Cut it out
I can't believe how quickly he's taken over
We brought Ziggy home yesterday. This was my first attempt to bring him into the Horribles gang. Actually, this was my second attempt. Julie made fun of my first attempt and I decided to start over. I plan on simplifying him a bit in the coming days. He's a bit complicated to be with the others.
I wanted to post this yesterday, but the rain doodle already went live. We didn't bring Ziggy home until after 6pm. We went to the pet store to buy a fish tank for Julie's office. As Jerry, the petstore guy, was helping us get things together, I saw this skinny little dog in a pen. You know how they say dogs look like their owners? Yeah, he does. I'm not as cute, but I'm as skinny, and needy, and shivery, and ill-mannered. Well, maybe not the last one.
We left the store but kept talking about Ziggy. We finished setting up the fish tank in Julie's office at around 5:30pm. We decided to head back to the pet store for more information about him. As we drove and missed light after light, I was sure we would not make it before it closed at 6pm. As ever, I'm an impulsive buyer. Once I said I wanted him, more information would not be enough. Sure enough, we pull up at 5:54pm, and they're still open, and still willing to put together the puppy pack with Ziggy at its center.
After a night of constant Ziggy whining, I woke up ready to send Ziggy back to the pet store. I figured the amount we paid would be my Stupid Tax (stolen from "Fight Club"). After speaking to a few people today, we learned that whining is normal for a puppy first few days in a new house. While he's no longer dead-dog walking, I'm watching him closely. Very closely.
Julie thought a dog would be good training for monsters. After not sleeping much last night, I'm not sure I ever want monsters. I like sleep too much. We may have to stay with fish.
Seattle, WA | 2007.07.23 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Ziggy
I can't believe I thought of giving you up
Ah, Ziggy. We may not be able to train you, but you are awfully cute when you're not trying to bite my fingers off or pooping on our rug.
We took him to Seward Park yesterday, and it turns out he's a fast dog. I'm still a bit faster at full sprint, but I know once he grows into his full size (he's about 7 pounds now, and should end up around 13-15 pounds), he will be faster than me. Ah, how the puppy surpasses his master. Or something like that.
Seattle, WA | 2007.07.30 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Ziggy
There is much we need to talk about
Ziggy! I have a love/hate relationship with Ziggy. When he's a good dog, he's a great dog. He's fun to watch run at top speed in the dog park, great to cuddle with while watching movies or drawing doodles...of Ziggy, fun to take on a hike as he insists on saying hello to every person or dog that comes near him.
But there are times when I regret taking him home: when he's biting my hand, running around like a crazy animal, peeing on the carpet, refusing to do his business outside, stopping us from going away, shivering in his dog house (okay, that's more of a guilt thing than a bad dog thing).
I guess it's like any relationship: there is the good and the bad. He has gotten much better since we took him home. We still haven't figured out where to keep him, as being a porch dog in the winter may grow more difficult once the rain and cold set in.
Seattle, WA | 2007.09.20 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Ziggy
We're so proud of him
When we first brought Ziggy home, getting him to pee outside was an accomplishment. It's amazing how little things feel so huge when you're in the moment and so inconsequential when you realize a few months later that you were celebrating your dog peeing in the garden.
Seattle, WA | 2007.09.24 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Peeing, Ziggy
Evolution's great joke
Also known as Ari's theory. We were talking in the van about Ziggy and how much work it was to have a dog. Ari mentioned this proportional relationship, which is why I named it after him. Well, sort of.
I wanted to change the axis, as maintenance felt more like an X axis (something controllable), while cuteness made more sense on the Y axis (something that changes at a more proportionate rate in the population). Regrettably, my computer chose this weekend to finally die, less than a year after Julie bought it for me. This is the last Alienware computer for me.
Seattle, WA | 2007.09.30 | Cast of Horribles | Baby, Dogs, Evolution, Ziggy
Not everything is about Ziggy
Yes, I know that photographs have a rectangular border, not a circular one. I would have fixed this doodle, but my computer is dead, and the Illustrator file is sitting on the dead computer's harddrive. I do upload the Illustrator file to this site, but for reasons best explained by bad programming (and weakness in MySQL's storage of large blobs), it doesn't work, and I have not had time (or energy) to make it work.
The weekend is almost here, and with it, relaxation. These past two weeks I've been a bit off. I'm not sure if it's a light case of depression, or seasonal moodiness (which, come to think of it, probably amounts to the same thing). It is growing darker, colder, and more rainy. AS a result my energy levels have been particularly low, even at work. Hopefully I'll fight through it, and get back to working and planning for the Marathon.
I have a couple of ideas, none of which will probably amount to much. I hope to start writing again to warm up. Does this count? A little bit?
Seattle, WA | 2007.10.04 | Cast of Horribles | Camara, Dogs, Julie, Ziggy
He's growing so fast
It's late, and I don't have much to say. Ziggy is five months old now, and his growing has slowed down. He'll probably grow a bit more, but he'll never be as big as the other dogs. I've learned to accept it. I hope he will too.
The weekend approaches, which means my second shot at computer rebuilding. I'll need to go to Fry's at least once more to exchange the motherboard, and hope the next one works better than the last one. This is my last chance. I figure if I can't do it this weekend, it won't be done by me. Julie is comfortable with my failing, and will probably be relieved once I finish this project and clean the computer room.
Seattle, WA | 2007.10.11 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Julie, Stars, Sunset, Ziggy
Do you think he's getting better?
The answer seems know this week. As Ziggy becomes an inside dog, and begins to roam more freely, he's beginning to leave small presents for us scattered throughout the house. They say it's always worst before it improves. If that's the case, it'll be wonderful in no time.
Seattle, WA | 2007.10.17 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Julie, Ziggy
We've missed you
I decided to post out of order again. The next Horrible in the queue is not one of my favorites, and it's taking me a while to move past it. It's not that it's terrible, but there's a (relatively boring) back story I want to write, and I haven't yet found the will.
So I decided to lead with this welcome back message that I drew a couple of days ago. I did miss posting new Horribles. I only managed to draw three or so doodles during the Marathon. I'm glad I waited, however. I couldn't stand not having a least a month's worth of backup doodles in the queue.
This fits in well with one of my goals in life: reduction of stress. Whether it's arriving at the airport three hours early or taking the vanpool to and from work to avoid driving in traffic, I do everything in my power to not put myself in situations that are stressful while in control. That last part is important: if I have some say over the situation, but my say is not sufficient to make a change, it creates much more stress than sitting by and watching something that I have no control over. For example, I'd rather sit in traffic in the passenger seat than drive in traffi, even thought by driving I still maintain a semblance of control. I'm not sure why I'm wired that way, but I am.
Seattle, WA | 2007.11.29 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Family Portrait, Julie, Ziggy
He loves leftover people food
This is my favorite Ziggy doodle. It shows the only area we suceeded in training him: our dinner time. Ziggy will wait under the table until we finish. This is an incredibly long time for him to sit anywhere. This good behavior might have something to do with the tidbits of leftovers we feed him (from the kitchen) after we finish eating.
Seattle, WA | 2007.12.06 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Ziggy
We bought him for sheer entertainment value
We brought Ziggy to a new dog park yesterday. We've been experimenting with different places to bring him on weekends. We were discussing it yesterday, and without Ziggy, we would spend much more time at home.
It snowed today. We had a few brief moments of grass sticking, but most of the snow melted on contact. Our four day weekend is just about over. Work this week should be slow, as most people take off the time between Christmas and New Years. While I don't usually like downtime at work, this will give me more time to work on NAIS.
I'm getting very close to sharing it with Chuck, which is the first step toward public release. There are a few more advanced administrator functions for the photos that are not yet done. I finished the basic layout, design, and back-end database and code. I'll have a few odds and ends to finish up once I post. The most important one is to combine the castofhorribles.com and NAIS databases, so I can avoid either double posting or migrating every time I post. (The current sewcrates.com just sucks the data off of castofhorribles.)
Seattle, WA | 2007.12.25 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Julie, Ziggy
New lady in the house
When Button first arrived, I was a bit nervous: she was timid and didn't like Ziggy chasing her around and barking at her. Then ten minutes passed. They constantly play now, everywhere.
I didn't think anyone could keep up with Ziggy's energy, but Button hold her own. She ends up winning in most games: tug of war, chase the other dog around the couch at super high speeds, bite wrestle (where the winner gets a good nip at the ear), and many more we haven't been able to decipher yet. They slept together in the crate, and have learned some good (and not-so-good) habits from each other.
It's still too early to call it in the two-dog experiment, but it's looking good.
Seattle, WA | 2008.01.29 | Photos | Button, Dogs, Ziggy
The TP'd House
We came home to a big surprise last night. Our housekeeper "cleaned"[1] our house yesterday. When she finished, she did not tighten the gate that keeps the dogs in the kitchen and laundry room area. She also left all the doors in the house wide open, including our bedroom and bathroom doors. (We normally keep all the doors close, and never allow the dogs into the bedrooms or any of the bathrooms.)
The dogs, after escaping the barely closed gate, spent the next four hours running amok in the house. They got hold of an oversized toiletpaper roll from the upstairs bathroom, and TP'd the inside of the house. It was quite funny (although Julie was not amused). There were chewed pieces of toilet paper everywhere on all three floor. Ziggy also took the opportunity to mark areas in the bedroom (including our bed and sheets) and bathroom, two places he never gets to enter.
I wish we had taken photographs. I want to believe the dogs knew they did something wrong, as they spent most of the night hiding in their cage. More likely, they were scared of our reaction, and exhausted from destroying the house. That can take a lot out of a dog.
[1] We've had problems with this housekeeper in the past. She's a very nice woman, but is not a good cleaner. We pay her a lot of money, and we always feel as if she's trying to get away with the minimum amount of work. Julie often leaves her a list of things to clean, and she always seems to run out of time before getting to any of them. Yesterday was the last straw, and we are now housekeeper free.
Seattle, WA | 2008.02.14 | Dogs, Housekeeper, Toilet paper
Whidbey Island
We visited Jeff and Mary on Whidbey Island last weekend, and brought the dogs.
Whidbey Island, WA | 2008.03.15 | Photos | Dogs, Ferry, Whidbey Island
We're only automatic ballthrowers to him
I cut back on my Horribles postings again. With preparing the Castle and finalizing the stuff for the Villa, I haven't had much time to doodle. That my computer still is acting weird hasn't helped things. I now only post on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I still have a nice backlog, and I'm averaging about a new Horrible every week, so things should continue to move along smoothly.
We lifted the Villa's inspection contingency yesterday, and the next step is closing, which is planned for March 31st. Julie has been doing a wonderful job of preparing our post-close activities, including getting people into the Castle to fix it up for showing, planning the Villa's dogroom, invisible fence, painting, and floor rebuffing. While doing that, she also picked out our new furniture and has arranged for it to be delivered after the contractors (should) finish. The earliest move-in date would be April 6, although it may be later, depending on how quick the contractors and movers work.
For now we wait and enjoy our last few weeks in the Castle. Jennifer is visiting this week, so we've been trying to entertain her.
Seattle, WA | 2008.03.18 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Julie, Ziggy
Mercer Island Parks
Julie and I take the dogs to parks around Mercer Island.
Mercer Island, WA | 2008.05.04 | Photos | Dogs
He drives me mad sometimes
And that's why we built a dogroom. Ziggy and Button have been doing wonderfully. As I mentioned yesterday, they are now fully trained on the invisible fence, and they spend much of their time chasing each other around our front and back yards like crazy dogs, wrestling, and making outrageous turns and jumps. Ziggy changes directions so suddenly that he sometimes falls over. It's great to watch them play: like two oversized rats zipping across our lawn.
Enough about dogs. (Thanks to the aforementioned dogroom, our lives are no longer ruled by them.) The weekend is rapidly approaching, and while the weather turned cold again this week, we're expecting more Spring-like weather next week--we'll keep our fingers crossed.
I managed to eek out a horrible Horrible yesterday. My queue is diminishing rapidly, and if I don't get adrawing, I may have to go on hiatus for a while. As of now, I have 22 doodles in storage, which means another 10 or so weeks of postings. I guess it's not terrible yet--it's only approaching terrible.
We haven't seen "Iron Man" yet, but with all the rave reviews coming from my friends, we plan to hit the theater this weekend. Julie and I couldn't think of the last time we saw a movie. We won't be able to say that on Monday.
Seattle, WA | 2008.05.08 | Cast of Horribles | Dogs, Ziggy
Button comes home
Wow, it has been a long time since I drew this. It's dated January 29, which seems an impossibly long time ago. We've had Button for almost six months. She's much different from Ziggy: where he is gregarious and always looking to play, Button is more laid back. She's a terrific eater, elegant and sweet--when she's not trying to push Ziggy out of her way to get our attention.
This was my first attempt at drawing her when we returned from our Honeymoon (notice our fancy bathing suits). There are a few more coming up in the queue. I've not drawn the iggies in sometime. I'll have to rectify that soon.
Julie is complaining that I'm not posting often enough. I have to agree with her. I've fallen back into my rut of only posting on Horrible days. Another rectification is in order soon.
We are rapidly approaching Julie's birthday weekend. I made reservations at a Seattle restaurant for Saturday night (her birthday is on Sunday). I'll likely cook a fancy meal on Sunday--assuming we're not still stuffed from the Saturday night extravaganza.
Seattle, WA | 2008.06.05 | Cast of Horribles | Button, Dogs, Julie, Ziggy
She moved in so quickly
Ah, the Button! Here's the original photo. That grass is rather terrible. At least Button is cute. I haven't drawn the iggies in a long while.
Come to think of it, I haven't drawn anything in a while. Oh, yeah, now I remember why: I broke my computer again. I was trying to fix an issue I was having with Vista sleeping properly, and I attempted to flash the bios. This would have been fine if the WinFlash tool supported Vista 64-bit, which it didn't. I tried it anyway and it blue screened. This is not a good sign when flashing a bios. When I rebooted, the black screen stared at me. I had scrambled the bios and it would no longer POST. (The bios is rather important as it initializes the motherboard and devices and starts the boot process. Without it, no boot.)
I've done some research on Hot Flashing in which you swap the broken bios into a working machine and reflash it. Regretably, of the five or so computers at home, none of them have the same bios chip. One would think it would have been standardized by now. I plan to order a replacement bios from the internets today. Hopefully I'll be up and running sometime next week.
If you didn't notice (or read this thing through the fancy RSS feeder), my Little Guys are holding an umbrella this morning. It thunderstormed here this morning. During our bicycle commute last night, we also hit a short thunderstorm. I don't want to raise any undue alarms, but the sky may be falling, and the apocalypse can't be too far away.
Seattle, WA | 2008.07.03 | Cast of Horribles | Button, Dogs
"Button mutton"
Good ol' doggies. They're a bit smelly but still very loveable. It's hot in Seattle today, almost Houston hot. I plan to bicycle home this evening in the heat. I'll let you know how that goes. (I actually won't, I was just saying.)
Things are afoot at work. Hopefully very good things. I'll know more about these things next week. For now, enjoy Button Mutton and Ziggy Wiggy in their element.
Mercer Island, WA | 2008.08.14 | Cast of Horribles | Button, Dogs, Ziggy
The Escape Artists
Yesterday, while Julie spent time with her parents at their Buddhist retreat, I melted into the couch to enjoy Blue Dragon, my second JRPG. It reminds me of part anime, and part game. It has the wonderful character leveling, outfitting, and customizing that I love from RPGs, but does away with most of the action elements of the fighting. It's taken me a while to warm up to this genre. I started with Penny Arcade Adventures, and after receiving a copy of Blue Dragon for free at work, and seeing it on a list of underappreciated Xbox games, I decided to take the plunge. I think I'm glad I did. I'm not sure that Julie agrees with my choice, however.
That's not what I want to write about. As I spent countless hours on the couch, the iggies were roaming outside. We've hit a bit of winter weather lately, and until yesterday, they've been hiding in the dog room when they weren't watching Battlestar Galactica with us on the couch. I took them to the dog park yesterday afternoon when the rain slowed, and by late afternoon the outside was cool and mostly dry. The iggies roamed our invisible-fence-protected gardens. I brought them onto the couch to sit with me a few times as I played, but they were restless, and I let them out. I watched them through the glass when I wasn't engrossed in the game.
The invisible fence works by way of a wire installed around the boundaries of our home. The dogs wear a collar with a shock device that has two metal prongs. When the collar approaches within four feet of the wire on either side, it beeps once. If the dog backs away then nothing happens. If the collar beeps a second time (there's about a second between beeps), then the collar gives a mild shock. The shock is set to low, and feels a bit stronger than a common static shock. It's not debilitating, at least for me. Our dogs are much smaller, however. The collar continues to beep a total of seven times, administering a small shock with each beep.
There are two places that the dogs usually tempt the invisible fence: the first is near our main entrance, which is to the side of the center door. The entrance leads through a breezeway between the front of our house and our driveway. The invisible fence extends to the edge of the breezeway so the dogs cannot enter the breezeway or, more importantly, the driveway.
When we come home or whenever anyone rings the doorbell, the dogs run to this line to bark. They sometimes step near it and beep, but we've never seen them push through the line. The most worrisome behavior, the invisible fence dog trainer told us, is when the dog pushes through the shocks and realizes that they end at some point. Whenever the dogs receive a shock, they usually freeze and sometimes try to scratch at the collar with their hind leg. They normally back away from the beep, especially when we say "no" when they receive the shock.
The other trouble area is the front steps. For aesthetic reasons, the wire was installed in the dirt at the bottom of the stairs, and up along the rocks that surround our front lawn. The dogs quickly discovered that they can go four steps down before hitting the boundary. When we first installed the fence, white flags marked its location. The dogs were trained to associate the white flags with the beeps and shocks to encourage them not to pass. After a month, you were allowed to remove the flags. Two white flags still remain at the edge of the fourth step, more for the people on the road than for the dogs. Or so we thought.
First, the mea culpa: besides the cost of the installation (which is not cheap), the collars use proprietary batteries that the Invisible Fence Co. sells. The batteries need replacing every three months, and the first year is free. I received the replacement batteries a couple of weeks ago. Since the green light on the collars still flashed, and the beep sounded strong, I decided to delay the replacement to save money. It wasn't until Ziggy broke through the steps invisible fence that I immediately replaced the batteries, and brought him to the front stairs to go through his training again with the stronger shocks.
With this experience in mind, I watched the iggies from the couch to ensure they weren't experimenting on the front stairs again. When they stood on the stairs looking out, I could see their backsides from my video game perch, and all was good with the world.
It's growing dark earlier in Seattle, and it was dusk when the phone started ringing. I checked the number and it wasn't familiar. Usually, I ignore such calls but I picked up hoping to hear from our real estate broker about the Castle (which, must to our growing chagrin, still hasn't sold). A lady sounding very worried was on the other side. She asked if I owned small dogs, and if I knew they were walking along East Mercer Way, the busy road in front of our house. I asked her if the dogs were on the road, or on the stairs leading to the road. She assured me, in a very judging voice, that they were indeed on the road, and they scared her when she drove past. At least one other person called, probably when I was outside grabbing the dogs and locking them in the dog room.
Clearly I'm a terrible dog owner. Our dogs were almost squished last night, pancaked into the road. While they are exceptionally fast for small dogs, they are no match for a speeding car rounding the curve of East Mercer Way. The dogs freedom has been restricted as we call on the Invisible Fence people to help us. Besides increasing the shock, we're also thinking of installing chicken wire along the bottom of our front gate and the nearby trees that make up our front fence. The dogs clearly can no longer be trusted on the stairs. And, clearly, I can no longer be trusted as good dog owner. Stupid Blue Dragons, and their gripping hold on my weak-willed addictions.
Mercer Island, WA | 2008.09.22 | Anime, Blue Dragon, Dogs, Invisible Fence, JRPG
Hide and then seek
I'm hitting my stride with the next four or so horribles. My queue has grown lately as I've managed one or two doodles each night (except for video game nights).
We're off to NYC this weekend for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Years.
Mercer Island, WA | 2008.09.23 | Cast of Horribles | Button, Dogs, Playhouse, Ziggy
Her favorite part of the dog park: the walk home
Such a cute, poorly drawn Button. I've been rushing home from work in a vain attempt to take the dogs to the park before dark. By 6:30pm, it's dark outside. We rush over and they run for about fifteen minutes before we have to pack it in. It's a sad time of year.
I've been very tired lately. Not sure why. Hopefully I snap out of it soon. November doesn't write itself.
Mercer Island, WA | 2008.10.23 | Cast of Horribles | Button, Dogs
They're surprisingly good at role playing
Dogs playing D&D! I know I'm using too many exclamation marks these days. It's part of my new optimistic outlook. Okay that even made me laugh.
I miss playing D&D. The last time I played was in college. Yes, I was and continue to be a geek. I like to think of myself as the king of geeks. Not in the sense of being the best geek, just in the sense of moving seamlessly between the world of geeks and the world or normal peeps. As I said, I like to think of it that way. In reality, I'm not that good at geekdom, and rather terrible at normal livinghood.
Did you notice Button (that's the dog on the left) staring at the Cheetos? She loves food. And Ziggy with the cigar? It's like that dogs playing poker painting, only not as good, and with D&D.
Mercer Island, WA | 2009.02.17 | Cast of Horribles | D&D, Dice, Dogs, Warrior, Wizard
Iggies and snow and other random events
Mercer Island, WA | 2009.03.02 | Photos | Dogs, Snow, Weather
Iggies and Spring is Almost Here
Mercer Island, WA | 2009.03.30 | Photos | Dogs, Flowers, Spring
Spring in the Dogpark
Mercer Island, WA | 2009.05.01 | Photos | Button, Dogpark, Dogs, Ziggy
You shouldn't hide who you are
My sickness, it keeps dragging me back. I thought a restful three day weekend working on my secret project would make me well. I was almost there (the wellness) on Sunday, but by Monday it was back. It's just the edges of sick, but even the edges make me uncomfortable. I didn't sleep last night because I couldn't figure out if I was cold or hot. And then all these ideas started bubbling over in my brain and I had to jot them down before they would let me sleep.
Mercer Island, WA | 2009.05.26 | Cast of Horribles | D&D, Dogs, Lord of the Rings, Wizard
Movie Time!
That's Ziggy (seal-colored dog) and Button for those not familiar with our dogs. Most nights, as we get ready to cozy up to our couch and watch an anime or movie, or play video games, I say to the dogs, "Movie Time!" and they run out the dog door and around the house to wait by the living room door to be let in and act as our personal warmers.
I was going to talk about the weather, but I'm getting sick of the topic.
Mercer Island, WA | 2009.07.24 | Cast of Horribles | Dog door, Dogs
Happy Chanukah!
By request (hi, Kelly and Kelly's kids!). I particularly like how the dogs look. They're very cute if a bit smelly.
The Seattle winter weather has returned: rainy and fifties. Most of the icicles have melted on our fountain except for the bottom bowl, which is still partly frozen. I turned on the pump this morning but nothing happened. I'm hoping that it works once it completely melts. Otherwise I'll have to put on my toolbelt and start afixing. Or call someone. Definitely the latter.
Mercer Island, WA | 2009.12.16 | Cast of Horribles | Blue Guy, Chanukah, Conspiracy, Dogs, Family Portrait, Menorah, Purple Boss, Robot, Snowman
Food adventures and dog park
Mercer Island, WA | 2010.01.10 | Photos | Cooking, Dogs, Food, Mushrooms, Soup, Tofu
The beginnings of Spring
Mercer Island, WA | 2010.02.14 | Photos | Button, Dog park, Dogs, Flowers, Iggies, Ziggy
It's almost here
It's more than almost here, it's here!
Feels like a Friday today. My mother is flying in this evening after Julie and I go out to our anniversary dinner. Very busy two weeks! First Joyce visits, now my mom. Lots of shopping planned for this weekend. And the forecast is clear and sunny and perfect. (Hopefully not too hot. I know my mother is just waiting to do her "I told you so" dance about our lack of air conditioning.)
