Treats and Treibball

So, Joe, Coney and I stopped by the Dog-O-Mat to set up a beauty salon appointment for Coney today. I went inside to make the arrangements. I started to walk out and said, "Oh, I need to get a treat for Coney" and plucked a nice big bone-shaped biscuit out of the bowl. "Got anything for Joe?" Without skipping a beat, Carolyn said, "Well, I got this almond bark for taking care of Brady, would you like some?" Almond BARK, ha ha. It was good.

And, check out this video of Treibball. It's a herding game for dogs that uses exercise balls instead of sheep. What will they think of next ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBJ9DVp9dyM

Know the symptoms for retinal detachment and deal with it immediately

Had a scary experience with retinal detachment this week. Please read the Wood Charles blog entry:

http://woodcharles.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-hate-it.html

and the good and short WebMD description of symptoms and recommendation for immediate action:

http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/tc/retinal-detachment-symptoms?ecd=ppc_google_signsofretinaldetachment_EyeHealth_RetinalDetachment-SymptomsandTypes_search&gclid=COiMuq-1yKQCFQlrKgodl26kUQ

Check out all the fun medical equipment we rented to make life a little more bearable for the next 10 days of keeping your down for 50 minutes out of every hour to keep the gas bubble in place to reattach the retina:

http://mcfeetech.com/bestvalue.htm

Never a dull moment.

Life's Little Victories for the Botanically Challenged*

• Healthy Hosta thanks to Drea.
• Bountiful Snow on the Mountain that previous owner planted or sprung spontaneously from the earth.
• Catalpa Catalpa Catalpa.
• A little blue spruce thanks to gift from 777 Building management on Earth Day.
• Big strong volunteer maple that sprouted in the perfect place (not under power lines or anything).
• Impatiens in pots--they're annuals so they're expected to die at the end of the season.
• Black-eyed Susans--just give 'em enough sunlight and they'll keep coming back.
  
• Creeping Charlie--it's green and it's not prickly.
• Mulch--makes it look like you care and is already dead.

* Thanks to Keith Knight, comic strip writer and creator of "Life's Little Victories" comic.

The Blogger Awakens

Dateline June 11, 2010: Hello again. A year and a half since I last wrote you. Still doing the same old wonderful things. Been in my job as a technical product manager for 2 years now and it's still an exciting challenge. It pushes me to get good at the things I want to get good at like communicating, collaborating to get things done, writing requirements and other things, speaking, strategic planning. Could public office be far off? Yes, it could. Very far off. I'm happy right where I am thank-you very much. But, I've enjoyed reading the following books about political types lately: Teddy Kennedy's memoir "True Compass", Ted Sorensen's memoir "Counselor", particularly the section about his eleven years with JFK, and now, Sorensen's 1965 book called "Kennedy". Wow, Kennedy's certainly an inspiration. The other important things are the same important things. Spending time with Joe and Coney, particularly on camping trips. We're doing that right now. Coney and I are sitting under the awning of the camper van at Wilderness State Park looking out at the lake and the rain. May join Joe inside the van soon. Got two glorious lake swims in yesterday and this morning, though. The sand is white and ripply, the water is green-blue from below, and it's exhilarating without being heart-stopping if you wear head-to-toe neoprene. I swim for 30 minutes tops; might turn into a selkie and swim away otherwise. Napping and dog walking also feature in our camping trips. Napping is going on right now. The dog walks are very exciting. There are ground squirrels galore; one lives right under our fire ring. Coney keeps a close eye on that entrance and scours the beach for more. On the home front, I'm happy to say that we are thoroughly mulched. For the last couple of years, we've been throwing money at the problem of throwing mulch around. Joe and I are responsible for requirements and procurement and Chris' Lawn Care does the throwing. Other wonderful things have happened in the last couple of years, most notably bodacious get-togethers with family and friends. I'll tell you about those later. See you.

Ode to Cornbread

Joe makes the best cornbread in the world. It's especially wonderful now that it's cold and dark out. A mountain of golden sunshine, even more glorious now that it's made with huge, fresh farmers' market eggs. Bliss. Coney thinks so, too.

Bark Obama

All the dogs were BARacKing in the park on Wednesday and deserve tee-shirts like Fluffy and Mr. Fluffy's Stella has (Bark Obama 08). Well, the Dogs for Obama have it and Bush's Barney is cheesed off. He bit a reporter, a colleague no less. Laura says he's fed up with papparatzi. Well, he won't have long to wait before nobody's asking his opinion and we don't have to listen to his whiney owner. Here's an article that includes Barney's bad-dog-no-biscuit behaviour, wonders who the next presidential doggie will be and looks at presidential doggies throughout history:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96736708

Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! = January 20, 2009, the end of an error and a dog biscuit in every pot.

The Choice Is Clear

Who's Coney Dog voting for? No doubt about it. Obama rocks in dog circles. Obama has an official Dogs for Obama site http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/DogsforObama. The Humane Society Legislative Fund endorses Obama (Sarah likes to shoot at wolves out of airplanes!). The Obamas plan to get a pound puppy after the election. Coney found an Obama pin in the schoolyard. And, perhaps most importantly, the first two letters in Obama's name are the first two letters in the important word BONE. Obama for President for two Big Biscuits in every bowl!