Oh, hey look, it's 2005.

I've already accomplished so much this year.

1. I hung up Gina's shadowboxes on the wall.
2. I installed our vertical blinds.

I believe I deserve a break. A veritable vacation, if you will. I've already done more work than most people have done this year. And there's painting to do.

By the way...the Christmas Around the World display or whatever it's called at the Museum of Science & Industry is highly, highly disappointing. I expected it to be more a reflection of how Christians in different cultures and countries celebrate Christmas. But it was more of a "here's how Americans would decorate a tree for this country." For example, the Mexico tree had little jalapeno people hanging on the tree and dolls dressed in traditional garb (that part isn't so bad). Some of them were reflective of culture, not stereotype, but many were really dumb.

On the other hand, the Great Train Story -- the HO scale layout of Chicago, the Plains, the Rockies and Seattle was un-freakin'-real. I couldn't believe my eyes. Just unreal. That layout is the stuff dreams are made of as far as model railroading goes. I can only hope to produce something nearly as accurate and beautiful when I get a house/basement. :) Just unreal.

And I couldn't help but wonder...if the earthquake/tsunami sped up the Earth's rotation and shifted islands and whatnot, I wonder if the earthquake was detectable on the museum's giant pendulum at all? Would be interesting to note. :)

And with this, I end 2004.

I know you all need a good laugh. Look for Gina as well.

I guess I must be spoiled.

I'm a bit sad, because I'm disappointed. In a dog. Is that wrong?

I guess Kazak spoiled me, really.

See, Autumn has backed off the incessant barking a bit. But now, there are other problems. Such as, apparently she goes ape-shit looking out the balcony window...don't know at what, but she's done it enough to spin the Christmas tree around two days in a row and knock off about six ornaments, breaking two glass ones all over the floor.

She also has been caught on our couch, which Kazak has learned is a no-no.

I guess because Kazak isn't a barker, isn't a hyper dog and listens very well even when I'm not around, I've grown accustomed to that.

It's not that Autumn's a bad dog. Lord knows she cowers when I even raise my voice slightly...so much so, I feel bad, because she truly is trying to please me. But she's just not used to me, I guess. She's a good dog, she's just hyper-spastic sometimes and overly skittish and paranoid for condo life. Living in Bolingbrook, she's OK. Living here...not so much. Besides the fact that, although she's gotten much, much, much, much better, she's not a very good walking dog. Granted, she'd learn, just like Kazak did. But she's pretty antsy out there a lot, and she's still too focused on sniffing EVERYTHING than walking and peeing and pooing.

I know many of you cannot relate to this...but it's frustrating, b/c I want to be able to help my friend out by watching his dog on the rare occasion that he goes away...especially since he watches my dog for me, and my dog's no angel when he's there. But I don't know...it disappoints me that she lets me down, I guess. If that makes sense to any of you.

So let's see here...
On one hand, I like a day like today, when there's no one in the office, really (because of vacationers), and it's nice and quiet. I can get work done, but I also don't have to feel pressured to be constantly busy. I can catch up on my work that I "fell behind" on during my vacation at my own pace.
On the other hand, I hate a day like today, fresh off 10 days without working. There's much to catch up on and I'm still creeping slowly out of vacation mode. That's not easy as it is, but when no one's around or I'm not fighting a real deadline, it's harder.
But I'll manage.

Interesting about the tsunami in Thailand. My boss and his wife were just in Puchet last month, I believe. And they stayed at one of the resorts. Unfortunately, he's still out of the office, so I can't ask him if the place(s) they went to were wiped.

All in all, I'm really intrigued by this tsunami. I don't know much about them, really...so it's interesting to me, as most meteorological/seismological/geological forces of nature tend to be. I'm not going to sit and watch nonstop coverage, per se, but it's interesting stuff to read about, that's for sure.

I have much to do over the next couple of weeks, in preparation for Gina's birthday bash. I still need to find a place to have it that won't hold us to a minimum amount of people but will still rent a room or area to us. But we'll see...more info at a later date, I guess is all I can say. :)

Meanwhile, dogsitting Gerard's dog has been a minor pain, only because she barks at everything. She's a house-in-the-suburbs dog...and I should have remembered that she's a barker (unlike Kazak). Anytime someone upstairs moves or someone goes up or down the stairs outside the door, she's barking. This, of course, happens particularly frequently in the morning, when we're trying to sleep. I just hope that she learns that this is normal...she's a good dog, but too much of a watchdog, compared to Kazak anyway. We have her until Friday, so she better learn quickly. :)

I am happy though that she hasn't (yet, knock on wood) made a mess. She's a territory marking dog...likes to pee in the house to mark her presence...she did it when I was in Bolingbrook in the basement. But so far, she hasn't done it in our condo, thankfully...I hope it stays that way.

Oh well, that's enough for now...I'll catch you all later...
Andy