But I Don't Think Either of Us Barks in Our Sleep

You hear about how people look like their dogs all the time, but fortunately that isn't the case with us. We discovered, however, that rather than looking like our pets, our pets have adopted our sleeping habits. 

Chewie is a light sleeper who will wake up if he is even slightly disturbed, but if he's been sleeping for a while, he is very grumpy when he wakes up. If we leave the house, he naps in his crate until we come home and let him out. Then he goes stomping across the house, head down, until he gets to the door and goes outside. You can talk to him, but he won't even acknowledge anyone. 

Booker, on the other hand, sleeps very soundly, but once he's up, he's up. When he goes to sleep, nothing disturbs him. In fact, he sleeps so soundly that I sometimes touch his ear to make it twitch just to make sure he's responding at all. (Yes, it irritates him, but it makes me feel better.) Of course, if I wait long enough, he'll let us know he's just fine with a nice loud snore.

No, our dogs may not look like us, but one sleeps like me and one sleeps like Melissa. I'll leave the sorting out which one is which to you.

A Post About Nothing

I'm still running on empty here, so here are a bunch of things that have nothing to do with each other and aren't long enough to be a full post.

I started playing the game Guild Wars recently (about a month ago), and it's very fun and addictive. Once again, I can blame members of my family for getting me addicted to a game. It's a MMORPG much like WoW and Everquest, but without a monthly fee. In addition, the game uses instancing for many explorable areas, so I don't have to worry about you coming along and stealing the respawn I've been waiting for (or the other way around).

I'm very glad that most of the shows I enjoy watching are back, but I can't help feeling a little disappointed that Lost isn't starting yet. Every week, I get to the middle of the week and am completely worn out and think, "Oh but at least it's time for Lost...Oh, right. February."

Have any of you watched Kitchen Nightmares? I'm not a huge Gordon Ramsey fan, mostly because I'm not a big fan of verbal abuse, but this show is fairly interesting. Also, the people he verbally abuses in this show deserve it most of the time. At the end, things usually turn out well and people have a much nicer restaurant and thank him for what he did. There was one a couple weeks ago that still disturbs me, because of how bad the food was and how bad the pest problems at the restaurant were. *shudder* I saw an episode of the British version of his show on BBC America and was surprised that he seemed to be a completely different guy. No yelling and screaming, just talking firmly. I can't help wondering if this is him being two different characters on the two different shows (neither being necessarily who he is in real life) or if over time, his patience has worn thin enough that he just has to scream at people.

As an Alabama fan (which I have been for most of my life), watching games with John Parker Wilson at quarterback makes me long for the days of Brodie Croyle. It's not that JPW isn't talented, but at some point you have to stop making stupid mistakes and looking like it's your first game as a starter.

On the subject of college football, this article by Ivan Maisel was an excellent read and really showed how much of an impact being a fan can have on someone, even much later in life when they have no real connection to that team.

The other day, I put one of the quick dissolve Listerine strips in my mouth, only it didn't dissolve right away. It just sat there for a second, and then when I moved my tongue it decided to attach itself to the roof of my mouth. For the thirty seconds or so it took for it to dissolve, I looked like a dog with peanut butter stuck on the roof of its mouth. Cinnamon flavored peanut butter.

Speaking of dogs...As if we didn't have enough going on, our dogs decided to try to run around and play inside today. Chewie tried to get Booker to chase him, and when Booker took the bait, Chewie ran and launched himself up onto the couch to turn around and go running the other direction. Unfortunately, the couch in our living room sits under the window, so Chewie's backside smashed into the window, which is now in a million pieces (fortunately, the storm window was up at the time, so it was not broken and could be put down so there isn't a gaping hole allowing the outside to be inside). He's fine (his fur is so thick there was no way glass could get to him), but I'm not so sure about me.


That's all I've got. I'm obscenely busy at work, so I have no left over motivation or mental capacity. I'll try to keep writing something here, but if it's like this post, I'm not sure I see much point.

The Fried Piper?

Our dogs love french fries. It's as if places like Burger King and McDonald's sell the world's greatest dog treats...at least according to Booker and Chewie. We try not to give them very many, but if we pick up fast food and bring it home at lunch time, we can pretty much assume that the begging will start when we get there and not end until the fries are gone. Chewie will sit next to one of us and be as cute as possible, while Booker will sit politely and repeatedly offer to shake in exchange for a fry.

They will get two or three fries each, and act as if this is the best thing that has ever happened to them. It turns out that the fries can also be a good incentive to get them to do what we want, too. Yesterday, Chewie didn't really want to go back into his crate so we could go back to work. (He seems to think, despite all evidence to the contrary, that he is trustworthy enough to be left out free in the house.) To encourage him to go, I grabbed a french fry for each dog and play the part of the Pied Piper. It worked wonderfully, and they both went right where they were supposed to in exchange for the fry. I just have to wonder if I might have taken it too far when I acted as if I were sprinkling holy water on Chewie with the fry while repeating, "The power of fries compels you." (cf. The Exorcist)

You Kiss Your Mother With That Mouth?

Ways to anger me if you are a dog:

Decide that the dogs on TV are real and must be barked at to make them leave your territory.

Repeatedly demand to go outside in the cold and snow, but don't bother to do anything to eliminate waste from your body...which is the whole reason we're out here in the first place.

While outside, go to one of the piles you left on a previous visit (now completely frozen), pick up the poopsicle (You see what I did there? Clever, isn't it?) and run full speed around the yard with it in your mouth.

Ways to amuse me if you are a dog:

Immediately aft coming inside, go try to give "puppy kisses" to the person who didn't have to stand outside with you.

This Weather Stinks

We're downgraded all the way to a Winter Weather Advisory now after spending all weekend under Winter Weather and Blizzard Warnings. Unfortunately, since Chewie thinks it would be a good idea to try to leave the yard and run free, I get to go outside with the dogs when they need to go out. Since we have a wireless web cam aimed into the backyard (for watching the boys if we aren't out there with them), Melissa decided to record me. At the beginning of the video, you can see me putting away my phone after she was telling me to come wave to the camera. Note that I am wearing jeans, my hooded NMSU sweatshirt with the hood up over my University of Illinois knit cap (repping both alma maters), a heavy wool coat buttoned all the way up to my face, gloves and snow boots. The only things exposed in any way are my eyes and part of my nose, but I was still freezing.




So what do you do when there's a blizzard warning, everything is closed and the news outlets are reporting that if you do venture out and slide off the road that police will take hours to get to you because they are so busy helping everyone else? I don't know what you do, but as for me, I scrounge the cabinets and see what I can make with ingredients we have in the house. That's how we ended up with a tray of super rich brownies covered in sour cherry preserves.

Winter Wonder(ing) Land

It's gotten really cold and we've gotten quite a decent amount of snow recently. Being outside with the dogs the past few days reminded me of a Calvin and Hobbes strip that I saw years ago.

Fortunately, through the power of the internet, I was able to find it: