Taylor lately has taken to chewing on the beer bottles we leave in the basement for future recycling. I can’t figure out if she’s in it for the residual beer flavor or for the fun of peeling off the labels. Probably a little of both. Really I’m just writing all this to have an excuse to post funny dog pictures. Look! That dog’s drinking a beer! More hilarity can be found at Flickr.
The past two days I’ve collapsed into a stupor mid-afternoon after getting home from the pool. Yesterday I passed out for an hour and a half in the middle of the livingroom floor while reading a book, arms crossed under my chest. Woke to carpet-imprinted skin and numbness from the shoulders out. Thrashed my limbs about a bit and lurched back into my day. Today I at least managed to make it to a bed. I think the two-job schedule is startng to wear a little thin. This likely will be be the last summer of PFOness whether the pools open next year or not.
I have been making it count though. Really I have. After the discovery during my lifegaurding class that I may actually be a competent swimmer, I’ve been swimming every morning before all the kids show up for swim lessons. I started fairly small, sluggishly grinding through 20 lengths. After a little more practice, I’m finding now that I can’t get enough. I swan 56 lengths this morning before the lifeguards started showing up, then banged out 28 more during open lap swim. It’s probably the most relaxing exercise I’ve ever tried. No joint stress. No environmental intrusion. Just fluid motion and white noise. Breath. Whoosh. Exhale. Whoosh.
After much bumbling about and many helpful tools and hints from this guy, I think I actually have the sidebar “Now Playing” thing functioning properly. (You can see my baffled requests for help here). Super cool. Keeps updated in real time (with a user page refresh) what is currently playing in iTunes on my desktop. I opted not to display the song/album/artist info for personal aesthetic reasons. But really I don’t think anyone reading this will actually care.
Update: Or… if you want to see the song/album/artist, I just added a recent playlist page (Tunes). Click!
It’s nice to have my house back. And I only had to spend one full day with that goofy dog. Conan is one of those dogs that just seems destined to bumble his way through life. He is completely unaware of the bulk of his own body and consequently sends various limbs (usually the tail) careening into any object he happens to be near. Legs, noisy metal stove, our dogs. He also pants constantly, slips every time he goes up stairs, and barks repeatedly during the night. I know I’m biased, but having Conan around really made me love our dog’s character even more. Exuberant just right.
It’s getting to the point where I probably need to start backing up the old Seagate. Granted, the drive was only purchased a couple years ago and I really haven’t run it too hard during that time, but I just start to get nervous the more I add to my digital music collection. I’m closing in on 25GB at this point with nary a backup disc in sight. The problem comes when my left brain starts complaining that if I backup to now and later acquire more music with titles in the middle of the alphabet then everything is all out of whack. You can’t just pick up the newest Zero 7 and burn it to its own disc next to the m’s and p’s and w’s of the world. Zero 7 belongs smack between Xiu Xiu and the Zutons. It’s a fine line I walk beteween risk and reward. And yes, sometimes I even step over sidewalk cracks.
We’re dog sitting a 72 pound ball of dim-witted happiness for the next few days. And by we, I of course mean Mary since I’m headed out to South Manitou Island with a pack of kids from work for the next two days. His name is Conan and he seemed to get along just fine with our own two furballs while scampering at Lake Michigan tonight. But I suppose the real test will come when confined to an 800 square foot house.