Day 2177

The photo shoot went pretty much as expected. One of the people I was supposed to photograph said I had the day wrong and was supposed to come on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure I got the day right, but I could be wrong. Everybody was too busy to take photographs. One person didn't like her hair. I had trouble getting a good white balance while bouncing the flash off the brownish ceiling tiles. No matter what the background was, I told everybody that I could crop the photos to make them look good. Like I said, it was all pretty normal.

I'm still fascinated with the dehumidifier. How can there be so much water in the air?  I never really noticed the moisture before, but the air in the house does feel noticeably drier now.  Every time I empty the condensate bucket, there seems to be another gallon of water. Is this just water vapor that is naturally in the air? Is water being sucked out of the porous brick walls? Were our clothes, bath towels, and sheets gradually absorbing water over the years? Who knows. I sure wish somebody had told me about dehumidifiers about fifteen years ago. If the house was dry, I probably wouldn't have had to re-paint the trim around the windows so often. I might not have ruined my old Vox Mark VI guitar either. I left the guitar in a damp closet for too many years and the hardware rusted, the neck warped, and the sunburst finish became hopelessly cracked. Live and learn, I guess.

The weather seems to be improving. I actually saw a few patches of blue sky today. It's still cold outside, but that's to be expected for the first of December. At least we don't have snow like some parts of the country. I used to live in Alaska and spent a year in Idaho, but I still don't understand the fascination with snow. To me, snow is just like rain except it is a lot messier. Maybe we'll have a warm Winter. I'm all for warm Winters and cool Summers.

I revised one of my mobile friendly websites this afternoon. It's a bit disconcerting that my new coding skills seem to go in one ear and out the other. These complex sites don't come naturally to me and I'm constantly having to relearn things that I've already done. Hopefully, this knowledge will become second nature at some point and stick in my brain, but it hasn't happened yet. Usually, after I watch a couple of tutorial videos, I'm back up to speed again. I don't think I'll ever really catch up, because the online world keeps changing. By the time I master responsive design it will become obsolete and there will be something newer and and even harder to learn on the horizon.

It's hard to believe it's December already.  The dogs got their heartworm pills today and I started thinking about putting the Christmas tree up. When we walk the dogs in the morning, we can tell that several of our neighbors have already finished decorating for Christmas. There's no shame in being late though. I promise I'll get everything finished before Christmas Eve.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1447

Our favorite dog park is slowly but surely becoming just like all the other dog parks in Dallas. Aggressive dogs used to be a rarity at this park, but now we encounter one almost every week. More and more people don't even bother to clean up after their dogs and the once pristine grass is now a mine field of poop. Even though the park is huge, the people with nice dogs tend to congregate in one corner, staying far away from the unruly dogs and their inattentive owners in the other corner. The problem isn't the dogs. It's the people. It's always the people.

It's hard to believe it's December already. This entire year has gone by in a blur of uneventful days. I haven't really accomplished much this year. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself though. In today's topsy-turvy world, just staying afloat is a major accomplishment.

We put up the Christmas decorations this weekend. These items are so old and familiar now that the dogs don't pay any attention to them. We no longer worry about a dog knocking over the Christmas tree or wiping the coffee table clean with a casual wag of the tail. Dot and Dash ignored everything this year, with the exception of of two bright red Christmas blankets we got for each of their dog beds. They immediately knew the blankets were for them, and they approved.

Although Sunday may be a bad day to go to the grocery store, it has turned out to be a great day to go to the gym. I love going to the gym on Sunday, because I practically have the cavernous hall to myself. There's no rush either. I can stay as long as I like, without any worries about being late for whatever is next on the agenda.

I guess I'm going to have to resign myself to printing something small every day. It seems wasteful to print a photo and just throw it away, but my Epson representative assures me that this will be far more economical than wasting tons of expensive ink every month trying to unclog the lines. When I asked the Epson folks what the secret was to keeping this temperamental printer running reliably in the future, they told me "Just use it. It was meant to be used." This makes perfect sense. It just doesn't suit my needs. I'd like a printer I can use to make a single huge, beautiful Giclée print once every three or four months. My printer wasn't designed to do this. It was meant to be used in a production environment every day.

Nest week looks busy already. There are three new articles that need to be completed before the end of the week and a brand new website that needs to go live before the end of the year. There are doctors appointments and vet appointments on the calendar as well. One thing I won't be doing this month is Christmas shopping at the mall. When I discovered a few years ago that you could take care of everything with a few clicks on Amazon, that was the end of the mall. The only thing I go to the shopping mall for anymore is a haircut. I haven't figured out how to get a haircut on Amazon yet.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 725

We completed our last Santa Paws photo event of the season today. Since we had huge crowds for the first three events, I kind of thought that this one would be the same. Not as many people wanted to see Santa today. We still took a lot of pet photos, but it was nothing like last week's grueling marathon. Maybe the event just seemed easier today because most of the dogs were smaller and well behaved.

With the Christmas props stowed and packed away for another year, it's on to other things. I'm badly in need of a haircut and I haven't even started thinking about my own Christmas shopping. There's still a ton of work to complete and my trip to Houston as well. At least I won't need surgery like last December. The preliminary results from yesterday's CAT Scan look good.

The Dalmatian Rescue group has another casino party tonight, but I won't be spinning the roulette wheel like I usually do. The dogs have been cooped up all day, so I came home and walked Dot and Dash while Janet went on to tend the roulette table. It seems like rescue groups always have something going on in December. It's probably the biggest fund-raising month of the year. I saw an article in the local paper the other day about holiday pet photos and it said that over 20 different rescue groups were offering Santa photos in the Dallas area this weekend. Maybe that's another reason why we didn't have as many people today. The Santa photo business is just getting too competitive.

I think there's some holiday event we're supposed to go to tomorrow, but I can't even remember what it is. Whatever it is, I hope it takes place in the afternoon. It would be nice to sleep in late tomorrow. I have a feeling that things will stay in high gear until the end of the year. That's usually just the way December's are. I can't forget that I've got a blogiversary next week as well. It's still hard to believe that I've been doing this for two solid years without missing a single day.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day