Well, that's kind of neat

See the new little badge over on the right? I got a nice little email from View Bug saying a photo of mine was selected as a judge favorite. Sure, I didn't win anything (except points on the site), but I thought it was kind of neat. Don't worry, I'm not letting it go to my head, but if you want to buy a photo of mine you should do it before I triple my pricing. What? It's a big deal to go from a dollar to three. (I just said that because zero times three is zero.)

Anyway, I thought it was neat. Even if I forgot to crop out the tiny bit of elbow you can see at the extreme right of the photo. Oops!


Okay, I need to go to bed. Enjoy a picture of Rosie snuggled up on Christmas.

Birthday, Oscars, Dogs, etc.

Another month down in 2011. Sure, it's the shortest month, but at least it makes it seem like it will get warmer soon. It's March in the morning, it feels warmer just thinking about it.

So, Saturday was my birthday. I won't say how old I am now, but it is divisible by 7, if that helps. I had finished my week of midnights that morning, so I slept until 1:30-ish and got up to spend the day with the family in a daze while wearing sweatpants. It's the only way to spend your birthday, in my opinion.

I got some nice gifts; a pair of Bluetooth headphones, a few shirts for our Hawaii vacation in August and DVD's. What DVDs? Well, they were from out dog Quincy. So what else could the be but the TV show Quincy. See:

I used to watch this show all the time. For some reason I like some of the 70s crime shows. Then we had dinner from Wildfire. We ate in so I wouldn't have to shower. It truly was a perfect day.

Speaking of dogs, Jenn and I were wondering how we always end up with weird dogs. Our first dog was Cosmo, a golden retriever who thought he was human. Really, look at how he used to sit on the couch.

That is not normal. Also, he had this thing where he would introduce bones to one of his toys. Seriously. Whenever we brought a new bone home for him he'd take it from us, walk over to his favorite squeaky ball, whine, put it in from of the ball then make the ball squeak. For like two minutes. I am not exaggerating, if anything I am understating how long he would do this.This was real fun when he'd decide to do this in the middle of the night. It would scare the crap out of us sometimes. We would think he was trapped somewhere and we'd go downstairs and we'd find him bone laying in front of his ball.

So now we have two dogs. One of them, Quincy, also a golden retriever, likes to take his new bones outside. Nothing weird about that at all, if that's all he did. What he likes to do is bring them outside and just leave them out there then, about 2 weeks later, he'll bring them back in to chew. It's like he needs them to marinate or something.

He also has to be the last dog outside at night. He'll always go first, then we'll let Cruise out, then Quincy has to go back out. If you don't let him out he won't go to bed easily. My guess is he is checking to make sure Cruise isn't touching any of the bones he has marinating. Weirdo.

Cruise seems to be relatively normal, except for the fact that he was a dog rescued from the streets and is afraid of the rain. I would think he would be used to it.

I was going to talk about the Oscars, but what can I really say that a million other blogs and websites haven't already said? Except, whose idea was it to do the auto-tune thing? It's like your grandparents trying to be hip and giving you a Member's Only jacket 15 years after they were popular and they look even less hip than you thought they were. (Yes, that happened to me, but it was my dad).

Okay, I have to go look at some stuff for work.

Snowmageddon It

We survived the Great Snow of 2011. All I have to show for it is some sore muscles from shoveling and snow blowing the driveway. I don't know our official total, but I know O'Hare recorded 20.2 inches. O'Hare is close enough to my house to count that as the total by me too. The main problem was the drifting snow. We have winds up to 60mph last night so we had some drifts of at least four feet. It looked really neat, until I had to clean it up. I think it took about two hours. I tried to take some pictures to give you an idea what it was like.

Here is a picture down the street about an hour before it started.

I should add that this storm didn't take its time to get going. We went from nothing to not being able to see across the street in a matter of minutes. It only got worse after that.

I took this crappy picture through the front window as it was really going.

The wind was so strong that I thought that light pole was going to crash down on the driveway. It didn't.

This is the street after it was all done and the sun came out. It looks nice here. Now it's all broken up with footprints and ugly piled up at the end of all the driveways.

Quincy and Cruise had a good time running around in the backyard. I wasn't sure how the would like all the snow, but we had a hard time getting them in the house most of the day, so I assume they like it.

Here is a photo of them playing in the snow.

And here is a video. I hope this works. I think this is the first time putting a video up here and I've had a Flip camera for over a year.

Overall, it was pretty neat to watch. The last time we had a storm like this was 1999 and I was at work and then slept through a lot of it. I slept through a lot of this too, but I got to see the thundersnow. Speaking of thundersnow, here is Jim Cantore almost getting killed by it.

I know New York and most of the east coast has it worse this winter, but this was a huge storm covering many states. I think as a whole this was one of the biggest winter storms in a long time. Let's wait until next century for the next one, okay?

The New and Improved Shamrock Shuffle.

(Damn it, I hit enter and sent out a blank post again. Sorry!)

Well, this year was new and improved because we weren't standing in 2 inches of slush at the Shamrock Shuffle like were were last year. The weather wasn't great, especially since it had been in the sixties the few days prior, but at least it didn't rain on us. Also, it's easy to stay warm when you are surrounded by 25,000 of your closest friends.

This year was a little different in many ways. One, my sister-in-law came with us this year. This was her first organized race (nothing like jumping into one of the biggest of the year as your first) but she works out all time, so it wasn't a big deal in terms of mileage. No, we are not going to compare hers and my times. Just drop it.

Also a first, we finally got to meet up with Mr. Unfocused before the race. We met here online about two years ago, and have been at some of the same races, but this was the first time we managed to get the timing and place to match up. We didn't get to talk a whole lot, mostly because he's an awesome runner and was way in the front of the pack, but we got to talk some at least. It was good to finally meet him in person.

The race itself? Well, it wasn't too bad. I did run much this winter, in fact I hadn't run more than four miles all winter, but I did okay anyway. I beat my time two years ago by about 40 seconds or so. I could have done better if my calves didn't lock up in the first 100 yards. It's never good to have to pull off the side that early to stretch out your calves. I really thought I wasn't going to be able to run at all. But, they loosed up after a couple hundred more yards and I was able to finish.

I had a plan this year. I brought my watch to make sure I took the first mile easy and not get caught up in the hoopla and be wiped out by mile two. I actually hit the time I wanted for mile one right on the nose. I was very proud of myself. The problem came in the next two miles where I actually went slower than mile one. That was not planned. But, I was able to pick it up on the last two miles and have better times on each of those two miles. So I can't complain too much.

The end of the race was kind of a mess. This year they had the largest crowd actually show up to run the race. Since the weather wasn't terrible most people still ran it and didn't wuss out like they did last year. That meant the end of the race was a mass of people trying to get water and a banana. They actually ran out of bananas, so it's obvious they expected more people to drop out due to the uncertainty of the weather. Never count out us hearty Chicagoans!

Finding Jenn was a big problem this year. I think every racer was on their cell phone at the end of the race so the circuits were jammed. Luckily Jenn was able to get a message through to me and tell me where to meet her. Otherwise I would have had to leave her behind. Hey, I had the keys, someone had to get the kids. We never met up with any of our friends, or relatives, at the end. t was too much of a madhouse. We just headed to the car to go home. Of course, when we got to the car someone had double parked behind us. Lucky for her she left a number for us to call and she'd move it. Otherwise I would have seen if our car had enough power to push hers out of the way. I'm kidding of course, I would have had it towed. I wouldn't want to ruin our paint job.

So, I sit here today, nursing my still aching calves (I'm doing a good job milking that, no?) and watching the dogs sleep off the fun they had while being boarded. Seriously, they are wiped out. We never seen them this inactive. It's a nice change of pace.

Speaking of change of pace, on Saturday I got home from work to a totally empty house. Jenn had taken the dogs to the place where they over nighted, then was out by her parents for a birthday party and then dropping the kids off at her parent's house for the night. I came home and didn't know what to do with myself. I had nobody to take care of, and no dogs to let out, or anything. So I sat at the computer and watched a show on Hulu and had dinner. Yes, that is kind of sad, but it was a quiet, yet slightly odd, night.

So, that was my weekend in a nutshell. Hope yours was good.

By the way, this is my 666th post. That can't be good...

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #76: Peaceful places

For this week's assignment I need to dig into the archives. It's too cold and snow out this week to go get any photos of peaceful places. Well, I could put up a picture of my bed, but that's no fun.

Most of these are of little ponds and park-like places tucked away in my town.

This first one I found by accident during the summer. It's right next to a busy street and completely blocked by trees. But, this summer while on a run, I noticed people in the trees taking pictures, so I checked it out a few weeks later. It's a nice little place to get away from it all.

This little pond is in the heart of town, actually across the street from the first one, and is surrounded by stores, including an ice cream shop, and the library. Even the ducklings find it peaceful.

Here are more ducks, this is in front of our city hall building. It's a big pond with some sculptures around it. It's a nice little place.

This is a quiet spot behind the city hall. You may remember the gazebo from the winter landscapes post. This is a little more nicer looking since there isn't snow everywhere. It would look better if it was sunny out, too.

And, lastly, if you are a dog you can find a peaceful place anywhere. Even on top of another dog.

Pardon the look of the carpet, it has since been replaced.

Now go to Carly's site and see what other people posted.

Look who turned 2!

It's Quincy's birthday today. Doesn't he look thrilled?

I think he's tired from all the activity. We took him to Chuck E Cheese's to play in the ball pit and be scared of the animatronic band. Sure, he's a dog, but he's worth it. Who cares if they called the police on us?

Actually, all we did was buy a bunch of toys and bones for the dogs. It seems unfair to buy stuff for Cruise, but how do you explain to a dog that he doesn't get anything because it's the other dog's birthday?

Right now Quincy is in one room chewing a bone while Cruise is in another room doing the same. I'm sure they'll be fighting over one bone soon enough. What they really like to do is wait for the other to stop chewing to get some water then steal the other's bone. They are like little kids.

Anyway, it's Quincy's day, so here are some pictures you may, or may not, have seen.

Happy Birthday Quincy!

Well, that was something I never expected to happen.

Like any other day, I let the dogs outside after I picked up the kids from school. Since I had taken my mom to a doctor appointment, and then lunch, I was gone for a while. They ran outside as they normally do. Cruise took off first, seeing if he can catch some unsuspecting squirrel, Quincy close on his heels.

Everything seemed perfectly normal as they were out there. At least at first. Since it was a nice day, and they had been cooped up for a while, I knew they'd want to play outside for a while. But, after a while helping my daughter with her homework (snowman design is serious business in kindergarten), I noticed it was very quiet outside. As they say in all the good movies, a little too quiet.

On a normal day, when the temperature is decent, the dogs are running around, wrestling, playing keep away, and barking. Especially Cruise. He likes to bark at things. They don't have to be living objects, just in his line of sight.

Since it was so quiet, I looked out the window to see if I could see them outside. Just to check up on them. I looked in their usual spots, but I couldn't see either of them. Sometimes when they are quiet Quincy is laying on the patio by the door catching his breath while Cruise is exploring. And barking. (The neighbors must hate us by now). But I didn't see either of them. The yard is not big by any means, but there are a few spots you can't see from the windows. Namely, the gate that leads out of the yard. I thought there might be a chance that someone, maybe a meter reader, came in the yard and didn't close it behind himself. So I went out the back door to make sure it was shut, as well as take a peek to see if I could see the dogs.

I opened the door and looked to the right and saw the gate was shut. I called for the dogs since they like to play behind the shed. No answer. I got a little worried, but, since the gate was closed, I didn't see how they could have gotten out of the yard. I turned to the left and called again, then I saw them. They were under the kids swing set, standing basically right on top of each other and just looking at me. I get this look a lot, usually it means, "What? We aren't doing anything wrong at all. I swear!"

I actually said out loud, "What are you weirdos doing?" Then shut the door and went inside, satisfied they were in the yard. But, as I walked back to the kitchen I thought about the look I was getting from Cruise. There seemed to be a sense of urgency too it. Yes, I know, he's a dog, but they do have expressions. Trust me.

I took a look out of the kitchen window and could see them still standing in the same spot. Exactly the same spot. I could actually see Cruise's leg trembling a little bit. Something was wrong. I thought maybe one of them hurt his leg running around and the other was trying to help. When I shut the door they were probably thinking, "Dude, man down over here. Can you lend a dog a hand?"

I decided i better go out there. I grabbed my boots (stupid snow) and walked out the back door. From the patio I still couldn't see the problem. But, since they didn't move when I started walking toward them, I know something was wrong. As I approached, I concentrated on Cruise, he seemed to be the one hurt. He had that look in his eyes. Also, Quincy's tail was straight down and unmoving. Another bad sign. I still couldn't tell what was wrong, though. When I got up right to them, Cruise tried to move toward me, but Quincy seemed to bury his head in the scruff of Cruise's neck. Odd.

Then I saw a ton of slobber from Quincy's mouth all over Cruise's neck. At first I thought they had somehow gotten frozen together by slobber. That would be a first. For me at least, it probably happens all the time in Alaska. But that wasn't it either, it was too warm.

Finally, Cruise tried to come to me, and I saw the problem. They were attached together. From what I can gather, they were wrestling, Quincy got Cruise's collar caught on his bottom jaw and it twisted around. Now his jaw was stuck and he couldn't get it out. So whenever Cruise tried to move it dragged Quincy by the mouth and Cruise got choked. Luckily the collar release was pushed to the side so I was able to easily release the two dogs. They were quite happy.

You should have seen the amount of drool on Cruises neck. I have no idea how long they were stuck together, but if it was colder they may have frozen together like originally thought. Now that would have been a story!

I wonder if they will stop wrestling for a while now?

Meet Cruise

Look how cute he is sitting there.

Mind you, this has been pretty much the only time he has sat still for the last 24 hours, if that tells you anything. Don't get me wrong, he's a good dog, he's just never been to our house so there has been some adjusting and sniffing time. Did I mention he is part hound? Yes, he sniffs everything. A lot. He could make a good vacuum cleaner. Maybe that's where they Dyson guy got his vacuum ideas. I need to find out if he has a hound of some sort.

There's another thing. What kind of hound is cruise? Are there are many different kids? Are they all the same? He doesn't bark too much, but it is a distinctive hound bark. If there are any former prison inmates living in the neighborhood they probably have flashbacks when Cruise barks.

Quincy and Cruise are getting along okay. Though Cruise reminds me of our daughter, he seems to try an irritate Quincy. Take going outside for instance, I'll open the door and Cruise will literally go underneath Quincy to get out first. He steals toys away from Quincy when he's not looking, and ignores Quincy when Quincy wants to play. This is going to be interesting.

I will say this, these two are wearing each other out. They've each had about four gallons of water these last 24 hours and I've never heard so much panting in one house ever. (I'll leave you to enter your own joke here.)

They have been rough-housing a lot. I've never had two dogs before so I don't know if it is all play, or when one is getting ticked off. I've broken them up a couple of times when they seem like they might hurt each other, but so far they seem to like getting each other riled up. Oh, and Quincy has not tried to steal any of the kid's toys since Cruise has come to the house. That is a bonus right there.

So, that was my big news of the week. Let's hope this works out. Pray for us.

This dog is chillin'

What?
Originally uploaded by Mike F.

Remember a while back when I wrote up my Weekend Assignment about buttons? No? That's okay, I can barely remember anything I talk about either. Anyway, I mentioned our first dog and how he would sit like a person. Well, here is proof. This is a picture of a picture so it isn't all that clear, but I think you get the idea. We did not pose him this way; he sat like this a lot. He really thought he was a person.

His name was Cosmo and I think it is safe to say that he lived up to his name. He was every bit as weird as Cosmo Kramer from Seinfield. He used to have this ball that he would carry around the house, and whine really loud as he did so. When he would do that in the middle of the night it sounded like he was dying. He scared the crap out of us many times doing that.

I just thought I'd share the picture. Have a good weekend. No getting in trouble!

Another addition to the lists of things my dog is good for

I jammed up our paper shredder real good a while back, now I don't have a way to get rid of all those important documents I have. You know, pictures of Elvis from three weeks ago, the man on the grassy knoll, Bigfoot; you get the idea. Anyway, all I have to do is give the important document to my dog and it's instantly turned into million drool-covered bits that even Big Blue couldn't fit back together. Though Quincy did cost more than a shredder, the documents he destroys are worth more than anything. To me and my family, at least.

A conversation with my dog

This morning, around 7:oo am, my son came into our room to see if we were up yet. Of course we weren't, so he used our bathroom and climbed into our bed. This isn't a big deal since he will usually go back to sleep. The problem is our dog, Quincy, sleeps directly under my son's room and he knows when my son gets up. Barking ensues, as it did this morning. I tried to ignore it and hope Quincy would get the hint and go back to sleep. He didn't so I trudged down the stairs to his crate. This is what happened. (I used the Google Dog Translator to decipher my dogs responses. It's an early beta, only a few select people have it).

As I get to Quincy's crate he immediately lays back down. I open the door and he rolls to his side, he knows this is the way to make it near impossible to put on his collar.

Me: What are you doing? You were barking to go out. Get up!

Quincy: What?

Me: What do you mean what? Get up, you have to go out.

Quincy: No, I'd rather sleep.

Me: But you were just barking to go out two seconds ago!

Quincy: Huh? Are you sure that was me? I don't remember barking.

Me: How could you not remember?

Quincy: Dude, my brain is the size of a hand grenade, I'm lucky I remember to eat.

Me: (forcing my hand under his neck to get his collar on) I'm out of bed so you are going out.

I lift him up and start pulling his collar.

Quincy: Hey, this is the back door. I should probably go out.

Door: Slam!

I went to lay on the couch, knowing that he wouldn't be long. About ten minutes later I heard him barking. I got up to let him in.

Quincy: Oh, you're up?

Me: Hmph, get in your cage please.

I decided It would be best for me to sleep on the couch next to him. I thought that would keep him quiet for a while.

Me: Go back to sleep Quincy. It's early.

Quincy: (passes gas).

Me: Thanks. Go to sleep.

I close my eyes and start to drift off.

Quincy: Psst.

I ignore him. Pretend to sleep.

Quincy. Psst. Dude, I need to go out.

Me: You were just out! I know your baldder isn't that small.

Qunicy: I didn't do anything out there. I just looked at the birds flying around and took a short nap in the grass. I was tired.

Me: So am I!

Quincy: So are you, what?

Me: Argh, you're driving me crazy!

I whip off the blanket, open the cage and put Quincy outside. I head upstairs to go back into bed for a while. Now my daughter is in the bed too. There is 7 square inches for me to sleep. I find a way to fit in the spot and drift off again.

15 minutes pass.

Quincy: (From outside) Hey! You guys awake? There is a squirrel out here you might want to see! Hey! Hey! Hey!



That was the end of me sleeping for a while. I did get to take a nap later. I needed it.

On a similar subject; you know what is so much better about having a puppy in this day and age? Being able to look up things that are poisonous to dogs in an instant. Quincy got part of and apple and banana today. Those are okay, by the way. Raisins are no good. Oh, and chocolate is bad, but they need to have 1 ounce per pound of body weight for it to be toxic. Thanks Google!

Quincy keeps watch

All mine
Originally uploaded by Mike F.

Quincy keeps watch over his land; searching for predators that might steal his food.

"What's that? A hyena? No, it's a leaf. What about that? Oh, another leaf. "

His kingdom safe for another day, Quincy goes in the house for a nap.

Yes, I know he's a dog, not a lion, but doesn't he look like one here?

Weekend Assignment #205: Those "Other" Pets

I'm feeling a little better, so let's get to Karen's weekend assignment.

Weekend Assignment #205: As of 2007 Americans owned over 72 million dogs, and over 81 million cats. They also owned horses, birds, fish, turtles, ferrets, lizards and other critters. (Real statistics can be found here.) My question is this: what pets have you had, other than a dog or cat? Is there some kind of pet (allergies and zoning ordinances permitting) that you'd like to have?

Growing up I was told we couldn't have a dog or cat because I was allergic to them. It made sense to me at the time. I had bad hay fever (still do) and other allergies, so I never questioned it. But, one year we went to my step-mom's brother's house and I spent the whole time playing with their dog and never sneezed. I didn't take my medicine the whole time. So, obviously my mom was not telling the truth, but I never said anything about it until I moved out.

Instead we had fish. Actually my brother had fish: I got to look at them and feed them. We had the typical fresh water fish; angelfish, tetras, etc. They weren't very exciting, but they are good for kids to learn to care for an animal.

One day my brother decided to upgrade. I think he was tired of his basic fish and wanted something different. He bought a piranha. To a teenage boy, there is no better fish. It swims around with its Bruce Springsteen under bite, knowing nobody is going to mess with it. My brother would always let my friend and I know when he was going to feed the piranha. We'd sit on the edge of his bed, watch him dump the goldfish in the tank, and cheer on the piranha every time it caught one. It was great! I'm not sure what happened to that fish.

My brother also had a ferret for a short time. He never told my mom about it. I think he bought it with a friend and they kept it for three days before bringing it back. I think one of them was scratched or bitten.

We finally did get a cat when my brother brought one home from vacation. He didn't tell anyone he was bringing it home. Notice a pattern?

Extra Credit: Are you more of a cat person, or more of a dog person, both or neither?

I'm more a dog person than a cat person. We ended up having two cats over a period of years when I was living at home, but dogs are more friendly. Cats can be very stand off-ish or just plain mean. Actually, next week my wife and I are going to pick out which dog we want from a litter. We are going to surprise the kids for Easter. Our golden retriever died last September, and they have been asking about a puppy since then.