Day 764

Nobody wanted their picture taken today. I asked several employees why I was even there if nobody wanted their picture taken and received the answer I kind of expected. The boss wanted everyone to have their picture taken. Of course, nobody bothered to do their makeup, so they're not going to be happy with these pictures either. Sometimes I think this particular client does these pictures just so they can all make fun of each other.

If you happen to be planning a new company website, I'd encourage you to just skip the section with the employee bios and pictures. It's a giant waste of time. Employees are never happy with their pictures. They leave and take new jobs as soon as you get their page in place. Job titles change with regularity. It's a lot of wasted effort.

I was so focused on getting my quarterly estimated taxes in the mail yesterday that I totally forgot there were a lot of other mid-month bills I needed to pay. I spent an hour or so writing checks and then it was back to the post office again. It would have been nice if I'd remembered this yesterday, but I can't remember anything anymore.

Do you ever go through periods where you feel that everything you do is pointless? I think I'm in one of those periods. I'm really busy and have plenty to do everyday, but I'm increasingly convinced that if I were to quit everything and didn't even bother to get out of bed in the morning, nothing I did would even be missed. Life would just continue to roll along like usual.

Maybe the dogs feel this way at training class. "Sit, stay, heel." What does it all really mean? Does it even matter? Sometimes I think my clients are saying exactly the same thing to me. "Sit, stay, heel." I listen and try my best to comply, but sometimes a client's directives make about as much sense as the English language does to a dog.

Complete silence from the shopping channel folks today. I don't think I'm destined to become the next Billy Mays or Anthony Sullivan.

Dovey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 763

I spent way too much time this morning putting together my little video demo for the Shop NBC folks. Honestly, I don't know why I bothered. I mumble when I talk. I often get a totally blank look on my face when I'm listening to someone else. When I look down, my chin disappears. I don't know what these guys were thinking when they asked me to be a pitchman on a shopping channel. Oddly, the video did have a certain charm. Janet helped me make it, playing the "host" while I was the "guest." We do have a good sense of humor. I don't know if they were looking for humor though. Like Janet told me when we finished the demo, "Hey, if they'd asked us to make this twenty years ago, we would have been pretty good." Somehow, I doubt if I'll ever hear about me selling things on TV again.

I may not get the Shop NBC gig, but it does look like I'll be getting more work from my German client. I got an e-mail today from the public relations coordinator I met with in Houston last month and they want me to bid on a good size project. This is great news! I really need to get more corporate work if I want my business to grow. I'm totally maxed out on small, low budget jobs that make me tired and earn me very little.

Remember that I told you I met with my financial adviser yesterday? Well, I got a message from the guy today telling me that all the charts he was showing me for a company he was recommending were really for another company that he wouldn't recommend at all. Really? You certainly could have fooled me. All these charts with their moving average lines look exactly the same to me. My adviser apologized for his mistake and then sent me new information about the "good" company. I'll have to call the guy tomorrow and see whether we actually bought the bad company or the good company. The two charts still look the same to me.

I've got a photo shoot tomorrow. I'm going to be taking more employee photos that will eventually wind up on the company's website. I've taken tons of pictures for this client before, but now they've gotten it in their heads that they need to look prettier. I'm kind of dreading tomorrow. I never take a makeup artist with me, because it's just not in the budget. Good makeup is what they need though. It's not the lighting, it's the makeup.

The furnace still isn't working properly. It will operate normally for about half a day and then the burners refuse to light for no apparent reason. The only way I can get it to start is turn the furnace on and off at the thermostat several times in a row. I know the service folks aren't going to want to come out again. They've been here twice already for this problem and told me they'd fixed things both times.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 762

I had another quarterly review with my financial adviser today. These periodic reviews have been pretty depressing for the past several years. I'm a conservative investor by nature, and for many years my portfolio had a solid foundation of municipal bonds, treasury bills, and very predictable equities. All that is out the window now. The interest rate on treasuries is near zero. Municipalities are defaulting on their debts. Even the best blue chips can drop ten percent in a day if somebody sneezes in Europe. What's a guy to do? We ended 2011 right where we started, even though there were innumerable ups and downs along the way. People like me don't make money in the market anymore. There are very few attractive options. Day traders make money. Day traders lose a lot of money too. That's why I'm not a big fan of short-term trades. It's all a big gamble now.

I finally got the Dalmatian Rescue website updated today. I found time to write another watch article as well. Since it was a holiday, there weren't as many messages from clients. There was a message from the Shop NBC folks though. It said to hurry up and finish the demo I promised them. I've been avoiding doing this demo because I know I don't have the time to do it right. It's going to be a one take wonder when the time comes. Apparently that time is coming very soon. I had to promise them something by tomorrow. What the hell. Tomorrow doesn't look like a very busy day. I'm definitely not an on-air talent, but most of the people on these shopping channel shows aren't either. I just need to remember that they were the one to ask me to be on the show. I certainly didn't ask them. My goal is just not to embarrass myself too badly.

Quarterly estimated taxes are due tomorrow. I need to remember to send mine in this time, especially since I completely forgot about the last quarter. Oh well. I'll catch up on things tomorrow. It's not like I owe the government a lot of money or anything. I just didn't make that much last year. Maybe this year will be better. It would be nice to make enough to offset the loses my financial adviser told me about today.

Shelby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 761

Even though virtually nothing happened, it still seemed like a busy day. Sundays are always like this. We get off to a late start, and by the time breakfast and the weekly trip to the dog park are finished, it is mid-afternoon. Today, the dogs got a bath at Vheas Laundromutt after the dog park. Last week, the dogs that drooled all over Dash while he was playing caused his coat to turn brown again and the vet suggested a bath after being slobbered on by other dogs. Dash seems allergic to just about everything, apparently including dog spit.

I asked our vet about the strange stains on Dash's coat last week and she said this sort of thing wasn't that uncommon. It seems that some dogs have a lot of bacteria in their saliva that can cause a reaction if other dogs are exposed to it. Even stranger, if a dog has been recently vaccinated, traces of the vaccine can show up in the saliva as well, causing a reaction if the other dog is sensitive to the vaccine. Now we have to add dog spit to the long list of things Dash needs to avoid.

Every weekend, I've been trying to print some new images on my large printer and put them aside for a future gallery show. This activity helps keep the printer lines from getting clogged and may even help me get another show down the road. The new images are actually better than the ones I displayed at my last show. I just need to get my butt in gear and pack them in a portfolio case and take them around to some gallery owners. So, when will I find the time to do this? Maybe next year sometime. It certainly won't happen any time soon.

Janet is off work tomorrow. Her office exchanged getting off on Good Friday for getting off on MLK Day instead. This seems a bit strange to me, but it certainly shows the direction the country is headed. I wonder what Martin Luther King would have thought? He was a religious man. I bet he would have wanted people to keep Good Friday as a religious holiday.

Tomorrow isn't a holiday for me. I've got a stack of website and writing work to finish and I need to drive up to North Dallas for my quarterly review with my financial adviser as well. I hope my financial adviser has some good news to report, but that isn't very unlikely.

Betty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 760

I got up early this morning to have my cholesterol tested at the neighborhood health food store. I used to have to stand in a long line for these low cost blood tests, because there are a lot of old people in the neighborhood who apparently get up at the crack of dawn to come to these events. I finally discovered a surefire way to be first in line every time. I come about ten minutes before the store opens and stand in front of the door. I'm never the first to arrive. I'm just the first to get out of my car. The rest of the people sit in their cars until the owner opens the door and turns on the "open" sign in the window. Sure enough, I was first in line again today. It's a simple plan, but it works every time.

We had reservations for the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the art museum at 1 PM, so wouldn't you know; just about when we were getting in the car to go downtown, the telephone repairman arrives to check on a buzz in the line. It never fails. I'd called the telephone company two weeks ago about this noisy line, but they never told me when they were going to come fix it. I opened up the back gate, so the guy could get to the box on the side of the house, and then we left. As you might expect, when we got home, the buzzing noise in the line was just as loud as it was before. I've lost all faith in repair people. Basically, we live in a throw away society and nobody can fix anything.

It was fun going to the exhibit. I haven't been downtown in several years. I used to have a lot of clients with downtown offices, but they all moved to the suburbs years ago. Downtown Dallas appears to be thriving though. There were lots of new buildings; especially in the arts district.

If you are even remotely interested in fashion, the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit is well worth seeing. Is it art? Definitely! I know it's just a bunch of dresses, but there was more creativity and imagination here than I saw hanging on the walls in the rest of the museum. All that being said, Jean Paul Gaultier is definitely an acquired taste. I couldn't imagine anyone actually wearing most of these androgynous, bondage inspired outfits. The show was spectacular though. The mannequins were eerie, with the lifelike moving eyes and mouth that was projected on each face. From a few feet away, the mannequins looked like they were alive.

Once we were back home again, I had difficulty telling whether the furnace was working or not. I know it's the middle of Winter, but it got so warm today we almost had to turn the air conditioner on.

Kasey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 759

The furnace repair folks were over at the house promptly at 8 AM this morning. They worked on the furnace for about an hour and a half and during the entire time they were here, Dot barked incessantly. She worked herself into such a frenzy that she ended up pooping in the front hallway. I tried to keep her quiet, but it really didn't do much good. Dot is so bad about having other people in the house that I hate having to call repair people. I'm sure the repair people don't like all the commotion either. Half of them are convinced Dot will bite them and the other half are just irritated at the noise. I guess it wasn't really surprising that after the furnace technicians charged me $220 and left, the furnace wasn't working any better than it was before they arrived. This has happened before.

Since Dot had already had her little incident in the hallway, I didn't think the dogs could wait for their walk until I finished breakfast. As soon as the furnace truck pulled out of the driveway, I put on their leashes and took them on a belated morning walk. By the time we got back home, Dot and Dash were back to normal again, but it was too late for me to have breakfast. I had already entered the fasting period before my MRI and I couldn't eat at all. It was just that kind of a day. I didn't get anything to eat until dinner time.

The MRI was almost identical to a CAT scan, except it was a lot noisier. The machine makes a noise like a jack hammer while it is running, but you can hardly even hear it, because the technicians make you wear headphones during the scan and pipe in "easy listening" music at volumes even higher than the noise of the machine. The only thing I didn't like about today's scan is that it was one of those "enhanced" scans where they pump you full of dye to increase the contrast of the images. The dye stings a bit when it enters your veins, but it's no big deal. The whole process takes about thirty minutes. Periodically, you hear the technician telling you to hold your breath through the headphones and then it's over. I got dressed again, put all my metallic objects back in my pockets and went home.

Considering that I'd already had some blood drawn yesterday, had some more drawn today at the MRI place so they could formulate the right strength of dye, and will have even more drawn tomorrow for a cholesterol test, I'll well on my way to the Guinness Book of records. I don't think I've ever had as many tests done to me as I have this year.

In between the furnace repair and the MRI, I managed to find time to update several websites. One of the updates involved removing video clips I had shot and replacing them with similar, but fancier looking, clips shot by a local television station. I thought my videos were just fine, but hey; I got paid for putting them up and now I'm getting paid for taking them down. It's a living.

Tomorrow, we're finally going to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the art museum. We planned to do this last month, but there just hasn't been time. I think this is the first thing we've done purely for fun since we went to the Pryamid Room for Thanksgiving dinner. At any rate, I'm looking forward to seeing the exhibit. Until then, I'd better go put on a sweater. The house is getting cold again. I can't believe that furnace is actually working worse now that it was before the repair guys came. Maybe Dot was trying to tell me this morning that these guys didn't know what they were doing.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 758

I'm a Southerner. Anything below freezing is very uncomfortable to me. When I walked Dot and Dash this morning, I discovered that it was not only below freezing; it was freezing with a thirty mile per hour wind! It was almost too much. On days like these, I really wish I could train the dogs to use the toilet. We all wore our warmest coats, but I don't think it helped all that much.

Luckily, it warmed up a bit later in the day, because I still had plenty to do. I managed to get all my invoices posted and in the mail this afternoon. I also got my car safety inspected. On the way home from the garage, I noticed that the mechanic had put the safety inspection sticker on my windshield upside down. With my anal retentive tendencies, that little faux pas is going to bother me for the rest of the year. Every time I get in the car, I'm going to fixate on that stupid upside down sticker. Then, the next year, I'm going to tell another mechanic to be sure to put the 2014 sticker on right side up and he's going to think I'm an idiot.

With so many odds and ends to distract me, I didn't get much work done. One of the things I was asked to do today was remove an employee from a group photo on one of the websites I manage. I looked at the questionable photo in Photoshop and discovered that the no longer employed guy in the third row had a head that was only four pixels wide. This photo was so small that I couldn't tell who anyone was. I'm positive that nobody could recognize the faces in the tiny low resolution image. There must be a back story on this one. These folks apparently didn't even like the idea of this guy being in their photo anymore.

The HVAC guys are coming over tomorrow morning to take a look at my erratic furnace. It works some of the time and then refuses to light at other times. I'm almost certain that the furnace will decide to work perfectly tomorrow when the repair guys are here. I'm plagued with intermittent problems at home and in my car. Whenever I get someone to come look at the problem, it goes away and makes me look foolish. I hope the furnace gets fixed though. It's supposed to be really cold this weekend.

I got another call about being a guest presenter on Shop NBC this morning. They want me to sell watches on TV. I don't know what these guys are thinking. I'll admit that I do like watches, but I'm definitely no Joan Rivers. I'll keep you guys posted on what happens.

Suzie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 757

I had a long list of things I wanted to accomplish today, but I ended up getting very little done since I spent so long at the doctor. My doctor visits inevitably morph into client meetings and take twice as long as I think they will. Today we went back and forth between talking about my liver and talking about the doctor's marketing plans. Actually, I like things this way, since I never feel rushed. There's always plenty of time to ask all the questions I can think of. The long and short of things is that I do need an MRI, apparently since there is something new in the CAT scans that wasn't there two years ago. Hopefully the mystery object is benign.

I guess I'll get my car safety inspected tomorrow. It would have been convenient to do this today, since the safety inspection station is right near the doctor's office, but there just wasn't time. I didn't want to walk the dogs in the dark again.

It's supposed to get down below freezing tonight. That seemed fairly impossible earlier in the day, when I was walking the dogs in shirtsleeves, but Texas weather can fool you. During dog training class this evening, a cold front blew through and the temperature felt like it dropped twenty degrees in less than an hour. Class actually ended early, because everyone was so cold. Nobody had dressed for this sudden change of events. I think Dot and Dash were happy to come home early. Neither one of them like the cold.

I know that some of you who read this blog were also members of Adgitize like I was. I wonder if anyone else has noticed that their Entrecard rank has dropped now that Adgitize is gone. My Entrecard rank, which had been constant for months, dropped quite a bit right after Adgitize closed its doors. I still can't figure out the connection, but I bet there is one.

I've absolutely got to get my invoices out tomorrow or I won't have any money coming my way in February. I'm usually not this late. Sadly, I've been saying that a lot recently. I really need a nap.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 756

Another rainy day. At least I didn't have to drive Dash very far today. Our regular vet is very near the house. Rainy days are enormously unproductive. I'm constantly cleaning the dogs paws and drying them off so they won't track mud all over the house. I'm frequently up on the roof in my often futile and increasingly Quixotic quest to keep water from leaking into the house. Wet dogs also mean lots of towels that need to go in the laundry. I keep wondering if this is what it's like to have children around the house. Small children must be equally as messy as dogs.

I did manage to get some work done today, but I don't think I'm ever going to get caught up completely. With tax season approaching again, I'm going to have to spend a considerable amount of time unraveling the mess I've created with my shoddy bookkeeping habits. The information is all there. It's just not in the same place yet.

After two visits to doggie doctors this week, I need to make a third visit to one of my own doctors tomorrow. Supposedly, I will learn whether I really need that MRI or not. I wish I'd learned this information last December when I'd already met my insurance deductible, but that's just the way it goes. I discovered a long time ago that the world doesn't exactly run on my timetable. I still can't decide whether to try to postpone the MRI until I've met my deductible for this year, or just let the imaging be the thing that meets the deductible for other stuff that I'm sure to need later in the year. There's always the chance that I won't even get a choice too. Sometimes doctors completely ignore what I'm thinking.

I need to decide whether to go to a meeting, or go to dog class tomorrow evening. Hmmm. That was easy. I'm going to dog class.

Murphy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 755

We took Dash to see the ophthalmologist today. It looks like the main problem with his eyes are allergies. I guess this shouldn't be surprising, since allergies are also the main problem with his skin. The clouding on the surface of one eye is not a cataract, as I had feared, but is a collection of lipid cells instead that is sometimes caused by cholesterol. All in all, he's in pretty good shape, even though the pinkish discoloration around his eyelids looks terrible at times.

Janet told me later that we were sitting right next to hockey great Mike Modano and one of his Golden Retrievers in the lobby while we were waiting for the doctor. I can never recognize anyone. If you follow hockey at all, I suppose you would recognize one of the NHL's all-time points leaders, but he just looked like one of the guys who works on my furnace to me. He certainly seemed like a nice guy and you could tell he loved his dogs. I didn't even know that Modano had retired until Janet told me that as well.

It rained most of the day today. Dash was pretty good in the car though. I was surprised. He was pretty good at the doctor's office as well. The doctor did one test where he had to put some saline solution in a tear duct until it came out his nose. Dash whimpered a little, but he was even pretty good for that gruesome procedure. He certainly behaved a lot better than I would have if a doctor tried to do that sort of thing to me.

Even though the visit to the ophthalmologist took most of the afternoon, I still managed to finish adding the new puppies to the adoption website and wrote another watch article. This is the day I usually try to get my invoices out, but that will have to wait until later in the week. Dash goes back to the vet for his biweekly antigen shot tomorrow and then on Wednesday, I go to the doctor myself. Sometimes I'm amazed that I get anything done. I still haven't gotten the nail taken out of my tire yet. That will have to wait until later as well.

Mack is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 754

Dash had an exceptionally good day at the dog park. I don't think I've ever seen him play as long or as enthusiastically. He's still scared of larger dogs, after being bitten by one. He is friendly with puppies though, and today he was lucky enough to find a young, but very large puppy who was just the right size. You can tell when Dash is excited. If you look closely at the picture, you'll notice that all four of his paws are off the ground.

I got a new set of fitted sheets a couple of weeks ago, and when I made the bed this morning the brand new fitted bottom sheet ripped at the seam. I usually chalk this sort of thing up to bad luck, but Janet insisted we take the sheets back and get a refund. Luckily, she was willing to do this if I could find the receipt, because I hate to take things back to the store.

I've got a ton of shoddy or broken things that I never bothered to take back or exchange. I probably should take things back more often though. The store refunded the price of the sheets without raising an eyebrow. The whole process was quick and easy. I probably would have gotten out the sewing machine, tried to repair the rip, and made such a mess of things that nobody would have even considered taking them back.

I still haven't gotten caught up with adding all the new dogs to the animal rescue site. Most of the new additions are puppies. It sure would have been easier just to make one new page called "puppies" instead of creating individual pages for each pup in the litter. All the little lab-mix pups look identical, so each of the new pages I've made look the same as well. The pages won't last long either, since we'll need all new picture when the pups get a little older. Oh well, it's all for a good cause.

Our week of beautiful weather seems to be drawing to a close. The weather channel says there a 100% chance of rain tomorrow. Not exactly the news I was waiting to hear. Dash has to go up to the animal ophthalmologist in North Dallas tomorrow. He hates riding in the car and he hates rain. That ought to be an interesting trip.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 753

I took the Christmas tree down today. When I was putting Christmas stuff back in the carport closet, one of the large sliding doors fell off its track and got stuck. What a mess. These are heavy doors and the inside surface is fitted with a rack holding everything from antifreeze to roof repair cement. I had to empty this rack and move half the stuff crammed in the little storage room out to the driveway to make enough space for a ladder so I could fix the track for the door. The whole process took several hours and put me way behind on Saturday errands.

Luckily, there was still time to go up to The Velvet Snout and photograph Misty, our newest addition to the Dalmatian Rescue program. Misty is ten years old. Her former owners decided she was too old to bother with and took her to an animal shelter. Jeez. this dog is younger than our Dot. She's healthy, well trained, and full of life. Misty was just dumped and abandoned like an old sofa. I don't know what is wrong with people sometimes. At any rate, I'm confident that Misty will find a better home next time. She's a wonderful dog and she's today's Dalmatian of the Day.

I wish I had a personal assistant. I know I have enough new photos to have another nice gallery show, but I don't have time to go around to galleries and try to get them interested. It would be nice to have someone to go around and show the work I've been doing in the energy industry to other oil and gas companies too. There's so much stuff I could be doing if I wasn't doing too much already. Maybe it's just a matter of priorities. Somehow, I still have time to walk the dogs four miles a day and fix myself French Toast and sausages in the morning. I guess the truth is that I really don't like marketing at all. I don't mind actually doing the work, but I can't seem to be bothered with the dog and pony show you have to go through to attract new clients, or new gallery owners, or new anything for that matter.

The weather has been great all week. It's a pretty safe bet that the dog park will be open tomorrow. I've been surprised at how many people we've seen from our training class at this particular dog park. These people don't live nearby, but they always take the time to search out the best dog park, even if it's thirty miles away. I guess it's not surprising that we see the same people and their dogs again and again. It's a big city, but the number of people who choose dogs over watching football on Sunday afternoon is apparently still pretty small.

Misty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 752

Today was a little different. I actually saw someone face-to-face. After I walked the dogs this morning, I went and had coffee with an advertising buddy I hadn't seen in years. You can't really catch up on fifteen years over a cup of coffee, but we both had an enjoyable time talking about watches, horrendously high property taxes, and how much the the industry has changed since we last got together. After finishing our coffee, we agreed that it was important to see each other at least every ten years and we both went back to work.

Walking back to my car, I realized that there was a shoe store right near the Starbucks and stopped in to buy a new pair of dog walking shoes. I have enough nice shoes to last a lifetime, but I'm continually burning through dog walking shoes. I guess it makes sense. Walking dogs is my life.

When I got back to the office, there was an e-mail that said thirteen new dogs needed to be added to an animal rescue site asap. There was also a new watch article to write and some correspondence that needed to be dealt with before everyone disappeared for the weekend. By the end of the day I had everything finished except for the new web pages I promised I'd make for the thirteen rescue dogs. I guess that means I didn't actually finish very much. Maybe I'll get these web pages done this weekend. There's always the weekend.

It's time to start gathering tax information again. Usually, I've got everything gathered into tabbed ring binders by now. This year, I'm beyond caring. I've got all the information in a big pile of paper, but I don't even want to look at it. Money comes in. Money goes out. Very little money sticks around very long.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 751

The days are noticeably longer now. Pretty soon, all the sunset photo opportunities that seem perfectly timed with the dog's evening walk will be gone for another season. I'm sure the golden evening skies will be replaced by something equally interesting as the days grow longer, but I'm going to miss these spectacular sunset walks.

One of my European clients has started paying me using Paypal. The fact that it's so easy and safe to make international transactions with Paypal is one more reason I'm starting to use it for almost everything. Getting money from another country used to be a nightmare when I had to use wire transfers. The German banks always wanted information that the American banks didn't even use. Paypal is so much easier.

I almost upgraded my main computer to Lion today, but chickened out at the last minute. Lion seems to work well on my laptop, but I have much more software installed on the main computer. Every single time I've installed a major system upgrade on my desktop, the results have been disastrous. There is always some very expensive application that I use everyday which refuses to work under the new system. Since it's hard to reverse a system upgrade, I usually have to go out and buy all new versions of the software I already have. Typically, I don't like the new versions as well as the old versions, but that's another story. I wish Apple had some sort of app that would search everything on my computer and tell me if I was ready for Lion or not. Snow Leopard is running perfectly now, but I remember that it was a nightmare too in the beginning. One thing is certain. I'm going to have to upgrade to Lion sooner or later. Avid Media Composer 6.0, which I would like to start using, only runs under Lion.

The dead leaves are really stacking up in the back yard now. I'm going to have to break out the leaf blower pretty soon and blow them into big piles so I can bag them up and get rid of them before Spring. There are so many leaves on the ground already, that even if I bag up leaves every weekend, it will still take me until Spring to get the yard cleaned up and ready for a fresh load of St. Augustine sod. It would be so much easier to live on the 17th. floor of a luxury high-rise.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 750

The last of my stop loss orders kicked in today and I'm finally rid of all the ridiculous volatility index funds and inverse shares that were supposed to protect me from a double dip in the stock market. Even though my broker loves this stuff, I've never made a dime on these complicated schemes to outwit the market. What has worked? Buying good solid companies like McDonalds and Apple has worked pretty well. If I didn't have a broker and a financial adviser, I'd probably have bought a lot more good solid companies like these.

Now that I've started taking pictures every day for Instagram, I'm starting to realize that I do the same things over and over again. At first I was proud of all the interesting little things I was able to observe, but now that I've seen each of these things twenty times, they don't seem quite so amazing anymore. I'm going to have to figure out how to insert some variety into my daily routine before my life turns into a real world version of Ground Hog Day. There are probably only so many over-easy eggs you can eat for breakfast and so many sunsets you can photograph before you go certifiably crazy.

Dash was amazingly good at training class tonight. I don't know what came over him. He would have won a ribbon if one of the trainers hadn't been a little too picky about the way he was sitting. Nevertheless, it was his best performance in months. The moody little dog made me proud. Dash is one of the smartest dogs I've ever seen, but if he's not in the mood, you're just wasting your time. This morning it was cold outside, so I put the dogs Winter coats on before their morning walk. Dash was having no part of this. He went right back to bed wearing his coat and did his best to burrow under a blanket. If I was a dog, I probably would have behaved exactly the same way.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 749

A lot of odds and ends today. I guess odds and ends count for something. I went up to Imaging Spectrum and bought enough ink to finish the half done cleaning cycle I'd started earlier. After I finished cleaning the printer, I made a couple of large prints, just to make sure it worked. These prints immediately went in a folio with a lot of other test prints. Since each of the 4880's eight ink cartridges costs $55 and half the ink gets used up unclogging the printer, these prints wind up being a bit pricey. A few years ago, I was able to justify the cost of maintaining this large printer, because several of my retail clients used me to create window displays for them. Now, just about every form of printing can be done online for far cheaper than it costs me to do the same thing. It's that old "economy of scale" thing.

These days I only use my large printer to make free posters for animal rescue groups. Nothing wrong with that, mind you. I just wish the whole process wasn't so expensive or time consuming. With my printer working again, I went over to my pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions and ended up standing in line forever behind some old people who seemed to have much more complicated needs than my own. I kept thinking that these people in the line might be me someday. I certainly hope not. I take way too many pills as it is.

My German client accepted my European style invoice. My watch client has started feeding me regular jobs again, now that the writing marathon appears to be over. I'm still removing employees from websites at a faster pace than adding them. I guess 2012 has started. I need to set aside some time to get my car safety inspected before the sticker on my windshield expires. Each year this process seems to get a little more difficult. Last year a young technician refused to believe that the Defender was a full time four wheel vehicle and attempted to put it on the dynamometer. That was a big mistake. Luckily I was able to get the kid to stop the test before he ruined my car.

The dogs still seem to think we're on holiday time. I had a devil of a time getting them out of bed this morning. You'd think they'd be eager to go on their morning walk, but lately snoozing under a blanket seems more appealing to them. Staying under the covers seems more appealing to me as well, but I'd never get anything done that way.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 748

Today was just like last Monday: a day that didn't know whether it was a holiday or not. We thought the Dalmatian Rescue boarding kennel would be open today, so we drove up there to photograph one of the new dogs. A sign on the door informed us that the kennel was indeed open, but only between 4:30 and 5:30 PM, so people could pick up dogs that had been boarding over the holidays. The printing and photography stores were all closed, so I couldn't buy ink and finish unclogging my large printer. I was left with few choices, so I continued to clean up my office. Today, I made enough progress that the place is actually starting to look presentable. Mostly all I've been doing for the past two days is throwing away useless piles of paper and putting everything else back in its proper drawer or shelf. Yes, I'll admit it: tidy is better.

I finally got my German client's invoice figured out in Euros and sent it off this afternoon. I probably got it wrong again. I almost always do. Seems like it would be easier to just pay me in dollars, but I guess these currency conversion jobs are worth the trouble, since I always end up getting a little more than I thought I would. Too bad I didn't do this job last January. The Euro was worth a lot more back then.

I guess it's back to work tomorrow. The holidays didn't seem nearly long enough this year, probably since both Christmas and New Year's came on a Sunday. January means it's time to get another safety inspection sticker for my car. That's something that's always easy to forget. I'd better not forget that quarterly estimated taxes are due in January too, especially since I completely forgot about them in September. Will my tenant stay in the rent house another year? Will I get any more new clients? Will I be forced to get my wisdom teeth removed? Will the stock market finally go up enough for me to get back to where I was before the big crash? Stay tuned, and we'll all find out together.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day