I am not the only Bob Barker fan out there - Bunky from Big Brother 2 is one also! Check it out!

For everything you've wanted to know about Tourette's.

For the most part, I really enjoy taking Bart to work, even if means about 20 minutes longer commute time. In theory I could take the Express 180 Fremont BART-San Jose bus to Bart, but the bus alone makes a 20 minute trip into a 55 minute one, putting my total commute time at 3+ hours per day.

Public transportation is great when done right, when it's not, it's a bus.

Any other hockey fans out there looking for a lot of info on the USA National Women's Ice Hockey Team will find it on these excellent tribute pages.

Last night, I had the priveledge of going to The Bamboo Hut to see the most excellent band, Project Pimento strut their stuff, which includes a Theramin, played expertly by the husband of a woman I work with. Erik and I sported Hawaiian shirts and drank the girliest of drinks from flaming volcanoes and coconuts while Andrea found a boyfriend who was in search of the bus station in San Jose.

When her boyfriend was escorted out, he said "I get this a lot." It was a Fan-tabulous evening.

Per a request for a listing of the things involved in Alice's weeked at the vet (aka Camp Al), here's a brief rundown. 24 hours in an oxygen cage, IV antibiotics and fluids, 2 sets of x-rays to add to her collection at the vet's and nebutilization and decoupaging her every 4-6 hours. Basically that last thing is filling a room (or cage) with steam to loosen the gunk in her chest, then pounding on her back till she coughs.

Alice's lung is clearing up!! The antibiotics are working in combination with ThwapMaster T (aka Andrea) thumping her back twice a day. She's going to be on antibiotics for a while but there won't be any big scary surgery in her future!!! I've never been so happy about an x-ray before.

The grand total for the repairs to my beloved VW are going to come to over $3000.00. All that for one lousy piece of Road Debris. Good thing I called my insurance company.

How it is when you know someone's looking	What it's really like

Price for adopting Alice: Free
Cost of weekend at the emergency vet: $1163.00
Having her home and healthy: Priceless

So this weekend, Miss Alice got very sick and cost us a bundle to make better. An $1163.00 bundle, to be exact. That money could have been part of our much-needed electricity upgrade, 1/3 of a hot tub, 2 months of dinners out, Rainie's continuing orthopedic vet visits, 3 car payments, 1/5 of a decent down payment on a car or a full set of new hockey gear. But it wasn't, instead it saved Alice's life.

I know not everyone would make the same choice, not everyone can. Dogs are put down every day because their owners can't afford the treatment. But that's not the case for us, that money just means slightly different choices about spending going forward (and more dinners in). And most importantly, it means that Alice is here with me, snoozing on her Queen Bed as I work.

Ahh yes, true brilliance is lighting up the night sky in my home town. Homeowner finds washed-up burglary suspects in pond.

A week ago, on my way to the Bart Station, (this one time, at band camp...) a big piece of wood flew off of a flatbed truck and directly into my path. I drove right over it with a loud bang, but since the car kept moving, so did I, dutifully noting the name of the trucking company (Garcia Trucking). That night, I noticed that the front of my car was all jacked up.

Turns out, Mr. Garcia Trucking's loose debris messed up my grill, undercarriage, air conditioning and possibly something with the hood. My insurance covers part of this and a fine rental car for 15 days, if I need it for that long.

I dropped off my beloved VW and picked up a fine rental Mazda (thankfully, it's not white). The woman tried to talk me into upgrading to a less crappy Mazda or Mitsubishi. I told her I'd drive an SUV or a wagon, if she had them but she didn't. So she kept offering crappier Mitsubishis and Mazdas. There was no offer of a Ford or a Chevy though.

Bottom line: I'm a VW person. Sometimes I try to deny it, but the truth is, I feel the most comfortable in a VW. To me, they're safer, more hip, faster and more solid than any of those "rental" cars. My Passat should make her triumphant return to my driveway in a week or so, where she'll be given the respect any decent VW product deserves.

For all fans of the Dublin Bowl, a sad day has come to pass with the loss of Earl Anthony, "A True Sports Legend And A Real Gentleman." My co-worker will be adding black bunting in mourning to his lovely Earl Anthony margarita glasses in honor of the loss.

I'm so sad to hear that Jesse Helms won't seek re-election. Really. What good is the senate without staunch supporters of all things right-wing? Would it magically become a compassionate, caring entity devoted solely to the good of the people, without hate, ignorance or oppression?

Doubt it, but the retirement of Mr. Helms can only be a positive step.

Magnut's Top 10 books has got me thinking. I was an English major, a born writer (note: I make no claims about the quality of my writing, it's just something I have to do, like peeing) and read voraciously. But now that I'm out of school (and have been for 6 years), I can't read anything but current fiction. If it took place recently, I'm all for it. If it's historical fiction, or could be remotely considered as such, I want no part of it. Set in a foreign country? It's all yours.

So here's my top 10, which features no classics or anything you'd be forced to read in a literature class. Not that those are bad books, I just can't bear to pick any of them up again yet.

• Mothers, by Jax Peters Lowell
• Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in Amercia, by Natalie Goldberg
• The Pact, by Jody Picoult
• Best Friends, by Martha Moody
• Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian
• Traveling Light, by Katrina Kittle
• Naked, by David Sidaris
• Hoopi Shoopi Donna, by Suzanne Strempek Shea
• The Women's Room, by Marilyn French

I'm afraid 9 is the most I can come up with for the moment. I do read books by men, but I guess the ones I enjoy the most are written by women.

I can't help it, Anal Glands (Sacs): Impactions, Infections, Abscesses is just funny, especially that drawing.

Yes, this is part of life as a dog parent, yes we have to have Alice's expressed every month or so, but that doesn't stop it from being funny.

I'm not sending an evite
However, we are having a thing on Sunday, after my hockey game (which starts at 4:15 pm on Sunday, August 26 at the Ice Centre of San Jose). Come to the game and cheer us to a certain defeat, then come to our house for some barbeque, midwestern style. As always, we'll be vegetarian-friendly, but the focus will be on meat and meat products, as well as an assortment of traditional midwestern side dishes.

Planning to attend? Drop me a line so I can buy some food for your ass.

The weekend from hell
Friday at 7 pm, I'm working from home, it's 90 degrees outside and I'm trying to work until 8. I notice that Alice is panting. Hard. Stupid me, I had a flashback to when Bagel was with us and he panted like that from the heat. I'd given him a bath and it cooled him off so I tried the same thing with Al. Only she wasn't hot, she had pneumonia again, the third time in a year. She emerged from her bath shivering and breathing hard.

I rushed her to the doggie ER, where they didn't even talk to me, they just whisked her off to an oxygen cage. I walked away, her leash in my hand and couldn't quite get to my car before I starting crying. She spent 24 hours in that cage, getting IV antibiotics and various treatments. We went by Saturday at noon to visit her, she was still breathing hard and couldn't wait to get back inside to the oxygen cage. Saturday night, we picked her up and settled the $1163.00 bill. The doctor there wanted us to consider removing the lobe of her lung that's been having the problem, since it never really cleared up. That is our last resort.

She still wasn't breathing very well and we debated at length about whether or not to take her back to the ER, but eventually decided to just let her sleep in our room, that she was wiped out and needed to rest. She settled down next to me, still breathing a bit hard. At 5 am, I woke up and reached to pet her, to make sure she was still with us.

She didn't move. Her skin was warm, but she wasn't moving. I called her name and she didn't respond. I called Andrea's name, she did respond. I reached to turn on the light and by the time I reached back to Alice, she had stirred ever so slightly. Even then, she could barely do more than lift her head. I said the magic word (treat) and even that only got her up a little, not into the full run that it usually provokes. We spent the rest of the night in the office, her on the futon with me, me laying awake, listening to her breathe and praying (yes, praying) to every saint and every person (and Ellie) I've lost to watch over her and help that lobe clear. I finally fell asleep only to be awaked at 8 am (on a Sunday!) by some yahoo wanting to adopt a beagle.

The antibiotics are starting to kick in, by the end of yesterday, she was arroooing on the phone to Melinda. We're now sitting with her 3 times a day in the bathroom with a humidifier, then clapping her on the back to loosen the gunk in her lungs. She hates it but if it can save her lung (and her life), that's what we'll do.

If you pray, please keep Alice's little lung in your prayers. If you think good thoughts, please think good thoughts for Alice. If you do anything that connects you with any outside force that might be able to help Alice's lung clear, please make that connection on her behalf. She may be almost 12, but she's still got a lot of living to do.