What a day....

Bowie & her crate, originally uploaded by ScottyJ.

Today is our first day as a dog-having family. Fargo would come visit for a while but he was always 'my' dog or 'Laurel's' dog. I had resisted getting another dog for months for specious reasons. I didn't want to replace Fargo, and I didn't think our landlady would go for it. Once I sat down and really thought about my reasons for stonewalling Zelia's many, varied, impassioned pleas for a dog, I realized I was wrong. So I started perusing various dog agencies, and got the approval from our landlady. Yesterday I stopped by the Sonoma County Animal Shelter on my way home and the pretty dog in the photo caught my eye. She was really perky, engaging and funny in the cage, but her larger brother kept hogging all the limelight. But I only had eyes for . Once I got a chance to visit with her, it was clear that she was very very submissive, but people oriented and sweet. So I brought Meredith to meet her, and we slept on the idea.

Today, it still seemed right, we knew we would have some challenges. She's a border collie mix and has had a seemingly tough life so far, but the bones are there for a great dog.

I'll write more about her first day home (it's been filled with little triumphs, and interesting observations) but I'm recovering from teh flu, and it's been a BIG day. So I'll leave with this for now:

Her name is no longer Coco (she wasn't very attached to it) and it is now Bowie. She went from being scared of her crate to settling down in it with almost no coaxing from me in about 4 hours. She's very gentle and sweet. Zelia, who had been spending the day at a friends house broke out in tears when she saw Bowie. And later ran down the street yelling "Attention everyone! Today I got a dog!!!!"

earworm #2 of the week

Hey Bulldog

Brilliant.

Rancilio Silvia

Rancilio Silvia: I've been borrowing my neighbors Silvia for the last month. It's a great home espresso machine. If you are serious about espresso, but can't or won't spend a grand on a machine, get a Silvia. It's very sensitive to grind and water temperature, but once you get yours figured out, it's easy to get great tasting espresso and well frothed milk. I've completely stopped going to Flying Goat since I set this up.

It's also hackable. For the geeks, it's the espresso machine equivelent of a WRT-54GL router. Put a PID temp controller and a open portafilter on it, and you can get better espresso than you'd get from almost any cafe.

Downsides: The length of time between when you pull a shot, and when it's ready to froth is too long, and the espresso cools off if placed in an unwarmed cup. Also, it'll make you wish you had a good grinder, and you'll start thinking about roasting your own beans to have total control over your coffee.

Current Earworm:

Jonathon Coulton, RE: Your Brains.

Perhaps the best, catchiest song about zombies ever written.

Old enough to rediscover..

I used to be a huge beatles fan. Acutally, I've always been a huge beatles fan, but I haven't listened to them since maybe 6 or 7th grade. But from about 4th grade until early 7th grade I didn't want to listen to anything else. Most of my classmates were much the same, to the extent that one of our plays was a mashup of The Wizard of Oz and The Yellow Submarine. We called it "The Ballad of Dorothy and Ringo" and I played Ringo in one of my only starring roles as a school-play thespian. I wonder why the Beatles were so big in our class. It was a 100% Trend.

But I digress.

The point is, I burnt out on Beatles really early, the songs had lost their power and my ears couldn't 'hear' them anymore. So, I have not let myself listen to them since for fear of turning burn-out into loathing.

But a couple of weeks ago, while going through my records I threw on disc 1 side 2 of the White album. Wow. These guys were brilliant! I wanted to hear more, but unfortunately the other albums, and tapes I had haven't survived with me all these years.

So off to the local music store to see what remastered CDs I can find....

Wikipediahole

Who knew that Manimal was only on for 8 episodes?