June 2004 Archives

I got published - sort of. I wrote a piece for a gaming guide for Dark Age of Camelot by Prima Guides. Right now it's only available online (you can see it here, although the guide itself has to be purchased to be read), and I'm not sure if it'll ever be available in print (most of their other guides are, but I've heard this one won't be). My name is in there and everything, which is pretty cool. And my stuff wasn't changed for the most part, except for a couple things, which I think were actually changed for the worse (like vs. or versus, whatever I wrote, was changed to verse - huh?). Anyways, totally geeky, but I'm a little excited.

I came across this picture today, which had me cracking up:

Agility

We started our new agility class last night - unfortunately, it's another beginner class, since the SPCA class didn't cover all the equipment such as the A-frame and dogwalk. So some of the stuff we went over was pretty basic. This new class is indoors, at a doggy daycare center, and man, was it stinky inside. Marc kept grumbling about the smell, and he also grumbled about the fact that we had to help set up and tear down the equipment.

This class had a lot more people in it than our SPCA class did - and there were a lot of little boys in it too, which made me really nervous, since that's Bandit's least favorite demographic, lol. But he did well! He even went up to this one boy, who was probably 10 or so, that was sitting in a chair holding a tennis ball, and let the kid pet him on the head (he was interested in the ball, which provided a good distraction). He wasn't flustered at all.

He did great in the class, except for the first time I had to pick him up and put him on the dogwalk - I think he got scared, and peed on my hand a little. Gross.

The class was pretty long, and we didn't get home until almost 9:30. So there wasn't much to do after except eat, watch TV, and sleep!

Yesterday after work, I carpooled home with my mom. As we were pulling up to her house, we saw Harvey, standing on the front lawn, tail wagging and big 'ol mouth hanging open in a grin. I hopped out of the car and called him, and he proceeded to charge at me, almost knocking me off my feet. The guys two houses down told me that he'd been over at their place, and that they'd "shuffled" him back over to my parents' house. Somehow, the gate had gotten open, and he'd gotten out. Later that night, my parents found a shoe in the backyard that didn't belong to them. Turns out Harvey had nabbed a souveneir from their next-door neighbor.

Marc and I went to the store when we got home. We each picked up a book while we were there - I actually don't know what Marc got. I got another Harry Potter book.

My parents came over later with my Aunt Linda, who was in town visiting, and had never been to our house. I gave her the quick tour, and then they left. After that, Marc and I decided to drive down to the fireworks stand (they're all over Dublin), and check out the fireworks, since we had gotten a coupon in the mail. This is what we picked up:

I think this was the same box we bought last year. We still have another coupon, so we may go back and buy a few more fountains. There's a gigantic one we have our eyes on. ;)

So I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. I'm begrudgingly thinking that Hermione and Ron are going to end up together. I'm not so sure that Harry's going to die though - the prophecy made it sound like it would be either him or Voldemort, not both. But maybe I need to read the other books first. Anyways, it was a good read!

Oh, the other night, Marc and I were eating dinner at Denny's (I had a craving for breakfast), and this little kid is just positively screaming his head off. He just wouldn't stop, this kid was throwing a total fit. The mom isn't doing a whole lot, just holding this screaming kid. So Marc turns and looks at me and says, "So yeah, about that vasectomy..."

Friday night turned out to be one of those nights where we planned to go out and do something, and ended up just staying home. We were planning on going to see either Fahrenheit 9/11 or Saved! with Kenny, but it ended up being too late, and he didn't feel like driving up. So Marc and I just rented Monster, which turned out to be pretty good. Disturbing, but good.

Saturday - 9:00 am

Saturday morning we got up early to go to the mall to buy a present for Erin (Marc's sister-in-law) for her birthday. We also picked up a big bouquet of flowers for my grandmother's birthday. We dropped off the flowers, popped Bandit in the car, and headed off for his sheep herding lesson.

11:30 am

Jan decided to try him out in the big field. Her comment was, "I think this could turn out really nicely. He'll have a lot more room to work and he'll feel less pressure. It could work out really nicely.....Or it could just be a big fiasco, we'll see!" It turned out to work out pretty well! We had a large flock of sheep to work with, and he kept them gathered very nicely.

12:30 pm

We got home, and I put Bandit in the backyard in his little pool, and then ran upstairs to quickly change out of my stinky and dirty clothes. Then it was back into the car, and off to Cupertino, where we were having a birthday lunch for my grandmother, who was turning 86. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called Hong Fu, and there was so much food. On top of the restaurant's desserts (bao bao fun - if that's how you spell it - one of my favorites), we also had the cake that my mom brought.

3:30 pm

After lunch, we drove over to Steve and Erin's in Fremont for Erin's birthday party. There, we had even MORE food, Mexican this time. Somehow, I still managed to eat some rice, beans, a burrito, and a slice of German chocolate pie. Allison (who turned one last week), was so cute - she's walking, and really "talking" a lot now. She really seems to like her Uncle Marc, because she kept going to him to be held, and she'd put her head on his shoulder. At one point the two of us were having a contest to see who she'd go to, but she snubbed us both, hehe. One time, she came over to give me a toy baseball (and she was clearly headed for me), and just as she was about the drop the ball into my hand, Marc reached in and grabbed it! "Thank you, Allison!" he shouted gleefully.

8:00 pm

After we finished opening up presents and everything, Marc and I left to go to meet up with my brothers and cousin Henry at the movie theater in Union City to see Fahrenheit 9/11. Steve went with us too, although he met up with us a bit later.

The movie was packed. I thought it was really good, and well done. It was enlightening for me too, even though I'm already no fan of Bush. The ties between the Bush family and the Saudis were interesting, but it was the images from the war that were particularly eye-opening. You always know that people, innocent people, are going to die in war, and that war is destructive, but you never really make that emotional connection about what that really means. There were parts that weren't easy to watch. I think Michael Moore also showed more restraint in his usual flair for over-the-topness in this movie - when he lets the images and the soldiers speak for themselves, that's when the movie's message is the most powerful.

When we got home, I read another 100 pages of Harry Potter, then went to sleep.

Sunday we both slept in, and it was a pretty kick-back day. I took Bandit to the Petsmart class, and he did pretty well with a few people that approached him. One of them was a fairly big guy, and he actually let him pet him. On the way out, I bumped into this young couple, who asked me if they sold puppies at Petsmart, or if I knew of any other pet stores in the area. I told them Petsmart didn't, and that I would really recommend they try rescue, rather than buying a puppy at a pet store (thankfully, there aren't as many of those around nowadays). They were a bit befuddled, and I explained to them why, and that there were indeed adoptable dogs and puppies at the SPCA and animal shelter. I also told them that if they really wanted a pure-bred dog, that they should seek a reputable breeder, and not a pet store. Hopefully they'll take my advice to heart, and hopefully they talked to the people at Petsmart, who I'm sure would tell them the same.

I took a bath in the evening with some bath salts to try to sooth some of my leg pains, but it's still bugging me. I did manage to read 300 pages or so of Harry Potter, though. I'm almost done!

I was listening to the radio on my way to work this morning, and heard that today is "Take Your Dog to Work Day". I wish I could bring Bandit with me to work! Unfortunately, I don't exactly work in a pet-safe environment. My office is fine, but we'd probably have to get him little booties or something to walk through the lab, and make sure he doesn't lick anything he shouldn't. Not that we have solvents or anything just spilled out on the floor, but I also don't think our floors get cleaned that often.

It would be cool though, because our campus would be a pretty perfect place for dogs - we've got trees everywhere, and lots of large grass lawns. Plus, we're right in the Palo Alto Foothills, so we have walking trails everywhere.

Anyways, so yesterday I went and had dim sum with Cynthia and Vicki in Cupertino. Cynthia practiced her Cantonese and bit, and Vicki and I busted out some Mandarin to try to order stuff. One time I tried to ask for steamed pork buns, and I think I didn't quite put the right inflection on the word, and the lady thought I said "real" pork buns. No wonder my grandmother used to actually ask me to speak in English to her.

After work, Marc and I went to Petsmart and got Bandit a Gentle Leader. Supposedly, the use of one helps a dog to feel more secure and relaxed in stressful situations. It's supposed to be a good tool to use in helping fearful dogs.

Deepali came over last night to watch Kill Bill Vol. 1, since she hadn't seen it yet, and wanted to see if after seeing Vol. 2. We all at Baja Fresh for dinner, and then Deepali and I watched the movie while Marc did some stuff for work.

I read more of my Harry Potter book before bed last night. I think I'm on like page 450. It's a pretty long book for a kids book. They've got a Chinese chick in the book too, whom Harry has a crush on. I'm still kinda rooting for Harry and Hermione though.

Okay, I think I need to start reading more grown-up books.

So, Marc went with me to boxing class last night! I think it was a little harder than he expected. ;) The first couple times are hard, because it's hard to figure out exactly what you're supposed to do, so he didn't do too badly considering.

We paired up on a bag (the class was really full yesterday), and it was funny, because when Marc would hit the bag it would fly all over the place (another thing to get used to - how to hit the bag so it doesn't move everywhere). I was standing there trying to follow the bag when I punched, hehe. Mike eventually moved Marc to another, heavier bag, to share with another guy.

I think he liked the class, but he looked pretty tired at the end. I was pretty beat too - so we rewarded ourselves with In & Out and Arby's for dinner!

So I ended up leaving work early yesterday, like around 3. I'd pretty much gotten everything done that needed to be done, so it wasn't a big deal. There was an insane amount of traffic though, for that time of the day. It was really weird. I went home, drew myself a nice bubble bath, and soaked in there while reading my Harry Potter book (the fifth one).

I love my bathtub. And yes, it's pretty much mine, since Marc never uses it. It's like my "girly" space. I have little tea candles around it, and bath salts and bubble bath, a little bath pillow, and a rack that Marc bought me that goes across the tub, where I can put my book or magazine, or even a glass of wine. I love it!

I woke up feeling much better today, although my hip still has a twinge of pain once in a while. I'm still avoiding putting too much weight on it. I did, however, wake up with soreness in my left arm, kind of like what it feels like when you get a shot. There truly is something wrong with me every day.

I finally convinced Marc to come with me to boxing class tonight! We'll see how he likes it. :)

Last night was the last session of our Agility for Fun 2 class. Dorothy, the instructor, set up a course for us to all run, and we were going to have a little competition. Of course, this turned out to be the night that Bandit would decide to completely not pay any attention to me. The two fastest dogs in the class, Jenny and Lulu, didn't make it to class. So there was only three of us.

We ran the course three times, and he blew me off every time. Meaning that we'd be somewhere in the middle of the course, and he'd go off to sniff something. At one point he actually went off course, grabbed his toy, and started running around the field with it. We managed to actually finish just once, and that involved me going to grab him and get his attention again a couple of times. So our time was pretty slow.

In the end, we finished last. We finished behind a slightly overweight, slow Aussie, and another dog who hadn't taken the first Agility for Fun class. So, quite the achievement in mediocrity. Oh well, we still had fun though. And Bandit still got a little prize, as well as a "Great Effort" ribbon.

There's another class starting up next week, that actually trains for competition agility, but I'm not sure if we're going to take that or not. It'll depend on if I can convince Marc or not. ;)

Random Stuff

I have this horrible pain in my right hip. It started yesterday as I was leaving work. I put weight on my leg, and I got this sharp pain. It's not exactly at my hip, but more where the back of my leg meets my butt. I'd say it's muscular, but it feels deeper than that. Normally it's my left hip that acts up, but my right side was bugging me all last night, and so far it's bugging me this morning.

I told Marc about it last night, and he swears I'm a hypochondriac (I usually have some ache or something I complain about, hehe). I told him that I was wondering if it had anything to do with the extra bone I have in my foot, which a doctor (who I swear was a quack, and also, we weren't sure if it was a man or a woman, but I digress) told me years ago would end up causing me other skeletal/joint problems in the future. I don't really think that's why, but maybe I should see a doctor a some point about it.

Anyways, I don't really think I'm a hypochondriac, but it's entirely possible, since my mom is somewhat of a hypochondriac, and I've definitely inherited some of her personal quirks. Like fighting. I really think my mom likes to fight. I think I've inherited that from her. Sometimes, I really truly like to just pick a fight. Most of the time (okay, all of the time), Marc is my victim. I think my mom and I are drama queens. I like getting all worked up about stuff sometimes, it's cathartic.

Luckily, Marc has learned the "yes dear, sorry dear" mantra quite well. My parents, on the other hand, are both totally incapable of saying, "I'm sorry." I'm kind of that way myself, although I've managed to swallow my pride a few times and apologize. Marc has become the master of apologizing even when you don't mean it. Which is good for us, since it means we usually don't fight for very long. We actually don't fight that much - we bicker, but I can't remember the last time we had a big 'ol argument about something. Oh wait, yes I can. Now I'm mad again.

Haha, anyways, I woke up this morning feeling like crap. I had a horrible headache, and my right side was so sore. I ended up totally oversleeping this morning too, and had to drive in by myself. At one point I was driving behind this flat-bed truck that had like 12 cars on it that had all been squished and were presumably headed for the junkyard. They were all old cars, and I was trying to figure out what they were. It got me thinking about my old Subaru, which I drove during high school, and eventually ended up being donated to charity. It probably ended up just like those cars, all squished and unwanted on some truck headed to the great junkyard in the sky. It made me kinda sad.

I still feel like crap right now, and I'm thinking of leaving work early today, as soon as I finish the work I need to do. We'll see. Right now I'm just hoping my left hip doesn't start acting up, or I'm gonna be totally gimped!

Heads up - this is long! :)

Friday

Friday afternoon my mom and I left work early, since the company was having a party in the afternoon - I never go to those things, and usually just take off a little early.

Marc and I took Bandit to sheep herding, where we worked on more of what we did last weekend, and also did a round in the pen where we had a whole bunch of sheep, and Bandit's job was just to keep the sheep rounded up with me. He did really well! He seems to look forward to working the sheep immensely - whenever we have to wait for Jan to set up the sheep, he gets totally anxious and restless. Marc took some video of Bandit and I working in the pen - you can see it here.

We didn't do too much else in the evening - we went out for sushi for dinner, and then we stopped by Barnes & Noble for like an hour. Marc got some book - I don't even remember what it was, other than that it was some historical book that looked long and boring. I picked up "The Dog Who Loved Too Much," which is all about behavior problems in dogs and how to solve them. We also picked up a children's book by Jay Leno called, "If Roast Beef Could Fly," for Jacob for his 4th birthday.

The rest of the night was spent reading and otherwise bumming around.

Saturday

Saturday morning we took Bandit to his new vet at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon. We'd been taking him to see Dr. B at the Fremont Animal Hospital, but Dr. B retired, so we didn't feel any need to keep driving down to Fremont. When we got there, he let one of the ladies at the counter pet him, which was promising, but not that bad, since he's usually better with women. We were then greeted by a male technician, and Bandit actually went up to the guy. The tech then STUCK HIS HAND OUT OVER HIS HEAD to pet him. It was like one of those slow motion scenes in movies when something horrible is about to happen.

Amazingly, the dog was completely fine with the guy petting him on the head. I couldn't believe it, I thought he was going to flip out. Still, it was a pretty bad error on the part of the tech, who really should have known better, considering where he works.

We then went into see the vet, who looked like he was our age, and Bandit was totally fine with him too, almost like he wasn't shy at all. That is, until the vet started poking around his belly. He was okay with it for a minute, but then turned around and snapped at the vet. When the vet pulled out his stethescope, it freaked him out even more. Even treats weren't helping - the vet was decidedly not his friend anymore. The vet ended up having to take him to the back to give him his shots, which thankfully, went well.

Marc and I then went to the mall to do some shopping - for Jacob's birthday, and for Father's Day. We knew what we were going to get Marc's dad, so we picked that up first. I didn't know what to get my dad, so I called Kenny for ideas. He said that Dad had mentioned he wanted a miter saw. So Marc and I went to Sears to look. The cheapest we found was $100, which wasn't too bad if all of us chipped in on it.

I talked to Kenny again later, and he told me that Mom had gone to Dad and told him to tell us not to get him a present. Instead, he went to Kenny and told him, "I heard you guys were thinking of getting me a miter saw. Let me chip in!" Too funny.

So we ended up getting him a gift card, because we didn't want to get him some crappy cheap miter saw, and this way he can choose whichever one he wants.

After the mall, I took Bandit to Petsmart to sit in on another class. Melanie just had the people in class throw treats at him the whole time. One of the workers there was really great, and spent a lot of time trying to make friends with Bandit, just slowing giving him treats and slowly scratching him under the chin. He actually got to the point where he was able to pet him on the head, which was great. Bandit was still wary, but it was good progress. I picked up some toys for him on the way out.

I took a nap in the afternoon, which ended up being much longer than I'd planned. We ended up not really having much time in the evening to go out and do anything as a result, and I had to deal with a grumpy and bored Marc for the rest of the night.

I cheered him up later though, by giving him his "Father's Day" cards from the dog and from the cats. I found these "From the Dog" and "From the Cat" cards at Hallmark while we were looking for cards for our dads, and thought they were too funny to pass up. Weird, but funny.

Sunday

Sunday morning we got up a bit early and stopped by the agility trial in Livermore, and watched some of the big dogs run. One lady had a border collie that was competing, and this dog was FAST. Unfortunately, she was nowhere near able to keep up with the dog on the course, and it caused the dog to screw up a few times.

After that, we headed down to Steve and Erin's place for a joint party for Jacob's birthday and for Father's Day. The first thing Jacob did when we got there was raise up four fingers to show us how old he was turning - it was cute. We had some yummy barbecue, and then Jacob opened up his plethora of presents. He had a ton!

I left a little early to head over to my parents' house for their Father's Day barbecue (yes, more barbecue, haha), while Marc stayed behind for Jacob's cake. My grandmother and my cousins Mark and Henry had come over, so we hung out and ate and talked. My dad had been outside doing yardwork, but finally came in, and was wearing his "TGO" shirt that Marc and I had made for him. "TGO" stands for "The Great One," which is my dad's self-appointed nickname. We'd taken a picture of him and put it on a t-shirt, with the letters "TGO" above it. Pretty hilarious.

The rest of the day was spent at home relaxing - we worked with Bandit some more on the teeter, and discovered that he was much more willing to do it if I was on the other end of the teeter rather than Marc (one of us needs to be on the end to support it so it doesn't drop too fast). So we may have to try something like that in class - me on the other end of the teeter rather than the instructor.

And that, was our weekend. Whew!

So this morning, while working in the lab, I was thinking about the gifts we got for our wedding, for some unknown reason. I then remembered that we have one gift for which we never found a giver. It was a step ladder that we got from Target, which showed up at my parents' doorstep one day, but the box was so beaten up, and had an entire corner missing, that there was absolutely no paperwork attached to it. I tried to go through our guest list to see if I could make a match, but with no luck. So, if anyone has any clue who may have given us the step ladder, I have a long overdue thank you card to give them!

Deepali called me "wise" today. I think I agree.

Not sure if I shared this already, but my coworker Christine sent me a link to this article a week ago, about a border collie who knows 200 words, and can learn a new word just by hearing it once. I told Marc that we could probably get Bandit to learn all these names for his toys, if they'd only last long enough. :P

FYI, the football toy is still alive and kicking, although now it is missing both arms.

I went to boxing class last night, and was feeling pretty good, so I punched the crap out of the bag. My wrist didn't hurt for once, which was nice. There's this one lady in the class who is super hardcore. I remember working out next to her once, and she was literally dripping sweat down onto the floor. I was thinking, "Man, I sweat a lot, but not to the point where it's actually dripping like that. I must not be working enough. Oh, and ew." Anyways, so last night I actually had some sweat dripping into my eye. Score!

When I got home, Marc and I worked with Bandit a bit on the board. I put it up at a shallow slope at first, and he refused to go on it. So I just lay it totally flat on the floor. He was even hesitant about that. But after a few times of getting him to go across, I put it back up into a slope. He finally did it, and we elevated it just a bit more. He did it a number of times, before one time just refusing to do it anymore for some reason. So we stopped there, because we didn't want to force him too much. He's still not very aware of where his back feet are, and once he slips a little, he freaks out.

As we went upstairs last night, Bandit was leading the charge, lost his footing and ended up laying splayed on his belly in the middle of the stairs. You can see now why he has trouble with the teeter. Clumsy goofball.

Marc baked some cinnamon swirl cake last night, which is pretty yummy. I'm eating a big piece of it right now with my morning coffee. :)

I found this book yesterday - and we wonder why kids today are so messed up. I suppose though, that it's not much weirder than that "Vanuk Vanuk" book that I read when I was a kid. To this day, I still don't know what the hell was going on in that story.

Marc and I carpooled yesterday, so after work we decided to go to Olive Garden in Newark for dinner. Marc's been dying to go ever since they brought back his favorite dish, the Parmesan Crusted Chicken. I had the Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo, but for some reason I completely forgot that gorgonzola is cheese, and it's cheese that I don't like. Call me crazy, but cheese that tastes like throw-up just doesn't appeal to me. Luckily, I was able to remove the chunks without too much trouble.

We stopped by Home Depot afterwards to buy some wood to make a plank for Bandit to practice on. He's still terrified of the teeter (see-saw), so I'm supposed to work with him at home on getting used to the footing and stuff. They had all sorts of boards there - pine, poplar, red oak. Marc and I had no clue what to get. Marc said he thought the red oak was the best. His reasoning? "Pine is bad, because everyone says you don't want to get buried in a pine box." You can tell we were already in trouble.

The price tag said $6.47, which wasn't bad. I picked up a 6' long board, and noticed that there were boards of all lengths there, so I wasn't sure exactly how much this piece would cost, but heck, it couldn't be too far off, right? Right. All the tag said was, "1 x 12" - $6.47" - there wasn't a ' or a " next to the 1, so I was thinking, "does that mean that one 12"-wide board is $6.47?" The tag was of little help.

Anyways, I picked up some paint and sandpaper, and we went to go pay. We used one of the self checkout things - Marc scanned the tag on the board, and the machine said to ask for assistance. One of the workers punched in the length of the board for us, and the screen popped up with the price - $38.82! I realized then that we were being charged by the foot.

We looked at each other like idiots for a minute, and almost considered just buying it for a second, before sheepishly ducking out of line with our expensive wood. So we went back, and looked at the pine boards. These actually had different prices according to length, so we figured it had to be okay. I think the board we got was like $8 or something. It was definitely cheaper wood - lighter, and it was kind of warped. We also had to go through like four boards to find one that wasn't cracked. As we walked out of the aisle, I saw a sign above the red oak wood that said, "SOLD BY THE FOOT."

We then went to Blockbuster and rented 50 First Dates. I painted the board while we watched the movie (we found this cool spray paint that sprays on textured paint, which is perfect for traction). It was a pretty funny, cute movie. During the first five minutes I thought it was going to be horrible, but it turned out to be pretty good.

So yesterday, I had to call in at 11 am to the courthouse to see if I had to report for jury duty. So of course, I got called, and I was supposed to report by 2 pm. However, Marc and I were idiots, and completely forgot about this possibility, and we had carpooled in together in the morning. So we were in a bit of a conundrum.

Now, the message from the courthouse gave a bunch of directions, blah, blah, blah, and it also said, "Postponements and excuses will not be accepted on the day of your summons. If you need a postponement, simply do not show up on the day of your summons, and mail your request in within 5 days." Now, I don't know about you, but that was a bit confusing. It was confusing to Marc and Deepali too. Even worse, there was another option on the menu, for "information regarding postponements," which took you to a message that said something about postponements must be mailed at least 14 days prior to your summons date, and that "postponements will not be accepted on the day of your summons." Incidentally, the website said the same thing.

Now, to me, it sounded like in the first message that I couldn't postpone, but...that I could. And the second message sounded like I couldn't at all. Even more retarded, they didn't have any live bodies for you to talk to between the hours of 11 and 1, which is precisely the time frame they have you call in to find out if you have to go to the court or not. The message said to call back after 1 pm.

Finally, after hemming and hawing over how we were going to handle this, I decided to just take my chances and go with what the first message seemed to say, and just not show up. I'd call at 1 pm, and at least then, if they said I HAD to go in, I could go and not be too terribly late. I called the courthouse again at 1:06 pm. Still no one there. Again at 1:15. Nada. I FINALLY reached someone at 1:20 pm. I started out by telling the guy that I couldn't make my summons that day, and was about to ask him about the postponement policy, when he said, "okay, pick a day between August and December." And that was that. So I guess you could request a postponement on the day of. Oy.

Agility

We had agility class last night, and this time we were running through the course, and doing exercises where we would try to distract the dog from his stay before we started the run. This turned out to be pretty tiring! We didn't do too badly, although the distractions were hard for Bandit, particularly a tennis ball we had there.

We did a number of different runs, and Bandit managed to tie for the fastest time on one leg, and got the second fastest total time overall!

Marc took a video of us doing one of our runs - you can see me running around first trying to distract the dog, and also slipping and nearly falling on my ass, and generally looking pretty stupid. Here it is. At least the dog looks good, heh.

After I got home from work on Friday, I called the court to see if I had jury duty. Sadly, I wasn't called in. So, I have to give my presentation today. Of course, they told me to call back in the afternoon, to see if I would need to come in, and you know, with my luck, I will.

Anyways, Marc and I took Bandit to his herding lesson, and we made pretty good progress this time. I wish we'd gotten some of it on video, but Marc was too lazy to bring the camera. It was cool though, I walked around the big pen in figure eights with the sheep trailing behind me, and Bandit behind them. He kept enough distance between himself and the sheep so that they didn't run me over, and he knew to reposition himself when I would change direction. It was awesome to feel like we were starting to do the right things.

After that, I showered and ate dinner, and went to see the new Harry Potter movie with Cynthia and my brothers. Marc wasn't interested, so he stayed home. The movie was pretty good, and Cynthia and I nearly polished off an entire tub of popcorn. After the movie, we went to Q-Cup, which had just opened, and got some boba tea. The tapioca was a bit underdone though, so it wasn't that good.

Before I'd left for the movie, I asked Marc to add some water to the little 10-gallon fish tank (it loses water from evaporation). When I got home, Marc was all frazzled, and told me that the fish were dying. Sure enough, they were all lying around, and poor Nemo 2 was barely breathing. I tried transferring them to some water from the main tank, but there was no saving them. I suspect that Marc overdosed the tap water conditioner when he added the new water. The problem with overdosing that stuff is that it binds up oxygen, and given that we were already pushing our stocking limits on that 10-gallon, I'm guessing the fish just didn't have enough oxygen. It was a real bummer. Those fish had lasted for quite a while too - and now they're all dead. :(

On Saturday, Marc and I went this park I'd heard of, called Lake Del Valle in Livermore. It was only 20 minutes away, and it turned out to be awesome. It's a huge park, and you can go camping, horseback riding, swimming, boating, fishing, and other stuff there. They had a designated dog run, which was a trail that dogs could go off-leash on. We ended up finding this beach-like spot where a few other people and their two dogs were hanging out, and the dogs played in the water for a couple hours.

I tried to get Bandit to swim a bit, but he was still pretty reluctant. I waded out there and pulled him along with me, and he did alright, so it might just be a matter of more time. The water was pretty murky, or else I would've gone and swam in there more with him. As it was, while I was walking around in the water, I managed to get a fish hook stuck in my toe. Ouch. Luckily, it didn't go very deep, and luckily, I'd just gotten a tetanus shot a few months ago for work.

I took a couple of videos, one of Marc throwing a ball in the water for Bandit and one of the other dogs, Mocha - Video 1 - and another of the dogs playing tug-of-war with the ball, and Bandit getting a bit possessive - Video 2.

Afterwards, we decided to go rent a boat for an hour. They were all out of motorboats, so we rented a pedal boat. Getting a dog on a boat turned out to be a bit of a tricky proposition, but I managed to drag him on. He was pretty freaked out for a bit, but got used to it pretty quickly. Marc and I lazily paddled out to the middle of the lake and just kind of relaxed.

We had a really great time! I put up the rest of the photos from the day here in the Gallery.

In the evening, we picked up Deepali and went to go play mini-golf in Redwood City. Afterwards, we picked up a couple of slices of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory (yummy!) in Palo Alto, and then dropped by Leslie's apartment. He and Kenny were putting together his new futon, although with not much luck. I ended up helping them, and we managed to put it together. My cousin Henry stopped by too. He was, of course, absolutely of no help with the futon. But that's Henry for you.

Turns out my parents bought a new car on Saturday too - they got a new silver Camry. I haven't seen it yet, though.

On Sunday, I took Bandit to Petsmart again, for more socializing. This time the class had a young girl in it, probably like 10 years old or so. Melanie had everyone in the class come up and give Bandit a treat, and pet him if he let them. He did fine for the first two adults, and took the treats from the girl, but then she reached out and tried to touch his nose with her fingers. He flipped out and started barking at her. Luckily he didn't bite her, and she seemed okay (her mom was, thankfully, pretty cool about it as well). After that, he barked at everyone who tried to approach, so we decided to let him cool off.

After class, Melanie and I were talking about what we would do next week, when this guy came up and asked if he could pet Bandit. This was after Bandit had already barked once at him. Melanie told him he could try to give Bandit a treat, but that he shouldn't try to pet him. So he gave Bandit a treat, but then he tried to pet him, which caused Bandit to get apprehensive again. I gave him another treat to give Bandit, and Melanie reminded him not to try to pet him. But of course, he did. It was pretty funny. After he left, she was like, "did I not say to not pet the dog? Twice?"

That's the hardest part about socializing him - having to ask people to try to give him a treat, but to please not reach over and pet him on the head, or to ask people to bend down and let him approach them. Most people will just walk up to a dog and reach right out over their heads (kids especially) - it's awkward to ask strangers to be guinea pigs for your dog!

Marc made me homemade popcorn last night, which was pretty darn good. Definitely better than the bagged stuff, and just as good as movie theater stuff. Ironic, since he hates popcorn. Anyways, it was pretty sweet of him.

And that's it for the weekend! Hope you managed to read this far. ;)

So, I have this presentation I'm supposed to give at work on Monday, which, incidentally, is the same day I have a jury summons. For once, I'm actually hoping I get called in. Because while I hate jury duty, I hate presenting even more.

I went to boxing class last night, for the first time in two weeks. I actually felt pretty good, although my left wrist is still bothering me. Supposedly I'm not punching wrong, so I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that I broke that wrist when I was a kid. I may go see the doctor about it, since I'm starting to feel pain when doing other things too.

My dad told me the other day that he thinks my legs are even shorter than my mom's legs. And her's aren't even that long. Plus, I'm a bit taller than she is, which means that my torso is freakishly long. I've always kind of known this, since back in college, we did a comparison once in the dorms. Deepali was at our place, and she's considerably taller than me. When we sit down with our legs extended, her's are a couple inches longer, at least. But I can almost see the top of her head. I think when I'm sitting down at a table, I'm higher up than most everyone else.

Having a disproportioned body has been the bane of my existence. Pants are a pain, since they're always too long, and shirts are too, because they're usually too short. Driving a stick shift car is a pain too, because in order to get a clutch far in enough, I have to sit wayyyy up close. If wonder how tall I'd be if my legs were proportional to my upper body.

Last night, after work, I went with Deepali and my brother, Kenny, to the Milpitas Cinema Saver theater to catch a showing of Kill Bill 2 (I know, third time seeing it, but at least it was new for Deepali). Kenny and I got there early, and got our tickets. They were only $1.50 each, since it was Tuesday night (as opposed to the regular $3.50). I personally don't like going to that theater (it's old and dingy), but it was the only place showing the movie.

While Kenny and I were waiting for them to let us in, I noticed that the line outside was starting to get pretty long, and Deepali was running late. So I decided to go buy her a ticket first. While I was waiting in line, Kenny called me from inside the theater. He says, "Hey, do you have your ticket?" I did. He replied, "Well that's weird, because I have two." So I went back inside, and sure enough, we now had three tickets in our possession. He said one of them was just lying on the counter next to him, and he thought I'd left it there. So Deepali ended up getting to watch the movie for free (see Cynthia, now you wish you'd gone with us! I would've given you the freebie!).

I also saw someone there that I knew - well, kinda knew. While I was waiting outside for Deepali to give her her ticket, I spotted this guy that looked really familiar, and I thought he might be the guy who was the coordinator for this training program I took at another company for work. I thought he might have recognized me too, since he kept looking at me, and sure enough, he came up and said, "I do know you, right?" I actually remembered his name, but I don't think he remembered mine. Strange, since I'm usually horrible with faces and names.

I couldn't believe how many people were there to watch movies on a Tuesday night. It's amazing what people will do to save two bucks. Normally the place isn't that crowded, but I guess that's because $3.50 is too much, heh. Anyways, the movie was just as awesome as the last time, and when we left, at around 10 pm, there was STILL a huge line.

I dropped Kenny off, and drove home. Poor Bandit had been outside all day and all night. I let him in, and went upstairs to fiddle on the computer for a bit. He came into the office a little bit later, and I could hear him licking his chops. I realized I forgot to put the baby gate up to the laundry room, where we keep the cats' litter box. I called him over, smelled his breath, and sure enough, it smelled like cat litter. Dumb, disgusting dog. I was hoping he'd outgrow this habit, but he hasn't yet.

I got ready for bed (and took Marc's pillow for myself), and popped the Matrix Revolutions DVD I had rented into the PS2. I was pretty disappointed with Reloaded, and I think this one actually sucked even worse. Maybe I was too tired to be in the right mood for the movie or something, but I think I could've turned it off at any point and really not cared. Such a shame, since the first movie was so good.

I played ping pong with the alarm clocks again this morning, and woke up about an hour later than I'd planned to. I still got in decently early, so it wasn't so bad, especially when I have to stay a bit later than normal tonight. Anyways, back to the lab I go.

Yesterday was fairly low key. I took Bandit to agility class after work, and he did pretty well. We did some more complicated turns and courses, and he watched me and followed my commands nicely. I have to be super fast with calling him, since he covers so much ground so quickly. He still wouldn't go on the teeter, so I'm going to have to see how I can ease him into being comfortable on it again. On the last exercise he kind of blew me off and ran off, and I must have looked frustrated (I wasn't really, just embarrassed), because the teacher came over and had a pep talk with me afterwards, telling me that he could make a great agility dog, but that sometimes these guys get stressed, and that's why they blow us off, and that it's just a matter of patience, and that the most important thing is that it stays fun for him.

I actually think he really does enjoy it. I mean, most of his enthusiasm is probably for the hot dog piece he gets when he does something right, but he does look happy, as much as a dog can look. It's different from herding, where he's more in "work" mode. You can tell he's enthusiastic about that as well, but it's more of wanting to just work the sheep.

Anyways, I probably sound like one of those "dog people" right about now. I was thinking about that on my way home - those people that have bumper stickers on their cars that say, "My Border Collie is smarter than your honors student." But you know, that just makes you sound bitter. Like those people who have the "My kid can beat up your honors student" bumper stickers. Really, you're just bitter because your kid is a moron. So I thought of, "I was an honors student and my Border Collie is smarter than you," which is snarky and self-serving at the same time. But rather long for a bumper sticker. Oh well.

Anyways, after that, Marc and I went to the mall and I bought a jacket from Macy's before we went to have dinner at Baja Fresh. Feeling extra piggish, we stopped by Cinnabon, because I was craving a Minibon. Marc saw how small they were, and said to order two. I thought it was for him, but he intended it for me, because he didn't think one was enough. I told him I wanted to order the mini one for a reason, and that I would've ordered a big one if I was just going to eat two Minibons anyways. But, I ended up eating both when we got home, so I guess it was a moot point. Or moo point, as Joey from Friends would say. ("What's a moo point?" "It's like a cow's opinion. Doesn't mean anything. It's moo.")

The rest of the night was spent either watching TV or doing stuff on the computer. We actually ended up going to be fairly early. Marc leaves for his trip to LA tonight after work (he's only going to be gone one night), so it'll be just me and the pets again tonight!

Oh, my mom told me this morning that Leslie ended up working until 11 pm last night on his first day. Yikes!

I didn't write anything last Friday, because I got to leave work early that day. I went to pick up Marc from the airport in the morning, and was going to drop him off and then go back to work, but my boss told me I didn't have to come back if I didn't want to, so I didn't. So I basically went to work for two hours on Friday, not bad.

Marc was stinky from the airplane, so we went home straight from the airport so he could shower. In the meantime, I went to the backyard and picked up what must have been like 5 pounds of dog poop. Fun!

I took Bandit to sheep herding in the afternoon, and I think we did much better this time. Jan said we're making progress. He was much less of a butthead this time than last time.

We rented Miracle that night, since there weren't any movies in the theater that we wanted to see. Well, I should say that there weren't any that Marc wanted to see. I wanted to see the new Harry Potter movie, but he didn't. The movie was pretty good though.

On Saturday, we went and helped my brother, Leslie, move into his new apartment in Menlo Park (he's starting his new job today). It's a pretty nice place, and the rent isn't bad considering the location. After we got all the stuff moved in, all of us (my parents, my brothers, and us) went to IKEA in East Palo Alto, since he still needed to buy a bed and some other stuff. Marc and I escaped out of there only $50 lighter in the wallet, which isn't too bad.

While we were driving to IKEA, we had the radio tuned to the Belmont race, to see if Smarty Jones would win the Triple Crown or not. They started calling the race just as we entered the parking garage. The reception got steadily worse and worse, until all we could hear was, "Smarty Jones....backstretch...one furlong away!...two length lead!..." It almost totally went out, and we're all like, "DID HE WIN?!?!" And we were barely able to hear that he didn't. Talk about a total bummer! I don't follow horseracing much, but I was really disappointed he didn't win it.

After IKEA, we went and had dinner at Brix, before Marc and I went home.

Sunday, we went to the mall after lunch, where I did a little shopping, and then it was off to Petsmart for more socializing for Bandit. He actually let the girl in the class pet him, which was pretty good. He did manage to growl and bark and a few people and kids, though. We're going to try a different class next week that should have a few more kids in it. Hopefully he won't go nuts.

Anyone else get gastric distress from eating too many cherries? I tried googling, "why do cherries give you gas?" but didn't find anything. Maybe it's just me.

I woke up at 5 this morning with the worst headache. I hate that - waking up in the middle of the night, feeling like crap, and having to stumble around the house for aspirin. And then realizing that you only have an hour before you have to wake up for work.

So it was just me, the dog, the two cats, the hamster, and the fish last night. Sheesh, no wonder I didn't feel lonely.

I spent most of last night in front of the TV. I rented a couple of movies, and managed to watch both, even though I'd planned to save one for tonight. Oh well. Cynthia told me yesterday to try not to play on the computer all night, and I'm proud to say that I managed not to (of course, I just found another box to sit in front of, but hey, it's progress).

I didn't go to boxing class last night. I'd gotten in to work at like 7 am, and after having been stuck in the lab all day, by 4 pm I'd pretty much decided I wasn't going to stick around for another two hours to wait for class. I did, however, pop in this yoga/pilates DVD that I bought a while back, and did the upper body workout. The yoga poses must have looked like "let's play!" poses, because Bandit would not leave me alone the whole time. I didn't want to lock him out of the room, so I ended up doing stretches with my head on the floor and a dog licking my face.

This morning, while driving to work, I was on the freeway and this guy in some Saturn was driving behind me. Looked like a slob. He switches lanes, passes me, and is wagging his tongue at me. Pig. I ended up passing him a few minutes later, at which point he gets right behind my car and follows me for a couple miles before passing me again, doing what, out of the corner of my eye, is I'm sure, another obscene gesture. I suppose it's not as bad as that one time some middle-aged guy was driving next to me, looking at me and making gross gestures into his lap. And guys like these wonder why they're single.

Anyways, sorry for the late update, but I've been stuck in the lab all day. I'm now eating my meal for the day, which consists of potato chips and a diet soda. Meal of champions.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning to drop Marc off at SF airport. He's off to a business trip in Philadelphia until Friday (it's a one-day meeting - companies love waste, don't they?). We stopped off for some donuts first, at this one place by us that uses the most yummy frosting. I felt full and guilty afterwards. Marc and I shared a milk - 2%, since he refuses to drink non-fat. I keep trying to tell him that it's just a matter of getting used to it, but he's too stubborn.

So Marc has an odd habit when it comes to milk and say, donuts. At least, I think it's odd. He always has to take a huge gulp of the milk before he eats any of the donut. Which is slightly annoying to me, since we usually share a milk in these situations, and well, he's hogging it from the get-go. I, on the other hand, always eat a bite or two of donut first, and then I'll have some milk. Because isn't the purpose of milk to wash down the donut? What's to wash down if you haven't eaten anything yet? You're just wasting the milk! He claims it's to prepare his pallet. Baloney, I say (or is that bologna? Are the meat and expression spelled differently? Hmm...).

These are the arguments we have. Because he insists on doing odd things.

So anyways, I was sitting here at work earlier this morning, and Marc calls me up from the airport with a dilemma. "Would it be weird to wear socks with my sandals?" he asks. He wore jeans this morning, and the only other shoes he has are his dress shoes. I asked him why he wanted to wear socks. "Because I'm cold." So I told him that while it wasn't going to win fashion awards, it was probably less of a faux pas than wearing dress shoes with jeans.

A few minutes later, my phone beeps with this picture message:

The message reads: "i don't think it looks too bad. love u"

I sent him back a picture of my own shoe. Just because.

I'm debating whether or not I want to go boxing tonight. For one, because I got up so early today, and I'm probably going to be tired. Two, because I forgot my hair band. And three, because I'm feeling lazy, and I'm considering just vegging out all night now that I have the house to myself. I kind of feel guilty not going though. Oh, the choices we have to make in life.

I love long weekends. The only thing wrong with them is that they aren't longer.

Friday night, we took Bandit to his sheep herding lesson (I think I managed to improve a little, even though he was being a bit of a butthead). Then Marc and I stayed in and rented Paycheck. He was tired, and ended up falling asleep about a half-hour in, so I ended up watching it by myself. It was good though - nothing earth-shattering, but entertaining enough. It put Ben Afflek a little back into my good graces, at least.

Saturday morning we drove down to Milpitas to have lunch with my cousin Kate and her family to celebrate Kate's graduation from USC med school. We had a huge lunch. I couldn't believe how much food they had. Afterwards, Marc and I shopped for a bit at the Great Mall - I finally managed to get some new workout clothes, which took about 2 hours to find. Marc was grumpy.

We went home and I napped (like a little bear getting ready to hibernate by storing away a big meal in fat cells). Then we drove back down to Milpitas to meet up with my brothers and my cousin Henry to see The Day After Tomorrow. I actually didn't think it was that bad, probably because I went in with such low expectations. Marc and I decided that we should probably set up some earthquake-disaster kits at home. We also decided that should we ever need to evacuate, we would go to the Hummer dealership across the street and steal one.

Sunday morning we slept in (well, Marc did, I always sleep in), puttered around the house for a bit, and then took Bandit down to Petsmart to sit in on one of the classes. Unfortunately, one of the kids that was normally in the class didn't show up, so there was only a teenager there. He did well around her though, he didn't seem to be too bothered. But he definitely got visibly anxious when younger kids walking around the store would get close to where we were. He wouldn't move or anything, but you could actually see his eyes get bigger. I think the smaller they are, the more they freak him out. It's probably going to take a while, but I'm really hoping that taking him to these classes will help out.

After that, I think I took another nap. Marc thinks I need too much sleep, and that there's something wrong with me. I just told him that a large brain like mine needs a lot of energy.

We rented 21 Grams that night, which was a weird, but good movie. I think I probably could've gone without seeing Sean Penn's butt. I wasn't that impressed with Naomi Watts' Oscar-nominated performance either. I dunno why, it just seemed to strike a wrong chord with me. Marc managed to stay up this time.

Monday afternoon we went with Leslie to see Troy (yeah, it was like a movie-extravaganza weekend). Now Brad Pitt's butt is another story! Yowza! Hubba-hubba! During the movie, Marc asked me if I'd do anything to be the girl that was lying in the arms of the naked Brad Pitt, even if it meant divorce. I nodded my head enthusiastically.

The movie wasn't that bad, I actually liked it. It probably helped that I didn't remember much at all about the "Iliad," so I didn't catch any of the numerous discrepancies. Eric Bana was surprisingly hot too, and I really didn't like him in the Hulk. He was good in this though. Orlando Bloom...meh.

After the movie, we drove down to my parents' house for some barbeque for dinner. Bandit got to play with Harvey for a little bit too. We hung out for a bit, and then went home to enjoy our last few hours of freedom.

I just can't win...

I got up earlier than usual this morning, with every intention of getting to work earlier. I left the house at around 7:30 am, which was about half an hour earlier than normal. But of course, there was some big accident on 680, which snarled traffic for miles. Instead of taking me 20 minutes to get to my parents' house, it took me an HOUR. I ended up getting to work even later than normal. I just can't win!

Sitting in traffic reminded me of why I need one of THESE:

But alas, Marc won't let me take lessons.

Maybe I should just buy a helmet. I've always thought they looked cool. I should get a matching blue one and drive around in my Rav4 with a helmet on.

Oh, I think it was Saturday night or something, Marc and I were stopped at a stop sign waiting to turn, when two sport bikes drove past us. Perfectly normal, except one of the guys wasn't sitting, but rather STANDING on his seat. He was standing straight up on this moving bike, with his arms pointed straight out to the sides. This was a fairly high-traffic street too. Impressive, but stupid.