The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Choosing the Right Puppy Chow
When I adopted Gibbs from Wright-Way, his regular diet was Fromm’s puppy food. High quality stuff but pricey, and worse – not readily available in my local stores. I could buy it directly from Wright-Way, but that involves driving eight or ten miles and nothing resembling regular retail hours. So I started to research:
I knew I wanted to feed him a quality product. Dogfoodadvisor.com was my primary resource. It looks at bunches of different pet products and reviews them based on the ingredient list. Then it is open to consumer reviews. You can search by product name or skip to the “best of” lists. I looked at the four and five star products.
(Note: ProPlan, which I recall my vet saying was a perfectly acceptable food when I had my last dog, received only two stars. Disconcerting since ProPlan cat food is the only thing my cat will eat. ProPlan Select, however, received three stars.)
Next: Again, I don’t mind paying a bit more, but accessibility is an issue. I do a lot of online ordering, but I really feel more comfortable knowing I can just swing by the store and pick up a bag of dog food.
I settled on Blue Buffalo Puppy food. Four star rating, sold on Petango.com and at PetsMart and Petco. Not cheap, but one of my three resources generally has a decent deal, so I’ve never paid retail for it. Gibbs seems to like it and his poop has remained normal (sorry).
However. After his post-surgical convalescence, Gibbs went back to Doggie Day Care and over did it. Vomiting and lethargic. The vet said that Blue Buffalo was a bit rich since he wasn’t feeling well and sent me home with some canned food.
Fast forward to yesterday. After a few very active days, Gibbs was napping yesterday afternoon. He woke up and tossed his lunch. I worried that Doggie Day Care plus weekends at the dog park were too much for him. I called the vet. She said that while Blue Buffalo is a high quality food, she would look at changing the diet as opposed to worrying about excessive play time.
So. Back to the drawing board.
What are you feeding your pets? And how did you come to that decision?
Prohibition, by Ken Burns
I finally finished watching Prohibition, the new Ken Burns film, on the DVR. It was typically good Burns. The story is told in three parts:
- A Nation of Drunkards
- A Nation of Scofflaws
- A Nation of Hypocrites
Kiva Surprise
One of the fun things about Kiva is that nice little surprise of, “Your loan has been repaid!” My last loan was made to a lady in Senegal who, instead of repaying in increments, repaid in one lump sum at the end of the lending period.
So I went back online to find a new borrower. And there are plenty.
I started simply reviewing the list as Kiva has it sorted. Then I sorted for women. You might find it unreasonable that I am only want to lend to women, but empowering women is a big part of the reason that I participate and if you don’t like it then you can go online and lend some money to a man.
(Incidentally, my other outstanding Kiva loan is to a man. I wanted to jump in when Kiva started lending in the U.S. and the women in the program were already fully funded.)Then I looked at different parts of the world. My first loan was to a lady in Paraguay and the second was a lady in Samoa. I found several that appeal to me in Cambodia and settled on a lady named Sophat. Her husband is a teacher and she tends to their farm, planting vegetables to sell for a profit. Her loan is for the purpose of purchasing a hand tractor to plow the land.
If you are interested in the work Kiva is doing, please visit the website.
P.S. In the time it took me to write this blog, Sophat was fully funded!
First Groupon
I joined Groupon a few months ago, and just made my first purchase. At lunch today, a friend asked me about the process, so I figured I ought to write about it.
Prologue:
You register at the website. Then Groupon informs you, by e-mail, of deals with businesses in the area. You can also search the website if you are looking for something in particular. It seems to me that many of the best ones are for restaurants and other personal services.
Chapter 1:
I received an e-mail saying that Asha Salon and Spa has an offer. One hour massage and half hour facial for $82.
Sold.
Asha is not my regular place by any stretch. It is a very nice Aveda establishment, but rather pricey for my needs. This deal was basically 50% off. The catch with Groupon is that you pay for the service up front. So there was no way I was waiting more than a billing cycle for my appointments.
After taking my credit card information, Groupon sent me an e-mail with an order number and redemption code. It had a link to redeem it and was also printable.
Chapter 2:
I remembered that Asha is in Schaumburg, by my office (which is how I found it). I hate staying in Schaumburg after work, so it was either drive out there on Saturday (rolls eyes) or take a half day off.
I chose the latter.
I went online to redeem the Groupon. The instructions were specific that the appointment had to be made online – no phone calls to the salon. Weird. And worse, the website wasn’t working for me. I logged back on later and it was fine – I think it had something to do with the pop up menus.
Asha’s web site asked me to pick three dates and times and they got back to me with which worked, and then I had to confirm the appointment. All set.
Chapter 3:
I arrived 15 minutes early, per the instructions. I was helped right away and led to the dressing room. I had just stepped out the door when the aesthetician came for me. Both appointments were great. No one made me like less-than-a-full-fare-client, which I think is important. (The travel industry hasn’t picked up on that trick yet.)
When I checked out, the lady at the register asked for my Groupon certificate. And that was it. Pleasure doing business with you.
Note: Tipping etiquette says that we should base our gratuity of the full price of the service, not the Groupon price. I was familiar with the practice, but appreciated the reminder from Groupon. However, by the time I got to the appointment, I had forgotten the full prices. I knew the total was 50% off, but hadn’t remember how much was for which service. I may have skimped on someone. Will know better next time.
Final Analysis:
I will certainly use Groupon’s service again if the deal is right. But I am still not inclined to go trolling the website searching for it.
Summer Vacations I Haven’t Done Yet
I was talking with a co-worker who is planning a vacation with her new husband. They are thinking Boston. Boston is perennially on my list of possibilities for Summer Vacations, but never quite makes the cut. This year, I went to Disney with family. That has happened a non-zero number of times. And I always want to go back to New Orleans.
Over the last few years, I have crossed a few off the list. South Dakota. Toronto. My employer sent me to Seattle three times, so I got over that.
But there are so many, many places I haven’t been. And so many, many excuses. Here’s my Top Ten (after Boston, I mean):
- Yellowstone – I don’t even know how to get there. And do they have wi-fi?
- Best Friends Animal Sanctuary – You have to fly to Vegas and then drive five hours.
- Alaskan cruise – There are only about five good weeks to go and demand is high. $$$$
- Gulf coast – Every time I think about it, I get distracted by the bright shiny object called New Orleans.
- European tour – I’m waiting for the dollar to come back. Stop laughing.
- Grand Canyon – If I am going to head in that direction, Best Friends comes first.
- Mackinac – I live in Chicago. I can always go to Mackinac.
- Civil War road trip – Seriously, gotta narrow that one down.
- Oregon – if I am heading in that direction, I might as well go to Alaska.
- Ozarks – If I went to the Ozarks before New England, the Rotondi sisters might kill me.
How Things Get Done in My House
Yesterday, at the doctor’s office, I realized that I didn’t have my phone. I figured that I had left it on my desk at work. This morning, it wasn’t there. I went back outside and searched my car. Nothing. So I called home.
My mother is in charge of the cell phones in my house. Mostly because she wanted one about ten years before I did. We figured out that our contract is just about up, anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal to go get a new one. And while we were at it, she wanted to add my grandfather to our contract.
He is still doing pay-as-you-go-minutes.
But before we do, she is going to go and check her car to see if my phone is there.
It was.
In ten minutes, I went from:
OMG! MY PHONE IS GONE!
to:
Oh, cool. Getting an iPhone.
to:
Damn! I wanted an iPhone.
So you can guess what I did…
I ordered it.
Blankets 53 – 55
With nine days to go before the next Starbucks night, I have emptied out my fleece stash:
The above is Red Heart Super Saver in Royal.
Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn in White.
And more Red Heart Super Saver in Royal. And now I am going to see if I have enough blue yarn left to make a scarf.
The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard
Writers Theatre’s first show of the season was The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard. Michael Halberstam directed and Sean Fortunato was the lead. Natasha Lowe played his first wife, which messed me up a bit because I haven’t shaken her performance in Streetcar from my head yet.
The Last Dickens, by Matthew Pearl
Book 46
Matthew Pearl’s third novel spins a mystery of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the novel that Charles Dickens was writing upon his death. The premise is that Dickens’ U.S. publisher, a small firm in Boston, is on the brink at the time of his death and desperate to print whatever is left of the transcript. There is a guy, a girl, drugs, murder and several red herrings. Pretty smooth. But even so:
Pearl’s novels take a lot of patience, in that they unfold very slowly. Sometimes I enjoyed this one and sometimes lost patience. The story jumps between two time periods and then over to India. The latter seemed superfluous, but I went with it. But…you know when you are reading a book and you hit what looks like the climax, but there are too many pages left?
Yeah.
I liked this better than The Poe Shadow, but not as much as The Dante Club.
Community Bark West
Almost from the day I adopted Gibbs, I have wanted to take him places. I want him to grow up to be a well-adjusted, well-socialized dog. It took forever before his immunizations were done, but then I started taking him to Doggie Do Rite, a day care center in Northbrook. By the second day, he was running with the big dogs. On the third, he was trying to make a labrador his girlfriend.
For various reasons – his surgery, illness in my house, my goofy schedule – I’m not quite where I want to be in his training. He has no leash manners, selective hearing when he is called, and he barks.
Oh, how he barks.
The ladies at Doggie Do Rite are fairly sure the problem is simply that he doesn’t know enough people yet. How, I wondered, do I manage to socialize a dog that refuses to behave in public?
Community Bark West.
Glenview’s Dog Park is run by the Park District. It is large, clean, fenced in and has running water for the dogs to drink. It has walking paths and plenty of doggie waste bags and cans so as to clean up after your pet.
The rules are extensive, and one of them is that your dog has to be at least six months old. Gibbs cleared that on Saturday. We had a pass on Monday and went over tonight.
He was a bit barky at first, but as soon as the other dogs came over to greet him, Gibbs was all in the game. He ran and ran and ran. When I wanted to check out the walking paths, he followed me. He greeted other dogs as they came around. When I called him, he came to me. Yeah, he jumped on people, but he barely barked again.
And now, he is asleep.
We love this place. How awesome is Glenview to have built this?
The Park District charges a fee of $50 per year for a pass ($100 for non-residents). You can find the application here.
We hope to see you over there.
Also posted on Glenview Patch
The Next Dark Age 