One suite deal

I got a call from my cousin earlier.

Seems that the place she retired from recently is taking a bus trip to Minute Maid tomorrow for the Astros game. They've rented a suite and everything.

A few tickets became available because people realized they couldn't go after all, and I'm taking one of them.

If you haven't heard, Craig Biggio's at 2.997 career hits, on the verge of becoming only the 27th player in MLB history to ever get into the 3,000 hit club. And I just might get to see it... as long as Biggio doesn't get three tonight.

If he does, then oh well.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Technorati Tags: Astros, Craig Biggio, 3000 hit club

Blogger hates RSS

No, really, it does.

For some reason, the last few posts I've done haven't automatically published to the RSS feed of the blog.

I've had to republish the post a few times before it would.

I'll try to keep an eye on this for the two of y'all that read this place via RSS.

Technorati Tags: Blogger, RSS

UPDATED: Joey, have you ever been to a Turkish prison?

Last week I said I was going to write something about Turkish prisons.

That one never got written... mostly because I kept wanting to reference Captain Oveur from some 1980's movie.

But an idea came to me once the sleepwalking topic was posted, so I'll be integrating them into one story.

A semi-related rant (UPDATE: And an update) below the fold, so be warned.

Laurence addressed all the people voting for someone without listening to the podcast. And you know what, I totally agree with him!

I'm just not gonna be so nice about it.

I've got nothing against Jenny, I really don't. She's great.

But I do have a problem with people who tell the other eight people (and that Z guy), who bust their ass putting their submissions together that their work just doesn't matter.

So, I started to listen but my attention span was extremely short, I had no interest in listening to a guy (a bunch of guys...) I've never heard of before and so I jumped straight to the voting.

Screw listening. I just voted for you. You are winning!

Thank you, all you ignorant fucking human sheep, for coming in and taking a shit on the entire idea of the contest. It's not a fucking popularity contest people, it's a "who had the best story" contest. Either listen and vote your conscience or fuck off, ok?

Now, seriously, I'd like to thank those of you who contribute. Without y'all the weekly challenge wouldn't exist. I'd also like to thank all the people that listen and vote their conscience every week, you guys are awesome.

Let's just not have all this happen again, ok? :)

FULL DISCLOSURE: I did vote for her, but because I thought her story was the best. What can I say, I go for the odd stories.

UPDATE: Jenny's disqualified herself from the contest. As Laurence says about it:

A rare instance of honor among bloggers and podcasters.

I'm saluting you right alongside him.

Technorati Tags: sleepwalking, turkish prison, weekly challenge, 100 word stories, human sheep

Joining the realm of the uncensored

Jenny from Mama Drama is now also The Bloggess.

Congrats for escaping the evil MSM blogosphere and joining the real one, where you can indeed "curse and talk about blow jobs" whenever the fuck you want to.

How the fuck did this happen?

Really, I'm fucking serious here:

And the rating was based on these words:

• dead (3x)
• sexy (2x)
• steal (1x)

Obviously I'm just not fucking trying hard enough.

So... um...

MORE DIRTY WORDS!!!

Kids shouldn't be reading this blog anyway. Go play around on fucking MySpace.

All I needed to know about the iPhone...

...I learned from Nick Anderson.

Who knows, maybe it's just me, but it seems silly to pay $500+ for a cell phone, no matter what it does.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Baseball, mexican food, Turkish prisons and other crap you probably don't care about

The MamaDramaConQueso meetup. More pictures here.

It was an interesting weekend.

Saturday I drove over to Houston for MamaDramaConQueso. I got to meet some great people like Jenny from Mama Drama and Evil Dwight. Jenny, Mr. Crap, and I had an interesting discussion of topics like death threats, blood donor cats, stuffed buffalo and tackling drunk, topless women after you take pictures of them.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that Jenny was right when she said that conversation was podcast material.

It seems that I got lucky with the food at Molina's being so-so. More on that later.

After that I had a few hours to burn before the Astros game. First thing I did was go over to the Galleria and grab a Frappuccino (or however you spell it).

On I think Wednesday last week the check engine light came on in my car. I was actually planning on taking it to AutoZone to get the code off of the computer today. Well, sometime between getting to Molina's and getting to the game it went dark. And not because the bulb went out. I guess it was just a false positive. Oh well, I'll take it.

Oh yea, the baseball game.

I got there about 4:15, found my seat, and relaxed. I'd given Mr. Crap his ticket, so I waited for him.

And waited.

And waited.

In the second inning I called his cell and left a voicemail. I got a call back a few minutes later. Read this and you'll see why he didn't make it. And why I said I got lucky with nothing more than so-so food.

He missed a hell of a game. The Astros have seemed to find their offense, winning that game 9-4.

Fast forward to early this morning.

Bruiser wake me up wanting to go outside. I figured he needed to pee, so I put his leash on and took him out front.

The moment I opened the door he tried to take off sprinting. He probably saw the cat that's been hanging in our front yard lately. I practically had to drag a VERY strong 40-pound dog back inside.

And that, my friends, is why you never trust a hound off a leash in an uncontrolled environment. If their hunting instincts are activated, and I'm thinking that's what happened, they won't listen to anybody.

One of the things on my list of things to do this week is write a 100-word story about how I spent my summer vacation inside a Turkish prison for the 100 Word Stories Weekly Challenge.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Technorati Tags: Molina's, Astros, beagle, blogging

It's like an interview... but not, I guess

This Friday I'll be paying a visit to the veterinarian that my mom takes her dogs to. Apparently she told him that I was taking the assistant courses and that I was looking for a job in that line of work.

If I understood what my mom said, he's willing to bring me on as more or less an intern for a short time so I can learn the ropes and get some practical experience. If I do well, there'll probably be a position made available for me.

I'm pumped about this. I'll finally get some hands on experience in what I've been studying AND get some experience with larger animals (like cows and horses) too.

I just hope everything goes well on Friday.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

My apologies...

...to those of y'all who read this place via RSS.

Apparently when I make any sort of edit to a post, Blogger (in it's infinite stupidity) bumps that post up to the top of the RSS feed. I made a bunch of changes to labels earlier and apparently that's enough to do it.

So... in the meantime... check out the HTML version.

Random Thoughts: Brought to you by Twitter!

One of the advantages of having Twitter is that I can send little tidbits that pop in my mind to it. Most of these are from there, but some don't.

• I've never watched the Sopranos, but if a show I loved ended like that I'd be pissed.
• The snooze button is only as good as the person working the alarm clock. I have a bad habit of turning the alarm off and rolling over.
• What are the odds that Paris stays in for the rest of her sentence?
• More importantly, what are the odds that they'll never let her out.
• Also, what are the odds that I'd get released for sobbing uncontrollably in jail? I think the odds of me getting my ass kicked for it are much stronger.
• Just wondering.... how do they determine if something has more cola taste than something else? Is there some sort of machine to measure that kinda stuff?
• Ever since I transferred a car to my name I've been getting junk mail about extended warranties. Like two a week. I wouldn't mind TxDOT selling my info near as much if they were using the money to, say, build the new alignment of US 69 or to finish up making I-10 three lanes each way all the way out to Houston.
• We need a name for a church softball team. The Blasphemers was rejected for some reason.
• Is it just me or should people who work in a pizza place tell you when your order will be ready when you're gonna pick it up? I swear they didn't the last time I ordered one.

Ok, so almost all of them came from Twitter over the last month.

I think I'll do this more.

Technorati Tags: random thoughts

MamaDramaConQueso

MamaDramaConQueso, a get together being organized by Jenny from Mama Drama and Girl con Queso, is being held this Saturday in Houston.

You can find all the info here, but all you really need to know is that you need to RSVP over at Mama Drama if you're wanting to go and that I'll be there. Because, ya know, I'm the life of the party wherever I go and all.

Oh, who am I kidding. Laurence is gonna be there. I can't compete with him.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

I'm not dead

Well, at least I don't think I am. I've just been a tad bit under the weather and blogging isn't a priority.

Disappointment over Paris

When I turned on the tube this morning, I saw that Paris Hilton was let out of jail early because of an "unspecified medical condition."

I'm disappointed.

And not so much that she was let out early, although I can all but promise you that a normal person wouldn't be released.

Nope, it's not that.

Part of me was hoping that she'd never be released just so I wouldn't have to hear about her anymore.

So, how long until another lousy sex tape comes out?

Not that I've ever seen one. I've just heard that they were bad.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Technorati Tags: Paris Hilton

Ouchies

I can see why this isn't on TV...

It hurt me just to watch it!

Technorati Tags: Rolling Rock, commercial

How geeky is it?

I'm keeping track of baseball stats for a friend of mine. Last night, I made a spreadsheet so I wouldn't have to do all the math myself.

How geeky is that?

Technorati Tags: baseball, stats, statistics, spreadsheet, geeky

Carnival of the Cats #167

It's time for the Carnival of the Cats again, brought to you by Bruiser, The Feline Theocracy's Holy Ambassador to the Kingdom of Dogs.

But what is the Carnival of the Cats, you ask? And why would a dog host it? Well, let me help.

First, about the Carnival:

The Carnival of the Cats is a weekly roundup of cat-related posts on weblogs. Its purpose is to provide a non-political respite from the vehement echo chamber that the Blogopshere spins itself into during the week, demonstrating that even the mightiest and meekest of pundits have a love of cats in common.

As for why a dog's hosting, I'll let Bruiser address that himself.

It is my belief that doing this will help in my continued efforts to bridge the gap between the two species.

I know we've had our differences in the past on many things, but I sincerely hope that we can put those problems in the past. I have a dream that one day we will all stand beside each other, paw in paw, and get along.

We've got a long road ahead of us if that's going to happen, but I believe we can do it.

With that said, let's get it started:

Since I said anything lolcats would go first, here goes...

lolcats:

• Jonathan Deamer takes a look at the inherent hilarity of cats.

Just my luck there'd only be one. Oh well.

The Rest:

• Beaman's World writes about breakfast.
• It's nap time over at OldController.
• Elisson's Matats has a womb with a view.
• Living the Scientific Life tells us that DNA testing has found that cheetahs get around.

So they have at least one thing in common with Paris Hilton?

• The Poor Mouth has Flrebathing Mimi. I promise this isn't something that will piss off PETA.
• Texas Oasis has found the real name for "bottlebrush" and has Alex.
• Gus Van Horn's cat is fatter than yours.
• Mélange has wishful thinking about a hummingbird and a cousin's cats.
• Chris Dolley has The Return of the Kai. Not quite Return of the Jedi, but close.
• Over at Manx Menws Abby's seeing aliens, although it looks more like a German Shepherd to me.
• At House of Chaos, little Hrimnir introduces himself.
• The Scratching Post brings us poetry about cats.

I CAN HAS POEM?

• Catymology has a feline that needs a little help and somebody who caught a chipmunk.
• This, That & The Other Thing show us what cats go through when you remodel their house.
• Anniemiz brings us some old pictures of Slim.
• Her Ladyship uses Rahel's foot as a pillow over at Elms in the Yard.
• Wes Phillips over at Stereophile says that Huckleberry wants a job. Bagheera is also in the zone.
• AyeAye tries to steal home over at Composite Drawlings. Was Andy Pettitte pitching then too?
• Momma Grace gave Audace a bath at Momma Grace & Company's namesake gave Audace a bath.
• Sisu shares the joys of spring.

Another joy of spring is that I get to be outside with Petey more!

• Begin Each Day brings us Tummy Tuesday.
• Izzy over at Mind of Mog had a quiet Memorial Day.
• Jan Bussey of Cascade Adventures shows us her supervisor.
• Pet's Garden Blog goes on a rant about irresponsible pet owners. I couldn't agree more.
• China Cat's Blog is speechless. In a good way.
• Sammawow's gang says WE CAN HAS TREATS?
• Ranger has Mew playing hide and seek.
• StrangeRanger shares some older pictures.
• Bows and Eli have decided that it's hammock time over at Val's Bien.
• Music and Cats discusses being creatures of habit.
• Over at Ego, Martin wonders if a black cat is good company on his journey to the sixth layer of hell.

And that's everything we got, so... um...

I need a nap now, so KTHXBYE

In all seriousness, thanks to everybody who's contributed and visited. I hope I can have y'all back here sometime... if I haven't ruffled too many feathers with having all these dog pictures in the carnival, that is.

Technorati Tags: Carnival of the Cats

IM IN UR CARNIVAL LINKIN UR CATS

Normally when I do a Carnival I just post things in the order I get them.

This time I think I'm going to give any lolcats priority and list them first.

Why? Because I want to. And I love lolcats.

Technorati Tags: Carnival of the Cats, lolcats

Delivering the good news

Yesterday I told Bruiser we were hosting the Carnival of the Cats again. Here's his reaction:

We're a little busy right now hunting down that bright
red thing y'all call a laser pointer. Tell me later.

Can't you tell he's excited?

Technorati Tags: beagle, sheltie, shetland sheepdog, dog, dogblogging

Windows Live Writer Beta 2 kicks butt

A screenshot of the new version of WLW. Click the image for full size.

Thanks to Evil Dwight's Twitter, I became aware that a new version of Windows Live Writer was available.

It's got tons of new features, including

• Inline spell checking (the red squiggliy lines)
• Table editing
• Ability to add categories
• Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad
• Support for excerpts and extended entries
• Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
• Paste Special
• SharePoint 2007 support
• New APIs enabling custom extensions by weblog providers
• Automatic synchronization of local and online edits
• Integration with Windows Live Gallery
• Support for Blogger Labels
• Available in 6 languages
• Improved accessibility and keyboard support

Not to mention a revamped interface that's much nicer looking than the old one.

It also has more integrated support for platforms like WordPress and TypePad.

The only thing in it that bugs me is that it doesn't allow for setting the alignment of a table, but that's easily fixed by adding an align="right" (or left) to the code. But I shouldn't have to.

Setting up a blog on it is so easy anybody could do it.

All in all, I say it's a great improvement to the best blogging software of it's kind out there. Download it here. Just be aware that the installer will try to get you to set your Internet Explorer homepage and set your default search engine to MSN.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Writer, blogging, blogging software, software

The COTC makes a return...

...on Sunday.

If nothing else, it'll give me a great way to test out the new version of Live Writer.

I'll write about that later today BTW.

Oh, yea, if you want info about the Carnival, check out it's site.

Technorati Tags: Carnival of the Cats

At least this hasn't happened to the 'Stros yet

From last night's Angels-Yankees game:

NOTE: this was a video of home plate being stolen, but it's been taken down.

How things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if it happened soon tho.

UPDATE: We've lost ten in a row now. This is just getting ugly.

Glad I decided not to go to a game this week.

Al Qaeda fed up with delays

From The Onion News Network:

Al Qaeda Also Fed Up With Ground Zero Construction Delays

And apparently they're not the only ones...

Like something from a bad movie

No, really, it's just like one:

Customs officers at Cairo's airport Thursday detained a man bound for Saudi Arabia who was trying to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane, airport authorities said.

The officers were stunned when a passenger, identified as Yahia Rahim Tulba, told them his carry-on bag contained live snakes after he was asked to open it.

Tulba opened his bag to show the snakes to the police and asked the officers, who held a safe distance, not to come close. Among the various snakes, hidden in small cloth sacks, were two poisonous cobras, authorities said.

I've always been afraid of snakes. My dad having two red tail boas didn't help.

If I'd been at that airport when he opened that bag, I'd be dead right now.

The thrilling conclusion to the 2007 spring softball season

It's over.

We played a doubleheader last night. The first game was just ugly. We were slotted against a team that really does belong in a more competitive league. They were doing everything right and we just couldn't stop them. They made all the plays in the field and were hitting the gaps like Paris Hilton hits the bottle. We lost that one 23-3.

The second game was interesting. Since we were the visiting team, we got to bat first. The top half of the first inning lasted 20 minutes, we batted around the order TWICE, and scored 14 runs. It wasn't that we were hitting the ball really well, but that their fielding sucked. It seemed like just about every ball was dropped or a throw sailed. Just to give you an idea, the same person (who was by they way playing hopped up on vicodin because of an injured foot) was responsible for both the second and third out that inning.

No way they're gonna catch up, right?

Think again.

The bottom half came, and our fielding got a little sloppy. They put up five.

When we came to bat again, they did MUCH better on defense, only allowing two runs, bringing our total up to sixteen.

And then there was the bottom half of that inning. The umpire tightened up the strike zone a bit and our pitcher was struggling with locating it.

All I'll say about the strike zones is that this is rec league softball, not MLB. If it's close, call it a strike.

Our games are timed at 50 minutes. A new inning can't start once time has expired unless the score's tied. In that situation, teams get to start a runner at second to begin the inning.

When time expired on our game, the score was 16-14 with two outs and runners on first and second.

The guy hits one into shallow left. The runner from second got in easily and the tying run headed for the plate, knowing that it would take a near perfect throw to get them out.

We got a perfect throw and the third out to win the game 16-15.

Even if that play had ended up being total disaster at the plate, there's no way that the winning run would have come in. He pulled up coming into third with a bad hammy. Hate to see that happen.

Wow that was nuts.

Softball makeup

It was exciting.... and we won...

...because the other team forfeited.

Old pictures

When I was going through all my picture backups earlier this week, I stumbled across some pictures from about two years ago.

Both of these were taken with a camera on my PDA, which is only a slightly higher quality than a camera phone, so they don't look the best in the world, but whatever.

Taken May 16, 2005 - Bear was roughly 8 months old at the time. Back then, he was also the only dog in our house.

Taken July 31, 2005 - Bruiser was 12 weeks old. Notice how he's mostly black. Tri-color Beagles are born black and white and their brown grows in during puppyhood.

Also, and I can't believe I missed this, Monday was Bruiser's birthday. He's now two years old officially.

Oh yea, I almost forgot, Friday Ark is today.

A front row seat...

All of a sudden I've found just how much I love college baseball.

As my Twitter log indicates, I went to a game last night. It was a 4-2 win for the good guys, a great game.

Now, I give you a crappy picture of the view from my $7 seat:

OK, so I positioned the camera on my cell so that it wouldn't show the netting, but you get the idea.

Honestly, seeing the kind of seat you can get for that price leaves me thinking one thing: "Why the heck don't I go more."

That was their last home game, but I think I'll get season tickets for next year, hopefully in that same location. Their season ticket packages are very much on the cheap side.

Aint love grand?

More stuff stupid people do when in (and out of) love:

An ex-lovers' spat led to a man being scalded with boiling water and a woman being stabbed in the neck, according to Beaumont police reports.

[...]

The man took a pot of boiling water off the stove and tried to splash it on the couple, but a door was shut in his face.

The boiling water splashed off the door and hit the man, causing serious burns, the report says.

[...]

At 9:23 p.m., the ex-girlfriend went to see the burn victim's current girlfriend at an apartment in the 4000 block of Maida Road, the report says.

There, the ex-girlfriend is accused of using a knife to stab the 27-year-old woman in the neck, according to the report.

It should be noted that the stabbing was not life-threatening.

This is enough to give any life-long bachelor a reason to stay that way. Broken hearts, burnt chest, getting stabbed in the neck, it's all the same, right?

Patience at the plate

If there's anything at all I've kicked myself about during this round of softball it's been how I've been impatient at the plate.

Monday night, that changed.

I walked both plate appearances.

Heck, I only swung once. Shouldn't have though, that pitch was inside on me.

Oh well.

Since it's a co-ed league, I got two free trips to second. The lineups in co-ed leagues are guy-girl-guy-girl and they give the guy second as a way to discourage walking guys intentionally. With two outs, the girl that's next can take first automatically if she wants.

Anyways, the first time I was on I ended up being the second out. I got to third safely, I just didn't stop in time and ended up two or three steps into foul territory. The 3B got me when I went "Oh, shit!" and was scrambling back.

We've got a make-up game on Sunday and then a doubleheader on Monday to close out the season.

Why you don't mix unsupervised cats and computers

Yes, I finally decided to get Twitter.

Unfortunately, ever since I created an account, Twitter hasn't been able to work for shit.

I managed to post a note on there. Nothing fancy, just a "please fucking work" type thing, but it's seriously not working for me at all.

I get a server maintenance message once in a while. It's an image of a cat and a computer that says "in in ur serverz making thingz better!!!"

Obviously not, considering you've been popping up sporadically for hours.

And there's nothing on the Twitter Blog about it.

Seeing that, it tells me that the cat is playing around with the server unsupervised.

Maybe next time the humans will leave the server room door closed.

I'll get the flash twitter thingy on here eventually, but the code can't seem to tie the damn thing to my account for some reason either.

Back and better than ever... finally

My computer problems turned out to be a lot more involved than I had originally thought.

There never was a hard drive issue, but it was just caused by the RAM problem.

Unfortunately, the RAM problem wasn't REALLY a RAM problem, it was with the motherboard. I could have easily traded in the motherboard since it was covered by a service plan, but I got a better idea.

I'm gonna upgrade!

I upgraded to an AMD Athlon X2 4600+ processor, a different brand of board, and new sticks of RAM. The old sticks are still good, but they operate at a lower speed than the new motherboard can handle.

She's running like a charm now.

It'll take me a couple days to get everything back in order, but I'm just happy that it's working again right now.

More light blogging

I'm feeling better, but some other issues have come up.

As I was debugging a RAM problem with my system, I think some OS files
on my hard drive corrupted.

Thankfully I could get the system to load in safe mode, which allowed
me to pull off my files.

I considered letting BitLocker decrypt the hard drive and doing an
upgrade install of Vista, but I'm just going to wipe the HDD and start
from scratch. The decryption would take too long.

Anyways, I should be back to normal fairly soon.

I swear I'm not dead

I've just been under the weather recently and really haven't had anything hit me that I really want to write about, but I'll go ahead and hit a few quick points.

• I missed softball Monday night, but I made our games Tuesday. It was a make up for one of the weeks that rained out early in the season. We won both games, but I did something that almost cost us the first one. More on that some other time.
  
• Fox dropped off our cable feed twice during 24. I probably missed about five minutes of the show. At least I know what the "package" was.
  
• The Astros seem to be getting their stuff together. THey've won three straight in Cincy and are now just a game below .500 now. Hopefully they can keep it up.

That's all I got for now.

What a season

The 'Catters lost 4-3 in overtime tonight, ending their run for the Kelly Cup.

Part of me is sad that it's over, I'll admit that. But more than anything else I'm glad about what we did have.

Of our three seasons, this wasn't just our first playoff trip, it was our first time to have a winning team.

Hopefully we can build on it and go even farther next season.

The look

When I get looked at like this, I know what they're thinking:

We're hungry!

If they'd just look in the kitchen they'd find their food ready for them.

Just thinking out loud

If the DMV is the worst place on earth to spend a beautiful day, then what's the second worst place?

Leave your thoughts in the comments.

METRO, Astros announce 'Stranded at the Ballpark' nights

(Crossposted from METRO IFOC)

Minute Maid Park

METRO, who always tells the truth, even when they lie, today announced a partnership with the Astros for "Stranded at the Ballpark" nights.

"Yea, it's really cool," said METRO spokeswoman Raquetball Roberts. "If the Astros strand more than 10 runners on base, we're going to stop all service within three miles of Minute Maid park so that anybody relying on our service will be stuck at the ballpark until the next day when service will resume."

"We were planning on providing sleeping bags but we would have had to dip into the 'old man' fund" said Astros owner Drayton McLane.

McLane went on to explain that the old man fund is the money kept back for Roger Clemens should he decide to get off of his ass and pitch with the Astros this season.

"Granted things aren't looking too good with the team's performance right now but I'm still holding out hope," said McLane.

---

Normally I wouldn't crosspost something from over there, but I thought this one was appropriate given the Astros struggles.

Scheduling conflicts

I've got softball tonight.

And a 'Catters game. (By the way, the series is now knotted at two games a piece and could easily go 7)

The hockey game starts at 7 and the softball game starts at 9:30.

I'm hoping I can make both.

The hockey game should be over about 9:30 and it'll take me about 10 minutes to get to the fields. I can hope for a delay in the start so I get there when the game starts. If not, I'll be a little late and can be subbed in.

Of course, all that changes if the 'Catters game goes into OT.

Fun times, that's for sure.

'Catters update

My boys will be heading into Ford Arena tomorrow with the series knotted at 1 after exchanging 5-0 games with Florida.

Simply put, Tuesday night our guys looked awful and Florida took advantage.

I'm thinking the post-game interview with Coach Cameron went something like this:

The next night, the roles were reversed. Florida played like crap and we took advantage.

Games are Friday, Saturday, and Monday. I can't wait.

A little early, don't 'cha think?

Tonight the Democrats are hosting their first debate.

Am I the only one who thinks it's a little early? I mean, the primaries are still like nine months away.

I'll watch, but only to see if I can get an idea what Obama's made of.

Noodles loses his cool

Calgary Flames backup goalie Jamie McLennan was put in a game Saturday. He was roughed up a little and decided to go all Twisted Sister on Detroit's Johan Franzen.

Noodles is one of the members of the group that owns the Wildcatters. I'd heard nothing but great things about him from when he was down here during the lockout.

But man did he lose it there.

Put one in the win column

That's right, we won tonight.

We had two really close games. We won the first one 5-4 and lost the second one 7-6.

I had one plate appearance, but I don't want to talk about it.

There was a moment of confusion in the second game. We had runners on first and second and one out. The batter popped up towards third, triggering the infield fly rule. Since the ball wasn't caught, the runners both ran to the next base, and the ball was thrown to third and the runner called out.

End of inning, right?

Wrong.

The runner was never tagged, which I can vouch for since I was in the third base coaches box. Normally, it would have been a force out, but since an infield fly rule was called it wasn't a force play like the ump seemed to think.

One of our players talked it over with the ump, who admitted that we were right. We had runners on second and third with two outs. I'm a little fuzzy on what happened after that, but I do remember us bringing both of those runners in.

And that's the series, folks!

(Wildcatters Forward Olivier Proulx passes the puck during the third period of last night's game.)

Last night the Wildcatters beat Gwinnett 2-1 in overtime, allowing them to move on to face Florida in the South Division Finals.

It was a hard-fought game. Two periods of scoreless hockey, then the 'Catters took the lead on a power play goal. Gwinnett tied the game up with about three minutes left in regulation and the game was sent to overtime.

In the playoffs, teams will play 20 minute periods with 15 minute breaks until someone scores, so obviously you can get some really long nights. Since both goalies had only given up one in regulation and were standing on their heads, it was safe to assume that it could be a really long night

The referee decided to swallow his whistle and let the players play. We saw 19+ minutes of great hockey. Just as everybody was starting to accept that we'd be looking at another overtime period, Ben Thompson puts in the winning goal with 29 seconds remaining in the OT period.

The first game is at Florida on Tuesday night. If you're interested, you can listen to the radio stream or pay $6 for a video stream of the games. Both can be accessed from the team's website.

And, before you ask, yes I shot that picture up top.

I really hope we don't play on Sunday

Last night the 'Catters pulled out a 5-4 overtime win to take the series lead tow games to one.

Since it's a best of five series, that means the 'Catters can win this round on Friday night.

I'm hoping they do.

I'd rather not have to watch a do-or-die game five.

Sitting where I sit... right behind one of the goals... you realize just how close a lot of pucks come to going in.

Adding to that the fact that if you win you move on and if you lose you go hime... that's a lot to take.

I'm young and (relatively) healthy and I'm not sure if my heart could take it.

The solution to illegal immigration

From The Onion:

In The Know: The U.S. Moat

That's crazy enough to work!!!

Blogging will be light today

A panoramic view of Minute Maid Park that I shot in pieces at opening day last year and put together using some free program I downloaded somewhere.

Blogging will be light today because I'm planning on spending the day in Houston.

I'm gonna drive over, do some running around, and then head over to Minute Maid to see the Astros play the Marlins.

If you're gonna be there I shouldn't be hard to find, since I'll most likely be the only person there with a Wandy Rodriguez jersey on.

You know, just because I wanted something different when I shelled out all that money to get an authentic 'Stros jersey on my back.

Regular blogging will resume tomorrow.

The return of dogblogging

Well, I finally shot some pics of the boys for y'all, and here's the one for this week without a goofy caption:

I just couldn't think of anything goofy for that cute little moment.

And  for y'all's information, the blue-ish tint in the pictures is caused by me not realizing that the white balance settings were set to flourescent instead of the default. I'd had it set on flourescent for a hockey game I was shooting and totally forgot I had it on there.

Oops.

My head hurts...

I finally got around to doing something I should have done a long time ago: changing all my passwords.

The funny thing about doing that is that until you do them all at once you never realize just how many places you have to change it...

I swear I must have changed it at 30 places.

Oh, and on another note, I plan on resuming dogblogging tomorrow!

That big war-related post...

...that I hinted about on The Scratching Post follows:

Terry, a friend of mine and a member of the Marine reserves, has been called up to active duty and leaves Friday for Iraq.

Well, not straight to Iraq since he's got some training and stuff to go through first, but he will be.

I'm really not too nervous about him since he works in intel, but I know his mom enough to know that she's probably scared shitless. After all, she didn't want him in the Marines in the first place, although I think she came around when she saw him come back from boot camp.

Anyways, if it's your kind of thing, keep him and his family in your prayers.

Thank goodness for radio

I couldn't sleep, so I started flipping channels to see what's on.

I found the Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks on Versus. I mean, I'm a Stars fan, but I'll admit I haven't been following them too closely with the 'Catters doing so well this year.

We're told that we're going to the fourth OT in just a minute by the intermission crew, but that's not what we get...

[WARNING: Expletive-laden rant below]

We get a fucking infomercial for some fucking workout machine.

I swear, I can't believe the NHL gave these fucking morons the right to broadcast their games to a national audience. With something like this, I wouldn't give them the right to broadcast it to my ex-girlfriend, much less an entire nation!

Thank goodness for the radio broadcasts being streamed over the web, or I'd be totally SOL.

I sent an email about it to Versus, but I doubt I'll get a response from that sorry excuse for a cable network.

Ok, maybe a "sorry for the incontinence" message, but nothing that will mean a flying fuck.

Naturally, as I was writing this, the Canucks got the game winner.

Just. Fucking. Wonderful.

I blame Versus.

Softball FINALLY resumed...

Yes... my wonderful softball league didn't rain out for once.

After a bye week and a rain-out, we finally got playing again, losing 12-9. It was a really good game, one we were in until the end (which is rare for us) We may be 0-for-forever, but we're having fun.

As far as myself, I got another fielders choice.

AB: 4
BA: .250
OBP: .250
K: 1
BB: 0
1B: 1
RBI: 0

These numbers are starting to look depressing... I'm really tempted to stop with them...

Oh... and next week... guess what...

ANOTHER BYE WEEK!!!

Seriously, are we ever going to get to play two weeks in a row?

Weeds

Yesterday we took Bruiser back to the vet to get the rash on his belly looked at.

The vet still thinks it's allergies, probably caused by some sort of weed in the backyard, and gave him a shot and two weeks worth of pills to help with the allergies, which seem to be helping.

Now I just need to weed the yard...

Blogging will be lighter than usual today

I keep getting told that I'm a year older today like it's a good thing.

22 just means you're another year closer to dying.

Oh well, at least I'm going to an Astros game today.

Regularly light blogging will resume tomorrow.

This is April, not February...

This is insane.

Usually this time of year we're starting to get into the 80's, not be like this.

All I can say is that it's really going to make tomorrow's trip to Houston for the 'Stros game a real blast.

Yes, I know, Minute Maid has a roof. But it doesn't have heat. Trust me, I've sat in there for the college classic with it hovering around 50 all day.

Fun times, indeed

NOTE: The above post probably makes no sense at all. That's what I get for blogging early on a Saturday.

The one thing we didn't need

The Wildcatters lost tonight and Florida's leading Augusta 5-3 with 6:24 left in the game.

Assuming Florida's score holds up (Augusta's a pesky third period team), that gives them the inside track on the division. The only way we can win it now is that my 'Catters have to win and the Everblades have to lose in regulation tomorrow night.

After spending two seasons as one of the worst teams in the league, It's been hard enough to wrap my mind around the idea that we could make the playoffs, much less win the division.

Funny how that happens, huh?

---

UPDATE: Florida won 5-4, so what I said up there stands.

Quick thought

The Iranians said they released the 15 British sailors as an Easter gift to the British people.

I didn't know Muslims celebrated Easter.

Let's face it, they did it to try to look like they're taking the high road... which is why they captured them in the first place, right?

Yes, their magic number went up

I screwed up...

With the way hockey standings work (getting two points for a win, one for losing in overtime) it's possible for a team to be in third and still have a higher magic number against them if the team in third hasn't played as many games as the team in second.

Which was the case.

I'd only done the math for the second place team, not the third.

Well, the third place team made up that game yesterday in a win over Pensacola, pushing them into second place. Since they own the tiebreaker against us as of now (they have one more win than us), the number had to be pushed up to six.

Confused yet?

Don't worry, I am too.

Basically we can clinch the division if:

• we win all three games we have left,
• we win two and Florida drops one in regulation,
• we win one and Florida drops two in regulation,
• or Florida wins all three they have left in regulation.

Of course, all that gets muddied up if there's an overtime loss by either team, but I'm not smart enough to figure out all the scenarios if that happens, so we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it.

I'm just hoping that the guys keep it simple for all of us and win all three, something I don't really expect since they're all on the road.

A new path

It is with a heavy heart that I am today announcing that I am leaving blogging.

It was a very tough decision to make, but I realized that I simply won't have the time for it with my new career in the male strip club industry.

It's been a great ride, with a lot of great people I've met along the way.

I'm really going to miss y'all.

Oh, and...

APRIL FOOLS!!!

You're not getting rid of me that easily.

It's official

WE'RE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!

Letting go

There's a small hockey message board that some friends of mine put together back in 2004. I've been posting there since the start.

Everybody got along really well over there and the place had what I'd consider a good following for a message board primarily about a local hockey team in an area where hockey is considered a "yankee sport."

And then it melted down faster than Three Mile Island.

I'm not sure what all was going on since I'd been staying out of that thread, but I knew that the board was dropping people like flies, feelings were hurt, grudges were being held, all there was more drama than you'd see in the halls at most high schools.

I figured that we were all adults and could end up working out our differences, and even made an (admittedly weak) effort to get that to happen, but it just wasn't happening.

I finally determined that the board was too fractured to be saved and that the drama and everything there wasn't something I wanted to be a part of anymore.

I sent a PM to my friends explaining why I was leaving and assuring them that it wasn't anything personal.

I plan on sitting with them tomorrow night and cheering our guys on to (hopefully) clinching the first playoff berth in team history.

I just wish things would have turned out differently.

Writers block

I've been fighting a major case of writers block lately.

And I mean MAJOR.

Like for METRO IFOC... I saw the story on Chron.com about the guy who got shot on a bus today.

That should be an easy one to spin, right?

I couldn't think of anything at all.

Oh well... I'm heading out of town tomorrow, maybe I can lose the block while I'm gone. UPDATE: It got called off this morning at the last minute.

The eye of the Bruiser

Bruiser went back to the normal vet today to get his eye looked at... to see how it's healing.

The doc said that his eye's healing well, which is good.

A not so relaxing Saturday

I really wanted to relax before the game Saturday night, but the dogs had other plans.

Bruiser and Petey got in a fight and Bruiser came out of it with a nasty scratch on his eye so he got to take a trip to the emergency vet.

He's ok, thankfully, but he's on antibiotic and pain drops in the eye for about the next week and will be visiting Dr. Todd on Tuesday to see how it's looking.

Let's just say that giving a dog eyedrops is NOT fun.

By the time I got home from the emergency vet it was just about time to get going to a pregame tailgater. Good food and a GREAT game with the 'Catters winning 4-3.

All in all, it could have been worse. I could have been in Houston watching the Aeros lose 10-2.

Major League Baseball hates kids with cancer

I bring you the newest addition to the the long list of stupid things that Major League Baseball has done:

Craig Biggio was angry at the commissioner's office Thursday night after he was told to stop wearing a pin on his cap that bears the logo of a foundation that helps children with cancer.

The Houston Astros star said he has worn the bright yellow, sun-shaped pin, featuring the logo for the Sunshine Kids foundation, on his hat during spring training games for the past 20 years without a problem. He is the national spokesman for the foundation and is very active in its work.

"I'm not a disrespectful person and I don't disrespect the game," Biggio said. "But I've been wearing this pin for 20 years because it puts smiles on 20,000-something cancer patients' faces."

[snip]

The 41-year-old second baseman, who is 70 hits shy of 3,000, said he wears the pin in spring training because many of the pictures for baseball cards are taken during those games and the children like seeing the pin on those cards.

Why? It's a pin on a hat! Not for some corporate entity, but The Sunshine Kids, a group that helps improve the quality of life of children with cancer!

And probably just so some suit in MLB's fortress of incompetence can feel all big and bad for telling a baseball player what to do.

Shameful.

Oh, and last I checked, those huge necklaces that players wear are still allowed.

When the bling gets banned, then MAYBE we can talk.

ELSEWHERE:

• Darrell Pittman from AstrosDaily beings us a satirical look at the situation.
• Paul Lukas from Uni Watch brings us a column on ESPN.com's Page 2.

Surprisingly, nothing from Plunk Biggio... yet, at least.

Disturbing imagery

I'm sure I wasn't the only person who was severely disturbed when I saw the following picture with a post over at IMAO today:

 
Al Gore shows us his O-face. "Oh... Oh... Oh!"

You can thank me for sharing later.

Half-right

Bruiser has had some redness on his belly for the past two or three weeks. I wasn't worried about it because I figured it was something minor and would just go away on it's own.

Well... it didn't go away.

So today I took him to the vet to let him take a look at it. Dr. Todd examines him for a minute and told me that it looked like allergies.

He went on to say that Bruiser's probably been laying on something that he's allergic to and that all he should need is a benadryl twice a day.

I just need to keep an eye on it and take him back if it gets worse looking. Should that happen, he'll probably get an antibiotic.

After walking out of the exam room, I asked "So, do I owe ya anything?"

Dr. Todd said to get out of there, so I guess not.

Well... it was minor, so I guess I was half right about it.

Comments

I've noticed a trend... and I know that K T has noticed the same thing.

Whenever you ask for comments you may get one or two, but never that many.

And when you don't ask for them, you get lovely little gems like this one that someone left for my post where I said I was leaving the newspaper blog:

Whiner child. Not sure how the newspaper sponsorship affected whether you or anybody else blogged. Like most of your generation, you simply got lazy. Go play a videogame or something and knock off the sniveling.

Sounds like that guy that everybody had in their neighborhood that was always screaming at kids, telling them to get off his lawn.

Since I still have admin powers at the blog, I deleted the comment.

If their email address hadn't been blatantly fake I would have ripped him a new one too.

The funny thing is that the IP from the comment traces back to Hearst, the company that owns the paper.

Oh well.

I say let the idiot think that about the younger generation. When he's too old to take care of himself and this generation is changing his Depends, he'll be eating those words.

Ponder this...

Does the fact that someone lost a loved one mean that their actions shouldn't be criticized in a manner similar to this post from last year?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Softball picks back up

This week wasn't good for me... 1 AB and I struck out swinging on a full count. Here's my numbers on the season now.

BA: .333
OBP: .667
K: 1
BB: 0
1B: 1
RBI: 0

What a blast!!!

...and I'm not being sarcastic for once.

On Sunday I was lucky enough to join 70,013 other people at Reliant Stadium to see ZZ Top.

As all RodeoHouston concerts, there were rodeo events before the band takes the stage. The finals were held Saturday night and today PRCA Xtreme Bulls paid Houston a visit. For those that don't know, that's nothing but bull riding for two hours, which was a blast and was probably worth the $19 a ticket for nosebleeds all by itself.

But that wasn't why we were there.

After all the rodeo events were done, the large rotating stage was brought from the south end of the building to the center of the floor and ZZ Top took the stage, giving us an hour and a half or so of their hits.

It was just all in all an awesome experience. The only real complaint I have is that the acoustics in Reliant leave something to be desired, but what can you really expect from a 70,000+ seat football stadium?

Mad TV actually has a decent skit!

Even if you don't agree with this, it's funny as hell:

Let it be known right now that if the comments deteriorate into a moonbat v. chickenhawk war I'll close them because that's the last fucking thing I want going on over here.

Now you see why I don't blog about the war...

Being sloppy out of curiosity

I think I'm gonna leave the EATAPETA counter up until Friday... I just want to see what the JavaScript that generates the number does after that date.

Now that I think about it, I guess that doesn't make me sloppy, just curious.

After that I'll probably change it up to count down to another date... maybe Astros opening day.

---

UPDATE: Nevermind... it just goes blank. Guess it's time to set up the new counter.

Update the rain line, people

So I called the rain line and it said we would be playing tonight. We'd had some rain this morning so I wasn't sure.

Then I got to the fields... and nobody was there.

Really, thanks, because you know I wanted to drive across town for no reason.

Just. Fucking. Lovely.

Dogblogging

I haven't done dogblogging since the week we put Bear to sleep, and I'm really not sure why.

I should probably get out the camera and shoot some pics this weekend and put them up.

After all, I'm sure y'all want to see Bruiser in his bra... er... harness.

Cutting it loose

There's a project I've been involved with for a long time.

It ran really well at first, but has seemed to fizzle off.

Lately it's been to the point where I've been about the only one doing anything with it, which I've grown tired of.

So... Through our eyes... we're done.

Gambling in the Lone Star state?

There's a chance I won't have to drive to Louisiana to blow my money anymore:

This may finally be the year for casino gambling in the Lone Star State, state legislators and tribal leaders said Wednesday.

"It's got a better chance of getting to the voters this time around," Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, said of the constitutional amendment required before slot machines start spinning in Texas.

Despite the new revenue's intriguing possibilities, casino gambling proposals have consistently sputtered out.

New this legislative session is a reported union between horse track owners and new casino proponents. Seeing one another as revenue threats previously stopped the groups from supporting the same legislation.

"With them together, there is certainly a stronger possibility of it passing," Deshotel said.

Honestly, I'll be surprised if this actually passes because Texas is so backwoods when it comes to gambling, but I'd vote for it.

Of course, I really don't know if it'd make a difference. Odds are that the nearest casinos would end up in Houston, which is just about as far away as Lake Charles.

But at least my money will be staying in-state.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Softball: Week one

I was DH the entire game and went 1 for 2 with an infield single and a fielders choice.

I'm even gonna keep track of my numbers for the year

BA: .500
OBP: 1.000
RBI: 0
1B: 1

I'll add any more categories when I get them... but I'm honestly too slow to turn a double or triple and I don't have the power to hit one out the park. Heck, my hit went about 9 inches.

All in all, I can't complain.

Fun Monday: Worst opening sentence

It's time for my first ever Fun Monday post, something I plan on participating in once in a while because, well, it's fun. This week's topic (posted here by Mindy from Mama Drama) was:

To compose an exceptionally bad opening sentence for any piece of writing (not limited to novels...but not including blog posts) and to include a photograph or brief description of some aspect of that sentence.

How hard can that be, right?

So here goes:

Stephanie Saunders walked out of her front door to begin a long, exciting day that ended suddenly as she was run over by a bus, killing her instantly.

Right about now you're going "HOW DARE YOU MENTION THE MAIN CHARACTER'S FATE IN THE FIRST SENTENCE? DOESN'T THAT KILL THE POINT OF READING THE BOOK? AND WHY AM I SCREAMING?"

It's then that I show you this:

A red herring

Because Stephanie Saunders has absolutely nothing to do with the story.

Technorati tag: Fun Monday

Practice, we're talkin' 'bout practice

I finally made a softball practice today.

This is the third week of 'em, but I had two very important hockey games to go to, so cut me some slack.

Felt good to be out there, running around and stuff, but if I know myself at all it won't feel so good tomorrow morning.

And we have a game tomorrow too!!!

Tons of fun.

Tuesday morning I'll likely be stiffer than a pedophile at a teenie bopper concert.

A cleaner version crossposted to Through our eyes

Let's have some fun

Think of a word that starts with F, ends in CK and isn't firetruck OR a wordy dirty.

Person with the best answer wins my undying admiration.

Show me your balls

Someone asked me to show them my balls a while back... So I did.

(work safe, I swear)

1/320 of a second

That's how long it took to take this picture:

This is a shot that I took at today's 5-4 'Catters loss to the Stockton Thunder. Neither the ref or goal judge saw the puck go in because it was in and out so fast, but a lot of fans saw it go in.

I personally didn't see it go in, but it can be difficult to track the puck through my Rebel's viewfinder... but it looks like the biscuit's in the basket to me.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

There goes the neighborhood

From last night's Buffalo-Ottawa game:

You don't see that kind of thing happen much in hockey.

Reminds me of the old 'Catters bench-clearing brawl in 2004.

Good memories.

Remember though, folks, there's MUCH more to hockey than the fights.

March Madness

I got an email from Ticketmaster about a presale for next year's regional in Houston. For $158 I could get a ticket to all the games of that regional.

I'm not much of a basketball fan, but I always watch the NCAA tournament. It's one of my favorite things in sports.

So did I buy a ticket?

Hell yea.

I'd say that I can't wait, but it's a year off...

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Back to school

Today I began what should be an interesting journey throughout the next six months.

I began a series of online classes that will give me all the know-how to work as a veterinary assistant.

It's an online course offered through Alvin Community College's online Continuing Education program. The course doesn't require being admitted to Alvin CC and only cost $79 per course.

All the courses (three to finish the program) are six weeks long with new courses starting every month. New lessons are up twice a week, along with a quiz (that doesn't count), discussion area for the lesson, and other activities that will help us when we take the final exam that will determine if we pass or not.

This should be an interesting ride...

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Quote of the day

"You don't have to worry about Mad Cow Disease here. Before we buy our cows we send them all to anger management."

-A grill chef at Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar

We went there today to celebrate four February birthdays in the family. We seven of us sat at one of the grill tables for our meal. The guy who worked our table was a real piece of work.

Tons of fun... and some of the best food I've had in a long time.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

I swear I won't just do crossposts at this one...

...in fact, I won't crosspost anything to/from there.

I'm writing at another blog now.

METRO is full of crap is letting me share my goofy side with the world.

I'm having fun with it :)

I hate to brag, but...

Back in June I did an entry about the Bonura family, who I thought was turning the tragic death of their daughter into greed. The post drew an interesting comment (#6), which I responded to.

Here's the basic gist of the story as published by the Enterprise back in June (the link to the story no longer works):

The family of a student killed in the March bus accident involving the West Brook High School girls soccer team sued the bus company and its driver Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson County district court on behalf of Alicia Bonura's family, alleges the bus chartered from Sun Travel was unsafe and that the driver was negligent.

[snip]

The lawsuit seeks both actual and punitive damages from Sun Travel and Lorri Ann White, the Silsbee resident who drove the bus.

The manufacturers of the bus and its parts also will be added as defendants in the lawsuit, Ferguson said.

I said, among other things:

If anybody's responsible, it's the guy who didn't secure his cargo to the trailer.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has finished their report on the accident... and they agree with me.

KFDM News has learned the Texas Department of Public Safety just finished its report on the West Brook soccer team bus crash.

[snip]

Sergeant Havard says the DPS will turn over its report, which is several hundred pages long, to the Liberty County District Attorney's office. Havard, who led the investigation, says he'll ask the D.A. to file criminally negligent homicide charges against the driver of the pick up truck for failing to secure the styrofoam.

That charge is a state jail felony.

The DPS says no charges will be filed against the driver of the charter bus, because she didn't cause the accident.

And I didn't need an investigation that took most of a year!

So, here's my question. Now that it's been established who's really responsible, will the parties that were cleared of wrongdoing be removed from the lawsuit?

My money's on no.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

My response to the Mac people

My post about my experience in the Apple store yesterday generated some interesting comments from a Mac user.

Let's take a look:

A pleasant surprise

This came with the package containing Bear's ashes.

Click for a MUCH larger version

I really like it.

Apple Computer will NEVER get my money

I picked up Bear's ashes today.

After I did that I went to the Galleria to grab some food.

I'd been thinking about finally getting an Ipod, so I stopped in the Apple store on my way out.

I was ready to buy the black 30 GB model until I asked the salesperson (who I shall call Macboy) about the device's compatibility with Windows Vista. The talk went something like this:

Macboy: You're running Vista?

Me: Yea.

Macboy: [in what I consider a condescending tone] We don't support Vista yet.

Me: [Turns around and walks out]

Well, my apologies for not praying toward Cupertino, California (where Apple's corporate headquarters are located) five times a day.

You know, the people you'll see on any tech blog who think that Microsoft is evil and Mac can do no wrong.

I can't stand them.

Not that I pray towards Redmond, WA or anything.

I'll never buy anything Apple or Mac the rest of my life.

Anyways, I went to Fry's and bought a black Zune instead. They both cost the same.

I'll let y'all know what I think about it soon.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Coming home

Bear's specialist called today to let us know that his ashes were back and that we could come by whenever to pick them up.

I knew they'd be calling, I just thought it would take longer. At least another week.

I guess I'll be making (hopefully) my last trip to GCVS later this week to bring Bear home.

Just not the way I would have liked to.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Label me what you will

I'm finally working on implementing Blogger's labels feature.

You know, it's a real pain in the ass to sort through 500 posts and file them into categories.

For Bear

Yes, I'm doing dogblogging this week, but this week's different.

This one's gonna be all about Theodore Samuel the Bear or, as y'all simply know him, Bear.

We got Bear at seven weeks old on election night 2004. I still remember the night really well. I picked up Jason from school and we headed over to Houston. We met my mom at her house and her boyfriend drove us over to Bear's breeder's house, which was on the opposite side of town and that I had no idea how to get to. We saw the little guy, the last one left in his litter, and fell in love instantly.

He spent most of his time that first week or two here in Jason's room under the bed, only coming outside once in a while to play for about 15 minutes before he got tired. He didn't bark for the first two weeks here so we were starting to wonder if he was capable of barking.

He was.

He got big fast.

Really big.

Shelties aren't supposed to get taller than 16 inches at the shoulder but he got closer to 20. We joked that we might have fed him too well.

Of course, with his size, he couldn't be a stud, so we got him fixed.

We made the mistake of introducing Bruiser, our second dog, into the mix that day. Bear wasn't too happy about having an energetic little puppy around when he wasn't up to playing around.

He of course got better and had a good buddy to play with. One of his favorite things to do was to get Bruiser to chase him around the backyard.

His other favorite thing to do was chase tennis balls. We must have gone through dozens of them before I bought a package of Tuff Balls at PetSmart. I think the three that we pulled out of the package when I bought them are still in the toy pile... or at least somewhere in the house.

Even as a grown-up dog, he was still pretty laid back around the house with one exception: strangers. If he didn't know you he considered you a threat to his "herd" and would bark and bark and bark at you. On thanksgiving in 2005 I brought my then-girlfriend over to do dinner with the family (her first visit to my place) and Bear scared the crap out of her. I'd seriously never seen him freak out at a stranger that bad. Looking back, maybe he was just trying to tell me that she wasn't the one for me. She broke up with me less than a week later.

He was always a sweet, affectionate little boy, but also not one of those dogs that demands your attention all the time. When he wanted it though, well you'd better give him all the attention in the world!

Of course, if you knew him well enough that he didn't bark at you constantly you couldn't help but love him and give him all the attention he wanted. I don't think he ever met a human that didn't like him once they got to know each other. It was just that the whole getting to know each other thing was kinda difficult with all of the barking he'd do at people he didn't know.

Then he got sick.

He picked up a rare fungal infection from drinking out of a puddle in the backyard. We knew it was going to be a long road ahead of us, but we were optimistic.

As the disease progressed, he began losing weight and was a little snippy, but was the same dog he'd always been.

Here are some pics that I took of him last month.

Yes, I know I'm a handsome devil.

Was that a dog on the TV? I think it was!

It's naptime, you can leave me alone now.

Unfortunately, the disease wasn't responding to medication, so we put him to sleep on Tuesday.

As a final note, I want to thank all the people who have been sending thoughts and prayers my way. Y'all have helped to make a sucky situation just a little better.

Now that you've had all this to bum you out, go check out this week's Friday Ark to lift your spirits.

Blogging forecast

As you have probably noticed, blogging has been light recently.

As your official blogging forecaster, I shall forecast what it will be like in the says ahead:

With a potent mixture of mourning, transitioning to Windows Vista, and a nasty case of the crud it looks like blogging will likely be very light for the next few days.

This has been your blogging forecast, brought to you by the Justin's Random Swag CafePress store, carrying all of your official Justin's Random Thoughts apparrel.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

When doing the right thing really, really sucks

We took Bear back to the specialist today.

When we went in, the nurse lady cleaned up his backside and shaved him some to help with the odor.

Dr. Burney looked at him while he was back there and told us what we were afraid of... that the medicine wasn't working and that there was really nothing more that could be done.

We knew what that meant and all agreed that we should end his suffering and put him to sleep.

I'm gonna miss ya, buddy

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Third Annual Super Bowl Predictions

Yes, this is the third year I've done these.

Two years ago, I nailed everything.

Last year, I only got the winner of the game right.

So let's look at what Vegas is saying, shall we?

The Game:

Colts. Peyton Manning finally got the big game monkey off of his back, and now he's going to get his ring.

The Spread:

Indy will beat the 6.5 spread.

Over/Under:

Peyton Manning's a dynamic QB and I think the Colts offense will just outmatch the Bears D. I'd say that they'd go over the 47.0 mark, but the 60% chance of rain makes me think that scoring will be down... but will it be down enough? I think so. Under.

Post-game analysis:

(edited in at 21:09, just after the concolusion of the game)

Three for three!!!

Do I rock or do I rock?

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Declaring shenanigans

I am hereby declaring shenanigans on Wildcatters owner Rick Adams from something said in the article that ran about the town hall meeting:

Powers said an early-season meeting for season ticket holders brought out less than half the team and no head coach. Adams denied an event ever took place and that there are various reasons an event for season ticket holders had not taken place yet.

(Emphasis added by me)

O RLY? Let's just look into that, because I could have sworn there was one and I was there. I remember it being on a softball night and the only reason I was able to go was because we had a 9:30 game that night.

Thankfully for me, Gmail keeps archives, so let's take a look...

*checks Gmail archives*

from: Jennifer Nguyen jnguyen@wildcattershockey.com

reply-to: jnguyen@wildcattershockey.com

to: Jennifer Nguyen <jnguyen@wildcattershockey.com>,
"Angie Trevino (E-mail 2)" <atrevino@wildcattershockey.com>,
"Anthony Langella (E-mail)" <alangella@wildcattershockey.com>,
"Jessica Munson (E-mail)" <jmunson@wildcattershockey.com>,
"Quincy Bird (E-mail)" <qbird@wildcattershockey.com>,
"Rick Adams (E-mail)" <radams@wildcattershockey.com>,
"Steve Samoyedny (E-mail)" <ssamoyedny@wildcattershockey.com>

date: Oct 19, 2006 11:12 AM

subject: Exclusive Season Ticket Holder Celebration!

You’re Invited…
Season Ticket Holder Exclusive Celebration!

Mingle With The Players
Let’s Build the Momentum Days Before Home Opener
Sponsored by: KFDM Channel 6

Monday, October 23, 2006
6:30 p.m.
Madison’s on Dowlen
4020 Dowlen Road

Season tickets will be available for pick up!

Let’s Pack the Park!
Not too late to get extra Home opener Tickets!
Get Them Soon, Seats Going Quick!

Thank you,

Jennifer Nguyen
General Manager
409-951-5507
jnguyen@wildcattershockey.com

Just for kicks, here's a screenshot of the email taken from a printable version.

Looks like it happened to me...

If I remember right, Rick was even there.

Oh how soon we forget, eh?

That is if he really did forget and wasn't just trying to look good, something I'd expect from a lawyer.

Crossposted to Through our eyes

Who said it was good for nothing but lining the bird cage?

(Spotted on setxtrailerpark.com)

Someone seems to have found another good use for the Enterprise:

They say it takes all kinds to make the world go round. Well, the management and staff at the new Hooters in Beaumont, the delightfully tacky yet unefined restaurant known for its well-endowed waitresses and hot wings, learned that lesson the hard way this past Thursday.

That’s when a registered sex offender was arrested at the restaurant for masturbating while sitting in a booth near restrooms, according to police reports.

[snip]

The report, obtained by The Examiner, states the officer observed the man trying to cover himself with a Beaumont Enterprise newspaper on his lap while masturbating underneath the table.

(Emphasis added by me)

Well that's certainly a better use than reading it!

Not crossposted to Through our eyes for obvious reasons ;)

An update on Bear

I figured that it was about time that I say something about how the guy's doin.

I'm not really sure if there's any improvement, but I'm probably too close to the situation... a visit with the specialist soon will tell us something.

He still struggles to poo and when he does it's runny as all hell. For a long-haired dog that takes some pride in his grooming it's not a pretty thing. Let's just say that when I say that his breath smells like crap, I mean it. HIS BREATH SMELLS LIKE CRAP. We bought some of those dental bones yesterday that are suppossed to help freshen breath and those have seemed to help.

He hasn't been eating as much, but I'm really not sure what to make of it.

As far as his spirits, he's still been just about as playful as he's always been, but he does get a little snippy at times.

We'll see what happens I guess...

Crossposted to Through our eyes