I gottta learn to train good recall for Seabiscuit.

I have the sinking feeling that the entire universe is going to irritate me until I get a nap.

just about every school in the county cancelling because of the cold

Except mine, damnit. Stoopid online education. I bet the kids aren't doing any work! Why do I have to?!? pouts

Hippo birdies to the multitudes!

Craxy dog breeders make me sad. For several weeks, I drove past a billboard talking about the eeevils of puppy mills, and I think they found a picture of just about the most pathetic puppy evar. Depressing. Poor little things. And they can end up with all manner of issues.... Man, now I want to go adopt a puppy.

Puppy Bowl made me want to adopt a puppy.

I missed the Puppy Bowl. But the Biscuit did look sympathetically at the screen during the whimpering bits of the dog commercial.

Liese, in that Nature show -- the lady re-training the Beardie started "recall" right beside her. She called him -- when he paid attention -- she rewarded him. Her point? It's impossible to train recall when the dog is heading for the horizon line.

Often people will put a lounge line or laundry line on a dog so that he/she can be grabbed even when they've taken off - you know, until their recall is solid.

Also, not everyone who shows their dog is a breeder. Sometimes you have a dog that you show, for the breeder, but that way you know that the dog you're getting should have more of the characteristics that you are looking for in the breed you've chosen.

There's more to dog breeding than show -- there are obedience and agility trials, as well as more esoteric ones like flyball and dancing.

I've now been on hold with Macy's for over ten minutes, interrupted by a brief moment when I got a "customer service" person, but he couldn't hear me, because I guess we had a bad connection between here and India.

I finally ended up on the phone with someone in Florida, and it turns out this is the same old pain in the ass -- not the people opening up the cards in my name, but a separate thing on the Macy's card that never got cleared up, because apparently they never got some letter back from me that I'm sure I sent, but then they sent the letter saying that to my address from 8 years ago. ISTG.

Now I'm hold again while she tries to transfer me to someone in Ohio.

Okay, talking about show dogs reminded me of a bumper sticker-related grammar riff my brother and I went on, which caused everyone else in the room to edge away slowly.

See, we were driving somewhere, and we were behind a car with a bumper sticker that read (without any punctuation marks whatsoever): SHOW DOGS DO NOT TAILGATE.

So, we pondered this, and the many meanings the bumper sticker could have, given punctuation.

Show dogs; do not tailgate.

This could have 2 meanings, depending on context. The first is the (I assume) intended meaning, which is "Hey, there are show dogs in this car, so do not tailgate us, because if there is an accident and you rear-end us you could hurt the dogs and then I would have to beat you to a pulp."

But the second could be a command (or suggestion) to someone who tailgates a lot, offering them an alternate activity that they might like to do instead of tailgating. "Hey Jimmy, you should show dogs, instead of tailgating so much."

Show dogs do not tailgate.

This could just be a statement about the driving habits of the show dogs -- they don't tailgate. Which I for one applaud.

Show dogs, do not tailgate!

This could be a command to the show dogs, who are lousy drivers (what with the lack of opposable thumbs), and tailgate all the damn time.

Show, dogs; do not tailgate.

This could be a cryptic command to the dogs, as an alternate activity to tailgating. "Hey, dogs -- you really shouldn't tailgate, so why don't you show, instead?" But we may never know *what* they're supposed to show.

Show dogs: do not tailgate.

Yes, it's a clunky construction, but since the original bumper sticker had no punctuation, that means dorks like me run wild with the possibilities. This one could be a command to someone that they need to demonstrate to the dogs that they (the dogs) should not tailgate.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

Well, not *endless.* But numerous.

t edit Can you EVEN believe someone is willing to date me? (Yeah, *I* frequently can't believe it, either.)