I spoke with the vet and she confirmed that this was a good sign but urged me to continue to keep him very calm and on the anti-inflammatory drugs for the remainder of the course to prevent re-injury. As much as he’s bored to tears and getting frustrated I’m just glad it’s something he will be over soon as opposed to a life time of pain and aggravation.

The good news is that if the vet is correct he will be much better in a week or so. The bad news is that this kind of injury can be a very early sign of canine arthritis – certainly something I hope is not true. I don’t need to see poor Skype endure pain like my grandmother did through much of her life.

Next off I met David, one of the sweetest men on the planet. I’ve spent practically the entire last week and a half with him and I couldn’t be happier about it. It’s one of those intense whirlwind relationships that seems to go at a million miles an hour – fun stuff while it lasts and heres hoping that it will last a very long time!

Finally Skype got to meet David’s roommates 12 week old pit bull puppy Porter. The two of them have been beating up on each other every other day or so and having a blast at it. David is a really active guy and thanks to his influence Skype’s activity level has roughly doubled. He seems happier for it and I hope to keep him active like this as long as he can keep up.

Between his paw, the stress of being away from home, and the slight humiliation of having to wear a bootie Skype has been very high maintenance all weekend. Due to that and the fact that I have a ton of stuff to do at work and really should do some work tomorrow I came home today rather than on Christmas day.

The pass was kind of dicey on the way home but thanks to my A6′s Quattro 4WD we made it back safe and sound. Now I’m kicking back on the couch relaxing a little so as to be ready for being productive tomorrow.

Not to force Skype to be the only raw foodist in the house I’ve been doing my part and eating a fair amount of sushi of late. I did Wasabi Bistro on Saturday for Scott’s birthday party (Happy Birthday Scott!), and Hana tonight with Ken. Some would call Sushi twice in 3 days excessive – I call it just right.

Funny (and sad) that Skype is so much like me in this respect. Our bad teeth will be our undoing someday!

Funny timing given that I had a tooth extracted just last month, and two root canals today – it’s almost like a bonding experience. Luckily for Skype he seems pretty much unaware of his plight and is back to his normal self. This has been a particularly emotional parenting moment for me given how many problems I have with my own teeth – something I can really identify with, and love on him for.

Now if I could just condition myself to forget about my own dental problems I would be set. Ignorance is bliss!

Skype is drinking tons of water (which is good), but it involves a larger than normal number of walks. Since I have to keep him low energy they have to be short so I’m feeling a little like I did the first week I brought him home when I had to take him outside once every couple of hours day or night.

On the topic of dogs one of The Strangers writers is obviously an insensitive and heartless soul: Erica Barnett posted a rude commentary on this story in the Seattle Times about an act of unbridled kindness.

From the Seattle Times story:

The fundraiser for Rhonda at a Fremont tavern netted about $2,300 for Dave DiStefano, who said he was overwhelmed by the generosity of those who were moved by his dog’s plight.

“It was an amazing night,” said DiStefano, whose dog is now in a Lynnwood animal hospital recovering from major esophagus surgery after she ate some brittle bones. “I figured I’d get $1,000 if I was lucky. I didn’t have any crazy fantasy, but this little piece is really nice and will take the edge off things.”

DiStefano racked up $15,000 in medical bills for his dog’s surgery.

Erica’s commentary basically boils down to: if you have the money to spend on charity do it on something other than ‘a freaking dog’. This strikes me as a frightfully horrible thing to say. I know for many people their pets are their children. I myself being a single guy regard Skype as a full member of my family and I do everything possible to ensure his good health. I would spend nearly any amount of money to ensure Skype’s health and well-being. I can understand why Dave would put as much love and effort into ensuring Rhonda’s health as any loving parent would for their human children.

While I will be the first to admit there are many great charities out there (the comments on the Slog post point out starving children and slowing the AIDS epidemic in Africa) I can think of none more noble as the pure act of kindness to help a stranger keep their family whole.

As usual while he was there I was a bit of a nervous wreck, and the moment they called me at 2 in the afternoon I raced to Broadway Veterinary Clinic to pick him up. He’s doing well – he has a few sutures and is still rather groggy from all the drugs they gave him.

He curls up next to me on the couch whimpering momentarily (it’s frighteningly easy to feel like a bad father every time he whimpers), and occasionally stands up, half wanders/half staggers around the room for a moment then comes back to sleep some more on the couch. Every time he wakes up I can tell there is a slight tinge of panic in his face until he looks up and realizes I’m there.

I can tell he’s coming out of the drug haze more and more each time he makes a round, and I’m not sure if I want to smother him in love for having gone through it, or laugh slightly when I see a big lumbering Pit Bull stagger. I think both is probably the best answer to that question. Let the loving ensue.

I’ve got a ton of painkillers, antibiotics, and steroids to give him for the next month so hopefully the sutures will heal up within a week, and after diagnoses comes back on the biopsy we can hopefully get his skin condition under control. I have to wait for him to start drinking water voluntarily before I can give him his medications for the first time, but hopefully he will start getting thirsty soon – he hasn’t had a thing to drink last night (as per the vets orders prior to the surgery) and I would think he would be rather thirsty by this point.

And yes mom and dad – It was a true “parenting moment” by your definition – having Skype under partial anesthesia has involved cleaning various bodily excrement from unusual places. I think this is lives way of getting me back for all those diaper changes you guys went through all those many years (oh god – almost 26 now) ago!

Luckily the weekend before I had picked up my copy of Super Paper Mario for the Wii at Costco and found it to be the perfect accompaniment for fading in and out of consciousness on my couch. Over two days I managed to log almost 10 hours of play time and made it through 5 of the 8 worlds. It’s a fun little mix between the classic Mario platformer game and a kid-oriented RPG. Sometimes the storyline got to be a bit childish for me, but overall I like the concept of leveling up your hit points and damage in a Mario style game. Super Paper Mario also features a delightful number of puzzles which can be solved by various pixl’s (our hero’s new helpers – equivalent to special abilities in other RPG style games), sometimes involving a large number of steps to be orchestrated over several screens.

Skype was very patient with me this weekend. Even being a dog he can tell when people are sick and I could tell he was worried about me. He spent 95% of the weekend squeezed up next to me on the couch licking my arm from time to time as if to say “I’m here dad – get better soon”. I feel bad for not having given him more exercise (it was all I could do to walk him three times a day) and once I’m better I’ll have to make it up to him with some extra time at the dog park later this week.

For better or worse I’m back at work today – I’m hoping to make a quick day of things here and get home to rest further. I’m still stick, but no longer floored (or couched as the case may be) and am able to make it up and about. This morning I have one really important meeting I can’t reschedule, but after that I should be free to go work from home if I feel the need.

Even though I sure do treasure my lazy weekends when I get them sometimes it’s nice to be a bit productive before I get lazy. Now I get to really enjoy the rest of the day knowing that I have nothing pressing on my agenda!

“Yellow and blue” by sparktography

Update: I even went to Costco and Home depot, picked up the parts to fix my toilet (the lever broke and it was making funny noises), fixed my toilet, AND managed not to get my car dirty during the whole excursion. Plus as a bonus I picked up Super Paper Mario for my Wii at Costco and now get to enjoy a new Mario game for the rest of the evening!

Poor Skype – he’s responding well to the hypo-allergen free dog food and his rash is going away but the poor boy is simply starved for treats. If he continues to improve like this we can start to re-introduce different foods until we find the allergen – I hope I can go back to giving him his favorite chicken treats soon. I’m making up for it by giving him extra doses of love.

Since he has had several ear infections in the last year the Dr. is looking for a root cause. She suspects that he might have a food allergy so I have to switch him to a hypo-allergenic dog food and ONLY feed him that for a while. Skype is going to hate not getting treats, but hopefully it will clear up some of his skin and ear irritations.

Someone recently commented to me that my blog was very beige. They didn’t mean the color scheme, but more the fact that my life is rather boring. I actually appreciated that more than the person intended: I like the boring quiet life! Luckily I still do have the occasional splash of color in my life as yesterday exhibited:

The afternoon movie showing was quite exciting! I had 8 people show up for drinks, movies, and other sorts of orgastic excess. Skype of course had a blast – it’s almost more than he can bear to have that many drunk people show up and play with him. For an idea of the happenings check out the (dark and long) Quicktime timelapse I made.

Take that beige! Now back to our regularly scheduled beige.

Oh yeah – and I’ve developed a love affair with Tilda Swinton! She’s just so good at being bad!

Pirates of the Burning Sea actually looks like it could be quite a fun game. I most likely won’t get sucked in (I’m not the MMO kind of guy) but I mean who can argue with Pirates? The game still needs a little UI polish (they are not even in beta yet), but it’s got a solid base for a good combat system and what looks to be a giant world to run (sail?) around in.

Thursday continued my Pirates theme with a showing of Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest with Ken at Le Cinema Sparks. I really do have to admit that the special effects are simply amazing – regardless of the sheer ridiculousness of the rest of the movie. ILM used a new technology called iMoCap (Image Based Motion Capture) which allowed actors playing the pirates to be replaced in near realtime with CG characters using motion capture technology. This is way cool and an indicator that within a few years actors as we know them will likely be replaced with the infinite tweak-ability of computer generated actors.

Thursday also brought the first day that my jaw really felt better. The antibiotics are working a number on the infection and my bowels at the same time. I’m certainly glad they are working and I won’t have to have surgery, but the constant search for more bathrooms is starting to get old. Oh well – it could be worse: my jaw could have swelled up more and left me horribly disfigured for the foreseeable future. In other news my pills are more than half gone:

Friday brought laundry, cleaning, and way too much laziness. I spent the entire evening getting ready for the weekend. Below is a shot of my pants drying in the bathroom. I had hung them up to dry and was just getting ready to go to bed when I noticed the shot and had to go get my gear together really quick so I could shoot it. I then got sucked into Photoshop playing with various treatments until I finall came up with the below. GO PANTS!

Now that it’s saturday I’m wearing slightly damp pants, and finishing my preparations. I’m actually rather proud of myself for waking up early enough today that I could take Skype to the dog park and still have time to finish cleaning. He had a blast running around this morning (too fast to shoot sometimes) and now is being cooperatively lazy – hopefully that will continue through the evening with my company.

In a few hours a ton of my friends are showing up for movies. I finished cleaning this morning and went to the liquor store to pick up enough booze to sedate an entire frathouse. I forgot mixers but after making a few calls I think that problem should be taken care of by my friends when they show up.

“Shot of pills” by sparktography
“Skype with ball” by sparktography
“Jeans” by sparktography

Thanks Phil!

Good thing is that hopefully this will be a quick lived thing – I am trying to take the next few days of my holiday and spend some quality time with him. Nothing like a good dose of daddy and dog parks to make a growing boy happy again.

Tom made me a longer key loop for one of my bags and I got to see the coolest sewing machine ever in action. This machine sews 42 stitches automatically into a strip to seal two ends together. It’s almost hypnotic to watch it pound out 42 stitches so precisely in about a second. I took this video of the mechanical ballet – check it out:

There were some great memories made over the holiday: dad burning the turkey, Skype getting a giant beef bone with real raw beef still stuck to it, watching Monty Python with the family. I gave my old Powerbook to my parents (an early Christmas present) and was quite pleased to see how much use my dad got out of it in even the first day – I think it’s good to see them getting more into technology.

I took the following picture while driving back with Skype today:

I’m glad to be home and have an actual weekend ahead of me. I have a little work to do, but hopefully it will be for the most part a chance to simply lay around and relax – something I have not done in far too long.

“Return from Eastern Washington” by sparktography

Aside from the stress of getting out the door this morning (thanks to a work emergency, and forgetting things multiple times, and Skype being rather fussy) it was actually a fairly uneventful trip – the passes were rainy but clear, and traffic was moving at a clean 70-80MPH the rest of the way home.

Now that I’m here I have to admit that it’s nice to see the whole family. Last time we were all together was when my grandma died – and obviously I’d much rather see them under the guise of giving thanks rather than mourning the dead. I think this is actually the first time that the whole family (my sisters husband Dave included) has been together under the same roof with Skype – he’s been rather excited about the whole experience and the loads of love that he’s getting slathered on top of his already love-laden life.

I have taken a bunch of pictures already while I’m down here. I won’t have an opportunity to go through my workflow until I get home, but soon enough I promise to post something here.

Ian, Ben, and Keenan joined me for dinner at Pho 900 on Broadway, where we all made the bzzzt mistake of bzzzzzzt drinking iced bzzt Vietnamese coffee and having Pho. The Pho was fantastic, but the sugary deliciousness of the coffee was significantly more caffeinated than planned.

After dinner we all went back to my place and were joined by the rest of the crowd for some drunken movie madness. Now it’s past two in the morning, and I’m left alone, somewhat buzzed, and very awake still from the caffeine with nothing but an exhausted puppy and my beloved TNG to keep me company.

Why not follow suit? I’m sure my readers could come up with many reasons why not to follow suit, however I’ve decided to preemptively ignore them. Without further ado here is my list of simple things that make my life happy, and presented in no order whatsoever.

–Fatherhood – Skype has changed my life in more ways than I could possibly list here. There is just something fantastic to be said about having a rough day and being able to come home to 70 pounds of unconditional love.

–Caramel Apple Pie Ala Mode – The best comes from Charlies on Broadway, but I’ll take any and all CAP that I can get! Warm carmelly crust, sweet and sloppy apple innards, and that cool creamy ice cream melting into it all just tickles my fancy just fine!

–Technology that “just works” – I love technology, but when it’s not working I get more frustrated than I often care to admit. There is something magical (and highly elegant behind the scenes) of anything that just works.

Perfect examples are my iPod (for instance plugging it into my Powerbook or my Xbox 360 produces the exact results I’m looking for with no intervention), stereo equipment, land line phones, keyless entry for my car, and the 100′s of other little things that are so technically honed at this point we all take them for granted.

When technology works correctly it blends into the rest of your life and adds functionality without taking away from the experience. What more of a simple pleasure could you list?

– Watching movies on my couch – My life seems to revolve around this particular activity for long stretches of time. It’s not really the movies, the couch, or any one thing about the experience – but I would rather be curled up on the couch with Skype watching a good movie than just about anything else.

Heck – I even prefer watching movies at home to the theater 90% of the time. I’ll only go see the rarest of big blockbusters (or Snakes on a Plane) in the theater, but usually between the people, the distractions, and the noise I would rather be at home.

On that topic I just set up an email list that’s all about movies, and watching them. If you know me, and live in Seattle then shoot me an email or leave a comment and I’d be happy to set you up on the announce list for “Le Cinema Sparks”.

– Getting stoned – What can I say, I truly appreciate being able to completely unwind once in a while and just get baked. The old (and more career-oriented) I get the less often I find myself able to do this, but it does not stop me from treasuring it whenever I do.

– Clinique skin care – I’m hooked. Brien got me into it, and as silly as the idea seems I just feel like a happier person when my skin is all soft and moisturized. I guess it’s the 45 year old women that lives in the back of my head and yells at kids to get off her lawn.

– Console gaming – If I spend too much time watching movies on my couch then I have two problems because I spend nearly as much time laying on my couch playing video games. Oblivion, Dead Rising, and The New Super Mario Bros are all current obsessions.

– An abundance of information in our society – I love information, and love to learn. I can’t count how many hours I spend on my couch just wandering around the internet absorbing all of it’s goodness. Skittering around on Wikipedia, jumping from RSS feed to RSS feed, and watching human knowledge slowly present and organize itself.

– Hanging out with good friends – The older I get the more I realize how valuable true friends are, and how precious they are to me. Even those friends I don’t see terribly often still add value and meaning to my life and I really enjoy spending time with them, particularly when I can combine spending time with a good friend with other simple pleasures on this list.

– Good Science Fiction – I don’t care if it’s written, audio only, or a full movie experience: I just love good sci-fi. Some personal favorites are Cory Doctorow, Isaac Asimov, and Philip K. Dick. Curling up with a convincing and innovative view of the future is the first step to towards thinking about and creating that future. Let’s get on it people!

Having had a rather stressful week I think I’ll be trying to indulge in a number (or quite possibly all) of these this weekend. I have my dad passing through town on Sunday, but I have pretty much all day on Saturday earmarked for the majority of this list.

Everyone was being rude and idiotic about parking – driving slowly, waiting excessively long for people to get into their car, cutting off people waiting excessively long for a parking spot, stealing parking spots from people, and parking in the middle of the road when they got sick of it. I’ve never seen more moronic assholes at once, let alone all trying to vie for the five remaining parking spots in the whole wide world!

In Seattle any time the weather changes people drive like idiots. When it rains for the first time in a while people freak out. When it’s sunny, people freak out even more. I’m not sure why this problem exists, but at times it drives me insane.

Upon getting down to the park I discovered that nobody was down there that I knew, nor any equipment. I walked around with Skype and checked out the off-leash area for about an hour before getting ready to leave. Just after giving up my parking spot I of course saw someone walking with a Mackie, but after dealing with the parking idiots the first time it was just too much effort to go through it all again.

Now that I’m home I’m at least thankful that Skype and I got to enjoy at least a little bit of this beautiful Seattle day! I have some work to do around the house anyway so it’s probably for the best that I didn’t spend all day out in the sun.