Day 859

The Casino Party went well last night. Sometimes we get a crowd that seems very reticent about gambling. They'll bet one chip at a time and seem to forget that they're gambling with play money. Last night's crowd wasn't like this. They bet with wild abandon, filling the entire board with huge piles of chips. Everybody seemed to be having fun. We didn't get home until well after midnight, but the time goes quickly with a good crowd like this.

I can't say that today was all that fun. The weather was beautiful, but I spent most of the day working. After taking Dot and Dash to the dog park this morning, I went down to the rent property and spent the afternoon trying to get the place cleaned up enough to put it on the market. The inside was clean already, but the windows needed washing and the patio area was full of leaves from last Winter.

The place looks pretty nice now. To get things looking even better, I would have to start spending some serious money for things that might not mean much to a potential buyer anyway. With any luck, I'll sign a contract with the real estate agent and have the place on the market next week.  I guess I am what you would call a motivated seller. I really don't want to be a landlord anymore.

Big sections of the park where I walk the dogs are native prairie. In the Spring these grasslands are filled with wildflowers. In the Winter, I'm the only photographer in the park, but this time of year I share the space with hundreds of other shutterbugs. We saw a ton of people with cameras today wading through the tall grass to take macro shots of flowers. I felt like telling these people that they were walking through areas filled with snakes and poison ivy, but I guess they'll figure things out for themselves soon enough.

I saw lots of people lounging around today. Several people hung hammocks between trees in the park. When I went downtown to clean the rent house, I saw tons of people having cocktails at sidewalk cafes. I wish my clients would do a little more lounging. They tend to send me work on Sundays. The last thing I wanted today was more work. I'm tired. I'd like to do a little lounging myself.

Mindy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 858

What a busy weekend it's going to be. After breakfast this morning, we met some other volunteers to set up the gaming tables for tonight's Casino Party fundraiser. Since Dalmatian Rescue hasn't done one of these events in a while, I'd forgotten how heavy the tables are. Actually, the tables seem to get heavier with each passing year. Luckily, we still have enough volunteers to lug everything around to events. Casino Parties have been a good source of revenue for the group over the years.

I went over to my storage warehouse after we set up the tables to dispute a recent bill. They had charged me twice last month. I took my credit card statement to show them the mistake and all they did was show me their own records showing that I had only been charged once. "But it's right here on my bill," I said. "Two charges on the same day from you guys that are identical to the penny." "We'll look into it," was all the manager said.  Things like this are happening with increasing frequency. I used to get one mistake on my credit card bill every five years. Now I get them virtually every month. I think people just don't care anymore. They just run whatever you're buying under the scanner that reads the bar code and they're done. Same thing for running your card through the credit card reader. I remember running my card through twice at the storage warehouse last month, because the manager said my first try didn't go through. Obviously, it did go through since two transactions made within minutes of each other are on my bill.

This is once of the things I hate about modern life.  You car gets repaired wrong. Your mail gets delivered to the wrong house. Erroneous charges wind up on your credit card bills, and still nobody really cares. When you talk to someone about all these annoying little problems, you can tell they wish you would just go away. Nobody wants to deal with your little problems, because they're tired, want to go home, and all have bigger problems of their own to deal with.

When I took Dot and Dash on their evening walk, crews were still disassembling all the tents, banners and porta-potties from this mornings big March of Dimes race in the park. These charity runs and walk-a-thons have become big business. I'm amazed at how complex it has become to stage one of these events. Even though the charities that have these large fundraisers are non-profits, there are a ton of small businesses that actually do make a profit from helping the event run smoothly. That's one thing about Dalmatian Rescue. Our charity events are simple. Just a few volunteers trying to save one dog at a time.

Joe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 857

I returned to the trendy restaurant this morning to see what their breakfast was like. When I arrived around 10:30 AM, the place was virtually empty because all the cool people were already at work. The cool food was still being served however, so everything was fine with me. I ordered eggs over easy, served on a bed of succulent pulled pork with home-made hash browns. The eggs were just right; not too runny and not too hard. The music was just right too. No old Eagles tunes transformed into elevator music here. The soundtrack of my breakfast sounded like I was at at a pleasant Sixth Street bar in Austin. Even the coffee met with my approval. I certainly didn't get freshly made French Press at my regular breakfast restaurant. I'll definitely go back to this place again. It's not often that you get to enjoy a genuinely cool restaurant without all the irritating cool people.

On the way home it rained just enough to force me up on the roof with the push broom again. I wish there was something useful to do with all the water that accumulates on the roof. This water didn't even look drinkable though. The green flowers that form as the Oak trees are budding had all fallen to the roof and stained the water a dirty yellow green. It looked like a giant had peed on the roof.

Jeez, I just noticed that Blogger has changed its layout again. As I'm composing this, I'm noticing that all the buttons and widgets are in different places. Why?  It's not that different. Just different enough to slow me down a bit. Google+ did the same thing with their layout a few seeks ago, and the whole desire to freshen everything up was probably started when Facebook switched to their new timeline format. It's almost like the entire population has ADD with the attention span of a fruit fly. If all these new formats were better, it might actually mean something. They aren't better though. They're just different. I guess I'm not easily bored. I haven't changed my company website in over ten years. I may never change it.

Dalmatian Rescue has another casino party benefit this weekend. We haven't had one of these events for quite a while now. It's a good thing my job is easy or I would have forgotten it by now. I just spin the roulette wheel. You throw the ball in a counterclockwise direction while spinning the wheel clockwise. That's it. If only my real job was that easy.

Wilson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 856

Slip sliding away. That's the way I'm feeling these days. Every week, checks for $200 or $300 dribble in, along with bills for several thousand dollars. I wonder how long you can sustain this kind of impossible math.

Luckily, I had some very good years. I don't think those days will return however. The world has fundamentally changed. I listen to all the politicians promising jobs if you'll elect them and I wonder what on earth they are thinking. You can't promise jobs in a global economy. If someone in China or India can do the job for 1/3 of what I would charge, they're going to get the job. End of story. To survive in this brave new world, you have to lower your prices to stay competitive and hope that a larger audience for your products or services will make up the difference. This strategy might work well for Coca Cola and McDonald's, but it certainly doesn't help me much. I just end up working longer and harder for less money.

It doesn't help much to fret about such things though. Once the metaphorical Pandora's Box has been opened, it can never be closed again. In an increasingly interconnected world, great economies are trying their best to equalize. It's like those science experiments in high school chemistry class where liquid in two connected containers always stayed at the same level. My economy is getting worse. Yours may be getting better. Maybe in three or four generations, everything will be wonderful, but it's not a pretty sight now.

At least I still have things to do as I slowly get poorer. I worked on some websites today. I sent out invoices like notes in a bottle and continued writing articles. The dogs did their part to keep the leaky ship afloat. They chased squirrels in the backyard.

I asked the real estate agent today why he wanted to price my rent house so low, especially when there were similar properties for sale in the same neighborhood at considerably higher prices. "Look at how long those houses have been on the market," he told me. "When a house has been on the market for 400 days, the seller just hasn't come to grips with reality yet."

I'm sure the agent is right. It's no fun to come to grips with reality. Reality can be downright depressing. That's why I'm going to try the trendy restaurant my advertising friends like for breakfast tomorrow. Maybe they'll have a great breakfast that will perk up my entire day. Maybe if I continue going to this place, it will become "my" trendy restaurant. Stranger things have happened.

Marley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 855

I had lunch today with Alan and Dick, two old friends from my ad agency days. The phrase "old friends" used to just be a figure of speech with me. Now, it quite literally means old friends. My friends and I used to talk about who had the fastest car, or the most exciting job. Now, we talk about who has had the most complicated medical procedure. Alan wanted to go to a trendy new restaurant in the neighborhood. I seldom go to trendy new restaurants because it's hard to find a parking place and I don't feel comfortable dressing shabbily. I'd hate to run into someone I know looking as ratty as I usually do.

Every once in a while, its worth looking presentable and fighting for a parking place though. Today, I caught up on several year's worth of gossip, and as a bonus, got to bitch and moan with two like minded friends about how the ad business has basically gone to hell in a hand basket. I don't think the young pierced and tattooed ad folks sitting at nearby tables even realize how much more fun their jobs would be if they had been born twenty years earlier. Every time I see that show "Mad Men," I realize I was right there in the middle of it all.

Alan and Dick both do yoga. When they asked how I stay in shape, I told them that I walked dogs. I was in just as good shape as the two of them, so there's a lot to be said for walking dogs. Personally, I think walking two strong Dalmatians who have their hearts set on chasing squirrels is more challenging than anything you could dream up at a gym.

I think I'm going to go ahead and have the real estate agent I talked to yesterday list my rent property. After thinking about it overnight, I realized that I have no interest in having another renter whatsoever. The market isn't very good, but if I wait to sell until the market improves, there's a good chance that the building would disintegrate first.

The weather was beautiful for dog class this evening. Unfortunately, there was a lot of pollen in the air, so I spent the entire class wiping my eyes and blowing my nose into a shop towel. Allergy season seems even worse than usual this year, but at least I haven't caught poison ivy yet.

Mattie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 854

When I met with the real estate agent this afternoon, I got a dose of reality that I wasn't expecting. I've known for some time that real estate prices are falling in Dallas, but I had no idea how far they had actually dropped. When the agent showed me a comp list of what similar properties in the area were selling for these days, I was shocked. I had actually been inside a few of the houses on the comp list and never dreamed that they would ever be priced so low. Let's just say that if I sold my house just before the market peaked, I could have made 40% more than I would probably make today. I've owned the rent property so long that I'll probably still make a small profit if I decide to sell. I understand now why there is so much talk these days about people being underwater on their mortgages. If you bought in 2005 you'd be selling at a loss today.

Hindsight is always 20/20. I would have been much better off selling the rent property years ago, rather than convincing myself that I could always sell the place later, after a succession of renters provided me with an income for a while. Like many others, I used to think that real estate would never actually fall in value. I never planned on modern houses coming back in fashion either. My place use to be a very desirable rarity for people who liked such things. Now modern houses are so commonplace in Dallas that the rent property is just another modern house without all the amenities of the newer ones.

I liked the agent though and will probably use him to list the place. I wasn't even insulted by how little he thought my place was worth. Hey, how can you not like a guy who loves Citroen automobiles and wears a vintage Hamilton Ventura watch? The guy had an encyclopedic knowledge of Dallas architects too, and said he had enough mid-century modern furniture stored away that he could stage the place without charging me anything extra.

If I haven't learned the perils of hanging on to things too long by now, I probably never will. The house isn't the only thing I should have sold a long time ago. I had a beautiful vintage Vox Mark VI guitar in the storage warehouse that got totally ruined when water leaked into the room one Summer. Some of my favorite Bulova Accutron tuning fork watches are no longer repairable because I waited too long to restore them. Now most of the Accutron repairmen are dead and the supply of spare parts is gone. Nothing lasts forever. Apparently nothing is valuable forever either. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, or so the saying goes.

Bella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 853

What is it about Monday's? I never get much done on a Monday. I actually got up earlier than usual, but by the time I got the dogs walked, ate breakfast, washed the dishes, and answered this weekend's accumulated e-mail, it was time for lunch.

I did get a couple of new assignments today, but there wasn't time to complete them, so I mowed the grass instead. I wish I'd mowed last week, or the week before. The grass was so tall and thick that it kept stalling the mower. It took me forever to mow the tiny little patch of grass that is our front yard. It's still a mystery to me why the grass in the front yard grows much faster than normal and the grass in the back yard hardly grows at all. I wish it was the other way around. The front yard faces a busy road and hardly ever gets used.

Some of you may remember that a breakfast networking group wanted me to join them last Summer. I think it was last Summer anyway. It's been a long time. At any rate, the group never actually asked me to join and I forgot about them. Now, almost a year later, they're asking me again if I'd be interested in joining them. These guys should have made me a member last year. I remember being kind of intrigued at the time. Now, the thought of getting up early once a week and putting on nice clothes for a breakfast meeting makes me want to throw up. There are only a few good reasons to get up in the morning anyway, and I don't think going to a meeting is one of them.

I lost the lens cap on my camera again when I was taking the dogs on their evening walk. When I discovered the missing cap, I wanted to retrace my steps, but the dogs didn't approve of this idea. They stood their ground and eventually we continued on home. Neither dog seems to like the idea of going backward. Once they've covered some ground, they just want to keep moving forward. After I got home with the dogs, I took the car and went back to the spot where I thought I might have dropped the cap. I'm a methodical person, so after fifteen minutes of searching, I spotted the missing lens cap and returned home again. The weird thing is that both dogs have such a great sense of smell that they could probably smell lost photo gear almost immediately if I could just train them to do it. Finding things that I dropped on our walks would probably be a lot easier than learning to be a bomb sniffing dog. I don't seem to be able to train the dogs to do anything though. After four years of training class, Dash still won't even come when he's called.

Tomorrow, I meet the real estate agent and find out how marketable my rent property is going to be. I'm going to try to keep an open mind and not let my own thoughts on the matter get in the way. I have a tendency to think everything I own is worth a lot more than it really is. Janet keeps reminding me that if I really want to sell the place, I need to forget about what I think it's worth. It's what other people think the place is worth that matters.

Becker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 852

I managed to get about a third of my stuff moved over to the new storage warehouse today. The whole process of moving is a bit like an archeological dig. Today, I uncovered the entire PA system for my old band, a high performance windsurfer that would probably get me killed if I ever took it out on open water again, and a nice old leather motorcycle jacket that somehow lasted a lot longer than the motorcycle. Another couple of weeks and I'll probably have everything moved. Then the hard part starts. I've got to decide what to throw away. Probably a lot of old Macintosh computers won't make the final cut. What good are these things anymore? They don't even make good doorstops. They say you need to keep financial records at least three years. I've got some that go back at least thirteen years. Maybe they can be tossed as well. All the cameras stay.

I watched the tribute to Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes tonight. What an amazing life that guy had. I think he met just about every person of significance that ever lived. I've met relatively few famous people in my own life. I remember having dinner with Rudee Vallee and his wife at their house near Mulholland Drive. I remember listening to Larry Storch tell me how to hypnotize a chicken. I got invited on stage once by Steppenwolf back when they were really popular. I remember eating fried chicken with Richard Petty while filming a television commercial and realizing the guy was stone deaf from all those years on the NASCAR tracks. For the most part, my life has been fairly solitary though. Sometimes I envy people like Mike Wallace. I think you learn something from every person you encounter in life. I've learned a few things, but not much lately. How much can you really learn from two Dalmatians?

The dogs didn't get to go to the dog park today because the weather was pretty marginal. Instead of racing around smelling other dogs butts, they sat under my desk at home while I built new webpages for Betsy and Bogart, our newest members of the Dalmatian Rescue Program. As the day progressed, the weather improved and by dinner time, we were able to take our regular evening walk. Dot and Dash got the exercise they needed and I got a few more pictures of birds and squirrels.

Tomorrow I need to remember to pay my First Quarter Estimated Taxes, as well as a few overdue bills. I also need to call the plumber again. I've figured out what the problem is at our house. It's just not something I can fix myself. There's always something that needs to be done. As much as I'd like to sleep in to 10 AM every morning, I don't think it will ever happen.

Krissy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 851

Today was more or less of a lost cause. I wasted an enormous amount of time this morning trying to renew my Skype accounts using Paypal. I've renewed my Skype phone number this way for several years now, but for some reason it didn't work this time. Paypal technical support, which is very good, said there was nothing wrong with my Paypal account. Skype technical support, which is terrible, ate up my morning with their silly live chat system. After explaining my problem over and over again and waiting up to five minutes for a reply in the chat window, the service representative typed that they had no idea what the problems was and they would have to "escalate" my service request. Jeez, Skype is a phone company, or at least kind of a phone company. Why can't you ever talk to someone on the phone at Skype? I guess I didn't need Skype anyway.

I was supposed to photograph two new Dalmatians today, but the weather was bad and the dogs didn't appear to be comfortable posing in a windstorm. In most of the pictures, the dogs ears were blowing backwards like they had stuck their head out the window of a car going sixty miles an hour. I think I'll have to go back and take these pictures again on a nicer day.

I think the really bad weather is North of us in Oklahoma and Kansas. All we have here is a lot of wind and some ominous looking clouds. There were a few light sprinkles while I was getting groceries, but I was still able to give the dogs their evening walk without any of us getting wet. Things don't look so good for our Sunday trip to the dog park however. Everyone says it is going to rain buckets in Dallas tomorrow.

I'm going to try to get some stuff moved to the larger storage warehouse tomorrow. I've got to get things moved before the end of the month when my contract for the smaller warehouse runs out. So far, I've moved virtually nothing. Why do I wait until the last minute for everything? If I hadn't waited until the last day before my Skype accounts expired, I probably wouldn't have had so many problems with them either.

Flash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 850

At least it's Friday! I don't even mind that it's Friday the 13th. Actually, luck was with me today. I finally got the garbage disposal fixed at the rent house. While I was there, I noticed that the final coat of paint had dried nicely, so the place is finally ready to show. On the way home, I stopped by my accountant's office to pick up my tax information. All I really needed were the 1040ES forms for next year's quarterly estimated taxes and of course, the bill from the accountant for preparing everything. When I deduct the quarterly payments I already made last year and the bill I just got for tax preparation, my tax refund amounts to exactly nothing. That's right, nothing! Oh well, at least taxes are over for another year.

I had a tasty omelet for breakfast at The Broken Egg Cafe. It's nice not to have to do breakfast dishes on Friday. I'd eat out more often if restaurant food didn't have so much salt in it. Chef's love salt, because it's an easy and proven way to make food tastier. That's unfortunate, because I really try to avoid the stuff. I think cutting down on your salt intake is one of the easiest ways to stay a little healthier. Cutting down on sugar would be good too, but that's a little harder for me. I've got a sweet tooth.

After several months of taking a camera along with me on our dog walks, I find that I'm starting to run out of subjects. I think I've photographed every single squirrel and bird in the park by now, along with a few bunnies and snakes. Every once in a while I'll still stumble on something new, but these occasions are few and far between. I'll continue bringing the camera though. It's a pretty safe bet that the day I leave the thing at home will be the day when I see something that I've been waiting to photograph for months. The dogs don't seem to mind the camera and occasionally, I take pictures of them as well.

I'm hoping for a nice weekend. There's lots of yardwork that needs to be done. There are two new dogs that need to be photographed at The Velvet Snout, and of course there's still that pesky St. Augustine turf that needs to be installed in the back yard. It's too much for one weekend, but maybe I'll get enough done to make a dent in things.

Valli is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 849

I'm making progress. I called a plumber today. I made an appointment to meet with a real estate agent next week. I even made a few new business calls. I think I've come up with a cunning plan to solve my plumbing problems. I'm going to fix the plumbing problems at the rent house first and while the plumber is working, I'm going to see if I can get some free advice about what is happening at my house. I don't really know whether I've got a plumbing problem or an appliance problem. If I call an appliance repairman, it will turn out to be a plumbing problem. If I call a plumber, it will turn out that the dishwasher needs to be repaired. That's always the way it works. Maybe if I describe my situation to the plumber while he's at the rent house, he'll help me make the right decision. One can only hope.

I'm really hoping I can sell the rent house soon. The real estate agent I talked to today specializes in mid-century modern architecture and was quite familiar with the architect who designed the house. He sounded very interested in getting the listing for the rent house. Janet says that none of this stuff matters when you're selling property, but I still like to think it does. Unless someone really likes the architecture, nobody is going to buy this house. I need to find another fool, just like me. I've heard that there are people who collect architecture, just like collecting cars or watches. Maybe I can find one of those guys.

I got a lot done today, but all I really remember is the French Toast I fixed for breakfast. Thursday is becoming French Toast day. I have a leisurely breakfast while watching old Top Gear episodes on TV. Today they ran the episode where Jeremy, Richard and James tried to turn a Reliant Robin into a space shuttle. I love this show and would probably watch it all day if I didn't have so much work to do.

I noticed that Google+ has changed its layout so that it looks more like Facebook now. Why did they have to go do that? The old layout was just fine. I don't know why Facebook changed to their new timeline either. I hate the timeline. I have to deal with change every day. My whole business is about change. Coping with change keeps your mind active and it's probably better than doing those Sudoku puzzles, but I still wish that everything would stay the same for a while.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 848

Janet wanted me to take one of the dogs to training class tonight, because she had a late meeting to attend. The only problem was that neither dog wanted to be the one left behind. I had such a difficult time getting one dog ready while trying to pen the other one in the bedroom, that I decided we would all just stay home instead. It's just as well. My allergies were terrible today and I'd probably go through an entire box of Kleenex if I was out in the pollen laden air for another hour or two.

I finally got my April invoices out today and got caught up on my monthly accounting. Everything seems to be moving very slowly this month. Each morning I turn on the computer and start working, just like I always do, but even the simplest task seems to take forever. I'm so tired.

I got an e-mail today about an upcoming tour of homes and noticed the name of a real estate agent who specializes in mid-century modern houses. I think I'll give the guy a call tomorrow. I really need to find someone who knows how to market my rent property. It's little and doesn't have the latest amenities, but it's still the kind of place that someone out there is going to think is cool. I need to find that someone.

There were still a lot of butterflies in the park this morning. I've discovered that there is something odd about photographing butterflies. It's almost impossible to use the auto-focus feature on the camera. For some reason, the auto-focus mechanism doesn't see the insects. Manual focus isn't a good alternative either on cameras without a viewfinder. I can never tell if something is in sharp focus on those little LCD screens. I'll have to do some experimenting. Luckily, there are plenty of butterflies to practice with.

I don't know if I'm ever going to get caught up. There are still a lot of things on last week's to-do list that I haven't finished yet. I need to mow the grass. I need to get started moving things from the little storage room to the big one. I still need to call the plumber too. Maybe tomorrow. There's always tomorrow.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 847

I got a new client today. As often happens, I also learned something about an industry I didn't even know existed. My new client makes the tools that allow high-tech computerized lathes and milling machines to rapidly carve things like apple keyboards out of blocks of solid metal. I watched as massive half million dollar machines shaped blocks of tungsten steel into the precision tools needed for automated manufacturing. It was kind of amazing that all this was going on in an inconspicuous warehouse district about five miles from my house. Evidently, there are only two shops with these sophisticated capabilities in the entire North Texas area and their customers come from all over the world. My job is to build the company a website that works as well as their machines. I like complex mechanical things, so the assignment sounds like a fun project.

A number of loose ends got tied up today. My taxes are finished and it looks like I'll be getting a refund. I reached an agreement with my former tenant and it looks like I'll be sending her a check for a portion of her security deposit. I paid some more bills and I had hopes of getting my April invoices out before I ran out of time. Sometimes life seems like nothing more than moving money from one pile to another. It comes in and it goes out again. I never seem to be able to hang on to the stuff for very long.

The park was full of butterflies today. It's that time of year. It's not easy to photograph butterflies when you're walking two rambunctious Dalmatians, but I did manage to get a few decent shots. My whole photography style has changed. I used to dedicate an afternoon every month or two to taking photos without the dogs. Now, I just take a camera along with me whenever we take our walks. Dot and Dash do ruin a few good shots, but there are so many more photo opportunities on long dog walks that I'm starting to capture things that I never though possible before.

I need to call a plumber soon. I can't decide whether to fix our own house or the rent house first. It would make sense to give my own leak top priority, but if the plumber goes to the rent house first, I won't need to deal with all the dog barking.

Apollo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 846

It's hard to get an early start when your dogs don't want to get up either. Dot and Dash have been my alarm clock for many years and when they don't feel like getting up, I'm always off to a late start. Today, we got started on our morning walk so late that I had to resort to eating cereal for breakfast. I'm a slow cook, so sometimes just eating cold cereal for breakfast will give me an extra forty-five minutes.

I don't know why I was in a hurry anyway. Not a lot happened today. I was a bit embarrassed that I complained so much about my bill with the electrician the other day. When I was writing checks this afternoon, I noticed that I had paid a similar bill for almost the same amount in 2008. The electrician hadn't raised his prices after all. They were always high. I wonder why this bill seemed so high and the earlier bill didn't? The only thing that I can think of was that I was making a lot more money in 2008 and being overcharged for something wasn't as much of a big deal. Oh well. Fair is fair. I paid the entire bill, even though I'd told the electrician two days ago that I wasn't going to.

I got a call from the accountant's office today. It looks like even though the company billed out twice as much as it did the previous year, I'm still going to have a tax loss. Bad investments and healthcare expenses largely offset any gains I made with the company. I don't know if this is something to celebrate or not. So, there's no big tax bill this year, but apparently I didn't make any money either.

Life goes on though. I have a new business meeting tomorrow. With any luck, I'll get an opportunity to design another website that I can continue to maintain in the future. I write new articles almost every day and make a deposit at the bank every two or three days. I'm just going to have to resign myself to the fact that even though I'm busy and often tired, I'm not making as much as I was fifteen years ago.

I saw today on the news that Facebook bought Instagram for a billion dollars. My first thought was a sincere hope that Facebook doesn't end up ruining Instagram. They're ruined plenty of good ideas before. Hey, I love this little app and use it all the time. My second thought was that I sure wish I had invented Instagram. Probably everyone in that entire company is a millionaire now. Amazing! This simple little photo sharing app on my iPhone is worth more now than the entire New York Times Corporation.

Livy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 845 - Easter

No sunrise services or egg hunts for us anymore. We still have a traditional ham dinner on Easter, but for the most part, it's just another day to go to the dog park. For many in Dallas, Easter is a day to have huge family picnics in the park behind our house. We saw people setting up tents and stoking barbecue fires early this morning. Unfortunately, most of the families were gone by mid-afternoon. A big thunderstorm swept through town a little after noon and undoubtedly dampened quite a few holiday plans. We did manage to get the dogs to the dog park before the deluge started. They had a nice outing and were ready to come home again as soon as they heard thunder off in the distance. It rained much of the afternoon, and stopped just in time to give Dot and Dash their evening walk. The park was almost empty. The picnickers had all gone home.

The rainy afternoon was a good time to bring the Dalmatian Rescue website up to date. While our own Dalmatians hid from the rain under my desk, I made new webpages pages for our three newcomers: Crosby, Bunny, and Milo. I also marked another dog as "adopted." Molly got her forever home today.

Our dishwasher isn't broken after all. Janet and I had thought it was broken for months, because the dishes weren't dry anymore after a load finished washing. I just noticed today that an inconspicuous little button on the front panel had been switched from "heat dry" to "air dry." Personally, I think Dash pushed the button when he was trying to get at food on the counter. At any rate, when I switched the button back to "heat dry" again, everything worked perfectly. It's strange that this situation has been going on for months and I never noticed that little button before.

There are probably a ton of things around the house that I just don't notice anymore. I wish I could train myself to be more observant when I'm up on the roof. Maybe I could finally find that pesky leak. I certainly didn't discover any secrets today. I just pushed this afternoon's rains off the roof with a broom, so we're ready for the next Spring deluge.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 844

Every day that I go down to the rent property to fix things up, I find something else wrong. Today, I went down to paint, and when I was cleaning up my tools, I discovered that the garbage disposal in the kitchen was broken. Hmm. Funny that my renter never mentioned this. A lot of the problems I'm finding are little and could possibly be overlooked. Unfortunately, they cumulatively add up to a big mess. Almost a month after my tenant moved out, I still haven't gotten the place ready to lease or sell. To add insult to injury, I was tired and stumbled into a freshly painted wall toward the end of the day and got wet paint all over my jeans. Now, I'm going to have to add a plumber to my growing list of expenses. I don't think this renter is going to get all of her security deposit back. Today, I didn't feel like giving anything back.

Earlier in the day, Janet and I went up to The Velvet Snout and took Odie to the vet to get his stitches out. When we returned, we took pictures of the three newcomers: Milo, Bunnie and Crosby. I haven't had time to build webpages for the new guys yet, but they'll be up on the Dalmatian Rescue site soon. All three are gentle, wonderful dogs. You really have to wonder why dogs like these ever wind up at the pound in the first place. At least the ones we find will get a second chance. I actually think Molly will be going to her new home today.

I wonder what ever happened to relaxing weekends. I vaguely remember weekends where the big activity was going to a gallery opening or trying out a new restaurant. Not anymore. These days, weekends are just an endless stream of chores. Even if I could put all the problems with the rent house behind me, there's still a world of hurt at our own house. I think one of the lines to the dishwasher has sprung a leak. I need to find a plumber for this too. Too bad I can't get a two for one deal on plumbers. Not very likely! It will be one service call for our house and another for the rent property. The grass is a problem too. The grass in the front won't stop growing and the grass in the back won't start growing. Maybe if it stays dry for another few days I can go up and survey my roof patches. I think I'm making progress because during the big tornado day last week, nothing leaked at all.

The dogs have none of these burdens on their shoulders. They're just wondering if they'll get to go to the dog park tomorrow. Don't worry. They'll get to go. Unless somebody at city services decides to close the park for Easter, a trip to the dog park is the first thing on tomorrow's list.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 843

I couldn't believe how crowded the mall was when I went to Northpark to get a haircut this afternoon. I wasn't aware that Good Friday was a shopping holiday, but apparently it is. I had trouble even finding a parking place. Maybe kids are out of school. At any rate, the place looked like the day before Christmas. When I went to get groceries on the way home, it was the same story. Central Market was packed. I had to drive around the parking lot several times before someone pulled out and gave me a space. I guess it makes sense for grocery stores to be full, since a lot of people cook a big Easter dinner, but I was really surprised by all the traffic and activity today. Who knows? Maybe it's like this all the time. I really don't get out all that much anymore. I did eat breakfast at my favorite neighborhood restaurant though. That's become a Friday tradition.

Today was a hodgepodge of activities. I paid some bills, wrote some articles, and tried to glue together a lovely little porcelain Dalmatian that didn't survive house cleaning last week. It's surprising how often watch repair tools come in handy. I carefully pieced together the little figurine using watchmakers tweezers and superglue. From a distance of more than six inches the thing looks as good as new.

I was planning on putting new grass in the backyard this weekend, but I think getting the rent property painted and ready to show has to come first. The place has been sitting empty for over three weeks now, mostly because I just haven't had time to deal with it. None of the real estate agents I initially contacted have bothered to follow up with me. I guess I was expecting better, but I shouldn't have been surprised. The place is small and doesn't have the latest amenities. Agents would fight to get a million dollar listing, but I don't think they really care about smaller places like mine.

We got three new Dalmatians in the rescue program this week. Maybe Janet and I will go up and photograph them tomorrow. That certainly beats painting the rent house or moving stuff from one storage warehouse to another.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day