Day 877

The plumber came today. Need I say more? The dogs hate it when repairmen come to the house and the result of these visits is usually total chaos. Dot barks so loud and so frantically that I'm surprised I'm not already on some sort of repair blacklist. Today she worked herself into such an agitated state that whenever she barked, little bits of poop shot out her back end like a rocket. I think I had a bigger mess to clean up than the plumber. While he was snaking out the lines and getting rid of some awful look black sludge, I was cleaning up after Dot the canine poop cannon.

Everything works fine now though. The dishwasher doesn't leak anymore. The sluggish drains run freely. Even the toilet seems to work better. Who know how long this watery bliss will last though. Plumbing problems seem to recur with regularity at our house.

My new website is almost finished. This phase of the design is always fun. I put pictures wherever I want. I choose colors with reckless abandon. Everything is placed precisely where I want it to go. When everything is perfect, I show the site to the client and then we start over again. I think most websites look their very best the day before you show them to your client for the first time.

My real estate agent called and told me he had already shown my rent property to two prospective buyers. He said both of them really liked the place. Of course, that doesn't mean that anyone will make me an offer. Even if they do make me an offer, it doesn't mean the banks will give them a loan. Buying and selling property isn't nearly as easy as it used to be.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I can't decide where I want to have breakfast this week, but I'll be sure to let you know.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 845 - Easter

No sunrise services or egg hunts for us anymore. We still have a traditional ham dinner on Easter, but for the most part, it's just another day to go to the dog park. For many in Dallas, Easter is a day to have huge family picnics in the park behind our house. We saw people setting up tents and stoking barbecue fires early this morning. Unfortunately, most of the families were gone by mid-afternoon. A big thunderstorm swept through town a little after noon and undoubtedly dampened quite a few holiday plans. We did manage to get the dogs to the dog park before the deluge started. They had a nice outing and were ready to come home again as soon as they heard thunder off in the distance. It rained much of the afternoon, and stopped just in time to give Dot and Dash their evening walk. The park was almost empty. The picnickers had all gone home.

The rainy afternoon was a good time to bring the Dalmatian Rescue website up to date. While our own Dalmatians hid from the rain under my desk, I made new webpages pages for our three newcomers: Crosby, Bunny, and Milo. I also marked another dog as "adopted." Molly got her forever home today.

Our dishwasher isn't broken after all. Janet and I had thought it was broken for months, because the dishes weren't dry anymore after a load finished washing. I just noticed today that an inconspicuous little button on the front panel had been switched from "heat dry" to "air dry." Personally, I think Dash pushed the button when he was trying to get at food on the counter. At any rate, when I switched the button back to "heat dry" again, everything worked perfectly. It's strange that this situation has been going on for months and I never noticed that little button before.

There are probably a ton of things around the house that I just don't notice anymore. I wish I could train myself to be more observant when I'm up on the roof. Maybe I could finally find that pesky leak. I certainly didn't discover any secrets today. I just pushed this afternoon's rains off the roof with a broom, so we're ready for the next Spring deluge.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day