Monday,
March 11, 2002

Well, there went my week

Oy. Yes, it's going to be another five days of racing against the clock to make not one, not two, but three sets of people happy with my output. It's times like this that I really wish I could temporarily clone myself -- it would make things so much easier. . .right up until the point where I'd be fighting with myself to drive the Hoosiermobile.

Okay, scratch that idea.

Oh, did I mention that I finally signed up for guitar lessons yesterday? 1:00 PM on Saturdays for the next five weeks, I will be be at MARS Music trying not to make my instructor burst into fits of giggles as I plonk my way through something appropriately electric and rockish. Of, screw it -- if they want to laugh at a fat 35-year-old technical writer strumming through "Stairway to Heaven," they're more than welcome. As long as I actually learn how to DO it.

Two other notable things about today -- I got a new set of tires and a front end realignment, and MAN you can tell the difference. I'm not fighting the wheel anymore, and I can pop it up to 75-80 MPH (thanks to my new radar detector, tra-la) without getting any shimmy. Sweet.

The other thing was the delivery of Pooch by a very sad and weepy Jolene. I tried to reassure her that we'd take good care of him, but she raised him from a puppy, so she's understandably upset about leaving him.

But she'd washed and brushed him, so he was just absolutely beautiful -- I have to get pictures so you can see just how spectacular this dog is. Big, thick honey gold coat, pointy ears, shortish snout, velvet brown eyes that look like they're ringed with eyeliner, a long bushy tail that curls whenever he gets excited -- he kept running up and down the stairs looking for Jolene after she left, then went out with Lyndon for a short walk around the complex before bed. It's obvious that he knows something's wrong -- he kept whining and looking at the staircase like he expected her to come back and get him, and it took him a long time to settle down, but he's camped out on the cool tiles in front of the fireplace (which isn't surprising -- he has one heck of a thick coat, and is always panting), and I spread his blanket out in the bay window so he can sleep where it's cool.

Lyndon plans on taking him out to the park tomorrow night to play ball with him. Jolene said he's not all that great when it comes to catching things -- this should be interesting.