Kunoichi: Doggie Ninja

Well, it’s been a while. At first I was waiting for her birthday to post and then I got busy with all kinds of stuff. Ichi got a football from planet dog, a tug-a-jug and a sushi plush toy set.

In the weeks surrounding her birthday she has really learned how to test her limits. She’s constantly putting a paw on the couch or the tables and has even gotten a little more aggressive. Additionally, she’s gotten sick twice because, as a part of testing her limits, she tries to get and eat anything she’s not supposed to (like banana laffy taffy).

Yesterday during the election she pretty much slept. I don’t know if they wore her out at the vet, but she definitely wasn’t her usual playful self. But at least she didn’t get sick again.

But since this was quite an occassion, more pictures after the cut.

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Well, Ichi turns one year old on the 20th. Hard to believe huh? Surprisingly, her birthday presents arrived WAY earlier than expected. Some are too cute for our enjoyment alone, so I’m waiting until I have someone else around or her actual birthday rolls around to give them to her. BUT, after the firing of Tony Franklin yesterday, i decided there was one that she NEEDED. See picture.

The way I figure, she’d make an EXCELLENT Offensive Coordinator. She clearly knows how to run and how to avoid her would be tacklers. She’s great at recovering fumbles. But she KNOWS how to hold onto the ball in the first place. As for playcalling, I’m sure we can rig up some sort of mat-to-voice situation. No one will be able to figure out her erratic playcalling. Defenses have never prepped for a dog-written offense. After all, what’s the worst she could do? Lose to Vandy for the first time in 53 years? OH WAIT SHE CAN’T.

Oh and this is her first football toy. Why I didn’t have one ready to go for football season along with her a jersey, I don’t know. I would have had her a jersey on day one of living with me if I she hadn’t been so tiny (aka, I knew she would grow out of it). Note that it’s a little big for her. It also smells of peppermint and can have kibble put in it. It’s not indestructible persay, but it is supposed to be virtually indestructible. I did have to teach her how to get it in her mouth (weird visions going through your head aren’t there?) and how to know there was kibble in it. Technically I got it from Amazon, but it’s from <a href = “http://www.planetdog.com”>Planet Dog</a> in case you were wondering.

Sorry bout that, things are a little crazier than normal lately. First thing being that the macbook crashed and oh how it crashed hard. Failed fans, logic board and hard drive. It was literally easier to ask “what is working”. Slowly but surely, I’m redoing it to it’s pre-crash state. The backups were relatively old and syncing back caused a lot of redundant data that had to be deleted.

But, I finally finished reorganizing the external drives, so…I started the backup clones again. And I should mention Time Machine didn’t suck as much as I thought it did.

ANYWAY.  It’s also football season which means much more travel fun times for me. Also, it means very full Saturdays or eating, sitting, and watching. Sometimes there’s screaming followed by praying for miracles. And for once in my life I questioned the “it’s not like they can hear you” statement made this weekend as we screamed at the tv while sitting in Quixotes. WHY? Because Quixotes is in down town Auburn.

But apparently USC once again neglected to focus on it’s “easy” games while the rest of the world is out to get them. So there will be a new #1. According to the data I compiled last year, a top 5 team losing to an unranked team falls an average of 10 places. But it’s USC and they seem to always get the benefit of the doubt, so I’m betting on #9. But check out the stat I found on ESPN this morning that is painful considering this weekend Auburn takes on Tennessee. Finally stating “go big blue” might actually make sense becuase the student body is calling for a blue-out. (Both teams prefer Orange, so this week, we prefer blue).

Dragon*Con was tons of fun and I met a TON of new people. We got some amazing pictures including pictures of me attempting to fight a Dalek from Doctor Who (I was dressed as Cassandra from Soul Calibur 4 at the time).

I also picked up a hilarious Doctor Who shirt. “Tardis Express: when it absolutely has to be there before you sent it”. LOL.

I haven’t finished compiling all the pictures yet, but for now be satisfied with my awesome picture (courtesy of Bob) with Michael Hogan (aka, Saul Tigh on Battlestar Galactica). He was so amazingly nice that it was really hard to believe he plays a hardass, drunken XO.

As far as Ichi goes, she seemed to finally enjoy her time being boarded. This was a significantly longer time than normal, and while she was VERY excited to see me, she wasn’t as “OMG I”M HOME” as normal. Usually she sniffs all the grass as we come in and then the whole house. This time she walked proudly back home and pretty much pounced on her stuffed tiger upon entering. Then she took a LONG nap. Play time at the vet must have been fun.

So, I’m pretty sure every parent goes through this, well, not exactly this (I hope), but a similar thing. While I’m not officially a parent, there are many times that I feel like one.

Backstory: I hate putting Ichi in her kennell, mostly because I think she hates it. She’ll walk over to it and sit down in front of it, but often not go inside. And I really hate to have her in there while I’m at work. So, when she was tiny, I rarely did. She was often just in the bathroom area with the door closed but not in her kennel. Until she decided that linoleum looked tasty.

From that point she’s been in her kennel while I sleep or am at work. That adds up to a lot. But after the carpet, the rugs and the linoleum, what else could I do? She also eats in there, and months ago she got into the habit of chewing on the door too.

Everything can be fixed, I know, but it’s more important to me to get her behaving when i’m not around. Quite the daunting task. The plan was to gradually increase her freedom. She started with an hour in the bathroom while I was around. That graduated to an hour while I wasn’t around and then to staying alone in the bathroom while I was at work for half a day. Yesterday we tried a whole day. Click for the results.

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Well, first off, I retract any statements I’ve made anywhere about 8 gold medals. Apparently the goal of them produced fantastic ratings, better acknowledgement for swimming (which my alma mater would enjoy I’m sure) and got athletes to the pool that wouldn’t normally be there (Kobe, LeBron, etc.). So go USA and WAR EAGLE. Auburn picked up 13 medals in swimming. Last I checked, we had 14 total….which, if you are obsessed with the Olympics like I am, would place us 11th in the medal count if Auburn were a country. Not bad at all.

On to more relevant stuff….I got a dyson to take care of the fur. And Ichi got in a fight. Mom and Dad came up Saturday and my former youth minister causes me to make wacky Olympic related macros. Gotta say, he’s kind of right about the Bird’s Nest looking like a doughnut. Especially when you apply the doughnut portion of

the picture

Click more pictures of Ichi and details on her fight. Oh and a somewhat review of the dyson animal that I got. And the doughnut formerly known as the Bird’s Nest.

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So, secret time, I actually like going to ballparks. If I didn’t, it would have REALLY SUCKED to go to as many softball games as I have (some people were raised in barns, I was raised in a ballpark). I have an affinity for ballpark style foods. I have my patterns (at Jordan-Hare it’s always a hot dog, big drink, and a frozen lemonade, because, well, it’s hot and they’re tasty, but that’s football, it doesn’t count as ballpark food really). But my real love when it comes to ball park food is funnel cakes*. Sometimes they sell them at amusement parks (yes, I know the closest place to the entrace at Islands of Adventure to get one) and carnivals.

But I have other reasons, one of which being it’s pretty relaxing. At least, when kids aren’t blowing horns at you that kind of make them sound more like a dying moose.  There are usually people willing to make a fool of themselves for free tickets to a game that cost me .22 to get into (school supply night FTW!). And oh yeah, fireworks!

Last year I bought a new camera for our trip to Mexico. It turned out some BEAUTIFUL pictures, but one of the first places I took it to was to a ballgame on the 4th of July. After playing with the settings so much I don’t remember how to get it back, I got decent pictures. Shortly thereafter I found the fireworks setting. D’oh!

Friday’s game was my redemption. I got some excellent pictures now that I know about that and burst mode. Now, if I can just start remembering to take pictures of myself at some of these events, maybe my facebook profile picture wouldn’t have snow in it…in August.

Click the picture for the whole set. Keep in mind I was playing with some settings and they don’t release all the fireworks at once, so some are better than others.

And if you are wondering: Ichi’s good. We had a power outage last  night that made things a little difficult getting her into her leash, but otherwise, just fine. Also, thanks to her dorky “mom”, she’s thoroughly enjoying her scooby snacks.

*if buying me food at a ballpark and I’ve already had a funnel cake or they are out, the following foods may be offered as a substitute: hot dog, hot pretzel, big gigantic thing of popcorn, massive pixie sticks, large pickles, sour straws, cheese sticks, pizza, and last but not least, dipping dots. Keep in mind I like to have as many different foods as possible, therefore, unless it’s 0.25 hot dog day, pick something I haven’t eaten yet. If you bring me nachos with melted cheese, you do not know me at all.

Ichi has started displaying some odd behavior.  I keep saying she’s getting calmer, but I think in reality, she’s just getting calmer with me.

It used to be that Ichi would take her toy of the moment and settle with it between the coffee table and dining room. It should be noted this is NOT where her bed is. It’s just happily in the middle of all potential traffic in the apartment.

Well, that’s changed. Sort of. She still takes toys over there, but she’s much less likely to be obsessed with playtime when it’s just me and her. Nope, these days she plops herself right in front of my ottoman and watches tv with me or takes a nap. That or she hops into the chair (and my arms) and gets scratched for like an hour. Again, this is my payback for my behavior as a small child. But I was under the understanding that Shibas are not lap dogs and as such are not overly affectionate. Lately, she is SUPER affectionate and pretty much follows me everywhere.

But that’s all when it’s JUST ME in the house. Keep reading for the “other people” issues.

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I think I ask mom this more and more frequently. She’s probably tired of it by now. And while it doesn’t appear to be a huge thing for mom and dad (as dad seems like he goes through computers faster than he can fill them), I don’t even want to think about the day when Becca’s computer fails. I really don’t want to be there for that, honestly.

But, I’ve been thinking about backups a lot lately, now that I have 2 macs instead of just one. (SO LONG PC’S I WILL NOT MISS YOU.) Currently I’m running Time Machine, SuperDuper!, and .Mac MobileMe. MobileMe is the new .Mac, released less than a month ago and OH HOW I HATE IT. it’s supposed to “push”, it doesn’t, it “syncs”, but I’m not even sure it’s doing that correctly. My calendars are all out of whack (pieces of SOME of the calendars).

Granted, I redid a lot of stuff last night that seemed to fix the majority of the problem, but I’m still left contactless on my phone. It’s supposed to push to my phone and it has been more than 24 hours, nothing.

Well, now that I’ve vented the MobileMe back up frustrations, I’ll continue with my lecture on BACKING UP.

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I don’t want to go back and edit it just for this: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog. I can’t wait for this. I love How I Met Your Mother because of Barney and I loved Firefly because of Malcolm Reynolds. The thought of the two of them as arch rivals….AWESOME.

And while I’m talking about heroes/villans/scientists/sci-fi….Doctor Who ended it’s 4th season on Saturday (I <3 youtube) and I couldn’t be more conflicted. As a whole I liked it, but at the end I was left heartbroken for at least half the characters. I’m also quite conflicted on what I’m gonna watch for the next few months…as neither Doctor Who or BSG will be back for many months. I guess I’m back to watching Heroes and hoping this season is better than the last. And I’m also sad that I’m missing a BSG panel of potentially awesomeness because it is reportedly being hosted by Kevin Smith and features “cylon human couples”. Somehow I perceive that topic + Kevin Smith = most hilarious panel ever. Sad times, I wish Comic-Con weren’t so far away from me.