Hey junior campers...

Yesterday, I expressed to Mel-a-rific how I was nervous about taking the dogs camping as long as there were other dogs coming. At dog class (aka puppy kindergarten) both Oscar and Felix growl and snap and bark at the other puppies in the class and we just can't seem to figure out how to get them to be nice.

So yesterday, as Mel's e-mail as the impetus, we held our breath and let Oscar and Felix have at the ranch dogs.

As one website put it, "puppies will annoy adult dogs incessantly." You'd of thought Fritz was covered with gravy the way they kept licking his face. Fritz quickly quashed that activity simply by growling. You can see the effect it had on the puppies


Gaby was more standoffish than Fritz. She never really warmed up to the puppies as you can see here. Both Gaby and Fritz are somewhat elderly dogs so they made very half-assed attempts to chase off Oscar and Felix.




After a while, both puppies did exactly what "the literature" told us they would do. They became submissive to Fritz and laid over on their back. It was an accepted invitation for Fritz to sniff them out.



In the end, it went better than we had expected as Oscar, Felix, and Fritz became friends. Of course, my camera missed the best part of the this adventure: Fritz walked over to some bushes with Oscar following. Oscar was standing underneath Fritz and was curious as to why Fritz was lifting his leg. After his golden shower, both he and Felix got a bath.

Then we decided to get rid of them.

So for those of you bringing dogs on the camping trip, beware, because they will be annoyed incessantly by Oscar and Felix

Real quick, here are two photos given to us by the dogs previous owners taken Dec. 26, 2005, when the dogs were 5 weeks old. As you can see, they now look completely different.

Enjoy.

And I'd like to add that if you would like to meet the dogs, come camping with us on April 21-23.

The return of manners...

Today I decided to install UNIX on my old laptop in the hopes that I can use it as a server and run databases off of it at work. As I was searching for a distribution to download (FreeBSD 4.5 in case anyone was interested), I came across the following thread: http://www.computing.net/unix/wwwboard/forum/6550.html
For anyone who hates rude assholes, check this out. It will make you feel good. Don't fuck with the online tech community.

Hey there bloggers...

A new discovery in pet ownership was made this past week.



Puppies don't shed!? Eggs don't ripen?!

So what is going on? Oscar and Felix are fast becoming adolsecent dogs. No longer are they soft, sac-less, 2lb. animals. It is actually a strain to pick each of them up with one hand. And forget about holding them in one hand while they struggle against being brushed.

I wish we had photographed them against the same background every week so you could better tell that they have grown.

Below are two photographs. One taken today, the other taken the first week we had the puppies, January, 3 2006.

And here is a little factoid. From the cheapest wholesaler, it would cost $1000 to build a 7ft. tall toilet role pyramid.

3 things...

This will not be a usual dog blog post. No dogs, just talk (well, maybe just one).

1. Betty Friedan died today. As cliche it is to remember someone only after they are dead (we aren't going to see her at the Oscars), The Feminine Mystique is one of my favorite books. Sure, the second half is mostly dry sociological studies, but the first half is full of revelations. Through high school, I always had this nagging feeling that my attitude towards women was not in the mainstream, that my mom was not like other moms. But I could never quite figure out why that was. I didn't know that my mom was a minority among my friends' moms, and why I always got the bug-eyes when i told people (in the valley) that my mom was a lawyer.

The Feminine Mystique kind of codified all of what I could not figure out on my own. Of course, as a result, I saw evidence for the book everywhere. But I didn't feel the need to always point them out like some caricature from PCU. For most of you readers out there, the book won't be very compelling as Friedan's ideas have moved into the mainstream, but you should read it anyway. Think Mrs. Brown from The Hours.

2. It has been the best football year for the Alonzo family. UT won the national championship, and the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl. And it wasn't the usual bad superbowl, it was actually a good game. Not a blowout, not 3-0.

3. M is in Austin this week and I am in Albany. Pizza and dogpiss will be the rule for the week. No picking up, no cleaning. I'm only bathing to keep my job.