DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT OBSESSED WITH MY DOG.

Monday, July 31, 2006


      >> 8:22 PM
 

Last day of July? What.

      >> 1:59 PM
 

[They're like free movies from God.] A God that is vengeful.

      >> 11:53 AM
 

Sunday, July 30, 2006

When I am particularly stressed, I tend to have disturbing dreams that slowly drag me out of sleep. I have a hard time describing these disturbing dreams later because I don't remember them very well. I do know that they tend to be disturbing not because of what happens in them but because there is an atmosphere of not-quite-rightness and an overlay of melancholy.

When I have these dreams, I think Giles can sense my mood -- stressed and disturbed -- because he is restless, too. Last night, he intermittently woke up barking to run to the front door and also barked muffledly in his sleep.

But last night especially, I think things took a turn for the worse because these disturbing dreams escalated to the point of nightmares that repeatedly woke me up, all various and different. In the one I remember because of a tactile component, I dreamt I was in a half-awake, half-asleep state and felt hands grasping mine. At first, I thought they were Rob's, just returned from work, but the way the pair of hands was connecting with mine would've positioned Rob under or in the bed. When I realized this, the tactile sensation transformed into the horror of corpse-like hands, somewhat disembodied, emerging from the bed on either side of me. I woke myself up at that point and gladly discovered no grasping hands in my bed. Only Giles lay to my left, deep in sleep.

When Rob finally came home and crawled into bed this morning, I told him that I had been repeatedly awoken by nightmares. He held me and told me he would keep them away. I only had disturbing dreams after that point.

This afternoon, I am caught in a feeling of listlessness and the banality of the day. This is especially accentuated, I think, by the utter horror of things in Israel and Lebanon that I see on television and on-line.

It is too hot and humid outside, the sun's light taking on a punishing quality rather than a pleasant one. To compensate, I've kept all the lights off in the apartment, and I'm sitting here in a darkened, den-like space. I think I will play some sad, longing music ([Rufus Wainright] fits the bill). And perhaps draw myself a bath.

      >> 11:39 AM
 

[Further anecdotal evidence of the diabolical nature of squirrels.]

      >> 11:23 AM
 

Saturday, July 29, 2006

I haven't seen this statement [Beyond Marriage] linked in nearly enough places. I've been wanting to write a bit about it, but who knows when that might happen. So I'll link it for now and possibly return to it with some thoughts. (And by the way, I think the statement is A++++.)

      >> 4:22 PM
 

[Joe, someone's calling you from the Gay Attack Force. Do you want to take it?] LOL.

      >> 4:10 PM
 

[OMG UT tn XLS @ txtng!]

      >> 3:34 PM
 


Exhausted after a morning not writing duck's dissertation.

      >> 8:44 AM
 

Friday, July 28, 2006


At work today, I drew a family portrait.

      >> 3:23 PM
 

The next thing on my plate, moving-wise, is to plan an itinerary for my drive out to St. Paul. I think I'm mostly going to drive through, not really stopping to visit people or places. But I'll have to see about finding [dog friendly] hotels for a couple of nights along the way. I've never really been on a road trip with Giles before. ROAD TRIP WITH GILES! WOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!111

Edit: Well, I lied. I did go on a road trip with Giles and Rob to Maryland one time. Giles threw up in the back seat while we were going up the hellaciously twisty roads of the mountain on which Rob's sister lives.

      >> 2:59 PM
 

Note to self: [Lutefisk is to Minnesota as BBQ is to North Carolina.]

My friend Tara brought me delicious curry for lunch. And I scheduled a pickup date for the movers to come get our stuff. And I bought a ticket to see Margaret Cho in concert in Durham in a couple weeks. (She is, after all, in my dissertation. I am also going to buy a ticket to see Vienna Teng, also in my dissertation, in Minneapolis in September.)

Mood: Accomplishy.

      >> 1:06 PM
 

[Toddler mauled to death by dogs.] Dogs are scary.

[At one locked door a soldier yells, "Come out or we'll send the dog in," and a buddy does a realistic bark.]

[Pets can help prevent some deaths.]

[Dog attacks have postal carriers on alert.]

[He was last seen with his dog Muttley - "who went with him everywhere" - at the Waterman pub in Birmingham Road on Sunday night before he drowned in the Grand Union Canal where he was found early on Wednesday morning.]

      >> 10:08 AM
 

And the whole [George Michael cruising thing]? I don't get why each time he gets "caught" having outdoors, anonymous, public sex, people are so shocked. I mean, he recorded a song about it with a video that left nothing to the imagination. And the song is celebratory about public sex and totally not apologetic. And he's never said he's going to stop, right?

      >> 8:55 AM
 

Have you ever seen a man reduced to a gibbering puddle of caffeine- and sugar-deprived, misfiring neurons? That was me just now. I thought I could get by this morning without my usual coffee and scone. By 9:15, I realized I couldn't. So I trekked across the street, and of course by this time I'm needing reinforcements, so I upgrade to a latte and a big slice of coffee cake (more butter, more sugar). Our friendly neighborhood coffee shop worker was confused when I responded to her inquiry, "Coffee and reduced fat lemon ginger scone?" with "No, not today." She said I was throwing her whole day out of whack. Ah well. All's right now that I have some delicious coffee back in my veins and buttered sugar smooshing its way through my digestive tract.

      >> 8:37 AM
 

Ah ha ha. [Working on the report.] Replace report with dissertation. Replace fish with Giles. Replace hose with doggy treats. Replace white dude with me. Replace PC with iBook. And that's MY STORY.

      >> 8:08 AM
 

[Lactivists: Where is it OK to breastfeed?]:

"I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.
 
. . .
 
"I'm totally supportive of it -- I just don't like the flashing," she said. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."

People are just weird. I mean, seriously. Being offended by breasts or afraid that the mere sight of breasts will set off an inevitable sexual explosion in boys and men is a bit much. There are obviously whole sets of other issues about breastfeeding in public -- comfort of the women, health-related questions, child care, and so on -- that should be addressed. But frankly, the fact that this is being taken up as an "activist" cause seems so misplaced to me. Sure, women (and men!) should agitate for (private) breastfeeding spaces to be made readily available for mothers on the go in addition to getting people as a whole not to be offended by breasts. But the fact that people keep talking about this issue as a groundswell of mother-activism is puzzling, as if of all the feminist, women's, or mother's issues out there, the social approval of public breastfeeding (or having people be okay about nursing bras peeking out from blouses inadvertently) is the one that is most important.

      >> 7:43 AM
 


Outside Linda's.

      >> 7:24 AM
 

Thursday, July 27, 2006


<3

      >> 5:35 PM
 


Cartoon on John's office door.

      >> 11:46 AM
 

This is a prety awesome web site: [The Format]. You navigate by moving the dog around with the arrow keys.

Giles is at the vet today. He already had his vaccinations and check up. The veterinarian called and said he gave her kisses the whole time she was examining him. He loves people. She said his teeth have a lot of tartar buildup, though, and we'll need to get them cleaned soon. :(

      >> 9:29 AM
 

I HATE SPAM SO MUCH. I have a new-ish gmail account. Only a couple friends have the address. And I used it to set up power service in Minnesota yesterday. But today, I logged in and there was a spam message (thankfully in the spam folder)! ARGH! I hate hate hate hate spam. Spam must die!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!!1!!!eleven!!!!!!!!!!

Current mood: Everyone sucks and should go away and leave me alone.

      >> 7:47 AM
 

Wednesday, July 26, 2006


Mr. Giles was curious about the shredder whirring away old receipts.

      >> 7:45 PM
 


1. Make gun shape with hand.
2. Point finger at dog.
3. Say, "Bang."

      >> 7:22 PM
 


Mom, me, twin -- Taiwan, Summer 1995


Me, dad, twin -- Taiwan, Summer 1995


Blue wig -- New Haven, circa 1998


Bodiless head -- New Haven, circa 1998

      >> 5:43 PM
 

[Mailed snake sparks postal panic.] The Internets will make you do crazy things.

Also, [Animal abuse cases rise by fifth]. Look at the picture of Gizmo, the shih tzu that looks like a mangy fur ball.

      >> 11:07 AM
 

Crazy like a fox. [Rabid fox bites 3 at church tourney]:

Hodge kicked the fox four times, but it got up each time and lunged at him until Hodge stomped the fox to death.

Ugh. Not pleasant to be bitten by a fox, I suspect. Or to be stomped to death. What gets me about the article is that the journalist's name is actually "Madison Park"!

      >> 9:50 AM
 

[Lance Bass: I'm Gay]

      >> 9:00 AM
 

[Shelley Jackson], the author of the tattoo story project ["Skin"], has a novel out about conjoined twins (in a world with plenty of them!) called [Half Life]. I totally want to do my project on conjoined twins in contemporary American literature because I think there's something totally fascinating going on with the idea of body limits, body overlaps, identity, solitude, and consciousness in them.

      >> 7:21 AM
 

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Further evidence that squirrels are the spawn of the devil (from the campus ITS page):

North & South campus power outages
At approximately 8:35 am we began receiving reports of intermittent power outages in North and South campus. Electrical Distribution are aware and are working on the problem. 07-25-2006 10:04:48
 
At 8:31 am this morning, we had a major power outage which affected much of the West and South parts of campus. A squirrel chewed into some medium voltage cable inside our Cameron Substation. The damaged cable makes up part of UNC's tie to Duke Power for that area. The cable shorted and effectively cut off the power to half of the substation. The event also tripped the Cogeneration Facility and its steam powered generator. Quick action on the part of Cogen Operations personnel resulted in the use of a back up feed to restore power to all customers at approximately 8:37 am.

The trip to work this morning was accompanied by a downpour. I didn't encounter any accidents on the road, but a co-worker got delayed by some on the main highway. The lower half of my pants got drenched while I waited for the bus. That wasn't so bad, unlike what one unfortunate man dealt with on the crowded bus. His left leg was directly under a leak in the emergency hatch on the bus's roof. Every time the bus slowed down or sped up rapidly, water would drip on him in a steady stream.

Today's lunch: brie, havarti, and cheddar cheeses with some rosemary olive oil bread; grapes; baby cut carrots; and yogurt. Giles was very interested in what I was doing while I put together the lunch. He loves him some cheese.

      >> 10:59 AM
 

Monday, July 24, 2006

The problem I have with writing, see, is that I don't believe much of what I write. As much thinking, researching, outlining, and other prepatory work I do, it never seems to matter. It's not just that I can't quite capture in words the arguments I want to make, but the arguments I do manage to put on paper I don't agree with. It's so frustrating. It's like my hands have a mind of their own, and they disagree often with my head.

      >> 3:26 PM
 

Disclaimer: This is not a dog blog.

[The dog who crashed the party]:

A real service dog such as a guide dog is highly trained to do specific tasks for the blind or disabled. Undoubtedly, an animal who provides emotional security can help an anxious person cope with troubling situations which would be difficult to negotiate alone.
 
"However, that's not to be confused with ‘yuppie’ emotional support in which the underlying motivation, conscious or otherwise, is entitlement and repressed arrogance," says New York psychologist Dr. Joel Gavriele-Gold, author of "When Pets Come Between Partners."
 
Along with the built-in sense of entitlement, it comes down to a "control issue," he says. "There’s a built-in sense of entitlement in bringing either kids or dogs to functions when their names don’t appear on the invitation."
 
For some of these people, it's just out of control.

Whatever. Sure, it's annoying when kids and dogs appear uninvited. But that's not the same thing as saying that dogs shouldn't be allowed in public or at private social functions at all. (The examples in the piece are so upper-crusty, though, and I wonder if this is a piece simply geared towards maintaining a sort of snooty, andro-centric decorum that can't abide the presence of dogs.)

Some of the things that people do seem just annoying -- not because of the insistence on dogs but just the sheer lack of caring about others. For example, tenants who sue their landlords to keep pets -- it's one thing if the lease allowed pets but the landlords subsequently revoked that right, but it seems like one of those things that is cut and dry if the tenant wants a pet but the landlord doesn't want a pet in that space (allergens are a good reason), not that I'm championing landlord rights or anything. And eating with dogs? While I love to do that, it also seems quite easy for people who don't want to dine with dogs NOT to sit outdoors. I mean, I'd prefer NOT to eat surrounded by screaming children, but it happens anyways. And I can't get a law passed forbidding children because they're outside my "comfort zone."

      >> 2:35 PM
 

This just in: I miss my dog.

[Outdoors a tough option for homeless]:

Bauman said she and her dog, Winston, have lived in Superstition Park since late May.
 
The 46-year-old rolled up her sleeve to reveal dozens of red ant bites on her upper arm. She said one drawback of life in the desert was the creatures that threatened to bite her and Winston.

I wonder how many homeless people live with their dogs....

      >> 1:55 PM
 


Since I'm here another three weeks, I figured I might as well decorate my work space.


Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

      >> 11:31 AM
 


A foggy drive to work this morning.

      >> 7:09 AM
 

Sunday, July 23, 2006


I've this throbbing headache that won't go away. :(

      >> 9:27 PM
 

[What is a theory?] (Woo theories! Theories are the best. Go theories!)

      >> 7:36 AM
 

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Ha ha. ["My Cubicle"], a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful." (Via Tara.)

Update: Ha ha. Apparently there's a whole host of lip-sync videos to "You're Beautiful" and also parodies of the song with new lyrics. Here's one by Weird Al lip-synced by someone else -- ["You're Pitiful"].

      >> 8:37 AM
 

Friday, July 21, 2006

I'm trying to make marinara sauce right now, but it's turning out more like tomato soup...

      >> 5:57 PM
 

[Vampire Web site used to lure girls.] I know it's not something to LOL at but I can't help it. Goth chicks rule.

      >> 2:39 PM
 

I should know by now how colds progress for me. But it still surprises me every time. I've been extremely tired the last few days, unable to wake up fully despite a generous intake of coffee. And this morning, I woke up sneezing. By the time I got to work, the sneezing was very bad. It isn't until now, though, that I am realizing this doesn't feel like allergies (what I had assumed earlier today) but rather more like a cold. Grrrr.

      >> 12:56 PM
 

Thursday, July 20, 2006

[Q&A with Ben A. Barres about women and science.]

      >> 9:40 AM
 

[You know you are in a dissertation induced psychotic episode when...] I totally need to get over this dissertation thing. All my friends who have recently finished are so much more sane and happy.

      >> 7:46 AM
 

There's a friendly coffee shop worker at the corner Starbucks where I've been getting my morning fix every day before work. She's one of these high energy people -- not the kind that can be draining to deal with but instead the kind whose energy is infectious. She's got a loud voice and a mischievous smile. She greets regular customers in little ways to acknowledge that we have an ongoing relationship, structured though it is by the exchange of coffee and money. She responds to the standard, (usually) disinterested inquiry, "How are you?", with short but effusive statements about how she's feeling or what she's doing later. This morning, in response to one woman's question, she said, "I'm probably going to get drunk tonight," with a laugh. She teases her co-workers mercilessly while they bustle about getting coffee drinks and pastries for us drones. And she scans gender-wise as tomboyish or butch (which is almost always a plus in my book).

Every morning, she waits for me to order the same thing -- a small coffee and a lemon ginger scone* -- and then says, "Ah, your usual." Today, I shrugged, and she quickly added that it's a good thing I know what gets me going in the morning because some people never do. I haven't worked up the comfort and familiarity simply to order "the usual."

* I love scones because in my snootier moments, I can insist on the British pronounciation of the word. Plus, they're delightful triangles of deliciousness.

      >> 7:21 AM
 

Wednesday, July 19, 2006


What I do at work.

      >> 2:52 PM
 


I still need to decide on a font for my duck and find a nice tattoo artist!

      >> 1:03 PM
 

I read the introduction to Arnold Arluke's Just a Dog on-line yesterday, and it seems like an exciting and important project about how people use the discourse of animal cruelty for various ends (such as creating a sense of identity as an adult, as a humane worker, and so on). Like all exciting projects, it has also created a new filter for me so that I'm starting to notice news stories about animal cruelty and thinking about them differently. In today's news, for example, is this article, ["SPCA visit upsets homeless dog-owner"]. And the part that stands out is a comment by the SPCA spokeswoman,

"We wouldn't expect other people who are walking their dogs to have water and food with them at all times because they're probably just out for a short jaunt and are going back home where they're going to have plenty of water and food," Gass said.
 
It's unfair to keep a dog out in the sun all day without shelter, she added.It's unfair to keep a dog out in the sun all day without shelter, she added.

How people define cruelty and use it to specify what counts as humane treatment of dogs is telling. At least some dog trainers, for example, have argued that dogs are not "innately" home bodies and that it is against their instincts to stay inside all day; rather, dogs might be more comfortable out and about.

      >> 10:30 AM
 

[Knowledge of squirrel breeder???]

      >> 8:22 AM
 

I like watching the morning coffee shop crowd trickle in and out. There's something wonderful, perhaps in a perverse way, about witnessing this personal ritual. I like the quiet bustle of the shop in the morning, quite unlike the tenor of the livelier social scene that characterizes afternoons. I like seeing the ranging states of pre-caffeinated awakeness, from those whose facial expressions and bodily movements advertise, "social propriety can go fuck itself," to those somnambulists who have serendipitously made it to the coffee shop.

As I left for work this morning, I passed Rob in the hallway of our apartment building. When we first started going out, he commented on how our relationship was like that of the magically cursed couple in Ladyhawke. Not much has changed. Maybe someday we'll find our Matthew Broderick to help set things right.

      >> 7:25 AM
 

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

[Ansel Adams's photgraphs of the Manzanar internment camp.] (via [is that legal?])

      >> 2:39 PM
 

Passing the time at work scanning the news... I opened up this week's print edition of [The Chronicle of Higher Education] and gasped at the University of Michigan's proposal to extend the time to tenure up to ten years. It seems this is mostly for science and social science people though opening up the length of junior faculty's "probationary period" will certainly affect those in the humanities as well. The argument proponents of this change are making is that junior faculty taking on massive research projects need the assurance of extra time before they come up for tenure or else they won't take on their important work. Also, times have changed and researchers need more time to conduct their complicated research. I guess this all makes sense, but there's got to be a way to evaluate work-in-progress as sufficient for tenure rather than pushing back things even more.

Also in this issue, a blurb in the book section on [Just a Dog], an ethnographic study of people who deal with animal cruelty.

      >> 11:58 AM
 

[Just Another Face in the Crowd]:

People with face blindness can typically understand facially expressed emotions — they know whether a face is happy or sad, angry or puzzled. They can detect subtle facial cues, determine gender and even agree with everyone else about which faces are attractive and which are not. In other words, they see the face clearly, they just do not know whose face they are looking at, and cannot remember it once they stop looking.

I don't think I have face blindness though I do sometimes have difficulty differentiating between characters in a movie. (I attribute this more to the homogeneity of actors.) I also have some difficulty "picturing" people's faces (or my own), though it's not that I don't recognize people in pictures. I would think it might be terrifying to move through the world unable to recognize faces....

      >> 9:28 AM
 


I believe this means I am officially bored.

      >> 8:38 AM
 

Monday, July 17, 2006

[A Modest Proposal] for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public.

Most English Ph.D.'s have probably read this piece by Jonathan Swift. I think everyone should read it. It's hilarious.

      >> 3:08 PM
 

Sunday, July 16, 2006


      >> 11:06 PM
 

Saturday, July 15, 2006


Has no clue what he did was bad.

      >> 7:35 PM
 


Mean dog.

      >> 8:17 AM
 

Friday, July 14, 2006

Well, Giles just had his last dog park visit ever. He bit a dog -- a whippet, a breed which for some reason he gets really riled up about like he thinks they're prey -- and drew blood. :( Giles was chasing the whippet, knocking over other dogs, and when he caught up to the whippet, he took a chomp out of his side. The other dog, poor thing, whimpered and cowered and his owners' feet. The bite didn't look very deep or anything, and hopefully it won't turn into anything. I should've known better than to let Giles chase after the whippet when he came in the park. He always gets crazy around them. Why can't Giles be nice like all the other dogs? I thought he was getting better, too. He was coming when I called for him at the dog park. And when he started getting a little skittish (right before he gets growly) around certain dogs -- usually just the bigger ones -- I would call for him and we'd go to another part of the park. Maybe that was the wrong thing to do? Maybe I should've had him sit and held on to his collar while the other dog checked him out? But sometimes those other dogs can be aggressive. Dogs are so confusing. :(

Update: I'm footing the vet and antibiotics bill for the whippet. There's another $75 I didn't have, gone. :(

      >> 7:43 PM
 

If I'm going to be the only one in the office, I should totally be allowed to bring Giles in to keep me company. :|

      >> 10:07 AM
 

I don't think I have the right temperament for an office manager/receptionist type job. I mean, I think I'm fine with the filing, organizing, ordering supplies, and getting general office things done, but I can't stand it when people call demanding payment for past invoices. It's the anger in their calls, subdued as it might be, that really just crumbles my fragile ego. The worst part, of course, is that there's nothing I can do but pass on messages to the often-absent staff. But of course when they don't respond within a day, the callers call back the next day, angrier than before. And all I can say is that I've passed on the message. :(

      >> 9:50 AM
 

Thursday, July 13, 2006


December 1978

      >> 7:01 PM
 


June 1981

      >> 6:57 PM
 


July 1982

      >> 6:51 PM
 

I miss my dog!

      >> 1:23 PM
 


This one's for [hermance]

      >> 7:17 AM
 

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Whew! It's hot and humid again. The cooler, drier weekend was much appreciated.

I hear that the Chicago and Twin Cities areas are up for a heat wave this coming week -- in the mid- and upper-90s with high humidity. I guess I'll be buying a window air conditioning unit when I get up there (in about a month!).

Today at work, a fellow graduate student in my program walked in to use the space at the Center. And she did a double-take, seeing me out of context.

My calendar tells me this month:

No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does. - Christopher Morley

[Duck squadron.]

      >> 7:58 PM
 

Pick your own scabs, not the dog's.

      >> 5:40 PM
 

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

[Beaver and Steve] is the bestest. I mean, grumpiness particles? Come ON!

      >> 9:38 AM
 

Monday, July 10, 2006

Hmmm. It appears my phone is able to act as a [GPS Navigation System]. This is a very tempting extra service. Maybe when I move, I will try it out for a bit to help me get around the new town.

      >> 8:42 PM
 

Go figure. The moving estimate came out to $5,000.46. My budget is $5,000. And I already spent $1,100 of it for the apartment hunting expenses.

      >> 4:45 PM
 

Bright and shiny, only person at work. I couldn't drag myself out of bed earlier, though, to write before coming here. Not that I'm not going to write while I'm here.

I stopped taking extasy-lite (aka pseudoephedrine, the real decongestant) a few days back and haven't really been able to stay awake since. That stuff really makes me more alert and awake. But alas, I don't think it's a good idea to use it permanently just so I can watch more tv write more.

      >> 7:12 AM
 

Sunday, July 09, 2006

This isn't meant to be condescending or demeaning in any way, but my first boyfriend (for more re: him, read the first couple relationship-angst-ridden years of this blog) really was like a junior high crush. In hindsight, the way we acted with each other was so painfully puppy-love-ish, the first flush of reciprocated affection. While sitting at a coffee shop together reading, we'd pass notes to each other. He'd smile big at me from across the room and blow me kisses. I'd make doodles with his name in them. It was so wonderful and yet what kept us going was ultimately just the tumult of finding our way to what we can enjoy with someone else. For both of us, it was our first relationship.

What we eventually realized -- slowly, I might add, given that we were breaking up every few months since the beginning and then quickly reconciling by the end of the day -- was that we really just didn't have that much to share with each other. And some very important aspects of our lives just did not sit well with the other. He needed to be rooted in a spiritual (Christian) community, one that was both black- and gay-affirming. I am entirely ambivalent towards spiritual practices. He had a strong sense of family obligation, even as he dreaded their finding out about his sex life. I, having essentially been rejected by my parents and geographically-distanced from my siblings for so long, can take it or leave it with regards to my family, though I certainly have pretty good relationships with my siblings.

It's a bit sad that what it took, ultimately, was the necessity of evaluating our lives and careers when he got a job in St. Louis. I feel horrible that I couldn't go with him and help him settle in. Instead, we had to break up, using his departure as that final, clean break, making it difficult for us to run across town or down the street to see each other in those first moments of loneliness.

PS I think it's great that [Giles] reads my blog.

      >> 9:03 AM
 

Saturday, July 08, 2006


Outtake of a car dog.


Clearly, I haven't been able to write my dissertation because of a lack of wine. So this evening I bought a bottle of merlot and one of pinot noir. I am having some merlot now with a bit of brie and cheddar. I can feel the words loosening up already.

      >> 8:40 PM
 

I get perverse pleasure from using a [shedding blade] on Giles. Rob calls the contraption -- nothing more than a curved metal blade with teeth -- a torture device. I think, even if he doesn't enjoy it, Giles is quite okay with the thing. He'll come to me when I call for him while brandishing the blade. I just love seeing all that hair scraped off. It make Giles look shinier, too. And he's a little less sheddy.

      >> 4:57 PM
 


Car dog.

      >> 4:20 PM
 

Friday, July 07, 2006

Shhhh, Shhhh
It's, oh, so quiet
It's, oh, so still
You're all alone
And so peaceful until...

This job might actually be perfect for writing. I'm stuck in front of the computer all day. No one calls. No one comes in. There's hardly any office work for me to do. I can be writing!

When I interviewed for this position last week, one of the questions the assistant director asked me was what I would do if the Center put on a program or event that I disagreed with. She said it was just a frivolous example, but what if the Center had a pet celebration day where people brought in their pets to the office and I hated animals? I laughed. I would totally be for such a program. I would put Giles on the fleyrs and other promotional material for the event. It would be awesome.

This morning, I found out the hard way that extreme1 laziness is sucky. I found out that vinyl stool covers are not iron-resistant. I didn't want to get out my ironing board from behind the closet door because my gigantic (extreme!) pile of laundry was in front of the door. So, I ironed my shirt on this stool. And lo and behold, now my stool cover has a gash from where the iron touched it directly. Sigh.
_____
1 Isn't "extreme" the most over-used adjective these days? Even the Animal Planet specials are called THE MOST EXTREME.... Like, The Most Extreme Jaws of Death and stuff.

      >> 7:38 AM
 

I'm sorry Giles. I really meant to frolic with you outside this evening, especially since the rain cooled things off. I didn't mean to pass out in front of the tv after eating dinner.

      >> 12:40 AM
 

Thursday, July 06, 2006

I'm sorry Giles. I'm trying to get home, but traffic is awful. I think there's an accident up ahead. :(

      >> 4:58 PM
 

Wednesday, July 05, 2006


I brought a cupcake to work today.

      >> 10:32 AM
 

Monday, July 03, 2006

Eek! What have I gotten myself into? I have to, like, talk to people at work and stuff.

      >> 11:22 AM
 

I think one day I'll give up my foolish academic aspirations and settle comfortably in some 8-5 desk job. Coffee and muffins!

      >> 6:56 AM
 

Sunday, July 02, 2006

I e-mailed the marketing director of Coffee House Press to ask for some information about sales for one of their books. (I write about it in my dissertation, of course.) The publisher e-mailed back with lots of numbers. And when I thanked him, he wrote back and said I should totally give him a call when I get into town (they're based in Minneapolis). Yay! (If you didn't already know, I am infatuated with anyone who works with books as a living -- especially people who actually are part of the book-producing process.)

Other things that are cool:Things that are not cool:

      >> 8:16 AM
 

Saturday, July 01, 2006

I have the best bf ever. He's out chaperoning his drunk cousin and brother-in-law even though he only got 3 hours sleep last night.

      >> 11:09 PM
 

Dancing is weird. My cold is finally getting better though I am still sniffly and a bit congested. Too many people asking what I do.

      >> 8:23 PM
 

Woo! Open bar at the reception! Drinky drinks are my friends.

      >> 5:45 PM
 


Ladies first.


Whee!

      >> 12:24 PM
 

I'm so unoriginal, but if I were ever to adopt a sharpei, I would have to name her Sharpie.

      >> 11:58 AM
 

There's a sharpei hanging out outside this Starbucks. Can you tell I'm getting lots of writing done?

      >> 11:57 AM
 

So cool! Someone just walked by with a pet pigeon riding a remote control toy car. I think the pigeon has clipped wings.

      >> 11:35 AM
 

= O
( v <

      >> 11:29 AM
 

Little girl beauty pagaent in hotel. Swarms. Send help. Dog in lobby. Must pet...

      >> 9:07 AM