My natural setting....

I saw 11 kinds of wild flowers at Oak Cliff Nature Preserve during my run today. I don't know what made me start to count them. I guess I wanted to take my mind off the burning in my legs. Anyway, it was quiet in my head for a while. As if the unconscious might take over and the break-through might happen. But I never got there. At least I was slow enough to see that there were flowers.

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So Justin is getting a few funny t-shirts for his birthday. And I found some other brilliant ones as well. I was thinking of sending one to Maak. Maybe this one: http://www.threadless.com/product/383/The_Communist_Party
Just wore it to work today and three of his coworkers demanded to know what the shirt meant. Only one could identify Castro. They might be the most important 5 men in the history of the modern world. And we're turning out college graduates who can't identify Castro, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Marx by sight... with that huge word clue right there above them. I am sad, anyway... but this is -- as they say in Sports Illustrated -- just another sign that the apocalypse is upon us.

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I gave dating advice to a recently divorced acquaintance on the Internt today. Actually, it's someone I have never met. However, I do believe my own advice. One should not engage in the artificial construct of modern "dating." One should try to meet people in their natural settings. Someone suggest to him that he meet me in a natural setting. I wrote back that my natural setting was flea infested and surrounded by gay men. That I was bitter, overweight and busy trying to start my own business. And how could someone suggest such a thing. We'll see if there is a response.

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I put my coworker's daughter to sleep today.
No, not like that... I let her fuss and cry on the floor until she started to sputter. Then picked her up and went outside. Walking with her in my arms until she went to sleep on my chest. Then, I sat with her and kissed her head while she slept. The terrible thing was that we soon figured out what the problem was. She was covered, bodily, with a horrible, horrible rash. The doctor said it was a viral infection and that she should be given infant Benedryl. Suddenly, all of us were itching all over. Poor baby. But at least she got some sleep.

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Apparently I left the front door ever so slightly ajar yesterday when I went off to work. This caused Justin to freak upon getting home from work. He was worried something was missing from the house. That something turned out to be Eddie and Keena. Tyler and Bailey were laying on the front porch and Jenna was with me. Panicked, I called the Dallas Animal Services line to report that they were both tagged. Then I jumped in my car to drive home and help look for them. Justin called back moments later. Eddie and Keena went a whole block. All of six or seven houses down the street. Then they got tired and sat under a tree and waited. Together. How does someone actually lose a dog permanently?

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Round 4 with the dishwasher. Justin said the top flooded. I ran it successfully, but the bottom filled with water. I finally drained that... it told me that a pump was plugged or something. So I undid all the drain hoses and blew air through them. Success. Then, it flooded again. Turning it off and then on again caused a flood error. I called Sears. They can just get their asses back out here and fix it right. Good Lord.

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BTW, this is what Eddie looks like now: