April 2004 Archives

Woohoo! It's Friday! I find it kind of sad that my life is going to consist of looking forward to this day every week for the next 40 years. I should try to take more Fridays off, just so I can look forward to Thursdays once in a while. You know, mix it up a little.

I didn't write anything yesterday, since I ended up getting stuck in the lab for most of the day. And to be frank, Wednesday wasn't all that exciting. I went boxing after work, then came home and watched Mad Dog and Glory on DVD, which was kind of a strange movie. And I really didn't need to see Robert DeNiro in a sex scene. I really didn't.

Deepali and Cynthia came over last night to watch the second-to-last ever episode of Friends. TV is really gonna suck after that's gone - it's all reality program shit now, which is sometimes entertaining, but really getting tiresome too.

So naturally, after we watched Friends, we turned to our TiVO'd recording of Extreme Makeover. I really want to know how people get such bad teeth. I mean, how the heck do you let your front four teeth decay to the point of falling out? It's mind boggling. Anyways, they had a girl on there that had nostrils so big, that she was able to fit two fingertips in one nostril, with no problem. Which is just about impossible with regular sized nostrils - yes, I tried. The surgeon did a pretty good job on her nose. I realize there's something fundamentally wrong about this show, but it's like a car wreck, you just can't help but look.

After that we watched Celebrities Uncensored on E! Yet another show that you feel guilty about watching but just can't seem to turn the channel from. It's basically all these videos that papparazzi have taken of various celebrities while they're out partying or arriving at the airport. I remember sitting there saying, "Man, these papparazzi are real assho...Oh look! Jean-Claude Van Damme is getting arrested!" I am a horrible person.

I wonder if it really does suck as bad as it seems to have people trying to videotape you all the time. Famous people can probably never pick their noses in peace. Like you know, when people are in the car, and they go for that quick pick, figuring that no one's watching them...celebs can never do that. So sad.

Okay, serious stuff now. Deepali sent me an e-mail this morning about the fitness chain Curves, which I've never been to, but I'd heard of it because some lady here at work quit her job to go work at one. She sent me this article, which will pretty much ensure that I never go there. And $29 a month really isn't that cheap - we used to spend $24 a month for 24 Hour Fitness.

Anyways, tonight after work we're going to do Bandit's sheep herding. We moved to Friday evenings, since it's starting to get too hot to work on Saturday afternoons. After that, I don't know what we'll do, but being the wild and wacky people we are, I'm sure we'll think of something crazy to do. Like rent a video or something.

So this morning, I'm driving to work, and getting ready to turn onto the ramp to get onto the freeway. The ramp has three lanes, with one being a carpool lane. As I'm getting ready to turn, I see a motorcycle cop drive into the carpool lane with his lights flashing. Traffic was pretty backed up on the ramp, so I guessed that he must have been going after a single driver who was cheating by using the carpool lane.

Sure enough, as I get off the ramp and onto the freeway, I see the cop pulled over to the side, with this new Jaguar in front. The cop is standing there writing a ticket, and I'm thinking, "sweet," because I hate carpool cheaters. So I drive by the car and look, and sure enough, there's only one person in it.

It was a woman, and she looked like a stuck-up bitch. The kicker was, while the cop was writing her ticket, she's sitting in the Jag, reading a fucking newspaper. Just nonchalantly reading the paper. WTF? I'm guessing she probably gives two shits about the fine.

More Movie Night

To try to make up for the previous night's movie, we rented Love Actually. It turned out to be a much better choice. A little long, but cute and funny. We watched it in the loft, and since we had the AC off, Marc brought up one of those tall standing fans to keep the room cool.

I went downstairs to get something, and as I was coming back up, Marc was finishing setting up the fan. I noticed that Bandit was standing there watching him, with his front legs on one side of the cord (which was suspended off the floor), and his back legs on the other side. Basically, the cord was running right under his chest.

As I walked by, I remarked, "Well, that's a recipe for disaster," when BLAM! I turned around, and sure enough, the fan was on the floor, and there was a very shocked doggy who had retreated to the staircase.

Poor Bandit was scared of the fan the whole night. The whole time we were watching the movie, he hid behind Marc's chair. And when we finished the movie and we were heading downstairs, the dog wouldn't even go near the fan. The fan was blocking the only avenue out of the loft, so he actually tried to jump over the couch to get out. Poor guy, he's probably going to be scared of that thing from here on out.

We'd spent probably 2 hours after we got home from work futzing with doing a big water change in the tank - big pain in the ass - so by the time we finished the movie, it was too late for a walk. Compound that with the box of Raisinettes I had during the movie, and so far my diet is going splendidly.

Marc and I were too lazy to cook last night, so we went to Chili's for dinner. We rented House of Sand and Fog from Blockbuster, which turned out to be a horrible choice. I mean, I don't know if we were supposed to like any of the people in the movie, but I sure didn't. I couldn't even figure out who was the protagonist in the film. I'm guessing there really wasn't supposed to be one. I didn't feel sorry for the girl who lost her house, and I didn't really feel sorry for the guy who bought the house. There were a number of points where I just wanted to fast forward to the end, I couldn't take it anymore. And of course, in the end, it ends up being this totally depressing finish. Bleh.

We also bought some sour Fun Dip at Blockbuster, which turned out to be nasty. I don't know why we're still eating Fun Dip at our age, but there you have it. Anyways, avoid the sour stuff. All in all, it turned out to be a great night!

After we finally finished that loooong movie, Marc took Snoopy for a walk, and I ran with Bandit. Music definitely helps while running, but since I don't have an MP3 player (running isn't something I've done on a normal basis), I just played the Kill Bill 2 soundtrack in my head, since that's what's been playing on my CD player in the car. I think my favorite track is the cover of "About Her", which I loved in the movie.

I actually weighed myself for the first time in ages (well, last time I did was when I got my physical) and I think I've actually gained weight. Grr. My goal is to lose at least 10 pounds, maybe 15.

Hmm. I probably shouldn't have had that chocolate chip bagel I just had for breakfast.

Friday was a pretty crazy day at work, but I did manage to do some dog enrichment in the afternoon. We had four people this time, so it was a lot easier to manage all the dogs. It's always fun to have more people to talk to too. One of the dogs had horrific gas though.

After work I went with my mom to my uncle's company, to try to help them fix their computer problems. I've never worked with a network before (although I took a networking class a few years ago), so I really didn't know how much I was going to be able to fix. I managed to find what I think was the problem, but unfortunately, I discovered that they had fired the only person who knew much about computers, and had failed to get the right admin password for the network. So I wasn't able to really fix much of anything for them.

Marc and I went out to dinner with my parents and brothers afterwards, and then we drove to the Union City movie theater to meet up with my cousin Henry, who wanted to see Kill Bill 2. I'd wanted to see it again anyways, so I was perfectly happy.

While we were waiting for the previews to start, there was a couple getting seated near the front, and the girl was this Asian chick with big hair sporting a very obvious boob job. I KNEW that Marc was looking, and everytime I turned my head to him his eyes made an immediate beeline for the ceiling. Men.

Then I went to buy some drinks, and the girl was out there picking out some candy. I go up to the counter, and the guy is like, "Can I help you?" all the while looking over my head at the fake-boob girl. Of course, after the movie, Henry commented on it also. The funny thing is, none of them seemed to notice that this girl had an ugly face - proof that men never look above the chest, heh.

Anyways, the movie was just as awesome the second time around - I wanna see it again! Marc complained that Uma Thurman didn't look as hot in this movie as she did in Gattaca (he really dug the severe-bun look) - she's like five years older in Kill Bill, but I thought she still looked great.

Saturday

I woke up early on Saturday morning (early for me is 8:30; well, 11 is also early for me) and drove to Redwood City for boxing. It was good, but tiring, and I was still sleepy. I got home and showered, which was shower #2 for the day.

We had lunch (In & Out), and then it was off to Bandit's sheep herding. Jan had gone to a herding clinic the previous weekend, so we were working on new techniques this week. It was a good learning experience for both of us.

We came home, and I found that our yellow tang had passed away. I took him out, and it looked like he hadn't been eating, because he was really skinny (which was hard to see through the rubbermaid tub). I thought he'd been eating the seaweed, but it must have been the angel that was eating it all. Poor guy. :(

Marc picked up a couple of salads for dinner, and then it was time for shower #3, to get ready to go to the Saddle Rack in Fremont. The boxing instructor, Mike, was celebrating his birthday there, and my coworker Christine had invited us along. I never even knew there was a country club in Fremont, save for the old dingy South 40 club. This place was HUGE. It was pretty packed too. I think we were pretty much out of our element.

They had live bands playing, and a bunch of people doing line dancing. I wanted to do it, but Marc didn't. I'll have to re-learn the electric slide so the next time I'm in a country-western club I can do line dancing. Junior high PE classes were good for something after all! I did manage to drag Marc onto the dance floor a few times, and that was fun. Mike tried to teach both of us how to dance like some of the other people were dancing (going around the floor in a big circle), but I think we were a pair of hopeless cases.

They also had a mechanical bull there, and we watched a bunch of people get thrown off, which looked painful. I would've loved to try it, if there wasn't anyone looking. ;) Marc and I played a little pool too, and I totally kicked his butt. I scratched on the 8-ball on our last game, but I blame that on the fact that I'd had two drinks at that point, which is probably more alcohol than I've had in a year.

We got home at around 1 am, and I think I may have taken shower #4, but I honestly can't remember.

Sunday

Sunday morning, Marc's parents came by to drop off their dog, Snoopy. They were leaving for a two-week cruise, so the dog was staying with us. Marc was going to drop them off at the dock in SF, so we all drove up to have lunch at Scomas. I had lobster thermidor, which was REALLY yummy.

I took a separate car up to SF, since I had to leave a little early to head down to Santa Clara to take the final exam for traffic school. I actually managed to not get lost the whole way down. I passed with a 94. I didn't bother to stay to find out what I got wrong.

After I got home, Marc and I went to go look for shoes, but neither of us managed to find anything. We stopped by Target afterwards, and I picked up the Kill Bill 2 soundtrack. Marc bought a calculator that was on clearance from 99 cents to 68 cents - I don't know why, but he was very excited about it. He opened it up as we were leaving the store, and found out that it wasn't working. Wow, surprise. So we went back inside to customer service, and he says to the lady, "I bought this VERY expensive 68 cent calculator, and it doesn't work." I was cracking up, and so was the lady. So he managed to exchange it for one that worked, and spent the rest of the day playing with his 68 cent calculator. He was pretty darn proud of the thing.

The rest of the evening was spent mostly playing on the computer and watching TV, and then we took the dogs for a walk/run. We ended up bumping into one of the people that we took Bandit's advanced obedience class with. Turned out that he lived in our neighborhood. Small world!

Marc was just bugging me about why I didn't have an update on the site yet, because I think he's bored. I've been busy all day today (and I took a lunch break for sushi - yummy!), so haven't had a chance to. Plus, I don't have much to say today, so you get to listen to incoherent rambling this time, lucky you.

I went to boxing class again last night, and realized that I really need to bring a towel with me to class. Because I had sweat dripping all down my face and neck, and it was pretty darn gross.

After class I went home, and had Arby's for dinner, with large curly fries. Nothing like re-poisoning your body after a good workout!

Dreams

Ever since I was little, I've always had weird dreams. I used to have really weird nightmares too (along with night terrors). Like one of them was this white ceiling with three black dots in a triangular formation in the corner. And in another one, there was this huge yardstick in front of a haystack. There was one where everyone in my family was encased behind this wall of class, cut into triangles. And yet another one where it was just me and a black cat sitting in a picnic basket in a dark, empty theater, in front of a blank movie screen.

Yeah, none of them makes sense, but I used to wake up screaming and crying hysterically at night because of them. I used to have night terrors too, which is apparently a childhood sleeping disorder where the kid will be screaming and crying at night, and can't be woken up, and will have no memory of it in the morning. I used to do that, and the only way I would know that I'd been crying would be because my face would be all sticky in the morning from the tears.

So once I started telling people about my nightmares, I pretty much stopped having them. I haven't had any since I was a kid, at least none of the unconventional sort like I used to. My dreams are still really weird though, and I thought that was pretty normal, until Marc told me that all he has are mundane dreams, like about work or school or about people in his life.

Me, I have dreams like where dinosaurs are running rampant in a land of clouds, and I'm hiding out in the public bathroom. The other day, obviously because we'd just seen Kill Bill 2, I had a dream where we had a baby, but the baby talked like a four year old, and could move pretty well for a newborn. Oddly, I didn't find it freaky at all in my dream, I just thought it was interesting. I do remember commenting at one point about why the baby didn't look Chinese at all, and being a bit dismayed. I think it was blonde too, and neither Marc nor I are blonde. Probably another carry-over from the movie.

Anyways, I think I'll try to write about my dreams when I can remember them, because some of them are real doozies. Anyone else have weird dreams? Or am I just strange? I'm kind of curious now who has mundane dreams and who has oddball ones.

Togos Letter

Marc ended up finding me the link to the Togos feedback form, so I went and wrote them a letter about their stinky restaurant. Which I shall present to you herewith:

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to comment on one of your restaurants, located at:

1253 W EL CAMINO REAL
SUNNYVALE,CA 94087

I went to have lunch there today, and while the service and the food were both fine, I did have one complaint/concern.

The store had an unpleasant odor. I realized that smell is subjective, but restaurants generally should not smell of anything except for food. This particular location smelled like an old house, and I can only guess it is due to the very old carpeting and furnishings in the restaurant.

My purpose for writing is more to bring this to your attention rather than to complain, although I don't believe I will be eating there again, as the odor was very unpleasant. It might be worthwhile to consider some refurnishing for that location.

Thank you for your time.

Anyways, I haven't heard back from them yet, but maybe one day they'll remodel that place. And maybe they'll make me a VIP, like Arby's did!

Well, I guess I did have a lot to write after all :)

I spent all of yesterday studying (yes, not working) for my final exam for my class. It was like a 2 hour test, so not terrible, but boy was I glad when I was done. I'm so relieved to be finally done with the class. My Tuesday nights are free again!

Oh yeah, while Doug (the instructor) was handing out the test, he said, "So I wrote up the test and showed it to Tom and Jeff (the other two instructors) and asked them to look it over. They said it looked fine, so I went ahead and printed up 14 copies. Then they both came back to me and said, 'But don't you think it's a bit too long?' But I had already printed them up, so here you go." Bastard!

Agility

We had Bandit's agility class on Monday night, and again they split us up into two groups. A lot of people were missing this time, and there were only six dogs in the class. We were put into the group with Jenny, but the other lady and her dog, Lulu, who were usually in our group, got put into the other group. The aggressive dog was in this group, and it was still barking and growling at all the other dogs in the class. We were watching them, and we could see Lulu's owner move away from the other dog while they waited in line.

In the middle of class, we suddenly heard the sound of dogs fighting and one dog whimpering, which turned out to be Lulu. I guess the dogs had gotten too close, and the other dog finally started a bonafide fight. Lulu turned out to be fine, and the other guy left class, presumably pretty embarrassed.

The rest of the class went off without a hitch, and we progressed to doing more obstacles in a row. I had a hard time getting Bandit to stay focused on me, but we eventually got through the course. At one point he ran off and wouldn't come when I called him, and I ended up chasing him all over the yard. The instructor got in on it too, and tried to grab him, and Bandit ended up going into the tunnel to hide. He sat in the middle of it while the instructor and I were on either end trying to coax him out. He finally did come to me, but not before everyone else in the class had a good laugh about it. What a butthead.

Smelly

So I just got back from meeting Marc for lunch. We went to Togo's, and it was one I hadn't been to before. The place had a really funky odor about it, like an old house. It was kind of gross. I think it was the carpet, because it looked about 30 years old. Actually, everything in there looked ancient. At one point, while I was eating, I took a big whiff and almost gagged.

They didn't have a comment box, or I would've left one. I mean, I'm not normally the prissy type, and I'm not one to make a big deal about things (leaving a comment would really have been more for my own amusement than anything else), but it really did smell bad in there. I might look on their website to see if I can send them a letter or something and tell them their restaurant is stinky.

We went to go see Kill Bill Vol. 2 on Friday night. Initially, it was just going to be me and my brothers, Kenny and Leslie, because Marc hated the first part and didn't want to go. But at the last minute he changed his mind, apparently to earn Husband Brownie Points.

The movie was awesome. I can't remember the last time I was so thrilled by a movie. I liked it better than Vol. 1 (the two movies were actually originally one film, but because of length it was chopped into two halves), even though I really enjoyed that one as well. Marc actually enjoyed this one, mostly because I think it was a lot more character and plot driven than Vol. 1, and I don't think he's as much into the geeky fun of samurai swords and the like. This one has a lot less of the cartoonish violence that was in Vol. 1, so if you avoided the first one for that reason, I'd say to check out Vol. 2. You don't even need to have seen Vol. 1 to follow Vol. 2.

Can't wait to see it again!

Bugs, Ugly Bugs

After we got back from the movie, I was looking at our aquarium and watching the little critters scooting around on the sand. The lights were off, so all the little bugs were out and about. So in one corner of the tank, I notice these two "bugs" sitting in the sand. They looked like pill bugs, you know, those rolly-polly things that you find in the dirt that ball up when you touch them, except these were clear. And they had two BIG, nasty looking, black eyes on their heads. I remembered something I had read online about these being bad guys. They kind of look like this picture, although I haven't yet made a positive ID:

Gross, isn't it? So, armed with a turkey baster, I stuck my arm into the tank to try to suck them up. They turned out to be faster than I expected, and one got away, while the other one I managed to suck up, but it floated out of my baster as I was pulling it out of the water. Tricky little buggers.

I went and read up more about them, and found out that there are a number of different species, some that are harmless, and some that are predatory. The predatory ones will latch onto fish, suck their blood, and go through fins, body, the whole thing until the fish is gone. With our luck, I'm sure we have the bad guys.

I finally did manage to get one of them, and flushed it down the sink, but I have no idea how many more may be in there. They're only a few millimeters long, so they're not easy to spot. Our fish were supposed to be going back in already, but with these guys in there, I'm hesitant to stick them back in. On the other hand, if they latch onto a fish and I can catch it soon enough, it would make it easier to catch the bugs. Unfortunately, catching either the flame angel or the tang is nigh impossible, and I'd hate to put little Nemo 2 through that.

Rest of the Weekend

We didn't accomplish too much else for the rest of the weekend - Deepali came over Saturday night and we rented Something's Gotta Give, which was pretty funny. We were going to give Bandit a bath, since he still had some poop crusted on his butt from the diarrhea extravaganza, but we never got around to it. Which we ended up paying for, as on Sunday afternoon, while I was studying for my upcoming final, I heard Marc yell from upstairs, "BONNIE! COME LOOK!"

So I go upstairs, and Marc is in our bedroom pointing at our bed. I look and see on our white comforter, pieces of dog hair and brown smears. Good 'ol Bandit had decided to clean himself on our bed. Probably as payback for not giving him a bath sooner.

We also went to Connie's to pick up some more water to do another water change for the aquarium. While we were there, this little kid was following her mom around the store, all the while yelling, "NEMO! NEMO!" One of the employees walked behind us, and I heard her mutter, "Nemo doesn't have ears. Nemo is deaf, and so is everyone else in the store." It had me cracking up.

Yesterday after work I went to Aquatic Gallery in Milpitas and purchased three new green chromis fish. On my way home, I was trying to brake carefully, so that the water in the bag wouldn't slosh around too much. So I get to this one intersection, and end up braking just a tad too lightly, and the nose of my car sticks out into the crosswalk. There was still room to walk in the crosswalk, but my nose was sticking in there. So this old Asian woman starts crossing the street, and the minute she gets near my car, she starts pointing at it, and mouthing things to me, and then gives me this big thumbs up, which I can only imagine was supposed to be a sarcastic, "good job." I sat there for a second considering flipping her off, but as usually happens to me, I thought about it for too long, and the opportunity passed.

Seriously, the woman still had room to walk, and it's not like I'm in there to purposely try to block people, but I guess certain asshats have to make a big deal out of everything. If that ever happens again, I'm gonna pop the car into neutral and rev the engine while they walk in front of the car. That should make for some entertainment.

Lotsa TV

Marc worked late last night, so while I was waiting for him to come home, I popped in my DVD of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and snacked on some chips and salsa. I figured it was a good time to watch, since Marc didn't like the movie, and I wanted to see it again before watching Vol. 2 (which comes out today).

After that, Deepali and Will came over to watch the Apprentice finale (Marc was still at work). They brought their own dinner, and I started making chicken for dinner. I was rooting for Kwame to win, but Bill won instead. I can't say I was too surpised though, mostly because of how Kwame handled the Omarosa situation. He seemed to handle everything else fine, but I don't think he dealt with her harshly enough, especially considering she lied through her teeth and was a total screwup. Anyways, can't wait for Apprentice 2!

Doggie Stomach

While we were watching TV last night, I remembered that we still had those Frosty Paws doggie "ice cream" treats left over. So I grabbed one from the freezer and gave it to Bandit. He finished off the whole thing. Later that night, right before bed, I let the dog outside. Marc let him back in, and when Bandit came up to me, I noticed a noxious smell. It was the old familiar odor of poop. I looked over at his rear, and his entire back end was wet with what I can only imagine was diarrhea.

So Marc and I had to go outside, at night, in the cold, and wash off the dog's rear end. Poor guy, he has the most sensitive digestive system I've ever seen. I think we did a pretty crummy job of washing him off, because last night our bedroom smelled like a mix of soap and poop. Ick.

So since last night didn't really count because Bandit slept in his crate anyways, he got to stay out for another night. This time he didn't sleep in his crate, but he didn't sleep on the bed either, opting for the floor instead. And then at 6 in the morning, I had a dog nose in my face. Of course, once Marc got up to get ready for work, Bandit immediately hopped up and lay down in the newly vacated space.

So we'll probably just let him sleep in his crate as usual. He managed not to destroy anything while he was out, which was pretty amazing. I'll probably let him sleep on the bed when Marc is gone on his business trip though, just so I'll feel safer!

Signs

The other day, Marc and I were at Orchard Supply Hardware buying some more stuff to make another jump for Bandit, since I still had some PVC pipe left over. So we're walking through the store, and we pass by the section where they have all the signs, you know, like, "Beware of Dog" and stuff. Marc picks up this bathroom sign:

And decides that he wants to put it up in our house. He's cracking himself up over this, like it's the funniest thing ever, practically rolling in the OSH aisle.

I said no.

So, every night, Bandit sleeps in his crate that's in our bedroom. He's allowed on our bed while we're watching TV and stuff, but when we go to sleep, he has to go into his crate. Anyways, Marc and I (jokingly) argue about this every night, because I want to let the dog sleep on the bed, but Marc doesn't. Like when it's bedtime, Marc will tell the dog to "go to bed" and I'll try to cover his ears or something, hehe.

So yesterday Marc had to get to work really early, and we were going to carpool in together. Everyone knows I'm notorious for not being a morning person and being extremely difficult to wake up unless I'm very motivated for some reason or another. So Marc made a deal with me that if I could get up by 5:30 am, the dog could sleep on the bed for one night.

And I did it! I got to work sooo early yesterday (one of the maintenance guys was like, "how come you're here so early?" because literally no one else was there). Heck, I even beat my boss to work (by like a minute), and he's always one of the first people at work.

So anyways, last night, the cats got locked out of the room, and Bandit got to stay outside his crate. The funny thing is, Marc woke up really early this morning, and found that he'd gone to sleep inside his crate anyways! So he closed the door to the crate, and let the cats back in the room (Stubby had been pounding on the door).

Silly dog!

Toothpaste

A few days ago, Marc and I were talking about how some foods, like orange juice, taste really nasty after you brush your teeth. I started thinking about it because I tried to have lemonade after brushing my teeth one day, and an entire glass later, and it still tasted gross.

My thought was maybe because toothpaste is alkaline and orange juice and lemonade are acidic, and the combination of the two was what caused the bad taste. Because things like milk seem to taste perfectly fine.

So I tried to Google the question, "Why does food taste bad after you brush your teeth?" But I didn't get a sufficient answer. So I tried Ask Jeeves, and asked the same question. I got a few things that were close, but not close enough. So I went and changed "food" to "orange juice" and tada! I got my answer. It was from a webpage with a bunch of chemistry Q&A for kids.

Kids, does orange juice taste awfully bitter to you right after brushing your teeth? If so, you are one of about 2/3 of the population who has a taste gene on your tongue that allows you to detect certain bitter compounds. The other 1/3 of you lacks this gene. When one of you who has the gene brushes your teeth with a toothpaste that contains sodium lauryl sulfate (or SLS), you notice this bitterness effect. SLS reduces the sweet taste of sucrose (sugar) and at the same time strengthens the bitterness of citric acid (responsible for the sour and bitter taste of orange juice) by about ten times! If you would like to see if you inherited this gene or not, select a toothpaste that contains SLS in the list of ingredients. Take a sip of orange juice and note the relative strength of the sweet, sour, and bitter tastes. Rinse your mouth with water, then vigorously brush your teeth with the toothpaste. Rinse with water again, then taste the orange juice again. Are the relative intensities of the tastes very different now?

Taste begins with an ion or molecule docking in receptors on the tongue or palate. The substances that trigger sweet and bitter tastes are usually large, complex organic molecules that fit these receptors like keys in a lock. In contrast, salty and sour tastes are triggered by tiny positive ions. SLS is one of the most widely used detergent molecules. It is a large organic molecule found in toothpaste, laundry detergents, and specialty detergents such as Woolite®. The reason why some of you won't notice the taste effect of SLS is because you may be insensitive to the bitter tastes of compounds called phenylthiourea and propylthiouracil, and less sensitive to bitter flavors such as caffeine, potassium chloride, and certain preservatives. These people have failed to inherit a gene from their parents that makes them sensitive to bitter tastes. Some people have inherited the gene from just one parent, and they experience the bitterness effect to a lesser degree.

So I guess this doesn't affect everyone, whoever you lucky people are. Boy am I glad to have that question off my chest!

Congrats to Vicki on her new car!

Well, much to my surprise, the yellow tang was alive when we got home last night. He actually looked fine, and it didn't look like the puffer had bothered him any further. He was eating, and seemed pretty interested in the seaweed I put in there for him. So he may live after all, yay!

I went after work yesterday to the fish store to look for a blue/hippo tang, but with no luck. Apparently, around this time of the year, they're all fairly large. But the store owner was going to see what he could do about finding me one. They also had a Royal Gramma, which I'm thinking of getting, since we need a fish to replace Nemo 1.

Decisions, decisions.

Agility Stuff and Herding Stuff

Last night was another agility class, and Bandit had a little more difficulty this week than last week, although he got better towards the end. We split up into two groups again, and the instructor started to put this one dog in our group. This dog is totally dog aggressive, and he and Bandit almost got into a fight once. Luckily, another lady in our group told the instructor it was probably better that that dog not be in our group, because it was still aggressive towards HER dog (it's aggressive to nearly every dog in class, and the guy spends half his time trying to control it). So the instructor (I still don't know her name) asked us which dog we'd like to have join us, and all of us said, "Jenny" at the same time. Jenny is a really sweet dog, and her owner is a nice older guy - Jenny is probably also the most well-behaved dog in the class as well as the best one so far at the sport. We were grouped with her last week, and had fun watching her, since she's so enthusiastic. We joked that now we were all going to be shown up.

We had one tricky exercise where we had the dog start at the table, run through then tunnel, and then we had to call the dog back to the table. Bandit's recall, to put it bluntly, stinks. We've been working on getting him to come when called at home, but he still blows us off whenever he feels like it. Amazingly, when he came out of that tunnel, he came to me when I called, and even went back to the table when I pointed at it. I just about fell over from shock.

I've been thinking a bit about herding, and how I still don't really understand how it's supposed to work. So I've been Googling it and reading up a bit on it, and I think I'm starting to grasp the concept. Basically, the way Border Collies work is that they're supposed to be a balance with their handler. The handler is one one side of the sheep, and the dog is on the other, and if the two are perfectly balanced, the sheep shouldn't move unless the dog pushes forward to move the sheep towards the handler. It's kind of like a clock, with the dog at the 12 o'clock position, and the handler at the 6 o'clock position, and the sheep in the middle.

When I'm in the pen with the sheep, Bandit is supposed to move around the sheep in a wide enough circle, to keep the sheep pointed to me as I'm moving, but not so close that they start to pass me on the side. That's currently Bandit's problem, in that he moves in on the sheep in the middle, and so they split and pass me on either side. It's why I'm dorkily waving that flag in those videos, to try to push him back, so that he goes wide around the sheep. If he does it right, those sheep should be pointing their noses at me and not moving. When I back up in a straight line, he should move up slowly on the sheep, to keep them with me, but not to overrun me.

The dog is also supposed to run in tandem with the handler, in that if I start to move clockwise, he should also move clockwise to keep the sheep with me, and the same goes for counterclockwise. Now that I know this, I can see how he's progressed in those videos we've taken, where at the start he just kind of goes around the sheep in endless circles, but in the later lessons you can see that he's really starting to follow what Jan is doing.

Now I just have to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to be doing!

I was going to talk about what we did on Friday, but I honestly can't even remember, so it must not have been anything too great. Oh yeah, I think we went to Home Depot and picked up some PVC pipe, and Marc and I constructed a set of weave poles for Bandit. I'd borrowed my dad's PVC pipe cutter this time, so cutting the pipe was a bit easier than when I used a hacksaw to make the jump. The weave poles turned out pretty nicely (I forgot to take a picture), although they're not the sturdiest, since I didn't use glue, because we needed to be able to take them apart easily for storage.

OH! I also installed the new power compact lights into the canopy. The screws that the kit came with were too long, so I had to jimmy it temporarily until I can get shorter screws. Other than that, it turned out pretty nice, and it's a heck of a lot brighter than the cheapy light we got with the aquarium. It has two bulbs, one that's a white, and one that's a blue, and the blue gives it a really nice ocean-y look. One more set of these, and we should be able to keep a few of the lower-light corals. I also forgot to take a picture of this, but I'll try to remember later.

Speaking of fish, I think we may lose our yellow tang today. I went to check on the fish this morning, and he was just kind of sitting on the bottom of the tub. He flitted around a bit, but not very much. Stupid puffer started nipping at him too, until I batted him away with my finger. I thought about moving the tang to our other quarantine tank, but I was already late for work, and it was going to take at least another hour to acclimate him properly. So, I'm prepared to see a dead tang tonight when I get home. Real bummer, since they'd all been doing fine for these past three weeks.

Saturday Sheep

So anyways, on Saturday, Marc's family came over for lunch. We went out to eat Armadillo Willy's, and I got the baby back ribs, which were pretty good. After that we hung out for a bit, before everyone went home. Marc and I then got changed, loaded up the dog in the car, and headed off to his sheep herding lesson.

Once again, I went in with Bandit with the sheep. It really isn't as easy as Jan makes it look. Half the time I didn't know what I was doing or where I was supposed to be going, and most of the time I was just trying to not get run over by the sheep. Poor Bandit was probably fairly confused. Jan was explaining to me what we were trying to accomplish (to get the dog to run wide around the sheep to bring them to me), and I started to get it on my last trip into the pen. It was tiring work! Marc took some videos of me stumbling around with the sheep, which you can see here.

After that, we stopped by Tower Records, because I had a $20 gift card from our company's Christmas party that I still hadn't used. I'd been wanting to get the movie Babe, which they had, and which coincidentally cost $20. I'd seen it before, but wanted to get in on DVD, since it's a great movie. So I watched that when we got home. It's such a cute movie, with a totally great message (about how an unprejudiced heart can change the world and people around it). And, dorky as it is, watching the sheep herding scene with the dogs going "come by" and "away to me" was pretty exciting.

That night, Marc and I watched Reservoir Dogs, which was good, but weird, which I guess is run of the mill for a Quentin Tarantino movie.

Sunday morning we went to a couple of fish stores to look for a new fish, but didn't find any that we liked. I think we might go with a hippo/blue tang, even though they're not the easiest to care for, but they're neat looking fish. We found a few, but only fairly large ones, too big for our tank.

We took Bandit to the dog park for a little bit, and then I drove down to Milpitas to watch LOTR: Return of the King with my brothers, for my third and final time. It was still awesome, even though the theater sucked, and someone spent the whole time coughing up a lung behind us. People, if you're sick, please don't go and spend 3 hours in a crowded movie theater. Seriously, common sense goes a long way.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to the bathroom and not wash my hands.

I can't believe I totally forgot to boast about my pharmacology test. I got a 96, baby! Highest score in the class. :) My boss got a 92 - it had turned out he had forgotten to answer an entire question, and the instructor e-mailed him, said that he figured he just missed it, and let him answer the question. On the other hand, my boss had run out of time when we took the test, so even though I'm sure he just missed the question, he probably wouldn't have had time to answer it anyways. All together now, in our best kids' voice: "Ooooooh!" Oh well, I still beat him, and that's all that counts! ;) (Ron, if you're somehow reading this, I just want you to know that I wrote this while drunk, and I don't mean any of it!)

TV

We watched The Apprentice last night (is Friends ever going to be new again? Waaaaah). Omarosa was back, and I swear, she was like 10 times worse than before. She always made excuses, but this time she was a total lazy ass, lying bitch. Kwame should've kicked her to the curb.

After that, we watched ER, which was totally depressing. I can't remember the last time I watched this show where I didn't feel like killing myself afterwards. That's an exaggeration, but sheesh, it's like the writers think good TV means having miserable characters all the time. I miss the good early days of ER, when it was funny and sometimes sad, not this beat-you-over-the-head-everybody-dies-a-horrible-death crap they have now.

Then (yeah, I watched a lot of TV last night), I watched the Bachelor that I had TiVo'd. Wow. I love TiVo. It's like everything I dreamed of and more. It's awesome! I'm never using my VCR again. I love that you can pick a favorite actor and just have it record everything that person is in. The season pass thing will be awesome too, no more forgetting to record my favorite shows! Anyways, the Bachelor, which I've always managed to miss before, was pretty good, although I totally figured out who the spy was.

Somewhere in the middle of all that couch potato-ing, I managed to finish the second coat on the aquarium canopy. Gonna try to install the lights tonight, and maybe work on putting together some weave poles for Bandit. Click here to see a cool video of a border collie doing a jump, weave, and teeter sequence, if you're wondering what weave poles are for.

Can't type...too sore...

That class last night was brutal. It turned out to be a bonafide boxing facility, with a ring and everything. Anyways, it was 90 minutes of pure pain. We did a bunch of sit ups and push ups with these heavy balls, and at some point I lost all feeling in my lower extremities. One time I tried to do a sit up, and my body acted like it had totally forgotten which muscles to use, because nothing moved. When we finally got to put on gloves and punch the bags it was a little more fun, if not a bit comical.

Anyways, I'm sure I'll be paying for this for the next few days. Ouch.

Killer Dog

Found this on one of my message boards today, which I thought was pretty cute.

There's another thing that I've come across on message boards a lot, which for some reason always cracks me up. I have no idea what this comes from, but the picture is just too funny.

Fish

If anyone is wondering, our fish are all still alive. I don't know how, but they are. We set up a second quarantine tank last night, and we're going to try to pick up a new fish after work today. Not sure what yet. I also put on the second coat of stain on the canopy last night, and it's looking pretty good! I'm excited about getting the new lights installed in it and seeing how it looks.

My latest favorite sandwich is Togo's egg salad sandwich. I've had it like two days in a row now. We looked up the nutritional info on it to find out just how bad it is for me. Let's just say it's not the best. I used to eat it all the time in my freshman year in college, which is incidentally the same year I gained like 10 pounds. I lost all of that weight and then some after that year, which is incidentally the same time I stopped eating egg salad sandwiches. Coincidence?

I was talking to my friend Deepali about wanting to eat less meat. She said to start out slow. "Try cutting out what you eat the least first," she said. I replied, "that would be veggies." Maybe I'll cut out chicken giblets. I never eat those, that will be easy!

Table

Marc took a picture of our new kitchen table, so I figured I should show off his handywork.

He also took a picture of our end table in the living room, with the corner that Bandit chewed up.

Speaking of Bandit, he did much better in his agility class on Monday, and we even got him to go over four consecutive jumps. We also linked a jump and a tire jump, which he did easily. It's turning out to be a pretty fun class, and Marc and I were pretty proud when he was able to do all the exercises.

Exercise

I'm going with a bunch of coworkers to a boxing class tonight. You know, for exercise. I'm still sore from the race, which is so sad. I will probably die in this class tonight. Woe is me!

Last Friday a bunch of my coworkers and I went out to lunch, and we got to talking about how out of shape some of us are. This led to discussion about who was the most out of shape, which somehow led to us deciding to have a race to find out. So three of us, me, Peter, and Hoa, set up a race for Monday (yesterday). We dubbed it the Gimpathon. Christine (another coworker), who actually, you know, works out, was going to be the timekeeper and photographer. We set up a race around our work campus, which I think was maybe a little more than a mile long. It turned out to be a cold, overcast day.

At the starting line...see Hoa CHEATING!

We met outside at noon, and lined up for the race. While Peter and I were trying to figure out when we were going to start, Hoa just took off! So we ran after the little cheater.

I was the first to start walking. I thought Peter wasn't going to make it, since he seemed pretty tired too. Hoa seemed like she wasn't even breaking a sweat, but I guess that's what getting a head start will do for you.

Peter won't even stop for the camera

Peter started walking next, but Hoa was running so slow that he was able to keep up with her. I was still a few yards behind. When we got to the halfway point, Peter took off running. I passed Hoa, but then she passed me again on the way back, and I was just too beat to catch up. Peter never looked back.

Hoa coming in for the finish

My shoelace came undone at one point, so you know, I had to stop and tie it. If not for that, I would have totally won.

By this point, I could still see Hoa, but I couldn't even see Peter anymore. Hoa started pulling ahead, and the two of us were walking/running, but I was walking a little bit more. My lungs were killing me!

Me busting my ass trying to catch Hoa

I started really running near the end to try to catch up to Hoa, but I was just too far behind. I ended up limping to the finish and collapsed on the ground. It was agony!

Tired, and dying

So Peter won the Gimpathon, and I was crowned the Gimp of Gimps. I'd ask for a re-race, if I ever felt like running ever again, which I don't. Christine bought us ice cream, which we all happily gobbled down to replenish those precious calories we'd lost on the race.

Friday

We had a pretty busy weekend! Friday night we went out to Hot Pot City with my parents and brothers, where we ate so much food. Lots of pork and chicken for me, and beef (and veggies!) for Marc. My family always piles on the food (Hot Pot City is a buffet where you cook your own food), and amazingly manages to finish it all. We didn't finish until fairly late, so we went home and vegged out for what was left of the evening before bedtime. I actually stayed up pretty late, watching Underworld on DVD, which was pretty good.

Saturday

Saturday morning we had two guys from DirectTV come to the house to set up our service (Comcast kept raising our cable rates, so we cancelled with them). We got TiVo too! Which is probably the most exciting part of the whole thing, 'cause TiVo is awesome, or so I've been told. I think the guys were smoking weed too, because they reeked of it, and now our closet smells like it, because the cables they installed in there smell like it, probably from the techs hot boxing it in their van. Stubby managed to escape into the attic too, and it was a real pain getting him out.

After that, I took Bandit to his sheep herding lesson, while Marc went to go pick up our new kitchen table set. I got to go in with the sheep this time. The first time, I went in with Jan, and she had me just follow her around with the sheep while she instructed Bandit. The second time, she handed me the stick and left me alone with the sheep! I was pretty nervous at first, but I started to get the hang of it. Bandit definitely seemed to push harder on the sheep with me in there, but he still listened to me pretty well. There were a couple times that I thought the sheep might trample all over me, but I managed to not fall, heh! Sheep are dumb, man.

Pooped after a hard day's work...

That night we went down to Newark to have dinner for my cousin Henry's 33rd birthday. He was born on April Fool's Day. After dinner, we went to my aunt's house and had cake before heading home to sleep.

Sunday

Rhodes Scholar, baby!

Sunday morning I dragged myself out of bed, grumbling about my newly lost hour (damn you, Daylight Savings, damn you!). Then it was off to Harvey's last day of obedience class, where he was going to have to take his graduation test. To our astonishment, he passed! He did pretty surprisingly well, even though it was a simple test. So he graduated! We even managed to get the little cap to stay on long enough to take a few pictures. Then, he went and crapped in the store. It was all mucus-y and liquidy crap too. Melanie thanked us for throwing it away in the garbage can near her.

Afterwards, we let Harvey into the backyard to play with Bandit while the four of us grabbed Panda Express for lunch. When we got home, they were both FILTHY. Bandit was covered in dirt, and his kiddie pool was totally muddy. So while Marc put the kitchen table stuff together, I was tasked with washing the dog.

After that, I took Bandit to Petsmart, to pick up a new collar and leash for his agility class. We passed by the dog training area, and Lucas (Melanie's dog) came running out to greet Bandit. Melanie came out to say hi, and Bandit ran up to her, at which point Melanie screamed, "Ack! Don't pee on me!" It turned out Bandit had piddled on her, which he's never done before. I told her this, and she responded that she was honored to be the first. So again, I found myself in Petsmart cleaning up a mess off their floor. And when I went to pull Bandit away to finish the rest of our shopping, he leaned up against Melanie and wouldn't come. I think he figured he was in trouble.

I then took him to the grooming area to get his nails clipped, where we had to muzzle him because he was being an absolute ass about it. They must love us there!

Then I went to Home Depot to pick up some PVC pipe and other things to build a homemade agility jump for practice. The total for everything was less than $10, and it was pretty easy to build. I think it turned out pretty well.

That night I also changed the water for the fish (who are amazingly all still alive in their makeshift home - two more weeks to go), and went to bed early. Whew!

As some of you may know, I started eating Arby's again, even after the whole bandaid fiasco. This isn't nearly as bad, but not great either. So last night I got Arby's for dinner, my usual, the Super Roast Beef. Got home, ate my curly fries, and unwrapped my burger. As I was getting ready to pick it up, I see this long black hair sticking out from the meat. I know it wasn't mine, because I had JUST opened the wrapper. Plus, this was pretty well embedded in the burger. For a second I debated just pulling it out and eating the damn thing. Just for a second.

Anyways, I'd already changed into my PJ's, so Marc took it back for me. The manager was, again, horrified. He told Marc that stuff like that never happened. Marc calmly informed him that we had been there a few months ago with a used bandaid in my burger. So the manager remade me a burger, and Marc says he came out wearing gloves when he was done. The burger was actually really well put together! Anyways, so that's Arby's story #2.

We got Bandit's papers from the American Border Collie Association in the mail yesterday, with all our membership material, a sticker, and his pedigree papers. It like, looks all official and stuff. It's kind of cool, you can see his great-grandfather, ##Wisp, listed, who was a two-time International Supreme Champion herding dog from Scotland. This dog sired like 190 litters and 970 puppies. Yikes! It's sad though, I don't even know as much about my own ancestry as I do now about the dog's.

Oh yeah, about that link I posted to that video the other day. I got a couple questions from people as to whether or not clicking on that link would bring them to porn, which it won't! I was just saying that the video has a URL superimposed on it, and was warning people to not try to visit that website. The video itself is totally work safe, unless laughing your ass off will get you in trouble. Anyways, it's worth checking out if you haven't.