Can't I be pretty and serious?

When I was in junior high school I wore short skirts and high heels.  In high school, I gravitated to holey jeans and baggy shirts.

Nowadays, my work wardrobe is jeans, short-sleeved camp shirts, and sneakers.  My home wardrobe swaps out t-shirts for the camp shirts. I'll wear jean shorts instead of long jeans in the summer at home.

My work wardrobe was a conscious decision.  I work in the male-dominated software industry.  I prefer that my co-workers notice my mind, not my attire.  Or my gender.

Many years ago I worked with a well-endowed, female report writer who dressed in flashy, tight clothes.  I don't know if she was good at what she did or not.  No one ever said.  The comments I overhead about her were never focused on her work qualities.

I took note of that.

I've always been a tomboy, so my current wardrobe isn't that much of a departure.  My low key style means I don't spend a lot of money on clothes.  (I spend it on dog treats.).  I'm allergic to nail polish so I keep my nails buffed and natural.  I start to itch from most makeup, so I go without.  I've had bad experiences with hair dressers, so I cut my own.  Easy.  Comfortable.

Still, I hadn't realized how ingrained my philosophy had become until recently.

I've belonged to a gym for 18 months.  Unsure what clothes to buy, and unwilling to spend a fortune on workout clothes, I've worn cotton street shorts to the gym.  There is still a little (a lot) of the insecure 12-year-old inside me, so when someone joked about my shorts, I felt compelled to buy real workout shorts.

I ordered a pair of Adidas shorts from Amazon.  I was not aware that the "diva" stripe meant pink.  The first day I wore them, I mated them with a black t-shirt, a pink sweat band, and my black and white Nikes.

I got to the gym, and during Body Combat class, I saw myself in the full length mirror.  I looked pretty.  I looked like one of those women who dress up to go to the gym so she can sit around and look at guys.

I was appalled.

I don't want to look pretty.  I want to look like I'm serious about my exercise.  I want to look tough.

Sigh.  When did I become the kind of person who objects to looking pretty?  Can't I be pretty and serious?

Apparently, not in my mind.

Bogie - the reason my counter is less cluttered.

First it was the Dingo rawhide chews. I give the dogs a rawhide when I go upstairs to work on the computer.  It's meant to be a distraction so they will let me work in peace.

I set two on the stove, then stepped out of the room for just  a moment.  When I came back,  Bogie was chewing on a rawhide.  I looked at the stove.  Both rawhides were gone.  Bogie was only chewing one rawhide and wasn't saving the other.  I finally found the second outside with Angel.

Not only had Bogie taken the chews off the stove, he had given Angel hers.

The next day, I made cornbread to have with seafood chowder.  With half the cornbread remaining, I covered the metal pan with plastic wrap and set it near the back of the counter. Mind you, the rawhides were the very first time Bogie had taken anything since I got him two months ago.  And he knew they were destined for him anyway. So I had no qualms about leaving the pan on the counter.

When I got home from work the next day, there was nothing obviously out of place in the kitchen.  But when I stepped into the back yard, there was the empty cornbread pan laying in the grass.  I found the plastic wrap in the rocks.

So envision this - Not only did Bogie figure out there was edible food on the counter, somehow he managed to carry the pan out through the doggy door before eating it.  He didn't drop the pan off the edge of the counter.  He didn't tip it upside down.  He didn't eat it immediately.

He carefully carried it outside to enjoy the spoils.

I wish I had a surveillance camera.  Did he carry the pan in his teeth from the end where the rim forms a handle?  Did he maneuver the pan so he could grab it from the side?  He isn't telling.

I scolded him for the cornbread and figured that was that.  Silly me.

The very next day when I came home from work, there was a shattered ceramic cookie jar on the kitchen tile.   The dog treats that had been stored within were all eaten.  A second, plastic canister was out in the back yard, still filled with treats.

I suspect his success with the cornbread went to his head.  The plastic container of dog treats was on the outside of the counter.  I imagine he grabbed it and took it outside - through the doggy door.  I do appreciate that he takes these things outside to deal with them.  Obviously, he couldn't figure out how to open the canister.

So he went back inside to grab the next available treat container, the cookie jar in the shape of a begging dog.  I’m sure he thought he would just grab it and go outside.  But, being ceramic, it was both heavier and slipperier than he expected.  The jar crashed to the floor.

I can mentally picture them both hightailing it out the doggy door.  A few minutes pass, and Bogie sticks his head through the door.  Seeing no danger, and seeing the scattered treats, he reenters the house and carefully picks the treats out of the debris.  I can't decide whether Angel joined him.  Thankfully, neither dog was injured by the glass.

Angel was remorseful when I told them how disappointed I was.  Bogie just wagged his tail and grinned at me.  While I disliked losing the cornbread I had planned for my own dinner, and having to clean up shattered glass, I admire Bogie's ingenuity.

The upshot is the treat containers are now kept in the pantry.  And the pantry has the standard round door knob.  I suspect that if it had a lever style door knob, Bogie would figure out how to open it.  I'm not completely sure he won't figure out how to manage the round knobs.

My kitchen counters are disturbingly devoid of clutter.

Poorly executed newspaper price increase

I was recently informed that my monthly newspaper subscription to the Arizona Republic was increasing from $18.99 per month to $24 per month.  

The benefit to me for this 25% increase in cost?  I get access to their digital content.  

Whoop de doo.  I don't currently access their digital content.  That's why I read the newspaper.  So I can get my news - and comics - in one place with my breakfast.  I prefer that to having to click links, back up, click other links.  

I wasn't asked if I wanted this digital content.  I wasn't offered a print-only option.  I was just informed that my subscription would increase.  

I've commented before on the impending demise of print media.  My newspaper is already laughably slim.  We're the sixth largest American metropolis, yet 3 days a week the newspaper is the size of my home town paper.  Which had 30,000 residents at the time I lived there. 

Even now, at the end of many articles is the notation to go to their web site for further information.  If I need to go to the Internet for sufficient information, then why do I need the print edition at all? 

I like my newspaper.  I tried doing without and suffered withdrawal.   But this heavy-handed stab at "improving" my media experience has left a bad taste.  Additionally, I resent the tactic of charging me more for the Thanksgiving edition because it is bigger - from ads they get paid for.  

I've tolerated the Thanksgiving inequity with a grumbling acceptance.  But I have come to the conclusion that the columnists and comics I enjoy cannot counteract the ill filling I now have for Gannett Media.    Before the price increase, I will be cancelling my subscription. 

Now -- what do I read with breakfast? 

Bogie goofy face

I was trying to take a profile picture of Bogie.  He kept coming toward me instead.   This picture made me laugh.

I enjoy watching the Olympic athletes compete

I like the Olympics.  I will watch hours and hours of sports I ignore the remainder of the four years.  Gymnastics and diving are long-time favorites.  In the 2008 Olympics I got more into watching the swimming events.  And this year I discovered how exciting really good beach volleyball can be.

Whether or not they win, I admire the athletes who compete.  Competing is a huge commitment - of time, money, physical effort.  I ache after doing a cardio class two days in a row.  And that's only for an hour.   I can't imagine the discipline it takes to devote hours and hours every day to a sport.  For years.  With no guarantee you will even be able to compete.

When I see a gymnast perform on the balance beam, I wonder how many times have they fallen while learning to do this routine?  How many times have they gotten hurt only to get back on the beam, or the bars, or the rings?  Can you learn how to do a backflip twist tumbling routine without ever getting hurt?  The number of bandages I saw leads me to believe the answer to that is no.

Does the sand in beach volleyball hurt the player's feet? Does it get into places you'd rather not have sand?  Is it better to dive after a ball in beach volleyball and bury your knees in gritty sand than to dive onto the hard, unforgiving floor of regular volleyball?  Will a swimmer's skin ever recover from years of being soaked in chlorine?  Is there a soccer player alive that has never been accidentally kicked?

It breaks my heart to see an athlete get to the Olympics and fail.  Not fail as in not winning a medal.  Winning a gold medal is not the only criteria for success.  No, I mean, fail as in trip over the first hurdle, fall in the middle of a foot race, suffer an injury in the qualifications that preclude continuing.  Four years of striving can be wiped out in an instant.

Why do these athletes chose the sports they do?  Basketball and soccer players may be able to get on a professional team.   What is the post-competition demand for swimmers, rowers, table tennis players, or pole vaulters?  What inspires someone to become a world competitor in handball, field hockey, or trampoline?  There aren't enough coaching positions for everyone who competes.

I have to believe they do this because they love it.  I admire that.  And I enjoy watching them.

"Teenage" quail

My yard backs up against a retention basin. Often the Gambel's Quail that live there visit the bird block in my yard.  Although other birds enjoy the seed, I primarily put the blocks out to attract the quail.

Before I got the big dogs, the yard was sometimes visited by the parents and their puffball babies.  About the size of a fuzzy golf ball, the puffballs can't fly and would enter and exit under the gate.  While I miss seeing the babies, I would be devastated if one of the dogs caught one.  Instead, I get a kick out of the "teenage" quail.  They are not quite as big as their parents and they stick close to each other.

Walking along the block wall

I am impressed that the quail know whether or not to worry about the dogs.  And which of my dogs are the bigger concern.  Angel will walk out the doggy door, the quail will go on alert. If she simply lays in the grass they go back to eating.  If she walks toward them, they hop to the top of the block wall and make their escape.

Mom and kids

The wooden deck they are walking on is a raised platform about 3 feet high that keeps the food off the ground and provides a little protection from the dogs. I use a terra cotta planter bottom as a bird bath.

Dad and kids getting a drink. 

I can see the bird block platform from my kitchen window. Sometimes I am so entertained that I forget I'm supposed to be washing the dishes. 

Bogie had a gastropexy

It wasn't until I fell in love with a Great Dane that I learned the leading cause of death in Danes is GVD, or bloat.  Because they are a big-chested breed, a Dane's stomach can flip after eating.  It happens if they are active, but what 16-month-old dog isn't active?  I worried I would come home from work to find him ailing, or dead.

So I had him "pexied".  That's a surgery where one side of the stomach is tacked to the body wall.  Thereafter the stomach can't roll over.  Of course, right now he's miserable.  Though it was done laparoscopicly, there is still a 2 inch incision in his stomach wall.  

I feel guilty at causing him pain.  But they say Danes only live 8 years.  If that includes the 25% that died of bloat, maybe a pexied Dane can live as long as other dogs?  I hope so.

The vet recommended a t-shirt to keep him from chewing on the stitches.  I intended to buy some white sleeveless shirts today, but he started licking last night at 2:30.  So he ended up in an over-sized purple t-shirt from my closet.

It was surprisingly easy to get him into the shirt.  Of course, he was stoned out of his mind when I did it.

We'll see how easy it is to dress him when he isn't high on pain medication. 

Restringing an outdoor lighted deer

I have 3 five-foot-tall lighted holiday deer that I like very much.  Plus two smaller deer.  But they are lit with the small incandescent bulbs and the wiring was getting frayed.  I looked for new deer, but couldn't find any like the ones I have.  Replacing them would also create the quandary of how to dispose of the old deer.  They were still good deer.  I couldn't just trash them.

So I rewired them.

I decided to replace the lengths of incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs.  White wire was prohibitively expensive, so I settled on green wire.  I have no idea why green would be cheaper, or more available, than white.  I also don't know where the manufacturers of wire decorations get their lights. I couldn't find any wiring with those nifty clips already attached.  So I settled for zip ties.

Lots and lots of zip ties.

Here are the step by step photos of the restringing.  This is how it looks coming out of the box. Which may explain the fraying wires. (Well, that and the bunnies chewed through some of the wiring.)

This is how it looks assembled. Except this one has a broken antler bracket.  That's why it looks like he has a mane.  His antlers are laying against his neck.

I stripped off the white wire (this is a different deer). At first I was tediously following the wiring to unfasten it. Then I had an epiphany and realized there was no reason to preserve the wire. So I snipped it. Much, much easier to remove.

Because the wire I bought wasn't designed for wire sculptures, I had to string sections at a time, trying not to double the wire or ruin the outline of the sculpture.

In some areas of the structure, it was hard to decide the best direction to run the new wiring.  Liberal use of clothes pins allowed me to test layouts before zip tying.

After zip tying the bulbs, the reindeer looks more like a porcupine.

Here he is completed and looking much better with his antlers repaired.  I fastened the wiring in such a way that the deer can no longer be disassembled for the off season.  This should enable them to look better longer.   Granted, they take up more storage space.

Here is the tableau during the day. (And yes, the small deer in the foreground was done with different wire.  If I get ambitious, I will change him over.)

And here is the tableau at night.  Here the green wire is a non-issue.  And honestly, very few outdoor sculptures look good during the daytime.

I have one final stag to rewire.  I planned on getting them done early last year, but I procrastinated.  I did the 4 in the picture in the two weeks after Thanksgiving of last year.  The fifth spent the season in the garage.

I've promised myself I will finish the last deer next week.  I'm not sure I believe me.

Updated:  I did finish the last deer, but not until December, 2012.

Related:     Red nose for a white wire deer

Acronym Pet Peeve

I just got an e-mail proudly touting someone's promotion to NAM.

Good for them.  What the heck is a NAM?

I hate it when people assume everyone else knows what their acronyms mean.  A former General Manger (GM) peppered his meetings with acronyms without ever explaining them.

In writing, it is considered proper form to give the definition of an acronym the first time you use it.  I wish people applied that policy in their speaking.

At minimum, add it to your Power Point slide so I can read it myself.

To the GM (previously defined), AOP meant Annual Operating Plan.  But to the software developers he was addressing, AOP meant Aspect-oriented programming.  At http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com, there are 62 different definitions of AOP.

Granted, context and environment can often help your listener derive the definition you intend.  But while they are pondering what you meant by the acronym, they are missing what you said next.  It is much more productive to just explain yourself.

Texters aren't exempt from needing to understand their audience.  While LOL is widely considered to mean "Laugh out loud", the person reading the text may interpret it differently.  Your context can be misconstrued if to them LOL means "Little Old Lady", "Loss of Life", or " Length of Lease".

Be Kind.  Remind.

Researching dog food

For years I have fed my dogs Purina Beneful Original, with the vet's acceptance, if not blessing.

Once I added the Great Dane to my household, I was told that while Beneful was a good dog food, I really needed to be feeding my two large dogs a better quality dog food.

Side note:  Does the dog food really matter when I feed them a bunch of treats throughout the day?  That probably undoes any good that come from the brand of food.

Before I did the deeper research, Blue Buffalo was recommended by my sister and highly regarded on the Internet.  Two of the first 5 ingredients are meat or meat meal.  But it is higher in fat and higher in calories than Beneful or Science Diet.  The dry bites are very small.  My Bogie is very sloppy, and I got tired of cleaning up the fallen pieces. 

Bloat is a leading cause for death in Great Danes.  An article I was given on bloat stated that animal fat in the first 5 ingredients is a bad thing.  

I compared the ingredients and the Guaranteed Analysis for the Large Breed variations from Authority, Beneful (not large breed),  Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux , Eukanuba,  Innova, Orijen, Purina Pro Plan, Royal Canin Maxi Large Breed, and Science Diet.

My vet recommended Science Diet, but it seemed to me by the ingredients and Guaranteed Analysis to be no better than Beneful.  It was higher in fat than Beneful and like Beneful only one of the first five ingredients was meat meal and one was animal fat.

Royal Canin was another vet recommendation. Chicken meal was the very first ingredient.  But the next 4 were grains.  And it was very high in fat.

Orijen seemed great with two meats and two meat meals in the first five ingredients.  But it was hard to compare because the ingredients vary by region and I couldn't find any guaranteed analysis.  It was also the most expensive brand I researched.

Castor and Pollux, Eukanuba, and Authority each had a meat and a meat meal and no animal fat in the first five ingredients.

I finally decided to try Innova.  It has two meats and a meal in the first 5 ingredients.  And of those brands listing Glucosamine, it had the highest amount at 600mg.  Considering my Angel is supposed to be taking  Glucosamine, that's a good additive. It has about the same calories as the Beneful.  And it's in bigger bites that tend to get cleaned up by the dogs, instead of me.

I haven't seen the vet since I switched, so I don't know what her reaction will be.  I have my research if she wonders why I chose Innova.  And I have only been feeding it for 4 days.  So it remains to be seen whether I made a good choice.

This is my research and my conclusions, for what it's worth.

Updated 8/2/12 -
So it's been a couple weeks on the Innova.  I've noticed the dogs' coats are softer and more silky.  When I was petting Angel last evening, I realized that I wasn't getting a handful of loose hair like I usually do. I also noticed that the couch was still virtually hair free from the last time I vacuumed it.

Very pleased.