I cannot think of living without a dog in my life, particularly a dog like Emma Lou (aka Lula). She actually brings a smile to my face, just by sitting on my lap. Even when she is being naughty I still love her, though there are times when I am really tired that I wish she would just go back to bed rather than need to go and get a drink at 4am or scratch at the door to go outside.

Before Gina moved in I didn’t have any animals. Now we have ‘The Farm’, four dogs, two rabbits and the bird. For all of those that knew Peanut, she is sorely missed, her raspy little bark was always a sign that the hour was late.

Now back to Lula. Her naughtiness is almost legendary. Like the time she ate an entire baguette. We had bought a baguette at the farmer’s market, and didn’t put it away properly. It was just barely dangling off the edge of the table. Apparently, the baguette was hanging off the edge just enough for Lula to snag it.

Lula had run the baguette through the dog door, which honestly I wish I could have seen her negotiate the long loaf of bread through the dog door. I wonder if she smacked it at least once into the sides with a resounding “thud” or if she was smart enough to drag it length wise through the door on the first try.

Gina and I had not seen Lula in a little while, which is usually the ultimate sign of naughtiness. And when there is naughtiness afoot, one of us immediately checks the backyard. And there it was, a half-eaten baguette (to give her proper credit, she ate somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2). After a couple of minutes of searching, we found Lula, all extra fat and happy. She had plumped up on all that bread.

Then there was the time that she ate that bar of soap from Lush. I was sitting on the couch, and Lula came running up to me. She landed in my lap like she had done a thousand times before, but there was something different. A smell in the air, it smelled sweet and flowery. I asked Gina if she had given her a bath recently, because the flowery smell sort of reminded me of this after bath spray Gina uses on the dogs.

Then I asked Gina if she had mopped the floor, as by that point I had figured out it was a lavender smell. And the last few times Gina mopped she had used a lavender and vinegar solution. Gina answered no on both counts.

That meant that Lula smelled like lavender for some UNKNOWN reason. I started to sniff Lula to determine exactly where the Lavender smell was coming from, it was coming from her mouth. Lula had eaten something that smelled like Lavender!!!

That jogged my memory that I had recently brought home for Gina some soaps from the Lush store in Dallas, one of which was a Shea butter soap scented with lavender. I immediately went into the bedroom to look for the Lush bag and found it sitting on the bed, relatively empty, with no signs of an empty soap bag around.

“To the backyard!!!” (or something very close to that is what I said)

Sure enough, there sat on the ground a plastic bag with little doggie teeth holes in it and the Lush logo stamped on the side. Lula had eaten through the bag and ingested a whole bar of the lavender scented soap.

Gina immediately called poison control and was instructed to take Lula to the Emergency Vet, as there was a fear that Lula could end up with a blockage in her digestive system or worse choke on the soap while attempting to return it the same way it went in.

On the way to the Emergency Vet Lula returned the soap to Gina, all over the front seat of the Vibe (which was still relatively new at the time). Lula didn’t seem any worse for wear after the whole soap episode.

But enough about Lula’s naughtiness. This is supposed to talk about how she like little people.

One thing I would say is, she eats off a fork or spoon rather well.

When she is leaning over the arm of the couch, with her front paws all extended and standing on her hind legs, I can just imagine what she might look like if she was wearing some Osh-Kosh and had pigtails. She likes to be carried over my shoulder (that is when she likes to be carried).

And there are times I think that if she had thumbs she could sit on the couch and work the TV remote if she really wanted to.

She hasn’t done it in a while (I think because I have been going to bed at a more reasonable time these days), but she would sit at the foot of my chair in the office here and grumble when it was time to go to bed. Now curly does a similar thing, but Lula took it a step further, she would stand up and then begin to paw me to signal me it that it is time to go to bed.

Another aspect about her being little people is that she is too smart for her own good. While Curly and Buddy are very good at coming in when they are called, Lula merely looks at you and goes back to what every she was doing. The best is when she looks at you and turns the other way.

Also, she knows when she has done something wrong, yet still does it. That to me makes her more like people than not.

Regardless, I could never think of life without dogs now, especially without my little Lula.

Well, dinner is done.

Laterz

(One of my gifts has been taking up a lot of my ‘free’ time.)

I’ll let you guys figure out which one.

Last year my mother-in-law, Brenda got me a cookie basket (mmmm… cookies). This year, to be a bit more healthy I got a fruit basket (with a balloon). The basket was mostly melon, which I will have to admit I am not a huge fan of. I have on occasion eaten a few pieces of musk melon, but not a fan. So I let Gina eat the melon, she LOVES it. I really enjoyed the grapes, strawberries, apples (dipped in cholocate) and the pineapple stars.

Thanks MOM(-in-law)!!!

Our good friend John Hale got me a 4th Gen Nano, in light of the fact that Steve Jobs stole my last one.

Thank You John!!!

This brings us to what the wife got me for my birthday.

The first thing I will mention is that she got me a Neti pot. Which I actually used, after weeks of it sitting in my bathroom, in the box. I NEEDED it when I was sick to help remove the pressure from the sinuses that were giving me a serious headache.

The next thing she got me was pretty much the only thing left on my list.

The Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25 gun. It is a fully automatic, belt fed NERF machine gun.

Because of the fact that while shooting the dogs might be fun (namely the evil little black and white one), the fun would be short lived as the darts would probably mean costly trips to the emergency vet, the gun is staying at the office.

The gun is a bit louder than I originally was expecting. I didn’t think it would be silent, but not quite as loud as it is. However, the speed at which it can burn through the full 25 dart belt is quite impressive. But the noise makes it like a after 5pm toy. (unlike the revolvers which are more of a ‘not on the phone right now’ kind of toy)

I also bought myself a couple of gifts, Civilization Revolution (for the Xbox360 and the Nintendo DS-Lite).

The folks at Firaxis did a great job of optomizing the play control of the game for both the Xbox360 and DS-Lite. As a long time Civ player, I really enjoy the fast paced action of the game. They made certain parts of the game simpler, in a good way. Except one.

They only give you one Nuke. For whatever reason, as Jeremy can (and does) comment on, I seem to like games with Nukes. In part, because I actually use them. In Rise of Nations, I can be found to use them to help level the playing field. In Civ3 and Civ4, there were a few times I found myself at a relative stalemate (cold war if you will) and had enough cities with high production, to be able to build enough of a nuke stockpile to be able to hit every city of my computer opponent, in a single turn.

The one thing I will say about the nuke in CivRevolution, is that rather than simply eliminate the enemy units (and reduce the population of a city) as it does in the other Civ games, the Nuke in CivRevolution completely removes the city in question off the map, nothing but a smoking crater.

Well, I need to pack it in and get to bed.

Laterz

That is until say about now.

Well, I haven’t made them yet, but I will be making them tonight. I am going to use a recipe from the Thespian Cookbook.

“THESPIAN COOKBOOK: A treasury of favorite on stage and off stage recipes of Troupe 3911”

The cookbook I have is probably from 1994, give or take a year. If memory serves it was $10 and one of the ever ongoing fundraisers that we held for the Troupe 3911.

The book has seen better days and as such I have on several occasions said I should transcribe it. Well, I started doing that today. I have 6 pages done, which doesn’t sound like much, but it is a good start.

I am going to try to finish the cookies before I pop out to the store, though I might need to cut that short. I have had a few flashbacks whilst typing away, reminiscing over a few items that I haven’t had in a decade (Russian Tea) and some that Gina made for me the other day (Meringue Surprises).

Given that I don’t have an official hobby at the moment (video games don’t really count, neither does work). I was thinking that I should try making every item in the Thespian cookbook, take pictures and then compile the pictures into a book. I have looked at doing a book, using Lulu.com a few times now. But I lead a relatively boring life (no one wants to read about how I managed to guided the Russians to victory in Civilization Revolution, or do you?) and I just haven’t had a real creative streak lately. So I figure, why not a cookbook.

I don’t think this will count as plagiarism, being that I am not going to claim to have created the recipes. I am thinking I will add a couple of recipes to the mix, possibly my recipe for Chili and my recipe for pulled pork. I will also make the digital data available to whomever is currently running Troupe 3911. (Pretty sure Troupe 3911 is still around.)

Well, I need to get to the store before it gets too late.

I can’t wait to have some Russian Tea.

Laterz

I feel a little bit better than yesterday, but yet just as bad. My nose isn’t running like it was yesterday, but I am way more tired and I have a cough now.

Well, I need to lay down for a nap.

Laterz.

It was 30 years ago somewhere around 12:10-12:15 (I forget the exact) in the morning that I was born to Graciela Dominguez (Now Graciela Underwood) and Thomas J. Benner.

A couple of years back my father sent me an strangely thick envelope, it contained the receipt for my birth. The charges for all of the various bits of hospital equipment, room charges, diapers ($4 back in 1978), and a few other odds and ends. The total was somewhere between $3,500 and $3,800 (I am sorry to report my memory isn’t quite as sharp as a few years ago, course I also didn’t try to commit the number to memory).

I found a few inflation calculators online and ran $3,800 through them to see how much I would have cost in today’s day and age, purely on an inflationary basis. It would appear that it is between $12,000 and $13,000. I find it interesting that three different calculators all produced three different results. I can only surmise that they are using different inflation staticists for each year.

Regardless, having the hospital bill sent to you some twenty-odd years after the fact is kinda weird. After receiving the envelop, I jokingly asked my father if I was expected to pay him back. I forget what his repsonse was, but since we didn’t setup a payment plan, I am guessing he declined.

But that brings me to the next thing. I received a package from my mother recently. The contents of which filled in several holes what I knew to be the story of the day of my birth and some backstory on my parent’s early years of marriage.

It also contained some family tree information.

I have to say that I was quite touched to have my mother be able to recollect in a fair amount of detail the events leading up to my birth. For instance, my parents had gone bowling before I was born. My mom did not start giving birth at the bowling alley, though that would have been quite a story and a sign of things to come.

She did however manage to bowl the same score three times in a row, while not a high score, it is worthy of a league patch. And there apparently was a write-up in the Lansing State Journal about it, next time I am in Lansing I will need to hit up the library and see if they have the microfiche available.

I knew that when I was born that I was sick and had to stay in a “special box with lights” for the first few days of my life. This apparently was because I was jaundice(d) and apparently the lights in the “box” helped me get some vitamins that I needed.

I am pretty sure that my parents and wife will agree that the box with the lights probably has had a profound effect on me, as it has granted me the ability to fall asleep with the lights (and tv on). Course it may or may not have anything to do with me being solar powered.

I woke up early today and headed into the office. I have been here for about 20 minutes, I caught up on a the few emails that came in over night and have been writing this post, which I now must wrap up. As of about 4pm yesterday this went from being a normal week with a couple of birthdays thrown in there, into a week with a tight deadline and a couple of birthdays.

Jeremy’s birthday is on Friday, I forget his exact age, but I know he is OLD(er than me). I regularly forget that Jeremy is a few years older than me, to that effect I can never tell whether that is because I still act older than I should or if it is just Jeremy’s youthful spirit.

Meh, could be both.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

Michigan State vs Notre Dame!!!

It is going to be broadcast on ESPN down here in the Tejas, so Gina and I will be watching it here in the living room. We made some plans yesterday about what we wanted to eat during the game, Gina made her pasta salad last night and we will be picking up some wings from KFC.

I was going to make some in the fryer we have, but we both agreed it would be too messy. This past week Gina and I have been trying to eat at home and take our lunches, we did pretty good this week, therefore some wings for KFC are OK, since we managed to eat dinner at home every day this week.

We also planned out our meals for the rest of the week (mostly cleaning out the freezer), but we do need to pick up some stuff from the store. So we will be heading out to the store here in a minute.

But we will be back here for the game @ 2:30 Central (3:30 Eastern).

Go Spartans!

Laterz

Because of the fact that the batteries are good for about 16 months or so (depending upon how much you use it), the story didn’t break for a while. The fact that you cannot simply replace the battery means that there is a built-in upgrade cycle. For some folks they will want to retain their cherished iPod and simply pay the $69 dollars to get a fresh battery in what is likely not their original iPod.

While I am talking about the non-replaceable battery and how Apple has a built-in replacement cycle, guaranteeing that a chunk of their consumer-base is going to buy a new iPod ever 16 months (or at least shell out another $69). What I am really wanting to write about here tonight is how, Apple, god I can’t believe that I have to write this.

Apple stole my iPod Nano.

Yup, I am relatively certain it was an agent of Apple who stole my iPod Nano from me, whilst I was getting off American Airlines flight 502 from San Jose and landing in Austin around 10:50pm (central). It was there one minute and I could swear that I put it into my laptop bag, but when I looked for it the next day at the office (because it was time to blast my eardrums with some loud and abusive tunes), it was gone.

No where to be found. I thought that maybe I had removed it from my laptop bag and had left it (or dropped it) somewhere in my home office. I even searched the trunk of my car, but to no avail, it has vanished.

In discussing the disappearance of my iPod Nano with Jeremy, he reminded me that Apple had just released a new iPod Nano.

And that is when it hit me. An agent of Apple must have filched my beloved silver iPod Nano (3rd Gen) to ensure that I am forced to buy a new one (4th Gen).

But before, I get a cease-and-desist notice about this blog post. Let me say that, I in no way am accusing Apple or Mr Jobs of stealing my iPod Nano.

For the record I do not think that there is any sort of master list of all the folks out there that have iPods  and Mr Jobs is arranging for them to be, hmmmm, what would be the best term, let’s just say ‘retired from service’. I am sure he has a VP for that. (just kidding)

I was an idiot and left it on the plane. I had been listening to it on the way back an reading More Joel on Software. And I had been using the seat next to me, well as an open seat next to me to store my various ‘carry-on items that I had taken out during the flight’. I remember telling myself to put everything from within the seat into my bag. And I managed to put everything in there, except the black timbuk2 accessory (velcro) pouch that held my Nano.

MORON!!!

It just happens to be a (lucky) coincidence that Apple releases the 4th Gen iPod Nano at the same time I was a moron and left my Nano on the plane.

I had been wanting to write a blog post about how ‘I am an iPod Junkie’, because of the fact that I own(ed) a Nano, a Touch and a Shuffle. Well, if I do end up getting the 4th Gen Nano, maybe I will finally do that post.

The wife has told me that I should use my iPod touch more. I do use it, but usually to surf the web, read email (quickly) and watch movies. It however lacks that scroll wheel, which provides the tactile interface allowing for quick changes in volume and the ability to quickly scroll through your entire music collection.

The topic of how I should just use my Touch while waiting to see if American Airlines happens to find it (or a good Samaritan happens to turn it in), I told him that it didn’t make sense to me that the Touch doesn’t have a speaker in it, so that I can listen to music or movies without headphones or the ability to change the volume without having to ‘wake it up’. I also think it would be better if it had a camera built-in, given the fact that there is a ‘photos’ ‘button’ so prominently placed on the main screen of the Touch.

Guess what else Apple has released, as 2nd Generation iPod touch.

YUP! It has a speaker and external volume controls, maybe the 3rd Generation will have that camera built-in.

Well, I need to get to bed. Maybe Santa will bring me the 4th Gen Nano for X-mas, course my b-day is literally right around the corner.

Laterz

Please note this post is an expressive piece of FICTION, the only real truth in here is that I lost my iPod Nano and that Apple recently launched the 4th Gen iPod Nano and 2nd Gen iPod Touch.

But it is day 2 of the conference.

I gave my first public presentation yesterday. I think it went pretty well, I had a couple of people ask for my contact information after I was done, so I am pretty sure that offsets the fact that a couple of people got up and left while I was talking.

I am not taking it personal, I think the conference session was a bit vague and they probably were expecting different information about Serena’s mashup exchange.

I also tried to keep the presentation from being a commercial for Jaduka. I had a slide in there that described Jaduka and NetworkIP, the regular sort of we do 15 billion phonecalls a year and have a database of over 780 860 Million user accounts, etc. I glossed over that and made a joke about how it was a slide that marketing required.

I glossed over the slide, because I overheard a few folks in the audience complaining about attending a couple of sessions that were commercials and did not contain useful information. In football terms, I believe that is called an ‘audible’. At the next Serena even I am pretty sure we will be able to give a detailed presentation of a Serena-Jaduka mashup.

I have been having an enjoyable time meeting and talking with the Serena executives, staff and various Serena Partners.

Back to the keynote.

Laterz

However, my statement is based upon British TV. Over the last 10 years (or more) there have been a number of British TV shows that have become popular here in the USA. However, they were not here under the guise of British TV, they were on TV as US shows.

The first that I can think of that was basically a mirror copy was the ‘Weakest Link’ game show. The next one is ‘The Office’, which I believe has found a strong voice of it’s own and can be quite funny at times.

But, as I am sitting here looking over the schedule for the conference I am attending over the next couple of days the TV is on in the background, and there is an advert for a new TV show. The clips are quick and visually jump around a lot, bringing about a feeling of chaos as I watched. I see Harvey Keitel, an actor that I have always felt doesn’t get nearly enough leading roles as he deserves.

Too be honest I cannot remember the words being spoken during the advert, but as the chaos is happening and I see Harvey and hear the words (that I cannot remember), I think to myself this feels familiar. I wonder if someone is doing a remake of a show I have seen before.

There was one clip, right before they showed the title that made me think, crap this looks like a British show I watched. Then the title came in, ‘Life on Mars’. I watched the original BBC version (which isn’t that old mind you, back in January).

I wonder if the networks are going to try to convert some more British TV shows as a way to get more content out there, given the GAP created by the writer’s strike.

Well, I need to figure out what I am going to do for breakfast.

Laterz

Back to packing and what not.

I have a couple of half finished posts that I will try to complete after I settle into the hotel.

Laterz