Inside one of the holes were the remains of eggs. They looked like turtle eggs. Probably raccoons, skunks or possums, which are all abundant in the park, were digging them up and eating them. It's a shame the little turtles never had a chance. I really can't fault the critter that fancied these eggs though. I had eggs for breakfast myself this morning.

Sometimes I'm amazed that baby animals reach maturity at all. Almost every day I see cats going after birds, hawks and owls going after mice, and once I even saw a snake eating a fish. There are several packs of coyotes in the park as well. I never see them do their hunting, but I often hear them late at night. The coyotes have gotten so bold in recent years that I won't walk the dogs after sundown anymore.

I did walk the rescue Dalmatians like I do every Sunday. No coyote problems there. Kobe and LeBron are gone, but we now have a new girl named Sophia. She is cute as a button and isn't even a year old yet. Small females like this usually find homes very quickly. Unfortunately, the larger males take a bit longer to place. They all find good homes eventually though. It just takes patience.

I've discovered a big difference in my Google Analytics reports once I started using the correct code. The site where I added the new code a few days ago used to report 67 backlinks. Now Google says there are 3,700 backlinks. Quite a difference. Still not a lot of readers, but evidently every one of them links to it.

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Day 207

Kobe and LeBron went to their new home today. It took a lot longer than usual to adopt these two dogs, because we wanted to keep the father and son pair together. It was worth the wait. Kobe and LeBron got a great new home. The dogs will live in Austin now. Their new owner, a university professor, is going to rename them Connor and Rory. I wonder if he named the dogs after Irish writer Rory O'Connor? I probably would have renamed the dogs myself after LeBron's namesake abandoned all his loyal fans in Cleveland and decided to trade it all in for the glitter of North Beach in Miami. It is a bit odd that our own Kobe and LeBron found a home in a new city on the very same day that LeBron James announced he was moving to a new city.

I took Janet to the airport this afternoon. I really need to remember to go to Love Field when it's time to pick her up again. Janet usually flies out of DFW and I'm such a creature of habit that I can easily imagine going to the wrong airport and wondering why she never showed up at the baggage claim. I also need to remember to give the dogs their pills, which I normally don't do. I think I've got this task covered though, because Janet left big reminder notes all over the kitchen for me.

On the way to the airport, I noticed that a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse where I have enjoyed several birthday dinners is now a doggie day care facility. That's quite a switch. I'm used to seeing gas stations in Dallas turned into dry cleaners and failed banks turned into just about anything, but a high-end restaurant that becomes a doggie day care center is a first for me.

I wonder what the Unleashed Indoor Dog Park building will become when someone eventually buys it at a bankruptcy sale? It's so huge that it's hard to imagine what it could be used for. I hope that someone with deeper pockets just reopens it as an indoor dog park again. It could even be a dog park with a Ruth's Chris steakhouse inside.

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