Rough Weekend...

I'm pretty wrecked. Both of our dogs are very sick. I spent most of today feeling helpless while waiting for the vet to call back. He was out on a bike ride today and it took him a long time to get back once he got the call from the paging service. So we shut the dogs up in my office and kept checking on them. And we busied ourselves with tasks to pass the time and keep from going insane with worry. I actually got a lot of work done and we got the upstairs cleaned up. And of course, we spent a lot of time cleaning up after the dogs.

I couldn't tell who was throwing up when or where. The rug in my office is completely ruined and it smells terrible. Moe was oozing bloody yucky stuff out her back side. I thought Cody was getting better and let him have a few sips of water. Shortly thereafter, he threw up 4 cups oor so of bloody yuck. I don't know what it is. I used the weed whacker all around the yard looking for things that would make them sick. All I found was a little pile of Scott's Turf Builder that spilled when I applied it a couple of weeks ago. But the vet says he doesn't think that's it. The vet suggested malicious neighbors, but I am pretty sure that's not it. We get along with our neighbors, and one is even a vet. So we are left with the possibility that maybe their food is rancid.

Anyway, the vet called me out of breath saying he would meet me at the hospital. So I loaded them up and took them down. I had the most awful thoughts on the short ride to the vet. I was certain they were going to have to be put down. Or it was going to cost a fortune and they were still going to have to be put down. Or they would die in the car on the way there. And I felt guilty thinking that maybe I missed something in the yard and it's my fault they are sick.

And here's the worst one of all- I had these thoughts about, OK, what if we can only afford to save one of them? I mean assuming there is a chance they will make it. It would be Cody for sure since Moe causes us the most grief. Rachel and I don't fight about much, but we do fight about Moe. We don't really trust her around kids. She attacks Cody when he barks at the door. She's the one who bit Brad (Brad and Jake were play sword fighting, but she thought Brad was really attacking Jake, so she got a pass on that one). And Cody is by far the lower maintenance dog. I mean, he's a little weird and skittish, but I can't imagine him ever biting someone. So yeah, we save Cody.

That is a horrible thought to have, but I had it. But, I mean, how much do you spend? $2,000? $10,000? $50,000? When does it get ridiculous and you have to say, "It's sad, but it is just a pet, after all." I'm sure Laurie would give anything for a few more years with Casey. And my Dad would have spent a small fortune on Bo without thinking twice. But both of those dogs were very old and suffering, so there wasn't really a choice for them. Mine are just five. And they are good dogs. And they are part of our family. But I mean, we have been struggling for months. And everytime we think we are out of the woods, something comes up. Last month it was $1,700 on brakes for the Trooper. And now it's the dogs again. $200 last weekend for Moe. $200 yesterday for Cody. And today I got an estimate for $2,000 for the both of them to be hospitalized for a few days. I got my first paycheck from the new job on Friday. I should have just endorsed it over to the vet. So anyway, for me, it's somewhere between $2,000 and $10,000, I guess. And don't even ask me the hyppothetical, "OK, what if it's $6,500 each? Do you just save Cody and pocket the $3,500?"

Anyway, I got to the vet and he was not nearly as worried as I was. In fact, he is quite optimistic that they will pull through this. I was very relieved, but concerned maybe he's just trying to get me to not give up hope. Like maybe that's something they teach them in vet school to make things easier on pet owners. Especially after the weigh in. Remember last week when Moe weighed nine pounds less than she did in Febrary? She lost another ten pounds this week. But they were both fairly active once we got there. And Dr. Smith is a nice man, and I like him as a person just from the short time we've spent together. And I trust him to not B.S. me. If you live in the area (Southern Lake County) they are great at the Middletown Animal Hospital. And today, Jeff Smith is my hero.



And he even poses for blgo pics. (<-- I almost went back and fixed that but decided it's nice that I actually had a typo on "blog" here on mindbloggingtypos. It is genuine. And have you noticed that my typing has actually gotten much better? I've been practicing doing it right since my shoulder bummer happened.)

So the dogs are at the hospital, sedated, on IVs, and being treated. I'll find out more tomorrow.

Between stressing about money and cleaning up some really nasty horrible things that came out of my dogs, and worrying about them, Rachel and I are both wrecked. Jake seems to be taking it fairly well. He's been a Trooper about helping clean up. And we didn't make him deal with any of the really nasty bloody stuff.

Now that I think about it, Jake's illness (the colitis, not just being sick this weekend) probably helped us all deal with this better than we would have. We've alllearned that medicine can work miracles. And as horrible as it was to deal with the dogs and seeing them hurting and not being able to do anything, it's far easier to deal with than what we went through when Jake first got sick.

Oh, and I have to give a shout out to Travis. I talked to him after I got back from the vet while having a cocktail and smoking a cigar on the deck.

Trav, thanks for answering when I needed you. And I will give you a great big bear hug in person sometime in the next month or so.

More tomorrow.

25 piles of barf...

...all around the house. That's what I woke up to this morning. Actually, that's what Rachel woke up to. She just woke me up to tell me about it. Sorry, let me back up a bit. She woke up to the neighbor's dog barking at 7:45 AM on a Saturday. She went to call security and saw lots of barf on her way to the phone (we've talked to them about it and it got better for a while, but it's gotten much worse again lately). She then woke me up to tell me about it. I called the vet and took Cody down at 11.

Yep, it was Cody this time. Same symptoms that Moe had last week. So we're a bit perplexed. Did they eat something bad at the same time and it just hit Moe first? Did Cody discover whatever it was that Moe ate last week? Is there something in the yard growing that they eat and is bad for them? It's a mystery.

While waiting for the vet to call back, I called the neighbor that owns the dog. She's really nice and blogs here on Blogger as well. But her dog is a meance. He got out yesterday and maimed or killed another neighbor's cat. Rumor has it he bit a kid in the neighborhood. And sweet little Emily from up the street walks around with a golf club because she's scared of the dog getting loose. I warned her that if something should happen, the dog has a history and they could lose their house. If that dog were to bite Andrea next door, Tony would catch the dog, take it to their house, ring the doorbell, and kill it right in front of her kids.

I didn't tell her that last part.

Anyway, it's a bummer. And we've tried being good neighbors about it and it's not working. I talked to my vet about it while I was there with Cody and he had some advice involving training and shock or citronella collars. I e-mailed his advice to her. But we are done with this. We are calling security from now on.

I've been telling my sister she should move to a community like this because if you have problems with your neighbors that you can't work out on your own, you have regs, security, and the board to resolve issues. Hopefully it will work. We'll see.

I mowed the lawn today and pulled some weeds. And I'm pretty beat. I'm going to go take a shower, grill some tri-tip, eat some dinner, drink a couple of beers or a cocktail and relax.

Oh my...

I am working upstairs today. I was surprised to find a thin layer of sweat had developed between my chair, my shorts, and my legs. Then I noticed that the fan on my laptop has been going all apey for an hour or so.

Middletown Weather

at: 3:56 pm PDT Currently: 88° Fair High: 83° Low: 43°

It looks like maybe we just skipped spring and went right in to Summer.

Quick Update...

OK, so it's Monday night. Rachel was a Trooper and got through the weekend pain and actually worked all day today. And tomorrow she heads for Sacramento for a class and certification to become a notary public.

Jake is good, and he helped a ton with yard work over the weekend. He's gotten in to Mad magazine in a big way lately. And he picked Fun With Dick and Jane for family movie night last Friday. The kid loves Jim Carrey.

Moe (the girl dog) got sick but seems better after a $200 trip to the vet (Thank you Dr. Smith) an injection of lots of fluids, some meds, some bland food, throwing up a lot, and being fed this weird paste out of a giant syringe. The dog drives us nuts a lot, but we let her sleep with us (on her bed on the floor) while she was sick. She threw up in the middle of the night, but get this - She went in to the bathroom and threw up in the shower. Many yum yums for that when she's all better.

I got the pond back in working order last weekend and discovered, to my amazement, that two of my Koi are still alive. I hadn't seen them for so long, I figured the neighborhood cats or a racoon got them. But they were there and they are huge now. It scared me a bit when they popped up while I was cleaning the filter. They must be 8 or 9 inches. And there are still lots of goldfish.

Working for someone else is weird. It's going to take some getting used to. I'm still processing it, so I won't say anything more about it now. But expect a post on that topic when I get it all sorted out in my head.

Let's see, what else? Oh, we got our new cell phones today. We are now IN with Virizon Wireless. And we kept our same numbers. The neat thing is that now the phones actually ring because Verizon's coverage is WAY better up here than Nextel/Sprint. So I feel better about Rachel driving to work or down to the Bay Area. Oh, and Sacramento tomorrow. I wonder if she'll get service on 20.

Sopranos left us feeling a little depressed this week. I can't decide what I want more, for Chris to die a horrible death or for him to finally get his sh*t together. I think the best guy Tony ever had on his crew was that guy who went back to Italy because he fell in love with Carmella.

Oh, and I came across this great article about America's Eating Disorder (click here)
on Alternet. It seems free range chickens aren't quite as free as the nice folks at Whole Foods would have you believe. And we consume way more corn and soy than we realize. It's a good read. And it, combined with Ted's admonishment to think about cooking healthier has got me thinking. POst on my thoughts to come, again, when get them sorted out.

Oh, and finally, Travis told me about Neil Young's new album. I encourage you to check it out. He was waiting for someone from our generation, or maybe someone between mine and Jake's, to come out with a protest album. So he did. The big question is will Fox News/O'Reilly attack or ignore?

That's it for now.

Oh, except for this from Drumheller on 60 minutes. We need to tell all of the Democrats that we put in office this year that we expect them to investigate the Bush regime, the run up to war, the lies, the Downing Street memo, Gas Prices, etc., for real. If they cave like they did with Iran Contra, I give up, no matter what Howard Dean says.

Ouch!!!

So Rachel had some oral surgery today. A tooth extraction. We knew going in that it was going to suck, but we had absolutely no idea how much it was going to suck.

They put her under with Nitrous and an IV drip. It was supposed to take all of ten minutes, but it took almost an hour and a half.

Here's what she looked like on the way home...



Rachel got really mad at me the last time I posted a picture of her sleeping. So this time I blurred out her face so you can't tell it's her. That's a piece of dental floss hanging out of her mouth that was supposed to remind her that there's gauze in her mouth. When she woke up three hours later and I pointed it out to her, she was kind of upset because she had no idea it was there.

Get this - the dentist called me at home this afternoon to see how she was doing. Has your dentist or doctor ever called you at home? He proceeded to tell me it was the toughest extraction he's ever done and that Rachel underwent massive trauma. He said it will feel like someone punched her very hard square in the face. He also said the tooth broke and so he had to remove lots of little shards of bone and nerve. One nerve went down three milimeters! I don't have any idea what that means, but by his tone, I understand that it was pretty serious. He said the third day is going to be the worst.

She's still a little sedated and she took two codeine tablets and her antibiotics and she sounds pretty good right now. Too good, in fact. She's on the phone with Michele. I'm going to have to go make her hang up before they get to laughing and she pops her stitches.

Catch Up Blog...

So I've got some catching up to do.Last weekend, Cuz, Tara, and Serra came up. Chris and I worked on taxes and CommTech stuff. Then we had cocktails and played pool. Rachel played, too. First time in a while for her as it hurts her back sometimes.



Then on Sunday, we went down to Petaluma because Dolores' sister Terry and her husband Jay were in town. We grilled and hung out and ate and such. Jay brought a video from Easter from when Rachel was around 14 or so. I t was weird seeing her at that age.

Here's Dolores and Terry in the kitchen.











Earlier this week, I tried making Paul's famous Bashed Potatoes. They are yummy. You basically chop up potatoes and boil them for fifteen minutes. Then you take them off and shake the pot around so they get "bashed." Then you drizzle olive oil in a baking dish and drop the potatoes in and bake them at 350 for an hour and a half or so. I think you need to start the water boiling first. I put the potatoes in and brought the water to a boil and mine came out more mashed than bashed.

But they were still yummy. I sprinkled some seasoning on top.




Earlier I mentioned how frustrated I was at the state of my yard. I invested a lot of time and money, including a Bobcat rental and a lot of favors and help from friends in to getting rid of the weeds. We put down landscape fabric and rocks and everything. And I was really angry about it. Jake said, "Yeah, it's kind of disheartening."

Disheartening. And he's 13.

So he and I worked on it yesterday and today. And we aren't done, but we made a lot of progress. You can see the rocks again. The rocks we used the Bobcat to move from the front to the back. And they actually were pretty easy to pull out there as they didn't root, except along the fabric seams. The pond area was harder, but Jake did most of that. And I got the fountain all cleaned up and running in the pond. And the goldfish are still alive. I don't know what happened to the koi, but I suspect cats were involved.



Anyway, the Hotel Yorba yard is coming back to life and will be suitable for croquet and general lounging before you know it.



You can't even see where I wrecked it with the Bobcat last Summer (unless you know where to look and look really hard).

Lauren and Paul are coming up tonight for the weekend. They are going to look at houses and talk to my neighbors about possibly renting their place. I've got a few things to tie up with the taxes, but not much. And unless I can find a couple of thousand more in medical expenses, I think I just need to print them.

Oh, and I start on Monday in the new job. I wonder if it will feel any different. New job, same desk. We'll see.

That's it for now. You stay classy, San Diego.

I was gonna blog tonight...

...but I got sidetracked by a local road trip with my neighbor. And I got home and we watched Narnia. And I'm sleepy.

So tomorow, I will blog and post pictures of last weekend's Cuz, Tara, Serra visit to the Hotel Yorba, dinner with Terry and Jay in Petaluma, and the first sunny day in a long long time where Jake and I attacked the back yard and made a lot of progress.

Deal Or No Deal?

So I'd heard of this show. I used to be a fan of Howie Mandel. He was hilarious. And it seems to be on just about every night. So I flipped over to it.

Bel ieve it or not, it took me a while to figure out how it works. I was confused. Wait...there's these hot women in evening gowns...and a button...and briefcases...and what's that? a banker...and...huh?

The reason I couldn't figure out what was going on was I couldn't accept that the show was as inane as it is. I mean, there just has to be more to it than that or it couldn't be a game show, could it?

No, it really is just that simple. And just that stupid. People watch this show?

I've got an idea for a new game show then - Pick A Number Between 1 and 10.

Too hard? How about Rock, Paper, Scissors?

Still too hard? OK, let's play, "Here You Go, Have Some Money."

I remember when Ted Williams was in town...

...and he stopped by the local ball park and watched our game. I was just 10 years old and catching. After the game, he pulled me aside and said, "You've got a great swing there, kid. Keep your eye on the ball and wait for your pitch."

OK, that never happened. But Bluememe did stop by here and left a comment...

bluememe said...

Good stuff, Eric -- I try to avoid Fox like the plague, but I'll keep the term in mind.

Keep on keepin' on.

I sent him a link because I liked the "foxnewsworthy" idea, but still. This is a very big deal for me.

Like I said, analysis takes a little longer...

The excerpt below is from consortiumnews.com. I'm reading the author's book right now, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.

It's a good read and has lots of great information. I'm right at the beginning of the Reagan years now and I'm being reminded of a lot of the things I learned while at Berkeley regarding the "October Surprise" with the hostages in Iran and our horrible policies in Central America. A lot of the same people from the Nixon and Reagan years are in power now. And it seems like maybe they are using the same play book and expecting a different result.

Bush:Nixon as Iraq:Vitenam as Plamegate/Libbygate:Watergate as 1972 elections:2004 elections and so on.

From the article:

...Though the new court document does not say Bush ordered his subordinates to leak Plame’s identity, the President’s alleged initiative to have Libby disclose the secret CIA analysis appears to have set the stage for the Plame disclosure as well.

Despite Bush’s deceptive public pronouncements, the more important legal question is what Bush told Fitzgerald when the President submitted to a 70-minute interview – not under oath – on June 24, 2004.

If Bush misled the prosecutor about authorizing Libby to brief a reporter, then Bush himself could be open to charges of making false statements or obstructing justice, potential felonies and possibly impeachable offenses.

Also deserving an explanation is the curious trip that Fitzgerald reportedly made to the office of Bush’s personal criminal attorney, James Sharp, on the morning of Oct. 28, 2005, just before announcing the indictment of Libby on charges of obstruction, perjury and false statements. [NYT, Oct. 29, 2005]

It’s unclear why Fitzgerald would take time out of his very busy schedule that day to visit Bush’s personal lawyer unless Fitzgerald had to pass on sensitive information about Bush’s status in the investigation. Possibilities range from telling Bush that he would not be named in the Libby indictment to saying he had become an investigative target.

Attorney Sharp accompanied Bush on June 24, 2004, when the President was questioned about the Plame case, CNN reported.

Bush “was pleased to do his part to help the investigation move forward,” spokesman McClellan said after the interview. “No one wants to get to the bottom of this matter more than the President does.” But McClellan declined to comment about the substance of what Bush told Fitzgerald or whether Bush was a target of the investigation.

At the time, some Democrats questioned why Bush would need a criminal attorney at his side if he had nothing to hide.

“White House claims that they are fully cooperating with this investigation seem at odds with the President feeling the need to hire a private lawyer,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Jano Cabrera.

Despite such touchy moments, Bush did succeed in keeping the lid on the Plame case before the November 2004 elections...

More to come on this, I'm sure.

New word: Foxnewsworthy...

news·wor·thy (n00z' wur' thy)
adj. Of sufficient interest or importance to the public to warrant reporting in the media.

fox-news·wor·thy (f0ks n00z' wur' thy)
adj. Of sufficient interest or importance to the public to warrant turning on the television and watching Fox News to see how they spin it and how much effort they spend reporting other insignificant or human interest stories to drown out the news that matters.

By way of example, I give you the story in my previous post. It was definitely foxnewsworthy. I've had Fox News on for an hour or so and watched their staff spin the story in a very positive way. According to Fox, he leaked only information about Iraq's WMD program and he was only "authorized to" (not "directed to") leak the information. They stressed that the information leaked was NOT related to the Valerie Plame case. And that was just one report. I've seen at least three reports about the McKinny shoving incident and how criminal charges may be filed, an interview with Hugh Hefner, and how Iraq is failing to form a new government. That's funny - not we're failing, Iraq is failing.

Spin is quick, and analysis takes a little longer. I am looking forward to reading about this story on Blue Meme, Daily KOS, and Consortium News in the days ahead.

All the way to the top...

Finally, something that reaches all the way to the top and can't be denied. They (and I'm not quite sure who "they" are) are playing up the fact that the information he was authroized to disclose is NOT related to the Plame, just some other classified information from a top secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE).

Maybe this will be the start of the long overdue Great Unravelling.

Papers: Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak

WASHINGTON - Vice President
Dick Cheney's former top aide told prosecutors that President Bush authorized a leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case...

AP Photo: I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby,

Praise Ra!

Today	Tomorrow	Sat	Sun	Mon
Mostly Cloudy High: 60°	PM Rain High: 59° Low: 42°	AM Showers High: 59° Low: 44°	Showers High: 53° Low: 42°	Few Showers High: 56° Low: 42°

What's that big yellow thing? Ow, it hurts when I look at it.

We got a little sunshine today. Unfortunately it looks like it's clouding up again. I was hoping the afternoon sun would warm up the house.

After today, we're looking at another 10 days of rain, with possibly a little sun next Thursday. We're talking Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD- I love that acronym). Actually, I think bummed out has become the norm and this sunshine is giving me a strange sense of unfounded happiness.

Perfect. From The Onion...

Steinbrenner Names Johnny Damon As New Yankee Scapegoat

March 30, 2006 | Onion Sports

NEW YORK—Continuing a Yankee tradition that dates back to the teams of the early '80s, owner George Steinbrenner formally appointed recently signed centerfielder Johnny Damon as the team's new scapegoat.

"This position comes with a lot of responsibility, as the scapegoat will be held personally accountable for every loss this season," Steinbrenner said in a statement Tuesday. "Even though he is new to the city and organization, and he is coming over from our division rival Boston Red Sox, and he has yet to play a single game in a Yankee uniform, I am confident that these factors will only facilitate Johnny Damon's transition into this role."

"If the Yankees start losing—God forbid—then at the very least, the players, the fans, the New York media, and myself can take comfort in knowing the exact reason why," Steinbrenner added.

(more)
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/46897

My First Poem...

That last post about Bo dog was probably the longest post I've ever written. And while I was working on it, I was really frustrated that I couldn't find a picture of him with a tennis ball. In every day life, it was next to impossible to find that dog without a tennis ball. And I knew that I had one displayed at my workstation. So I got out a big giant box of old pictures and letters and went through them all. And I found some. And while I was at it, I organized them in to groups. Here's the groups I came up with:

-Family/Growing Up
-High School
-College
-Post College/Pre-Rachel
-Grown Up 1
-Grown Up 2
-658 Louise Ave
-Travis and Julie
-Scott and Kimra
-SSG
-Letters and Such

I also found a lot of weird random things from my past. A lot of notes passed in high school. I forgot about the HUGE crush I had for a while on Heidi Triple. And Suzanne Olsen. And Lara Hoth. And so on. Those will be fun for the reunion. And I found some deep letters from some girl who was apparently a great friend during my first years at college, but I can't remember who she was.

And then I found this:



It is the first poem I ever wrote. A haiku. I made that in Summer School between kindergarden and 1st grade. I showed it to Ted, and he said there's no way I was writing cursive back then. But I've thought about it, and I'm sure it's right because that frog died while I was in First Grade. I remember Mrs. Boyle called the house to see if I was OK emotionally. SEe, there was the frog, and then I found a toad. And we had the terrarium in class. And the school janitor used to catch worms in the morning to feed them both. Then Dad caught a lizard and we put it in the terrarium. We were worried either the big toad would eat the lizard or the lizard would eat the frog. The little frog tried to eat the lizard. When we got to class one morning, the frog had the lizard swallowed up to the front legs. The janitor took them away.

And I think that was the only time I went to Summer School.

I remember we were studying Japanese language and culture, so I'm sure the jibberish is Kanji, and probably fairly accurate. And my printing was much better then than it is now. The picture is of a terrarium on top of my dresser with my pet frog jumping out of it. That dresser was my Mom's dresser when she was growing up. Now it's Jake's dresser.

The haiku reads:

I have a pet frog (5)
I have had it for a year (7)
He likes to jump high (5)

I counted the syllables for you there. I wonder if I tried to learn Kanji now if it would all come back to me.

Glenn - do you have any artwork from that age? If you do, post it.

Anyway - sometimes I wonder where I went wrong. I mean, I'm no dummy, and I still have a quick mind and all. And I'm fairly creative. And I've accomplished a lot in my life so far. And I am fairly confident there are some great things still ahead of me.

But when I come across things like that haiku and picture, I can't help but think that maybe I peaked too soon - like at age 5. I was in the MGM- "Mentally Gifted Minor" program in 1st and 2nd grade. We went to a special school one day per week. And I was learning the metric system, and how batteries work, and doing experiments with plants in light and dark and in the referigerator and all. My teacher was Dr. Love. And when I got to 3rd grade, we moved to Novato and the MGM program there required you to go to a special school all the time. So my parents decided to keep me in regular school. Later, when I was at Cal, there was another guy in my dorm from Daly City who was in that same class with Dr. Love.

So I tracked right early.

But the metric system never quite caught on, did it? I remember them telling us that by 1980, everything would be metric.

What happened?

In Memory of Bo Dog

He was a great dog. When Cocoa, the dog I grew up with died, I was sad and thought no dog could replace him. My sister picked out a yellow lab/lab retriever mix from the animal shelter to cheer me up. This was 14 years ago when I was working at Birkenstock in the old building on Galli Drive. Laurie brought him down to me at work, and he walked right in to the glass door, took a step back and looked at it, confused. It melted my heart and I loved him right away.

I named him "Bohemian Dog," "Bo" for short.

We crate trained him. And we crate trained him too well. When we let him out of the crate, we took him straight to a patch in the backyard to do his business. He would only go to the bathroom at that spot in the yard. Once Laurie took him to her apartment while she was at Sonoma State. He whined to go out. And she let him out, but he would not go to the bathroom. So she took him back in. And he whined to go out again. This went on until she was forced to drive him back to Novato in the middle of the night.

When he was still a puppy, about half grown, I took him on a water skiing trip with Suzi and Craig. It was the first time Bo had seen a large body of water. We were standing on the dock getting the moron speech from the boat rental instructor when we heard a splash. He didn't know what a lake was, but he knew he was supposed to jump in it. And once he was in it, he didn't know what he was supposed to do next. We fished him out and went out on the boat for four hours. He occasionally jumped in the water with me while I was getting ready to ski. So he may have "checked the prop." But as far as I know, he didn't go to the bathroom the whole day. When we got home, he went right to his spot and peed for about four and a half minutes.

He was really smart. On my birthday, when he was around 3 months old, he lunged to get a bite of my birthday cake. I scolded him and he went and laid down on the floor. He was still for a few minutes and then suddenly popped his head up with a look that said, "I've got an idea!" At the time, I thought it meant, "I really have to go outside to my spot," because he ran to the backdoor, whined, and scratched at the door. But he was scheming and totally tricked me. I set my cake down, got up and walked around the coffee table to open the door for my good little doggie that wanted to go out. As soon as I was around the table, he darted around the other side of the table and got himself a great big bite of cake.

When I moved out of my parents' place and in to a house across town, he came to live with me. He was happy there. I remember one night Laurie brought him a toy - a cheese log that was supposed to last for days. He polished off the whole thing in about ten minutes. Laurie and I were watching a movie, and about a half hour in, he had the absolute worst dog farts I have ever had to endure. We put him outside, and I swear, you could smell it through the sliding glass door.

We were young and used to party quite a bit when I lived in that house. One night, I had a few too many down at the Viking Lounge and had to leave my car there and take a cab home. The next morning, I was still asleep at 10:00 and Bo was mad that I hadn't got him his breakfast yet. He devoured half of one of my basketball shoes. I was sprawled out asleep on my back on my futon and he marched right up the length of my body, stepping on me in about the worst place he could have and dropped the half eaten shoe on my face. But I wasn't mad, I had that one coming. And aside from that, he was pretty good about not eating things he shouldn't. Oh, except I think he did eat a remote control and Laurie's calculator.

He had an obsession with tennis balls. And if a tennis ball could not be found, any roundish ball like object would do. Walter and I took him to a park one night, and when we got there, we realized we had forgotten to bring a tennis ball. But I wasn't worried. Sure enough, he started in the middle of the field and start running in an ever expanding circle, sniffing all the while. The he suddenly stopped and darted to the left and came back with a tennis ball. Another night, we took him to the high school to watch a meteor shower from the bleachers. And we purposely did not bring a ball so he wouldn't bug us. He disappeared for about ten minutes, marched up the bleachers and dropped a baseball that thudded and bonged along down the bleachers. Then he ran to the bottom, picked it up, carried it to the top and dropped it again - "Bong, bada bong, bada bang bang bang…" over and over.

I took him rollerblading once with some friends on an empty street near the Birkenstock building. I was letting him pull me around and a friend thought it would be funny to throw a tennis ball. It was like a cartoon, and I fell down hard but managed not to spill my beer. And he came running right back, dragging his leash and dropped the ball in my lap. The slobbery wet dirty ball.

If there was a group of people sitting around, and one of them was wearing white pants, he would invariably drop the wet, dirty, slobbery ball in that person's lap. Oh, and he was good at dropping it in my coffee mug too. And for a while, he delighted in nudging my arm while I had a coffee cup in my hand, causing me to spill it so he could lick it up. He did that with other drinks too, but mostly coffee.

Another time, I took him rollerblading in Golden Gate Park with another group of friends. I was a bit off in the distance and someone threw the tennis ball to me, but it went over my head. Bo, running after it, ran right through me and knocked me off of my feet. The swelling was immense, both in my knee and on his head. He was a cone head dog for months. He got cortisone shots, but I don't think the swelling ever went down entirely. And he was still really smart, but a little less so. And as for me, I had a nasty purple bruise on my leg that dripped down to my feet over the next few months. It was pretty scary - eventually the tops of my feet turned purple.

He was a bit skittish, and the strangest things would scare him. OK, really skittish. But not as bad as my current dogs, one of whom runs and hides when I turn on the vent fan in the kitchen. I took him to work once, and he was absolutely terrified of the UPS trailer. It wasn't moving or anything, just parked loaded up and waiting for the UPS truck to come. And if you opened an umbrella anywhere near him, look out.

He was smart and very eager to please. And despite a few incidents like the cake episode, followed the rules - no begging at the table, stay off the furniture, and so on. When I moved in with Veronica, the apartment we rented didn't allow pets. So Bo went to live with my parents. He quickly became my Dad's dog.


I went to visit a month or so after I moved and all of my training had gone right out the window. He was on the couch and had grown accustomed to scraps of people food. And he would make my Dad leave the back door open so he could throw the tennis ball and watch TV at the same time. It was then I think I understood how my parents felt when I came home from Berkeley. 18 years of good upbringing undone by one short semester at Cal.

He was very happy at my parents' house. And he went just about everywhere with my Dad. I understand he became quite good at shagging golf balls on their walks around the golf course. In the last few years, we had to moderate his diet and Dad had to help him in the car.

He was great with kids.

And he LOVED helping people open their Christmas presents. That's one of my favorite memories of him. He wouldn't touch them under the tree, but on Christmas Day, as soon as you held one up and asked for help, he got right to it.

Not last Christmas, but the one before, he was in pretty bad shape. He was slowing down, and sometimes his hind legs would just collapse out from under him and he couldn't get up. And he was so enthusiastic about opening presents that year, I really thought maybe he knew it would be his last Christmas. But a trip to the vet and some medicine gave him another year and then some.

I stopped by to visit my sister the other day, and she told me they had to put Bo down last week. He needed help in to the car. They took him to a few of his favorite places and then for his last ride to the vet. He somehow managed to walk himself in, with dignity according to Laurie. They laid him on the table and had some music playing and inserted the needle. He went peacefully.

Laurie was there with Mom and Dad. She went through this with Casey not long ago. Part of me is sorry I wasn't invited for his last walk. But part of me is glad I wasn't there. I don't handle things like that very well. Laurie says tt was really hard on my Dad. And my being there would have made it harder.

My Dad has a lot of good friends, but I think Bo was his best friend. Bo always wanted to go for a ride and would listen patiently to whatever anyone had to say. And my Dad often has a lot to say and likes to go for rides and vent. And when nobody else would listen, Bo was always there for him.



And all he ever asked was for you to toss the ball for him just one more time.

Wow, all of a sudden it's 3:00 in the morning...

...and I thought Rachel's Dad was playing an April Fool's Day joke on me.