Day 237

I took my car back to the dealer this morning to get the overheating problem fixed and was pleased to discover that my loaner car was a pretty new LR-2. It looked just like Janet's car except this one was white instead of charcoal. I could probably buy myself a car like this with all the money I've dumped into keeping mine repaired. It turns out my overheating problem was caused by a broken fan clutch. My service representative said this was an easy problem to fix. Basically all I do is hand over $550 and it's good as new.

With my car problems taken care of, I headed downtown to take a look at the video tape I shot yesterday. I'm superstitious about master tapes. I will never look at or edit them until I have a duplicate master in hand. I almost always get my dubs made at DG Fast Channel because they have up-to-date equipment and they'll make the dubs while I wait. The tape I shot actually looked pretty good considering the weird lighting I had to deal with. There was sunlight streaming in through the restaurant windows, mercury vapor lighting overhead, and a 3200K quartz light mounted on my camera. It was just about impossible to get the color temperature perfect. The tape looked good though and I'll send it off to National Geographic. Truthfully, I'm still surprised that there's anything on the tape at all when I finish shooting something. I should be more confident after years of filming everything under the sun, but I've learned the hard way that it's better to be safe than sorry. It's almost a rule that if a piece of equipment can fail, it will probably fail when I'm using it.

Don't worry. The dogs still got their morning walk. The Land Rover dealer opens at 7 AM, so I was able to get an early start to the day. Normally Monday's aren't this busy, but I managed to get everything done anyway. The dogs walked a little later than normal, my pancake breakfast turned into a pancake lunch, but by 2 PM I had Dreamweaver running on my computer and was updating websites just like I usually do.

There's still plenty to do. I've got to get this month's invoices out tomorrow. Dash also needs to go back to the vet around noon for a follow up visit to check on his dental work. Almost every day is filled with routine but necessary tasks. Unless something unexpected happens, photographing a goat will probably end up being the high point of my week.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 236

Today was the big fundraiser for Judy, Minnelli and Lucky at Cafe Lago. When I arrived to film the event for National Geographic, there were already camera crews from CBS and Fox getting their mobile broadcast trucks ready for the evening news. I can't remember when a goat and two dogs have received so much attention. Originally, the animals were going to be outside on the patio for this event, but Gabbi, who owns Cafe Lago, decided to bring everyone inside since it was so hot. The goat loved being invited inside a Tapas restaurant and immediately started eating everything in sight. The two dogs seemed equally quick to notice all the delicious food on the tables.

Needless to say, the "three amigos" got lots of treats. The small restaurant was packed with people and everyone wanted to pet the unlikely animal stars. Judy, the Great Dane, is one of the friendliest dogs I've ever seen. She seems like a natural ambassador for animal rescue and she worked the crowd like a pro. Minnelli, the goat, is charming. He thinks he's a dog and acts exactly like the other two dogs. All three animals were extremely well behaved. They certainly behaved better than our own dogs under similar circumstances. Dot and Dash would have been counter surfing on the buffet table within minutes.

I really need to get a lighter camera. After a couple of hours with the heavy Beta-SP camera on my shoulder, I was exhausted. I couldn't use a tripod though, because the animals were constantly moving around and the crowd was so large that you couldn't see anything unless you were right in the middle of things. I had originally planned to take still pictures too, but things were so hectic that I didn't have time to switch back and forth between stills and video. Luckily, Janet came to the fundraiser, so I gave her the camera and she got some fabulous shots.

Dot and Dash seemed a little miffed that they were left behind during all this activity, but this was an invitation only event and they weren't invited. It's actually a good thing Dot and Dash weren't there. I didn't hear any barking all afternoon. With two Dalmatians thrown into the mix, there would have been a whole lot of barking. All in all, the fundraiser was a huge success and I hope it raised lots of money for the "three amigos" treatment.  I still need to take my video tape to DG Fast Channel in the morning to get duplicated before I can look at it. Hopefully, my pictures will turn out as good as Janet's.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 235

On weekends I try to sort through the clutter that the previous week left behind and tidy things up the best I can. There's always a ton of mail to sort through. I seldom open the mail during the week, because it's mostly all junk mail anyway. I'll always find a few bills in the pile of throw away mail. Why can't they put bills in a bright red envelope that says "this must be paid?" Today's bills look exactly like all the other junk mail. Even after you open them up it's hard to find the actual bill because there are so many advertising messages inside. More than a few of my monthly bills have gotten thrown away in the trash simply because I didn't recognize them as bills.

Weekends are when the stacks of receipts lying around the office finally get put in the file folder that goes to my accountant. Shirts that were washed days ago finally get ironed, and some weekends the floors even get vacuumed. In the Summer I'll invent any sort of task to avoid going outside in the heat. Today I had to go outside and mow the grass though. I usually don't bother to mow my yard until the neighbors mow theirs and I am shamed into outdoor activity again. I used to spend time on weekends practicing fixing watches or printing pictures for future gallery shows. I don't seem to have time for those kind of things anymore. I have a huge list of things I'd like to do "when I get caught up." Unfortunately, I never seem to get caught up.

I noticed today that the blog now has 100 followers. Thanks guys! When I started this, I had my doubts that anyone would even bother to read it. It's still surprising that there are 100 people out there who find my somewhat dull life interesting enough to read about. It's a nice kind of surprising though. I've enjoyed reading all your comments and I've discovered that writing something every day has definitely helped cure my writer's block. Perhaps the best thing about blogging has been discovering other people's blogs. There's a world of writers out there that I never knew existed. Some of you are absolutely marvelous! I'll probably never bother to put up a Facebook page. I do have a Twitter account, but I've never even written a single Tweet. I do like blogging though. There's something old fashioned about it. It's part of a long writing tradition that goes all the way back to James Boswell's journals. Onward and upward, I guess. If I've made it this far, maybe one of these days I'll have 200 followers. Maybe some day in the far distant future, I'll even start making some money from AdSense.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 234

I finally got the OK from one of my clients to launch a new website that has been sitting on the back burner for months now. I haven't really added or changed anything in quite a while. Today was just the day when the stars were aligned and the site was destined to be born. I think I'll need to retake the employee group shot though. It's been so long since I did the initial design work that we counted at least seven people in the picture who no longer worked for the company. This particular project was taking so long to complete that I was starting to think the client either hated the design or didn't like working with me. Everything was fine though. The project just slipped from high priority to no priority. I've got to remember that what I do just isn't all that important to many people.

Believe it or not, Bexel completed the repair work on my video camera today. This is one day where I was actually wishing for rain, because I had to drive all the way to Irving again in the heat to pick it up. This time I turned the air conditioner off, opened all the windows and turned on the heater in an attempt to dissipate the engine heat and help the car run cooler. The car did run cooler, but I can't say the same for myself. It felt like I was in an oven during the trip home. By the time I arrived at Central Market to pick up something for dinner, I was dripping wet. I guess the trip was worth it. I've got a working camera now to film the big fundraiser for the goat this weekend. I keep forgetting that there are three animals now. Lately, they've been calling the trio "The Three Amigos."

I got a call from my new Medical Clinic client about five minutes to one this afternoon asking if they could postpone our one o'clock meeting because they were running late. They seemed relieved when I told them the meeting wasn't until next Friday at one o'clock. I thought I was the only one who did this sort of thing. I'm always writing down appointments on the wrong day. Sometimes I even write them down on the wrong month. Everyone seems so busy and tired these days that I'm somewhat surprised anything actually happens on the right day. At least it's Friday. I didn't run into anyone today who wasn't glad the week was over.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 233

I went to see my hepatologist today and got the final OK to begin my Hepatitis C treatment. I took the prescriptions for peginterferon and ribavirin to my pharmacist and he told me not to expect to start taking the medication any time soon. Evidently the drugs are quite expensive and there is a lengthly approval process to get insurance to pay for them. I probably will actually begin the treatments in about a month. My doctor said to pick a day when nothing important was going on to take the weekly injections. Just about any day would meet the "nothing important" qualification, but I picked Mondays because I can never get hold of my clients on Mondays anyway. If there's a day where I've got to feel like shit, Monday would be it. I certainly don't want to feel bad on the weekend when there's so much dog stuff that needs to be done.

You'd think I'd be good at math, since I was trained as an architect and currently spend a lot of my time coding websites. I'm terrible at math though. Today I installed some new portfolio tracking software on my computer to try to get a handle on why I've been doing so poorly with my investments. The software was supposed to automatically import all the transactions from my brokerage account and provide me with a much improved way of keeping tabs on everything. Not surprisingly, the "easy button" didn't work and I ended up having to enter a year's worth of transactions by hand. When I finished entering all the information, I fired up the analysis application and it told me that I'd made two million dollars this year. I wish! This ludicrous figure was so far off the mark that I was ready to throw the software in the trash. I actually lost money this year, but I couldn't figure out why the software wasn't telling me this. Finally, I went back and checked all the figures I'd entered. Whoops!  I seem to have misplaced a decimal place here and there. The big mistake was entering a sale at $45.67 a share as a sale at $4567.00 a share instead. I guess that would make a difference!

National Geographic wants me to film a fundraiser that's taking place this weekend to benefit the dog and goat friends. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem, but my camera is still out at Bexel being repaired. At least I've got tomorrow to secure another camera. There's always a chance that the repairs will be finished tomorrow. Admittedly, there's not much of a chance this will actually happen. Nobody ever fixes my stuff on time.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 232

I took my car over to the Land Rover dealer today to complain about the engine overheating, and wouldn't you know, it didn't overheat at all. It was just as hot today as it was yesterday, but for some reason, everything seemed fine. This always happens to me. I'll hear a weird noise, or a door won't lock, or the air conditioner will quit working and when I take the car in to show my service guy the problem, it simply disappears. The Land Rover folks made a service appointment for me anyway. They wouldn't miss an opportunity to take my money.

Just about everyone I talked to today wanted to reschedule something. It seemed like I spent most of the day just moving appointments from one day to another in my iCal program. That's OK. At least the meetings aren't being canceled. One way or another, it looks like I'm going to be busy this month. It's unlikely that I'll make any money though. A lot of these meetings are for pro bono projects I've foolishly agreed to do and the rest seem to be about future projects that might not even happen. I still believe in leaving no stone unturned. You never know. One of these seemingly pointless meetings might actually lead to something good.

I think the dogs are just as disgusted with the heat as I am. They only want to walk about half as far as they normally go in milder weather and neither one of them seemed to have any interest in training class tonight. I can't blame them. It's just too hot to do anything outside for very long. And before I forget, did any of you take the time to vote for Kobe? I noticed today that he's still sitting in 8th. place on the Purina website.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 231

Dash had his dental appointment this morning, so I had to walk the dogs much earlier in order to get him to the vet by 8 AM. I'm always amazed at how many people are out and about early in the morning. By the time we normally take our morning walk, the dogs and I virtually have the park to ourselves. It's a lot different at 6:30 AM. There were cyclists and joggers everywhere. One hour later, when I drove Dash over to the vet, the roads were equally crowded. I don't know how people tolerate rush hour traffic. It would drive me nuts if I had to do this everyday. Traffic is not usually a problem for me. I try not to go anywhere before 10 AM or after 4 PM.

The house was unusually quiet today. Dot doesn't bark when Dash isn't around. I don't know if she barks to show off, or to keep Dash in line, but there is definitely a lot more barking going on when both dogs are together. I thought Dash would be coming home right after lunch, but the vet discovered a tooth that had become abscessed and he had to have it pulled. By the time he was released around 6 PM, he was really ready to get home again.

With an unusually quiet house and only one dog to keep me company, I got a lot of work done today. I developed some additional logo ideas for the watch repair company and got started designing the new medical clinic website. I also picked up the large banner I designed for Dalmatian Rescue and was pleased at how nicely it turned out. It wasn't that long ago that it would have been both expensive and complex to print a single full color ten foot long weatherproof banner. All I did was take a PDF file to FastSigns on a disk and two days later, the banner was done. All at a very reasonable price. It's getting harder and harder for me to be the wizard of oz for my clients when things like this have become so easy.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 230

Help me out here guys. Kobe has dropped to eighth place in this year's Purina Rally-to-Rescue Doing More For Pets competition. This dog had been hit by a car and his injuries were still untreated when we found him. He couldn't even walk. Dalmatian Rescue helped provide the necessary surgeries and extensive physical therapy he needed and Kobe now walks completely normally again. It's a great rehabilitation story and Kobe really deserves to win the competition. If each of you could take a few seconds to click here and vote for Kobe, he might be able to regain first place again. If you've got a Facebook page, put the link on your wall too. You can only vote once, but every vote counts.

I had to take my aging Beta-SP camera to the Bexel repair center in Irving today using my equally aging Defender 90. Ordinarily, this journey wouldn't be worth mentioning, but the temperature was 106 this afternoon and my car overheats badly on days like this. When I stopped at a stop light or got stuck in traffic, I watched the oil temperature gauge climb dangerously close to the red line. Every few miles I would see cars stranded by the side of the road with their hoods open and frustrated drivers calling for help on their cell phones. I kept thinking that my car would soon be joining these victims of the heat, but somehow we successfully completed the thirty five mile trip and made it home again. Needless to say, I'm ready for Winter. Maybe we could skip the rainy season, but cooler weather would be great.

Dash gets his teeth cleaned tomorrow. We got the results of his ultrasound exam today and it looks like his new higher protein diet is already helping his heart muscles grow stronger. At any rate the vet gave him a thumbs up for the dental exam and we'll get all the plaque cleaned off his teeth, so we won't have to worry about gum disease. I probably need to go to the dentist myself. I'm pretty faithful about keeping the dogs teeth cleaned, but I'll use any excuse to postpone a trip to my own dentist.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 229

It was unbelievably hot today. The thermometer in the backyard said it was 108 degrees and when I took the dogs on their walk this afternoon it certainly felt like it was actually this hot. We have to make sure we have plenty of water with us when we take the Dalmatian Rescue dogs on their Sunday walk these days. We don't walk very far either, but the dogs still look forward to getting out of their kennel for a while. Dot and Dash still look forward to going to a dog park on Sunday too, so we drove them up to the Wagging Tail dog park again. Dash seems to be getting better at riding in the car now that he knows where he's going. It's definitely a long drive just for a few minutes of running around in the sun, but it's still the most enjoyable part of the day. After the dogs are taken care of, it's back to doing chores and housework.

I went over to the storage warehouse this afternoon and got the leftover pictures from one of my old gallery shows to hang in Janet's new offices. I sell a few pictures when I have a show, but there are always a lot of leftovers. I'm not nearly as excited about having a gallery show as I used to be. It takes a long time to print all the images and framing a show can be quite expensive. I've gotten some good reviews over the years, but I've ended up losing money on every show I've had. Maybe I could save money on framing if I didn't print such large images. What's the fun of that though? I like large images.

It's hard to believe it's August already. When I started this blog, I had my doubts about whether I'd be able to keep writing something new day after day. Writing has gradually become part of my daily routine though. If I've kept things going this long, I'll probably be able to keep writing indefinitely. The blog does take a bit longer than I thought it would, mostly because I have to photograph a new watch every day and look for a Dalmatian that hasn't already been dog of the day. For a while I wondered what I was giving up to make time for my blogging activities. A quick look around the office tells me the answer to this question. I appear to have given up cleaning entirely. My once tidy office is now a total trainwreck.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 228

They say the secret to happiness is staying busy. I heard it on TV this morning while I was eating breakfast. Apparently, doing something mindless keeps you happy just as effectively as doing something important too. I've certainly got the "doing something mindless" part of the equation down pretty well. I just don't enjoy staying busy all the time. Some of my most enjoyable moments are when I'm doing absolutely nothing. Janet ought to be happy. She is constantly busy. If I'm busy, it's only because I am disciplined enough to finish everything I start. In a perfect world, I would prefer to just sleep eighteen hours a day like the dogs do. To me, Dot and Dash are actually pretty good role models.

No rest for the weary tonight. Dalmatian Rescue is hosting another of our Casino Night fundraisers. I'll be spinning the roulette wheel again. We haven't had a Casino Night for quite a while, so I'm a bit rusty on the odds for all the different bets you can place. It's a simple game though. It all comes back quickly once we get started. Roulette isn't all that different than investing. You hand over your money. You spin the wheel. You lose your money. There are ways to beat the dealer at blackjack, but with roulette the house always wins. Although the basic odds of red or black turning up are 50/50, the two zeros on the wheel guarantee that the house eventually wins.

I ought to be real happy now because I stayed busy the entire day doing mindless things. I spent a couple of hours this morning trying to get the big production printer unclogged again. When I finally got the printer working, I couldn't think of anything I needed to print. Typical for me. I did need to do the laundry though, so I did that instead. Add in the usual Saturday grocery shopping and that's about it for the day. At least I don't need to fret about missing Dr. Who while I'm doing my stint as a roulette dealer this evening. I think the series is over for the year.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 227

I'm really pretty easy to please. It doesn't take much for me to change a bad day into a good day. I took the large Dalmatian Rescue banner over to FastSigns to be printed this morning and the technician told me that I had prepared the files for printing better than 95% of his customers. Yeah! Admittedly, this is not a big deal, but it made me feel good. Did I wonder what the other 5% of the people had done to make their files even better than mine? Nope. It is probably this kind of "good enough" attitude that has kept me at the helm of an obscure little company that nobody knows about instead of becoming the next Donald Trump.

With the Dalmatian banner crossed off my "to do" list, I drove over and showed Kevin my three logo concepts for his watch repair business. He liked them all and picked one to develop further. I was pleased, because with a little finesse, the idea he picked could make a very nice looking logo. I left Kevin with the logo comps and went home with two watches he'd finished repairing.

I stopped and got gas on the way back and noticed that the price had come down a bit this week. I overheard someone at the next pump talking on his cell phone and asking how large the tank on the car was so he'd know how much gas to put in. This confirmed my opinion that people can't do anything without their cell phones anymore. Jeez, is it that hard to fill up your tank? I've also heard long cell phone discussions in the grocery store about whether to get medium eggs or large eggs. I just pick up some eggs and put them in my buggy. It's easy.

I guess I just don't understand the need for constantly staying in touch. I will admit that telephones still have their uses though. After I returned from all my errands, I got a phone call myself. It was from the National Geographic people. They want to give me the job to complete the story about the dog and goat. I probably won't make any money doing this, because they still want me to rent HD equipment for the segment. It will be fun though. I'll finally be able to tell people that I've shot something for National Geographic. Hey, maybe someone will think I've been to the South Pole or something. I don't need to tell them I just took pictures of a goat.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 226

I don't think my financial adviser likes me. I have a passive/aggressive approach to investing. I generally follow my adviser's recommendations, but I'm quick to hold his feet to the fire when things turn sour. We had one of our periodic review meetings today. The conversation went like this. I would say something like "Look at this stock over here. It went up like a rocket the day after you told me to sell it." He would counter with something like "Well, look at this one over here. It's still going down after I got you out of it last month." Back and forth we'd go. With the possible exception of Apple and Kinder Morgan, there weren't many success stories. This has been a terrible year for investing. The market shows no clear direction. It just keeps zigzagging sideways on declining volume. I hate to give up though. I finally agreed to try a couple of new suggestions, probably just so I'd have something to yell at my adviser about the next time we get together.

I think I've come up with several nice looking logo ideas for my watchmaker. I set up a meeting to show him the preliminary concepts tomorrow. I hope he likes one of these ideas. You never know with logos though. They are totally subjective. The client either likes them or they don't. If a website design isn't approved, you can usually salvage the navigation or the basic architecture. If a logo isn't approved, you just start over.

I'm about ready to start over with the grass in the backyard. I had things looking pretty good last year, but this year is another story. What the dogs haven't killed this Summer, has died on its own as a result of the hot weather. I need to belong to some sort of "sod of the month club" where new St. Augustine sod would just be delivered to my backyard every month. Grass just doesn't last very long at our house.

All my usual Thursday website updates got delayed this week. They're all supposed to arrive tomorrow. If they do, it's going to be a very busy day. Even a hectic Friday is still a Friday though. I'm happy to see this week finally wind to a close.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 225

More employee pictures today. Every company has a different approach to these pictures. Some make a big deal out of the whole thing, sending out memos weeks in advance with instructions on what to wear and when to show up. Other companies are so casual that they've totally forgotten that they even called me by the time I show up with my cameras. I'll spend half a day shooting pictures at one company and ten minutes doing exactly the same thing at another company. It all depends on what they want.

The primary objective of today's photo session was to get things done quickly. The pictures turned out nice, as they usually do in situations like this. Being in a hurry is fine. I start to worry though when the employees want to change outfits or start asking me if I can make them look different in Photoshop. Some people worry entirely too much about getting their picture taken. So, what makes a good portrait anyway? Surprisingly, it has little to do with what you actually look like. If you're comfortable with how you look, you're going to take a good picture. If you're uncomfortable with how you look, your picture will probably be terrible. Happy people take much better pictures than unhappy people. If you're having a bad day, try and see if you can just skip the employee pictures. I'll come back later. Some people ask me why their pictures are never any good. I feel like telling them that it's probably because they don't like their job.

Dash wouldn't stop barking at obedience class tonight. Our teacher asked me what command I used to get him to quit barking and whining. Hmm. I guess I don't know the "stop barking" command. It usually works better if I just ignore him for a while. This wasn't good enough tonight though. Tom tried to get Dash to be quiet himself, but he didn't have any better luck than I did. Personally, I just think Dash was having a bad day. He probably wouldn't have taken a good picture today either. We'll come back later, and chances are he'll be fine.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 224

Do you ever feel like a car that's stuck in first gear? Things do move along, but ever so slowly. Today was like that. I had to take Dash to the vet for another ultrasound exam. Our appointment was at 2 PM, but we sat waiting in the lobby until almost 3 PM. Waiting for doctors almost seems to be one of those inviolable laws of nature. It doesn't matter when they tell you to come; you're always going to wait. Considering how bad Dash can be for something as simple as a bath, he was actually extremely well behaved for the ultrasound exam. He's got a weak heart valve that leaks a little bit when it closes. We're still trying to determine if this is serious or not. I have a feeling he'll be just fine. If you've ever had a stress test or echocardiogram done yourself, you quickly realize that nobody's heart is perfect.

When we got home from the vet, I decided to finish the Dalmatian Rescue banner I've been working on. This moved along ever so slowly as well. Ordinarily, I could design something like this in less than an hour. Unfortunately, the banner's 10 foot by 3 foot size made it impossible to create the monster PDF file I needed using my ancient copy of Quark Express. Rats! I had to use Adobe InDesign instead. I don't use InDesign very often and of course I have never bothered to read the manual. I prefer to use the trial and error method. In this case, it was mostly errors I encountered. I eventually figured out how to get the huge PDF file to print correctly though, so this is one item I can finally cross off my "to do" list.

More rain today. We were doing fine on our evening walk until a bolt of lightning landed right across from us on the other side of the lake. Both dogs immediately turned around and headed for home as fast as they could. It was a good thing the dogs were in a hurry to get home. As soon as we reached the front door, the rain started coming down in buckets. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow morning: sweeping water off the roof again with my big push broom.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 223

I talked to my bank today and they told me that the number they gave me the other day was correct and that the Germans were wrong. Unfortunately, the Germans are the ones who still have my money. I wish my client and the bank could just agree on a number. This shouldn't be this difficult. Unfortunately, even the most mundane task can end up being difficult these days. I've stood in line forever while a cashier tried again and again to get a bar code to read on their scanner. I've even occasionally had trouble buying stamps at the post office. I'd like to get myself one of those "easy buttons" you see on the Staples TV commercials. I think someone forgot to give me my easy button.

I had coffee at Starbucks with my friend Alan this afternoon. Alan never fails to introduce me to something new and interesting. Over the years, I've come to depend on him to provide me with a preview of what I'll be doing this time next year. Today, Alan was telling me how he had just finished publishing his own book on a website called Blurb.com. He showed me the book and it looked beautiful. I had never heard of blurb.com before, but I immediately began thinking of books that I'd like to publish myself. Apparently, the business model for book publishing has changed radically in recent years. Publishers don't need to find the next Steven King and sell millions of copies at Barnes & Noble to make money anymore. Nowadays, they just need to convince everybody on the planet to create their own book and give copies to their five best friends for Christmas. Alan's book looked so pretty that I'm going to have to do one of these things myself.  I'll probably be the only one that buys it though. That's usually the way it works with me.

I wish I could figure out a way to get Dot to overcome her fear of bad weather. What started as a fear of thunder and lightening has now morphed into a general fear of rain. It rained today, but I could barely hear the thunder. It was way off in the distance somewhere. The distant thunder was enough to set Dot off though. She went through her usual routine of barking and hiding under my desk. We bought an Anxiety Wrap for her a couple of years ago and it actually works, but usually by the time I can remember where I put the darn thing, the rain is over.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 222

It was another dog filled Sunday. After we finished walking the Dalmatian Rescue dogs this morning, we took our own dogs up to the new Wagging Tail dog park in North Dallas. We've tried to go to this park before but it's always been closed. This time the park was open and it was definitely worth the trip. The place was large, clean and well maintained. It was much nicer than anything we've seen in our part of town. Everything is nicer in the suburbs though. I don't get out to communities like Frisco, Allen or Flower Mound very often, but when I do, I'm always amazed at how clean and pretty they are. Dallas used to be clean and pretty when I first moved here, but I think the people who kept it that way have all moved to the suburbs. Dallas still has the history and the heritage, but the suburbs now have better restaurants, better schools and much safer streets. Even though it's a long drive, we'll come back to Wagging Tail. The dogs loved it and it's ten times better than the city run park only a few miles from our house.

I got a letter from my German client today saying that they couldn't pay me yet because the bank identification number I sent them was wrong. Jeez, I got the number straight from my bank! What do they want? I wonder why big companies can't just pay me using Paypal? I like Paypal. It's certainly the easiest way to get money from one country to another. Big companies never do something the easy way though, especially if there is a convoluted, bureaucratic alternative available.

Next week is going to be busy. I've got something scheduled out of the office every single day next week except for Friday. Some days are meetings and other days are photo shoots. I should be happy that I'm staying busy, but all I can think of right now is that I'll only have time to eat cold cereal for breakfast on Wednesday.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 221

I spent the afternoon looking on the Internet for stock photos that I could use for a large banner I've been promising to design for the Dalmatian Rescue group. You'd think I'd already have all the Dalmatian pictures I need, but I couldn't find any of my own that would work for this banner. I can usually enlarge my files to at least 30x40 inches, but the resolution isn't good enough for a banner that is ten feet long. I like working with stock photos anyway. They are great idea starters. I'll often see an image that I would  never have thought of myself and it will take the ad or campaign I'm working on in a whole new direction.

So far, I've been more of a buyer of stock photography than a seller of stock photography. I'd certainly like to change that. Come on guys, let's download a few pictures. They're cheap! You could use them to make a birthday card or something. So far, turning stock photography into another source of revenue has been more difficult than I thought. The stock agencies want photo releases for everything and I seldom bother to get them. About the only thing I can send to the stock agencies are pictures of flowers and bugs, because just about everything else requires a model or location release. I guess I could have ring binders full of model releases and charge for prints like other photographers, but it's so much easier to just give the client a CD at the end of the job and tell them they own the images. That's what they all want anyway.

Tonight is the fifth season finale of Dr. Who. I was planning to watch the show at 8 PM and then let you know what I thought about it. We were still eating dinner at 8 PM though, so it's on to Plan-B. I'll do the blog first and then watch the show when it's re-broadcast at 11 PM. It sure seems like this season was over awfully quick, but then the entire year seems that way. I can't believe it's almost August already.

While the dogs and I were walking today, we saw what appeared to be the world's longest kayak. The boat was being towed to the lake on a huge trailer and had four separate cockpits with space for four paddlers. I have a kayak myself and can't imagine why you would want to go kayaking with three other people in the same boat. To me, the whole point of kayaking is to enjoy a little peace and quiet, away from other people. What do I know though? I never understood the point of tandem bicycles either.

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Day 220

I had my first meeting with my new medical clinic customer today and it went very well. I always enjoy these initial stages of a new project. The client is all excited because everything still seems possible. I'm equally excited because I have a blank slate to work with. Later, things always get more difficult, but I try to maintain the initial excitement as long as possible. I've done a ton of websites for veterinarians, but this will be the first site I've designed for medical doctors. I hope everything goes well, because this project could make a great case study to show other doctors. A lot of veterinarians already have attractive, functional websites, but the websites of most medical doctors are still abysmally bad. If I can do something that raises the bar a bit, this project could be a real opportunity.

I'm glad it's Friday. Somehow this has seemed like a very long week. There weren't any big deadlines, but I seemed to slip a little further behind with each passing day. I still have one unfinished project to tackle this weekend, but that can wait a little while longer. Tonight is devoted to Dr. Who and good food. I enjoy going to Central Market on Fridays and picking up interesting looking things to eat for dinner from the Chef's Case. It's kind of like going out to dinner without having to make reservations or actually go anywhere. Tonight I picked up several types of Quinoa salads which were delicious. I've never had Quinoa before. It's a grain like seed from South America that's a bit like Couscous. Quinoa is supposed to be extremely nutritious, but I probably canceled out all its nutritional value by also picking up some scrumptious looking barbecued ribs while I was at the store.

I can tell that Dash is frustrated and really misses his weekend visits to the dog park. He's starting to pull the yellow cover off his tennis balls again. If the weather cooperates this weekend, we'll resume our quest to find the perfect dog park. It's such a shame that Unleased went out of business. I think it's going to be a long time before we see another indoor dog park in Dallas.

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Day 219

I thought I'd seen everything until the dogs woke me up last night with loud, insistent barking that usually means there's a noise they want me to investigate. I actually did hear a weird noise, so I grabbed a flashlight and went outside to see what it was. At first I thought one of the outdoor faucets had sprung a leak, but when I listened more carefully, the noise was coming from behind the greenhouse. It was the air conditioner compressor. I turned off the power and went to take a look. Jeez, what a mess! Evidently a rat had gotten inside the enclosure and was sitting on top of the fan blades when the compressor kicked in. The inside of the unit looked like someone had thrown a rat in a blender. There was no damage to the air conditioner, but there was plenty of damage to the rat.

Today was another employee picture day for one of my clients. I don't make much money doing these pictures, but it helps me keep my webmaster business going. Several years ago I noticed that most people weren't updating their websites very often. After a while they would decide they didn't need me anymore. I started offering free picture updates as part of my basic web maintenance package and all the sudden people started updating their websites all the time.  Basically, words are of little interest to many people, but everyone seems to love pictures. I probably spend too much time doing these employee pictures, but to me it's good practice. When I do get a good paying photo job, I find that shooting tons of employee pictures has made me faster, more consistent and much better at lighting than I used to be.

It's almost time for the Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament again. Actually, the tournament isn't until September, but time goes by quickly when you've got to line up sponsors for each hole and beg people for silent auction items. I'm not as good at finding sponsors as some of the volunteers, but some years I still manage to snag a few. Insurance agents will usually sponsor a hole. Maybe the Land Rover people will play this year. I find that if I ask them to sponsor a hole right after they're hit me with a big repair bill, they usually feel guilty enough to play.

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Day 218

I went back to the doctor today and got my blood work finished. I made sure to go early in the morning, so I'd have plenty of time to come home and eat my usual big breakfast. I don't mind fasting, but I hate to miss breakfast. Sometimes I wonder if there's really any point to my quest to become healthier. Life without bacon in the morning and a martini in the evening still seems like it's missing something.

If you're involved in any sort of artistic endeavor, you need to go out and get an iPad immediately. For the second day in a row, my iPad has been instrumental in helping me land a new job. Today, I needed to take a couple of watches to my Omega repairman to get fixed. I took the iPad along too, because I wanted to show Kevin pictures of some other watches I was hoping he'd work on. Kevin liked the iPad and after showing him the watch pictures, I used some other examples of my work to demonstrate what the gizmo could do. He ended up asking me if I could design a new logo for his company. You bet! Logos are great. I never turn down an offer to design a logo, because it almost always leads to other opportunities down the road. The other opportunity in this case wasn't very far down the road at all. By the time I left this afternoon, we were talking seriously about a new website as well as the logo.

On the way home, I dropped the sample tapes I promised the National Geographic Channel in the mail. I'm not very optimistic about getting this job, but it's always worth making an effort. You never really know what people are thinking. I've been awarded jobs where I didn't even think I was a serious contender. I've also lost plenty of jobs that I thought were in the bag.

I thought the dogs would be terrible in obedience class tonight, since they skipped class last week. They both did well though. I was pleasantly surprised. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised about the entire day.

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