The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Elected to high office

I forgot to mention: this afternoon, I got elected Sergeant-at-Arms of the Rotary Club of Evanston, "Rotary's Home Club."

This means, starting in July, I'm responsible for fund-raising at each meeting (which we accomplish by asking silly questions and then "fining" members $1 each when their table gets the answer wrong) and, in theory at least, removing people from the room if it becomes necessary.

Oh, God (or, ID-10-T alert!)

I just have to sigh heavily when I read crap like this. New Scientist is reporting today on a "lab" in Redmond, Wash., where the "scientists" are trying to find evidence against Darwin:

The message is clear. If ID supporters can bolster their case by citing more experimental research, another judge at some future date might conclude that ID does qualify as science, and is therefore a legitimate topic for discussion in American science classrooms. This is precisely the kind of scientific respectability that research at the Biologic Institute is attempting to provide. "We need all the input we can get in the sciences," [former Biologic, Inc., director] Weber told [New Scientist]. "What we are doing is necessary to move ID along."

Riiiight.

Even an atheist like me can see the divine in the beauty and elegance of natural selection theory. Why do these people need the hand of god to create every piece of their world? Are they so wrapped up in the specific theology that they miss the deeper meaning of it?

Today's Daily Parker

I have to take more photos of Parker when he's not asleep. Today, however, you get another sleeping puppy shot:

No ParkerCam today, because of a lunch meeting. He's at home waiting for the dog walker to stop by.

Today's Daily Parker

I went to take a quick snapshot of Parker in his give-me-a-belly-rub pose, when he caught sight of the camera strap. The outcome was, I suppose, predictable:

If you're interested, here's the pose in question:

The vision thing

I got contact lenses on Monday. I honestly have no idea why I didn't get them earlier. My vision isn't much clearer than when I had glasses, but, well, I no longer have glasses. It's weird.

Also weird is sticking my finger in my eye twice a day. I don't know how long it will take to get used to that.

That is all.

Today's Daily Parker

Our little puppy isn't so little any more. Here's a before-and-after in which you can actually see the difference. The "before" shot is from September 8th, when he weighed 8 kg (18 lbs):

The "after" shot is from about five minutes ago:

He now weighs 17.7 kg (39 lbs), fully 10 kg (22 lbs) more than when we got him. So he's still growing a full kilo (2.2 lbs) every nine days:

We're now revising our original prediction of 22 kg (50 lbs). I think he may come close to 30 kg (66 lbs), but Anne thinks he's not going to surpass 25 kg (55 lbs). We'll see (and post the result).

Long weekend

We're back, with the ParkerCam. I didn't intend to go five days without posting anything, but the office DSL modem—a crappy 2Wire model—has sporadically dropped the internal network connection. So while the DSL worked just fine, the modem stopped communicating with the rest of the office. No blogs, no email, no weather: quelle horreur.

More later.

Today's Daily Parker

My laziness is your gain. Here's another shot from Parker Day 2, back in September, back when everything was new and we carried him down the steps every night at 3am.

There may not be a Daily Parker tomorrow or Friday, but I'll do my best.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker is at home this afternoon. Due to a mix-up with the dog walker, he got two walks today because I was home all morning dealing with people in the house, but he got no walks yesterday. This explains why he bounced off walls for three hours last night instead of his usual two.

Today's photo has nothing to do with any of that. It's just an average shot from two weeks ago, showing the eternal cuteness of Parker and the anything-but-eternal good weather that we had over Thanksgiving:

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, and you're cursing the darkness, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. But I'll keep you in suspense until Friday's Daily Parker.