June 2005 Archives

I'm slacking, I haven't blogged in two days I think. But to my defense, I've also been pretty busy at work.

Not a whole lot going on this week. I had to leave work early yesterday because Marc wasn't feeling well and wanted to go home. I did take Bandit to agility class in the evening, and he was pretty distracted. Sometimes he does really well, where he's paying attention the whole run, and other times I have to grab him in between every obstacle because he's running off to sniff something. Lorie says it's just something that he has to grow out of.

I made exciting progress last night! Exciting for me, anyways (and very lame for everyone else, I imagine). So Bandit's never let me cut his nails, ever since I cut him too close once as a puppy. He literally would run away or even growl when I'd pull the clippers out. So for two years I've been working on trying to get him to feel better about it - by giving him lots of treats when I have the clippers and gradually moving up to where I can touch his nails with the clippers.

Lately I've been able to clip one or two when I'm giving him a bath, because he tends to be more mellow then. This past week I've been bribing him with milkbones, which he gets only rarely, as a reward for grooming and bathing. I don't know why he likes them so much, but he literally starts drooling when I pull them out.

So I'll have the bag of bones out so he knows what's coming, and he would lie down for me with his paws out, like he really, really wanted to let me cut them, but the moment I'd touch his nail with the clipper, he'd move his foot away a little. Poor guy was conflicted, because he really wanted the bones, but he was also really scared of getting his nails clipped. But last night I finally managed to get him to stay still to clip two nails! Woohoo!

I just realized I wrote three paragraphs on clipping my dog's nails. That's pretty sad.

My coworker Christine told me about Google Earth, which is one of those satellite views of Earth thingies. It's much neater than some of the others that I've seen. I even found my old house in Jersey. It looks like they planted a new tree out front.

Well, that's all I can think of to blog today, sadly enough. I'm hopped up on Excedrin and a double mocha, so my brain isn't quite with it right now.

Another busy weekend - I'm looking forward to one where we actually get to relax!

Friday after work we took Bandit to go sheep herding. He's still a bit tight on his outruns, but he was starting to feel where he needed to stop and move in on his sheep. I tried the booties too, but they ended up falling off. I'll have to try them again next week.

Been pretty busy this week, and Deepali just informed me that I haven't blogged today or yesterday, so I'm taking a break from my lunch to write something up quickly. I'm just glad it's Friday, cause I'm pooped.

Wednesday night Bandit and I had agility. I kept him off the contact obstacles, because I didn't want him to re-injure his paws, but the jumps and stuff seemed to be fine. He's doing really nice these days, I'm pretty proud of him.

Last night I went out to dinner with Ramona, Cynthia, Vicki, Elaine, and Marian. Ramona and Elaine are both back in the Bay Area now, and it was cool to hang out with everyone. We went out for boba tea after dinner, and hung out until 10. I basically got home and went to bed.

This morning Snoopy woke up really early, and Marc had to let him outside to do his business at like 5:30 am. When Marc woke up, he woke Bandit up, and Bandit hopped up onto the bed and cuddled up next to me, which woke me up. Bonnie up at 5:30 am = grumpy Bonnie.

That's about it, things are slow these days. Back to eating!

Update: Tom Cruise really is going off the deep end. Tom argues with Matt Lauer over psyciatry.

Here's a neat game I came across today: Petals Around the Rose. See if you can solve the problem. Pay attention to the name of the game, and there is only one correct answer. I figured it out by the second roll, but they say that smarter people actually take longer, ha. Apparently Bill Gates tried this and it took him a long time.

Not much else to blog about, except that we found booties for Bandit that only cost $15 at Petco. I don't know if they'll hold up or not, but at least they weren't very expensive. He's so funny, you'd think it would take him a while to get used to wearing them, but I put them on and he didn't even seem to notice they were there.

Oh, our clam died. I don't know why, but one day it just receded from its shell and wasn't closing up properly and its foot detached from its rock. Sucks.

Okay, well when I said yesterday that I'd have the new site up by my 300th entry, I didn't realize that at the time I was making my 299th entry, so clearly this deadline has been missed. I considered just not blogging until I got it done, but I just can't resist talking about myself.

Marc and I went to look for booties for Bandit, but the only ones we found were $45! Which seems a little pricey for booties. I think I'm going to check online to see if I can find anything cheaper.

Couple stories in the news: first, a pack of lions save a girl from men who were beating her to force her into a marriage. It kind of reminded me of that episode of "Wild Kingdom" I saw, where a young female lion adopted a baby antelope. It was a pretty sad story, because the lion couldn't leave the antelope to hunt, and the antelope couldn't get back to its mother to nurse, so both were slowly starving, but the lion wouldn't eat the baby. But they had this really odd bond, which unfortunately ended in tragedy when the lioness got so weak that she wasn't watching the antelope carefully, and it wandered off because IT was so weak, and was killed my a male lion. The poor lioness was so distraut, but she couldn't do anything. They said that in the following two months, she'd ended up adopting 5 more baby antelopes.

Anyways, here's another story about a couple of idiots that were playing World of Warcraft (the game I'm playing now). It's pretty sad.

I felt kind of bad for Tom Cruise getting squirted yesterday. I thought he handled it with class though, so he gets points for that. Can you imagine if they had squirted Russell Crowe? As someone said, the reporter would have been KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT. Haha.

Alright, back to work I go.

This weekend was pretty darn busy. Friday night Marc and I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a new comforter. Our goose-down comforter is getting a bit un-downy, and we had a 20% off coupon, so we figured it was the perfect time. There were some nice Nautica comforters, but our coupon specifically said it wasn't good for Nautica stuff (bastards), so we found a different one that we liked. It's a little bit plainer than what I wanted, but it's not bad.

I called up Leslie to see if he wanted to go see a movie, and amazingly, he was able to make a decision right then and there (normally he has to call me back). And he showed up at our house on time. The three of us went to go see Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I wasn't sure if I was that into seeing it, given the Bradgelina factor, but it actually turned out to be pretty good, and I just can't stay mad at Brad anyways.

Afterwards, I was telling them that Nicole Kidman was supposed to be in the movie originally, but she got hurt and had to pull out. Neither of them believed me, since she didn't seem right for the part, but Marc looked it up when we got home, and I was right. He remarked that Jennifer Aniston is probably pretty pissed at Nicole for not staying in the movie, heh.

Saturday I slept in a bit and then took Bandit to do sheep herding. It was pretty hot out there, so we didn't keep him working for too long per session. Even so, during breaks he'd hop into one of the big metal tubs and just stand and walk around in the water. It must have been really hot, because normally he doesn't stay in the water that long, but he was totally chilling in it this time.

Unfortunately, on our last run out with the sheep, I noticed that he wasn't running as fast as normal, so I stopped him and went to check his feet. I saw blood, so I knew he'd done something. And sure enough, the big pads on the bottom of his front feet had completely blistered and peeled off. So that was it for the lesson. Jan gave me a dog bootie for him to wear home.

For pretty much the rest of the day he was pretty tired, and not only did his feet hurt, but I think he got sick from something, because he was pretty lethargic and had diarrhea. Poor guy.

After herding, I had to drop Bandit off at home, change, and then rush off to my horseback riding lesson. I'm starting to get the hang of trotting, and really using my legs to keep me in the saddle, rather than my hands. It's really so much tougher than I thought it would be, but it's a ton of fun.

In the evening, Marc and I went to the book store (I picked up three "Star Wars" books), and then to Best Buy to get a present for my dad for Father's Day. We got him the Sony photo printer, which prints pictures directly from the Cybershot camera.

Sunday morning we met my dad, my uncle and aunt, my grandmother, and Leslie (my mom was out of town, and Kenny's still in Hong Kong) for dim sum. Marc and I polished off two orders of tsao sao bao between just the two of us. My dad liked the gift, I think, and he said he had actually just been thinking about getting something like it.

After brunch, Marc and I went to go look at couches at the Macy's furniture outlet (it was disappointing, they were basically all missing parts from sectionals, so all the couches had only one armrest on one end), picked up some dog and cat food (the lady gave us a free "Chuck-It," which was pretty cool!), and got some presents for Jacob for his birthday.

I'm still not done with the new site. I've started to move it into MovableType, but I'm so lazy. I'm running out of time, too, I think I only have 2 entries left before I'm at 300.

Remember how all day yesterday I kept thinking it was Friday? That continued on into the evening. I must have really, really wanted it to be Friday yesterday. At least it's finally come true.

So this morning I heard that TomKat is engaged! Wow, what a surprise! Not! Blech. Hack. May they live together forever in all their Scientology happiness.

This morning I saw a funny banner ad. You know how people have all those magnetic ribbon things all over their cars? (I totally wish I had thought of that idea, btw, because I'd be rich. What's funny is that people don't even feel strongly enough about the cause to make it a permanent attachment on their car.) Like those "Livestrong" wrist band things, those magnet things have gone totally bandwagon, with all sorts of "causes" making their own magnets, and people having like 20 of them all over the rear end of their car. I personally think it would be more helpful just to donate that money directly to charity instead of an ugly magnet, but that's my opinion. But anyways, the banner ad this morning was advertising a bunch of parody ribbons, including: "Support the Magnetic Ribbon Industry," which I thought was hilarious.

Speaking of sticking things on cars, the other day I saw a car that was entirely covered in "Mystery Spot" stickers. I have no idea what color the car used to be, but it's yellow now. I have no idea how that person got that many bumper stickers, but it was pretty impressive. I wish I had my camera with me.

Apparently yesterday was the most rain we've had on a June 16th since 1875. It looks like it's going to rain again today. And more earthquakes! Mother Nature must be pissed.

Usually I blog in the morning, but I got in to work a bit late and then got really busy, and totally forgot to.

We had agility class last night, and it was FREEZING. Last week it was raining, and it still wasn't as cold as it was last night. I don't get this weather.

Anyways, Bandit did great, we had one exercise where he was the only dog to do it right, and I think he's really enjoying himself now. I wish we had a bigger yard so that I could actually practice with him at home - I have jumps and stuff, but no where to put them.

This is totally off-tangent (not unusual for my blogging), but is anyone else as put off by the Tom Cruise - Katie Holmes thing? I used to like them individually, but man, they gross me out together. And Tom seems to be going a bit off the deep end, sort of like Mel "I want his head on a stick" Gibson (no offense, Cynthia! ;). I just read an interview with him in EW, and wow. Just wow.

I heard on the radio that Jennifer Aniston supposedly gave an interview that'll be coming out where she says that the reason for her and Brad Pitt's divorce was because he was cheating on her. Surprise, surprise. Guess Angelina's got a track record now. I remember when Billy Bob Thornton was engaged to Laura Dern, and she said that one weekend she went away, and came back to find out that he had moved her out and that Angelina had moved in, and she had no idea what the hell happened.

Anyways, I don't know why I'm spewing all my celebrity brain garbage, but there it is.

I was looking at iPods on eBay, and I see stuff like this all the time. This isn't even as bad as some of the others that I've seen. Worst is that people keep falling for this crap.

I woke up this morning totally thinking it was Friday, and I STILL think it's Friday. I'm going to be really bummed tomorrow when I realize I have to be at work.

Hmm, I didn't really have anything to blog about yesterday, and I don't have much to blog about today. Things are boring, I guess (although perhaps that's nothing new).

I'm trying to get better about walking Bandit more consistently, so for the past two days we went on 45-minute walks after work. We bought him a doggy backpack over the weekend, to use one of the tips I saw on the "Dog Whisperer" - you load up the backpack with a couple water bottles, and walk the dog with it. It gives the dog more of a workout, and also makes them feel like they're doing a job, which keeps them mentally stimulated. I'm sure it looks pretty silly, but oh well. We passed by these two kids that were on their way to go fishing, and one of them asked me what it was. He thought it was pretty cool that a dog had a backpack.

Oops, I just totally got distracted looking at stuff on the 'net while eating my lunch here, and forgot that I hadn't finished this blog. But since I can't really think of anything else interesting to write, I guess I am finished. :)

Friday I left work a little after lunchtime to go for my make-up horsemanship lesson. One of the guys showed me how groom, saddle, and bridle the horse. I didn't think I would be riding that day, but the next thing I knew, I was up on a horse! The lesson was great - it ended up lasting almost two and a half hours, and I learned how to walk and trot, and got to spend a lot of time on the horse. The instructor suggested that I go ahead and start beginning western riding and skip the horsemanship class, since we'd basically covered it all.

My butt hurt the rest of the day.

Saturday morning we took Bandit sheep herding. When we were leaving, there were about 5 sheep in the field, and Bandit was herding two of them that had split off. I was at the gate getting ready to leave, and I kept calling him, telling him "that'll do," but he wouldn't get off those sheep. It wasn't until he ran around the barn and came back with all 5 sheep that he was satisfied enough to go home.

After that we had lunch, I took a short nap, and then it was off to my beginning western class. The lesson wasn't as nice as my Friday one, because there were a lot more people in this class, but it was still fun. I seemed to have a little harder time this time though, because this other guy was telling me to put my hips one way, have my heels down, and keep my hands forward and up, and after all that, he'd tell me to relax, and I was wondering how the hell I was supposed to relax when my body was in the most uncomfortable position possible. Beyond all that, I had to remember to breathe.

Oh, and saddles weigh a TON.

In the evening we went to this sushi place in Pleasanton, and it was pretty good. The fish was really fresh, and I really enjoyed my Rock 'n Roll. I still couldn't get Marc to try some sushi! Then we watched In Good Company on DVD. Marc thought it was really corny, but I thought it was a decent movie. Nothing stellar, but decent entertainment.

Sunday morning we ran some errands - fish supplies, pet supplies, and a glove for Marc for a company softball game he has. We bought some soft nail caps for the cats - I clip their nails on a regular basis, but they're still sharp enough to snag on furniture, and they totally ruined our last boxspring, so we didn't want them to ruin our new one. We'd never declaw them, and the guy at the store said that these don't bother the cats at all because they can still retract them normally. I put them on both the cats (easy as pie, since they're used to having their nails clipped), and they didn't even seem to notice. Hopefully they can still scratch things normally and not feel much different - just without ruining the furniture.

In the afternoon, Deepali brought over her new dog, Chunky, a maltese. I never knew how tiny they are! Stubby was bigger than him. He was a bit scared in the beginning, but seemed to be pretty relaxed at the end. He was really cute. Stubby seemed to be the most interested, because he kept following poor Chunky around. Our cat seems to be the dog intimidator.

I tried to work on the new site some more in the evening, but managed to only get in about 5 minutes worth of work done, in which time all I did was break something. I'm hoping to have it done by the time I write my 300th blog entry (!), which should be within a week.

So yesterday I was afraid that the rain was going to cancel agility class. It was drizzling in Dublin by the time we got home, so I figured for sure it was going to drizzle in Livermore. Which it was, but it wasn't coming down very hard, and it actually stopped a few minutes into class, so we managed to get the whole hour of class in. Bandit did well, except this one run where he decided to stop in the middle and visit with everybody.

There was also another run where I messed up, and we had to start over again, and Bandit was convinced that we were done and that it was time for him to get to play with his tug toy reward. I kept putting him at the start line and he kept leaving it to go get his toy. It was like he knew that he did everything right, and I was the one who messed up, so he should get a reward anyways. Pretty cute.

Yesterday during lunch I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some cross-stitching patterns (you know me and hobbies...), and while I was waiting at the checkout, the guy next to me in line says, "I really like your hair," and I'm thinking, "Hey, I still got the mojo!" And then he says, "Where do you get it done?" And then I'm thinking, "Oh, gay."

I came up with a new rule for Marc and I yesterday. I'm pretty notorious for having little patience and being pretty irritable, and there are times when Marc will go on and on about something and I end up responding in a really irritable manner. So I told him that since I don't like being all mean and stuff, from now on if he starts to push my buttons, I'm just going to say "brownies" and that'll be the cue to him that I'm getting cranky. I should tell this to my mom too, haha.

It's been sunny and hot for weeks now, and all of a sudden, today is overcast and rainy. And surprise, surprise, it's on a Wednesday! It's only been drizzling a little so far, so hopefully it'll be dry by evening for agility class.

I haven't got a whole lot to blog about, especially with TV season being over. That, and I haven't been doing much lately, except for being glued to my computer. Online games are evil that way, because I so should be doing something more productive with my time (like finishing up the damn site design!).

Marc has found a new calling in life - to clean the fish tank. We picked up one of those Dove motorized scrubbing brushes, because I'd heard they work great for cleaning tanks, and it turns out they do. In two days Marc has cleaned off all the powerheads and pretty much gotten all the algae off the glass (I'm a terrible housekeeper, so it was starting to look a bit overrun). I always say that Marc has no hobbies, but I think his hobby is to clean, because he actually enjoys it.

Alright, time to get some work done.

Lots of little things to blog about this weekend...

Friday night, Marc and I went to see Cinderella Man. Great movie. You can already tell who's going to get nominated for Oscars. But it was really enjoyable, great story and great acting. The boxing was great too.

Saturday morning I got up early for my horsemanship class. There were a few other people there for the same class, but the instructor never showed up. We were supposed to start class at 9:30, and we waited until 10 before we all gave up. At one point, some guy showed up in a pickup truck, and I thought maybe he was the instructor, but he just walked over to one of the barns. I thought he might at least know something, so I went to find him. He had his back turned to me, so I said, "Excuse me..." but he didn't turn around. Then I was like, "Hello? Excuse me!" and he started to walk away. I was thinking this guy was being a jerk and ignoring me.

So I walked over to the guy and got in front of him so he'd see me. He spots me and gives me a big smile and says, "Hi!" So I start to ask him if he knows anything about the horsemanship class. And he says, "I'M A LITTLE HARD OF HEARING, YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP." Oops, haha. Anyways, nice old guy, but he didn't know anything about the class, except that he saw the instructor's car around, and said that he might still be sleeping or something. Terrific.

One thing I did learn while I was there: horses bite. Hard. While I was waiting around, I went over to this enclosure where two horses were standing around. When I got up to the fence, the horses both came over and stuck their heads over. So I started to stroke one on the head. While I did that, the horse nonchalantly grabbed a piece of my arm between two teeth and started to bite down. All I could think was, "okay, ow, that hurts, what the fuck?!?" I was about 2 seconds away from panicking before I managed to pull my arm out. I was relieved to see that my flesh was still intact, and it didn't break the skin. Oddly, I continued to pet the horse after that. I do have a nice big bruise on my arm now.

So after that, we took Bandit sheep herding. During one of the breaks, he went to get some water from one of the big tubs. He always puts his two front feet in the tub when he drinks. This time he got all four feet in there, and when he was done drinking, he proceeded to piss in the water. I guess you could call that recycling.

In the evening, we went to this event that my mom's Chinese alumni association was holding at Stanford. I wouldn't normally go, but she needed to sell tickets, so I helped her out. It was kind of a weird event, they had a fashion show and stuff. Poor Marc couldn't understand anything that was going on, because it was all in Chinese.

Afterwards, we went with Leslie to Blockbuster and rented Boogeyman and then went back to his apartment to watch it. It was midnight at this point, so I pretty much slept through the whole movie, so I don't know if it was good or not.

We left his apartment at about 2 am, and we were driving on El Camino while Marc was looking for the street we needed to turn on to get to 101. I was passed out on the passenger seat. Right when Marc saw that we missed the street we needed, and made an "oh shit!" expression, we happened to drive by a cop. At this point I woke up, and Marc was getting ready to make a u-turn. He said, "watch, this cop is going to follow me." Sure enough, he did. And right when we finished our u-turn, the cop flashed his lights.

We were in the RX-8, and the cop comes up and says, "I pulled you over because California law requires that you have a front plate, and you don't have one. Have you been drinking tonight, sir?" Marc says no (he doesn't drink at all). The cop says, "'Cause your eyes look a little watery." (Well, it's 2 am.) Marc says no again. Finally the cop says, "Well, get that plate fixed, because it is required. Have a good evening."

It was funny, because it was totally one of those BS pullovers, and we knew it (for once Marc wasn't speeding).

Sunday we had a pretty good lunch at a local mexican restaurant. While we were eating, I watched this one middle-aged couple pull into the parking lot, and the husband, who was a bit overweight, gets out of the car and proceeds to pull off his t-shirt. Then he takes the shirt and starts using it like a rag to wipe the sweat off his torso. The entire time, I'm watching, mezmerized by his bouncing man-boobs. Lovely.

After lunch we stopped by the horse place again, hoping to find someone to talk to. At this point I wasn't sure if I should just try to get our money back because our customer service experience had been pretty horrible up to this point, and we were a bit pissed. Luckily, the instructor happened to be there, and he was really apologetic, and offered to give me my lesson for free. So I have an appointment on Friday for a private lesson to catch up on the stuff and then the lessons on Saturday after that. So I'm pretty happy now, and hopefully he'll be there Friday!

So sad that it's Monday again. I feel like I live my life just to make it to the weekends.

Is it time to go home yet? For some reason, even with this being a short week, I'm more tired this week than any other. I'm so ready to be home right now.

I had to drive myself to work this morning, and since I have a tendency to fall asleep at the wheel, I went to grab some coffee at the cafe across the street. If you remember, this is the place where the guy always offers me a white mocha, and at one time even made me one (I didn't ask for it). He finally at one point said to me, "I don't know why I always ask if you want a white mocha." Of course, when I went there a few days ago, he tried to make me a white mocha again. Anyways, the funny thing was, today I went in, and as I'm walking up, he says to me, "Can I get you a regular mocha today?" with a big smile. Finally! Ha!

Yesterday I went for a walk at the Dish with a few of my coworkers. It's in the foothills around Stanford, and it's about a 5 km walk. I found out that I'm totally out of shape. I lagged behind the other three girls the entire way, it was pathetic. And today I'm sore. I think I need to go walking with Bandit around Sunol more often, or something like that. Of course, I also partly blame my slowness on my super-short legs, which require me to work extra hard if I'm to keep up with everyone else. So there!

I start horseback riding lessons tomorrow! Whee!

Happy weekend everyone. :)

I found this link on one of my message boards today, and it's hilarious: Suicidal Bunnies.

Speaking of message boards, back when I owned a Mustang, I used to frequent this Mustang message board (yeah yeah, I know). I hadn't been there in forever, but went and checked it out the other day, and I swear, if you think the world isn't full of idiots and racists, you should check out a car message board.

Anyways, I did come across something neat while reading a friend's blog: PostSecret. It's really neat - basically this person asked people to send in anonymous postcards with secrets about themselves on them. Some of them are a bit silly, but others are really personal. It's all pretty interesting.

Last night we had agility class, and I almost managed to kill myself again, this time on the weave poles. The nice thing is that it's warm now, and it stays light outside all through class. One funny thing was that Lorie (our instructor) had put the A-frame at the back of the yard, which is fenced, and behind her yard is this huge empty field. I went to work with Bandit on the A-frame, and he goes up for the first time, and then is like, "WHOA" when he gets to the top and realizes there's a whole field out there. It was really funny, he just stopped dead in his tracks at the top of this thing, and was totally admiring the view.