Day 1733

This morning's photoshoot was interesting. There were fifteen children of various ages and each of them was holding a puppy or kitten. What could possibly go wrong? The children were cold. The puppies were restless. The big challenge was to get everyone looking in the same direction before it started to rain. Actually, everything went pretty well. Children are much more flexible than adults, and since everyone wanted to hold a puppy, they were willing to stand out in the cold for much longer than I expected. When I looked through the images this afternoon, it was fascinating to look at the different expressions on each of the children's faces. The young ones were so open and honest. You could almost tell, just by their faces, what each of them was going to be when they grew up.

The temperature was in the mid-fifties when we woke up this morning. The seasons change quickly here in Texas. One day you are worried about your car overheating in the Summer heat and the next day the leaves are all turning red and gold and you are looking for your winter coat. If this weekend's cold front lingers, we will soon be turning on the furnace again. I'm always nervous the first day I try to use the furnace. I'm fairly confident that the furnace will roar into life again, since it is still fairly new. I have many memories of cold mornings and dead furnaces though. Hopefully, this new furnace will be more reliable than the old one.

I did some catch-up work on the websites that were down earlier this week. Now that they are all back online, some of them are already out of date and need to be updated. Keeping these sites updated is a never ending process. That's OK though. Most never ending processes are good for business. If you were actually able to finish something, you'd never see some of your clients again.

So what did we learn from tonight's new episode of Dr. Who. Apparently the Doctor is afraid of the dark and Clara herself is the monster under the bed that frightens most children. Since Steven Moffat wrote this episode, it got mostly glowing reviews. I'll admit that Steven is the undisputed master of convoluted plots, but they often leave me a bit confused. My favorite episode is still the one where the Doctor and Rose go to visit Vincent van Gogh. That's the kind of story I like.

We're debating whether to scale back our efforts to waterproof the bed each night. Dot has had quite a few accident-free days this week and it would sure be easier on everyone if we could go back to sleeping like normal. Dogs are notoriously unpredictable though. Just when you least expect it, they'll throw up their dinner, or poop on the living room floor. I think we'll compromise and put a few waterproof pads on the bed tonight, but quit trying to turn the bed into a multilayer impregnable fortress. If it gets really cold tonight, I may wish that all the layers were still there. Four layers of waterproof pee pads on top of the covers make the bed pretty warm.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1490

There was so much to do today that it was hard to believe it was only Monday. There were photos to reformat and transform in Photoshop. There were websites to update. And of course, there were the inevitable articles to write. None of these tasks were particularly challenging on their own, but collectively they just about wore me out.

I've got a meeting with my financial adviser later in the week. I wish I could get the guy to give me an honest answer about my remaining resources. If I can continue my current lifestyle without jumping through all these hoops, there is little point in continuing doing a multitude of things I don't really enjoy. I know we wants me to keep working though. He and I both know that there is no reliable way to predict the future. If you stay in the game, at least you have the reassurance that your fate won't be determined by the fickle nature of corporate dividends or government programs. I don't mind working, mind you. I just wish it was fun like it used to be when I was the Wizard of Oz.

Have any of you seen that show called Sherlock on the BBC? I don't know why I'd never seen it before, but I watched my first episode last night and it is brilliant. I guess it shouldn't be surprising that I liked the show, since it was written by Steven Moffat of Dr. Who fame. I really liked the idea of taking Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective stories and re-interpreting them for the 21 Century. I've never been a huge fan of mysteries or crime fiction, but I found this show mesmerizing. I'm sure I'll watch it again.

The dogs were bored today. They don't like it when I spend all my time working at the computer. In their minds, I'm just some sort of a dog butler who is here to keep them entertained whenever they're not sleeping. When they're bored, the dogs bark a lot and try to slap things off my desk with their paws to catch my attention. We has some nice, long walks today, but apparently that wasn't enough. Maybe they were just trying to tell me that the work I was doing was pointless. Of course, I know that already.

Tomorrow, Dash goes to the vet to have his teeth cleaned. We've done this before, but I always get nervous. Basically, I just don't like anesthesia. I worry when I have to be under anesthesia myself, and I worry even more when the dogs need anesthesia. I've heard all the arguments about the safety of Isoflurane and Propofol when administered by a trained anesthesiologist, but these are still strong and dangerous drugs. It's too bad it is so difficult to properly brush a dog teeth. Every two or three years the risk of periodontal disease overcomes my fear of anesthesia, and I schedule the dogs for a dental cleaning. Tomorrow is the day for Dash. If all goes well, Dot will get her teeth cleaned a few weeks later.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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