Even if Parker hadn't gotten fired two weeks ago, it looks like the building would have stopped him coming in anyway. We got this email earlier today, forwarded by the landlord:
We received a complaint about one of your tenants having a dog in the building. This was discovered by persons on the 5th floor hearing barking on the 4th floor. Hopefully I'm not confusing your unit with another but per the building rules and regulations policy that's attached to the Easement and Operating Agreement, only seeing eye dogs are permitted in the building.
Some people just don't like dogs. Their lives must be so sad.
He lasted less than four weeks as office dog.
Workplace tip: when you greet the boss first thing in the morning, do not immediately thereafter poop on his carpet.
I'd say he's performing about as expected:
My company, 10th Magnitude, finally moved into its new office today. One of the criteria we had for selecting the new office was that they allow dogs. Everyone wins! (Hat tip MW.)
It's hard to tell who likes the Office Dog concept more, Parker or my co-workers:
If Parker could have read this, he'd have been looking forward to this all day:
Yes, I know, I've posted remarkably similar videos before. Who cares? It's a dog having fun in the snow, which I think has universal appeal.
My team are all working from home today because we have the technology to do so, and we saw this:
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM THIS MORNING
TO MIDNIGHT CST TONIGHT.
* TIMING...SNOW WILL DEVELOP DURING THE MID TO LATE MORNING HOURS
AND CONTINUE THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON...ENDING TONIGHT. THE
HEAVIEST SNOWFALL WILL OCCUR THIS AFTERNOON.
* ACCUMULATIONS...SNOWFALL TOTALS OF 5 TO 8 INCHES CAN BE
EXPECTED.
* HAZARDS...SNOW WILL FALL HEAVILY AT TIMES RESULTING IN REDUCED
VISIBILITIES AND SNOWFALL RATES OF AROUND ONE INCH PER HOUR AT
TIMES.
* IMPACTS...ACCUMULATING SNOW WILL CAUSE SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED
TRAVEL TIMES...RESULTING IN A PARTICULARLY TREACHEROUS COMMUTE
THIS AFTERNOON. IN ADDITION...VERY COLD TEMPERATURES IN THE
TEENS WILL MAKE SALT LESS EFFECTIVE AND COMBINE WITH HEAVY
SNOWFALL RATES TO MAKE IT HARDER FOR ROAD CREWS TO KEEP ROADS
CLEAR OF SNOW AND ICE. THE SNOW WILL ALSO RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT
DISRUPTIONS TO AIR TRAVEL AS WELL.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER
CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW
ARE FORECAST THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS. ONLY TRAVEL IN AN
EMERGENCY. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL...KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT...
FOOD...AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.
Parker is also working from home. If he could read, his attitude toward the weather warning might differ slightly from mine. On the other hand, we're both in the same room, which I think makes him happy anyway.
Updates and photos as events warrant.
In 2011, I:
- took 8,198 photos, including 4,352 in Chicago, 881 in Japan, 588 in Portugal, and 337 in the U.K. (and only 71 of Parker). This is almost as many as I took in 2009 and 2010 combined (9,140), and more than I took in the first 8 years I owned a camera (1983-1991, 7,671).
- flew 115,845 km but drove less than 4,500 km
- visited 5 countries (the UK, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Japan) and 8 states (California, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Indiana, North Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) in 35 trips. Sadly, this meant Parker boarded for more than 100 days
- spent more than 186 hours walking Parker, which partially made up for all those days being boarded
- wrote 539 blog entries, with the most consistency in the blog's 6-year history (averaging 1.48 per day with a standard deviation of only 0.11)
- got 2.3 million hits (object views) on the Daily Parker, and 1.7 million on Weather Now, including 47,956 and 181,285 page views, respectively. According to Google Analytics, the blog had 28,613 unique visitors, and Weather Now had 26,539.
- read only 34 books, but as these included the first four of the "Song of Ice and Fire" series, it should count as 46
- started and ended the year in the same place (Duke of Perth, Chicago)
- went to only 8 movies, 3 plays, 3 concerts, and 3 baseball games, which is terribly sad
Oh, and I also got a master's degree. (Almost forgot.)
First photo of the year, in fact:
A client visit up in Manitowoc, Wis., ended a little earlier than planned today, so I was able to:
- Avoid rush-hour traffic in both Milwaukee and Chicago;
- Pick Parker up tonight instead of tomorrow; and
- Snap this photo from the roof of the Lincoln Park Whole Foods:
Apparently they came from China:
While the descent of dogs from wolves through domestication is non-controversial in genetics, determining the region in the world where this occurred has been more of a question. Earlier studies had suggested a Middle Eastern origin for dogs.
A new study focusing on the lineage of the Y-chromosome indicates that dogs originated somewhere in eastern Asia, south of the Yangtze River.