Chot!

I don't know if the heat is just getting to me, or if it has fried everyone else's brain. I'm not a very patient person under the best of circumstances, but when I'm sweaty (as one is wont to do when one has no a/c in the car or at home), I turn into a beast. And simultaneously, everyone else turns into an absolute idiot.

Take my dinner excursion tonight. I just wanted to get a quick bite at Panera. My heart jumped when there were only two people in front of me to place the order. And sank again immediately when I heard the first guy having an extended dialogue with the order-taker over which dressing to have on his salad. Why does anyone think that the order-taker would be a good person to ask?! They're probably sick of the food there from eating it all the time on their breaks, and how would they know what you like?! Then they started debating his choice of a side item.

Then the paper of the credit card reader thingie needed a new paper roll, even though it looked to me like there was still plenty of pink-edged paper left. At least enough for 3 CC receipts.

Then the second guy starts placing his order, and gets into a debate over what kind of bread he can have his PB&J sandwich on. He wanted one thing, but apparently they "come on another".

Finally, it's my turn. I think. Wrong. The order-taker asks me for my patience while she walks off to do god-knows-what over by the pastries. I thought I'd have a heart attack! The manager must have been a mind reader, and moved quickly to prevent a medical emergency on her premises. Which was just as well, cause as the order-taker returned, she couldn't get the register work for the guy who'd been behind me.

Don't even get me started on how people drive around here (in general, and in hot weather)! This is worse than Scotland, the capital of slow-poking!!!

Yes, an entire country can be a capital, dammit!

More dog park stuff

Hey, if you're a resident of Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County, please read (and sign) this petition so I can finally let my dogs off leash without having to worry that the men in black suits will come and make me disappear...

http://www.petitiononline.com/Arbordog/petition.html

Some piccies...

I took Ede and Atze to a friend's wedding in a park a couple of weeks ago. As usual, they got a lot of attention, even though they were kinda bored, I think. But the pictures are cute ;-)

My 15 nano-seconds of fame

I don't know what got into me -I usually don't write letters to the editor. Then again, getting one published in the Ann Arbor News is probably about as far as I'm going to get in my writing career right now...

http://www.mlive.com/news/annarbornews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/
1179326421221670.xml&coll=2

You may need to scroll down a bit to find it...

We need a dog park now!

I enlisted my dad's retired graphic artist skills to help us get the word out that Ann Arbor needs a dog park for off-leash play NOW. It's ridiculous that there's nowhere within the city limits where we can legally exercise our dogs off-leash.

Here's his very cool design



We're working on getting the sticker printed and out into circulation ASAP. I'll let you know when/where you can get them when we do.

Misplaced one-up-manship

As I walked home today, I saw this bumper sticker on a car:

Yes, my car is crappy
But I have a PhD


Ooooooh, I'm scared ;-)

Rubber, vinyl, latex...

Ok, we all know I live on the other side of the gutter. I just can't help it. But when was the last time you had a good look at dog toys?! They're scandalous!

Just take a look, and I'll leave it to you to make your own judgments...

Cure for common insomnia

Being the nightowl that I am, I was usually awake for the shipping forecast on BBC Radio 4 broadcast shortly before 1 am (BST). I still listen to the BBC in the evening to fall asleep, but it's BBC World on NPR and they don't broadcast the shipping forecast, which is a total bummer.

What's so soporific about the shipping forecast? Well, first you get treated to the most delightful piece of easy-listening music ever composed, aptly named "Sailing By", that just conjures up images of white-crested waves, gentle sea breezes, and the occasional spray of salt water in your face. Listen for yourself:

http://mp3.juno.co.uk/MP3/SF210480-01-02-16.mp3

This is followed by a fairly monotonous yet melodic reading of names of sea areas that are all more or less obscure to the non-seafaring listener, along with mysterious strings of adjectives and numbers that mean nothing to the non-meteorologist (or initiated sailor, I suppose).

You can find a link to the broadcast here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast/shipping/

though I'd like to warn you that seeing a map of those sea areas takes away some of the mysterious effects of that soothing non-referentiality of the string of sounds. For some strange reason, the latest broadcast didn't include the music, so you may not get the full effect.

Also, if you need to fall asleep before 1 am BST, I'd highly recommend 'Today in Parliament', with its highly stylized introductory recording of the parliamentary call to order:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3081534.stm?focuswin

Earthdog, part 2

Why even drive up to Flint when you have hidden opportunities for earthdogging right in your own backyard? Well, not quite, but in the park across the street. I took E and A there to play with their tennis balls, and after we were just hanging out in an overgrown corner of the park, where E and A like to munch on the different kinds of grass on offer.

Suddenly Ede started sniffing around a log like crazy (he is the better hunter, after all), and a groundhog (also known as muskagee!) pops up his head behind the log and then disappears. I feared a wild chase, but the ground hog had quite considerately dug his hole right behind that log, so the wild digging started instead....and didn't stop for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately, they didn't experience the success of actually confronting the groundhog at the end of the tunnel, but it was still fun. Of course now we'll have to go back to that spot for the next few weeks to check if the beast rears its head out of the hole again.

I won't get on my soapbox about dog parks right now, but this is why I don't just want a big boring rectangle of grass with a chain-link fence around it for a dog park...clearly no groundhogs were hurt in this little adventure, and frankly, if it were, that's called natural selection. But E and A got to engage in some species- and breed-appropriate behavior that makes them happy and healthy. What's so wrong with that?!