It's about goddamn time, Elian Gonzalez could return to Cuba in 5 days. Yes, I know that Cuba is fucked up in many ways, but the kid should be with his dad. Period.

I think Alice is overtired from yesterday's grand neigborhood adventure so she's being a little shit, barking in meetings, whining all the time like a 2 year old who hasn't had enough sleep.

In honor of the pets.com declaration that today is Bring Your Dog to Work Day, and in honor of Alice's declaration that yesterday was Break Out of the House and Eat Everything day, she's at work with me today. My web cam thingie is on the Fritz so I can't capture the moment. Sigh.

Alice managed to get out today. Okay, I somehow didn't close the front door all the way and she walked right on out. In her wanderings she managed to bring back a can of vegetarian chili and some Indian bread. From what I can tell, she went out, ate some stuff, brought some other stuff back, dropped it off, then went out for more, like 'let me take this back to the hotel' as if we're Howard Johnson's or something like that.

Since you never know what she's eaten, I made her puke it up but at least I could do it at home, thus saving some $$.

Things that are good about this:

1. Ellie was at work with me all day. She really has no clue which house is ours and would have happily trotted off and gotten her little self killed.
2. Our neighbor who caught Alice last time found and returned her once again.
3. Our house is kind of hidden from the street so nobody took the opportunity to stroll in and rob us blind.
4. Alice stayed relatively close to home.

But it was still one hell of an adventure.

My excellent co-worker Stever was kind enough to bring Ellie a hamburger from McDonald's (just meat on a bun), now she thinks that the world is a new and wonderful place. Thanks Steve!

The advantage of a mostly deaf and partially blind dog is that it's easy to sneak out of the room without her waking up.

I've decided to go and visit my fabulous friend Gail in Oregon during the 4th of July weekend, however all of the good-ass flights are sold out so I'm fretting over what to do.

Spent another exciting morning with Ellie (aka Carol Ann) at our wonderful vet's office. I think we have a solution for her upset tummy, at least I hope so.

I arrived early so I could run next door to Starbuck's and get my beloved Carmel Frappucino, no whipped cream. The Starbuck's guy knows me by now, since I'm a regular at the vet. Evidently this guy's new hobby is hanging out at the vet after he gets off work, bringing over little Starbuckian concoctions (some sort of apple cider w/ cinnamon and carmel, the vet came out and mentioned that apple pie smell is an aphrodisiac then got embarrassed for mentioning it and left) for them to try.

I ran into him as we took Ellie out to the lobby to get weighed (she's losing weight, which is not a good thing) and of course he fawned all over her. We went back into the exam room, I assumed that he'd be gone after we left. Oh no, concoction man hung around as Ellie's pills were broken in half, telling me how he'd taken her new medicine when he had giardea and how he gets those 'fabulous' pill cutters at Kaiser.

I don't mean to be rude, but do I care? I'm standing before you, trying to eek some precious days or weeks of happy life out of Ellie and frankly, I don't give a shit that you go to Kaiser or make great drinks (other than the Carmel Frappucino that I ordered). Then he tried to force his little beverage on me, I didn't know how to politely say 'you know, I'm not sure that this Frappucino won't give me the shits, I'm not taking any more chances, thank you' so I made lame excuses and finally just said no.

People -- if someone says no, it really does mean no. It doesn't matter if they're talking about sex, drugs or a soda. Have some goddamn respect.

Everytime I read someone's take on the recent surge of blogs to the world, I'm instantly defensive. After all, this blog has only been around since February of this year, according to the timelines, it's worthless since it wasn't the among first and it isn't like some of the older blogs.

But shit, how does anything grow and evolve if only a handful of people are part of the process? And why is it an expectation that each and every weblog make every reader see the world or the web in a different way? Why can't it just be about me saying whatever the hell I want to and you reading it, or not?

Some things defy comment.

Adding the lovely photo of Bel Sha Zaar to my site has inspired great mirth and merriment. Everyone I've mentioned it to has some sort of belly dancing story to share, the best so far comes from Sarah, who once had dinner at a middle eastern resturant where the dinner included a belly dancing lesson and a belly dancing certificate to go with it.

I have no interest in seeing the movie Gladiator. None. Not an ounce, no matter how I try to muster or feign interest, I fall flat, spent, still not wanting to see it, knowing that my lack of interest is a big dissapointment to the rest of the family and surely that lack of interest is, in the eyes of God, translated into wavering devotion and for it, I'll be sentenced to eternal damnation.

From an anonymous member of my family: I have one of the hungriest cracks around.

Thanks to Amy for the fabulous color photo of Bel Sha Zaar in all her technicolor glory!

The world is so small and technology makes it smaller.
My friend is having a bad day. My buddy Thoma works with her, so I sent him an IM telling him to go over right now and hug her. He got right up out of his seat and hugged her and my other friend feels a little better.

There's nothing more charming than starting your day with a trail of dog shit leading outside. Ellie is not in top form right now, we're headed back to the vet again tomorrow morning.

If you haven't been there lately, Amy has added some fabulous photos to her site. Go. Click now!

Excellent!!!

We're off to Reno, where we'll be seeing the Spirit of the Dance with our exciting VIP tickets. Reno... where the difference between VIPs and everyone else is a mere $5.

Just realized that I hadn't updated my Dilbert a Day calendar since April 17. I guess that was a really good day or something.

Not much going on today, I'm just tired. Andrea had to work hella late last night, and I stupidly went out to dinner with them at 9:30. I had a way-too-big beer and instead of feeling all warm and good like beer should make you feel, I all of the sudden felt like crap. When I stood up, I lost my footing so I appeared to be quite tipsy. But I wasn't, I just felt like shit.

Has the webcam phenomenon gone too far with the Vegas Wedding cam, or is this where it should be?

After lunch today, I appointed myself Carpooler of the Month and as such, scored festival parking right outside the building. Really, I had to pee and was pretty short on time.

Oh waahh...Gas price crunch has one Illinois family singing SUV blues. Time to buy a minivan like the rest of the family-driving world.

Just called Andrea at work and was shocked to hear stuff I'd written while she put me on hold. My legacy lives on!

Part of having a beagle in the family means constantly watching what they're trying to get into. Chow hound does not begin to describe Alice, she's so driven by food, sometimes it scares me. On our walk this morning, she lunged at something with such great enthusiasm, it had to be an entire eclair or some delicacy. Ha! It was freshly made cat shit. There I was, yelling at her while she's licking her lips with shit on her lower lip. Blech, blech, blech!

Yesterday, Andrea and I went crazy at this girlie salon, packed to the gills with imported hair care products in all sizes, colors and shapes. I dropped a quick $78 on a hair dryer that's "75% quieter" (found out this morning that's because it's not very powerful), shampoo-in color that has left my hair the exact same color, and a 'texturizer' that's supposed to add curl.

The sum result of all these producs? My hair looks exactly the same.

Played a concert Saturday at my least favorite venue, the Almaden Fashion Plaza. There was an art & wine fest going on, so we were strategically placed between the kettle korn and the wine tent. It ended up being pretty fun, and I sat there admiring my lovely new sax case between tunes.

Check out the all new bassethoundrescue.com. Finally, a decent looking volunteer-run website. I know, I know, a lot of people volunteer to do a website for free because they're trying to learn and while I appreciate that process, sometimes the end result is either so gaudy that the message is lost or just plain hard to use.