Day 125

Mondays are usually pretty quiet around here. I seldom get panic calls from clients on Mondays because this day seems to be reserved for long internal status meetings where everyone tries to remember what they were doing the previous Friday. I don't even try to call people on Monday because they are always in a meeting. While the rest of the world is checking on the status of everything, I usually pay a few bills, do some laundry, answer the e-mail I never got around to reading on Friday, and fix myself a big stack of pancakes.

I'm always amazed how a few simple tasks can eat up an entire day. I wasted quite a bit of time this morning fixing a long extension cord with a short in it. If I thought my time was worth anything at all, it would have made a lot more sense to just go to Home Depot and buy a new one. I also tried out my new "Mister Steamy" dryer ball. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that something I saw on one of those cheesy TV infomercials managed to catch my attention, but when I heard that "Mister Steamy" would put an end to ironing forever, I had to have one. I'm terrible at ironing. By the time I've ironed one wrinkle out of a shirt, I've usually managed to create a brand new wrinkle somewhere else. Amazingly, the "Mister Steamy" dryer ball actually works. Admittedly, my standards are pretty low, but the laundry came out of the dryer looking good enough for me to just put on a shirt without bothering to iron it and wear it for the rest of the day. Now, why couldn't I have invented something like that.

I need to take Dash to the vet at 8:30 AM tomorrow for his annual exam. Normally, I never do anything that early, but Dash's veterinarian only works on Tuesdays and she seems to get booked up weeks in advance. 8:30 AM was the only appointment left. I certainly wouldn't mind just working on Tuesdays.  Maybe if I started having my own status meetings and became more efficient, I could cram all my work into a Tuesday. I doubt it though. There's too much work and I'm way too slow.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 124

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Day 123

I've been waiting all week for the new season of Dr. Who to begin. Whenever a new doctor is introduced, I don't think I'm going to like the show anymore. It usually takes a few episodes for a new doctor to completely win me over. I really liked David Tennant as the tenth doctor, so I wasn't expecting all that much tonight. Matt Smith is really pretty good though and Karen Gillan is going to make a great companion. I still think the first series with Christopher Eccleston as the ninth doctor and Billie Piper as Rose was my all time favorite. I like how the doctor meets Amy Pond as a little girl in this initial episode, and when he sees her again a few minutes later, she's all grown up. That's the thing about time travel: just about anything becomes plausible in a script, once you accept the basic premise.

It would be great fun to write for a show like this, but I would have to go back in time myself to have a shot at something like that. It's certainly not impossible for advertising writers to make the transition to episodic television though. Come to think of it, Donald Bellisario, who was a creative director at the Bloom Agency in Dallas when I was a young writer there, went on to direct Magnum PI and Battlestar Galactica.

Although time travel and directing a hit TV show are nice fantasies, the realities of life are a little more down to earth. I went down to Unleashed this afternoon and finalized the details of our upcoming Mother's Day pet photography event. The holiday photo events are starting to become popular. Hopefully, by the time Christmas rolls around, they will become one of the Dalmatian Rescue group's best fundraisers.

My life as a pet photographer might not be as glamorous as that dashing new Dr. Who, but it certainly beats how I ended the day: temporarily plugging cracks in the shower tile grout with soap to keep the shower from leaking. You might think it would make more sense to just re-grout the entire shower stall.  Probably so.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 122

I wasted an inordinate amount of time today trying to integrate amazon.com with the blog. I like to read, and since the Blogger platform now connects directly with Amazon Associates offerings, I thought it would be cool to add a list of my top 10 favorite books to the blog and link it to the amazon.com site. I forgot that Amazon Associates typically wants to embed a display ad instead of a simple text link and that Blogger doesn't really supported nested tables, which was the only way I could think of the get the Amazon display ads to line up properly. By the time I had gotten the first of the Amazon display ads lined up properly inside a two column table, I had run out of time. I really do have more than two favorite books though. Hey, it's a work in progress.

Early this afternoon, I noticed that Dash was racing around the house with the panicked look on his face that means he is about to throw up. I took him outside and waited patiently for twenty minutes while he did absolutely nothing. As soon as I gave up and brought him back inside again, he promptly threw up on the carpet next to my desk. This has happened several times before. Every time I take him to the vet, they take an X-ray, tell me they see nothing abnormal and give him some Metronidazole. I'll take him back to the vet again, because vomiting is never normal. My guess is that he just ate some horse poop in the park that didn't agree with him.

Lord knows why I chose to buy stocks yesterday when the market was up, instead of waiting until today's big sell-off when I could have bought the same stocks for a lot less. At least my record for making investment decisions at exactly the wrong time is still intact. Somehow this always happens. The market had been rising in a slow but predictable fashion for weeks. The minute I place my order, Goldman Sachs gets charged with fraud and everybody sells. Oh, well.

We've been getting mail today from people who think that Dot won the BaxterBoo fashion contest. I'm not sure how they know this, because the winner isn't officially announced for another four days. I hope she does win. There's going to be a lot of disappointed people if she doesn't.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 121 - Tax Day

I took my taxes to the post office today. The good news is that I'm going to get a refund this year. The bad news is the only reason I'm getting a refund is because the company didn't do as well as I'd hoped. I'm basically just getting back some of what I've already paid in quarterly estimated taxes. I always have trouble doing quarterly taxes. I pay too much in when I'm overly optimistic. On the other hand, when I'm pessimistic about the company's prospects, I usually end up doing better than I expected and find myself having to pay a penalty when I file my return.

There was a long line when I went to the post office. The younger working people stood stoically in line, as if they already expected this sort of thing. The senior citizens standing behind me bitched and moaned loudly about the poor service and seemed insistent on telling the entire world that the post office sucked. It's weird that a bunch of people who have nothing better to do than get ready for the early bird dinner special at Luby's would be complaining the most about having to stand in line, but that's always the way it is at the post office. I didn't want to slow down the line, so I didn't ask for signature confirmation with the certified mail I needed to send. The clerk made me fill out the signature confirmation cards anyway. When I filled everything out and paid for my postage, the clerk hands me back the three cards I had just filled out. "These are your receipts," she said. "Why did I fill out all this stuff if you're just giving it right back to me?" I asked. She just gave me a blank look. I kept my cool though and didn't say a thing. I didn't want everyone else to think I was one of the old people.

Project Runway was good tonight. I'm glad that Mila made the cut to join Emilio and Seth Aaron for the Bryant Park fashion week finale. Not only is Mila from Dallas, she also has a Dalmatian. With those credentials, I've definitely got to root for her to win. Mila has always created crisp, clean clothes that were predominately black and white. After I saw the Dalmatian on tonight's show, it all started to make sense.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 120

The stars must not have been aligned correctly today. All kinds of things went wrong. None of the mishaps were all that serious, but some were definitely a bit surprising. This morning, a client called and said their website had disappeared and had been replaced by something else. Sure enough, when I took a look, the website actually had disappeared. They asked whether I had done anything to their site. Nope, it wasn't me. I asked whether anyone else had access to the server. Yep, quite a few people actually. When everyone had calmed down, we decided that one of these other people with access to the server would probably be a good place to start in solving this mystery. I noticed this evening that the real website was back in place, but I still don't know who took it down. Website maintenance is definitely a lot easier when I'm the only one with access to the sever.

I was just about ready to drop my taxes in the mail when I noticed that something was missing. Back I go to my accountant for the second time in two days. When I was picking up the missing form, I remembered that my new tenant was moving in tomorrow and I still hadn't reconnected the HVAC system. Back I go to the rental property for the second time in two days. I think I also forgot to take my Benicar pill this morning, but that happens so frequently that it's hardly worth mentioning.

The air conditioner did get fixed today, no thanks to Dot, who barked incessantly at Marty the repairman during the entire time he was here. I had hoped to replace the old round Honeywell thermostat with an identical analog unit. Not surprisingly, they don't make mechanical thermostats with mercury switches inside them anymore. I got something that was round and still said Honeywell on the front, but that was where the similarity ended. This thermostat was all digital on the inside. Slowly but surely, the analog world I love is completely disappearing.

Dash was still not on his best game at obedience class tonight. He kept jumping the gun on the recall exercise and he refused to lie down. He also tried to steal another dog's training treats, which didn't go over too well with the other dog. Maybe it just wasn't his day either.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 119

When I run into people I haven't seen in a while, they inevitably ask me what I've been doing lately. Don't any of them read this blog? Every single day I tell people what I've been doing lately, and still they ask.

I've been a web developer for so long that practically everything I've done in the past twenty five years is plastered all over the Internet. Maybe I just need to provide a better road map to my thoughts. If you want to know how I feel about the workplace, my family, and the many cities I've visited over the years, you can read The Road to Nowhere. If you're curious why I prefer dogs to people, you can read Wag. If you wonder why I started rescuing Dalmatians, you can read Petey's Place. If you don't like to read at all, you can still listen to music I've written by going to the Songbook. Oddly, with so much of my life on public display, I still have an unlisted phone number.

I think writing is good for the mind. I write for the same reason that other people do Sudoku puzzles. It helps keep Alzheimer's at bay. Writing ought to be a lot more important in school than it currently is. The simple act of putting thoughts on paper engages the mind in ways that other activities simply can't. I can do complex visual tricks in Photoshop while listening to music. I need a quieter environment when I write. Maybe this is just because I'm not that great a writer. I do think writing is more complex than the visual things I do, however. I love photography and make my living designing websites, but writing is what makes me think.

So I write and I write. And when people I haven't seen in a while ask me what I've been doing lately, I inevitably say "Oh, not much...how about you?"

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 118

I had another meeting with my financial advisor today. He asked me if my goals had changed since the last time we had talked. "No," I told him, "I'd still much rather make money than lose money." He suggested some stocks he thought it would be good to buy this Spring. As luck would have it, these were the very same stocks that my last financial advisor convinced me to sell last Summer. After much discussion, I decided to buy most of them back again, even though the price was considerably higher than when I sold them. I hate investing these days. With interest rates near zero, bonds aren't a great investment anymore. Stocks are all over the place. It's just about impossible to go out and pick a good solid company and then just forget about it for five years. Things change too fast now. You can't even go to the bank and get a plain vanilla CD anymore. A CD will earn you nothing. I guess I'll have to continue to make money the old fashioned way: by trying to please next to impossible clients.

Do you remember when I told you how projects frequently keep changing in the ad business even after they have been approved? I think I mentioned that things sometimes continue to change even after they come back from the printer. Well, it happened again. "Can't we make the printer pay for this mistake," someone said. "Not really," I replied. "All they did was print exactly what we sent them."

I called the power company this morning to ask when I should switch the electricity over to my tenant's name at the rental property. They said it would be better to let the renter make the switch themselves after they moved in. "That way, the electricity won't have to be turned off," the customer service lady said. "But what if my renter forgets to switch the account over," I asked? "Oh, well then you're still paying for the electricity yourself," said the ever friendly customer service representative. Seems like I've been down this road before.

I really envy the dogs. All they do is eat, race around the back yard, chase squirrels, and sleep. They're both sleeping right now. I've probably still got a couple of hours of work to finish before I can even think about sleep.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 117

Dot woke me up this morning barking at thunder. At least I thought it was thunder. When I looked out the window, it was clear outside. Not a raincloud in sight. I turned on the TV to see what was going on and discovered that what Dot was hearing was Texas Stadium being blown up. I don't know why I had forgotten, since it had been on the news for quite a while that the stadium was going to be imploded. I was amazed that the explosions sounded so loud however, since we are almost 30 miles away from Irving where the stadium was located.

Dallas has a history of imploding historic buildings. I remember watching as the old Cotton Exchange building was blown up downtown a few years ago. More recently, the arena where the Mavericks and the Dallas Stars used to play was imploded as well. I'm always sorry to see these buildings go. Surely there is something useful that could be done with them. Texas Stadium was filled with history. In addition to some very memorable football games, there were some fabulous concerts by artists like Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Garth Brooks and many more.

There isn't much reverence for the past anymore. I think that's a shame. Even the recent past has much to teach us. I really enjoyed the 1970's when Texas Stadium was in its prime. It was a much more innocent time than now. AIDS, urban terrorists, and trillion dollar deficits were all unheard of. Music was still melodic and cars were fun to drive. I miss those times. I especially miss them when I watch the morning news during breakfast and discover that the world is in an even bigger mess than it was the night before.

Today's watch is from the 70's. It used to belong to Alice Cooper. Alice pioneered elaborate, theatrical stage shows and helped to define a sound that would later called heavy metal. I always enjoyed going to Alice Cooper concerts and still think that his 1972 hit "School's Out" is one of the great rock anthems of all time. Times have changed though. I prefer Broadway musicals these days and haven't been to a rock concert in years.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 116

Busy day! The Dalmatian Rescue group is having a casino party fundraiser this evening at Brookhaven Country Club. We had to go up and set up all the tables earlier today, and we'll have to take them down again after the event is over and put them all back in the trailer. These casino parties remind me of the days when I used to play bass in The Fabulous Has-Beens. What I remember most about playing in a rock band was hauling a trailer full of really heavy speakers somewhere, playing for a little while and then hauling all the really heavy equipment back home again. Since I was the bass player and also owned the PA system for the band, I always had the heaviest stuff to carry. With these casino parties we do, the heaviest thing to move is the craps table. A grand piano is easier to move than a full sized craps table. Since craps is always the favorite game at these events, we definitely can't leave it behind.

Janet and I are roulette dealers for these fundraisers. Roulette is actually my game of choice when I'm in Vegas. It's kind of mindless and relaxing, compared to poker and blackjack. It's also pure luck. I see all these players with complex roulette strategies and they don't do any better than anyone else. The only people who do really well at roulette are those who come in, put a huge pile of chips on red or black and just walk away when they win. The longer you play at roulette, the more you lose. If you play long enough, the house always wins.

I'm certainly not winning in my own house today. The shower pan is leaking and I'm even having trouble with things as simple as putting a light bulb in a socket. I still like incandescent bulbs. They have a softer, much warmer glow. Now that everyone is moving over to these new low energy florescent bulbs, you can't find well-made incandescent bulbs any more. I think they make them all in Bangladesh these days. The bulbs aren't even the right size to fit in the sockets and I often break brand new bulbs just trying to screw them in. Once again, I am being defeated by technology.

Hmm. What shall I wear tonight? Casino dealers usually wear outlandish, over-the-top watches. They're usually cheap, but have lots of bling.  Luckily, I have a few of these myself. Maybe I'll wear a cheesy Ice Master watch tonight. Or, maybe I'll wear a silly one, shaped like a guitar.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 115

Dot is a good little watch dog, but I wish I could figure out a way to tell her that not everyone is dangerous. She got so upset barking at the air conditioner repairman this morning that she started peeing on the carpet. I'll look for a repeat performance next Tuesday when Marty returns to install the new thermostat he had to order. It's odd. Dot is real friendly with people when she meets them outside the house. She doesn't like people coming in the house though. Dash could care less. He slept through the entire hour long barking episode.

I went and paid the late fee for my storage space so they would take the padlock off the door. The manager said he was surprised I was late. "You're never late," he said. Wait till next year. I'll probably forget I even have a storage space. Later, when I was picking up my tax return from my accountant, he was telling me how one of his customers had forgotten to pay for their storage unit for several years in a row. "She has Alzheimer's," he told me. Jeez, maybe that's how it starts. First you forget about your storage unit, and then you forget the names of all your relatives.

When I left my accountant's office and was heading back to my car, this guy Steve I used to work with walks out of a nearby Thai restaurant and comes over to say hello. "What are you doing in there," I say, mostly because it wasn't anywhere near dinnertime. "I own the place," says Steve. Wow! That was a surprise. The last time I saw Steve, he was an art director. He's not from Thailand either. I think he was born and raised in Texas. Actually, I didn't even know Steve could cook, but if he was going to get out of advertising and open a restaurant, I would have guessed something in the barbecue family. Hey, maybe the place is fabulous. I love Thai food, so I told Steve I'd drop by for lunch sometime soon.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 114

I got my car back from the shop today. The repairs cost a little more than I had hoped, but at least I didn't wreck the loaner car. I've been nervous about driving loaner cars ever since I drove one of them straight into a pole before I could even get out of the dealership parking lot. A word to the wise about cars: if you're thinking of buying a new one, make sure you get the longest, most comprehensive extended warranty you can find. Hopefully, all the expensive stuff will break while your car is still under warranty. It was only after the warranty ran out that I began to realize just how expensive owning a Land Rover can be.

My air conditioner repair got postponed for another day. It turns out it was too cold to fix an air conditioner today. I guess it would make sense to wait, especially since I had the furnace on most of the day. Instead of waiting around for the air conditioner repairman this morning, I should have gone over to the storage warehouse and paid the rent on my storage room for another year. I forgot that my year was up at the end of March and now they've padlocked my space. Oh well. One more thing to add to my "to do" list for tomorrow.

One of my clients wants me to create a Powerpoint show that will run on one of those digital picture frames you see on everybody's desk these days. It probably isn't even worth trying to explain that digital picture frames were made to display a series of JPEG images from digital cameras. They weren't designed to play Powerpoint shows. Nobody ever believes me when I say something can't be done though. They just think I'm being lazy. Maybe I am. I've been down this road before. I know I'll spend several days trying to figure out how to make this silly idea work and then my client will think that all I did was press a few buttons and won't want to pay for it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 113

When I was eating breakfast this morning I saw the dogs from 101 Dalmatians The Musical again on some of the morning shows. I guess the show has finally arrived in New York City for its Broadway run. I hope it does well. When the show was in Dallas back in December, we got to meet the cast and even got to take Dot and Dash to meet some of the Dalmatians featured in the show. As you can see, Dash was kind of fond of Jada, one of the stars. This musical has never really gotten good reviews. I know it's not another Phantom of the Opera or Jersey Boys, but I wish the theater critics had been a bit kinder. I thought it was an uplifting, inspirational show that the whole family could enjoy. What's so bad about that?

I finally made an appointment with Betty and got a haircut today. Yeah, I know I said that I was going to do this over a month ago, but other things kept getting in the way. At any rate, while I was at Northpark, I stopped by the Apple store to take a look at the new iPad. Wow! I'm impressed anyway. I think when the G3 model becomes available at the end of the month I'm going to get one of these things. I've had a laptop for ages, but all I ever use it for is to check e-mail, write stuff with a word processor and look up information on Google. The iPad can do all these things in such a classy, elegant way that's it's hard to resist. Who cares if it doesn't have a built-in camera and can't function as a phone. The thing looks cool and has no moving parts. It's a great way for a photographer to show a portfolio too. Images on the screen just look beautiful. A lot of people are saying that the iPad isn't really useful, but neither am I, so I guess we were made for each other.

The dogs were terrible at obedience class tonight. They'd missed two weeks in a row and both of them seemed to have forgotten everything they'd ever learned. Maybe they were just cold though. I certainly was. After having temperatures in the 80's yesterday, it caught me by surprise that it was so cold out this evening. It's supposed to get down to the low 40's later tonight. Weird weather! The air conditioner repairman is coming out tomorrow and I'll probably have to turn the furnace on tonight. That's Texas for you though. Never a dull moment.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 112

When I took my car in to be serviced this morning, the dealer gave me a new Land Rover as a loaner car. It would be nice to have a new car again. I like the smell of a new car. My car smells like a thousand dogs have ridden it. I like all the new high-tech gizmos that weren't even invented when I bought my car. Janet's car has one of those GPS map displays that you can program to take you straight to your destination. I'd love one of those. The one thing I wouldn't love is making car payments again. I'd rather just wait until I can afford to pay cash. That's why I still faithfully take my car in at regular service intervals. It's probably going to have to last me for a long time.

Spring is definitely here. I can tell because my allergies have returned with a vengeance. I'm allergic to grass pollen. Every Spring when the Bermuda grass starts to grow in my neighbor's lawns and the Johnson grass begins to grow in mine, my eyes start itching and my nose starts running like a faucet. Antihistamines help somewhat, but I hate the drowsy feeling you get from taking too many antihistamines. Also, if you take antihistamines during the entire allergy season, they just quit working. After a couple of months, your immune system builds up a tolerance for the drug and it starts to lose its effectiveness.

The dogs usually give me a bad case of poison ivy sometime during the Spring as well. Poison Ivy is probably the most common plant in the park behind our house and the dogs inevitably run through a big patch of the stuff when they are trying to catch squirrels. I usually don't even notice until the next morning after one of them has curled up with me for the night. Benadryl for the allergies and Prednisone for the poison ivy. It's all part of Spring's unique magic.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 111

I really thought I was making progress today. I got the new locks successfully installed in the rental property. I got my car scheduled for a service appointment at the Land Rover dealer tomorrow. I took the remaining missing tax forms over to my accountant. Then, since it was actually over 80 degrees today, I went home and turned on the air conditioner. Nothing. I checked the fuse box. I checked the thermostat. Everything seemed normal, but the air conditioner was still dead. This seems to happen every time the seasons change. The first day it gets cold I have to call Marty, my HVAC guy, to come out and fix the furnace. The first hot day I call him again to come out and fix the air conditioner.

If my life seems to be a litany of broken machinery, it's only because I foolishly still think things should be built to last. I'm not comfortable with the whole concept of planned obsolescence. I'd much rather buy something that's well made and keep repairing it forever than to buy shoddy inexpensive stuff, fully expecting to just throw it away the first time it breaks. The only problem is that it's getting harder and harder to find good repair people. If you call someone out to repair your refrigerator, 9 times out of 10 you'll get a salesman disguised as a repairman. These are the people who'll make a cursory inspection, then tell you your appliance is obsolete and quote you an attractive price on something brand new instead. Again and again I've had people tell me that my broken stuff is worthless and obsolete, only to discover later that all it took was a three dollar part to make things good as new again. Marty will fix the air conditioner though. He's one of the good guys: a repairman who actually fixes things instead of trying to sell you something new instead.

I noticed the dogs were walking a bit slower today. It wasn't even that hot outside, but Dalmatians hate the heat. When Summer really arrives it's hard to even get Dot and Dash out of the house. I'd better move fixing the air conditioner all the way to the top of my to-do list. With Dot, Dash and Janet all hating the heat, there will be no peace in this house until the cold air starts flowing again.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 110 - Easter

I remember when I was little, my parents would get us up real early and we would get in the car still in our pajamas and go to Easter sunrise service. We could get away with going to church in our pajamas because the sunrise service was actually held at a drive-in theater. The choir and preacher were up on the roof of a concessions building squarely in the middle of the drive-in. To hear the service you would roll down your window a bit and attach one of those speakers that were on poles next to every parking spot.

I wonder if drive-in theaters even exist anymore? I'm sure that Easter sunrise services still exist, but I haven't been to one in years. This morning I got up like I do every Sunday morning, walked Dot and Dash and then went up to K-9 University and walked the rescue Dalmatians. Instead of an easter egg hunt in the grass, I mowed the grass. This was the first time this year I had the lawn mower out and I was amazed that it even started. I've just about given up on having a decent looking lawn. I've put in a new St. Augustine turf four or five times, but it always gets overpowered by weeds. I don't like to use weed killers because Dot eats grass all the time and I don't want to poison her. When I mow the grass in the Summer I'm basically just mowing a bunch of weeds.  What the hell. The weeds are green, and it doesn't look bad from a distance.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the park was filled with thousands of people riding bicycles. Today it was filled with thousands of families playing soccer, having Easter egg hunts and flying kites. One of the family picnics was so large that someone actually brought a moving van just to transport all the assorted tables, folding chairs and barbecue cookers. It's nice to see the park become a popular destination, but I do wish people would pick up their trash then they leave. The kids never find all the Easter candy from their egg hunts, but the dogs always manage to find what they leave behind. Since chocolate is dangerous for dogs, I need to stay on the lookout for chocolate bunnies and Cadbury eggs tomorrow morning.

I needed to stay on the lookout for changing flight schedules today as well. I always check the American Airlines website just before I leave for the airport in case a gate has changed or a flight has been delayed. When I went to pick up Janet this evening the website said that her plane would be twenty minutes early. When I got to the airport, it was actually thirty minutes late. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. American Airlines is always late.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 109

There were literally thousands of bicycles in the park this morning when I took Dot and Dash on their early walk. There was a steady stream of cyclists passing us for over an hour. At first I thought it was a race, but the bicycles were moving a bit too slow for racing. It turns out that this endless parade of bicycles was something called Tour Dallas: a 30 mile fun run through the city streets. It certainly looked like everyone was having fun until someone fell off their bicycle right in front of us. Almost instantly a cry of "rider down" reverberated through the crowd of cyclists. Few people stopped to help however. I guess they didn't need to. In less than a minute, paramedics were at the scene and assisting the woman off the roadway. This was obviously a well orchestrated event. I think everyone who finished the event got a free pizza. This is typical Dallas. First you get your heart pumping with a brisk thirty mile ride and then you go clog your arteries with a pizza.

I had some time this afternoon, so I thought I'd go down to Oak Lawn and install the new locks on my rent property. I guess it's a law in Texas that you have to change the locks every time you get a new tenant. I had already picked up a Schlage lockset at Home Depot a few days ago. It looked identical to the locks that are currently on the doors. Piece of cake to install, I thought. I get the entry lock installed in less than five minutes and I start to install the deadbolt. Oops! It won't fit. Damn. Right on the box it says "Universal fit...works with any door." The lock doesn't fit my door though. Apparently the width of the hole the deadbolt slides into has gotten a bit wider since the last time I changed these locks. Since I didn't have a drill with me and it was too late to go exchange the lock for another, I gave up for the day and just re-installed the old locks.

Janet's coming home from her cruise tomorrow and I need to do some major housecleaning. I like for people to think I'm neat and tidy all the time, but when nobody's looking I'm actually pretty messy. We're making progress I think. I've run a few loads of laundry. Got all the dishes cleaned. I've vacuumed the floors. I still need to clean the comforter on the bed where the dogs got it muddy. There's probably other stuff that I've forgotten about, but I do think I got just as much exercise today as those cyclists we saw in the park this morning.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 108

My telephone problems are getting ridiculous. In hopes of having a reliable and inexpensive backup system just in case my static-prone phone lines go out entirely, I went out and got a Skype Wi-Fi phone yesterday. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I've used Skype for quite a while to save money talking to my European clients. I liked the idea that I could use a small cell phone sized device to make virtually free calls all over the world at the office, at Starbucks, at the Indoor dog park, or anywhere else there was a Wi-Fi hotspot.  There was only one small problem. I couldn't get the thing to work.

I tried everything I could to avoid the dreaded call to tech-support, but eventually I had to acknowledge that I didn't have a clue why the phone wasn't working. I made the call and ended up talking to somebody in India who I could barely understand. I spent 45 minutes on the phone as the technician walked me step by laborious step through the process of manually configuring the phone when hitting the connect button didn't work. When everything was re-configured, the guys says "now try to connect to the network." I hit the connect button again and nothing happens. "I don't know what to tell you," the guy says. "You have a good phone. Maybe your network has gone bad."

I try to convince the guy that I've been sitting here answering e-mails as I've been talking to him and that nothing is wrong with the network. He's not buying it though, so I politely thank him and hang up. I'm just about ready to take the phone back for a refund when I notice that my fingers are actually quite a bit bigger than the tiny keys. I put on my reading glasses, get a ball point pen and very carefully press exactly the right keys to enter my password. Voilà. The phone connects to Skype and everything works perfectly. I've just wasted over two hours because my fat fingers weren't hitting the correct keys.

I don't know why I was in such a hurry to get my tax information to my accountant last week either. I've been getting additional 1099 and K-1 forms in the mail almost every day. Now I've got to go back and give him all this additional information as well. Oh well, at least it's Friday.

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Day 107

I got two jobs approved and on their way to the printer today. This used to mean we were finished. Not anymore. Clients don't like to pay for professional proofreaders these days. They think they can do it themselves. That's fine by me. Unfortunately, it doesn't usually work out very well. I'll get something officially approved and the very next day, I'll get a call with further changes. This can go on for weeks. I've had some jobs "approved" five or six times. After the job has been away at the printer for a week, some folks completely forget what they approved in the first place and look at the finished piece like it came from Mars. We'll see if these two pieces survive. I like them anyway. If we have to reprint because of a late change in plans, it wouldn't be the first time.

Henry was more difficult to transport that I expected. He howled and barked continuously during the entire 40 mile journey. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been a big deal, but Henry is still recovering from surgery and it was hard to tell whether his howls were caused by pain or by the general irritation he felt from having to ride in the car. He wouldn't lie down in his crate, so every time we went around a corner he would fall over. I would stop the car and go back and make sure he was OK and then we would continue our journey. I transport rescue dogs quite often because the Land Rover is ideal for this sort of thing. I wish I could tell the dogs who were unfamiliar with car travel to just chill out and take a nap. Some dogs love a car ride, but the nervous ones seem convinced that I'm driving them straight back to the pound. At any rate, Henry arrived safe and sound. With any luck, in a few weeks he'll be enjoying his new home.

I got a recorded call from AT&T today saying that they didn't repair my phone because they couldn't gain access to the premises. Hey guys, I was here all day patiently waiting for you on the day the repairs were scheduled. It's not my fault that you decided to come the next day instead, when I was away at a meeting. I can't decide whether to try to schedule the repairs a third time or just give up on the phone company entirely and go with Time Warner instead. I wish I could explain to people what Skype was. Skype works great and it's free. Unfortunately, none of the people I need to call on a regular basis have even heard of Skype.

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Day 106

I got so frustrated with my unsuccessful efforts to get my phone line repaired that I went out yesterday and bought one of those magicJack adapters you see advertised on TV. I asked the guy at Radio Shack if he was sure it would work on a Mac. "Sure, no problem," he said. Did it work? Of course not. After fiddling around with the thing for twenty minutes, I noticed in very tiny type on the side of the box something that said Requires Intel Processor Macintosh. Such a deal. I get local and long distance phone calls for only $19.95 a year, but I have to go buy a new two thousand dollar G-5 Mac to actually use it. Needless to say, I'm back to square one and am still using my old phones with the loud buzz in the line.

I think my dogs have outsmarted me again. For the past week they've been refusing to poop in their regular spot and I've had to walk them all the way past Erykah Badu's house before they finally decide to do their business. I don't think the dogs are celebrity hounds, but if they were they couldn't help but notice that Erykah has been all over the local news lately for parading around buck naked in Dealey Plaza while filming a new music video. Personally, I don't think the naked video shoot is a big deal. There are a lot weirder things to talk about. For instance, what about the humongous bomb shelter buried under Erykah's front yard? It's big enough to serve as a NORAD command center. I watched the contractors install the thing while she was building her house. It arrived early one morning on an oversize 18-wheeler and took several large cranes and excavators to install. If the apocalypse comes early, Erykah would be a good person to know. I think she's going to survive.

I still miss Martini Night. It's been over a month since I've had anything to drink. Even though I'd love to go mix myself a stiff drink right now, I don't think I'll have any problems maintaining my sobriety. It's sad in a way. I've become so used to dutifully doing things I don't enjoy that giving up alcohol becomes just one more thing to add to the list. Maybe I'll thank myself later when I discover that I don't need a liver transplant after all.

It looks like Henry is finally going to get a home. This dog has already survived heartworms, pneumonia and major spinal surgery. I can't think of a dog that deserves a second chance more than this guy. Tomorrow, I'm going to transport him from the veterinary hospital where he has been treated for the past four months to the K-9 University kennels where he will begin his transition to a normal life. As cynical as I've become, I still love a story with a happy ending.

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