Pee everywhere

We had a bit of a scare with Patina last week... she was sick, wouldn't eat... and pee'd a little blood. We took her to the vet, and turns out she had a little bladder infection... which is getting cleared up.

Life is adjusting to her... which is quite an adjustment. I have taught her how to sit, how to fetch, and how to make Maria mad by peeing in the house. She does all 3 pretty well... and we have moved on to lay down, and bark-all-night. She is catching on to bark-all-night faster than lay down... but I think she'll get it eventually.

Seriously... potty training a puppy with a bladder infection, or Urinary Tract infection is not the easiest thing to do. She seems to pee right after you bring her back in from peeing outside. Once we get her last set of shots, we are taking her to obedience school so she can learn to do handstands, and cartwheels... or atleast how to walk next to me.

She does a good job of not chewing on cords, and helped me paint a room the other day without getting into anything. She has an issue understanding not to jump up on people, jump up onto furniture, and with biting. The vet told us to just act like she hurt you when she bites... so I tried that... she seemed to enjoy inflicting the pain, and bit more, and harder. Now I grab her nose, and hold it closed till she settles... and that seems to be starting to work.

Also... I read some awesome advice which nobody ever mentioned to me. I wasn't sure she understood the pack mentality of being with us... and that she thought she was the leader. Then I read that if you lay a dog on his/her side, and keep her there till she submits, she will realize your the pack leader. We have done that a few times... and I definitely can tell a difference. I am surprised I never heard that before... I guess momma dogs do that all the time when a pup gets out of hand.

I can't wait till she's potty trained... thats going to be an awesome day. I just told Maria last night how good she was all weekend, and how she didn't have an accident, when I caught a whiff of some horrible smell coming from the other room. She came wandering out with that "ahhh... I feel better" look on her, and there sitting in the middle of the room was a nice, steaming pile for us to pick up. So close. Once we can get her potty trained, teach her to not bite, and to stay off the furniture... I think that things will get alot easier at home.

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Family addition

Maria and I had an awesome break. We went to Vegas for Christmas and New years... and ended up coming home with a new puppy!



She's a 14 week old Vizsla girl named Patina... and she's awesome, and cute, and awesome, and needy, and awesome, and hyper, and awesome, and lazy, and awesome, and whiny... but she's pretty awesome.

Here's the story. Maria and I had looked at her and her litter mates before New Years... there were 8 total puppies rescued. Patina (then called Pumpkin) came right over, and climbed into my coat when we met... then she started bouncing around everywhere. She was adorable, and hyper. We discussed it and decided that we didn't need a puppy complicating our lives.

So, the day we were leaving, we talked again... and changed our minds. Ofcourse, its an hour before we need to be to the airport. We ended up changing out flight to the next day, and started the adoption process. The rescuer had some doubts, but after talking a while figured that Patina would have a pretty good home with us.

The next morning we picked the pup up. We had 2 hours before our plane, so we went to the pet store, and bought her some stuff for the plane. We had to get a carrier because they don't let you just have the dog running around... yeah, I dunno why either. Turns out... she's a bit of an escape artist. We found this out when the guy infront of us asked why there was a puppy grabbing his feet. She had broken the zipper on the bag and was making her way to the cockpit to see what was going on. Luckily she didn't get away... and we got her back into the bag.

She was pretty chill the whole flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta... didn't really complain too much. But the plane was hot, and the only time she whined was when she was over heating. We had a few hours to kill in Atlanta... and I was sure she needed to relieve herself... so we found one of those family bathrooms, and bought a newspaper. She had alot to relieve... glad she waited till them... that would have SUCKED if she had done that on the plane.

We chilled in the airport for a while where we ran into several people who knew that she was a Vizsla, and told us that they are the best dogs in the world... smart, and very trainable... and very well behaved. Thats pretty cool.

She did very well on the flight to Dayton too... although she made it obvious she doesn't like to be in that little bag under a seat.

The little girl is home now, and we have begun settling into a routine of waking up, going outside to potty... come inside, play, clean up her accident, go back outside... don't potty, come back in play, outside to potty, nap, outside to potty, nap, play, clean accident, outside to potty... etc, etc. We have a crate for her to sleep in... which she's doing ok with, when we are around. She complains alot when we aren't around though. She's pretty needy... but she's cute, so she gets away with it.



There will be more stories as she grows up.

A recent forwarded message

A friend forwarded this on, and I thought this was interesting... it made me think enough atleast to think it might be interesting to other people.

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The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably,if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards.


Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

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What I have learned about owning a home so far...

So, I have been a home owner for almost a month. So far, so good. I have learned a few things:

• The roof will always leak. If its not leaking where your looking now, its leaking somewhere else.
• Plaster is a pain to repair... and the holes get bigger so easily.
• Appliance shopping makes you feel incredibly domestic... and almost sick to your stomach.
• Any project can not be solved with a single trip to Lowes... you must make several trips before you even start.
• A case of beer does not last a whole weekend of "working on the house".
• You will never put a shopvac filter on correctly the first time, and you will shoot dust all over the house.
• Bulbs in the basement always burn out when your trying to catch a bug, carrying something heavy, trying to avoid the water overflowing from the washer.

There will be more... this is all I can think of from a foggy Monday morning.

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Designers are idiots too.

So I bought a house... yeah, yeah... shoulda done it a while ago. Now I have a house and a boat... still no car. Because its getting cold, and Maria has blood circulation problems, and I love fire... I am looking at a fireplace for the back. I kinda dig this one, but there's an issue with it. Can you see a possible problem? I don't know if people sometimes design these things, and never test them out... because some things are just stupid.

I guess the process works like this... you pull the lid off, stick some logs in, light a fire... put lid back on so sparks and stuff don't burn your friends. Everything is cozy for about 30 minutes, then the fire starts to die down a little, so you want to add more wood. First thing you have to do is grab the metal handle thats been sitting over a hot fire for about 30 minutes! Now you have a nice logo of the manufacturer burned into your hand... and you have managed to toss the hot screen onto one of your friends, ruining their night. Surely someone must have noticed this.


Nope... guess they all think that is a good idea.

Box to live in?

Today is the 29th and I have to be out of my apartment by the end of
the day Wednesday! I have been working on buying a duplex near
downtown, but we were supposed to close last Friday and move over the
weekend. I didn't close an we didn't move.

Theoretically I will be closing tomorrow and then having a midnight
moving party Tuesday night. But if not, I guess we'll be testing out
those cold weather sleeping bags, and insulated cardboard boxes.

Always lastminute.

Climb-a-thon

Maria and I just finished a climb-a-thon charity event for the Red
Cross. It was held at the Urban Krag. We climbed 2025 feet combined,
Maria climbed 15 more feet than I did, and harder climbs too. We
raised $257 for the Red Cross.

Here's a photo of our friends Kansas and Eric.

Now I need a car... and a dog.

I am being booted from the apartment... so I needed to find a place to live. My buddy Paul is wanting to sell his RV, and I came real close to buying it and living... anywhere. My biggest worry was coming home one day and finding my house towed. I imagine the tow-fee's are huge with that. And... where does the pizza guy come to deliver the pizzas? As you can see, there were just too many issues with that.

I could find an apartment downtown somewhere... but then I sign a lease, and just keep handing someone my money all the time. I am sick to my stomach with the amount of money I have given to the Lofts where I live now, only to have them kick me out when ever they feel like it. I guess when someone has power over your living situation, history doesn't matter... only what they feel at that moment. If I had to sign a lease, I might puke.

If I was to sign a lease, it'd be for a year... and the chances of getting out of that are slim. So, my options came down to puke on some nice landlord, or buy a house. I chose... buy a house... and be the landlord, running the risk of someone puking on me.

There's a nice little historic area called Southpark near to Downtown... not quite walking distance, but there's a pub on the way. There's a main street on it, with some really nice houses, and a grocery store not far away. Its an up-and-coming area... with a home-a-trauma on it next week which usually boosts property values. Basically, a nice little area.

Instead of just a house... I bought a duplex, with one side already rented. In the end, I will only be out of pocket about $150 a month to live there... and will own property in one of the areas seeing the most rise in property value in the county. Closing is in 2 weeks... if everything goes well.

In the last 6 months, I went from owning just a couch, TV, bed, and a table... to owning a sailboat, and a house... narrowly avoiding an RV. Anybody know of a nice car I can buy... if I am going to do the "I'm American, and I am in debt to everyone" I might as well get a car. A dog would be a nice companion too.

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State of the apartment

So... its been a little while since I have made a post to the blog, haven't been sailing in a while... have been trying to deal with a few other things lately.

About a month ago, I noticed that the apartment building took down some doors I believed were there for fire-protection, or smoke barriers. These doors sit at the bottom of the main fire-egress path for the entire 5 story apartment building. I have lived in this place since I have been in Dayton... otherwise known as "too long". I mentioned it to the landlord lady, a insert-bad-word-here woman named Carol. She argued with me about it, saying a fireman had told her it was ok to remove the door. Not to say that fireman don't know what they are doing, but its not their place to authorize the removal of fire-doors. Not that its my place either, but I was pretty sure the doors were at least smoke-barriers.

I came to work that day, a bit perturbed that the landlord of the building would be so frivolous with life-safety. I grabbed our code-book, and spent some time going through it to find the pertinent passages of code which would tell me that door was likely there for fire protection, or a smoke barrier. Yup... found them, basically, the fire stairs need a 2-hour enclosure all the way to the outside. Removing those doors would violate that. NFPA 80 states that fire-doors shall be marked with the ratings and things, and that tag should not be painted over... if the tags had not been painted over, then the fireman would have known that these doors are needed for life-safety.

I gave Carol copies of the codes, showing her the likelihood that these are protective doors. Her response, "this is incomplete." Anybody that knows anything about building code knows that it references its other parts everywhere. Carol in essence wanted me to give her an entire copy of the code, with all the research needed to prove these are fire-doors. I offered to do it, for a fee. The original architects already did this, and they got paid for it... I should be paid too.

I gave Carol's boss a call, to inform him that she had done this, and that she was being non-responsive to my pointing this out... and she was down-right rude, and condescending. He was not there, so I left him a voicemail.

Lets say that there's a fire while these doors aren't there. These doors protect the main path people would try to use to evacuate the building. Removing these doors may lead to a tragic situation, and at the very least much more property damage, and loss. If someone did die, there would surely be an investigation, which would lead to the discovery of the removal of these doors, and to the discovery that the landlord was made aware of the nature of these doors, and yet didn't do anything to restore the building to a safe condition. I am sure the insurance company for this place would have an interesting response, and all survivors would have a pretty simple case to sue the owners for their losses.

So, perhaps me pointing this out to the lofts helped avert a tragic situation, save them a huge hassle, and helped their parent company from facing a massive financial burden. You'd think they would be a little thankful that I helped avoid some of this for them. Instead of being thankful, they have decided to kick me out!

A few days after calling Carol's boss, she left me a nice little note on my door, giving me till the end of October to pack up and leave. I mean... why would they want me around, I am a trouble maker... who wants to live in a building that follows building code, thats just crazy.

Right now, I am in a search for a new place to live. There are alot of things to consider, so who knows where I will end up. When I find a suitable place to rest my head, this blog will know.

Starbucks... on your iPod!!!

Starbucks just opened a store... in my pants!!!

iPod touch features.

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