I recently got Adobe Illustrator 10.0 at work. I think I'm really going to enjoy working with it if I can ever figure it out. It doesn't come with a tutorial and all the available documentation is for version 9.0....it's very frustrating!
According to this article at cnn.com, in 2001, Texas lost its number 1 ranking among the states for having the most death row inmates executed - a title we've held since 1996. Coincidently, George W. Bush was governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. Also coincidently, in 2001 (with George W. Bush running the country as the court appointed president), for the first time in 37 years, a federal prisoner was executed. How's that for "compassionate" conservatism?
Step and I are currently making plans to be in Houston this weekend. We'll take Friday off of work so we can go to the Brazilian Consulate to apply for our tourist visas. They have a great website. I keep thinking of questions I would like to ask "Someone Who Knows" (i.e. what do we need to apply? what are their hours of op? they don't have a holiday this Friday, do they?, etc.), but so far I've been able to find all the information I seek on-line.
Stepan is a fugitive from the law. Yesterday, in the mail, he recieved a notice that a warrant for his arrest has been issued. The notice also listed a number to call if the addressee no longer lived at the listed address and/or if the receipient had any information of how to apprehend the perp. Stepan wouldn't let me call though. He's hoping that it's only some beurecratic red-tape that didn't get handled correctly from one of the traffic tickets he got last summer. I hope he doesn't get deported!
Mom wants us to do this walk that benefits cancer research. It's a 3-day walk from Ft. Worth to Dallas - a 60 mile trek. It sounds like a pretty neat event (aside from spending about 4-6 hours walking 20 miles a day) with a well-organized "mobile city" that provides lodging (2-man tents), hot showers (in trailers), food, and transportation for whatever baggage is necessary. I'm interested and have requested a brochure. A few things that concern me are the minimum fundraising requirements ($1900) and some bad press the event organizer has gotten - I would need to do some research to find out exactly how much fundraising and registration money actually goes to the charity.
Yesterday, Stepan and I checked out a couple of kennels. The first was Triple Crown. It is reportedly the premier kennel in the US....reported by them anyway. Their facilities are very nice; very clean. They have six buildings for kenneling dogs. Homer would have his own "room" - basically a cage with a concrete floor - with access to his own dog run. The rooms are cleaned 3x a day; at night, they put in fluffy warm bedding. The kennel buildings are climate controlled. The service that we're really excited about is the training they do while Homer stays there. During the week, a trainer will take him out 3x a day and work with him on obedience commands. They also have a play area that they call the Beach Club where Homer could play for 20-30 minutes a day. I wasn't sure that I liked the place - the idea of Homer staying in a cage all day while I was traipsing around the jungle was depressing. However, we put Homer in a holding area which was very similar to the kennels while we were touring the facilities....when we came back to get him, he looked fine. He was just laying down and it didn't seem to bother him that we left him there.
The other kennel we toured was Dog Boys. They don't offer the training and their facilites aren't as nice - their kennels seemed a lot smaller. The one thing that's great about this kennel is the play groups. At Triple Crown, Homer would be completely alone except for when he was in training. At Dog Boy's, during the day, he would be put in a play group with about 12 other dogs that match his temperment...since playing with other dogs is about his favorite thing in the whole wide world to do, this kennel would probably be his kennel of choice - if he could voice an opinion.
For the Brazil trip, we'll take him to Triple Crown. If we ever need a shorter term kennel, we'll take him to Dog Boy's.
There are signs afoot that Step and I need to get another dog. Yesterday we were offered at least 4 dogs to take home and adopt. One was Duke, my stepbrother's dog. Jason has recently moved to a new apartment and doesn't think his new place can accomodate dogs. Dad may take him, but isn't sure he wants the responsibility of caring for another animal. Another dog was Noname; he's a stray picked up by our new tennis coach and is a german shepherd mix. And at Dog Boy's, they have several dogs available....apparently that kennel is a popular place to abandon dogs. One dog there was Jenna - I'm not sure what breed she was, but she apparently has opposable thumbs. When we saw her in her cell, she was sitting on a concrete wall that was probably 5' high and couldn't have been more than 6" wide - I still have no idea how she managed to get up there!
I feel great! I just took a 30-40 minute nap on the living room floor. :-)
Stepan and I saw the opera Andre Previn's Streetcar Named Desire last night. It was really well staged and the woman who played Stella (Jennifer Alymer) had a beautiful voice. I had never seen (or read) any version of Streetcar so I had no idea how depressing it was - of course since most opera's tend to be depressing, I shouldn't have been surprised. While I enjoyed the production for the most part (it was slow in places) I think I prefer my operas in a foreign language - they somehow seem more poetic when I can't understand what's being sung.
I've had the oportunity to visit with Grandma this week - she's staying with Elizabeth until Monday. It's such a pleasure getting to talk to her and hear her stories. For example, when she was 18 (around 1934), she was staying nights with a pregnant friend, Mary Catherine, whose husband worked nights. One dark and stormy night, Mary Catherine's water broke. Of course they didn't have a phone or a car so grandma had to walk to a service station down the road to call the doctor. She was very emphatic with the nurse on the line - insisting that the doctor needs to get there NOW!!! because she didn't know anything about childbirth. When the doctor did arrive, grandma tried to excuse herself to the living room, but the doctor insisted that he needed her to stay and assist in the delivery. Grandma was shocked and appalled and dismayed by what it took to give birth...so much so in fact that she vowed to never date again! She says she stuck by her vow for a while...but not a realy long while :-)
I've finally rearranged the set up of my pc at work - something I've needed to do for about 2 years. The monitor - I should say, the 21" monitor - was sitting on top of the CPU. That meant that I was looking UP at the monitor - not very comfortable and probably was a major contributor to the back problems I've been having. The fix was so easy too! I just shifted the CPU to the side and put my monitor directly on the desk. This whole endeavor has forced me to reorganize my office - something that I've needed to do since I started doing graphics here! I'm pretty excited about getting my office into shape.