Kevin's musings

Just set
Petey to be the “dog of the month” on the
CGC web site.

He’s a big loveable oaf of a dog. Doing just fine here, getting along with the dogs the cat, etc.
Hopefully we will find him a good home soon.

Well, another week gone by and not many updates. A few random things going on:

Our yearly family gathering thing is still not set in stone, but it’s getting close at least. It’s my year
to set things up. At first I wanted to meet up in durango, so I found a few likely places that would
meet our requirements. However, it’s far and high for my dad, so it was time to go to plan B and
find someplace near tucson. After some digging around on the net I found
The Esplendor Restort thats only about 30min
from my dads place. Still waiting for everyone to sign off on that place and then we will make reservations.

Overall I have been happy using KDE on my laptop, but there was an anoying bug that has crept
in somewhere. If I open a bunch of things in firefox or otherwise make firefox busy, KDE goes into the weeds
and stops listening to me until firefox is done. So, partially for that and partially because it’s fun to tinker
with things, I switched my laptop over to use
XFCE. It’s pretty nice so far. Very lightweight and fast. The only thing
I really miss so far is that with KDE I could make it give me a visual bell (invert the desktop) on a beep.

I was going to go ride my bike today because it was so nice, but then I remembered that the back brakes
had stopped working last weekend on my bikeride. I really need to take it in and get it looked at
before I go anywhere with it again.

Took some pictures the other day of kurt relaxing in the crate (He’s a hard one to take pictures of
because he fears the flash. He didn’t get up from inside the crate however). Also I took a few of Paddy,
L’s kitten. He’s a cute one. The
pictures are here.

Just got back a bit ago from Fort Collins, where I had a bike ride with L.

By my estimation we rode between 20 and 20.5 miles. In many places the trail was in very nice shape and
pretty much avoided having to cross roads. There were a few sections where the pavement had gotten
cracks and they had filled it with cement, and then the cement crumbled or settled or otherwise didn’t
do much of a good job at all. Those parts were kinda bumpy. We rode down Sping Creek to the Poudre river trail
and then up that to downtown. Time for a quick lunch, and then back the same way we came.

The weather started out very nice, but then clouds came in and it rained a bit. It was pretty cool on
the way back up. It was a nice ride though. It got me out of the house. Of course now my butt hurts.

I’ve been a slacker about updating this week. Not much really going on, so mostly I just spared
everyone the boredom.

Petey
is overall doing quite well. On the plus side: he’s for the most part getting along fine with the cat,
he’s getting along great with the dogs, he’s showing no signs of SA (seperation anxiety). On the minus side
he’s a big clumsy oaf (gets tangled in leashes, pees on the other dogs, etc), he had one accident inside
the other day. He’s really a nice dog. I can see him being pretty happy with a family to dote over him.

I don’t have any plans at all this weekend. I should really try and leave the house at least some
this weekend. Perhaps I will go catch a movie or go see some music or something.

I, Robot was an amusing action/cop movie.
I wish it had more to do with the book/story by the same name by Isaac Asimov. Basically the title
and the 3 laws (which they didn’t really dwell on much) were all that they took from the famous
sci-fi book. I have kind of mixed thoughts about Isaac Asimov. He wrote some really good sci-fi, and
some real stinkers (which isn’t surprising considering how many things he did write). Perhaps
someday we will see someone turn I, Robot into a movie.

Two more mini netflix reviews:

The Last Samurai was very pretty, and the guy
who played the last samurai was very good (
Ken Watanabe ). Tom Cruse was kinda there,
nothing outstanding. A fun way to while away a few hours however.

Shrek 2 wasn’t nearly as good as the first one.
It just seemed like it had a lot less importance, less really funny gags and just not as good overall. Puss
in Boots was funny, but even he didn’t save it. I would suggest a pass on that one unless you really really
liked the first one and want more.

Took a bunch of pictures of the dogs (what else?) over the last week, including a few of petey the new foster:

He’s doing pretty well. He does have a desire to chase the cat sometimes, but more to sniff her than
anything else. He’s mostly just a big loveable lug of a dog. Hopefully we can find him a good home
soon.

I picked up a new foster dog yesterday while I was at the
petsmart
meet-n-greet for
Colorado Greyhound Companions. He’s
Petey, a 80+ lb boy. He had a blast at
the petsmart. Wagging his tail and wanting to be petted by everyone. So far in the house he’s done
pretty darn well. No accidents at all, eating well, goes in the crate fine, gets along great with the other
dogs, corrects well (listens to “no”). On the downside he’s still a bit too interested in the cat when
she runs or otherwise walks right in front of him, he keeps trying to get on the couch, and he pulls
somewhat on walks. I left him for about 20min the other day and he didn’t seem to have any issues.
As soon as he gets that he’s not supposed to chase/bother the cat, he should be all happy.
He’s a very happy, always wagging his tail sort of dog.

I need to do a few things to get read for my
anti super bowl party.
No idea how many folks are going to show up, but I guess we will see.

Well, the beboxes are sold, paid for and shipped out. Got $760 for them, which isn’t too bad I guess.
I looked at my old email and I paid $2000 for the revision 5 one in 1995, and then another $495 for
the revision 6 one in 1996. Oh well, computers are a lousy investment. At least I got them to someone
who should have fun playing with them and they are out of my house. I need to try and ebay something
every week and clear out junk I never use.

Went to a
Asylum Street Spankers
show last night. It was at the Cervantes Ballroom, which is a pretty large venue for them. The Cervantes
web site said the show was at 9, so I got there about 9:30. Never fear, the opening band didn’t go on until 10ish.
I had a nice talk with the base player before the show. He remembered me from when the band stayed at
my house last year. The opening act was a local group called “Honeysuckle Rose”. They were not bad.
The washboard player had a outstanding voice. They played some bluegrass type stuff and some more
rocky stuff as well. The spankers went on around 11:20 or so. They had a few new songs that were nice.
They did a Oingo Boingo cover which was nice, and of course all the old standbys were there. I picked up
their new live cd and wammo’s new solo one. They stopped playing around 2am or so.

They are playing up in boulder tonight, but not sure I want to go. It would be fun, but I really need
to get some sleep sometime. Sunday is also my anti-superbowl party (anyone reading this is welcome),
so I should try and get ready for that as well.

I find flashes anoying at shows, so here are some really
dark and blurry pictures of the evening.