Day 2922

When I went to the gym this morning, it was closed. Weird. I can remember going to the gym on Christmas Eve before. I guess I should have checked to see if there were holiday hours this year. Since this was the only thing I had planned today, I came home and wondered what to do next.

I decided to take a camera and photograph wildlife in the park. I hadn't done that in a long time. The weather was cold and windy, but the light was perfect so I decided to go anyway. Typically, I would see a lot of small animals on a day like this, but all I saw were birds. I think things have changed since the coyotes returned. The rabbits are probably wary now. We frequently see carcasses on our morning walks. Dash is a little too interested in these dead rabbits, but they make me feel sad. The bunnies don't really have a chance against the coyotes.

One thing you notice about wild animals is that they're always eating. Looking for food appears to be a full time job. This was certainly true today. The ducks, the cormorants, the pelicans, and even the little sandpipers were all looking for their next meal.

I used to take longer walks in search of a good photograph, but it was very cold, the camera was heavy, and my foot hurt. I'm getting old. Today's excursion definitely burned just as many calories as I normally expend at the gym and the pictures I came home with were more interesting than the basketballs I photograph at the gym. I should do this more often.

The house smelled good this afternoon. Janet was baking a pie to have with our Christmas dinner tomorrow. When the baking was finished, we gave Dash an afternoon walk. All in all, it was a very quiet day. We used to wrap packages at local bookstores on Christmas Eve, but I don't think Dalmatian Rescue does these type of fundraisers anymore. Once or twice, I remember being caught in nasty snow or ice storms coming home from these Christmas Eve events. Luckily, we don't seem to have this type of weather anymore. The world does seem to be getting warmer. Just not today.

It's a pretty safe bet that the gym will be closed tomorrow too. I'm not sure what we'll do on Christmas Day since we can't spent the entire day eating. Sometimes Janet likes to go to a movie on Christmas. She's mentioned wanting to see Murder on the Orient Express. A lot depends on how Dash is doing tomorrow. A movie seems more interesting than the Dr. Who Christmas Special. Who would have thought that I'd totally lose interest in Dr. Who. Things change I guess.

Whatever we end up doing, I hope that each of you has a very Merry Christmas.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2570

More pills to keep track of. The good news when I took Dash to the vet today was that the growth in his neck does not appear to be cancerous. There is something going on though. It turns out that the strange mass I discovered yesterday is a swollen lymph node. The cells the vet aspirated all seem normal, so it seems likely that this problem was caused by some sort of infection. Nothing seemed obvious, but the inflammation could be caused by almost anything. Ear infections often cause swollen lymph nodes in people. With dogs, it is often a problem with the gums or teeth. For the next two weeks, we'll be adding clavamox to the lengthy list of pills Dash takes each day. If antibiotics don't clear up the problem, I guess we'll do some more testing.

We're sleeping longer now, since there's no reason to get up early. Until Janet returns, the alarm stays off. My fitness tracker says that I'm getting almost an extra hour of sleep every night. Dot still needs to go outside and pee when she first wakes up unfortunately, but surprisingly, both dogs seem content to go back to bed until the sun comes up after this initial race to the back door. In theory, I should feel a lot more rested, but I don't. I seem to wake up more during the night, and once the dogs finally do decide to get up,  I'm on call for the rest of the day.

I made Dash's vet appointment for 11:30 AM, thinking that this would give me plenty of time to finish our lengthy morning routine. I was wrong. It took so long to get both dogs walked and fed, clean up the poop inside and out, and get the car ready for Dash, that by the time I finished my own breakfast, it was time to go. I was almost late. I didn't even turn on the computer or take a shower. Just taking care of the basic necessities took almost four hours.

The dogs seemed quieter than usual after dinner last night, so I thought I'd try to watch the Dr. Who Christmas Special I'd taped earlier. Everything seemed fine until I got Dot up during the closing credits to take her evening meds. Yuck. Dot was sitting in a big pile of very messy poo. How could this have happened? I'd been sitting right next to Dot throughout the movie and didn't smell a thing. Maybe my nose has become desensitized to the smell of poop. Dot didn't make any attempt to get up either, even though she wasn't asleep. It was a strange and very inconvenient way to end the day. My first thought was how do I get Dot outside without making the situation worse. Her harness, as well as the leash I use to hold up her rear end were covered in poo. Luckily the temperature had warmed up, because I had to use the hose again. Eventually, I got Dot clean, gave the dogs their evening meds, and we all went to bed.

It's so close to the end of the year that I keep thinking I must be forgetting something. Is there an outstanding bill I still need to pay in 2016? Are there software subscriptions or domain names that need to be renewed? There must be something. When my company was busier, I always used to buy new equipment at the end of the year so I could expense it using the Section 179 deduction. There is no need to buy any more gear though. I would just be fooling myself if I thought I was going to use it.

I think I've become a full time dog nanny. I don't think I accomplished a single thing today that wasn't directly related to the welfare of Dot or Dash. It was a busy day too. These are very high maintenance dogs. Maybe there will be a return to sanity tomorrow. Or maybe not.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2569

Sometimes I feel like the bar that's being set for me keeps being raised a little higher every few weeks. Last night I found myself cleaning up Dot's poop in the kitchen at exactly the same time Dash was throwing up in the bedroom. It's a three ring circus around here. Needless to say, I didn't get to watch very much of the Dr. Who Christmas Special. Lord knows what makes Dash throw up, but it happens from time to time. Usually Dash has an upset stomach when he eats something bad he found in the yard. You might ask why I don't find the dead things first and get rid of them. I would, except that the yard is covered by a million Oak and Elm leaves that have fallen from our trees. I won't be able to find anything in the yard until Spring.

I made an appointment to take Dash to the vet, because when I was checking him out after he threw up, I noticed a small mass in his throat. This feels like a fatty lipoma to me, but since Dash has already had thyroid cancer and lost one lobe of his thyroid gland, I don't think I should let this one slide. It is always possible that another tumor is developing in the remaining part of his thyroid. I worry too much, but that is one reason why both dogs are still alive. I may be guilty of ignoring my own health, but I never ignore the dog's health.

Yesterday evening was far too distracting to sit down and watch the Dr. Who Christmas Special, although it was playing on both televisions. I got the general idea that this was a Superman and Lois Lane story wrapped around a typical alien invaders on Christmas Day story. I didn't think I'd like this one, since I'm getting tired of Peter Capaldi, but from what little I saw, the script seemed well written and clever enough to make me want to go back and watch the show again the next time I find some quiet time.

I'll never get used to Texas weather. After our recent cold spell. I really wasn't ready to start using the air conditioner again. It seemed to go from cold and dry to hot and humid almost overnight. I've had the air conditioner on for two days now. Go figure. At least the yard is finally drying out. I didn't need to clean the dog's paws nearly as often today.

Today must have been a holiday for people who have regular jobs. The park seemed really crowded for a weekday. At first I kept thinking "what are all these people doing skipping work," but I finally realized that since Christmas was on a Sunday, that offices were closed on Monday instead. Maybe if you were lucky, you got Friday off too. I haven't had a paid work holiday for decades. Of course there are those who think all my days are holidays, but they would be wrong.

I got an REI sale catalog in the mail and of course the one thing that caught my eye was something I'd never, ever use. It was a GPS satellite tracking device that lets you text people and send emergency messages when you're off the grid and far away from a cell tower. I haven't been off the grid since I was in college and if I had gotten in trouble, I would have been out of luck. Cell phones and GPS trackers weren't even invented yet.

I'm hoping for a quiet, uneventful day tomorrow. One can always hope.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2568 - Christmas

It's been a very quiet Christmas. Dot and Dash were both sleeping soundly when I woke up, so I just stayed in bed until they started to stir. I need all the sleep I can get. I get up several times each night to see if Dot had pooped in her sleep, and then I change the Puppy Training Pads I've strategically placed under her if necessary. This usually works pretty well, unless she wakes up when I'm cleaning her up. It's amazing how soundly a dog can sleep. I wish I got that kind of sleep. I need it. My cold is finally getting better, but when Janet called to wish me a Merry Christmas this afternoon, I immediately started coughing again. I guess it was because I haven't used my voice in several days.

Yesterday Dot was eager to walk as soon as she'd finished her breakfast. Today, she wanted to go right back to bed as soon as I'd taken her outside to pee. Dash wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere either, so I ate my own breakfast. I thought about fixing myself something a bit more festive than my usual fruit smoothie, but I knew that bananas would probably get the dogs moving again. I was right. As soon as the dogs had finished sharing a banana with me while I drank my smoothie, Dash was ready to walk. It was still a grey, dreary day, but it wasn't nearly as foggy as yesterday. I probably would have forgotten it was Christmas if it weren't for two strangers who wished Dash and I a Merry Christmas as we passed them on our morning walk.

Dot was finally ready to go around 10 AM. It takes longer to walk Dot to the end of the street now than it takes to walk Dash a mile and a half. I wonder how long we can keep doing this? Each month Dot gets a little slower, but I can tell that she still enjoys the short walks. I wish the entrance to the park was a little closer. After all these years, Dot still loves to smell things in the park. There are so many animals that call the park home, that I'm sure this area is quite a sensory experience for a dog.

I've got to figure out how to give Dot a good bath. She's starting to smell like pee, despite my best efforts to clean her up. Janet thinks once of those mobile grooming trucks that come to your house might be a good idea, but I'm not sure if these people have much experience dealing with an injured dog. Dot's physical therapy vet could give her a bath, but it's such a long drive. Dot would probably poop in the car and get herself dirty again before we even got home.

I can remember when I sent out tons of Christmas Cards each year. They went to clients, co-workers, friends, and just about anybody I had an address for. It wasn't always the holiday spirit. Like many designers, I thought Christmas cards were a cool way to show people how creative you were. It was fun to print up something new and original every year. Times have certainly changed. I sent out exactly zero cards this year. I didn't receive many either. I still put a tree up, but I'm starting to wonder why.

I'll tape the Dr. Who Christmas Special this evening to watch later. This is Dot's restless time of the day and I've got a feeling that I won't be watching much television. All in all, it's been a calm and relatively peaceful day. It just doesn't feel like Christmas.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2567

Today was certainly different. Janet got up real early and went to the airport before I was fully awake. I vaguely remember saying goodby before I went back to sleep again. When I woke up, I noticed that I had done a terrible job cleaning up Dot when she pooped during the night. I guess I should have turned the light on, but I didn't want to wake anyone. At any rate, I failed to clean her completely and the poop had dried on her fur and blankets. It took a lot of time and a lot of wet rags to clean her properly.

Our new routine still starts by getting Dot outside to pee as soon as I can, but after that it gets more complicated. I give the dogs their morning meds and then feed them their breakfast. Dot gets her walk first and then I fix my own breakfast. Both dogs like to eat slices of banana while I have my morning coffee and drink my smoothie. Dash is lazy, but barking for bananas usually gets him energized enough so that he's ready for his own walk when breakfast is finished. When both dogs are back at the house, I wash the dishes and then go outside and see if I can find where Dash has pooped in the yard. If I don't do this, it is inevitable that I will step in the stuff when I take Dot out late at night. Today was somewhat of a work in progress, but I was amazed at how long everything took without Janet's help. By the time I had finished the complete morning routine and was ready to turn the computer on for the day, it was almost noon.

Once both dogs were sleeping, I took a quick shower and ran to the store, since everything will be closed tomorrow. The first thing on my list was a big box of puppy training pads. We are running through these things at an alarming rate. Now that Dot's incontinence is getting worse, I must use five of six of these things a day. The weather is so wet and humid that pee isn't the only problem. Both dogs track water and mud into the house every time they go out. Cleaning Dot's paws was always a two person job. Since she can't stand up properly, one person has to hold her up while the other cleans the paws. Did I mention the house is pretty dirty.

I hope I can refine my plan a bit in the days to come. I thought I'd try writing the blog in the morning when the dogs are sleeping, but that never happened. The walks took a lot longer than I expected and I needed to go to the store. When Dot is in her evening restless period, she is constantly whining to get up, wandering around aimlessly, and falling over if I'm not nearby to steady her. Consequently, I'm writing the blog one sentence at a time this evening.

Today was one of those foggy days that I love to photograph. Everything looks so ghostly in a thick blanket of fog. Dash had no interest in turning his morning walk into a photo excursion unfortunately. I grabbed a few quick shots with my phone, but that was about it. The sailboats on the lake are often quite beautiful in a thick fog, but I couldn't get near the sailboats with Dash. He just wasn't interested. Sure, I guess I could have gone back on my own later, but there wasn't enough time. There is never enough time these days. It took over an hour just to clean the poop off Dot this morning before we had breakfast. Hopefully, I'll wake up tonight before she has time to make a mess of herself again.

There's enough food to last until Janet gets back. I doubt that I'll have many work assignments between Christmas and New Years either. That leaves plenty of time to see if I can perfect caring for one sick dog and one crazy dog on my own. I still need to give the dogs their evening meds and then try my best to get Dot to pee outside before I put her to bed. If I can't get her to pee around 11 PM, she won't make it through the night.

The Dr. Who Christmas Special is tomorrow. Maybe I'll watch it. Maybe I won't. This is the first year in a long time that I'm not all that interested in Dr. Who.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2204

It was 70 degrees on Friday. There were tornadoes on Saturday. Sunday there was flooding. And today feels like snow. That's almost like having all four seasons within four days. Welcome to Texas. I don't even think this was all that out of the ordinary. It was certainly cold when we took the dogs on their morning walk. It's quite an undertaking to get Dot's winter coat on under her Help 'Em Up Harness, but we managed. We were the only dogs walking this morning. It seemed a little strange that an old crippled Dalmatian still has more stamina than all the other neighborhood dogs, but that's Dot for you. She is definitely the energizer bunny of the dog world.

I didn't want to go up on the roof today, but I didn't want the water to freeze up there either. What the hell. I haven't been to the gym in a while, and I needed the exercise. I bundled up in warm clothes and swept away yesterday's rain and the few remaining leaves from the roof before the water had a chance to freeze. Since ice expands, it can cause cracks and shifting in the ceiling Sheetrock. I still haven't finished patching the ceiling after a big ice storm a few years ago. I certainly don't need more cracks. One good thing about all the recent bad weather is that the strong winds finally blew all the leaves off the trees. I won't have to worry about removing leaves from the roof for another year.

The dogs were restless today. It was too cold for them to stay outside long. And they were too bored to lay around the house all day. I was constantly letting them in and out the back door. With Dot, the simple act of going outside is a lot more trouble than it might seem. If it looks like she needs to go outside, I suit her up in her special harness and follow her out, holding up her rear end. She'll sniff the air for about thirty seconds and then decide she doesn't want to be outside after all. Back inside we come and I take the harness off again. I guess I could just leave the harness on, but I've discovered that Dot can move around on her own in the house much better without it. The harness comes on and off many times a day. It takes a certain amount of patience to keep doing this day after day.

After I cleared all the water off the roof, I came back inside and wondered what to do next. I took a shower, emptied the water that had accumulated in the dehumidifier bucket and sat down to watch the Dr. Who Christmas Special on the DVR. Most Christmas Specials seem to involve aliens invading London, but this one was a bit different. The Doctor and River Song were reunited after an absence of several years. I don't remember seeing much of River since Amy Pond and Rory discovered that she was their daughter. River has a very complicated timeline. This show was an attempt to tie up the loose ends. We finally discover exactly when the Doctor gave her the sonic screwdriver that she used in the Forest of the Dead episode. She died in this episode, but somehow came back to life later. Her final words were "You took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was." Well, seven years later, this Christmas Special was when the Doctor actually did take River to see the Singing Towers. This season's scripts have been far too complicated for my taste, but I'm sure that is exactly why some people love them.

I'm not exactly sure what I'll do tomorrow. We'll have to wait until 2016 to see if I've still got a company. Nothing ever happens between Christmas and New Years. I'd like to get some interesting writing assignments next year. I'm not so sure about mobile websites. Designing responsive websites is a lot more work than I expected. We'll see. Things always improve when the days get longer. I don't do well on short, cold, grey days like these. When I was up on the roof today, I kept thinking about all the first responders toiling a few miles away helping people sorting through the soggy wet wreckage and debris left behind by the tornadoes. Where do they find the strength? I'm having trouble just dealing with dog poop.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2202

We've spent the evening listening to tornado sirens and weather alert messages beeping on our phones. So far, there have been three tornado alerts with the storm track passing fairly close to us. I hate it when the TV weatherman tells people to "go to your safe room now." We don't have a safe room. We don't even have a safe closet. Every room in the entire house has an exterior wall. There is lots of glass too. Basically, if a tornado hit our house, we're toast.

Luckily, today's storms passed slightly to the East of us. There was lots of lightning and a few moments with very high winds, but that was about it. Our power is still on too. When we were all huddled together in the little hallway that is a pitiful excuse for a safe room, I was sure Dot was going to poop. She kept her composure though and we rode the storm out. We've been lucky over the years. There have been several close calls, but no direct hits. A tree blew over on our roof once, but in Texas that was nothing. You've got to take the weather seriously in Texas.

I was able to get the grocery shopping done and the dogs walked before the bad weather arrived. The grocery store wasn't nearly as crowded as I expected. I guess people don't return groceries after Christmas. I don't go anywhere near shopping malls on the day after Christmas, but Janet said those places were a zoo. A lot of people must have gotten drones as gifts. There were certainly quite a few folks making their maiden flights in the park today. I'm not sure I understand the current fascination with drones. They're basically just model airplanes that can carry a Go Pro camera. Judging from the piloting skills I witnessed today, a lot of these things are going to be broken before New Years Eve.

I was going to watch the Dr. Who Christmas Special this evening, but ended up watching the weather on the local news instead. I'm really glad that we didn't lose power during the storm. The fast moving storm caught me by surprise and virtually nothing was charged up. With dead batteries on the laptop and phone, I might have had a hard time posting the blog this evening. I'll be better prepared tomorrow. A cold front is headed our way, but I don't know what that means. As long as it doesn't snow or do anything weird, I'm fine.

As the year draws to a close, I don't have any resolutions for the New Year whatsoever. It would be nice if next year wasn't quite as grueling as this one, but we'll just have to see what happens. You really can't predict the future. Expect nothing, but be prepared for anything might be a good motto. In less than a year, I'll be halfway to my goal of blogging for 5000 consecutive days. There's still room for a lot of surprises.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1837

I got Janet one of those Jawbone activity trackers as a stocking stuffer gift, but unfortunately I forgot that she has a small instead of a medium size wrist. I took the little UP band back this morning to exchange it for a smaller size and was lucky to find one in exactly the same color. When I went to the exchange desk, they gave me a credit, but told me that the band would cost $25 more than I paid a day and a half ago. WTF? "This is exactly the same thing as the medium size band," I said. At first they tried to tell me that the smaller sizes cost more, but I reminded them that the entire end aisle display with every size and color was the same price. "Well, that was a special Christmas price," the clerk said. "It's after Christmas now." "That would be fine if I bought this today, but I bought it Christmas Eve," I said. "All I want is the same thing in a smaller size." When it became apparent that I wasn't in the mood to pay $25 more for something I had already purchased, a manager intervened and told me that he would adjust the price so I could make a direct exchange. As I was leaving, the manager told me somewhat sternly that prices in this store could change on a dime and that I should never expect the price to stay the same overnight. What a strange experience. All over town stores were having after Christmas sales and this store chose to raise it's prices instead.

When I went out for breakfast this morning it seemed like Christmas never even happened. Most of the customers were staring at their phones and eating breakfast in a hurry, just like they usually do. As I ordered my meal, the thought occurred to me that if I was still doing gallery shows, I would probably make huge prints of the almost identical Instagram pictures I've been taking of these meals and people would wonder what the miniscule differences in each picture meant. Of course, the pictures mean absolutely nothing unless you see them as evidence of OCD behavior.

It's been a really slow week. I think all my clients are on vacation. It was so slow this afternoon that I joined the dogs on the bad and watched the Dr. Who Christmas Special that I had recorded on the DVR yesterday. Despite an almost impossibly convoluted plot, this ended up being one of the most entertaining of these annual Christmas Specials I've seen in years. The Steven Moffat script was an unabashed fairy tale about dreams buried within dreams. It was also the first completely modern interpretation of the Santa Claus story I think I've ever seen. All in all, it wasn't a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon.

Janet picked up a couple of rubber snakes for me at the Dollar Store. A couple of months ago a friend told me that birds were afraid of snakes and that I should try something like this and see whether it would convince the bird who continually poops on my car to move on to somebody else's car. I placed one of the rubber snakes on my driver's side mirror this evening. We'll see what the bird thinks tomorrow morning.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1471 - Christmas

Janet woke me up at 3:30 AM. I dressed quickly, packed the car, and at 4 AM we headed for the airport. The roads, even the freeways, were absolutely empty. I've had early flights before, but I guess never on Christmas morning. It was eerie, even a little spooky, to travel through a huge city absolutely devoid of traffic. When we entered the airport itself, traffic picked up a bit, and when I dropped Janet off at her terminal, there was actually quite a crowd. Apparently she wasn't the only one squeezing in a quick trip to visit relatives on Christmas morning.

When I returned to the house, I went straight back to bed again with the dogs and didn't wake up again until three hours later when sunlight began streaming through a bedroon window and Dot and Dash informed me that it was time for their breakfast.

It was a lazy day, since there was absolutely nothing to do. The weather was nice, so we took an extra long walk this morning. There were lots of joggers on the trails and many of them wore Santa hats. Almost everyone wished us a Merry Christmas as we passed by. I like quiet, amorphous days like this. There appeared to be lots of family activity up and down the street. The smell of smoke from dozens of fireplaces filled the air and cars filled with presents and food arrived and departed with regularity.

My own house was an island of calm. I fixed myself some oatmeal and fruit, brewed a pot of coffee, and watched a Dr. Who marathon that culminated with the annual Christmas special later in the evening. After breakfast I went through a stack of unopened mail and discovered that my stockbroker had made some trades that he had forgotten to tell me about. Actually they were probably trades that we'd agreed about several months ago at our last meeting, but you couldn't prove it by me. I never take notes at these meetings and promptly forget what we've talked about. I reviewed the trades and they all seemed quite reasonable. I still wonder whether we ever talked about this before though.

When I told one of my clients not to send me any work on Christmas Day, he probably imagined that I was off to a big family gathering. The truth is that I just enjoy doing nothing. The world won't end if I do nothing for a few days. I'm sure that all the crazy deadlines will return within a week or so wherever I do.

I found the Dr. Who Christmas Special a bit confusing. Somehow the doctor managed to age 300 years while Clara was having Christmas dinner with her parents. Throughout most of the show the doctor kept telling Clara that he couldn't regenerate anymore and was finally going to die. At the very end however, the time lords reached through a rift of time that I thought the doctor had already taken care of in a previous season, and brought him back to life again. The plot had so many confusing  twists and turns that I wonder if Steven Moffat just makes this stuff up as he goes along.

Tomorrow things will be more or less back to normal. Dot's physical therapy sessions have been rescheduled to Thursdays for the duration of the holidays. I need to get Dash back to the vet for his antigen shot. I wouldn't be surprised if there was work to do as well. There always seems to be work to do on Thursdays.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1470

Today was good. I slept in a bit later than usual. I fixed myself a leisurely breakfast. I finished up some writing work in the morning, but I wasn't in a hurry. By noon I was done with everything I usually do on a Tuesday. Since I felt I had the afternoon free, I decided to finish up my Christmas shopping and go to the gym. Unfortunately, since Janet was off work today and it felt like a holiday, I completely forgot that Dash was due for his antigen shot. Now, I'm going to have to reschedule his appointment ASAP before his skin starts to get irritated again.

My mind is a sieve. When anything deviates from my normal schedule, I completely forget what I'm doing. Sadly, I didn't remember that I'd forgotten Dash's vet appointment until I started writing tonight's blog post.

As I expected, the gym was empty and the stores were full this afternoon. Surprisingly, my doctor's office was still open today, so I stopped by on the way home from the gym to make them aware that they still weren't submitting my insurance claims properly. I don't expect anything to be resolved, but at least I made an effort. I got my workout and shopping done so efficiently this afternoon that I would have had time to take Dash to the vet, if I had only remembered. Oh, well. I'll try to get him rescheduled for Thursday or Friday.

Since Janet is traveling to visit relatives tomorrow, we had our Christmas celebration today. We enjoyed a fantastic traditional dinner of baked ham, whipped sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and Brussels sprouts. After dinner, we opened presents under the tree and Dash got so excited while opening one of his presents that he ate some wrapping paper. Luckily it was a small piece, and I think it will pass without incident. Leave it to Dash to do something like this though. Dot was a model of decorum opening her own presents.

The dogs never like it when Janet is away, but they'll have to buck up and get used to it. This happens almost every year. I'm sure they'll be fine when they realize they still get fed and that there's extra room in the bed. Maybe they'll even enjoy watching the Dr. Who Christmas Special with me.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day