Fritz and Joey

Saturday, September 01, 2007

It's been awhile since I posted that first photo of Fritz, so I figured it's time for an update.

He's now just a few days shy of 4 months and weighs in at a whopping 4.25 pounds (if that!). He's one of the smartest pups we've ever run across - and I'm not just saying that cuz he's OUR dog, he really, truly is! - and in 3 1-2 minute lessons, learned to sit. It took less than a day to teach him down and he's now learning to STAY and to ring the door bells to go out and go potty. (No, not the outdoor bell that one typically associates with the phrase "door bell." These are a set of Christmas type bells hanging on a rope that hang on the door knob. The bottom 2 bells sit about 8 inches off the floor and the dog learns to stand up and bat at them to go out and do their duty. Quite ingenious!

Anyway, we decided that Fritz could do with a companion so after an exhaustive search, we found the *perfect* brother for him! Joey is also a poodle, only he's a mini instead of a tea-cup. As a result, his body shape is a bit different and he's a wee bit bigger than Mr Fritzwilliam is. Joey is one week (to the day!) younger than Fritz and they get along famously.

Fritz and Joey both are parti-poodles so they're not solid colored. While this makes them less desirable in the show ring, I prefer the look as I think it really enhances their perrsonalities. They're fun loving dogs and super cute too boot!

Both dogs are on the raw food diet and we've chosen Primal as the food of choice. This means a bi-monthly trek to the opposite side of town to buy it, but it's totally worth the time and effort as it's a pretty awesome food. I'm anxious to see the long-term effects this will have on both dogs. Already the poo is smaller and nearly odorless and Fritz (we've had him the longest) has a glossy, lush coat of fur.

Enough of the introduction - here are my boys!



Taking a 2-second pause in the midst of some major playtime.



Grr. Grrr. Rough and tumble!



Fritz, I love you! - Joey



Look at me! I'm a star! (and I know it full well)



Candid shot in the mist of play shows Fritz ready to go in for the kill - but he's just having a good ol' time

Steve Jobs. My Hero.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Steve Jobs is my Hero. For real. When I look at what he's done, where he's gone, and the things he's accomplished along the way, I aspire to be just like him. His business acumen is second to none. When it comes to shrewd marketing and an insightfulness into society and what they want, there is no one, and I mean NO ONE, that can compare to awesomeness that is Steve Jobs.

:: groveling bow and moans of "I'm not worthy" ::

Steve Jobs is the Man! And what has he done lately? He's shown NBC that he doesn't take lightly to terroristic demands and threats and he's slammed the door shut in their faces. I love it!

Not sure what I'm talking about? Check this out...



Incredible! I nearly cried from an overwhelming flood of admiration and hero worship when I read that article. Note to all companies considering messing with Jobs or any of his businesses: consider yourself lucky he wanted to do biz with you to begin with. Mess with that and you're out! Remember NBC.

I'd love to see NBC come back when their little News Corp venture fails, as it inevitably will (this is a whole 'nother post - who's stupid enough to invest in this idea? Like it's going to go anywhere but down in a flaming mess of failure and ruination...) and spend some time groveling at his feet. It wouldn't surprise me if Jobs creates a new level of payment, just for them.

"You didn't like profits at the $1.99 level? Alrighty then! You can enjoy profits at the new, lower $.99 level. Take it or leave it."

Lesson? Don't try to strong-arm Steve Jobs or you'll end up on the outs. Where you deserve to be.

:: groveling bow and moans of "I'm not worthy" ::

Kudos to him for standing up - I know I don't want to pay $4.99 per episode. Umm.. NO! I'd rather not watch those programs at all. $4.99?! Talk about getting greedy. Right now I pay *nothing* to watch it on tv and I skip every single commercial. I'm willing to keep my cable AND buy the seasons of those shows we really really like so I can have them w/out commercial interruption and available whenever I want them. But I'll tell you what I'm not willing to do: pay $5.00 per episode. No, I'd rather not watch them at all if it came to that.

I close this post with a photo of a painting that I'd love to have. Sadly, the price tag is a bit much for my blood. I'll blog on this artist in the next week or so. I'm not a huge art fan but I'd totally buy every single one of the works they've done. They're that cool! Our office would totally rock with a few of these hanging around.



Check out their site for more info...
http://www.geekculture.com/nitrozacpaintings/

Ikea - land of plenty. Too much plenty.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

I survived our trip to Ikea. And what a trip it was.

We didn't get off to the early start we wanted so by the time we pulled out of here, we were already an hour behind. Oh well, I figured I could just work an hour later once we returned home.

So, 80 minutes later, we pull into the parking lot. I immediately notice that it is hotter up in Phoenix than it was in Tucson. A LOT hotter. shew. It was like being in a convection oven or something.

Our 30 minute quick pop in and out turned into 2 hours. By the time we were done, I was feeling grumpy and head'achy from the humidity and heat inside the building and just wanted to go home. But no, before doing that, we had to put 3 desks, 1 chari, 1 table, 3 bags of misc junk, and a chair mat into the car. Hmmm... we're driving a Magnum station wagon so surely there is enough room. Right?

No.

Poor J was out in the 113 degree heat, sweating like a fat man climbing a set of stairs. Our son was out there w/him as they pushed and pulled, tugged and shoved, and made every attempt possible to fit the oversized box containing the corner desk our son had picked out for his room. 10 minutes later, I climb out from the only-slightly-cooler-than-the-outside front seat of the car and tell J that it's not going to fit and we'll have to return it. There is NO way that thing is fitting in the car. He readily agrees so it's put back on the cart.

In go the 2 desks for our office, the box with the chair and my table top. Hmm... the storage legs for the table top are still sitting on the cart. And there is no room. I look at J and he nods. So these are moved to the cart containing the corner desk and I go back into Ikea to return them. There is nothing quite like purchasing THREE carts worth of items and then returning 1 of them 15 minutes later. I'm sure the employees see no end to this. All of Ikea is like a wonderland of truly fantabulous items that one simply MUST own. It's a simple case of the gotta-have-its being much bigger than the available space in the transportation device driven there.

We finally make it home about 3 hours later than I'd hoped. Thankfully it's only 106 back in Tucson. Much more manageable. And like all intelligent people, we run the AC instead of the swamp cooler so it's a relaxing and enjoyable 71 in the house. Ahhh... no spa or massage ever felt better. But I digress.

J quickly tears down the 2 desks and just as quickly slaps the new ones together. In less than an hour, we're back in business. It looks mighty fine, if I say so myself!

J's desk went from this...


to this... (cables and such have since been organized)..


This is the in-process photo and once we hang up our pix and such, I'll post the final photos. I'm also going to be painting a small wall a bright red color, just because I can. We want our office to be fun! Lively! A place to inspire and encourage creativity.

But anyway, we love the new desks and our office looks MUCH bigger now. A bit easier to get work done!

Redoing the office

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

We're redoing our office space. It's the place we spent the most hours of each day/night, J and I. Currently there are two *massive* desks from Ikea in this teeny tiny space. When we're both in here (back to back) there is no extra room.

Enough is enough. I cannot take feeling closed in and smothered any longer. It's giving me stress headaches.

So tomorrow morning, we're making a quick dash to Ikea to get newer, smaller desks. We'll actually be purchasing 3 of these - 2 for the office and one for our son's room. He just bought, with his own money, his first PC tower so he's anxious to have a desk to use.

Anyway, here's what we're getting....



I'll be clearing my desk of most of the junk that is currently sitting on it and placing just my display, keyboard and mouse on the lower shelf. I plan to use the 2 upper shelves for a few fairy knick-knacks I have as well as my coding books and such (where would I be w/out my pocket guide to css?). Oh, I guess I'll put my speakers... hmmm... maybe on the middle shelf. I'm all for getting my space cleared out and cleaned up so I have more creative space to flex.

Now if I could just get J to clean up his rat's nest of cables. It's like they are breeding in the closet. Amazingly messy and spilling out onto the floor. Sometimes when I glance over there, I catch myself thinking they're moving about as they prepare to climb even further out of their flimsy enclosure. One day J will come in to find me strangled in the middle of the floor, my body contorted and twisted by the myriad of cables that are wound around me from head to toe. There's a frightening thought.

A more productive me waits just around the corner. Thanks to Ikea and a cleansing session.

I can hardly wait.

I. Need. Sleep.

Monday, August 27, 2007

It really irks me that I have to sleep. I waste 4-7 hours a night sleeping when I could be doing something else. The list of which is probably a good mile long at this point. But first and foremost, I could be working.

It's a sad state of affairs when your work so consumes your life that you feel a bit guilty going to bed. I know it's insane and thinking this way just shows how bizarre I am, but I'm surely not the first person to consider this. Especially when you're always in a state of needing to catch up.

J and I keep talking about how this week we'll be caught up. We site and make grandiose plans of how we'll use our spare time and how much fun we'll have actually spending time together as a family. But, inevitably, life gets in the way. A client has a minor emergency, another one is running behind themself, the phone rings 10 times too many, email flows in thick and heavy... and before you know it, the week is up and we're still behind. Sigh.

Last night I was up until 6:30am getting a a client's site finished up and working on my charssi.com site during short break times. We were closed from end of May until yesterday and it took quite a bit of work to implement a reward program that we meant to do over the summer. What's that about the best laid plains of mice and men? Once again, life gets in the way...

Now I'm loopy today. Got about 4 hours sleep and if my eye would quit bulging from its socket and the stupid elves would stop jackhammering in my head, I'd be ok. I think. It's weird to work in that strange twilight world where you know you're here and awake, but you catch yourself thinking it's a dream. It's all so surreal.

Bed has never looked so good. If I can just get through this day and into bed at a reasonable time tonight/early tomorrow morning, I think I'll be ready for tomorrow.

In the meantime, I think I'd like my super power to be the ability to stop time. For everyone except me. I could get SO much done and then sleep, sleep, sleep before turning it back on again to enjoy my now unfettered life. If I started feeling the pressure of real life kicking in, I could stop time for a bit and have some recouping time. The more I think about this, the more cool it seems. I could be The Time Princess. Yeah. I'd be mistress of the universe with that power! And I could have a LOT of fun. Moving cars, locking people out of houses, helping myself to the contents of the bank vault. One could definitely get into serious trouble if they could stop time. Maybe it's not such a great idea after all!

Back to work I go.