Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

What? No strange searches?

by

I can’t believe this.

Whenever I have a slow news day, or when the Rottweilers have kidnapped my muse, I go to the search terms portion of the stats to see what strange phrases have brought visitors to the blog.

I got nothing.

Everything in my search terms for the last quarter… not just the last week, but the last quarter… seems to be legitimate topics that I’ve actually written about. Most of them are in fact dog-related or computer-related, in keeping with my usual main topics. And the ones that aren’t, are about the tangents that I’ve gone off on.

Sorry. I was hoping to find something funny, as I always have in the past!

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 7 of 31)

Couple of quick pics

by

Does this one look familiar?

It should.

Yup, still there, going on at least three years now. I have mentioned it on a couple of occasions when I had to actually speak to a cashier there. Apparently, a display of stupidity in extremely large type not only fails to be a primary concern, it hasn’t even rotated up the list in all that time.

I didn’t know if this one was going to be usable until I got home.

On the drive home from work, I noticed black skies and a rainbow behind me in my side mirror.
Strangely enough (or perhaps not strange at all for summer in Chicago), the skies were only slightly cloudy ahead of me, and I was driving through a sunshower right at that moment.

I quickly shot a few pics with my BlackBerry and hoped that even without aiming or focusing, at least one of them would come out. We’ve had some extremely nice rainbows following some of the summer storms here, but in the city, the buildings and overhead lines always seem to get in the way of a good photo.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 6 of 31)

Waiting for thyroid panel results

by

You’ll remember that I was debating with myself about running a thyroid panel on Freya. And you knew I’d end up doing it, didn’t you? As mentioned before, it’s a long shot. But at best, it could provide an answer, and at worst, it rules out something.

We did the blood draw on Saturday. With the holiday weekend, I don’t think I’ll hear any results until at least the end of the week or early next week since thyroid panels are sent out to Michigan State University. Freya’s last test was almost two years ago. I looked at it again on Saturday and while the values were within the normal reference ranges, several of the values were towards the lower end of those ranges. So I am wondering if she has in fact been borderline hypothyroid for a while.

When I was at the vet on Saturday, I was surprised to see how many people still use acepromazine to sedate their pets. I guess it does work fine on some pets. It did nothing for at least two of our previous Rottweilers, and I never considered trying it with these two. Rescue Remedy either helped, or at least gave me something to do for the dogs. Both dogs (and their humans and felines) got through the Fourth of July weekend without too much wear and tear from the fireworks. It seemed as though there were less fireworks in the neighborhood than last year, but from the sound of it, some people had more firepower as well. The dogs thought we were at war, but once they were convinced that there was no immediate need for them to follow (or lead) us into battle, everything was fine.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 5 of 31)

Two reasons why Glee is evil

by

Glee is not a television show I really expected to like, but like many, many other people out there, I was sucked into its strangely addictive universe and now hope it doesn’t fall victim to the hype and its whirlwind success. Despite its appeal, I am convinced the show is evil. My reasons may not make sense if you’ve never watched the show, and for those of you who don’t and don’t plan to, it’s fine if you want to cut out here. I’ll be back to writing about the dogs and computers in tomorrow’s post.

Anyway! Here’s why Glee is evil:

Reason 1: Glee made me read fan fiction.

I am not a fan of fan fiction. I don’t write it and never will. I don’t read it. And what the hell is a beta reader, anyway? Isn’t that what you call proofreaders and copyeditors? Or can you use those titles only if you get paid?

I guess I must now say that I don’t read fan fiction, except for this time, because Glee was evil enough to totally mangle the Rachel and Jesse storyline. I could have accepted Rachel and Jesse not finding true love together, if the storyline that tore them apart had made sense. It did not, not even a little. I wanted to see these two together, and apparently, so did a rather large number of fan fiction authors. Despite the logic that says that most high school romances are ultimately doomed, and my belief that my own life would have turned out poorly had I stayed with any of my high school boyfriends, I so wanted Rachel and Jesse to be together and go on to a happy future together. Or if that couldn’t happen, at least they should have had a better breakup than what we saw. And by better, I mean one that made sense.

So as much as it pains me, I must thank some talented fan fiction authors for creating a happy resolution for Rachel and Jesse in their alternate universes. I hope some of you use your considerable skills to create characters and worlds of your own as well. Some of you others really need to ummm… hone your craft, yeah, that’s it… before you write where other people can see you, though. Or at the very, very least, just please try using spell check. Please.

Reason 2: Glee made me almost like “Don’t Stop Believin'”

It’s not that I don’t like Journey. I’m really okay with Journey. In fact, “Feeling That Way” from Infinity has been a favorite shower song for a long time… “A new road’s waiting, you touched my life, whoa-oooooa-ooo… soft and warm on a summer’s niiiiiiii-iiii-ght…” Okay, maybe you didn’t need to hear that. But I have never liked “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Who the hell are the streetlight people anyway?

It didn’t exactly help when the White Sox picked it up as the song for their World Series run in 2005. I don’t like baseball in general and I loathe Chicago baseball. Considering that Sox fans continually make disparaging remarks about the general wussiness and lameness of Cubs fans (which I am not and never will be) and by extension all North siders (which I have been since moving to Chicago), they sure picked a wussy song, and from a band from San Francisco no less, for their anthem. I mean, did Styx (South siders), Survivor, or Chicago not have any go-to songs? Please.

And worse yet, when David Chase used it to end The Sopranos in 2007. That ending was maddening enough as it is without having to listen to that song. I am obviously biased, as that is not the song I want playing as the last cut in the soundtrack of my life (so now you also know whether I thought Tony and family lived or died at the end).

So, fast forward to May 2009. I’m watching this brand new show Glee and finding myself enjoying it. Coming up on the end, and… oh, no. Not this song. But maybe because it actually looked like something high school kids would put together and have fun with, I didn’t switch the channel. What a cute, fun arrangement. And so the evil that is Glee almost made me like a song that I’ve hated for almost 30 years.

You don’t need any more proof than this, do you?

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 4 of 31)

Update: Mary Wild sentencing

by

Last month, Mary Wild was convicted on eight counts of misdemeanor animal abuse for leaving eight show dogs in a poorly-ventilated van overnight, causing the deaths of seven of those dogs due to heat stroke. She could have faced up to eight years in jail plus up to $8,000 in fines. Instead, she will serve no time in jail (suspended sentence, two years probation), do 80 hours of community service at the Jefferson County Animal Control Center, and write a 750-word essay on how heat impacts dog.

I am saddened and disappointed in the leniency of the sentence by Judge Raymond Dickhaner. He said the matter of restitution should be handled by the civil courts. No word yet on whether the American Kennel Club will impose any sanctions on Ms. Wild. I sincerely hope they are less forgiving of the painful deaths of seven dogs than the courts of Missouri.

News and blog links:
The Dog Press: Mary Wild Sentenced
Di’s My Akita Kids: Mary Wild Gets a “Time Out”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Handler gets probation in deaths of seven show dogs

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 3 of 31)