fall is here

It's definitely fall. It's gotten cold enough at night that the house is really chilly -- below 60° -- when we get up. In fact. I'm having a hard time working right now because my hands are cold, even though I'm wearing a bulky sweatshirt, heavy socks and polartec pants. If my fingers are stiff and uncomfortable, I can only imagine how my old arthritic dogs are feeling. Guess we should start closing the windows at night.

Speaking of the dogs, yesterday morning they gave a big scare to a Duke Power man who came to the door. I leave the front door open so they can come in and out the dog door as they please, and when they heard him knock they went tearing out the door, barking their heads off. Now, Thirteen couldn't intimidate anyone; she just looks so harmless. But Lina has a fearsome bark, and she moves fast too. I can tell when Lina means business and when she doesn't, but I can understand that someone who didn't know her that well might not know the difference. The Duke Power man looked like his life was flashing before his eyes, and with Lina bearing down on him I don't blame him. Of course, once she got out the door she started wagging her tail and sniffing his feet. That's my guard dog, always on the job!

There was even more doggie excitement later in the day when I took them to the vet for a checkup. They have mixed feelings about the vet's office: everyone there is really nice, and there's all kinds of good smells, but on the downside nasty things like shots and temperature-taking happen there. We talked again about Thirteen's cough, which has gotten worse. Dr. Lindeke thinks that it's probably chronic bronchitis but that fall allergies may be aggravating it. Allergies are kicking my ass this fall, so it's certainly a possibility. Dr. Lindeke had me put her back on EFAs in her food, which I really should have been doing all along, it's an anti-inflammatory which can help with a lot of things like her itchy skin and her joint problems. Dr. Lindeke said that if the cough doesn't ease up in a couple of weeks from the EFAs and the end of ragweed season, we'll start a cough suppressant that Thirteen might have to take indefinitely.

There's always one weird, unexpected and/or annoying problem that comes up in these visits, and this time it's with Lina. Apparently when she eats, she gets food & water caught in the wrinkles around her lower lip, which is causing inflammation. Why this has just started happening now is beyond me, but in any case I have to clean the area after eating and apply a topical antibiotic (which luckily we already have). Yes, I have to wipe my dog's mouth after she eats. Dr. Lindeke suggested unscented baby wipes. I suggest "ew."

After the fun at the vet's office I had a busy day. I had a couple of hours to get some work done, then off to Denovo for a conference call. It was supposed to be a meeting but the client couldn't get away. It was just as well. There was really no need to meet in person, it was easily handled over the phone, and the call only lasted 15 minutes. After that I headed to Stoneline to try et again to resolve their computer problems. This time I think everything is fixed. Took me over 5 hours though. It would have gone faster but I initially had the wrong system install disk, which wouldn't run on the computer because it was wrong disk, but I didn't know that so I spent some time trying to figure out why it wouldn't accept the disk. Eventually it got figured out, I re-installed the system, got their programs running the way they like them, made sure their net access was still OK, and etc.

Finally got home a bit after 9, where Georg had a wonderful dinner waiting for me. Carnitas, green vegetables, and some kind of yummy corn tortilla + fresh salsa + melted cheese thing. There's nothing like staggering home after a long day, and then just lying on the couch stuffing yourself with porky goodness and watching America's Next Top Model. Which has not yet produced another line as good as "bitch poured beer on my weave," but I am happy that my two favorites -- Toccara and Yaya -- are still the best contenders after they all got a makeover last night. And that Janice, the freaky-former-model judge, is still as crazy as ever. (She seems less mean this year, I wonder if she got a happy pill injection along with the botox.) On the other hand, I'm very unhappy that one of the contestants admitted to bulimia but the only response was all the other girls gossiping about her. I think that was really irresponsible of the show. I sincerely hope the people in charge get more involved next week in a constructive way, like taking her to a counseler or something.

Actually, now that I think about it the interesting thing about last night's show is the emerging character to hate: Amanda, the blind woman. In the makeover they bleached her hair platinum blonde and gave her really long extensions. She seems to have taken this as a call to be a super diva, which seems to mean "skanky bitch": walking around preening and posing all the time, talking in an even more breathy voice, bragging about how threatened everyone is by her, etc. The two best/worst moments for Amanda were first, early in the show when she called her toddler son "my light, my Ja Rule." What the hell does that mean? Also, if she's so crazy about her son, why is she halfway across the country in a modeling competition? The whole purpose of which is to get her into a career which would keep her away from him all the time? Then she went on to say that he's special because "he was conceived to the hour on 9/11." I rewound and watched again to make sure I didn't mishear her. What the?? Do we really want to know that she and her husband were getting it on while the country was being attacked? Ew!

The second cringe-worthy moment, which actually had me say "ew!" out loud, was at the end, when one of the judges commented on Amanda's new appearance by saying "where did you come from?" To which she purred, "from your dreams." First of all, ew! She really doesn't have what it takes to pull of a comment like that. (Now if Janice said it, that would be great. Because we would all know she meant our divalicious nightmares.) Secondly, I have a hunch the judge in question is not dreaming about women. I know, I know, assumptions make an ass out of you and me, but the guy pings the gaydar pretty hard. Now if Amanda had said "from another galaxy," that would have been funny and would have acknowledged the unearthly look they gave her.

Amanda's only other presence in the episode was to encourage the other girls to come to her if they had any problems, then blab to everyone when the girl with bulimia confided in her. Clearly Amanda is an evil alien drama queen. Alas, she photographs well so she'll probably be around for a long time.