Parker's new crate actually has more than double the area of his old crate. He has enough room to flop on his side and to turn around comfortably. Plus, he has his favorite crusty old bedspread to sleep on:
A note about that crusty, old bedspread. Anne informs me that she paid about $150 for it a few years ago, and it only acquired its patina of puppy puke and peanut butter (along with several gashes and other miscellaneous defilements) in the last six months or so. She volunteered no thoughts about how this may have happened, and Parker took the 5th, so I'll leave it to you to guess.
One of the side-effects of obedience training I didn't know ahead of time is that Parker is now crate-trained. Since he's also more than double the size he was when I first met him, the crate I had for him was a little tight. So I bought him a new crate, with more than double the footprint of his old one, and with a lot more light and air. Enough light and air, in fact, that I can point the ParkerCam at him when he's in it:
Check for Parker during the day. If I remember to bring the camera to my office when he comes to work with me, you'll get to see him even more often.
Today, however, I'm running around meeting clients, so except for a nice long lunch break at home, he'll be in the crate most of the day. At least I'll get to check on him from the road—and so can you.
For those of you wondering, yes, there is usually a thermometer visible in the picture. The top reading shows the outside temperature.
Parker went to the vet yesterday because I noticed this lovely thing growing in his lip:
The diagnosis? Dogwarts, also known as canine oral papilloma.
Seriously. He has the doggy equivalent of HPV, in that it's pretty much the same virus and it's also just about as common (most dogs have it). It's spread through saliva, so most dogs get it when they play with lots of other dogs. It's the doggy "social disease."
There's no pain, but there's no cure either, so it will just go away on its own—after he bites it. Then he'll never have it again. The vet said she could pop it, but that's a very unpleasant procedure for everyone and it's not medically necessary.
Poor puppy, with his canine kissing disease. He probably got it from Paris, who knows where she's been...
(Just kidding, Paris.)
Heel, heel, heel, sit, down, stay...it's all so tiring:
Also: good news to ParkerCam fans. The ParkerCam will return Thursday.
MSNBC reported overnight that U.S. troops have entered Sadr City in Baghdad. That's newsworthy in itself, but they added an extra level of irony by running their nightly headline-roundup email through an over-zealous spell check:
U.S. troops enter Sadder City
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers entered the Shiite stronghold of Sadder City on Sunday in the first major push into the area since an American-led security sweep began last month around Baghdad.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17450016/
Sigh.
The clouds broke this evening just long enough for me to see the eclipse. As they say in Boston: wicked cool.
The eclipse will be total from 4:44 pm CT to 5:58 pm, so when the moon rises over Chicago at 5:39 pm it will appear a deep red. (If it appears at all, of course; the weather will likely be cloudy.)
Observers on the East Coast will have a better view; Europeans will get to see the whole thing.
...and I don't mean on the locker-room floor. Just now NPR's Weekend Edition reported on a gym in Hong Kong that uses the kinetic energy from people walking on treadmills and using exercise bikes to power its lights. Neat.
Parker's second training session finished up well, but according to the trainer, Joe Hislop, Parker is a smart dog who got a little spoiled. Actually, he got a lot spoiled, which is totally my fault. But now, Parker isn't so spoiled any more. In fact, he knows how to stay down for as long as necessary now. Last night, aided a little by fatigue, he stayed in a down position munching on a bully stick for an hour. Here he is being quite a well-mannered dog while I walked out of sight and back in my office building's lobby:
You'll notice that I've replaced the ParkerCam with the Inner Drive Webcam. It may be a while before the ParkerCam comes back, for two reasons. First, when he's home and I'm not, he needs to be crated. This will continue probably for a few months at least, and may be permanent. Second, I've recently upgraded some of my office systems, and it's kind of a pain to set up the ParkerCam on an old system when he is in the office.
The ParkerCam will return. Meanwhile, I'll be more concientious about Today's Daily Parker.
At least one of my friends (ND-D) would be proud of me: as of tonight, all 21 of the lightbulbs in my apartment are compact fluoroescent, and in some cases of lesser luminosity than the ones they replaced. All told, if every light bulb in the place is blazing away, I'm still using less electricity than if only my kitchen and bathroom lights were on before replacing the bulbs.
Plus, unless I live here 20 years, it's unlikely any of them will ever need replacing.
It's a little thing, but if everyone did it, we'd use a lot less energy.