Day 1523

I got a pleasant surprise this morning. I received a publisher's proof of my entry in the upcoming SXSW Cookbook. I was amazed. My recipe looked really good. Somebody had actually followed the directions and cooked the recipe, just so they could photograph it for the cookbook. I didn't know they were going to do that. I also didn't know that they were going to give me a really nice write up that made me look like much more than a reclusive guy who works at home with his dogs.

Maybe I was more back in the days when I routinely used to attend SXSW. I couldn't even afford to go to SXSW anymore. The festival wasn't a star studded event like Sundance back then, but it was still a big deal. The year they asked me to be a speaker at the event, fellow speakers included folks like Steven Soderbergh and Matthew McConaughey. I'm without a doubt the least famous person to have a recipe in this illustrious cookbook, which includes recipes by luminaries like Guy Kawasaki and Randi Zuckerberg. It's an honor to be included. I felt kind of the same way when Paypal selected me to be a spokesperson for their advertising a few years ago. I'm kind of a ghost now, but it's nice to be remembered.

It felt like Spring today. Temperatures were in the seventies and there was a nice breeze. Weather like this always brings a ton of people out to the park behind my house. For years, the place used to be a quiet wooded area and then one year the city passed a big bond issue to revitalize the park. Now the park is a popular destination for people from all over the area. With people come problems. Almost every time there's a really nice day I see fire and rescue folks on the lake rescuing swimmers and unlucky folks who managed to sink their kayaks. I don't know what happened today, but while I was giving Dot and Dash their evening walk I saw a large firetruck with seven firemen, a fire department rescue boat, a police car, and an ambulance. I hope everybody was OK, but it didn't look good.

My second Jawbone UP band has broken. I've gotten hooked on wearing these diminutive activity trackers, but they sure don't last very long. Janet and my stockbroker have had their bands go kaput on them too. I wonder why they can't make the batteries in these things last longer. That's usually what goes wrong. One day you wake up and realize the battery just won't charge anymore and you're just wearing a silly looking loop of rubber.

I'm so happy that Dot has made a complete recovery from what could have been a very serious accident. Dalmatians must have iron stomachs. Spot ate broken glass and lived. Petey ate several birds and some rather large barbecued rib bones. Greta just gnawed on the legs of my prized Palazzetti Tomasa dining room chairs, which didn't hurt her at all, but it sure made me sick.

It definitely looks like a dog park day tomorrow. The weather is absolutely fabulous this weekend. At least temporarily, the ground hog is forgiven.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day