Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Not that jagoff spammers would have any clue about etiquette, but honestly, why would this subject line make me do anything other than delete the email immediately:

Hell, if an email with that rude-ass subject line came from someone in my address book, I’d still delete it unread for being jagoff-ish.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 17 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 174 of 274)

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night*

I still haven’t quite gotten used to the idea of concerts at Wrigley Field. Tonight, Elton John and Billy Joel did a concert there. There will be another concert next week. Tonight’s show looked like a good time, from the photos and video clips I’ve seen so far.

In junior high school, I used to joke about how great it was that a short, chubby person like Elton John who wore glasses and played the piano could find huge success. Being a short, chubby person who wore glasses and played the piano (badly, not like Elton John), I meant it.

I didn’t get any better at piano playing. I did see Elton John twice, though, in two totally different phases of his career. The first time was in Honolulu in 1973, during my sophomore year in high school. That would be the tour for “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” with Kiki Dee as the opening act. Elton was in his glam rock phase with the super outrageous sparkly huge glasses frames and impossibly tall platform shoes. Back then, I wanted “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” to be played at my own funeral. I think I still do.

For unless they see the sky, but they can’t and that is why
They know not if it’s dark outside or light*

The next time was in 1979 at Chicago’s beautiful and historically significant Auditorium Theatre. This was light years away from the 1973 show. It was just Elton, his piano, and percussionist Ray Cooper. It was not quite what I expected but it was a good show.

I’ve never seen Billy Joel in concert, but his song “You May Be Right” set the tone for the soundtrack of my life during my twenties.

Even rode my motorcycle in the rain
And you told me not to drive but I made it home alive
So you said that only proves that I’m insane**

Yeah, I wonder how I survived that decade as well.

You may be right, I may be crazy
But it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for**

I think I’ve left the lunacy behind for the most part, and I don’t say good morning to the night that often any more. But the soundtrack of my life will always have some good strong keyboards running through it.

* “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” Honky Chateau, 1972, Elton John and Bernie Taupin
** “You May Be Right,” Glass Houses, 1980, Billy Joel

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 16 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 173 of 274)

As promised earlier this week, here’s proof that Axe can do more than just chase the frisbee. He actually catches it, too!

Good boy, Axe!

He now has his own frisbee photo gallery. Axe is special like that. Right now, there are a few additional photos in it that haven’t already appeared here. We hope to finally get that “money shot” and a few more action shots, and maybe a video, too, before we’re done.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 15 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 172 of 274)

You may recall that a pair of cardinals has taken up residence in the neighbor’s rosebush. I see the female cardinal daily, and the male cardinal occasionally, so I am hoping all is still going well and that everything is on track for cardinal babies very soon.

I often see half-grown or adult rabbits in the neighborhood, but look at the adorable new neighbor who scampered by this morning:

He (she? really don’t know) is very tiny. Here’s a wider shot for scale. The planter at the left is maybe a foot high. The branches are from the cardinal’s rosebush.

Welcome to the neighborhood, little bunny. As long as you do not eat our flowers, you are at least as welcome as most of the humans, and way more welcome than a few of them. But please, please, please don’t come in the back yard where the Rottweilers play. You will live a much longer life that way.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 14 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 171 of 274)

The dogs are not doing anything interesting (Looks of horror from Axe and Freya: What could she mean? We are always absolutely fascinating! Even when we are just lying around looking cute!) and nothing much happened today (well, that’s not quite true, but I don’t have photos yet of the fix-up to our front-yard planter bed). So just a few comments from me on a couple of current news items.

First, the sad and horrible story of grave desecrations for profit at Burr Oak Cemetery. Four former cemetery employees were involved in a scheme where existing burial plots were re-sold and the rightful occupants were dug up and dumped elsewhere on cemetery property. To add to the nightmare, this is a very old cemetery, records are in disarray, and it is possible that not all remains can be positively identified. Following are some links to coverage from the Chicago Tribune over the last few days:

Burr Oak court document paints gruesome picture
Cops: Cemetery Workers Dug Up Bodies, Resold Plots
FBI Sets Up Command Center At Burr Oak

I would like to say I can’t imagine this happening to our family, but the truth is that I can. My maternal grandmother is buried in a very old municipal cemetery in Honolulu. The quality of upkeep by the city and county has deteriorated over the years, even though like Burr Oak, the cemetery has occupants and monuments of historical significance. The cemetery where my Uncle Ted is buried has gone through a bankruptcy. I have to wonder what might happen in the future at both places.

Some lawsuits have been filed and while I am not usually a fan of lawsuits as the solution to everything, I really object to some of the stupid comments I’ve seen on those stories, mostly accusing the people suing of not caring about their families, just about the money, since they “obviously” hadn’t visited the gravesites recently. Forget about how unspeakably rude it is to judge how someone else remembers their deceased loved ones. Practically speaking, as someone who lives far from where my deceased family members are buried, I go to the cemeteries once or twice a year. If something like this happened there, it could easily happen between my visits, and not because of my perceived lack of caring.

EDITED 8/19/09: Since there are still visits here searching for information, I’ve just added this link to the Cook County Sheriff’s Burr Oak Cemetery Information website, where a searchable database of headstones is now available, as well as other information for those who have family members buried there:
http://www.burroak.net/

Next item: Chicago police dog Bear goes missing again

K-9 Bear escaped from his yard during a thunderstorm a couple of months ago and was found and returned within a few days. Awww, good deal, feel-good and all that. Not so cute and no good feeling to hear that he escaped again.

Now some of you might think that since Axe got out of the yard a few days ago, I must be a big giant jagoff to criticize someone else for their dog’s escape.

Well, I am not a professional dog trainer or handler. My dog was off our property and out of my control for about a minute before he was back in my hands, because I was out there with him. He did not jump over a fence that was known to be too low; he charged through a gate that someone else had unclipped. Know that since that night, I have not gone out the door with him without checking that clip first.

Is it that hard to put a top on your dog’s outdoor run, or for that matter, just to stand out there with him, if he has an escape artist history? There are supposedly other issues, like another dog in the household that doesn’t get along with Bear. Sorry, been there too. Jake and Oscar had to be kept separated for all five years that they both lived here. They were both house dogs. When one was loose, the other was crated. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but we made it work. They both lived long and mostly happy lives and never did get the opportunity to harm each other.

I do hope Bear is found and returned, and I hope his handler does the right things this time to keep him safe in the future.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 13 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 170 of 274)

Axe wants you all to know he is not just a pretty boy. He has x-treme sports skills, too. Well, I don’t know about x-treme, but he is getting much better at catching the frisbee. Unfortunately, I’m not getting any better at remembering to have a camera on me whenever we go outside. Plus, today Axe didn’t bring his “A” game and his catch percentage was on the low side. So we have no pictures of actual catches. These two turned out pretty nice, though. Once again, behold the beauty that is Axe!

Unfortunately, a later shot in the sequence showed the frisbee bouncing off his face. He is not allowing me to post it.

He still has fun with the misses. He chases after them and pounces on them like a cat. Remember, he was raised by Oliver, the kittyweiler.

Hopefully, we’ll soon have some photos of actual frisbee catches.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 12 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 169 of 274)

I know I have ranted in the past about free Flash website introductions and the so-called webmasters who think these non-unique creations are making their websites better. That does not mean I am against all free stuff, though.

If you can customize it enough to make it your own without violating someone else’s intellectual property rights, I’m fine with it. If you are trying to get started learning by analyzing someone else’s work, I’m fine with it if they are.

FlashDen, along with the other Envato Marketplace sites, is now offering a free file of the month. July’s file is a nice photo gallery with quite a few customization options. I am a fan of FlashDen in general. As someone who is very weak in Flash but who needs to use it for projects now and then, I really appreciate having a good source of affordable and customizable Flash files like FlashDen. Not every file is a master work, but the buyer ratings and comments help in selecting something that is worth the price.

I also try to remember to log in to iStockPhoto weekly to grab the Free Image of the Week. It’s not always something I can use right away, or maybe ever, but I’ve definitely grabbed a few images that fit into themes that will come up in time. Again, I am a fan of the site for its reasonably priced royalty-free stock photography. I am not a great photographer, so when I can’t provide my own photo illustration for a project, it’s good to have an affordable source with quality images to choose from.

Some free stuff is definitely worth a lot more than the asking price!

Quick Rottweiler update: Freya is now in the stopped-up phase of her current IBS digestive upset episode. I always worry about a blockage at this point, even if she seems like she is feeling better. She is usually back to normal about 24 hours after the stopped-up phase so hopefully I can stop worrying tomorrow evening. Axel has some tummy troubles of his own today, but probably related to either grazing (most all of our dogs have been like black and tan cows and I wish I knew what kind of grass might taste bad to Rottweilers) or heat. Since we have had almost no actual warmth this summer, the heat seems to be affecting both dogs a little quicker than usual.

Quick jagoff update: Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but a few jagoffs still have firecrackers left over from last weekend. Guess where I would like to shove those firecrackers (hint: like Butt Rocket, only with higher-powered explosives).

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 11 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 168 of 274)