Category Archives: Molly

birthday, misc, Molly, printer

That Was The Week That Was

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Am I the only one here old enough to remember that TV show? (Even I remember it only from reruns on late night TV; it originally aired on the BBC way back in the early 60’s. I seem to remember seeing it as late night filler on a Boston UHF station in the 70’s.) In any case, it supplied a catchy title so the memory space it occupies in my mind is not totally wasted. For the insanely curious, go read the Wikipedia synopsis at That Was The Week That Was.

Last week I mentioned that I would write about the beautiful printer/scanner I won from the wonderful ladies of Aiming Low and HP. Late last week I finally got it unpacked and set up. (My delay was making it dangerously close to losing my tech geek card – true geeks must drop everything to play with any new piece of equipment!) Setup was trivial since it has built in wireless connectivity. And the photo prints are spectacular! Thank you Aiming Low and HP! Oh, it also looks pretty nifty as well:

Nothing like all black with a neat little touch screen to appeal to the tech geek in me.

L was home this weekend and we had the big thirtieth birthday party for my friend the writer to attend. A group of friends, great BBQ, two kinds of cake, and pie – the ideal way to say happy birthday. It doesn’t seem possible that he is that old. I have known him since he was in high school and it just doesn’t seem to be that long ago. (I suspect that is a symptom of aging – everything seems to have happened just a moment ago. When you are young, it seems like everything is yet to happen in the far distant future. The older you get, the faster things seem to happen.) In any case, Happy Birthday Bryson!

Time for Molly and I to head out for our walk. I think Molly will trust me by now. This morning it was time for her annual veterinary checkup and vaccinations.  She and I hopped in the truck went to the bank where the drive up clerk gave her a doggy biscuit. Molly thought that was pretty neat. Then we drove out to the clinic and Molly could smell all the dogs and cats and other critters in the gravel parking lot. That really excited her. She led me in the doors and sat with me in the waiting room. But when it came time to sit on the scale and she really didn’t want to be still. But we got through it and into the exam room.

That was when all those things that she blames me for happened. The cold stethoscope to the chest, the thermometer up the rear, and of course the three shots. All while I am holding her against my chest and beginning to look like I sprouted a white fur coat from her shedding on me. We came home and she carefully spent most of the day sleeping across the room from me in my office, raising her head to be sure I wasn’t up to another sneaky trick whenever I moved. By this evening she was willing to let by-gones be by-gones and was rubbing furballs all over my legs. So I think it is time for us to go. {*grin*}

Molly, odd question of the day, walk, weather

The Heat is On

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So much for the summer cold front. It was truly glorious while it lasted, but the reminder of fall and the coming of winter was brief. As I write, the temperature is hovering between 105 and 108 depending on which of my two shade thermometers you believe. Needless to say, tonight’s walk is going to be late in the evening and warm.

Speaking of which, I have upped my daily walking to 6 miles a day from 5. It is just enough extra that Molly gives hints that we should turn towards home every time we pass a possible turn off in that last mile. But when I say “Not yet, we still have further to go.” she takes it in stride. It hasn’t dampened her eagerness when I put on the ear buds and pick up the leash, signaling it is time to head on out.

Which segues naturally into my question of the day: which one or two out of three would you choose? Now that you are bewildered, the question comes from listening to Meatloaf’s “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” last night as I walked. In the ballad, the three refers to the infamous triad of “I want you. I need you. I love you.”

Aw heck, just take a quick listen, I’ll wait:

In any case, it led my mind to ponder the question(s):

  • If you only get one of the three in a relationship, which one?
  • If you only get two of the three in a relationship, which two?

I assume we all want all three in our ideal relationship, so the question is moot for the case of three. My own answers for the one and two cases are predictable to those who know me. If I only get one, make it love. If I only get two, make it love and want. But I know people who would answer differently, so what are your answers?

Molly, rabies, walk, weather

Multi-topics

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Tonight’s post comes to you as a collection of disjointed ramblings. Welcome to my mind. {*grin*}

Topic 1:
After an enjoyable Easter weekend, L headed back to the mountains this morning. Of course, that meant that Molly was in a sad and inconsolable state. I thought about adding a picture, but decided to be kind to Molly.

(I lied, Molly got pictured anyway.) This evening, I convinced Molly that a walk would be a fun thing. It seems like a lot of people we knew were out and about. In the course of walking 6 miles, Molly and I saw (and walked for a bit) with at least 5 groups of people and dogs we knew. It perked Molly up a bit. I suspect that she will be back to her chipper self by tomorrow.

Topic 2:
I suspect all of us remember the music of the Bangles from the 80’s and 90’s. When they broke up, I didn’t follow any of the members solo careers. I was not even overly enthused by their reunion for the Austin Power’s soundtrack song “Get the Girl“. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this duet by former Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet. Her voice has matured and she now reminds me a bit of a cross between Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin. Enjoy.

They got together to do an album of hits from the 60’s with startlingly good results. I encourage you to dig the tracks up (The album is “Under the Covers, Vol. 1“) and take a listen.

Topic 3:
Easter was a nice day. Good conversation, good food, with mom and L’s mom and friends, and then a nice long walk in springlike weather. And the weather wasn’t quite so nice that I had to work on the yard or get started in the garden. Laziness with no guilt, what more could one ask for?

Topic 4:
Back to writing a monograph (not really, more a series of press releases and radio spots) with the enthusing working title ‘Rabies, Your Pet, and You’. There has been an outbreak of rabies in skunks and muskrats in the area in the last month that has resulted in several attacks on humans and their pets, so it is time to remind people to make sure their pet vaccinations are up to date and to avoid possibly rabid animals. Most dog owners are pretty good about staying up to date on vaccinations, but many cat lovers fail to realize that cases of rabies in cats have become more prevalent than in dogs in recent years and so fail to keep their cats vaccinated. Back to the salt mine.

game, Molly, walk

A Hard Days Night

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Molly had a busy day today. We went out for our walk early in the afternoon so that football could be watched with concentration later. About four miles into the walk, we ran into my friend Bill. Shortly thereafter, we started being followed by a Samoyed that had a collar but no tags. Bill got a catch halter while Molly and I  talked to the Samoyed until Bill could put the halter on. Then we  called one of the animal control officers (who work for me in my position with the Humane Society). As Bill and I figured, the animal control officer recognized the dog and knew where it belonged. It apparently has a habit of roaming on its own. So Molly got the excitement of meeting a new friend and someone to share the doggy equivalent of the masonic handshake – the butt sniff. That kind of excitement just doesn’t happen every day.

Molly and I finished our walk and then I got ready to go to the Super Bowl party. Along the way I talked to L in between interruptions by other calls. Molly decided to take a nap since I was ignoring her.  She was still napping when I got back after the game. Entertaining her new friend must have exhausted her.

As I was putting away the laundry, I noticed she was already sacked out in the master bedroom just waiting for me to come to bed. I hate to tell her it will be a while before that happens. What can you say to this:

Especially when Molly then flops down flat when I try to explain:

Guess she’ll just have to get over it. It’s either that or she was a Colts fan and can’t face the final outcome of the game.

interviews, Molly, weather

Sunday Going Down

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Just when you thought the weather couldn’t be any nicer for this time of year, today it is cooler and as the air pressure rises the winds are a-howling. In fact, the weather service is blaring this tidbit over the game I’m trying to watch:

Issued by The National Weather Service
Denver/Boulder, CO
1:02 pm MST, Sun., Jan. 24, 2010

… HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM MST THIS EVENING…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DENVER HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND WARNING… WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM MST THIS EVENING.

* TIMING… STRONG WINDS WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. THE WINDS WILL DECREASE THIS EVENING.

* WINDS… SUSTAINED NORTHWEST WINDS OF 35 TO 50 MPH WILL PERSIST THROUGH THE AFTERNOON… WITH GUSTS TO 65 MPH. THE STRONGEST WINDS WILL OCCUR ALONG THE WYOMING BORDER AND AREAS EAST OF INTERSTATE 25 IN THE AREA COVERED BY THIS WARNING.

* IMPACTS… THE STRONG WINDS WILL MAKE TRAVEL HAZARDOUS… ESPECIALLY ALONG INTERSTATE 76.

FYI, we are on I-76.

The warning blaring over the TV blocked out the kickoff and first three downs of the Colts-Jets game, so I’m really happy that the Colts didn’t do much. It is really annoying to miss a critical play because you are seeing a black screen with a computerized voice s.l.o.w.l.y reading the above announcement. Now if the weather critters can just hold it down for the rest of the game…

Yesterday was a busy day for me. My undergraduate alma mater does alumni interviews of applicants for admission since there are often 20 or more qualified applicants for each class opening. So early afternoon saw me interviewing a candidate. (I get the pleasure for the one or two applicants every few years out here in the boonies since there are no other alumni here. Many years ago when we were in California it was a group effort and we did 4-5 a day for a few weeks of Saturdays.)  The interview was fun and interesting.

Every once in a while you meet a spectacular young person who makes the  interview a pleasure. This was one of those. The young lady was one of the two most spectacular candidates I have seen in the last 30 years of doing such interviews. The pleasure of meeting a youngster that has not only lettered all three years of high school in three sports, but is also intellectually curious and knowledgeable and is involved in literally tens of charitable and community efforts as both a leader and a follower is all too rare. The interview ran an hour longer than normal just because of the interesting discussions on topics ranging from philosophy to literature to mathematics to politics. I really hope she is admitted; I think she would be a definite asset to the campus.

After spending an hour getting my notes into coherent form and filing them with the admissions office, it was time to go to a working meeting related to my real job. Dinner was catered in – by one of the attendee’s sons running to Sonic. It was that kind of a meeting. {*grin*} In any case, it was after 10pm when I walked in the door to the guilt inducing stare from Molly, asking “Where have you been? Where is my chewie? Huh?”

Molly is currently laying on the floor giving me the doggie evil eye:

She wants to go for a walk but the breeze outside and the game inside is making that a slim possibility. We’ll have to see if the guilt of not listening to Molly eventually exceeds the pleasure watching the game.