Gonzai Gallery

Except that I swear most of my classmates are coming to class drunk. At the very least, they're coming to class stupid and flaky and determined to stay off-topic and beat dead horses all night, including the dead horses they beat LAST week. I'm exhausted and ill; I don't want to spend the whole night there listening to them whine. I really don't want to listen to the one girl, who is receiving food stamps and student aid, proudly announce she's buying a $4,000 puppy. Gawd.

My big thing for today was to go to the county Humane Society's annual Dogfest, which is all manner of dog-related contests, activities and information while raising money for animal rescue. A good cause, yes? And boy, could I use the free consultation with the animal behaviorist, as CJ has flipped her lid of late. 

And, despite the fact the Humane Society forgot to put directions to the facility anywhere on the web site, I found the place and got there in half an hour. And then sat. And sat. And sat. Sat in traffic for 40 minutes and still couldn't even see the facility. I asked a volunteer trooping up & down the road what the wait was; she said "30-40 minutes to get in the parking lot, another 20 to get in the gate." WTF? So I gave up and went home. Even if I was willing to wait another hour, at least, just to get in, how crowded must it be inside? And as I left, I saw the line of cars to get in was .9 miles long (yes, I checked the speedometer.) Frelling crazy. What a waste of time & gas. I could have gone to the dog show instead, with no wait at all. Grrr. 

Who is, at least, kind enough to let us get in a football game this evening. It's halftime. We have gaming tomorrow, so tonight has become hurricane-preparedness night.


Lessee...cell phone is charging, netbook is charging, my MP3 is charged, my mother's MP3 is supposed to be charging (instead it drained the battery, still working on that little issue), portable battery-powered speakers are on hand, some movies and such are on a thumb drive and playable on the netbook, several books available for reading, all sizeable candles are located and assembled in one spot, all matches located and assembled in one spot, all batteries located (except for the rechargeable ones that have been MIA for a while now), a flashlight and lantern are in place, picked up milk and bottled water, already had everything else food/beverage-wise, and Mom somewhat amazingly remembered to look for more things at Home Depot. She came up with a flashlight, a maglight and a chargeable spotlight (which is charging), but they were out of batteries. Both dogs are started on calming medications and should be mellow by Saturday night.


My big worries are: the outside furniture that's too heavy for either of us to move, and if we lose power, losing a full fridge and freezer we just stocked Saturday.



Bring it on, Irene, we'll just say good night!

Mom will be 70 next week. On August 2nd, no less. I've asked her if she ever thought her 70th birthday would be the 'end of days', as it were. She doesn't think it's funny.

Anyway, I've been amassing little things here and there to give her a birthday weekend. Dinner Friday with her favorite gamers and they're making grilled chicken for her. Taking her out to dinner Saturday and I've zeroed in on a new restaurant which features a large rack of roast lamb (her favorite). Got her Season 1 of Royal Pains (she adores the show) and Toy Story 3 (she keeps complaining she hasn't seen it). Got a birthday card decrying 'little mutts that get into your frosting'. Don't ask. But considering her feelings about CJ, it was definitely appropriate!

I was going to round out her weekend by taking her to some open houses. There's a pair of houses she really likes. They're a quarter mile apart. Turns out they're both open on Sunday. Perfect, right? Wrong. They're open completely different times.  And her friends are giving her a party Sunday afternoon, so there's no way to do the second one. Shazbot.

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A dog. Specifically, my supervisor's dog. Sleep all day and get spoiled rotten, and all I'd have to do is occasionally bark and look big.

OK, I somehow survived a weekend of full 8 hour days all week, not sleeping all week, WWDTM Thursday, gaming Friday, dog show/Capitals/Dr Who Saturday and Easter with the nephews. And oh yeah, got the cable system upgraded to include 6 months of free HBO (man, it'll be hard to give it up again) which grants unfettered access to Treme, but means I have to try once more to teach Mom the difference between SD and HD. Now that most of our channels are HD...

Literally. I forgot to close my bedroom door this evening, and CJ decided to help herself to items in my room and carry them downstairs. First, my dirty socks. That's par for the course with CJ. Then she found the 'bag o' swag' I picked up at a dog show last year. Things started coming downstairs by doggie express - a chew toy, a granola bar, a leash. Then she found something she didn't feel like carrying, so she dropped it down the stairs, to very loud and rattly effect. It was a measuring cup and tape measure for putting your dog on a diet.

Well, dear, if you're that sure you need to drop a few pounds...



(OK, CJ has no weight available to lose. Roxie, on the other hand...maybe that was the hint.)

And oh yeah, go Packers! 

Except I'll probably watch more Puppy Bowl than Super Bowl...it doesn't last all night...

Went to the World of Pets Expo today, and ran myself into the ground before I even finished the Expo section. Ran my camera's batteries into the ground as well. So many critters, so little time! Had to pass on most of the dogs that were visiting and stuck with non-canines and program dogs. Got to meet Bill and Star from America's Greatest Dog, the only reality program I have ever watched. Bill was just like he was on the show. Star, who must be 11-12 years old now, was mostly very quiet and half awake. I gave her a very thorough scratching. Also held a parrot and a ferret, was nearly eaten by a miniature horse, etc. I'll try to get photos up later, I don't have a photo program on the netbook (didn't realize that until now) and the old, failing computer is now disconnected.

Which leads to the less pleasant part. I managed to re-organize all the wires and doodads around the computer, with the only real issues being not finding an appropos power cord for an old external and the printer Mike & Janine gave me is too big to fit in the computer furniture. Then I plugged in the new computer. First it failed to boot in any way shape or form. I wondered, and unplugged the additional internal drive I installed yesterday. That was the problem, and the computer booted up. Great, right? Wrong. It booted fine, but Windows wouldn't start up. It starts setup, decided it couldn't do it and restarted the computer. Over and over and over... Trying to open in safe mode changed nothing. I went to the ASUS site, explained the problem, and it said to re-install WIndows. Problem is, Windows came pre-installed and thus I don't have the program to re-install with. Gah. And I really don't want to have to haul it back to Best Buy. Blecch.