Day 150

Another soggy, wet day with dogs huddled under my desk, rainwater collecting on my roof and horrible traffic everywhere I drove. I fantasize about living in a place with cool, dry weather and a low pollen count. I used to live in Seattle, which was cool most of the year, but seldom dry. I've spent a lot of time in Las Vegas, which is dry most of the year, but hotter than hell in the Summer. I'm not looking for variety. I had plenty of variety when I was growing up in Alaska. Texas is full of variety too. Since I moved here I've experienced dust storms, flash floods and two tornadoes. Mild, boring weather is what I'd like to find.

When I started the blog I wasn't going to have any advertising. I wanted a clean, uncluttered look that would remind people of a classy magazine. For a few weeks, I did have a clean, uncluttered layout and absolutely no readers. Then I added Google Adsense and when that didn't bring many visitors, I added Entrecard. Where does it all end? Now I've added Adgitize. Pretty soon, my blog will look just as cluttered as eneryone else's.

There's another big dog event this weekend. This one is a combination garage sale, silent auction and pet adoption featuring over a dozen area rescue groups. I'm not even sure who is coming, but Dalmatian Rescue is bringing Nick, so he can get a little more exposure to people who might want to give him a good home. Nick is such a good looking, friendly dog that I'm amazed he hasn't been adopted yet. Hopefully, the rain will quit by tomorrow morning. Who knows. The rain might actually help attendance, since the event is being held at Unleashed. Every time we've been to the indoor dog park on a rainy day, the place has been packed.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 149

For some reason Thursdays are always the day I update the websites I manage. I don't know what is so special about Thursday, but it must have something to do with getting internal approvals. On Monday they know what they want to change. On Tuesday and Wednesday they try to find someone to approve the changes. On Thursday they give the changes to me. And of course on Friday, everyone goes home early. I never get much work on Friday.

This evening Janet and I went to a TopGolf party. TopGolf is weird kind of a cross between a driving range, a theme restaurant and a video game. You play with real golf clubs and hit regulation sized golf balls just like any driving range. What makes TopGolf unique is that inside every ball is a computer chip that tracks the distance and accuracy of your shots. You play in teams of four and try to hit targets from 50 to 250 yards away, as the computer keeps score and awards you points. It is definitely golf for lazy people. Oddly, after you've been playing a while, the whole experience seems remarkably like playing golf on a golf course. Well, I guess it's like playing golf would be like if you didn't have to drive the cart around from hole to hole and if waitresses followed you around the course, bringing you something to eat and drink every five minutes.

I'm not a good golfer. In addition to being left handed, I don't have great hand eye coordination. Other people worry about hooking and slicing the ball. If my swing connects with the ball at all, I consider the shot a success. One good thing about this TopGolf game is that you don't have to embarrass yourself looking for lost balls in the rough all the time. I do wish I could still drink though. When the rest of my team was on their fourth glass of wine, they all seemed to be having a lot more fun than I was drinking my lonely bottle of sparkling water. Too bad the liver is such an important organ. I wish it was more like the gallbladder and I could just do without it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 148

The employee photos went well today. Everyone seemed happy. One person even asked if they could buy extra prints for themselves. All in all, it wasn't a bad day. I even got the interview I need to do with the petrochemical executive in Brazil scheduled for next week. Of course, the Germans who hired me are off in Malaysia somewhere and I'm still not sure what questions they want me to ask.

Maybe I'm finally starting to get the hang of multitasking. I was running late this morning, so when I let the dogs out in the yard after breakfast, I took a battery travel shaver and shaved outside while I was watching them. You'd think I could just let the dogs out in the yard like a normal person and go on about my business. That doesn't work with Dalmatians. If I let them the dogs of my sight for two minutes, Dot will eat dead birds the neighborhood feral cats drag in and Dash will eat so much bark that has fallen off the big oak trees in the yard that he will make himself sick. As dogs go, these two are fairly high maintenance animals.

At training class tonight, our teacher asked what would happen if Janet and I switched dogs. I'm not sure, but I suspect that Dash would be much better behaved and Dot would act exactly the same as she always does. The dogs have distinctly different personalities. Dot has never won a ribbon in class, but she always comes when she's called and can sit still for five minutes without moving. Dash, on the other hand, has won quite a few ribbons, but he is completely unreliable. I have to always keep him on one of those long twenty five foot training leashes to make sure he won't run away. He often irritates people by barking in class, but on a good night he can do every single exercise perfectly. Basically, Dot always tries her best to please and Dash just doesn't give a shit.

I heard today that all the Apple stores in Dallas have completely sold out of iPads. Even the less expensive Wi-Fi models are all gone. Oh well, I guess it might be a while before I get one of these things. When my iPad does arrive, maybe I can take my feeble attempts at multitasking to a whole new level. Instead of shaving outside in the yard with the dogs, I might be able to write the blog outside in the yard with the dogs.

Someone needs to explain "Wordless Wednesday" to me. I always seem to write just as many words on Wednesday as any other day. I didn't talk to many people today though, so maybe that counts.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 147

Against my better judgment, I went down to the Apple store and put my name on a waiting list for a 3G iPad. No wonder Apple stock is doing so well. The store was packed full of people trying to buy a product that wasn't even available yet. The sales people couldn't even tell you when it was going to be available. "It won't be long," a friendly guy in a black Apple T-shirt told me. Then he added my name to an electronic list and said I'd get an e-mail when my iPad arrived. I've convinced myself that I need one of these new iPads because it seems like a fabulous way to show a photo portfolio to potential customers.  Never mind the fact that I can already show a nice looking photo portfolio to just about anyone with the laptop I already have. Never mind the fact that many people would rather look at photographic prints instead of electronic images anyway. I've made up my mind. I need one of these iPads.

What a boring day! I think this blog would be more interesting and probably a little easier to write if I just changed the name to "A liar's journal" and wrote about interesting, imaginary things I'd like to do instead of telling you what I actually did. Real life can be exceedingly uneventful. If I didn't have the Apple store to talk about, I'd have to resort to telling you about ironing shirts and cleaning toilets. Oh, I guess I did make some phone calls and sent out several e-mails this afternoon trying to track down the status of various jobs that clients have decided to put on the back burner. I generally prefer cleaning toilets to these type of calls. At least you wind up with a clean toilet.

I've got some more employee pictures to take tomorrow. The job ought to be fairly easy because this company tends to hire good looking employees. I dread these type of jobs when all the employees are fifty pounds overweight and have two double chins. I really try the best I can. I tell everyone to open their eyes wide and not to squint. I explain the importance of a warm natural smile. I tell folks that if they look up a bit instead of down, the double chins will go away. It usually doesn't work. You'll never be able to please people who don't want to be photographed in the first place. I don't understand why some companies insist on putting up website pictures of their employees when the employees don't want to be photographed. And just so you know folks, if you're fifty pounds overweight and aren't wearing any makeup, I can't turn you into Heidi Klum in Photoshop. I'm a photographer, not a magician.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 146

It was definitely a Monday today. I couldn't seem to get caught up all day. There certainly wasn't that much going on, but everything I did seemed to take forever. I wanted to get this month's invoices out this afternoon, but the envelopes kept getting stuck in the printer. I had to print each envelope three or four times before I could get something that the postman could read. No wonder many of my clients have gone back to just using a rubber stamp to print their return address on the envelope. It's amazing how often technology designed to make your life more efficient actually ends up slowing you down.

I had to go to the grocery store today because I was too busy with dog events over the weekend to get any shopping done. I forgot to get half the things on my list because, you guessed it, I forgot to bring the list with me. I totally depend on lists these days. There are so many things to remember that I've just given up trying to keep them all in my head at the same time. I definitely need to add "call a plumber" to this week's to do list. The trap under the sink in Janet's bathroom just fell off somehow, and I don't think that the bucket I put under the sink is going to be acceptable for very long. With a house that was built in 1955, there is something that breaks or disintegrates just about every day.

I wish I could find some work that was fun but still paid well. The websites I design don't pay very well at all and the jobs that still have decent budgets are so complicated they give me migraines. At least this blog is still fun. For a very brief moment last night I noticed that "Some Assembly Required" had risen to number one in the Entrecard Personal Diary category. I never thought I'd see that happen. My rise to the top certainly didn't last long. I did a screen capture just to make sure I wasn't imagining things and about thirty seconds later the Entrecard website refreshed itself and I slid straight back to number five again. I'll probably slide straight to the bottom as soon as I stop dropping on as many sites as I can before my thumbs freeze up. I'm just waiting for the medical report that says Entrecard dropping has been determined to be a leading cause of Carpal tunnel syndrome.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 145 - Mother' Day

The women who run Vhea's Laundromutt usually have their favorite music playing on the sound system when I take Dash in for his weekly bath on Sunday afternoon. While Marilyn Manson's version of the Eurythmics hit "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" was playing, Dash began howling and making strange bird noises like he usually does whenever I rinse him off. For some reason, Dash's howling was in perfect tune with the music and it sounded like he was singing along. Everyone who was washing their dog started laughing and calling Dash a rock star. My life is really pretty dull, but it's small moments like this that keep life interesting.

Dalmatian Rescue has had terrible luck with our older special needs Dalmatians this month. Last week Henry died and yesterday evening, Wyatt had congestive heart failure and died as well. The animal emergency clinic vets said that Wyatt's heart failure was caused by the severe case of heartworms that he had when he entered the rescue program. Wyatt was an older owner surrender who lived outside for most of his life. We knew he had a bad case of heartworms when we first got him, but everyone thought that the treatment we gave him would be successful. Unfortunately, heartworms can damage the heart so severely that even when the worms are gone, the heart can never fully recover. Wyatt's owner probably knew that Wyatt had heartworms when he surrendered him to an animal shelter. He just didn't want to pay for the treatment. We see this all the time in the rescue world. It's sad, because heartworm disease is very treatable. The medicine is just expensive. I hate seeing people treat their dogs like disposable items when they get sick. Rescue groups like ours face an endless challenge in providing animals who have been cast aside with a second chance. We all do the best we can, but sometimes it just isn't enough.

I was reminded last night that my way of doing things isn't always the best way. Initially, I didn't think that this year's Wine on the Roof fundraiser was going to be as successful as it has been in previous years. I was wrong. Even though this year's event planners had some very different ideas, they managed to orchestrate the most successful fundraiser in the pet orphanage's history. I definitely need to be more open to new and different ideas. If I'm not careful, I'm going to turn into an animal friendly version of Andy Rooney. Too bad I still found it difficult to admit I was wrong when my mom was still alive. To tell her that she had been right all along would have been the Mother's Day gift she always wanted.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 144

Today was filled with animal rescue events from dawn until well after dusk. We went down to Unleashed early this morning to set up for the Mother's Day pet picture event. I didn't photograph quite as many dogs as I'd hoped, but everyone we did photograph went away happy. We depend a lot on walk-in traffic for these events and it was such a beautiful day that there wasn't a big crowd at the indoor dog park. It's good practice though, even on days like today where we don't get a great crowd. Each time we do one of these events, we get a little more professional. The Dalmatian Rescue volunteers who help with the pet photos are really quite good. We joke that we could all do this for a living now if we wanted to be poor.

The pet picture event was over a little after three this afternoon, but by the time we packed up all the equipment and got home again it was time to take Dot and Dash on their evening walk and eat a quick dinner before the second rescue event of the day. Tonight was the annual Wine on the Roof gala for East Lake Pet Orphanage. I took the photo and did the design for this year's poster, as I do every year. I remember that these events were pretty simple when we first started doing them seven or eight years ago. The rescue group has grown up in recent years. Over 300 people attended tonight's event, including Kinky Friedman and Ruth Buzzi. I had my picture taken with Kinky several times and I made sure to remind him that I voted for him for governor in the last election. Actually, I'll vote for just about anyone who didn't start out as a lawyer or a judge. I voted for Ross Perot once too. Let's just say that I don't have a lot of faith in politicians. At any rate, Wine on the Roof was a big success this year and Janet and I enjoyed ourselves. It would have been a little more fun if I could still drink wine, but you can't have everything.

I'm cutting things real close today,  but it looks like I'll still get the blog posted before midnight. Now that I've posted something for 144 days in a row, I'd really hate to miss a day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 143

Life has gotten way too confusing for my taste. The person I was supposed to interview in Brazil for my upcoming petrochemical project has now become a totally different person in Sweden. I think the whole focus of the article that I'm supposed to write has changed as well. That's OK, because I haven't written anything yet. I used to be an eager beaver and begin every project as soon as it landed on my desk. Now I wait until the last possible minute. I've learned over the years that if you start too soon, you'll just end up doing the job over and over again as facts and objectives change. Even worse, you'll do the entire project and then it gets canceled and you don't even get paid. I wish people could make up their mind, but I'm pretty resigned to the fact that it is always easier to change your mind than to make a decision.

My broker called today trying to explain the chaos in the market yesterday. I asked if anything I currently owned had been adversely affected and it turns out that I actually had been stopped out of one of my positions during that sudden spike where the market dropped nearly 1000 points in just a few minutes. I've been hearing on television that a lot of these trades yesterday were going to be canceled because the whole sudden drop was just a computer glitch. "Well, were my shares really traded or not?" I asked my broker. "I don't know," he said. "Nobody knows right now." I smell a class action lawsuit that will take ten years to resolve. The people who got a great deal during the dip are going to want to keep their winnings and the people who got screwed are going to want their money back. I don't know why they even bother to call it investing any more. Betting on basketball games in Vegas is a lot more rational than this.

Tomorrow is the Mother's Day photo shoot at Unleashed. I've got the strobe lights and backdrop packed and ready to go. All I need to do now is finish charging all the batteries. I hope we have a good crowd of people who order a lot of pictures of their dogs. This is the time of year that Dalmatian Rescue is always low on money. We're right in-between our big Christmas fundraisers and the Fall golf tournament, but we've still got vet bills to pay and dogs to care for. If we do real well tomorrow, we can probably pay for heartworm treatments for three dogs. That's all. It's also why we'll be doing these fundraisers forever.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 142

It's been quite a while since I've been to Greece, but I still have fond memories of the time I spent there. The people in Greece are warm and friendly. The countryside is spectacular. I can't imagine a writer anywhere who wouldn't enjoy sitting outside with their typewriter and a glass of wine on a warm Santorini morning and looking out toward the Aegean Sea for inspiration. If I was working on my next novel, that's where I'd want to be anyway.

All week long, I've been watching the riots and protests in Greece on the TV news. I'd be mad too if I were living in Greece. The Greek people did nothing wrong. They were promised something that their government can no longer deliver and they don't understand why. I'm afraid the same thing could happen here if we aren't careful. Some future government might just decide to eliminate Social Security and Medicare when there is no more money to pay for it. With my luck, this probably won't happen until I'm old enough to actually need Social Security or Medicare. For my entire working life, something has been deducted from my paycheck every month to pay for these programs. They'd better not eliminate them. I've already paid. It's not my fault the government is in debt. If they'd ever asked me how they should spend all the money I've sent them in taxes over the years, I don't think we'd be trillions of dollars in the red right now. They never asked though, and I doubt they ever will.

I wonder what the world will be like in twenty years from now. Will today's turmoil be remembered as a minor blip on the radar screen, or does it foreshadow even greater unrest in the years ahead. When I was growing up in the 1960's I thought that it was probably the best time to be alive in the history of the earth. I was optimistic then and truly believed that anything was possible. I still think the 60's were a great time to be alive, but I'm not nearly as optimistic as I used to be. Who knows? Maybe the glass actually is still half full. All I know is that it's going to take a lot of Dalmatians to offset a day were the Dow goes down a thousand points and then "recovers" to only lose 348 points. How am I ever going to be able to retire?

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 141

It was a sad day. Henry, one of the special needs Dalmatians we have been trying to rehabilitate, needed to be put down this morning. When Henry entered the Dalmatian Rescue program, we didn't know if he was going to make it. He couldn't walk at all because three slipped discs were pinching his spinal cord. Before we could schedule him for surgery, he caught pneumonia and almost died. Henry wouldn't give up though. He was friendly and patient as we took him from specialist to specialist, trying to find the best way to treat his injuries. We even had a full body MRI done to pinpoint the damage to his spine. An excellent orthopedic surgeon was able to successfully repair two of the damaged discs, and in less than a month after his surgery, Henry was walking on his own again. Everyone thought he was making remarkable progress and we were all hopeful that he would be adopted soon.

Yesterday, when the K-9 University trainers were feeding the dogs breakfast, they noticed that Henry wasn't able to get up and wouldn't touch his food. We immediately took him to the vet, but his condition continued to deteriorate. The vet thought Henry had suffered a stroke. There was nothing anyone could do. It was heartbreaking. For almost nine months Henry had beat the odds. He survived pneumonia. His surgical team had done everything possible to help him walk again. I was convinced that he was going to find a great home and get the second change he deserved. It didn't work out that way though. Henry never even got a chance to leave the kennel.

There was a dog fight at obedience class tonight. The dog's owners were able to quickly get their dogs back under control and nobody got hurt, but still it made me nervous. I was glad to see that both Dot and Dash ran away and tried to avoid the fight rather than try to join in like some of the other dogs. Dot and Dash are gentle, well behaved dogs, as long as there are no squirrels nearby. I hope I am always able to keep them out of harms way.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 140

When we found out recently that Dash had a heart murmur, I had some additional tests done. After looking at the test results, the cardiologist says that Dash has an enlarged heart as well. I asked what could have caused this and the best answer seems to be that the special low protein food he's been eating for the past three years to prevent crystals from forming in his urine wasn't providing enough protein to the heart muscles. As a consequence, the heart muscles were starting to atrophy. This made sense to me. What didn't make sense was why there wasn't a big label on the food itself that said "not for long-term use."

It's frustrating how often this sort of thing happens in medicine. A specialist prescribes something to treat one condition and the side effects of the treatment end up causing an entirely different sort of problem somewhere else. I think Dash's condition is correctable with a change in diet, but he probably shouldn't have been eating Science Diet u/d for three years in the first place. Some vets think Allopurinol is better for preventing bladder stones in Dalmatians than a restricted diet anyway. I guess we'll try that.

I wish that doctors and veterinarians would take a more holistic approach to treatment. We live in a specialized world though. Everybody is an expert at something and almost nobody seems to see the big picture. When I try to look at the big picture, I find that I'm less inclined to find the solution in technology than I used to be. There was a time when I thought technology was the answer to everything, but technology has let me down a lot lately. As many of you already know, I continually have problems with standing water on my flat roof. After I burned out three expensive sump pumps with special moisture detector on/off switches, I went out and bought an old fashioned janitor's push broom and began sweeping the water off the roof after a rain. Much to my surprise, I discovered that I could sweep the water off the roof three times faster than the pumps could pump it away.

I used to have one of those clickers that would automatically unlock my car doors when I approached. The door lock mechanism in the car kept having to be repaired though. The dealer said it hadn't been engineered properly in the first place and wasn't strong enough to unlock the doors. After the warranty ran out, I went back to just locking my car with the key. It's simple and it works every time.

Life has become too complicated. I think we just have to accept the fact that doctors and veterinarians won't always have the answer we need. We have to accept that technology isn't always going to improve the way we live. I guess I've already accepted the dirty little secret that investing is just a crap shoot. Jeez! Was there any real reason the market went up so much yesterday and down so much today. I can't really see that anything substantial has changed in the world overnight.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 139

When I was trying to set up an appointment with one of my client's marketing people this morning, I was told that "she no longer works here." "What about all the changes she wanted to make," I asked. "Oh, you don't need to worry about those anymore," I was told. I wasn't expecting this. Especially on a Monday. I guess every once in a while, we just get lucky.

Dash got lucky too. His dental appointment for tomorrow got postponed for a week or two because the vet had a family emergency. He still needs to have his teeth cleaned though. I probably need to visit the dentist myself. It's been way too long since I've had a checkup. I don't know why I hate going to the dentist so much. When I do go, it's usually pretty uneventful. Nevertheless, I'll use just about any excuse to postpone a dental visit. I'll tell myself that I already take good care of my teeth. I've used a lack of dental insurance as an excuse over and over again, even though dentists aren't nearly as expensive as most doctors. It's probably time to bite the bullet and go sit in the dentist chair again. I certainly don't want my teeth to start looking as bad as Dash's.

After almost a week of clear blue skies, the rains have returned. This meant that Dot spent most of the afternoon hiding under my desk and barking at thunderclaps. I tried to cheer her up by telling her how well the market did today, but the biggest one-day gain since February meant nothing to her.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 138

It was a picture postcard day with blue skies dotted with small white clouds that looked like cotton balls. This is the time of year when people like to be outside in Texas and the park was filled with a cacophony of sounds during our walk. An ice cream truck circulated through the park playing exactly the same music I remember hearing coming from ice cream truck loudspeakers as a child. There was the distinctive sound of Harley Davidson exhausts as people paraded their bikes up and down the access roads at five miles an hour. From one corner of the park came the sounds of tribal drumming and from another corner was a local rock band playing old Eagles tunes. I imagine there were birds chirping as well, but I couldn't hear them over the din of human noises.

We took the dogs over to the annual British and European car show that was also taking place in the park today. This wasn't one of those fancy car show where people truck in their priceless vehicles with special transport vans. It was more of a neighborhood show where people just drove their own cars to the show, parked them on the grass, ate a little barbecue and then drove them home again.  Robert and Cindy, who take their German Shepherds to the same obedience class that Dot and Dash attend every Wednesday are always at this show with one of their project cars. They also own Shade Tree Enginetrics and are probably the only people in Texas who can still repair my aging Citroën Maserati. I love old sports cars and it was fun to walk the dogs through fields filled with Morgans, Alfa Romeos and the ocassional Jensen Interceptor. If I had Dr. Who's magic blue box, I would take it straight back to a time where everything was mechanical. I understand mechanical things and even though I make my living from the computers that suround me, the digital world remains somewhat of a mystery to me.

When I took Dash to get his weekly bath at Vheas Laundromutt, I overheard someone saying "is that the dog that makes bird noises?" "Yes it is," I said, "and you'll get to hear them very shortly." Someday I need to make a video of Dash taking his bath. It would be a hit on YouTube. I've never heard noises coming out of a dog like that before. He's fine when I shampoo him, but he definitely doesn't like being rinsed off.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 137

I'm amazed that I'm online at all this evening. Yesterday's computer problems seemed to get worse this morning. I was hoping it was just a software problem, but it seems that the power outage did manage to fry my logic board. Faced with a choice of going to the Apple store and paying $2500 for a new G-5, or going to the storage warehouse and seeing what I could cobble together from the computer graveyard I keep there, I naturally paid a visit to my storage space. Computers seldom wear out. They just become useless doorstops as technology continues to change. I could start a small museum with all the slow and obsolete computers I have gathering dust in the storeroom. Occasionally, this junk comes in handy though. With a few parts cannibalized from an old Apple cube and some other stuff I took out of a G-4 that I was using back in 2001, I managed to get everything working again.

It's embarrassing how old my office equipment is. I hate to go out and buy new computers though, because when I do, I will have to buy all new software as well. None of the software I currently use will run on one of those screaming fast new 8-core Intel Macs. I like my old software. I don't want to pay through the nose all over again for new versions of the exactly same thing. Anyway, the day I decide to buy a new G-5, Apple will release an even newer G-6 and immediately make my purchase obsolete.  It's happened before. That's why I have so many old computers in the storeroom.

I've got to figure out a way to keep Dot and Dash out of the poison ivy. It's everywhere this year. You can't see it either, since the city has designated large sections of the park as "native prairie" and doesn't mow anymore. I thought this first case would be mild and I wouldn't have to do anything, but the rash keeps getting worse. Looks like I'll have to take the prednisone short course again.

Yesterday, I thought I spent way too much money on the ceramic Dalmatians. Today, I wish I'd just bought them all. Too late now though. Janet stopped by the estate sale this afternoon and said that there was virtually nothing left.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 136

I don't think I was cut out to be an antique dealer. I got up extra early so I could walk the dogs, take a shower and get the trash containers put out by the curb before I went to the estate sale with all the ceramic Dalmatians. I thought I was early, because I arrived 15 minutes before the sale started, but there were already 50 people in line ahead of me. Annette, who told me about the sale, had warned me that I needed to arrive by 8 AM, but this was really the best I could do. Hey, I'm not a morning person. Most of the people ahead of me in line were antique dealers. They probably get up early every day so they can snap up all the good stuff before people like me even finish breakfast.

Luckily, the dealers today weren't very interested in Dalmatians. The owners of the home has been art collectors and there were tons of original paintings and small bronze sculptures to divert the dealer's attention. By the time I was allowed to enter the house, the two Dalmatian end tables in the living room and an amazing life size terra cotta Dalmatian had already been purchased. The bulk of the collection was still available though and I managed to find several wonderful porcelain Dalmatians that will probably wind up in my own estate sale some day.

I don't go to estate sales very often, but when I do I am always fascinated. I find myself wondering about the people who accumulated these objects during their lives. What did they do and why did their family leave these things behind? The couple who had lived in this house for 55 years had obviously led an interesting life. You could tell that a lot of the art had been purchased in Europe during the 1950's. In the husband's bedroom closet were three well tailored tuxedos and two long tailcoats. Jeez! Who owns their own tailcoat these days? I thought the man might have been an orchestra conductor. He certainly seemed well educated and had impeccable taste. I was so curious when I got home that Janet looked up the man's obituary. It turns out that he sold life insurance and lived to be 96 years old. He must have sold a lot of life insurance because the obituary said that he also gave over 31 million dollars to the UT Southwestern Medical School. Amazing!

After I carefully placed my new porcelain Dalmatian figurines on the coffee table, I returned to the more mundane world of work and computer problems. Our power went out last night and I think a power surge fried something on my mother board. The firewire bus won't work anymore. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a huge problem, but the Apple monitor I use has a firewire connection. My screen has been freezing up all day. I bet the guy with all the ceramic Dalmatians didn't worry much about computers. I did see one very ancient Dell in the man's garage. It was sitting between an equally old toaster and a pipe wrench.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 135

I took Dash over to the vet this morning for his sonogram and he sailed through the procedure with flying colors. I thought he would squirm around and struggle when the technician moved the probe containing the transducer over his belly. He was a perfect gentleman though. Maybe he knew all along that there was nothing to be alarmed about. The test results showed that everything looked completely normal.

When I had my ultrasound exam recently, the machine they used was as big as a refrigerator. The sonographic scanner they used for Dash was as small as a laptop computer and produced much more detailed color images than the scanner they used on me. Once again the veterinarians are way ahead of the human doctors. Vets were using state-of-the-art digital x-ray machines several years before physicians started to use them. My own vet is already doing sophisticated stem cell therapy that probably won't be available to me for another ten years. It's frustrating to think that even though I'm spending a fortune on health insurance, my dogs are probably getting much better care than I am.

I'm glad it's Friday tomorrow. It's been a very busy week. For the first time in over a month I'm almost caught up on everything. All the client websites are up-to-date, the printer is working again, and even a few long-term projects have been completed. Maybe I'll have time to read a book again. Somehow I doubt it. If the weather stays as nice as it's been lately, I'll probably be spending the weekend mowing the grass, washing the car and planting shrubs. I need to clean the office too. It looks like a tornado hit it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 134

I wonder why people are so eager to new launch products and services before they're ready for prime time? I called my pharmacy to re-order a prescription this morning and the phone message said their service had been improved. With the old service you could call in a prescription and pick it up an hour later. With the new "improved" service, you have to wait until the next day to pick up your prescription. I noticed something similar on Blogger yesterday. They had improved the interface to make it easier to upload pictures and video. There was only one problem. The new improved interface didn't work and you couldn't upload pictures at all. It took me a while to figure out how to get yesterday's Dalmatian on the blog. I finally just put the picture on my own server and linked back to it. I notice that Blogger has gone back to the old interface today. Good for them! At least they can admit they made a mistake. My pharmacy stubbornly still insists that their new slower service is actually better.

Dash won a ribbon again tonight at obedience class. Other people in the class always seem surprised when Dash wins a ribbon. They shouldn't be. Dash knows all the commands. He just isn't very obedient. He was playing his best game tonight though. I was impressed. Dash probably wasn't very impressed with me. The pollen count was high today and my allergies were terrible. I must have gone through a whole pack of Kleenex sneezing and blowing my nose as we were doing the training exercises.

As soon as I got the printer working again and started printing the Mother's Day posters for our upcoming pet photo event, I ran out of roll paper. I'm getting to be a regular up at Imaging Spectrum where I get my printing supplies. I'm convinced that Epson could just give these large format printers away and still make a profit. Every year I spend more for paper and ink than the printer cost in the first place.

I have to take Dash to the vet tomorrow for a sonogram. It's weird. I had a sonogram myself just a few weeks ago. The two of us seem to have similar medical problems. I had to give up Martinis to give my liver a rest. I wonder what Dash will have to give up.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 133

I saw something on television this morning about how eating chocolate can make you depressed. Not very likely. I'll tell you what can make you depressed. Days where the market closes down over two hundred points can make you depressed. Days where your printer remains stubbornly clogged after three separate attempts to clean the print heads can make you depressed. Days when one of your clients says they prefer a cheesy free template website to the custom site you took weeks to develop for them are a little depressing as well. On days like today, chocolate actually helps. Especially the chocolate covered coffee beans I've recently become addicted to.

When I went to the bank today I saw one of those giant mobile shredding trucks parked out front. Maybe this explains why they never seem to be able to find my account records. I've never really understood the fascination with shredding things. Janet shreds everything as soon as she's read it. I never shred anything. I pack everything up in manila file folders and take it down to the storage room. Of course, I can never find any of this stuff later, but at least I know it's there somewhere.

I just got an e-mail from a friend telling me about an estate sale in the Park Cities this weekend that includes a large collection of ceramic Dalmatians. Some of them are life size. The house is in a pretty pricey neighborhood, so I probably can't afford anything anyway, but I think I'm going to go to the sale. Estate sales aren't really my cup of tea, but I do understand the mentality of those who become obsessed by them. It's not that different from collecting watches. Wanting things that you don't actually need is a bit like getting too near a black hole. It's sucks you right in.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 132

Be careful what you ask for. When I was an ad agency copywriter, I always wanted to do the art direction and photography as well. Now, I can do all these things, but jumping back and forth from one discipline to another often leaves my brain feeling like scrambled eggs. I spent the morning doing research for an article I'm writing for a Brazilian petrochemical company about how front-end engineering design saves money and improves efficiency. This afternoon I worked on a Mother's Day poster featuring Dot wearing glasses and reading a cookbook. In between, I finally managed to finish a Flash presentation I'd been promising one of my veterinarian clients for months now. Each of these things was very different and I don't multi-task well, so it's been a confusing day to say the least.

It would be nice if I could spend my days taking amusing pictures of Dot and Dash, but I'm not quite in the same league with William Wegman and his Weimaraners. Until then, I still need pay the bills by writing very technical ads and marketing materials for large multi-national corporations. Hopefully, this new project doesn't involve any foreign languages. Occasionally, I have to translate my input material from German into English before I can even begin. Since I don't know a single word of Portuguese, I hope the folks I need to interview in Brazil speak good English.

When I was taking the dogs on their evening walk, I noticed that the Texas wildflowers are already more abundant than they've been for many years. It must be all the rain we had this Winter. In two or three weeks the flowers ought to be in full bloom. Now that the stock photo agency is finally accepting my pictures, I really need to set aside some time to photograph the wildflowers at their peak. Everyone says they are going to be quite beautiful this year.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 131

I need to start getting more sleep at night. I fell asleep staring at the monitor while I was working on the computer this afternoon. I don't know how long I'd been sleeping, but Dash woke me up with the a high pitched, frantic bark that usually means "take me outside right away before I pee on the floor." I leashed him up and took him on a walk, even though we'd just gotten back from the Unleashed dog park where he'd gotten plenty of exercise. Better safe than sorry I've learned. Dot was at a rescue event in Grapevine, Texas with a bunch of other Dalmatians, so Dash was alone with me today. Dash never likes being left behind, but he doesn't ride well in the car either, so this is often the only solution. I was actually amazed that he made the journey down to the dog park without Dot in the car with him. With this small breakthrough under our belts, maybe we can try something more ambitious in the future.

Occasionally I daydream about living on the seventeenth floor of a luxurious downtown high rise and spending Sunday afternoons drinking cappuccino and reading the paper instead of walking dogs. I'm not really an outdoorsy kind of guy. I'd rather wander through an art gallery than a field full of poison ivy. The dogs have other ideas though and they usually win. I can't imagine taking Dash to an art gallery. He would immediately lift his leg and pee on something I could never afford. There's a silver lining to everything though. These marathon dog weekends definitely keep me in shape. If all I was doing was gallery hopping and drinking cappuccino, I would probably be twenty pounds heavier.

I actually did get to see Dr. Who last night, since the BBC channel repeats everything they air at least three times an evening. I'm still not sure I like Matt Smith as the new doctor. Something is different about the show this season.  Maybe it has more to do with Steven Moffat replacing Russell T. Davis as head writer than anything else. Even without David Tennant however, Dr. Who is still the best thing to come along since Farscape.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day