Life with a dog

I like dogs. Growing up we always had one. Looking back I don't think we gave them enough attention, but I suppose that's another blog post. Robin and I got our first dog, Exy, from Robin's parents after we got married and got a place of our own in Waco. She had been a gift to Robin's sister and lived at the house Robin grew up in. I remember telling Robin that I wouldn't want a dog unless it was like Exy so when she became available it was hard to turn down. She was a mellow dog, pretty old but was able to put up with our weekly trips back to Dallas for almost 2 years. She was a great companion and a lot of fun to play with.

We put Exy down in September of 2006 after she had lost control and feeling in her hind legs. I think she was around 12 years old at the time.

From time to time we would kick around the idea of getting another dog. Stella loves dogs and always wants to pet them whenever she has the opportunity, but there were always good reasons to not get one, like our back yard wasn't properly fenced in, Stella wasn't big enough, it would basically stay at home all day, etc. Little by little those conditions vanished and so we started seriously looking. Robin had looked into dog fostering. This is where you keep the dog and do all the day to day up keep and an organization pays for any vet bills, food, etc. After allowing the dog to settle in for two weeks they would bring prospective adopters by and try to make a match. Or we could adopt the dog.

Side note: A point I was not immediately clear on is that if someone else wanted to adopt the dog and so did we, then we would be given the opportunity to keep her ahead of another prospective adopter.

Fostering seem like a good idea because it gave you the opportunity to test drive the dog before you made any commitment and in the meantime you are giving the dog a better life by taking it out of a shelter.

We met with the woman, Katie, who runs the foster program and setup a time to go look for prospective fosters. A few days later we visited a couple shelters and found a boxer/shepherd mix that was really low key and it seemed like a good match. We took her home that same day.

After a little discussion we named her Dolly.

This was mostly setup to a story I hope to finish another time - hopefully soon.

My Top 10 Albums of All Time (for right now)

So a friend of mine (Tim) asked people on Facebook to post their top 10 albums of all-time without using the same artist more than once. In the past when I constructed top album 10 lists that's pretty much the way I did it - basically picking each artist's best album and then comparing it with the others. I don't think that's best way to come up with a true list, but I obliged and here's that list:

My Top 10 Albums of All Time (without repeating any artists)
1 Joshua Tree - U2
2 The Bends - Radiohead
3 I - Led Zeppelin
4 Green - R.E.M
5 Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
6 Plans - Death Cab for Cutie
7 Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter - Jon Foreman
8 Who's Next - The Who
9 Revolver - The Beatles
10 Switchfoot - Nothing is Sound

After that, feeling slightly unsatisfied, I took it upon myself to do a more comprehensive list that allowed artists to repeat. Here's that list:

My Top 10 Albums of All Time
1 Joshua Tree - U2
2 The Bends - Radiohead
3 War - U2
4 I - Led Zeppelin
5 IV - Led Zeppelin
6 Green - R.E.M.
7 Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
8 Plans - Death Cab for Cutie
9 Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter - Jon Foreman
10 Who's Next - The Who

Boy, no Beatles? Doesn't seem right does it? But it is what it is for now and it will change with time (I'm talking hours, not months or years). If there are any inconsistencies it's because these lists were not made at the same time and my tastes changed slightly.

Some of my honorable mentions in no particular order:

Life's Rich Pageant - R.E.M.
Revolver - The Beatles
Boy - U2
Forget About It - Alison Krauss
Continuum - John Mayer
Hopes and Fears - Keane
The Wall - Pink Floyd
Nickel Creek - Nickel Creek
Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
Surfacing - Sarah McLachlan
Wincing the Night Away - The Shins
Nothing is Sound - Switchfoot
Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Synchronicity - Police
Ten - Pearl Jam
Oh No - OK Go
Let It Die - Feist
Wildflowers - Tom Petty

There you have it - now go do your own list.

Missing the point

There's been a lot of news, well until Michael Jackson died, about the South Carolina governor's affair (something Sanford, I don't know his first name and don't want to get distracted to find out because I want to make this short). From the reaction I've heard thus far it seems that people are more willing to forgive him for the affair than for leaving his post without telling anyone. It's as if the crime against the state, for which he was indeed the governor of, is more heinous than the crime against his wife. I heard the same sentiments with Clinton. They's say, "What a man does in his personal life is his own business."

This makes no sense to me at all.

If you can break the trust of someone you stood up in front of God and everyone and committed yourself to for the rest of your entire life in all/any circumstances that life brings then you sure as hell can break the trust of a bunch of people you've never met.

And for those who give him a pass on the affair, it makes me wonder if they are only extending the same latitude to him that they want extended to themselves when they screw-up in the same way.

Sit through a sales pitch and get some free stuff...

Last Friday Robin and I went to one of those things where they promise you free plane tickets if you sit through a 1.5 hr. presentation. I wasn't real keen on the idea, but Robin wanted to go so I said sure. The people are extremely courteous they signed us in and sent us to a room with about 12 small tables in it. We sat down and were interviewed by a woman. She asked us how much we spent on travel per year, what were are travel dreams, and some other small talk type things. She also explained briefly what the main presentation was going to be about. The main speaker dude, Jerry, enters the room and introduces himself to the couples. He looks sorta like Matt Foley from the "van down by the river" sketch on SNL only he's not nearly as obese and he did not destroy any furniture. He claimed to be a Baptist minister so I guess you have to trust him, right?

He starts out by honestly stating that he is selling something and that it cost a lot of money. Its a discount travel club. He painted glorious pictures of all the destinations that you can visit for what sounded like almost no money: 8 days in Hawaii for $700 which included hotel and plane tickets. He claimed that all the accommodations are 5 star. These prices extend to your whole travel party even if they are not related to you. He claimed he took 22 people from his church to some African country for like $2200.

He was very quick to get confirmation from the group that what he was describing was a good deal, and for the most part we complied. I mean if the deals he was spouting were true they were good deals. He went around the room and addressed us all by name (which were written on the back of a name tag so that they were not visible to the couples) and asked us some of the same questions that were asked of us earlier.

So now comes the price... $9000 membership + $300 admin and then $200/yr. I guess I forgot how these things work. I was expecting something remotely reasonable, something that most people might be able to drop that evening, but that was just the first price (more on that later). They say this is the "tonight" price and that if you don't sign up tonight you get this lesser deal, the "anytime" deal, which pales by comparison.

He goes on to quote how much people typically spend on travel in a given year and how this club thing could save everyone a ton of cash. After Jerry was done yapping the one-on-one seller people come back in in the room. After sensing our complete disinterest, no doubt, he proceeded to cut the price in half and diddnn't stop there. Once the first guy conceded defeat he had to have someone do a "survey" with us and I'm thinking that here comes the big guns. He introduced us to a gentleman who looked like one of the bad guys you have to fight at the end of an old Nintendo game. I don't recall his name, it had to be Oscar - no other name would have fit. His nickname was "The Hammer," no lie. I wish I had taken pictures of all the people who worked there, there were quite a few characters for which my feeble descriptions could not do justice. Anyway, Oscar had a brow on him that is beyond description - dude would not need to wear a baseball cap. He actually had a crease above his nose where his commanding brow protruded. And it looked like it had been cracked open and stitched up a few times. I have to admit I was a little scared. Before he did the survey he offered us a deal that was about 10% of the original cost and I told him "No" I guess Robin looked unsure so he asked me if we wanted to talk it over, again I said "No" and for a minute I though he was going to kill me. But the moment passed and we were on our way.

We did no research before hand, we just wanted to the plane tickets. What if I had jumped on the internet while we were sitting there and found that the top 2 entries that popped up when you Googled their company name "Royal Palm Travel" were from www.complaintsboard.com and www.ripoffreport.com. It would have at least been a good question to ask Jerry. After reading some of the posts on those sites I felt sorry for the people who signed up that night (assuming that they were real couples and not plants). Turns out the deals are not what they claimed and not any better than you can do on travelocity or expedia.

It was an interesting experience and it was good for me to see all those shady sales tactics first hand. They used them all.

The plane tickets turned out to not be free, but they might save us a bit of money down the road.

I grow weary of typing.

How many ways you can contact me when I'm at work

I found it interesting how many ways one could make contact with me when I'm at work. Here they are:
1. general business phone line
2. direct business phone line
3. work email
4. personal email
5. MSN instant messenger
6. personal cell phone
7. Twitter (notified via TwitterFox)
8. Facebook (notified via email)
9. text message
10. fax
11. snail mail
12. yelling (if you're close enough)

Alanis Morrisette and Dave Coulier

Perhaps I've just not been plugged into the right circles, but when I was on the wikipedia page for "You Oughta Know" to confirm that Flea and Dave Navarro played on that tune (and they did), I came across this fun fact: the song was written about Dave Coulier. You know, Joey from Full House? The blonde, un-funny comedian? For some reason this makes me laugh.

Snopes reports: Alanis will not confirm it and Dave says that some of the lines seem to fit their relationship, but that's far from a confirmation.

That's all.

The Horse Head

So my wife is really good at finding bargains. One day she spotted a rocking horse at neighborhood garage sale. It was a well constructed white wooden rocking horse. It had some wear - missing the mane and tail, but otherwise was in good shape. So Robin determined the manufacturer and tried to buy the missing parts to make the horse complete again. Their website was a little confusing, they didn't post any prices for the replacement parts on any of the main pages. Robin filled out a form with our address and explained what the situation was - she bought this rocking horse at a garage sale and wanted to get a new mane for it... That's it... No credit card numbers were given nor promises made to pay upon receipt.

That was in December. A couple of days ago we get a box pn our door step that has a brand new rocking horse head in it. Aside: It is never good to unexpectedly receive a horse head that is not attached to a horse body. No paperwork other than a sticker that says "Prepaid." So I got online and started scanning all our credit card and bank statements trying to find out how much we inadvertently paid for the horse head. I found nothing afoul on any of our credit card or bank purchase records so I go on their website to investigate. It turns out they provide free replacement parts and shipping for some of their products.

We were blown away by their customer service - Finally a modern toymaker that makes good old fashioned toys. And they stand by their product. They are even willing to support it for people who weren't the original purchaser.

http://www.kidkraft.com/

Oddly enough they sent us a second horse head today. I guess they felt that we weren't "getting the message."

Here's the horse:

Last Year in music

So I was thinking that a ton of good music was made this past year. I did a little research and found that while quite a few of my favorite artists put new records out - it wasn't as many as I had originally thought.

Here's a list of some of the albums that were released this year by some of my favorite artists in no particular order.

The Killers - Day and Age: I did not like Human at all the first few times I heard it, but then I saw their performance of that song on some MTV award show and was blown away. After that I bought the record and have enjoyed it thoroughly. Their songs are interesting and fun to listen to.

Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns: I really enjoy listening to this album, but it's not as good as their previous two offerings. For me, SP doesn't get any better than Final Straw.

Keane - Perfect Symmetry: Most of the songs on this record are a total departure from typical Keane. Which is cool - they did it without losing their identity. Oh, and the song Better than This... David Bowie called, he wants his sound back.

Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends: It's a terrible album title, but who really cares. This was probably my most anticipated album this year. I downloaded it one morning, got on a plane and listened to it for the whole flight. For that reason I now associate it with Zuma (a really fun iPod game). It delivers the goods. I'm glad my first impression of this record was NOT their most recent SNL appearance - Chris Martin was so creepy and so over-excited.

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs: This was my second most anticipated album of the year. I don't love their first single from the album, I will Possess Your Heart. I'm not sure how they pick a single and I'm not sure there is another "radio" single on that record, but I haven't learned about new music on the radio since... I can't remember. I do like this album, but it is not Plans and that's okay.

R.E.M. - Accellerate: This was totally unexpected to me. I used to be a huge R.E.M. fan, GREEN was my first cassette (Not sure why it needs ALL CAPS). I stopped being fan sometime after Monster mostly because it seems like Michael Stipe wasn't singing with the passion and feeling that I was accustumed to (Eddie Vedder lost me for the same reasons after Vitology). He's back. He's singing and screaming. They sound like a cross between Monster and Life's Rich Pageant. It's a good thing.