Day 494

This is why I never seem to get caught up on things. When I got home from the grocery store today, I noticed that I didn't have everything I bought. I wish I had noticed this while I was still at the store, because it would have saved me a lot of time. All the items were on my register receipt. They just weren't in the refrigerator or on the shelf when I got everything put away. I've done this before. I'm done shopping. I load everything in the car and I accidentally leave a few things in the buggy as I drive away. If I'd just left a box of crackers in the buggy, I would have chalked it up to bad luck. This time, I left the expensive things and brought all the cheap stuff home. I drive back to the store and of course nothing was in the buggy where I left it. I wasn't even sure it was the same buggy. I go into the store and ask customer service if anyone had found my missing items in the parking lot. Of course not. The lady said they had found a box of Prilosec and a case of bottled water today. I'm just about to give up and leave when I see what looks like my items sitting in a corner on the floor. "What about those things," I inquire. We check the items and they match the items on my receipt. Mission accomplished and an afternoon wasted, all at the same time.

I also took a few little movies up at the Dalmatian Rescue kennels. I need to test the equipment that I'm planning to use at the trade show in May. The little Q3HD camera was fantastic. The movie clips were sharp and clear and the color was good. Now I need to see how long it takes to edit, add titles, music and encode the video properly for YouTube. I need to come up with a compromise that keeps the video quality good and the finished file size small. Probably the only way to do this is to keep the interviews very short. We'll see.

Another storm is rolling in as I write this. Dot is huddled under my desk on a blanket. I wish there were a way to help her overcome her storm phobia. Her paw is healing nicely, but as long as her fear of storms persists, she could easily injure herself all over again.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 493

Well, I'm ready now for my new role as a roving Internet journalist. I found the 4G hotspot I wanted. It wasn't at the AT&T store. It was at the T-Mobile store across the street. Those guys shouldn't have put the hard sell on me yesterday. I probably wouldn't have even discovered the T-Mobile store if the AT&T guys hadn't been so pushy. All's well that ends well though. I ended up getting a 4G hotspot that five devices can hook up to, along with unlimited file transfer and no contract for less than AT&T was charging for a 5 GB file transfer limit with a two year contract.

The little hotspot fits in my pocket and works like a charm. Best of all, I can even use it with my iPad and iPhone. Now that I know I'll be able to upload something at the conference, it's time to figure out exactly what I'm going to be uploading. There are a lot of nifty little HD cameras that record to memory cards and save files in the native YouTube format. Sound is going to be the big hurdle. Since I will be doing mostly on the spot interviews, I will need to have good quality sound. I'm looking for a little inexpensive camera that has an external line or mic input, so I can use a better quality microphone. I still don't know if they'll let me in the building yet, but I definitely think I'm making progress on everything else.

Dot got her bandage off this afternoon, but she still can't do anything strenuous for the next three or four days or the wound might reopen. She seems completely back to normal and doesn't appear to be in any pain. It's going to be hard to keep her quiet for another three days. It's hard to get used to the appearance of her paw too. One toenail is completely gone, so the whole paw looks out of balance. Hopefully the nail will grow back in a couple of months.

It's hard to believe that Easter is this Sunday. The entire year has gone by in a blur. It's time for Dash to have his annual exam again next week. It's time for me to renew my drivers license. I hope I can do that online, since I hate to stand in those long lines at the DMV. I guess it's time to buy another lawnmower too. The grass in the front yard is starting to look pretty shabby and I still haven't been able to get the old mower to start. It's always something, isn't it. Maybe I'll make a little test video of the Dalmatians this weekend to see how long it take to upload things to YouTube. My grand plan of uploading straight from the conference exhibit hall isn't going to work very well if the video files take an hour to upload. I'm still not really sure how fast 4G is. The sales guys say it is five times faster than 3G. It would be nice if this were actually true.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 492

For the second time this week I went to the AT&T store to buy a 4G dongle for my laptop. And for the second time this week, I walked away with nothing. All I wanted was the 4G dongle, but the sales guy kept trying to get me to switch my home phones, internet and TV from the cable company to their own U-verse system. The sales guy didn't even seem to listen when I told him that several years ago a technician had already been out to my house and told me that my house couldn't be hooked up to a fiber optic network because the wiring was too old. He didn't seem to listen when I told him that several of my neighbors had already tried U-verse and hated it so much that they made the phone company take it out again. All he kept telling me was how much money I'd save if I switched and that he'd throw the dongle I wanted in for free if I signed up for U-verse today.

I hate high pressure sales pitches. Just put a price on it and let me decide. If I've got a question, I'll ask you, but you're not ever going to get me to make a decision on the spot. In fact, the more often you go back and talk to your manager to see if you can make me a special one day only deal, the less likely it is that I'll buy anything at all.

I'm still not even sure if I'll have any use for this high speed Internet hotspot. I got a message from my client in Germany today telling me that "Yes, I will definitely be taking photos and video at their booth during the oil and gas conference." Then I looked at the conference website again and it still said "All photography and video recording are strictly forbidden." This ought to be interesting.

Ill be happy to get Dot's bandage off tomorrow, so she can walk normally again. It takes a lot longer to walk and take care of two Dalmatians separately than it does when they're together. Dash seems to like being walked all by himself, but Dot is starting to hate the bandage. I don't blame her. It's been so wet lately that I have to put a thick plastic baggie over the bandage whenever I take her outside. Needless to say, the bag doesn't stay on very well when she sees a squirrel in the yard.

I just noticed that I now have over 1000 Twitter followers. What does one do with 1000 Twitter followers? Twitter is still a bit of a mystery to me. It seems like it ought to be useful, but I still haven't figured out what to do with it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 491

I can't believe it. I was doing some online research today to familiarize myself with the conference I'm supposed to cover this May and I came across a small little paragraph at the bottom of one of the websites I was reading that said "Photography and video/audio recording of any kind are strictly prohibited in the sessions and throughout the exhibition area." What? Photography and video recording are what I have been hired to do! I quickly called one of my contacts in Houston to find out what was going on. They thanked me for pointing out this alarming little tidbit of information and said they knew nothing about it. This isn't a good sign!

It also wasn't a good sign that my Apple stock reached a new high today several days after I sold it. My broker convinced me to sell the shares based on the Nasdaq 100 rebalancing that takes place on May 2. It seemed logical that the stock should go down if its weight in the Nasdaq index decreases from 20% to 12%. Unfortunately, nothing is entirely logical about the market these days. I think that nobody even buys and sell stock anymore except for short-term traders who are trying to game the system. It's really frustrating.

Dash seemed a little frustrated at training class tonight. Dot is still recovering from her injury and Dash had to go to class alone. This may have been the only time he's ever been to class without Dot, and he seemed nervous. He actually did all the training exercises pretty well, but he was definitely glad to be home again after class was over. Both dogs are more comfortable when the entire family is together.

I'll be a little more comfortable when I find out whether my client is able to resolve the no photography issue at the Houston oil and gas conference. I'd really hate to see the job canceled at this point, especially after I've already had to go out and buy equipment to cover the event.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 490

We had a little emergency today. Dot has a terrible phobia of storms and when we were returning from our evening walk, she saw a couple of lightning bolts off in the distance and panicked. I could barely hold on to both dogs as she tugged on the leash to get up the hill to our house as fast as she could. When I was taking her leash off in the hallway, I noticed blood all over the floor. Dot had completely pulled out one of the nails in her front paw. She was still so upset about the approaching storm that she didn't even notice that anything was wrong. Luckily, our vet is nearby and it only took a few minutes to get her to the hospital so they could stop the bleeding. Dot now has a big bandage on her left foot and a toenail that may or may not grow back. Just about all Dot's injuries have come from being overly excited. Sometimes I wish she was a calmer dog, but she probably never will be. Excitability is just part of her personality.

The publisher of Dallas Dog Life gave me some sample copies of their new 2011 resource guide today. The ad that I ran in the magazine looks great, but I'll be amazed if it brings me any new business. I've run ads for my company in all sorts of magazines over the years, but none of them have really been game changers. Word of mouth still works best for me. I believe in advertising, but I'll be the first to to admit that a good recommendation from the right person can be worth more than five glossy magazine ads.

Slowly but surely, I'm getting all the details worked out for my upcoming trip to Houston. I've got a hotel now. I've got my airline reservations. I've just about decided what equipment I need to take. Now I just need to figure out what is actually going to be happening at the conference.

I know one thing that won't be happening tomorrow. Dot won't be going to training class. She needs to take things easy for a few days and give herself a chance to heal. I just hope we don't have any more rain this week.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 489

I'm making progress. I got two big website projects finished today, which brings me more or less up-to-date with everyone. With the help of my client, I also got a hotel room in Houston reasonably close to Reliant Park where the Offshore Technology Conference takes place. Now, I need to figure out whether I'm supposed to provide my own Internet hotspot, or if there will already be adequate bandwidth available for video uploads at the conference. Oh, I've got to make airline reservations too. I can't forget that.

It was kind of weird to be making arrangements with corporate types as I was washing dog pee out of the painted backdrop I used at yesterday's Easter pet photo event. That's my life though. The corporate jobs pay my bills. And the dog pee keeps me humble.

The house looks a lot better now that all the bulky photo gear has been carted off to the storage warehouse again. I think next on the agenda is to get a decent night's sleep. The dog's woke me up three or four times last night because they never could decide which side of the bed they wanted to sleep on. Once again, it was a car crash in the middle of the night that woke the dogs up. This wreck must not have been a bad one though. I thought I heard a horn blaring for a while, and a bit later the sounds of a wrecker towing a car away, but that was it. This morning, when I looked out in the front yard, there were no signs that anything had happened. Maybe I just imagined the whole thing.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 488

Where did the weekend go? It's too bad that tomorrow isn't a holiday, because it would be nice to have another day to rest up from this weekend's pet picture marathon. Although we didn't take nearly as many pictures as we did during last Easter's pet picture event, the whole thing seemed just as tiring. With each passing year, the equipment seems to grow heavier and heavier. No complaints though. Dalmatian Rescue made some good contacts for future events, and we all enjoyed meeting the newest members of our rescue program. We picked up another dog today from Denton Animal Control. The new girl's name is Bella and she was an instant hit with everyone in the store.

It's too bad it is so hard to find a venue for these pet picture events, because our little team has become quite good at them. We take credit cards on our iPhones. We have a large flat panel display showing pictures from previous photo events. We can print everything for our customers right on the spot, including T-shirts and tote bags. We've become pros.

I really hope I can connect with my client's contacts in Houston tomorrow, so I can finally make my hotel and plane reservations for the upcoming May trade show. The event is getting closer and closer and nothing has been finalized yet. It's weird. I can't turn the TV on for ten minutes without seeing one of those ads for Travelocity or Expedia claiming to make travel easy and cheap. Whenever I try to use these services however, they always come up with nothing. I still have more faith in my client finding me a room than I have in Travelocity.

Once again I have a big pile of photo equipment just waiting for me to trip over it in the front hallway. I'll need to take that stuff back to the storage warehouse tomorrow morning. Then we can move on to other things, like fixing the website I was supposed to finish last Friday.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 487

Our Easter pet picture event started out kind of slow this morning, but picked up as the day progressed. This is typical of a new location. People don't know what to expect. Everyone was very happy with their pictures today and asked when we were coming back again. This is always a good sign. Hopefully, the next time we come back for holiday pet pictures, today's customers will have told their friends and we'll have a larger crowd.

It was a good day for Dalmatian Rescue. We made some new friends at the photo event, but more importantly, Pringles got adopted today. We also rescued a new dog named Becker from the Tri-Cities animal shelter. Becker is a handsome, young liver spotted Dalmatian and he's today's Dalmatian of the Day.

We're going back for a second day of pictures at the City Vet location tomorrow, so I didn't have to lug all my equipment home tonight. With the set already in place, tomorrow's shoot will be easier.

There were a few minor casualties today, but nothing major. Two dogs peed on the backdrop, so I'm going to have to take it to one of those giant commercial washers when this is over and clean it up again. Another memory card got fried again too. I've got to figure out what is causing these CompactFlash cards to go bad. They've come down in price a lot, but they're still too expensive to lose one every time I do one of these events.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 486

I had to check my calendar today to make sure it wasn't National Website Problem Day. Everyone had a problem today. Some of the problems were small and insignificant, while others were so large that I felt like throwing my hands in the air and walking away. The trouble with website work is that although it doesn't pay very well, it is still very time consuming. I need to figure out a way to revive my video production business. In retrospect, that was a much better way to make a living. Unfortunately, video production work doesn't pay as well as it used to either. Once people discovered that they could buy one of those little inexpensive Flip cameras and do everything themselves, the whole process of putting corporate videos on the web changed dramatically.

Someone mentioned to me today that we are doing our Easter pet pictures tomorrow right in the middle of the largest Jewish community in Dallas. Maybe if we made little Yarmulkes for the dogs. I don't know. Hopefully, people will still come and have their dog's picture made even if they don't celebrate Easter.

I didn't really feel like celebrating much of anything today. I'm just tired. The day started with sweeping tons of water off the roof from last's night's big thunderstorm and it hasn't ended yet. All the website problems I had to deal with today slowed me down quite a bit. Yesterday, all I thought I'd be doing today was taking some employee pictures at one of my client's offices. I did get the pictures taken this afternoon, but I still haven't found time to get them up on the website yet.

As soon as I publish today's blog post, I've got to start packing up all my gear for tomorrow's pet picture event. I need to be at the store to set up at 9 AM. That means I'm going to have to start drinking a lot of coffee at 6 AM. Wish me luck.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 485

I went to the AT&T store today to see if they had practical a way I could upload really large video files straight from my laptop while I'm in Houston next month. They did have a nifty little 4G dongle that would provide me with the speed I require, but the only way they would sell it was with a two year contract. They had another broadband dongle that featured a pay as you go 3G plan, but it was too slow. When I was complaining to the salesperson that I already received three AT&T bills every month and didn't really want to add a fourth, he seized on the opportunity to try and sell me on scrapping everything and having the house wired for fiber. Usually I hate these hard sell pitches, but the price for switching everything from a combination of copper wire landlines and cable to a single fiber optic system looked pretty good. If the system worked, I would save a considerable amount of money. That's the problem. I wouldn't really know whether it worked until I had it installed. We have friends who have these U-verse fiber optic systems who tell me they only work reliably about half the time.

Everything is complicated these days. I've been having some problems with side effects from one of the new medications my doctor put me on recently. My solution would be to just stop taking the medicine. I felt fine before I started taking it, and now I wake up every morning feeling like shit. My doctor didn't agree though. He wants me to cut the pills in half and just take half as much of the medicine. He said my body just wasn't used to the medicine yet. Maybe. I have a feeling though that I'll still wake up half the time feeling like shit.

My taxes are finally done and ready to mail. Oops, I forgot. You can't mail your taxes anymore. Everything is e-filed now. Even the refund, if you get one, is deposited directly in your bank account. This is probably the last year that I'll take my big ring binders full of records and receipts over to my accountant. Next year, he told me to just e-mail him my Quickbooks files.

Everyone really liked the finished poster at the animal rescue meeting tonight, although one person was a bit worried that Peta was going to get after us for putting lipstick on a cat.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 484

I received another non-disclosure agreement in the mail today. That's always a good thing, because it usually means that projects have progressed from the talking about things stage to the actually doing things stage. I've signed so many of these agreements over the years that it's amazing I am still able to talk about anything at all. That's the good thing about dogs. You can write or say anything you want about dogs and the dogs don't really care.

After breakfast this morning, I had to go to the frame store and get some things dry mounted. I like this store, because they'll do little things like this while I wait. I've noticed that the waiting part of "while you wait" keeps getting longer though. The person doing the framing and dry mounting had to come out and run the cash register whenever a customer came in the store. It took me an hour and a half to get the dry mounting done. Getting watch batteries replaced or changing the oil in my car seems to take longer now as well. Nobody seems to hire enough staff anymore. Everywhere I go, there are just a few stressed out people trying to do the work of all the other people that got laid off to keep the companies profitable.

Luckily, haircuts are still done on a while you wait basis. I went to Northpark this afternoon and got a haircut so I would look halfway decent for our big Dalmatian Rescue pet photo event this weekend. After Betty finished with my hair, I did a little shopping in the mall before I went home. As I was leaving, a salesperson asked me if I wanted him to accompany me to the car with my purchase. Weird! Nobody has ever asked me that in a shopping mall before. In my mind, it kind of confirmed some of the rumors that I've been hearing about the mall having problems with increasing gang activity.

I don't know where I'm going to stay in Houston. I just kind of assumed that I would be staying at the same hotel where my client was staying, but when I called to make reservations today, I discovered that the place is booked solid for the entire week. Two hotels nearby are booked solid too. This means that I'm going to have to spend considerable time tomorrow looking for hotels instead of designing websites like I should be.

Dash didn't do that well in training class tonight. Maybe his allergies were bothering him just as much as mine were. He didn't win any ribbons this evening, but if they were giving ribbons for barking, he would have gotten first place.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 483

Yay! I got the big trade show job in Houston next month. The project has already changed shape several times since I submitted my initial bid, but it's still a fabulous project for a very large company. I'll need to buy some new equipment to do the job properly, but I needed some new equipment anyway. It's a good investment. When friends ask why I've been spending so much time on blogs and Facebook and other social media destinations lately, this is probably the reason. Two years ago I didn't even know what social media was. Now, I'm getting hired to provide social media coverage of events. This seems like a good investment too.

The Wine on the Roof poster is finally done. Yay again. If you've been following this story, you'll notice that this thing has changed shape a few times as well. Now, it's a much more literal interpretation of the original Gone with the Wind movie poster. I had my doubts that I'd even get the three foot long poster printed today, because my printer is genuinely on its last legs. All's well that ends well though. In the process of printing the poster today, I finally found out what is wrong with my printer. Evidently the print head overheats and shuts the printer down with an error message when there is no ink inside the head. Ink serves a dual purpose of coloring the picture and cooling the print head. The fix for this problem? Well, it's either a simple $150 service call to reattach some loose wires, or $1100 and up for a brand new print head and pump. Unfortunately, the repairman has to come out and take the printer apart to see whether I got lucky or not. The printer is so old that I don't think it's worth it to spend a fortune replacing all the internal parts. Jeez, I've already done that with the Defender 90 and that's enough. I'm always up for reattaching loose wires though, so I'll probably have the guy come out and take a look. I wish someone would invent a small, cheap printer that would make very large, expensive looking prints. In my experience, almost all current large format printers are way more trouble than they're worth.

I saw an amphibious car when I was walking the dogs at the lake today. It's really strange to be walking along and see a half submerged convertible glide by you on the water. I don't remember the brand of the car, but I recall seeing pictures of one that looked like this. They were made in the 1960's and look kind of like a bathtub with wheels. A mile or so down the trail I saw something even stranger. It was a big two foot square sign featuring one of those square bar code thingies that are starting to pop up everywhere. All the sign said was "scan this for more information." I didn't scan the sign. Actually, I didn't even bring my phone with me. I hate to get calls when I'm walking.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 482

My life has become a numbers game. I had a meeting with my financial adviser today and we pored over charts and graphs, trying to decide what to do next. What happens if Bernanke discontinues quantitative easing this Summer? What are we going to do if congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling later this year? There are dozens of these scenarios and nobody really knows the answer to any of them. It's getting harder and harder to invest sensibly because, although almost everybody seems to agree that the country is going bankrupt and disaster is on the horizon, nobody has a clue when the curtain is actually going to fall. I'm convinced that the only reason the market is still doing OK is that a lot of people think they're smart enough to keep making profits now while the momentum is going in their direction and then jump ship at the last possible second. I don't think I'm smart enough to time things this precisely, but I haven't jumped ship yet.

Going to the doctor is another numbers game. We look over lab reports and decide what to do if liver enzyme levels are elevated or viral loads have decreased. There are so many different cholesterol levels to check, it makes your head spin. Now, there a new complication, since blood glucose levels have to be tracked as well. Lab reports are occasionally completely wrong too. I get tired of the number game, but what else is there? You can't really predict the future, but when it comes down to life, death or picking up aluminum cans on the side of the road, you've got to make an effort.

Even my online activities have become a numbers game. I used to spend a lot of time talking with people online. Even though it was mostly typing, I had the distinct feeling that a conversation was taking place. Now that I'm busier, a little more tired, and am an active blogger as well, I barely have time to conduct a one way conversation. I write. I publish. And I check my stats. That's it. When the number go up, it makes me think that someone's out there listening, but I'm never really sure.

Number can be deceiving. Will bacon really kill me? Do people enjoy reading about my life with dogs? Should I sell my Apple shares while I've still got a profit? I just look at the numbers and wonder. My watch of the day used to belong to Alice Cooper. I wouldn't mind having that guy's numbers. School's Out was recorded in 1972 and I still hear it on the radio today. Took him a while, but he even made it into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame last month.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 481

We went looking at televisions this afternoon. I actually thought we'd come home with one, but we didn't. One thing I learned today is that most electronics retailers like Fry's and Best Buy don't actually stock the cool new models that get all the good reviews on the Internet. Instead, they have a lot of slightly older models that they are trying to get rid of. There must be a larger profit margin on the really huge flat screens too. There were tons of TV out there that wouldn't even fit through our front door, but not nearly as wide a selection of the smaller 32 inch models we were looking for. When you ask which TV is they most reliable, dependable model, the salespeople don't even know anymore. They just try to sell you an extended warranty package and say you can bring it back if anything goes wrong. Quality has essentially become a function of service these days and seems to have less and less to do with the product itself. Maybe I'll just buy a TV online. I already buy just about everything else online anyway.

It's weird. I'm always the first to lament the demise of small businesses around town, but my buying habits are probably exactly why many small businesses are having trouble. It's just so much easier to buy online. You don't have to fight the traffic and there is generally no sales tax. Just click your mouse a few times and a few days the FedEx guy delivers your order to your front door.

It was nice dog walking weather today. Almost every time I walk the dogs in the park, I see something that I can't really explain. Today I saw two uniformed state game wardens sitting on top of a hill in their green four wheel drive pickup, looking out over the lake with high powered binoculars. I don't know what they were looking for. I looked in the same general direction and all I saw were two people flying kites and a guy taking pictures of wildflowers. I certainly didn't see any wild animals, although there are plenty living in the park. Maybe there's a problem that I'm not aware of. With the diverse crowd that frequents the park on weekends now, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if someone weren't picking off the large turtles one by one and using them to make turtle soup.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 480

The Dalmatians in the rescue program seem to be finding their forever homes a bit faster this year. Remember Blossom? She went to her new home today. It really wasn't that long ago when I took Blossom's picture and made her the Dalmatian of the Day. It's nice that these dogs are finding homes quickly, because there is always a new dog entering the program. We got another new dog today. Her name is Livy and she's today's Dalmatian of the Day. Like many rescue dogs, Livy was an owner surrender. It's sad that pets have become a throw away item these days for many people. A new baby arrives, or a family gets transferred to another part of the country and the dog goes to the animal shelter. We'll make sure that Livy gets a better home this time.

When I was walking Dot and Dash this afternoon, I noticed two police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck down by the lake. Something was wrong. Nobody seemed to care though. There were several groups of picnickers within twenty feet of all the commotion and they just continued to eat as if nothing happened. It was a strange day at the lake. On the way home I saw a car driving down one of the narrow bicycle paths. This isn't allowed at all, but when the car drove right past another parked police car, the police did nothing at all. I guess the police had bigger fish to fry than a car on the bike path today.

I filled up my tank on the way home from the grocery store. Yikes! Gas is getting pretty pricey these days. I don't think I've ever paid more than this to fill up my tank. Well, actually, I have paid more, but it was a different tank. Once I had a one ton F-350 dually pickup with a diesel engine and two gas tanks. You wouldn't want to be facing $4.00 per gallon gas with that thing.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 479

My little two dog office had a busy day. I spent most of the day working on my new oil and gas annual report. When I wasn't puzzling over strange phrases like "our strategy is to capitalize on this growing trend for independent upstream companies to monetize their conventional assets by deploying capital to unconventional resources," I was on the phone. I made a rare international call to one of my clients in Germany this morning. This was the first time I'd used my iPhone to make an international call, and I was amazed by how easy it was. I am totally flummoxed by international calls. I never remember the correct country codes and seldom remember whether I'm supposed to dial 1 or not in front of the long string of numbers. With the iPhone, I didn't have to mess with any of this. All I did was touch my finger to my client's name in my address book and the call went through.

My reluctant plunge into the social media ocean is finally starting to pay off. I got a call this afternoon from an old client of mine who I recently reconnected with on Facebook. Would I be interested in working on some new product launch literature for a major wireless provider? You bet! Towards the end of the day, a blogger friend called and asked if I'd be interested in doing some professional blogging for his company. Things are looking up.

I wish my memory was a little better. As I was packing for the employee photo assignment I mentioned in an earlier post, a little voice in the back of my head told me to call my client and make sure I had the right day. Nope. Wrong again. The photo shoot is actually next Friday afternoon. Even though a had wasted some time packing up cameras, this mistake was really a blessing in disguise. I didn't have enough time to do the photos today anyway. As soon as I hung up the phone, I went straight back to working on the annual report.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 478

I can always tell when my accountant actually starts working on my taxes, because I get a flurry of calls asking for various missing documents. One of the documents they were asking for today actually was missing. The rest, the accountant already had. I must have just put them in the wrong pocket of the accordion folder with all my receipts. It's getting pretty close to April 15, but I certainly can't fault my accountant for waiting this long to get started. This is the busiest month of the year for accounting firms. If I had this much business during the months of March and April, I would probably just take the rest of the year off.

I did get some legitimate new business today. The annual report job finally came through. Part of my input material was a competitors annual report. "Our business is exactly like theirs," I was told. "We just don't want it to sound like we went out and copied them." I've gotten this kind of direction before. "Make it just the same....but different." Yup, I can do that. I've done it many times before.

I'm glad it's Friday tomorrow. I don't know why, since Saturdays aren't usually that exciting. It's been a long, busy week though, and I'd like to forget about keeping my head above water for a couple of days. Maybe we'll go look at new televisions this weekend. Given the choice between making an annual report sound "just the same...but different" or watching old episodes of Top Gear and Dr. Who, I think being a couch potato for a while doesn't sound half bad.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 477

I made a new business call this morning. I would do this sort of thing a lot more often if it didn't eat up half my day. I drove for an hour to go make my pitch, made a short presentation, and then drove for an hour to go home again. I still don't know if I got the job. Probably I didn't, because I ended up getting lost on the way to the meeting and was fifteen minutes late. Google Maps let me down. When it came time to take exit 38A off the freeway, I discovered that the exit didn't exist anymore. In it's place was a lot of construction equipment and traffic barriers. By the time I got to exit 39 five miles down the road, my Google directions didn't make sense anymore.

When I got back from this meeting, I has to call customer service to resolve a website problem and got one of those automated phone systems that attempt to solve your problem through a series of prerecorded questions. These things never work. After twenty minutes of listening to speak or type your case number and I don't understand your answer from the automated robot, I finally discovered that the secret word you had to say in order to have your call directed to a real person was "agent." I don't know why so many help desks are going to these automated systems because they never seem to resolve anything.

The rest of the day was spent trying to track down the status of various pending jobs, again with very little success. When we went to training class tonight, Dash wasn't having a lot of success either. It wasn't his fault though. Dash is very good at picking up on my moods. He probably sensed that I wasn't really on top of things tonight and decided he wasn't going to make much of an effort either. At least the sun is still up during most of training class these days. It's much nicer to be able to see what you're doing during the training exercises. All in all, it wasn't the best of days. Luckily, there's always tomorrow to look forward to.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 476

The stock market continues to puzzle me. I talked to my broker today and he thinks it's time to sell a few positions and lock in some of my recent gains. This certainly sounds reasonable if it weren't for the fact that every time I've done this in the past, the market has gone even higher. I certainly believe that old adage bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered. Nevertheless, anyone who has been too cautious during the past several years has seen their portfolio go nowhere. Historically, when I did well personally, the market also did well. This is no longer true. In fact, there now seems to be a complete disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street. All around me, I see homes in foreclosure, small businesses struggling and retail prices skyrocketing. At the same time the market continues to stay surprisingly strong. I just don't know anymore. The market may still be the best chance I've got at economic independence. On the other hand, stocks could just be the bubble that hasn't burst yet.

I took Dash to the vet today for his bi-weekly antigen shot. When the nurse took his blood pressure I noticed that the monitor was a high-tech marvel with all kinds of red and green flashing lights. When the nurse takes my own blood pressure, they still use an old fashioned inflatable cuff that probably hasn't changed in design for over fifty years. The vets are the first to get all the new toys these days. My veterinary clients had the new digital x-ray machines over five years ago and my own physicians are just starting to get these things. I have a feeling that going to vet school might be a lot better long-term investment than buying stocks.

My oil and gas annual report is back on the front burner again. On the other hand, the big oil and gas social media project I'm bidding on is still in limbo. The only sure thing these days are employee photos. I'm always taking employee photos. Got another photo shoot lined up for this Friday.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 475

The new heat pump was installed at my rental property today. It was a big, day-long production, involving a large crane and a crew of installers. The installation would have been a piece of cake if the heat pump wasn't located up on the roof in a very inaccessible place. True to form, I don't seem to do many things the easy way. At least if it's up on the roof, the unit is a bit harder for thieves to destroy in search of copper tubing.

Hopefully, this will be my last big expenditure of the year. I can't keep depositing little checks in the bank while I'm writing big checks for repairs and health care forever. I'll have to admit that the old heat pump actually did provide pretty good service. It lasted 25 years. That's a lot more than you can say for most things these days.

After the heat pump was safely installed on the roof of my rental property, I returned home to my own roof to sweep off the water from last night's rains. There was a huge storm last night which woke up both dogs and sent them into frenzy of barking. Dot has a terrible phobia of storms, and although Dash could care less, he likes to bark whenever Dot does. Needless to say, we didn't really get a good night's sleep last night.

No pancakes this morning. I've begun my new "no sugar" campaign. Actually, I was so busy today that I didn't eat any breakfast at all. Nevertheless, I won't be having my beloved pancakes, waffles or french toast for a while. I'm trying to think of something I can eat that won't kill me, but is still appealing enough to get me out of bed in the morning. So far, the only thing that really sounds good is biscuits and gravy. My doctors probably won't like that. Something tells me that biscuits and gravy aren't really considered a health food.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day