Events

Today is Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Observant Jews will spend the day in shul, but of course they will have to walk there since it's a high holiday. Humor, however, is permitted. Therefore, if you're Jewish, today you can pun but you can't ride.

The Cubs did, in fact, win yesterday, but so did the Pirates, which ensured the Cubs would end at the bottom of the National League with 96 losses. That's one shy of the number of seasons the Cubs have played since their last World Series win in 1908. Management hasn't yet fired Dusty Baker—that should come this afternoon—but I believe this was his last trip back from the mound as Cubs manager: But this is always a gratifying sight, even if it really didn't matter much: And hey, they did win a game in...

Two-for-one today. First, yesterday Parker had some play time with our downstairs neighbor's dog Jackson. All of us, including our neighbors, hope they play together more often, because both dogs were tuckered out and slept like angels the rest of the day. This photo shows Parker before he figured out that he outweighs Jackson 3:2: Earlier yesterday Parker visited my office. Does he look guilty to you? He does to me. But maybe that's just wishful thinking. Note how far he had to travel to get something...

Today is the Apple Cider Century, which I am not riding today because of the late unpleasantness. At this writing (noon in Three Oaks, Mich.), it's 15°C (59°F) with light West winds and nary a cloud to be found. Perfect riding weather. Sigh. Tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be beautiful as well. Tomorrow morning I meet with my surgeon for my post-op follow-up, and perhaps he'll declare me fit enought to ride again. If so, I'll at least get to spin a little on the last warm day of the year.

A friend of mine who works for Tribune Co. invited me to today's Cubs game. It's going to be pretty intense. The Cubs have fought valiantly since mid-May for their rightful place in the National League Central division, and it all hangs on today's results. At this moment the Cubs are where they want to be. But if the Cubs can pull it out today, and if the Pirates lose, then the Cubs will have failed to win the bottom slot in the league. Yes, seeing that big "E" next to the Cubs' entry for the past two...

He knows he's being bad. He just can't help it.

Anne found this really cool link to a live webcam pointed at an African watering hole. Or maybe it's CSPAN, given the number of baboons on display.

Our fur-covered pirhana sometimes attacks objects by category, like yesterday's "things that oppress the puppy" spree: (The second photo shows a carabiner that we attach to his leash on which we've clipped a small Maglite and a roll of plastic bags.)

Last week, my puppy Parker chewed through a laptop power cord. The fortunate part of this was that he munched on the DC lead, causing the laptop to shut down immediately when it detected the short. Had he gotten through the AC lead it might have been a lot worse. In due course I ordered a new adapter from Dell. In my haste I ordered the wrong adapter, which I didn't realize until I opened the package. So I got in touch with Dell by email to request an RMA and shipping instructions. Here's the great...

I took 95 photos of the puppy yesterday while we were outside; here's one more: