To The Robbers:

Dear Robbers,

I'm not surprised that you stole the tv and dvd player and Play Station. They were all old and about to be replaced so it's not that big a deal that you took them. Though I am sad that they are missing.

I'm sad, but again unsurprised, that you took several jewelry boxes. I think most of them contained costume jewelry or things that weren't too important. But I can't remember and now I'll never know.

I really wish you hadn't taken my ESO's parent's anniversary clock. That clock was neat, and since it was an heirloom, irreplaceable for sentimental reasons.

But why did you take the power cord for the dsl router? You didn't even take the router itself. I don't blame you for not taking it, it's kind of a piece of shit, but why take only the power cord? The router is so old that we had to buy a whole new router. Taking the cord just renders the old one entirely useless. That's just mean.

Also, were you cold? Is that why you took the portable oil heater? I liked that little oil heater. It kept me warm on many a cold and WoW filled evening. I sincerely hope that the oil bursts out of the heater onto you and sets you on fire!

Die in a fire you thieving mother fuckers!


That is all.

Dog Park

This morning my ESO and I crawled out of bed. It was very hard. Bed so comfy! And ESO so snuggly. But The alarm had rung and I'd hit the snooze button a couple of times and Balou was doing his wakeup song and dance. So we crawled out of bed and pulled on clothes. We didn't feed the dog, instead we made sure we had cookies and poo bags and piled both dogs and both people into the SUV.

We drove to Ft. Funston. As soon as I opened my door Trillian had opinions. She was sniffing everywhere and trying to fit her head between the seat and the frame so she could get out. When I shut my door and went to the back of the SUV to get Balou out she whined a lot, at least until my ESO opened the side door and let her out.

Once both dogs were out of the car we started our walk. We didn't meet any dogs until we had gone up the stairs. But Balou had to sniff and pee on everything. His aim is still terrible. Trillian just had to sniff everything over. At the top of the stairs there were a whole bunch of dogs. Most of them off leash. Balou and Trillian were pretty well behaved. There was a bit of butt sniffing. Balou still thinks that he is the sexiest thing since sliced bread, which occasionally makes it hard for other dogs to figure out what he is doing.

After we extricated ourselves from the group of dogs at the top of the stairs we followed a medium-short path around the area. Balou and Trillian got to sniff even more things, and we had a very nice view of the cliffs looking over the ocean.

There was another large group of dogs at the fork in the trail that would lead to the cliffs. We headed back to the car, but we had to make out way through and past all the dogs. Again Balou and Trillian were pretty good. There was one wiry haired male dog who got in Balou's face. I'm not sure if he or Balou started growling first, but the other dog got called off by his owner as this is apparently not new behavior for him.

We passed that group and were walking with a lady who had three off-leash dogs with her. Her dogs were all very mellow and calm towards Balou and Trillian. It was rather amusing, her dogs wanted the cookies my ESO and I had, while our dogs just wanted to sniff the other dogs'. But either way it was a good chance for Balou and Trillian to just chill out with other dogs around.

After that my ESO and I headed back to the car. There was a nice stretch with just us on the path, and we made it back to the car with no bad experiences. So overall it was an excellent dog park walk.

Dog Fight!

This morning my ESO and I were doing out usual dog walk before driving off to work. We were just going to go around a few blocks and then head home since we both needed to be at work for meetings.

We were about halfway done and the dogs were both behaving quite well. There had been some attempts to chase a cat at the beginning of the walk but they had settled down after that. Balou was even not pulling against the leash. (Pulling against the leash is something that we're working on not doing.) I had just commented to Shari how nice it was to have Happy Balou.

We had passed a house with their garage door about three quarters up and were halfway past the next house, when a brown and white Pitbull came charging out of the garage door. This Pit was barking and growling and charged straight at Balou. In dog language this is practically a declaration of war. Since I didn't want to have this dog bite Balou in the butt I couldn't bodily drag Balou away. So they met face to face.

The Pit more or less leaped to meet Balou and tried to start chewing on Balou's neck. My ESO told me later that the Pit was probably trying to bite Balou behind the ear, which is a nice soft kill spot. Balou, quite understandably, was none too pleased about this. So they start to fight, though mostly it is the Pit trying to bite Balou and Balou trying not to get bit, and me trying to break them up.

By this time the Pit's owner has run out or the garage chasing after his dog. I'm not really paying attention to him. I try to grab the Pit's collar so I can hold both dogs apart. But the Pit and Balou are both moving too quickly and too unexpectedly for me to be able to grab it. Then I remember what a friend of mine told me about breaking up dog fights. She said that her boyfriend broke up a similar situation where a Pit was trying to chew on their dog by grabbing both of the Pit's back legs, pulling and then swinging the Pit away. I only had my left hand free so I grabbed the back right leg of the Pit and pulled/threw while using my right hand and leg to pull/push Balou in the opposite direction. Fortunately this was enough to break whatever hold the Pit had and get the dogs separated enough that the Pit's owner could grab his dog.

So then we had a small detente. We held all the dogs apart. The Pit continuously lunged and growled at Balou. Balou intermittently lunged and growled at the Pit. I did my best to see if Balou was bleeding, and fortunately I didn't find any blood. My ESO was holding Trillian back at a safe distance from all of this. Trillian was continuously lunging and growling, because she has issues with light colored dogs. The Pit's owner was apologizing profusely. And a neighbor across the street comes out to yell at the Pit's owner. Since Balou appears to be unhurt my ESO tells the Pit's owner to get some training for his dog, and we carry on with our walk.

Once we're home and the leashes are off I do a more thorough check of Balou. Fortunately I still don't find any punctures. Though I do find a bruise on one of his rear legs. However, I don't know if that is from the fight or from him bruising it while jumping up on the bed.

Now I need to profusely thank my friend who told me about how to break up a dog fight.

Anime

My ESO and I have been watching anime for a while now. We initially tried to set up one night a week where we would only watch anime. However, that didn't work so we changed to a couple of nights a week where we would play some WoW and then watch an episode or two of an anime. This seems to work better so far. We watch all the anime in Japanese with English subtitles.

We're currently in the middle of Blue Seed. It's rather silly to start out with, but I'm enjoying that the characters are growing and developing. They aren't just static and going through an adventure. They are maturing and learning and changing. It's pretty neat, and it's an interesting story. I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to look up all the stuff I see on the internet. I don't want to spoil the story, which I know I'll do if I go search for every little bit of lore that shows up in the anime. But I know I'm missing a lot, not only am I missing the cultural references, but, like any translation, not everything comes through from spoken Japanese to written English. I'll look up all the stuff about Susano-oh after we finish watching the series.

We've already finished watching Noir, Trigun, and a couple others which I can't spell without the cases right here in front of me. I've really enjoyed watching all of them. Though I do have a limit of how much I can watch at a time. I have a limit of about 4-ish episodes of a new show before I need to take a break and digest all the story stuff that happened. In that way it reminds me of watching all of the Buffy and Angel Seasons when I first moved to CA. I'd bring a disc home and watch either 2 or 4 episodes at a time. It was a lot of fun, but this is even more fun since I get to do it with my ESO next to me.

4th of July

My ESO and I had a three day weekend for the 4th of July. We had Friday off. Unfortunately some of the teams that my ESO supports at work are useless pieces of shit. They are entirely incapable of planning or understanding what their requests actually mean. So one team insisted that she needed to have some stuff done for them. This resulted in her working on Friday. :( Suck. I hate that team.

Anyway, Saturday was the 4th. We spent time gardening and mostly watering the lawns. I felt bad doing that because CA has a drought. However, Pacifica allows fireworks. Allegedly there is a restriction on the size, but in practice anyone can get any firework or firecracker they want and fire it wherever they are. So we thought that while it used up water to keep our lawn green/wet it was less water than would be used if the fireworks set out lawn on fire. Especially if the house happened to catch too. Fortunately our lawn watering efforts were not in vain.

This was also Balou's first 4th at our house. It is quite clear that he had not been exposed to fireworks or firecrackers before. He was very disturbed by them all. So while my ESO and I watched Bubble Gum Crisis and then played WoW, we took breaks quite frequently to calm the Balou down. He was like a ping pong ball. A 130lb black and tan, barking and bouncing ping pong ball. After a couple of hours he tired himself out and put himself to bed in his crate. Poor puppy.

On Sunday night there were still a few left over fireworks. And we were in the office then. After a bunch of barking and bouncing he then wedged himself under my desk and laid down at/under my feet. He was clearly asking me to protect him from the bad loud noises. It was quite adorable, though a bit sad.

On Blueberry Muffins

Location: Coffee shop on the way to work.

My ESO: And I'd like a blueberry muffin.
Barrista: Classic or Lowfat banana blueberry?
My ESO: I don't see anything other than plain blueberry.
(I point out the lowfat muffin.)
My ESO: EEEwww! That looks gross! People eat that?
Barrista: It's one of our top sellers...

Dog Park Adventures

On Monday Shari and I brought the dogs to the local dog park, Fort Funston. Balou woke us up early and so we decided to just pile both of the dogs into the SUV and go.

Fort Funston is pretty large and has several different places to go to walk the dogs. We got there shortly after 8am and went to one of the less frequented places. Our route was into the park along a path, then up a long set of stairs, then a winding path back down to the bottom of the stairs, and then back to the car. Basically it's a loop, but only about 20-ish minutes of walking.

The leg from the car to the bottom of the stairs was uneventful. Despite the fact that he hadn't had breakfast Balou was entirely uninterested in the treats we had for him. And I'd even gone to the trouble and ickyness of cutting up part of a Natural Balance thing, which is a rare and therefore special treat for him.

We didn't see any other dogs until we were at the top of the stairs. Then we ran into two pairs of them. The first pair was on a leash to each other with their owner nearby. Balou and Trillian exchanged a sniff or two with them. The second pair was loose and much more interested in a couple of crows that were in the trees above us than.

Fort Funston is really pretty and it was a very nice walk. On the downward path we ran into two white poodles and a dog that looked like a Swissy from a distance. However when we got closer the owner told us that the dog was half Great Dane and half St Bernard. It was huge! I'd say easily 160lb if not more. Balou was so confused. He wasn't sure if he should be aggressive or run away or try to play or just sniff butts. It was definitely the first time in a long time that Balou had encountered a dog bigger than himself and the first time ever that he had encountered a dog that large. But both Balou and Trillian behaved themselves. Trillian doesn't usually like blonde dogs or poodles so I was quite happy that she didn't get growly with them.

We continued on our way and ran into a couple more dogs. The only time there was any worry was when we encountered a Shitzu. I am not a fan of yappy little rat-dogs and Balou isn't either. Especially since there is an annoying lady who lives in our neighborhood and has two badly behaved Shitzus. Anyway Balou pulled and I slipped on the sand and had to do some fancy footwork to not do a faceplant on the sand/pavement. But once he got to the other dog he just loomed and didn't do anything bad.

It was actually a pretty good dog park adventure all told. There weren't any bad experiences with people or dogs. And every good experience keeps reinforcing nice dog socialization.

Mini Vacation

Shari and I are on a much needed vacation. It's only a mini-vacation, we'll be back at work on Wednesday. But we're having a nice relaxing time.

Just now we piled the dogs into the SUV and drove to get coffee and tea and pastries. We then went to the local car wash and detail place. There the car was dropped off and will be picked up clean and pretty in an hour or two. Then we had a nice leisurely walk home. Both Balou and Trillian were well behaved on the way home.

Balou the dog

Balou is growing up. I can actually see the dog he is becoming. And I believe Shari when she tells me that he will stop chewing the couch. Which, since we've been more careful about watching him he hasn't done lately. (Of course saying that we're going to come home today to a completely shredded couch.)

Anyway we have a nice pattern in the morning. After the alarm rings for the second time he will jump up on the bed. He used to loom over me and try to slurpie all exposed skin, but now he will lie down next to me and get morning cuddles. Morning cuddles from a 120lb Rottweiler are quite nice. Not as good, of course, as from my ESO. But there is something special about a dog big enough to lie next to you with his head on your shoulder and his butt at your knees. Especially when he is so adorable and rolls on his back and wants belly rubs.

At bedtime we have another routine. Balou sleeps on the floor at the foot of the bed. He knows that is where he goes when we say "bedtime". Just like Trillian knows that she gets to sleep on the end of the bed. It's so cute how he has his own spot that he knows to go to, and will often go to on his own when he is tired and we're still up.

It's good that Balou knows that he spends the night at the foot of the bed and only gets on the bed in the morning. Despite having a Queen size bed, there really isn't enough room for me, my ESO, Trillian AND Balou. It's pretty cramped with Trillian on the bed as it is.