Gonzai Gallery

I don't know what it is about benefits for animal charities, but nobody buys my stuff. I barely made my expenses, and as it turned out, I need not have bothered with anything other than Ravens & Orioles. Nothing else drew interest at all. Still, I did better than two of my three 'roommates', one had a single sale and the other had none. (The fourth cleaned up. Go figure.) But I met lots of doggies, plus some rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs and bunnies. I had help from my buddies Jim and Jeff, so it was a easy and social occasion if naught else. Trying to decide if I should bother with another show, I need the money but do I need the aggravation?

No, not the movie (although I did recently watch 'The Girl'.) Not the local sports teams, either.

No, I mean the real live feathered kind.

I was getting the morning paper when I heard a commotion near the front porch. There was a large bird trying to get into the hedge and several small birds darting back and forth within the hedge, and everyone was making noise. Finally the small birds escaped out the back and the large bird dropped onto the lawn to contemplate failure. It was a red-tailed hawk. For reals. I've seen them flying, but never in my neighborhood and certainly not on my lawn! I hope he doesn't decide CJ is in his weight class. (The dogs belonging to either neighbor are definitely small enough for him.)

Then I stopped to pick up breakfast on the way to work, and a crow dropped a french fry on my windshield. I suppose he was tired of merely pooping on cars. But it was too early in the morning for it to be raining fried potatoes.

At least, off from the internet, for the most part. I had today off of work (Happy Rosh Hashanah, as applicable) so I took Mom to a Senior Day Center to see what she thought. We were greeted by a dog named Buttercup. I consider that a good sign. Mom thinks it's too expensive, but my brother doesn't, so I'll let him convince her she can afford it. Then lunch at a new sandwich shop, Potbelly's. I think it's a chain. Decent sandwich though, and Mom was happy with hers.

Rest of the day was TV and computer games, as I caught up with nearly everything on the DVR and finally watched last year's 'Whitechapel'. I put that off because series 2 did nothing for me; turns out series 3 was much, much better. I'm taking '2001: A Space Odyssey' a chunk at a time, because I've tried and failed to watch it a few times already. I liked the 'trio' episode of Leverage much more than the rest of this season, and Mom actually liked it, first time in years she's liked the show. Maybe we have our new direction - just let Elliott, Hardison and Parker be the show. Fine with me. I enjoyed Doctor Who, esp. the conversations with the horse. Big surprise, right? We also watched Bill Maher, who I think properly summed up recent events thusly: "Some crazy Christians pretending to be crazy Jews riled up a bunch of crazy Muslims, so Mitt Romney could prove Mormons are even crazier."

Sunday, I was a party host. Can't remember the last time I tried that. But 4 of my gaming friends came over for the 'game', that being Ravens/Eagles, of course. We had an Eagles fan. I seated him near the door and we took turns reminding him we could easily toss him out of it. But he had the last laugh, dammit. But we had a grand time other than the final score, and a couple people stayed after and we played board games until late. I had to let CJ out eventually, but she was nice to the strangers! Total relief, that. The whole thing must have gone well, because the last folks out said we should do this again. My back isn't so sure about that, I'm a hurting pup today (presumably from moving around the furniture) but otherwise, yeah, gamers at the game, why not?

While I was typing last night, the power went out. The battery backup is supposed to last 30 minutes, but only lasted 5. Lasted long enough for me to post and shut down the computer at least. And that was it for the power for 15 hours. No AC, in 100 degree weather. The radio stations I listen to were knocked off the air; my cell phone's tower was out. One of our oak trees came down on the neighbor's fence, I photographed it but they're not home and I'm sure the insurance and tree people are a little busy right now. It's been a rough day. I had to drive 10 miles out to get breakfast and a cell phone signal to call my brother about Mom's car, just so he could tear me a new one because Mom doesn't understand anything he says to her. Among other things, I asked if we could stay at his air-conditioned house and was informed he didn't particularly want either me or Mom there and don't you dare think of bringing a dog here. Well, at least I know if there's trouble at home, don't even bother asking my brother for help, just go straight to friends. F**k him.

Anyway, power's back for now, so trying to watch some TV while we have it.

The good news is, it's HBO documentary season. The bad news is, the first offering was 'One Nation Under Dog'. I just watched it. I don't think I will sleep tonight, and I can't stop crying. Most of it I expected, like bereavement counselling, pet cemeteries, animal shelters, puppy mills.
( Cut for seriously upsetting stuff. Don't read this if you don't think you can. I thought I could watch it and I was wrong. )
I am a wreck.

The worst part is that the people who need to see this film - the abusers, the abandoners, the puppy millers and the people who just will not spay/neuter - are the people who won't watch it. The people who do watch it, we're the ones who already know.

STILL waiting to hear from the yo-yo with the dog crate, so I started futzing around on craigslist in the faint hope I could find another such crate. Instead I found someone passing along their unused gift Kindle for a reasonable price not far from me. So I took a chance and bought it for Mom. She won't go to the library anymore, but whines that she has nothing to read, so I'm hoping this stripped down Kindle might do the trick. Now if I could just get it to talk to my Amazon account...

Oh, and off to Balticon for the next few days to be a grunt in the art show. Probably won't be back until Sunday or Monday. Enjoy the weekend folks!

Today was low 70s and sunny, in late April. Screw sitting in a hotel all day playing games. For that matter, forget the art & craft show. We went and saw a few open houses, did some grocery shopping and visited a farm stand, talking the back roads for all of the above. One of the houses...I swear, they were giving away something, although the realtor swore it was only cookies. I've never seen more than 3 sets of people at a house at a time, well this time there were two cars leaving as we pulled in, two cars coming in behind us and 7 sets of people already there. 4 more came while we there. Crazy busy. The owners had left a dog in the inlaw apartment, Mom wants both the apartment AND the dog. If it were just that apartment, it would have been a great apartment. Add 3.5 acres, 3 car garage, and a 4,000 sf house, wow. I want this house.

Now we're home trying to clear the DVR (3 days of shows to catch up on) and decompress from a big day.

It's Joe the Quarterback! OK, Joe Flacco, the Ravens' QB. He did a signing in my area today and I went over. Couldn't have been much better, really, other than the crazy woman in line behind me, it was 75 degrees, partly cloudy, the line was long but I've seen worse and it moved fast. I waited half an hour, then got in. Took 40 minutes to get to Joe. Took a bunch of pics, this isn't the best one in terms of focus but he was posing for someone else, saw my camera and gave me a smile too. Afterwards, I ran into one of the gamers walking his dog through the shopping center. I recognized the dog first, because I'm like that.

Anyway, here's Joe!

Mom is babysitting the next couple days. So, while I have the unenviable task of juggling mutts, I do get a break. A much-needed break.

Which I will probably spend fuming over the Trayvon Martin case.