Day 1258

Janet and I woke up to the sounds of footsteps on the roof. WTF? The roofers were back. In my limited experience, it is simply unheard of for roofers to work on a Sunday morning. Initially I was a bit confused and then I remembered that I'd written a letter to the contractor last night. It must have been the letter.

I guess in a world where Yelp and Angie's List can make or break a business, a blabbermouth writer with a popular blog and 30,000 Twitter followers might just be a contractor's worst nightmare. I certainly hope this is the case, because basically all I've got are words. My architect friends have the carrot and stick of future jobs to keep contractors in line, but like most of you, I don't. All I have are words.

It was far too wet outside to take the dogs to the dog park today. Dot and Dash were good sports about the situation though and took a long nap on the bed instead. While Janet went to the mall to take advantage of the Memorial Day sales, I tried to get caught up on work. There are quite a few jobs I need to complete before beginning my upcoming trade show assignment and today was as good a day as any to get started. I managed to get three articles completed this afternoon. Not a personal best by any means, but it's still pretty good for a Sunday.

It was incredibly humid today. The air felt like you would wring it out like a wet rag. Under these conditions, the ground never had a chance to dry out. Every time the dogs went outside, they came back with huge clods of mud adhered to their paws. We buy large bundles of cloth bar towels to clean the dogs paws with. We used enough today to fill the washing machine. A load of these towels are being cleaned as we speak.

I had a hamburger for dinner tonight! Janet is concerned that I'm not getting enough protein with my rather severe new diet and maybe she's right. At any rate, this was the first hamburger I've had in many, many months and it was delicious!  I did eat the burger on a gluten-free bun however, so I'm not completely off the wagon. Tomorrow, it's back to oatmeal for breakfast and kale salad for dinner.

I watched a member of SEAL Team 6 recount the night they captured Bin Laden on a 60 Minutes episode this evening. We all owe these guys a huge debt of gratitude. My Mom's family was career military and one thing she taught me was to give our soldiers the respect they deserve. Tomorrow is a day reserved for saying thank you, but I think we all know that the men and women in our military deserve a whole lot more.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1198

I don't know why I'm so tired today. I certainly didn't do much. To mitigate the effects of a rather uneventful day, I explored Hulu Plus a bit and discovered a wealth of new ways to waste time. I also practiced the guitar for a while until the carpal tunnel pain in my wrist forced me to quit. I can usually play for about forty-five minutes now. Back in my rock 'n roll days, that would have only been one set in a four or five set evening. It's still fun to play though. I usually play through a pre-amp using headphones so I won't bother the dogs. I'm lost in my little world, while they're sleeping on the bed, lost in their own dog-dreams.

I got an e-mail from Angie's List saying that they'd send me a $20 gift card if I'd write two reviews for health care providers. What's that all about? I thought all Angie's List reviews were supposed to be spontaneous and unsolicited. I went ahead and wrote the reviews anyway, but I doubt that I'll ever get the gift card. The whole thing reminded me of the time some meeting planing web site told me that they'd send me an iPod if I filled out their survey. I filled out the survey four times, but never did get the iPod. All I got for my efforts were annoying calls from the meeting planning company, asking me if I'd like to sign up for their expensive service.

I did do some web site work today, but it was all pretty inconsequential. Today's revisions rose to about the same level of importance as the time I spent pumping up the Defender's tires to 32 PSI with an air compressor. I don't know why the tires have a consistent, very slow leak. I also don't know why some clients continue to make consistent, and often needless website changes. It's good to have something to do, however. Without these activities, I would have been forced to watch even more old episodes of Lexx on Hulu.

Although the day started cold, it warmed up quite a bit by the time dog training class arrived. It was actually quite nice outside this evening, so Dash and I had no excuse for avoiding class. Two dogs got in a fight, which scared Dash, but otherwise the training class was as uneventful as the rest of the day. Maybe something interesting will happen tomorrow.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1173

When I was out shopping today, I stopped by a gluten free bakery to look for alternatives to wheat. I'm supposed to seriously cut back on my consumption of wheat. There's only one problem. I love bread. For most of my life my favorite meals have included French Toast, BLT sandwiches, and all forms of Panini. I don't even know what I was looking for at the new age bakery, but I definitely discovered something I'd never seen before. It was called Paleo bread. The stuff is gluten free, grain free, yeast free, dairy free, and soy free. The loaf looked like bread, but it definitely wasn't. There wasn't a single bread-like ingredient in it. I learned later that the odd bread took its name from the Paleolithic diet, which is basically eating like the cavemen did. None of this stuff is new. It's all been going on behind my back while I've been eating cheeseburgers.

I've noticed that my little activity tracker wristlet has started challenging me to walk further. What's that all about? How stupid do these app designers think I am? Do they think I'm just a Pavlov's dog who will walk longer because a silly iPhone app tells me to set a goal of 12,000 steps a day. Jeez, isn't 10,000 steps enough?  I did take a longer walk with Dot and Dash this evening though, so maybe I am just a Pavlov's dog. I'm secretly irritated that Janet somehow manages to take 20,000 steps a day. That's much more than me. I think she just takes smaller steps.

Wasn't all hell supposed to break loose today when sequestration went into effect? So far, I haven't noticed any changes at all. Personally, I don't think much is going to change whether the folks in Washington ever come to an agreement or not. I don't even know why this thing is even a big deal. Just about everyone in America has had to trim 2% off their family budget as a reason of this dismal economy. You just give up a few things and life goes on. If ordinary people can trim their household budgets, why can't the government do the same thing?

Do any of you guys use Angie's List?  I joined the website several months ago, in hopes of finding a first rate roofer. So far, I've never used the list though. I've become suspicious of the whole thing after I started receiving booklets of Angie's List coupons in the mail every few weeks. How can Angie run ads on TV saying that no amount of money can buy a good review on the list, and then turn right around and sell ads to anyone who wants one in her magazine. I may be forced to use the list anyway though. I still can't find the roofer I'm looking for. I've had plenty of friends recommend friendly roofers, honest roofers, and reputable roofers. So far, nobody has actually recommended a good roofer though.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1120

I got my January invoices in the mail today. I also got Dash's anal glands cleaned at the vet. Both events held about the same degree of excitement. There's something about an all day rain that just takes the wind out of my sails. When I went to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions, I saw a wet pencil lying in the road and it seemed to sum up my day.

The dogs seem to think that I have the ability to stop the rain, the same way I can open and close doors for them and make food appear when they're hungry. Every time I would let them outside today, they would give me this "make it stop" look. I wish I could make the rain stop. I could certainly have used the hours I spent cleaning mud off the dogs, off my shoes, and off the floor for something better.

Rain always makes me nervous about water leaks. No leaks today, but I could hear the dreaded dripping sound at any moment. I joined Angie's List recently in hopes of finding a good roofer. So far, Angie's List has been a huge disappointment. The minute I joined, I started getting tons of junk e-mails for all sorts of household services. What's that all about? I thought the whole point of Angie's List was to avoid advertising hype. Apparently not. The list, and its companion universe of post cards, e-mail blasts, magazines and coupons are jam packed with ads. You don't really see many negative reviews on the list either. I think people are wary about saying negative things online now in the wake of all these lawsuits resulting from a bad review on Yelp.

At any rate, I'm still not sure that a roofer who truly understands residential flat roofs even exists. There are plenty of companies who know how to put a quality flat roof on factories, warehouses, gymnasiums, and other large expanses of real estate. These companies aren't interested in residential roofs though. They're too small, and it isn't cost effective for them to mess with them.

So far, giving Dash a snack at night seems to be working. He hasn't thrown up for three days in a row and the only difference is that he now gets a rice cake just before bed.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 950

Dot and Dash got to go to a Dalmatian Rescue event today. To ensure that they would be good little ambassadors when we arrived at the Petco store, they both got a long walk and a trip to the dog park first. When we take the dogs to rescue events, people inevitably tell us that they've never seen Dalmatians that are so calm. It's not rocket science. Any dog that has walked for several miles and then raced around a dog park a few hours later is going to be pretty calm.

The trip to the dog park and the rescue event took up quite a bit of time, so it was a good thing we got a lot of our weekend errands done yesterday. It was way too hot to do outdoor chores anyway. With triple digit temperatures outside, even the thought of going back to work in the office didn't seem so bad. I finished the afternoon updating a website and then writing another watch article.

I think next week is when the city comes by to haul away brush and old furniture. This means I'd better get busy tomorrow and haul all the tree branches I trimmed a few weeks ago out to the street. If I miss the pick-up day, I'll have to wait an entire month before the truck returns again. Maybe I should look on Angie's List and find someone to do this sort of thing for me. I just signed up for Angie's List a few days ago when I saw a 60% Off sign-up special on the Paypal website. I haven't used the list yet and have my suspicions about all the reviews being genuine, but I bet I'll use it soon enough. I just can't find anyone reliable to recommend things like doctors and contractors anymore. When I worked in an office, there seemed to be an endless stream of recommendations from co-workers whenever I went to the break room to get a cup of coffee. Now, I work alone and the Dalmatians aren't talking. I just don't know who to trust anymore.

Things usually slow down in the Summer, but somehow I still find myself with a ton of website work to complete. I did manage to re-launch the big site I've been working on lately last Friday, but there's another that I haven't even started on yet. I think Monday would be a good time to start.

Pongo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 820

I'm planning ahead. I went to the Storage Warehouse and reserved a new and much larger storage space that will become available on April 1. The plan is to move everything from my existing space and organize it neatly like it was inventory in a store. Maybe when I get things organized and have a better idea of what I actually have, some of the stuff eventually will become inventory to sell on eBay. Right now, I have no idea what I have over at the storage warehouse. I've spent years stacking boxes on top of other boxes until the room is completely full from floor to ceiling. I often think that I've stored away things that I really need, but it's so much trouble to dig though all the boxes and find what I'm looking for that I've stopped even trying.

I also bit the bullet and made the decision to switch all the household electronics from cable to U-verse. In theory, this will give us a lot more TV channels, the internet connection will be faster, and the land line phones won't sound scratchy anymore. In practice, probably none of these things will be true. Whenever anyone attempts to install anything at our house, there is always some sort of Catch-22 situation that results in higher costs and lower performance. U-verse is definitely worth a try though. It certainly couldn't be much worse than cable and I do seem to be saving money with the deal.

Have any of you had any experience with Angie's List? I'm real tempted to use Angie's List to find a good real estate agent to market my rental property. Maybe this would be more objective than just asking a friend. I've asked friends to recommend roofers, painters, doctors and even real estate agents in the past and the results have been uniformly terrible. I've kind of learned over the years that just because someone is a friend of a friend, doesn't necessarily mean they're any good. There has got to be a better way to find great service. I haven't discovered it yet though.

The sun was still up when we went to dog class tonight. Finally, a real use for daylight savings time. Last week we went to class in darkness, and this week there was light. I'm still not sure what monkeying around with the time actually proves, but it was nice to have a little light while we told our dogs to sit and heel.

Humphrey is our Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day