Day 1441

Dash ate crap in the park again this morning and came home with a belly ache. Every time I sat down at the computer to work, he started pacing and whining. I would open the back door to let him outside and he'd either refuse to go out the door because it was cold, or race around the yard and return a few minutes later without doing anything. After about three hours of this, he went outside, threw up, and then was fine for the rest of the day. It would be nice if dogs would learn that history tends to repeat itself and that it's not a good idea to eat stinky things in the park. I guess that's too much to ask though. Most people I know haven't learned that history tends to repeat itself either.

Last night, I thought I'd come up with a brilliant plan to unclog my large format printer. When I called my Epson dealer this morning to order the necessary supplies, I was told that if I followed this plan, I'd void my warranty.

So, what was Epson's alternative? They said I should buy a complete new set of eight ink cartridges at $77 each and run a power clean cycle. This, of course, would use up almost all of the ink I had just purchased. If this didn't work, I was to buy even more ink and run the power clean cycle again. I hate this printer. It's just a complicated machine designed to sell expensive pigment ink while it's simultaneously driving me crazy.

With the exception of two damp and chilly dog walks, I didn't leave the house today. There wasn't much point in going anywhere. I had plenty of work to do and I didn't really feel like driving in the rain anyway. While I tended to Dash's belly ache, I also completed a major update to one of the websites I manage and wrote a couple of new articles. Most of this work is boring, but it pays the bills. If someone gave me something truly interesting to work on, I'd probably do it for free. There's not much likelihood that this is going to happen though. People keep the interesting things for themselves. Occasionally, someone unfamiliar with advertising will ask me what I do for a living. "My job is just like a prostitute," I tell them. "The only difference is that people rent my mind instead of my body."

It wasn't all bad today. The temperature was much warmer than yesterday. When I went up on the roof, there was no ice. There was a lot of water, but I'm used to water.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day