Through the ParkerCam I just got to watch my darling soon-to-be-crated-from-now-on puppy disemboweled my comforter:
I guess the photo caption isn't a joke after all. I am not happy.
Update, 1:30 pm: Oh. My. God. I can't decide if he's adorable or really, really a bad dog:
Update, 5:15 pm: Caught in the act! OK, I really have to get home now.
Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (sub.req.) points out that serious energy conservation does not equal economic disaster:
[T]he assumption, explicit or implicit, that any substantial cut in energy use would require a drastic change in the way we live...is false. Let me tell you about a real-world counterexample: an advanced economy that has managed to combine rising living standards with a substantial decline in per capita energy consumption, and managed to keep total carbon dioxide emissions more or less flat for two decades, even as both its economy and its population grew rapidly. And it achieved all this without fundamentally changing a lifestyle centered on automobiles and single-family houses.
The name of the economy? California.
After play group this evening I (a) wrestled a 24-kilo dog into a bathtub, (b) continued to wrestle said dog who did not want clean water dumped on him repeatedly, which was ironic because (c) less than half an hour before he had rolled around in a mud puddle the size of Connecticut at the dog park.
Poor Parker, he won't be going to the play group much until either (a) the mud in the dog park freezes or (b) the mud dries out.
But in a strange twist, right now he's lying on the floor gnawing on a bully stick, peaceful as a bishop. I do love this puppy most of the time.
Update: As I wrote those words, he started re-arranging the room. Oy.
Parker, a black dog, hangs out on a white couch (because they no longer make this one and natural cotton was the only color slipcover they had left), which is covered in a slightly greenish fleece blanket (because it has an expected lifespan of two months and cost $3 at Target):
Nothing otherwise notable here.
Oy.
Yes, the dog ate my cell phone case. I really, really want to skip ahead to his second birthday now...
I'm David Braverman, this is my blog, and Parker is my 8-month-old mutt.
Here are the main topics on the Daily Parker:
- Parker, my dog, whom I adopted on September 1st.
- Biking. I ride my bikes a lot. Last year I prepared for two Century rides but, alas, my gallbladder decided to explode a week before the first one. I might not have a lot to say until later in the spring, but I have big plans in 2007.
- Jokes. All right, I admit: when I'm strapped for ideas, sometimes I just post a dumb joke.
- Politics. I'm a moderate-leftie by International standards, which makes me a radical left-winger in today's United States. Less than 701 days remain in the worst presidential administration in history, so I have plenty to write about.
- Software. I own a small software company in Evanston, Illinois, and I have some experience writing software. I see a lot of code, and since I often get called in to projects in crisis, I see a lot of bad code. Posts in this blog about software will likely be cross-posted from the blog I'm about to start, Inner Drive Software.
- The weather. I've operated a weather website for more than seven years. That site deals with raw data and objective observations. Many weather posts also touch politics, given the political implications of addressing climate change under a President who's beholden to the oil industry.
This is public writing, too, so I hope to continue a standard of literacy (i.e., spelling, grammar, and diction) and fluidity of prose that makes you want to keep reading.
So thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy the blog.
It seems the weather forecast was correct: The 10 am (1600 UTC) temperature at O'Hare was 2°C, the first time it's been above freezing in Chicago since January 27th, and only the third time since January 15th.
I'm going to go outside and bask in the warmth right now...
I may have had my fill of snow, but Parker hasn't:
The consensus at the play group yesterday evening was that the warmer weather will turn the park into a mud pit, which the dogs will love almost as much. It's still not April, I guess.
There is one aspect of the snow that Parker won't miss, I think:
Poor guy.
It's possible that the temperature in Chicago could go above freezing this afternoon for the first time since January 27th. This is the longest stretch of below-freezing weather we've had since I returned home in 2000. Hey, I like records as well as the next athlete, but I'm pretty tired of this one.
Stay tuned.
I don't know what Parker was saying to Dexter, but it does look like Dexter is taking the kid under his wing, so to speak:
Also, I'd like to point out that neither of them cared about the -26°C wind chill, but Dexter's dad and I sure did. Pretty sunrise, though:
