But they backfire on people whose timing is off. A good handful of us tend to come up with these ideas, broadcast our intentions via the internets and then sit on them for a while. Our friends comment on them, and the hesitant idea machines allow those responses to affect, usually to the detriment of said idea’s completion, their approach to getting it done.

A few months ago I mentioned selling off most or all of my musical equipment and starting from scratch. This was a good idea, and I should have done it. There isn’t a single piece of significantly valuable equipment I own that is in any way sacred to me. I could live without it all, and from a practical standpoint I already do. A good friend joked about how it would decrease my status as a rock star if I reduced my gear so drastically.

So I’m blaming my failure to actually do it on him. I doubt he’ll mind.

I have to stop announcing my plans to everyone. I need to just DO STUFF.

It’s kinda like a shotgun wedding. Tradition foretold it, violence immanentized it, but love will (does) perpetuate it. Yes, we have puppies. In our house. In the middle of our street. They’re fucking precious, and if you say otherwise, we know where the electric knife is.

A little history, in case you aren’t aware: We got the girls (Niecy/Bernice and Nadine/Bernadine) from a rescue group. This rescue group is too busy trying to save a bunch of puppies from being killed to worry about making the same, ever-growing bunch of puppies sick. Doc says they have distemper. There are two phases to to canine distemper: Snotty, and then Crazy/Disfigured/Dead. We’re doing all we can to see that they avoid the horrors of that second stage altogether.

Nadine, caught in a rare moment, is playing with a toy.

I wrote an email to my sister, who may or may not puppy sit for us at some point, since she has been the most closely interested in how our girls are doing. It occurred to me that this email was the first time I had written at length about my puppy parenting experience so far. Below the next photo is the part of the email where I ramble on about all the stuff the puppies have trained us to do. If you read something that makes you wince and think we’re doing it all wrong, then tell us gently or keep it to yourself. We don’t rub their noses in anything, and ask only the same courtesy of you.

You think Niecy hears something, Niecy thinks you're seeing things

Farris’s Observations after ~2.75 weeks of being a Puppy Papa:

• They’re usually ready for bed by 10pm or 11pm. Outside to “evacuate” one last time, then a bit of lovin’ when they go back to their bed/crate. Sometimes they stay up late with us, with no problems.
• They don’t bark or whine or cry at all during the night, and we haven’t had any accidents either, so they know that sleepy-time is until whenever Daddy lets them go outside in the morning before breakfast.
• So far, they’re OK with eating breakfast anytime between 6am and 9am. I say 9am because that’s the very latest I’ve fed them. This isn’t a strict routine, and I don’t see a need to have a strict “feed them at this time or that time” routine. They’re dogs. When they were wild wolves, they ate whenever they found food.
• Niecy does tend to bark and whine quite a bit during the day whenever we’re not giving her our undivided attention. She’s DEFINITELY not ready to have her run of the house, so when we do let them out of the crate by themselves, the door to their room stays closed if we can’t watch her to make sure she isn’t ensuring said attention by chewing things up. The more we ignore her barking, the more she’s learning that we won’t abandon her, and that being calm inside is the way to get our attention and get to go OUTSIDE where it’s not necessary to be calm. :)
• Nadine is very mellow and doesn’t like to play very often. She’ll run around a bit when enticed with a toy, or if Niecy insists on playing tug of war or something. But after a while, she just wants to curl up in Daddy’s lap and either take a nap (she’s my nap buddy) or watch her retarded sister chase her tail. We’re hoping she’s just tired from growing, and that this isn’t distemper-related lethargy.
• Dinner has been anytime between 5 and 7, mainly because that’s around when we eat. They get plain yogurt around lunchtime some days, and they love it. It’s supposed to help them fight off infection. Between lunch and dinner, they share a whole can of puppy food every day. Since they’ve been growing but are definitely not overeating, we’ve started mixing in some dry food with each meal. They usually finish it all, but if they quit before it’s all gone we don’t give them any grief or try to make them eat the rest. A healthy puppy will not starve itself to death.
• We’ve found that they like apples and carrots better than the meaty salty store treats, so we keep bite-sized chunks in a container in the fridge. It’s cool because it’s better for their teeth, and it takes them longer to chew, so they have plenty of time to absorb the “I did something good” association. They never get treats unless they’ve JUST done something good.

So there you go, that’s what I’ve learned about puppy parenthood in the last few weeks. Pretty laid back. I never yell at them, though I do use the “Daddy is not amused” voice when they’re doing something they ought not, and give them treats and scratches when they do stuff that makes me happy. OH! Niecy has “sit” down, and doesn’t even need a treat anymore (though she still gets one every now and then, so she won’t forget).

2. Today is B’s berfday!

3. If anyone out there is driving from DFW to Beaumont in the next week or so, please let me stow away with you. Otherwise, I’m going to book a one-way flight sometime later this week. Long story.

Battlestar Galactica sucks balls. Hard.

I have to admit that I somewhat selfishly hope to be a positive and frequent enough influence on Tabitha that perhaps, at least once or twice in her social life apart from me, she feels it appropriate to relate, to her friends who do not know me, stories of things we experienced together and refer to me by the honorific. “My godfather was in town and we sang Karaoke to Classic Rock. You know, like Green Day, and the Foo Fighters. All that stuff the old farts used to listen to.”

Maybe it will never happen. Maybe it will, and she’ll merely mention “Justin” or “my friend.” The selfishness lies in that I hope Tabitha sees us as more than “my parents’ friends.” You know, like we’re just those weirdos she sees every now and then when Mom and Dad have weenie roasts or monthly Canasta games or whatever it is that old married people get together to do while their kids sit in another room and play their 3d video games or centrifugal bumblepuppy. I don’t know the first damn thing about Canasta, but I hope as the years go by, and as Tabitha becomes more than just the adorable thing that sits on Mommy and smiles at us, Tabitha looks forward to our visits as much as I looked forward to going to visit the Wilsons or Uncle Harley and Aunt Ninny or John and Rhonda or the Welches.

The dedication ceremony took place during a regular Sunday service at Cathy’s church, which is a Unitarian Universalist congregation. Though I’ll admit it isn’t “my thing” (nor am I interested in attending regular meetings at any religious establishment, creedless or otherwise), I can honestly see how people could be drawn to such a group. It is evident that most of these people genuinely care about the world and people around them. There’s something unintentionally South Parkesque about attending a worship service in the company of Christians, Buddhists, Taoists and Agnostics, listening to a sermon with little or no mention of God titled, I shit you not, “Would Lao Tzu Fling Poo?“

Grace had torn out about 95% of the carpet in our house. I was so angry that I decided to leave and go hang out at Kandi & Renee’s house. Kandi, Renee and Uncle Dennie were having a party because they were all about to go on the Atkin’s diet. It was a Carb Party. Tons and tons of evil carbs for all to enjoy at this last supper. Nobody was drinking, but everyone was drunk. Travis Box came in, stoned out of his skull. He didn’t recognize me or remember who I was, but I wasn’t offended because I didn’t really give a crap about Travis Box.

Then two cats and a wife conspired to keep me from finishing the dream, and I got up to go to work.

I worked from home some this morning and then went in to finish up some project planning and put a few nails in AT&T’s coffin. We’re switching away from traditional phone service and getting some SIP trunks. It’s scary and I just might wet myself before it’s all over.

We’re leaving tomorrow and I’m not even remotely ready. I’m going to leave work at noon, then clean the kitchen and pack up a few things. Hopefully we’ll be on the road by 2.

I have a new server, and we’re going to be migrating everything to it. I’m looking for a good user control panel package. I’ve looked at web-cp, DCT, VHCS, and ispconfig. They’ve all got big flaws I don’t like, but I just need to pick one. I’ll give it another day or two.

The only problem is that about an octave and a half above middle C, the thickness of the felt starts to get too shallow for the thumbtacks. So I need to either find some smaller tacks, or figure out where acoustically it sounds OK to quit tacking. On the higher end of the keyboard the notes are a bit tinny anyway, so it might sound fine.

Aside from that, a few of the lower keys are way too sharp, and the pins are so rusty and nasty that I can’t turn them. At any rate, after a bit more messing around, my piano is going to sound very interesting. Now I just need to write some decent honkytonk.

Daniel and Jess came over for dinner tonight. I made pork chops and mashed potatoes. Then we watched election coverage while Jess NaNoWriMoed all over the place.

I forgot to mention that I finally got new glasses this weekend. I really like them, and they don’t give me headaches. They’re pretty different from any glasses I’ve ever worn.

I made this mosaic last night using an app called AndreaMosaic. It was pretty easy, but it took me a while to get the right settings to both make it look good and use very few duplicate images. This is a lower-quality version of the full image. I’d like to tweak it a bit more, print it, and frame it if it will fit in with the rest of B’s photo decor.

Tonight I made the best taco meat ever, bar none. Then I ate brownies and drank milk and got a stomach ache.

Then I did some more work and tried to pass off this lame entry as today’s sorry excuse for a NaBloDooDoo post. C’est la vie.

(Yeah, baby. I ripped off your closing line. I’m tired and hurty.)

We finally “finished” scraping and painting the ceiling in the guest bathroom this weekend. It looks ok, but the paint is cracked and peeling in several places. It will only get worse once baths and showers are taken in there and moisture gets into the cracks. I’m going to try to spot-sand and touch up the paint after a couple of days, but I’m not terribly optimistic.

It has been raining like mad for a few hours. I was looking forward to falling asleep peacefully to the sounds of real weather, but of course it stopped just as I got ready for bed.

I’ve been thinking about going to RenFest in costume again, but I don’t think I have the time or the extra dough to do anything decent. I still might try. I’d really like to get a decent kilt with “my” clan’s tartan, and all the requisite accessories, but that gets expensive fast.

My office is about 10% clean. That may seem unremarkable, but it’s noticeable. I wish I could just pick up the whole room, turn it upside down, and shake everything out of it then start from scratch.