Day 2856

We tricked Dash into walking this morning. Janet walked with us down the alley and into the park. As soon as Dash started smelling interesting things in the park, he didn't even notice that Janet had turned around and gone back to the house to get ready for work. The rest of our walk was completely normal. It still seems odd that Dash hates to leave the house, but once our yard is out of sight he seems to enjoy himself. I'm probably the same way about vacations. It's like pulling teeth to get me to go on a vacation. I'll come up with every excuse in the book to avoid leaving home. Once the plane has left the runway, I'm fine. The only way to explain this is that I probably have the attention span of a dog. As soon as I'm somewhere new, I completely forget about the old.

The refrigerator part arrived at the repair shop today, but they won't be able to come out and install it until Monday. This means that I'll probably have to take the freezer section apart again and defrost the evaporator coil one more time this weekend. This sucks, but I'm really not surprised at the delay. Now, I have to decide whether to quietly install the new parts I ordered myself before the repairmen arrive, or ask them to install them for me. One way or another, I'm determined to get this refrigerator working again.

Janet's doctor isn't taking new patients anymore, but there are other doctors at the practice. I made an appointment to meet one of them next week. They call this initial visit a "meet and greet." I've had the same primary care physician for a long time now, but it's probably time for a chance. I'm definitely not getting any younger. I was so impressed at the quality of care Janet received during her cancer treatment that it seems crazy not to have access to the same type of care myself. I always used to think that Dot and Dash had much better doctors than I did. Maybe this new concierge practice will   put me in the same league with the care that Dash is receiving at the cancer center.

I wish I'd never upgraded my computer to Sierra. All my aging software worked perfectly with Mountain Lion. Now, I run into little snags and hiccups almost every day. The most irritating problem is that Dreamweaver won't save login information for web servers anymore. I have to manually enter user ID and password information every time I upload something. There are a lot of passwords to remember and if I forget them, I can't count on the clients to remember them either. Old Quicktime movies won't play anymore either. I would be tempted to reinstall Mountain Lion, except that it's usually not a good idea to go backwards. I'm sure that since I've changed hard drives when I upgraded the system, it would be almost impossible to return things to exactly the way they were. I also need to remember why I upgraded in the first place. My accounting software wasn't going to be supported anymore. In my line of work, you need Microsoft Word, you need Photoshop, and you need accounting software.

After I took today's mail to the post office, I stopped by a little neighborhood Cuban restaurant and picked up a Cuban Sandwich to go. Everyone seems to make a Cuban Sandwich a little differently. This one was supposed to be very authentic, but how would I know? I'd been curious about this restaurant, since it gets very good reviews. I drive by this place every week and it only took me a year to stop and order something. The sandwich was pretty good.

I can't decide whether to go out for breakfast tomorrow. I guess it will all depend on how much trouble it is to get Dash to take a walk.

Diva is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 892

Dash finally got his birthday dinner today. It was a little late, but it was a good excuse to go to Cafe Lago again. I think they have the best Cuban sandwich in town. I'm continually amazed at how well behaved our dogs can be when we take them to restaurants. They both bark like crazy on the drive over to the restaurant, but once we're sitting at our table, they look like contenders for the canine good citizen award. Other diners frequently come over to our table to pet the dogs and praise their good behavior. Nobody can believe that Dalmatians can be this good in public. Dot and Dash are both quite social. They both like an outing, especially when food is involved. Some of their good manners stem from the fact that they get fed when they're good. I also think that they just like to go out to eat. Who wouldn't? Going out to eat is always more fun than eating at home.

I've finally moved enough stuff to the new storage space that my office is actually starting to look shipshape again. All the bags of camera equipment are finally off the floor and neatly arranged on shelves where they should be. My big accomplishment today was clearing a mountain of paperwork off the top of an old ESQ-1 keyboard I have set up in the corner of the office. For the first time in several years, I can actually play the keyboard if I want. Amazing!

While I was sorting through the paperwork to determine what goes in the shredder, what goes in the trash, and what stays behind, I found an old unopened letter that looked suspiciously like a lot of the letters I'm getting from politicians lately. When I opened the letter, I was really surprised. It was an invitation to be part of a trade delegation to China.  Hmm. That would have been fun if I had opened the letter three years earlier. I still can't figure out how I got on a list to be part of a trade delegation.  The letter said I was selected because of my reputation and experience in the industry. It didn't say which industry though. The whole thing could have been some sort of scam. It definitely looked legitimate though. Jeez, I really need to start reading my mail.

It will be nice to have a three day weekend. This week has been so busy that I would be content to do absolutely nothing for the next three days. There are places to go and things to do however. Dot and Dash have a play date on Sunday. They're meeting two other Dalmatians. One of their spotted friends is a talented show-off who does agility. I think Dot and Dash can hold their own however. After all, how many Dalmatians are cosmopolitan foodies who go to restaurants for dinner?

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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