hoping to do better

Not much done this weekend. I had been meaning to bathe the boy for several weeks now; I finally got around to giving doggie a bath today.

I added a pull handle to the second gate, and finished staining whatever wasn't stained. We've had sporadic rains over the past week so no chance of having the staining done any earlier. One day I would like to rework that second gate and get it to look better.

It's been crazy busy for me at work, mainly because I haven't been able to make my schedule due to lack of experience which then leads to false starts and re-work. So I do what I call thrashing about: a lot energy and effort, but nothing to show for it.
This coming up week, I will challenge myself to show up at work an hour earlier than my usual. (My usual is rather late.) I cannot begin to tell you how big a challenge this is for me. I am a very deep sleeper. In fact, I am often groggy at random times throughout the day. I can and have slept through my alarm clock. At one time I had two alarm clocks ... that was interrupted after hurricane Ike came through and resulted in the house being topsy turvy. My current alarm clock is an old cell phone. I have to vary the tones every so often so that my sleeping brain doesn't adapt to it. Anyhow, y'all wish me luck.

exorbitant

Dog food got really expensive.

I used to be able to get an actual 40 lb. bag of dog food for just under $40. Then they maintained the price and dropped the quantity (to maybe 34 lbs.--I can't recall) so that I'd pay the same amount of money for less food.

Last week I bought the biggest bag - now 28 lbs. for $48 (almost $52 after taxes).

That's 30% reduction in quantity plus 20% increase in price ... sounds like dog food went up 50%.

What if an emplyee goes to the boss and said, "May I have 20% salary raise and drop my productivity by 30%?" But then again, that might be happening to some employers already over the course of history.

I'd have to seriously rethink this food thing. It wasn't intended to be a luxury. It was an investment in the dog's health, to hopefully reduce the risk of a larger vet bill. Right now the cost of flea treatment and heartworm prevention - for a big dog - is already a lot of money, in the sense that you'd best save up for it.

group dance

http://www.thrilltheworld.com/
Sunday, October 25th 2009 at 12:30am UTC / GMT
Do the Thriller dance with others worldwide. Full instructions available at the link. C'mon, just do it.

useful things

looks like useful things shown at BookofJoe
stickies for your clothes hangers
zipper pull replacement
caps for your potato chip bags and the like
portable humidifier
nose inserts to help reduce snoring

second gate

Success proves elusive on the second gate. Right now it is functional; the gate opens and closes and latches. To clear the slope, I decided to leave a huge gap at the bottom of the gate. The gap is conveniently the rot board. I made the rot board removeable. Screw eyes on the posts support square bend hooks on the rot board. The gate has to be opened wide to allow the board to be lifted off the hooks on the hinge side.



Right now the gate is out of plane with the latch post. The gate sticks out at the top and sticks in at the bottom. I'm guessing that if I loosen the frame screws and reshape the frame, I might can get the gate to line up better. It's just a guess. I may have to loosen the screws on the pickets too. Maybe some weekend when I have the time, I will experiment. There is still some staining left to do. I'm also not too happy with the uneven gap at the bottom of the gate, but oh well. Other things require my attention.

Since this is a secondary gate, I made no provisions to be able to open it from the outside. This time I did not make the hinges plumb but opted to allow them to follow the post. By luck, the weight of the gate swings it open on its own when unlatched. This is a good thing, reducing the likelihood that the gate would accidentally swing closed when in use and thereby locking you out. I used three butt hinges (like you see on your doors in the house) instead of gate T-hinges so that they wouldn't be as obvious. They squeak a little, telling me that they aren't lined up perfectly. But it's probably okay; I can open and close the gate with little effort.

(square bend hook)
(screw eye)

random shots

bock-bock-bock-baaark

mooo

mooo

... all thanks to Schepps.

live broadcast of profession of vows

This Sunday morning, there will be a profession of vows of three Sisters which can be viewed live over the internet. More information here.

fence saga continues

I've seen whole fences go up in two days: first day all the posts are set, second day everything else. They look good too, all lined up and straight.

In my case, it's been more than a month and I still haven't finished the little section of fence I'm working on. I do stain all my wood before I put them up, and that takes time. Digging the new holes was definitely a challenge. Yesterday I finally took down the old section of fence that the new construction replaces.

Yes, there is a gap between the new fence side and the old corner post. That's because I wanted my fence span to be around 6 feet. I'll deal with that later.

Next up is the gate. I'm still mulling it over. The section of fence is on a slope. As the gate opens, it has to clear higher ground. I can either leave a large gap at the bottom, enough to clear the higher ground, or do something else.

CatholicTV.com

CatholicTV.com: Catholic video on the internet. I haven't watched any so I can't tell you anything about it. Have fun.

wedding

We were at a wedding this afternoon. Very nice folks. We certainly wish them the best. We knew the bride since she was just a little toddler. Or maybe I should say we knew the family since she was just a little toddler. I don't think I have my mind wrapped around this thing known as the "passing of time" yet. Kids growing up and getting married. hmm.

splash

Since I was rather late getting up and we had a function this afternoon, there wasn't much time this morning to do much. So I let doggie play. I put down the kiddie pool, which actually is a plastic sandbox shaped like a turtle. I put water in it and let doggie splash around. He loved it. Several times he was in there aggressively "digging," making lots of noise and fantastic splashes. I had to refill the pool several times since his splashes would almost empty the kiddie pool. He had such fun all by himself. Maybe next time I'll attempt photos.

celebrating moon landing

Friday evening we were at a celebration for the 40th anniversary of the first landing on the moon. We had two toddlers and two teenagers. The kids didn't enjoy the presentation, but they enjoyed all the fun afterwards. There were free moon pies for all (ha ha). It was late when we got back and everyone was whipped. I didn't wake up this morning until 9:30 a.m.

muzzle review

This is the Jafco muzzle. It is plastic with rubber straps--meaning that there will be no qualms about getting it wet. It comes in white, black, and clear.

The fastening hardware is smooth inside and out. The plastic is glassy smooth on the inside and bead-blasted for a matte finish on the outside. The felt nosepad is fastened in two places. I don't know felt weights but would estimate this to be medium to heavy felt. Photo 3 is to give you an idea of the thickness of the plastic; a nickel is there for reference. Photo 3 also shows that the holes are beveled - this makes cleaning easier.

Photo 4 shows the size 4S on our Labrador Retriever. It's been adjusted so that it doesn't smush his nose. Also, he is able to open his mouth, can pant and drink. However, I might try a larger diameter muzzle next time so that he can open his mouth more.

When dogs drink, their tongue roll under, so I wonder if that seam on the inside might bother him. He has given the muzzle a pretty good work-out since these photos were taken. The muzzle is a bit scuffed up now and there is mud and grass trapped in the seams, but that isn't a problem to me. He can't get out of the muzzle himself, but it is pretty easy to pull that neck strap right over his head and pop that muzzle off. That isn't a feature; just letting you know that it can happen.

He can now accompany me when I work outside. With the muzzle on, he can no longer run off with my tools (or otherwise hurt himself by putting them in his mouth). However, I discovered that I can't paint with him outside. The other night I was painting and he went around me to get to the can of paint and started to drink the paint. Did I already say that he can drink with the muzzle on? Other possible mishaps include him getting into wet paint or knocking over the paint can.

I like the idea of the clear one, but it's softer material than the white or black one. I thought I needed tough plastic for this dog, so I got the white. I thought the white would be cooler (temperature-wise) than the black. Also, I can see better if anything odd is happening in that muzzle. I might get the clear one for use in the car. He had chewed off a piece of something the last time he was in the car. A softer one would be less likely to scuff up the car or scratch the glass windows.

Leerburg has the largest selection of sizes and also offers all three colors.

Yes I would recommend this muzzle to prevent the dog from eating things he shouldn't. Of, course, the best thing is to train the dog away from the undesired behavior. But if you're like me and can't seem to accomplish that, the muzzle is better than not doing anything at all. All muzzled dogs should be supervised since they won't be able to use their number one defense mechanism. I'm not sure about using one of these to prevent them chewing on post-surgery stitches. Seems like they can still use the hard edges of the plastic to scratch at the stitches.

kudos to NASA

Wow. Really amazing when I stop to take it in: NASA got people to the moon and back, not once but several times. And that was way back then. Forty years ago to be exact. Recent photos show shadows of the lunar landers that were left on the moon. More information on NASA's celebration of the 40th anniversary are found on their website. Somewhere there was a list of fun facts but I can't find it now. One of the facts was that the moon was so hard that they were barely able to get flag but a few inches into the surface and then had to be careful not to knock it over. Also the lander legs didn't compress as much as it should and Neil had to take a jump to get onto the moon surface. It's pretty amazing that they were able to get live video from the spacecraft and from the moon back to earth. And all those buttons and switches! In any case the complexities of the whole affair is mind-boggling.

ready for church

All showered up and ready for church. I'm up for one of my volunteer gigs this morning. That means that I'll be at my parish. Sometimes we visit other parishes when we can (which we did last week). Gumby attends a different parish than I and sometimes I'm expected there. Happy Sunday to all.

blurbs

Busy. Hence not here.

Sick cat, but cat ok now. Cat now shares my bathroom; might be a permanent arrangement. Gumby wants me to go get second covered litter box. There is one in there but it's small and uncovered.

Dog gets muzzle; two words: Jafco, Leerburg. I hope to eventually give a review of the muzzle.

Putting a VHS tape video onto DVD: complicated, exasperating. First it was cabling: composite video (RCA connectors) to S-Video on the computer card. Running around store to store for 3 hours yielded nothing. Mail-ordered the adapters. Then it was getting the computer to recognize the S-video input and having the software to capture the video. Then finding out the recorded format is not DVD format ... so need converting software. I finally got it done but I don't exactly know how.

how to split a pill

I saw a video of how to split a pill (tablet form). Place the pill on a hard, flat surface. Then place an index finger of each hand on either side of the score and press down. The pill snaps cleanly at the score. Just that simple. No tools required. I discovered that it works with certain pills even when the pill is not scored (like doggie's pain pills). I wish I can find the video again, but I haven't been succesful. If you find the video, please drop me the link. Thanks in advance.

FlameDisk

This thing gets you cooking over an open flame in minutes with no mess. Camping. Tailgate partying. Roughing it during a power outtage. Or just visiting at grandma's. Not readily available in Texas yet (we'll have to mail order). So there you go. Grab one and get to grillin' ... then share with us how it turned out. Thanks.
FlameDisk

doggie is home

Doggie is home now. Car is in the shop. Our pocketbook needs rescuing.

Doggie is pretty exhausted and sleeps most of the time (thank goodness). I fed him his dinner, a bland canned food that the vet sent, and he ate just fine. Then he wanted to play so he was active for a while (moving around and not lying down for long), then he was ready for potty. Now he's sleeping again, thank goodness.

Vet gave us the stuff retrieved from his stomach. It stinks. Gumby wants to keep it for show and tell. I've washed it in Tide. I've washed it in dish detergent. I've let it sit out in the sun in our 100 degree heat today in hopes that UV kills stuff. Right now it's in a plastic bag with a bunch of baking soda. Other ideas: washing it in tomato juice since they use that for skunk stink, washing it in hydrogen peroxide to kill stuff, spray the hell out of it with Lysol ... whatever chemical activity is going on with the stuff, I want to stop it.

sweltering

96 degrees Fahrenheit (36 deg. Celsius)
38% humidity
101 deg. F heat index