Day 460

I mowed the grass for the first time this year. This means I'll be mowing the grass every week from now through the end of September. I have two lawn mowers: an electric Black & Decker and a gas Yazoo. Both mowers have their shortcomings. I usually use the electric mower because it's very easy to start and doesn't require gas. It's not very strong however, and almost always bogs down and throws a circuit breaker in tall grass. The Yazoo mower is strong as a tank and will mow through anything, but it's almost impossible to start. I used the electric mower today and sure enough, it gave up the ghost at the first sign of tall grass. Now I've got two mowers that won't start and another item added to a growing "to-do" list.

There was a very visible police presence at the Wagging Tail Dog Park when we took Dot and Dash up to play this afternoon. They must still be having problems with people breaking into cars in the parking lot. I'm glad that the police are patrolling the park now. I'm not so glad that this type of crime is becoming an increasing problem throughout the city. I really don't think that Dallas is any worse than any other big city. Unfortunately, it's pretty bad everywhere.

Emmitt was the only rescue dog that could take a regular walk today. The rest were still completing their heartworm treatment. Poor Emmitt. He's eleven years old and nobody seems to want a senior dog. We keep hoping that someone will offer him a home. Our senior dogs do find good homes, but sometimes it takes a little longer.

It's definitely going to take a little longer than usual for me to put together the "Gone with the Wind" poster I've been working on. So far, I'm piecing together sections of four different photographs to create the final image. Getting two animals who weren't that fond of each other in the first place to look like they're falling in love is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I think I've come up with a solution, but it's going to take a couple more days of Photoshop work to get the image to a point where I can show it to anyone.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 459

I went up and took pictures of Pringles, one of the new Dalmatians in the rescue program this morning. It's hard to imagine how anyone could have abandoned this happy, playful boy. Like many dogs we've rescued, Pringles has had a rough life. Early in his life he was run over by a car. He still has a big scar on his back where he received surgery for his injuries. Somebody must have cared about this dog at some point, because he received good care. The surgeons did an excellent job of putting him back together, because he can run and play completely normally again. I don't know when Pringles luck ran out, but he was sitting in the pound, waiting for his time to run out when Dalmatian Rescue found him.

It wasn't just warm today, it was actually hot. It looks like it is just about time to put in the new St. Augustine turf in the back yard. We went to the grass store to ask them if it was time to plant yet, and they said it was. I was going to till all the existing soil to prepare for the new grass, but the grass guys said it would be better to just lay the sod directly over the hard packed ground. They said if I tilled the soil the water would seep down into the earth and the new grass wouldn't stay wet enough to put down good roots. I'm not sure if I believe this, but I'll definitely go along with the no tilling plan. It's a lot easier this way. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the aging roto-tiller started again this season anyway.

The grocery bill was a lot bigger than normal today. I bought a bunch of these new LED lightbulbs to replace the incandescent bulbs that are growing increasingly difficult to find. I don't like those curly florescent bulbs because they have Mercury in them. I drop things all the time and I don't want to turn the house into a hazardous waste zone just because I dropped a light bulb. These LED bulbs cost $17 each, but they use very little energy and last for years. I never dreamed I'd be paying $17 for a light bulb some day, but I never dreamed that gas would be hovering around $4 a gallon either. You wonder where all this is going to end.

It looks like a visit to the dog park is on the agenda for tomorrow. The weather is fabulous this weekend and the dogs haven't had an outing for several weeks. If everybody else with a dog is thinking the same thing, we're never going to find a parking place. Oh, and for those of you who don't click on the link, Pringles is today's Dalmatian of the Day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 458

I went to the doctor to have my blood work done this morning right after I walked the dogs. They always want you to fast before taking blood samples, so I figured if I got everything done early, I'd still have time for a big breakfast later. I was kind of amazed to see that the nurse filled twelve vials with blood. Either there is something terribly wrong with my blood, or I'm the one person keeping LabCorp in business.

I did keep my promise and got my estimate for the oil and gas trade show completed and mailed off this afternoon. I hate doing complicated estimates. If your prices are too high, you won't get the job. If your prices are too low and something goes wrong, you could actually end up losing money on the job. Something always does go wrong too. It's just hard to guess what it's going to be this time. I think I turned in a very competitive bid. Actually, I think I bid the job a little too low, but it's too late to change things now. I should find out sometime later next week if I get the project.

I spend some time cleaning the house today as well. Janet returns from Las Vegas this evening and I wouldn't want her to think that I was doing nothing but taking naps with the dogs and watching Dr. Who on TV all week. I'm normally a very neat and tidy person, but when it's just me and the dogs, sometimes the bed doesn't get made and the floors start looking pretty shabby. It's pretty obvious that Dot and Dash could care less whether the house is clean. As long as they get their dinner and walks on time, they are both happy campers.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 457 - St. Patrick's Day

Today's photo shoot was quite a bit different than yesterday's. Instead of taking pictures of search and rescue dogs, my job was to recreate the classic movie poster for Gone with the Wind using a dog as Rhett Butler and a cat as Scarlett O'Hara. My dog model was supposed to be very friendly with cats. And the cat was supposed to like dogs. As you might expect, that's not the way it turned out. I took some shots of the pair together, but it certainly didn't look like a love scene. After about five minutes miss kitty let us know that she wasn't going to tolerate a dog sniffing her much longer. We all decided that the prudent course of action would be to photograph each animal separately and then put the shot together in Photoshop. I really wish nobody even knew about Photoshop. Every time a shot gets difficult, I hear a chorus of "you can fix it in Photoshop" from whoever is on the set with me. You can definitely do a lot with Photoshop, but as far as I know, the software can't make animals like each other. It remains to be seen whether I can create any chemistry between this unlikely couple with my computer. Personally, I'd scrap the dog and just use the pictures of the cat. Apple, the cat, is hot. She's kind of the Heidi Klum of the cat world.

Today was a very busy day. When I wasn't trying to recreate Gone with the Wind with animals, I was working on my bid for the big week long oil and gas trade show in Houston this May. I think I'm already late in submitting this bid, but it's been complicated. I've finally got prices in from all the crew members I've assembled for the project, so all I need to do now is put everything together in Excel and turn it in. If the folks who are waiting for my bid happen to be reading this, I promise I'll have everything ready for you tomorrow. Really guys, your project is just as important to me as putting lipstick on a cat.

It was surprisingly warm today. If I didn't know better, I could have sworn it was early June. I resisted the temptation to turn on the air conditioner however. I know that as soon as I turn on the air conditioner, my electric bill is going to triple.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 456

I met Sonic today. Sonic is a search and rescue dog. He is a member of an elite Search Dog Foundation rescue team. The Search Dog Foundation has sent dogs to Katrina. They were there in the aftermath of 9/11. Now this organization is sending teams to Japan to help with the rescue efforts there. One of my veterinary hospital clients is sponsoring Sonic and in appreciation, Sonic's handlers brought him to the hospital today to meet the staff and explain how search and rescue dogs are trained. I was just there to photograph the event, but I was just as impressed with Sonic as everybody else. These search and rescue dogs are absolutely amazing. They all go through a grueling two year training program and must perform absolutely flawlessly before they are certified for rescue operations. Dogs like Sonic can climb up and down vertical fire engine ladders to reach people trapped on upper floors of buildings. They are trained to respond to their handlers commands from as far as 100 yards away. When they are working, they are not distracted by cats or squirrels. Part of their training involves placing tasty hot dogs and Taco Bell take out meals nearby during a search exercise and seeing if the smell of food broke their concentration. It doesn't. If you need help, you can only hope that one of these amazing dogs is nearby. Have you guys ever hear the search dog's creed? It's worth repeating. "If you are ever buried under a ton of rubble, trapped where no one can find you, or caught in the aftermath of a storm, I promise to sniff you out. I promise to go about my work with a wagging tail and a hero's heart. I promise to ignore all the fascinating smells out there and concentrate on finding you. I promise to never give up." I only spent an hour or so with Sonic this afternoon, but that was enough to convince me that he would never give up.

In addition to meeting Sonic, I had a meeting with another client about how to use social media more effectively. All my clients seem to want to climb on the Facebook and Twitter bandwagon lately. Everybody has heard stories about how someone has managed to double their sales using social media, but nobody seems to be able to replicate these success stories themselves. I have an interesting perspective on social media, since I am a relatively recent convert. I'm a quick learner though and I've already discovered a few things that have helped my own business. As I tried to explain viral marketing to my client, I kept returning to one theme over and over again: nothing ever goes viral if it isn't interesting! Most bloggers I know have already adopted the "content is king" mantra. It's hard to explain the importance of continual, fresh, interesting and relevant content to a group of people who are stressed out and overworked already, however. "How are we going to have the time to do all this stuff," they wondered. I felt like says that if Sonic could find someone in a fifty foot tall pile of rubble, then surely you ought to be able to put up something new and interesting on your Facebook page every day. Sonic is my new hero.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 455

Many of yesterday's questions found answers today. I discovered that it actually is possible for a dog to develop a skin discoloration literally overnight. My vet said it was rare, but that certain types of bacteria infections could cause Dash's bronzing to reoccur exactly the way I observed. Dash now has an antibiotic spray that should clear up the problem in a week or so.

I also discovered that my client's web forms quit working because the hosting company had moved their account to a new server. The server upgrade was supposed to be 100% backwards compatible. Oops. Maybe the upgrade was 99% backwards compatible, but I know of one site that slipped through the cracks. After a couple of conversations with the hosting company's technical support folks, I learned how to patch the code and get everything working again. I can't really give the hosting company high marks for failing to warn my client about the server switch, but they were certainly helpful today. All my questions were answered quickly and most importantly, the fix worked.

The disaster in Japan really makes you realize how interconnected the world has become. When something of this magnitude occurs, literally everyone is touched by it in one way or another. I got a call from one of my suppliers today saying that shipments of a video camera I was ordering would be significantly delayed because there was expected to be a shortage of component parts that had been manufactured in a plant demolished by the tsunami. Several stocks I own were pummeled today by panic selling in the wake of all the nuclear meltdown news we've been hearing. I have a feeling that we won't know for months just how much this disaster will affect all of us.

For several weeks now I've had a photo shoot penciled in on my calendar for tomorrow morning. Just got a call from my client asking if I'd still be attending the marketing meeting tomorrow morning. Oops. What's embarrassing is that I think I initially scheduled this meeting in the first place. I can't seem to remember anything anymore.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 454

What a weird day. Lots of little things happened that I have absolutely no explanation for. When I woke up this morning, I noticed that there was a brown stain a little bigger than a silver dollar on Dash's back. The discoloration looked exactly like the Dalmatian Bronzing skin condition we've been treating him for. It's hard to believe that this stain is the return of the bronzing condition though, since it literally happened overnight. At first, I wondered if I might have spilled coffee on him, or if he might have fallen asleep right under a small leaking spot in the roof. The stain wasn't damp though. It wouldn't wash off either. I dont know what it is.

Later in the day, I got an e-mail from one my my clients saying that the forms on their website weren't working. The forms were working perfectly a few days ago and I have done nothing to them. Actually, this web project was completed and I haven't even logged into the server in a while. Sure enough, the forms don't work though. When I tried them myself, I got the same error messages that my client got. I opened up Dreamweaver and looked at the form script. Everything looked kosher. Once again, I have no idea what is going on.

This afternoon, I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and the pharmacist said that it couldn't be renewed because my doctor told him that I should have stopped taking this particular medication last November. Very strange. I've seen this doctor at least three different times since November and he never mentioned anything about this to me.

I didn't get much sleep last night either. A big thunderstorm rolled through around midnight and that was all it took to kick Dot's storm phobia into high gear. It really wasn't that bad of a storm, but evidently Dot thought it was. She barked off and on the rest of the night. All the storm did was prove how futile my roof repair efforts have been. The carport is still leaking, even though I have spread a ton of patching cement over every spot that even remotely looked like a leak.

Maybe some of today's mysteries will be answered tomorrow. One can only hope.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 453

I didn't let the time change get the best of me this morning. I had Dot and Dash fed, walked and was up at K-9 University to meet the other volunteers right on schedule. It didn't take us long to take care of the dogs today. We've done so well this year at finding homes for our Dalmatians that there are currently very few dogs in the program. In animal rescue, it's a good thing not to be overwhelmed with abandoned animals. It means that somebody is finally getting the message. I still remember the days when the Disney movies were popular and everybody in town wanted a Dalmatian. At that time, we often had 25 to 30 dogs in our program at one time. It's much better now that Dalmatians aren't quite so popular.

After I got finished at K-9 University and stopped by the grocery store to get some more maple syrup for next week, my friend Travis came over to the house so I could take some picture of him with Dot and Dash. Some of Travis's friends have nominated him for One Man Dallas and he needed the pictures for his entry. One Man Dallas is supposed to be a competition that selects the best man in Dallas, based on community involvement, personality, intelligence and fitness. Travis keeps telling me that this is a civic achievement award, but it sure seems like a beauty pageant to me. At any rate, if my friend makes it to the finals, I may be asking you guys to vote for him. I think the winner is picked from the top five finalists by an online vote. It's kinda like American Idol, except I don't think there is any singing involved. If Travis wins, Dalmatian Rescue, which happens to be his charity, will get to keep half of the $5000 prize money. I'm not exactly sure what Travis gets himself if he wins, but I wouldn't be surprised if he picked up a few more girlfriends out of the deal.

I had pizza for dinner tonight. It's not the healthiest thing in the workd, but it sure is good. It's a good thing that Janet is never gone too long when she travels. It would probably only take a couple of weeks for me to revert to eating bacon every day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 452

I took Janet to the airport this morning for her trip to Las Vegas. Now, I've got to remember to give the dogs their pills every morning and bunch of other little things that she usually takes care of. I'm not very good at remembering anything new, so Janet always makes me a checklist before she travels. I dutifully take care of everything on the list each day and then return to my normal forgetful ways. The dogs and I are certainly not getting up before sunrise this week. We'll sleep in a bit later while we've got the chance.

My photo shoot with the new puppy this afternoon went quite well. Since the house where the puppy lived was in Highland Park, there was plenty of room to set up my equipment. I actually had more room to set up my lights and backdrop in the living room than I typically have in the commercial buildings where we do photo events for Dalmatian Rescue. I wish I could find more of this type of work in the Park Cities. The people are nice. I get to see some really cool houses. And nobody quibbles about the budget. Maybe if the puppy's Mom hangs her picture in a prominent place, some of her friends will want pictures of their pets as well.

If would certainly be easier to be a family photographer for rich people than it is to deal with corporate giants. I found out today that if I get the week long social media job that I'm putting together a proposal for, I won't be able to pre-bill anything. I kind of suspected that this would happen, but I'm not too happy about it. What it means is that I'll have to pay the crew I hire immediately on completion of the job and then wait, and wait, and wait to get reimbursed. I've waited as long as three and a half months to get paid by some of these huge companies. I never quite know what I'm going to get either, since this company likes to pay in Euros and the value of the dollar fluctuates a lot these days.

I need to remember to set the clocks ahead tonight. There are other volunteers that help walk the rescue Dalmatians on Sundays, and they won't be happy if I'm an hour late to let them in the building. I'm certainly not going to change all the clocks in the house, because I'd be up the rest of the night resetting things. It's probably enough to just reset the clock radio by my bed and the wristwatch I'm wearing. That's one of the many things I like about this computer. It resets itself automatically whenever the time changes.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 451

When I went to bed last night, I never dreamed I'd wake up watching a disaster of biblical proportions in Japan. Events like this make you realize that we don't have nearly as much control over our lives as we think we do. I know we are supposed to live each day as if it is our last, but I still tend to live each day as if I have an unlimited number of days ahead of me to correct today's mistakes. I really need to pay more attention to making each day count.

While I was watching the news from Japan on TV, I got a surprise call from Germany. Would I be interested in coordinating social media coverage for a huge multi-national company while they were attending a week long international trade fair in Houston later this Spring? You bet I would! I've got about a week to put together a team and submit a bid for the project. If I get the job, I will be blogging about the company during the trade show and directing a series of short daily video segments that will be uploaded to YouTube and Facebook during the event.

Just so I don't get a big head about this huge opportunity, I need to remember that tomorrow afternoon, I'm taking the mobile studio out to take a photo of someone's puppy. What an odd little company I have. Do you need an elaborate multi-national advertising campaign. Hey, I can do that. Or maybe you just need a picture of your cat. I can do that too.

We've just got a new Dalmatian in the rescue program. His name is Pringles and he came from the Collin County pound. It's going to be a busy weekend, but I need to get up and take some pictures of the new boy as soon as possible, so we can get him up on the Dalmatian Rescue website. This guy is cute! I wouldn't be surprised if he gets adopted before I get the pictures taken.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 450

I got my March invoices out today. I wish my wallet looked as green as the trees that are starting to bud all over the park. That's probably not going to happen though. Certainly not while the stock market is fluctuating as wildly as it did today. I would welcome a little stability at this point. My website work is all over the place this month, since several clients are playing catch up after staff changes in February. The annual report job I was counting on this month hasn't materialized yet either. I've just got to be patient and take things one day at a time. This time next month, things could look completely different.

It was a nice day outside today. That's always a good thing. I've started seeing tulips blooming already and the wild irises growing all over the park can't be far behind. As I've been watching all the trees start to bud and turn green, I've noticed something else as well. I think someone is numbering all the trees in the park. Why would anyone do that? I don't know why, but there are hundreds of small aluminum tags with a number on them nailed to individual trees in the park now. Last month they weren't there. Most of the numbers in the section of the park where the dogs and I walk are in the 700 range. I genuinely don't know what this means, but there is probably stimulus money involved.

I took a watch over to one of my watch repair guys to get fixed this afternoon. I probably could have fixed this one myself, but sometimes I take watches in for repair just to have an opportunity to talk about watches with someone. Only one of my friends is even remotely interested in watches and he's pretty busy. There used to be a ton of little stores where I could go to talk about stuff with like minded people. Guys might not like to talk about relationships or feelings, but they love to talk about their stuff. There were three little photography stores that I really liked. The Citroën garage was a good place to hang out. There was even a little store that sold model trains I really liked. All these places are gone. Now, when I'm out and about, I seldom run into anyone who has time to talk. They can't. The vendors I work with these days all have bluetooth earpieces stuck in their ears and are trying to sell their wares to people all over the world. It seems like only the dedicated and the obsessed survive these days. Sad. I liked it much better when even lazy guys could run a nice, successful little business.

The dogs have the right idea. Sleeping, eating and charming people with a little wag of their tail. Not a bad life at all.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 449

So, I get this e-mail this morning and there is a PDF file attached. I open the file and it looks like someone has printed out every single page of their website on the office printer and then written the changes and corrections they wanted on each of these pages with a ball point pen. After doing all this, they have converted all the printed pages back into a PDF file and sent the whole thing to me. Somehow, this sums up modern technology to me. People using every tool at their disposal to duplicate the way they used to do things before there were computers around to speed things up. I get hand written PDF files all the time. It seems like there are many easier ways of doing things, but what do I know. People's innate desire to make mountains out of molehills has kept me in business for a long time.

The BBC channel has been playing old Dr. Who reruns in the mornings, so I've been watching season one again with Christopher Eccleston and Billy Piper. These two seem to have kept busy after their stint on Dr. Who was finished, but I wonder what has happened to a lot of other Sci-Fi stars. Whatever happened to Xenia Seeberg? Haven't heard much from Michael McManus, Gigi Edgley or Claudia Black either. I guess you could find all these guys at Comic-Con conventions, but they certainly aren't as well known as the Kardashians or Jennifer Aniston. I always liked big budget TV Sci-Fi shows like Lexx, Farscape and Babylon 5. It's all gone now, along with most of the real space program. When the Discovery landed today for the last time, I wonder how many people remembered that this sturdy ship took the Hubble Space Telescope into space, or that it launched John Glenn back into orbit at 77 years of age. Maybe I like science fiction because I don't see many grand adventures in real life anymore. Humans are explorers. We should be going to Mars, not squabbling endlessly over where all the jobs went or how much social security we're going to get someday.

Without a moon landing to look forward to, I find my pleasure in simpler things these days. The dogs learned to jump over obstacles tonight at training class. Dot is a beautiful jumper. She sailed over the three foot jumps almost effortlessly. Dash wasn't so sure about this new task. He made it over the jump once, but most of the time he went around. I understand this attitude. I tend to avoid obstacles in life myself whenever I can.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 448

I was a little nervous when I took Dash to the vet today. When a dog is losing weight and has blood in their stools, it can can often mean there are very serious problems. Luckily, Dash is just fine. After a thorough exam, we discovered that although his weight has been dropping, he is actually at an ideal weight now and was a bit too heavy six months ago when the gradual weight loss started. The blood in his stools turned out not to be serious either. There were no polyps or signs of parasites. The vet suspected that a piece of bark that Dash ate had scratched his colon. If I can just keep Dash from eating bark, we'll be fine.

I went to a Panasonic seminar this afternoon and learned more about their new AG-AF100 video camera. I really want one of these cameras. It records HD video to SDXC cards and can use just about any 35mm lens in existence. I'm glad I haven't upgraded to HD already, because this is the camera I've been waiting for. I have the lenses that I need already. The AG-AF100 is compatible with a Final Cut Pro workflow. Timecode, vectorscope, XLR +4 audio inputs, zebra, it's all there. What more could you want? Well, I guess 4.2.2. video would be nice, but I can live with 4.2.0. I think I've convinced myself that this camera would be good for the company. It is going out on a bit of a limb though. I'll have to admit that people aren't exactly standing in line asking me to make films for them anymore. Nevertheless, I've made movies before and I can make movies again. The simple truth is that my current equipment is out of date and if I ever expect to get serious bids on projects again, I have to be able to shoot in HD.

Luckily, there's enough website work to more or less pay the bills until the film/video business picks up again. I've got a ton of website updates to complete tomorrow. Oh, and I just found out that there's a new Dalmatian at the Collin County pound that's entering the rescue program too. I need to find out if this new boy needs a ride back to the K-9 University kennels.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 447

I got called for jury duty again today. I've received dozens of jury summons and spent countless hours sitting reading old magazines in the central jury pool room, but I've never actually been empaneled on a jury. I've made it as far as voir dire in several cases, but apparently, none of the lawyers questioning me liked what they saw. Nobody has ever told me why I am a perennial jury reject, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I always list my occupation as writer. Both the prosecution and defense lawyers are looking for people that can be swayed by their arguments, and writers often have a reputation for having a mind of their own. Maybe there is another reason. All I know is that Janet is always picked to be on a jury and I am never picked.

Municipal Court, where I spent the day today, is an even bigger waste of time than the County and State courts. Most of the cases tried in Municipal Court are traffic violations and half the time the defendants and witnesses don't even show up. When they do bother to show up, they seldom want a jury trial anyway. The vast majority of people in these cases just take a plea bargain and pay a fine. There still needs to be a jury pool, just in case someone wants a jury trial, however. To make this all possible, 100 people spent the afternoon with me, watching Judge Joe Brown reruns on TV in the jury pool room. Kind of ironic if you ask me. You go downtown to do your civic duty and end up watching a TV show judge instead of a real one.

I have an appointment to take Dot to the vet tomorrow, but I think I'm going to take Dash instead. Dot has been slowing down as she gets older and I wanted to check her hips for signs of arthritis. Dot can wait another week though, because Dash is actually sick. He's been losing weight recently and I've seen some signs of blood in his stools. Hopefully, there is nothing seriously wrong with either dog.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 446

We spent the day in McKinney, Texas attending the annual Krewe of Barkus Mardi Gras Dog Parade. It's amazing how this event has grown over the years. There were thousands of people lining the streets and hundreds of dogs wearing outlandish costumes. McKinney is one of those little towns that a lot of people trapped by a career in a big city would rather live in. There are dozens of elegant looking bed and breakfast hotels housed in historic Victorian homes. The town square is filled with interesting restaurants, art galleries and eclectic boutiques. For once the weather was nice too. The festival is always held the week before Mardi Gras and when this falls in February, it can be pretty cold. Once again, Dot and Dash caught the attention of the media. A staff photographer for the Dallas Morning News took their pictures, asked what their names were and said the dogs may be in the paper tomorrow. I guess I'll go out and buy a paper in the morning. I'm tired of reading about the terrible economy and political unrest around the world, but I do like to know when my dogs are in the news.

Dash rode great in the car on the way home. We didn't hear a peep out of him during the entire trip. I think he actually went to sleep. The secret to car travel with Dash seems to be to make sure he's real tired before he ever get in the car in the first place.

I think we'll all sleep well tonight. Events like this are good for Dalmatian Rescue, but I'm glad we don't do them every week. By the time the tent has been taken down, the banners have been rolled up in their tubes again, and the brochures and dog treats are packed back in boxes, all most of the volunteers are thinking about is having a glass of wine as soon as they get home.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 445

It's amazing how the smallest of tasks can escalate into a big mess. When we go to take the dogs for their bath this morning, the coolant level light comes on in Janet's car. I check, and sure enough, the overflow tank is a little low. I look at the manual for the LR2 and it says the car needs to use Texaco antifreeze. Why? I don't know. Where did all the Texaco stations go? There used to be a Texaco station on just about every street corner. I drive around looking for a Texaco station and notice that everywhere there used to be one, there is now a bright yellow Shell station instead. When did this happen? Was it last month, or three years ago that this big switch happened. I haven't really been paying attention. Ever since gas started getting expensive, I stopped buying gas at Texaco and started filling my tank at Sam's Club instead.

Eventually it dawned on me that there weren't any Texaco stations in our neighborhood anymore and I got some generic antifreeze at a Chief Auto Parts store and went home. When I opened the hood of Janet's car to fill the reservoir, I noticed that there was a dent right in the middle of the hood. Under the hood I saw some weird shards of glass up near the windshield wiper motors. When I asked Janet why there were strange looking pieces of glass inside her engine compartment, she said that a street lamp had fallen off a pole last week and landed right next to her car while she was at work. "I'm sure glad it didn't hit the car," she said. "Uhhh, you'd better come look at this," I say. We notice different things. I would notice a dent in my hood instantly, but I never seem to notice when something has gone bad in the fridge.

Dot really didn't want a bath this morning. She refused to get out of the car when we pulled up in front of Vhea's LaundroMutt. When I finally had to resort to lifting her out of the car, she growled at me. Strangely, Dash was actually pretty good about his bath. He had one of his quietest, most uneventful visits to the LaundroMutt in several months. Tomorrow, the dogs take part in the city of McKinney's annual Krewe of Barkus parade. The theme for this year parade is "The Wild West." Dash will go as a cowboy and Dot will go as a horse...complete with a tiny leather saddle that I found on eBay.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 444

I put together my ad for Dallas Dog Life and sent it off to the publication this afternoon. It's a simple little ad, but then I'm a simple little company these days. It's hard to believe I started my business doing TV commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew. I like what I do now, but I'll have to admit that I'm painting with a lot smaller brush. At least I'm still in business. A lot of folks aren't.

I got a call this morning from a woman who wanted me to come take a picture of her puppy. When I asked how she'd heard of me, she said she'd seen one of my pictures on the wall while she was at her vet and liked it. This is exactly what I wanted to happen when I loaned the leftover photos from a couple of old gallery shows to veterinary hospitals and restaurants all over town several years ago. It's been so long since anyone called about the pictures however, that I've almost forgotten that they are still out there. Some seeds take a long time to root though and I've finally learned to be patient.

I guess patience finally paid off with Google Adsense too. I noticed that I made it to the $100 payout threshold today. I'm certainly not going to get rich from online advertising though. Since it took me a full year to earn my first $100, I'd better not buy that vacation home quite yet. Even with these paltry earnings, the fantasy of passive income is still alluring. Like many of you, I still have hopes that a collection of blogs and websites might eventually pay the bills some day.

It's going to be a busy weekend. Dalmatian Rescue has a booth at the annual Krewe of Barkus parade and festival this Sunday. No photography involved this time, but Dot and Dash are going to be in the parade.

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Day 443

I finally got all my ring binders and file folders full of receipts assembled and took them over to my accountant's office. I thought they would be pleased that I had finally switched over to the Quickbooks accounting software they've been trying to get me to use for the past several years. I asked if they could read the disk with the Quickbooks file I had made for them. "Sure, we can read it just fine," they told me, "but you've set up all your files wrong." I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I set the files up in a way that made intuitive sense to me. Whenever I do something that makes sense to me, it rarely makes sense to anyone else. When I asked if they could work with what they had, they said they could, but it would probably cost me a little more. Again, this is pretty much par for the course. At lease I can finally check this task off my list.

One of the animal rescue groups I work with has their big fundraising event of the year in May. I always do the promotional materials for this event and this year the theme is going to be based on the movie Gone With the Wind. Somehow at tonight's planning meeting, I agreed to recreate the classic 1939 movie poster with a dog dressed up as Clark Gable and a cat as Vivien Leigh. I have no idea how I'm going to get a cat to look up lovingly at a dog wearing a clip-on moustache and a white shirt open to the waist, but I've got about a week and a half to figure it all out. One thing is already certain. Dot and Dash aren't going to be in this picture. I couldn't bring either of them within ten feet of a cat without total chaos breaking out on the set.

I was supposed to start on my new annual report project today, but I never received the input material. I guess some things never change. Even back when I used to do a lot of annual report projects, I never got the input material on time. Hey, at least it's Friday tomorrow. I always like Fridays...mostly because the next day is Saturday.

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Day 442

I called my accountant's office today and asked how much time I had to get my tax files over to them. They told me everything was due yesterday. Oops. Somehow, I thought I had at least another week to get things ready, but that's the kind of week it's been. I seem to be behind on everything. I've already placed and paid for the ad I'm going to to be running for my company. The only thing missing is the ad itself. I haven't designed it yet. I could go on with other examples of things that haven't quite made it out of the starting gate, but you get the idea. It's March already, but it still feels like February.

The weather was so nice this afternoon that I thought that Dash would do great in training class. Dash had other ideas. This was one of his worst performances in a long time. I don't think he did any of the exercises very well tonight. I don't know why he was in such a big hurry to get home though. As soon as the dogs got home, they had to do a fitting for the costumes they are going to wear in this weekend's Krewe of Barkus parade.

I noticed that the iPad2 was introduced today. This is typical Apple. I'm still learning how to used the first iPad I got and it's already obsolete. I don't think I'm going to trade mine in for the newer model though. The iPad2 is supposed to be faster and lighter than the original iPad, but the one I already have certainly isn't very heavy and it's certainly fast enough for me. I definitely don't need a camera in my iPad. I've already got a camera in my phone and the phone fits in my pocket. I really wish that technology didn't change so quickly. I've got far too many obsolete gadgets already.

Are any of the rest of you facing social media burnout? A blog post every day. Fresh Tweets for Twitter. Enough status updates so Facebook still thinks you're alive. Professional sounding LinkedIn updates about your business. It really doesn't leave you with much time to do anything else.

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Day 441

I got a phone call today asking if I'd be interested in writing an annual report. Definitely! Before spending a lot of money on the company annual report became a corporate faux pas, I used to get a lot of this sort of work. Now, most companies just stick a cover on their 10-K report and claim that they are saving the shareholders money. I'm actually kind of surprised that anyone still does a full blown annual report with an editorial section anymore, but I'm certainly happy to get the job.

I also decided to run an advertisement for my own company, which is something I do even less frequently these days than write annual reports. You'd think, since I'm in the advertising business myself, that I'd be a little more enthusiastic about self promotion. Unfortunately, most of the money I've spent on my own advertising has just disappeared down a black hole. Since the very beginning, most of my business has come from referrals. It's time to give advertising a try again though. I'd like to expand the veterinary specialty side of my business and I've just about run out of veterinarians that I know personally.

Dash certainly knows plenty of vets personally. I've been taking him to the vet every other week lately. After yesterday's false start, I was determined not to forget his appointment again. I put a post-it note reminder on my computer and we arrived right on time. I have this elaborate appointment calendar on my computer that I can update via e-mail or even using my cell phone, but I seldom remember to look at it. Old fashioned yellow sticky notes seem much more effective. The computer calendar just seems to remind me of what I've already forgotten when I finally get around to looking at it.

I need a Twitter strategy. Google Analytics is telling me that almost 10% of my web traffic is already coming from Twitter. Maybe it's time that I started taking Twitter seriously.

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