Productive Weekend

If I was more motivated this evening, I would get a few photos off my phone and camera to post on the blog. But I'm quite comfy on the couch right now and don't feel like tracking down the cords for those devices.

So you'll just have to use your imagination to picture what these photos would have looked like.

Saturday Dog Class
Sparky did much better with his sitting and staying. He manages to keep all 4 feet on the ground, but his tail wags at a pace of 217 WPM (wags per minute. Our practicing of down also helped his performance in class. He doesn't quite understand that down is on his belly, not on his back with all 4 feet flopping around in the air. Well, at least he's not standing and pacing. :)

Sunday Family Fun
Sparky and I stopped by the Dunlap softball field to watch Tom, Dad and Grandpa install outdoor speakers on the backstop and dugouts. Nothing like tossing a ball up to Tom on the top of the dugout to throw to the ant-size looking Sparky on the ground. We had a birthday dinner for Grandpa that evening which followed with him wearing the celebratory birthday hat and all of us enjoying a delicious angel food Danish custard frosted cake with toasted coconut (great job Mom!)

Monday Work Day
I got a head start on the flower gardens on Saturday, so I focused on some indoor projects with Dad and Grandpa. We got a ceiling fan installed in the bedroom, my living room furniture rearranged, bathroom sink unclogged, cable rewired, and gutters cleaned. Dad cleaned out the gutter on driveway side of the house and pulled out to large handfuls of dry leaves which he tossed down at me. I tried to dodge them and move the bucket around to catch them. Dad made it look easy enough, "so why not try the other side", I said to myself. Yeah, that's the side with the big ole tree! Thank goodness I had some gloves on. Can you say sticks, leaves, and about and inch of gunky stuff! EWWWWW! Just about filled up 5 gallon bucket of that stuff.

Tuesday Back to the Paying Work Day
Today was my Monday. Unfortunately, the work fair did not come over my 3-day weekend to finish all the work on my desk. I guess you'll have that. At least I know I have enough work on my desk to keep me out of trouble. At least I won't be bored, but hopefully I can keep the stress levels down. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. ugh.

Time to call it a night and put the computer away.

CatDog from Nickelodeon

Somehow I missed CatDog back in the late 90's. Kind of a surprise, seeing that I love cartoons. This is what I was able to find.
Tom, thanks for the suggestion.

http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/NTV_catdog_comingtodinner_full.html

Cats and Dogs

So I've been living with a cat and a dog now for 3 months. After getting Jinkies over 7 years ago, I thought I was a dog person living in a cats world. Maybe it's because I haven't lived with a dog in so long, but I think I'm leaning a bit more towards being comfy in a cats world.

No, there's nothing wrong with Sparky. I just think I mesh better with a laid back cats world. Plus, I like their smaller stature. The Sparkster is a good size, but it's so much easier to throw a cat over your shoulder when walking around the house.

I think the perfect pet would be a mix of a cat and a dog. Why haven't any mad scientists worked that one out? You can't take cats for a walk and dogs don't know how to use a litter box. Cats jump up on the tabletops and dogs roll out in the yard.

The one thing I haven't determined is which one is smarter. Sparky has done quite well with the training and has learned many commands. But on the other hand, he is quite reckless, almost like an adrenaline junky. He just goes gung-ho, flies around without a worry of consequences. Then you have the calculated Jinkies that surveys the situation and slowly investigates anything new in his environment. I think that's a much smarter approach than just shoving your nose into anything laying on the side of street that smells different.

I don't know, sometimes it's just kind of odd to sit back and watch the two of them. Tonight they just got me to thinking.

The one thing I am sure of is that I'm very fortunate to have them both.

Ready to Freeze Your Butt Off?

It's almost time to head out to the ballpark. Yee-HA!

Bradley vs. Chiefs April 7th

Peoria Code Red Information

The City and County of Peoria have implemented an Emergency Notification System. This is a high speed notification system capable of notifying up to 50,000 citizens an hour of a important message. The system will deliver the message to telephones and leave a message, if necessary. It can also send a text message to a wireless phone. The system can make notifications to a certain geographical area or the entire County.

The system may be used for missing persons, evacuations, hazardous chemical spill, large fires, flooding, snow, hostage or police emergencies, or other emergency incidents where rapid and accurate notification to the public is essential.

Click on the Code Red icon to sign up your wireless or landline phone today to receive these important messages.

http://www.ci.peoria.il.us/codered

What is your pet doing right now?

I have one pet inquisitively watching the other pet... trying to determine when would be good time to charge and bop him on the butt.

The other, after a 2 mile walk, is aggressively defuzzing a tennis ball. Any guesses on how many hours or days it will take him to accomplish his task? What will happen to the tennis ball once defuzzed?

Busy Weekend

The Mai Guys are back for another season in the fantasy baseball league. There's a few regulars and a bunch of new faces. Here's the roll call:
It's been quite the busy weekend. Wii game night on Friday with Tom and the Iadipaolo's. Saturday morning dog class and an afternoon baby shower, with a little shopping (with Mom) in between. Today was shopping for myself and the baseball draft.

I went to Menards and got a ceiling fan for the bedroom and some wire fencing to go around my flowerbeds in the backyard. I know Sparky will be able to jump over the fences, but I'm hoping they will help discourage tromping through the flowerbeds. I just don't have it in my budget to buy 3 foot fencing to keep him out. Plus, what an eye sore that would be.

I'm looking forward to the weather warming back up so I can get out in the yard and start doing some things. One thing I need to do is grab a broom or rake from the back of the garage and get the newspaper off my roof.

I wasn't thinking.

After a long day of work, I decided to take it easy this evening. I played fetch with Sparky, then ran some errands, and stopped over at the Iadipaolo's to talk Sandra's ear off. Anyway, on the way home I decided some ice cream sounded good, so I stopped in at The Spotted Cow. Chocolate Peanut Udder was the flavor that tickled my fancy. $1.37 later and I was out the door on the way to the car to enjoy my scoop of ice cream at home. It was quite good, but wasn't nearly as delicious as the peanut butter n chocolate at 31 Flavors (that one is in a class all it's own). I enjoyed my cold sweet treat, but as it approaches 11pm and I'm not terribly tired, I'm beginning to regret my decision to eat chocolate ice cream 2 hours ago.

Definitely not the brightest thing I've done this week, but I guess you'll have that. Maybe I'll actually sleep all the way through the night, once I get to sleep. The last couple of nights have included me having mini bouts of insomnia from 2 o'clockish to 4 o'clockish. I should have been tired from crazy work days and walking Sparky, but early morning I just wake up. A bit frustrating, but I'm hoping tonight will be different. Possibly getting my doctor's appointment out the way will have helped ease my mind.

I guess I should at least get in to bed and try to shut my eyes. Well, here goes nothing.

Dog Class

I wish I had some photos to share from Sparky's first dog class, but that was probably one of the last things on my mind at the time.

He did surprisingly well! Our walks have paid off and he was the best "heeler" in the class. He has a slight issue with the sit and stay commands, but I guess that's what the homework is for.

Sparky's been sleeping since we got home around 3:00. After class we went over to Mom and Dad's. He made some huge steps and let Dad and Grandpa pet him. It was awesome! He's not cured of the "afraid of men", but every positive encounter will help.

All and all, a very good day... a bit stressful, but very good. Time for me to finish winding down before bedtime gets here.

What am I doing?

Glad you asked. This evening I've been chillin'. I've had very little motivation to do anything. My nose encouraged me to wash Sparky's bedding. I switched it up a bit on him and placed different layer on top of the pillow. Not sure if he'll be able to burrow still or not.

Here's me testing out my webcam, trying to see if I can cross my eyes... not too successful.

Jinkies has been kind of cuddly tonight. Well, as cuddly as a cat can be. He yacked twice this morning before I left for work. I haven't figured out what he ate and have not found a hairball anywhere. I'm just hoping it doesn't come up at 2AM. Not the most pleasant sound to wake up to.

Here's me cracking up after trying to cross my eyes this evening. Maybe I'll try a video next time, so you can hear my laughter.
I'm glad the weather is getting warmer, but I could really do without the gloomy clouds. Something about the sun just helps me feel better. I also think I have some allergies kicking up. I'll talk to the doctor at my visit next week about what type of allergy medicine will work best for me. I don't need anything that's got a caffeine-like kick. Other than decaf coffee, I've been off caffeine for a good month now.

I've been enjoying my first laptop. I'm following Dirty jobs right now as I type away. I still have to get everything setup on this computer. I'm starting my music library from scratch because the old computer had songs all over the place and was quite disorganized. And, I plan on rating all my songs, so I can easily make playlists for my ipod.... that new toy is a whole other story.

Good Morning Sparky

Here's Sparky on a Saturday morning. He likes to sleep inside the pillowcase. I do not help him... he manages to do this all by himself.

Music Video by OK GO

This reminded me of an episode of Mythbusters when they had the same type of motion contraption that was powered by Mentos and Diet Coke.