Events

Parker has gone on vacation for a week while I'm at a professional conference. When I dropped him off with the dog sitter I felt pretty sad: Today's DP will return April 2nd, but I'll be checking in all week (and probably cross-posting to my professional blog). So if you're only interested in puppy photos, enjoy spring break, and think of Parker spending every day with all his play-group friends (since many of them are in day care).

My accountant, Linda Forman, sent me this note on the Illinois Gross Receipts Tax proposed by Gov. Blagojevich. Now, I voted for the man twice, and I voted for my state senator (who also supports the proposal) twice, but if they go ahead with this proposal I'm not sure I will continue to support them: The Gross Receipts Tax Proposal There are thoughtful people in the political arena mulling over the proposal of a gross receipts tax and the prospect of health care coverage for the uninsured employees in...

On Sunday I posted about catching a dog running loose in town. This afternoon I spoke with the local animal shelter to see if she had gotten back home. Short answer: no. It seems that Sandy, the slightly-overweight, very sweet beagle mix that Parker and I collared, is a regular visitor to the shelter. Six times, in fact. And each time, the owner gets cited, and each time, the owner takes several days to collect her. Sandy also has a brother, who is also a slightly-pudgy, very sweet beagle mix, whom the...

This has to hurt: While doing routine maintenance work, [a] technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account — one of Alaska residents’ biggest perks — and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well. There was still hope, until the department discovered its third line of defense, backup tapes, were unreadable. The article said "no one was blamed." Right.

I meant to put this photo up earlier. A week ago Monday, just three days after he had a nice bath, the warmer weather gave Parker a field of mud to play in: You should have seen the other guy. At least Parker has black fur; some of his friends showed the dirt a lot better on their white coats.

Four years. We weren't even in World War II for this long. I can't add anything really profound to the debate, but I will repeat something Garry Trudeau had on today's Doonesbury Daily Dose: "America has been conducting an experiment for the past six years, trying to validate the proposition that it really doesn't make any difference who you elect president. Now we know the result of that experiment."—Gen. Tony McPeak (retired), member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War I would also like...

I think we have our answer: I can confidently say that Parker will probably hit 22.6 kg, and not much bigger. Of course, with the amount of dirt and sticks he eats, you'd think he'd gain. Then again, that's mostly fiber...

Parker has a new behavior. In my last apartment, Parker would signal his need to go outside by digging at the carpet and whining. At my new apartment, he did the same. But something interesting has happened: Parker has developed, all on his own, a new signal, which he used yesterday about 428 times: Once he discovered his new power, he wanted to go outside all day. And, as you can predict, once outside he barked to come in. It was tons of fun—for him. So my next step is to figure out how to reduce the...

Yesterday, Parker and I were walking to his afternoon play group meeting when we encountered a beagle-basset-looking dog wandering the streets. I tethered Parker and followed the other dog until she tired of the "keep away" game we had been playing. She had county rabies tags, and a current city license tag, but no other identification. She most likely lived nearby. She was sweet and friendly, got along with Parker just fine, and waited with us patiently for Animal Control to arrive. But then she had to...

After only five minutes of tug-of-war with Parker, I had to throw in the towel. Or, what was left of it, anyway: After the first loud ripping noise (15 seconds into the game), I figured, in for a penny, in for a dime.