Our doggies understand much of what we say. But now there's been a study by some German folk who have discovered a border collie called Rico who can understand more than 200 words and learn new ones in context. I've copied the whole story below since it will expire on CNN… And Matt gets all the credit as he sent me this story in the first place. Continue reading “As All of You Dog Owners Already Know ….”
MUST KILL TINY LITTLE YIPPING DOG
The meanest corgie in the world lives in our building. You know the dogs I'm talking about … the ones with the really short little legs. Anyhow, this corgie goes after anything anywhere near it … other dogs, people, whatever. I can't believe how poorly socialized he is.
Anyhow, now the little thing has been yipping its head off … those high pitched terribly loud yips. Over and over and over. And over and over and over. I may need to strangle it or its owners. Prolly its owners would be more fair.
One of Those Days …
So far it's been one of those days … I couldn't sleep last night (prolly because I slept so much yesterday since I had a really really bad headache) and so I am off my sleep schedule and got very little sleep last night.
Upon waking up I found out that 1) we were out of milk and 2) the dog had made a bad stinky mess. Normally she uses this one spot, that we've covered up with a bit of indoor/outdoor carpet, but she skipped that spot and used a whole new spot. And yeesh, I swear it still smells.
I've got tons of work to do, but nonetheless, I think I will go to the club and at least lift weights and go into the steam room for a while. I've gotten quite a lot done today, and I could definitely use the break.
Fun With Signage
Last night Matt and I took a walk around our neighborhood … our town, Middleton, Wisconsin is (maybe) five square miles large. And many of the roads in that five square miles have painfully slow speed limits (25 MPH). We were walking along one such road and noticed that they'd put up one of those … make you aware of your speed signs. The kind that clocks you and reports your speed. So I said to Matt, “Wonder if we ran past that if it would clock our speed.”
So the nub and thrust of it all (pardon my strange language, I've been reading a new Georgia book) is that we tested out running speeds by running past it. It does clock you, BTW. I hit 16, and Matt hit 17. Pathetic, prolly, but very very very fun. We quit after just one try but Matt (as he claimed any good guy would do) wanted to keep trying to beat it and each other. I, however, thought that running in the middle of the road at midnight for a couple minutes was about enough. Continue reading “Fun With Signage”
Parking Sports
My mother in law has the best luck with finding parking spots. Some people don’t but try to force it. You know the type, the ones who will wait for 10 minutes for a car to pull out to avoid walking 20 feet. Sometimes there’s a good reason for waiting, most of the time there’s not. The other day, Jess and I were going out. We drove up and parked in the first spot we saw. Yes, it was some 40 feet from the entrance but so what. We have legs, it was nice clear night, walking never hurt anyone. As we walk up to the entrance, we see a lady waiting for a car to pull out of a parking space. She had already been waiting there for quite some time. As we walked in she was still waiting. Why was a spot that close really necessary. For the life of me, I can’t figure it out. There were perfectly good spots 15 feet away. Was she really planning to buy that much stuff? I don’t think so, it was the parking lot of the HEALTH CLUB! My god, you come to exercise but are afraid of walking 20 extra steps. Novel idea: start you workout early, walk an extra 20 feet. 
Sunny Weekend
We had a really nice weekend, but we didn't really do anything specific. We sorta did a buncha stuff that filled time but isn't really all that interesting. I've prefected my Egyptian city-building techniques (played Pharaoh) and Matt perfected his plundering techniques (played Pirates). We also took our bikes out, ran errands and did some shopping. It was one of our first truly nice weekends all year. Very little rain, lotsa sun!! Excellent weekend.
Fun in the Sun
As I was on my mad-dash-to-the-land-of-all-that-is-unholy (Blockbuster) to return the very disappointing Alias game I popped in a random CD (the right music gives me special fast-driving powers).
My ears were quite glad that I'd popped my Beach Boys CD in, especially since sister and I were discussing our mutual love for them the other day. I've loved the Beach Boys since I was a little kid. In fact, I think they were my first musical love. I remember trying to go as a surfer for Halloween (I don't remember if I actually pulled that off … CO is always cold on Halloween and usually snowy). I remember listening to their tapes in my parents' cars. I'm sure my parents were relieved that I wasn't draggging them off to Ticket Master (land-of-all-that-is-unholy prime) to buy $100 New Kids on the Block tickets.
Now The Beach Boys bring to mind not only fun-in-the-sun, but also a very happy childhood. I still like to listen to them every now and again, cool or not. How can you be unhappy by listening to The Beach Boys??? You can't. We actually, I don't know that. But now that I think about it, I'm going to apply for a grant from the NSF to study Beach Boy music's effects on peoples levels of seratonin (what? the NSF gives grants to much stupider studies on a daily basis).
That Movie Rocked!
We've just returned from seeing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and I must say … I LOVED IT!! Start to finish, it was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Alfonso Cuaron did the story justice and left his own unique mark on the film.
If you want the movie totally unspoiled, don't read the rest … Continue reading “That Movie Rocked!”
Math Counts!
I was flipping channels and I saw the Math Counts logo! I did Math Counts when I was in 7th and 8th grade. It's sort of the spelling-bee's math equivalent (they were covering the nat'l competition on ESPN). Not nearly as well-known though. It actually brings back a few good memories of Jr. High. Our team won second place (I think) when I was in 7th grade. I'm sure the trophy is still floating around somewhere at my parent's house and I actually still have the playing cards they gave us too. Hehe. Interesting. I could do math in Jr. High. What the hell happened when I hit calculus in college??
Funny Trick
I played a funny trick on Matt yesterday. I took a screen shot of his computer desktop and then set it as his background. Then I deleted all of his icons (moved them into a folder called “funny” in his documents folder). So when he went to use his computer after work, none of his desktop “items” worked. It was hilarious. He thought he had a virus or something. I prolly should have played it a little longer, but I really can't keep a straight face.
I was practically falling-down-laughing for like 20 minutes though. 
He acted like he wasn't amused and then admitted to me that it was a “funny trick.”
Dinner was damn good last night. I made the eternal favorite, cheese-rice streudel and then I sauteed up a bunch of zucchini (which is my current fav. veggie) and some mushrooms. Sooooo good. And can you believe it? Matt doesn't even give me guff about a vegetarian meal now and again. He even requests black bean burgers now. I 
how open-minded he is. Continue reading “Funny Trick”