30 Years

Thirty years sounds like a really long time, but today it felt so meaningless.  Brian and I spent the afternoon with a friend of mine from high school days (Craig) and his wife (Bounce), and aside from the fact that our spouses were new, and 30 years of catch up had to happen, it felt like the four of us were simply catching up on what happened over the weekend, not over a life time.  Of course, we were different people then, and we're different people now, but it was great to be ourselves today with someone that I saw briefly two years ago, then before that not for about 25 years.  Amazing!

We didn't reminisce about old times, because Brian and Bounce weren't part of that time.  Instead we just talked about whatever happened to come up.  All four of us had vast and differing experiences of travel, work, relationships, education, yet we had so much in common.  We laughed and talked and ate and walked and laughed and drank and laughed and ate and laughed... well, you get the picture. 

All four of us have recently spent most of out time with folks 20+ years difference in age to us.  Brian and I spend our time with folks in the 60+ category and Craig and Bounce work mainly with 20-somethings.  Since we're firmly in our mid-40's (Bounce is early 40's, but she's so much fun we'll let her hang with us in the mids), it was really good to talk with folks our own age who have shared references and get our jokes immediately and effortlessly.  Who'd have thought that would be such a big deal?  We experienced the same thing when hanging out with Ben and Kate, and with Margaret and Glen, but we had a longer shared friendship with those families and a shorter time apart, so it wasn't such a revelation.

We shared all sorts of fun facts - why, when and how we got married (both very entertaining stories), what books we were reading, what movies we enjoyed, how we got to our current location and positions, and more.  Neither couple chose to have children, which made for different connections than when one couple has kids and the other doesn't.  It was all about shared experiences and choices, different from each other, but oh so similar when seen from a distance. 

I loved this afternoon.  It wasn't about revisiting who we no longer are, but was instead about introducing who we are now and finding new connections; talking about what happened since we last saw each other so we can see how we've lived.  I'm pretty sure we'll be getting together again in the next couple of months when Brian and I go to Seattle again.  There was only one sad moment today, and that was when I found out that we had all lived in Seattle at the same time for almost 3 years without knowing the others were there.  Alas. But no matter, we have connected now and will make the most of that connection. 

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Buckley the Refuser

Dog training has reached an impasse. Note that I say impasse and not plateau. Buckley refuses to play anymore. Oh sure, he'll still humor me when I have a treat hidden in my hand, but he refuses to even acknowledge that he has learned anything if there isn't any food there. And if there is a distraction, I no longer even exist. What's a dog trainer to do?

When we were in class yesterday, Buckley would not even do the most basic command of "watch". He did, however try and steal everyone else's food.  I said, "hey, buddy, you're with ME and I have a pocket full of your favorite treats, so pay attention."  His response... To try and steal Chewy's treats from his little girl. Hmmmm.

Today, we seem to be back to square one. I hold the treat and Buckley does the training. But not consistently. He won't do any of the training moves when we're not in practice mode. "Sit", for example, will not be done outside of the laboratory of our training environment. From my perspective: grrrrrrrr.  On the plus side, loose leash walking is getting better. We were able to go down the exciting path with limited stops for un-uhs. For the last mile of our walk, he had lots of slack on the leash. And... when we got back to the house, he walked with a slack leash all the way to the door. That was a giant win, since he used to go crazy and pull like a Clydesdale, so I guess we'll take it.

We also got some "sit" and "down" training while we were in the park.  The first couple of times I couldn't even get him to pay attention to me. I cleverly anticipated that and used pizza bones instead of the standard training treats, which eventually captured his attention. Although, it didn't keep his attention when another dog came by.  One thing at a time, I guess.

I know he wants to please me, but he still seems unwilling to follow through on the training. We'll keep on training, over and over, every day. We'll get it. He really is a good dog.

Highly Offensive Material

I just saw the spectacularly amazing movie, The Wolf Of Wall Street.  DO NOT GO SEE THIS MOVIE IF:

• you find misogyny to be offensive
• you find excessive cussing to be offensive 
• you find extremely graphic sex to be offensive
• you find nudity to be offensive
• you find dwarf throwing to be offensive
• you find extremely excessive drug use to be offensive
• you find glorification of exceedingly poor behaviors to be offensive
• you find any previous Martin Scorcese movie to be offensive

Seriously, the topic and the glorification of the characters is reprehensible.  HOWEVER, IF:

• you want to see some of the best physical acting Leonardo DiCaprio has ever done
• you want to see Kyle Chandler take on Leonardo DiCaprio and hold his own, brilliantly
• you want to see an unexpected character portrayal by Rob Reiner
• you want to see some really (I mean REALLY) dark humor
• you want to see some fantastic work by Noah Hill (with some truly crazy teeth caps)
• you want to see a scene that could be straight out of Diner (very funny)
• you want to see some great ensemble work from the entire cast (male, of course... the female cast is given exactly the same work they've been given in the generic Scorcese film)
• you want to hear the words that will be used in hard sales training for the next 10 years (to replace, or augment the 'set of steak knives' scene from Glengary Glen Ross)
• you want to hear some spectacular music cues, many of which are laugh out loud funny
• you want to see a fantastically well crafted film that was fully watchable for every one of the 180 minutes 

So, I gave it two very enthusiastic thumbs up. And, the big concern I had going into it, that the third act would be a downward spiral into retribution and horror (like every other movie of this ilk: Good Fellas, Boogie Nights, etc.) but instead, it just got darker and funnier.  I think this movie feeds into my cynicism and dark humor, which made me enjoy it immensely.

Be happy and healthy! 

Football Phrases

Ah, the Bowl Season is upon us, and in fact, now nearly over.  We have watched several games this year, and for the end of the season, the Rose Bowl, the Gator Bowl and the Orange Bowl were all highlights.  They were very exciting games, made all the better by the inanities spoken by the sportscasters.  My theory is that the sportscasters each choose a phrase and then strive to say that phrase as many times as possible throughout the game.  Sort of like the word of the day in Pee Wee's Playhouse, without the screaming. 

In the regular season, The Bulldogs were, "In charge of their own destiny." In the bowl game, they were "a team who struggled to overcome adversity".  Of course, they lost the bowl game, so their struggle was in vain, I suppose. 

Tonight's Orange Bowl was one of the more entertaining sportscaster phrase games I've enjoyed all season.  The OSU quarterback, Braxton Miller, was "one hurting Buckeroo". (Of course, Buckeroo is one of Buckley's nicknames, so we hollered out, "Buckerooooo!" whenever it was said.) At one point, the Clemson running back was also in pain, so he got called a "hurting buckeroo" too, although, in fairness, I think he should have been called a hurting Tigeroo, since they are the Tigers, not the Buckeyes.

A little earlier in the game, there was some fun alliteration when "Braxton was backed by blocking buddies".  That one got repeated a couple of times.  I wonder if the sportscaster wrote it down before the game and looked for a time that was appropriate to incorporate it.  Hmmmm.

Then there was the "plucking" comments in the 3rd and 4th quarters.  The Clemson player "plucked the ball right out of the air!" You could "hear the sound of the ball getting plucked right out of the air!" "He really just plucked that ball right out of the air." Seriously... three times in a row, with almost no other commentary in between.  Of course, on the very next play, the OSU player intercepted the ball by "plucking it right off of the ground".  Perhaps that didn't work as well for him because he only said it once.

Not too long afterwards, poor Braxton got sacked again and looked like he was going to cry.  "That is one hurting Buckeroo", the announcer stated.  "Yep," his partner said, " One hurting buckeroo."

There is so much entertainment to be had in football, and you don't even need to watch the game.

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!   

The Longest Walk

There were two homework assignments from dog training class this week: sit and loose leash.  After many, many, many failed attempts during class, Buckley and I have achieved a somewhat consistent sit.  It is far from pretty, but he is going down on his butt with decidedly less jumping, biting, back peddling, and/or completely ignoring me.  Today, in three distinct sessions, we achieved sit at least three times in a row. Houston, we have lift off.  But as concerned as I was about "sit", I was doubly concerned about loose leash. Loose leash means the dog is on leash, but not pulling.  With a crazy Beagle?  Impossible!

Loose leash training is somewhat counter intuitive until you think about it.  If the dog pulls, you simply stop allowing forward motion until the dog stops pulling, then you start forward motion again. Hmm.  The trainer told us not to do this with a time limit and distance because it may take an hour to simply get down the driveway. Yowza! Armed with that knowledge, we went to the park to practice. 

Buckley barely pulled at all going from the house to the car.  It was unheard of, but I figured all of the work we'd done on "sit" had made him lethargic.  That or all of the extra puppy treats. (I'm kidding, we're using Zuke's mini bites and 10 treats are about the size of one regular treat.) He loaded up into the car just fine, and when we got to the park, he was great waiting on leash for us to get all ready to go.  Good dog!  Thus encouraged, I decided to really go into full training mode on that walk. 

Here is how it went.  Every time Buckley pulled the leash taut, I'd stop walking and make a sound like eenh! (going forward, I'll simply refer to that sound as ! so I don't have to spell it over and over.) When he stopped pulling, I'd say "good boy" and we'd move forward.  This is a sample of the walk (all of the dialogue is mine except for Brian's laughing in the background):

"Ok everybody, let's !. Good boy, let's try again.  Let's go. ! Good boy, remember not to pull.  So Brian, did you hear about !. Good boy. ! Um, ! Hey, I said ! ! ! Let's just stand here for awhile.  Poor Katy, thank you for never pulling and for waiting with us every time. Let's go. Good boy! So, Brian, did you hear about ! Buckley, what did I tell you about pulling? Let's go. Good boy. ! Let's go. Good boy. ! Let's go. Good boy." (Repeat)

Shockingly, we were able to cover 3 miles in a mere two hours, which is slightly more than twice the time it usually takes. Considering that we were teaching a Beagle not to pull in a park where there are wild animals, dogs, human and all sorts of interesting smells, I'd say it went great! I was very proud of the work we both did.  Towards the end, every time I'd say !, he'd look at me as if to say, oops, I didn't mean to do that, let's try again.  He'd even run to the end of his leash, then walk there without pulling.  Obviously, this will take much more practice, but he did such a great job.  Good dog! Good Linda, too.  I tried very hard to be consistent and not allow him to pull.  Go us!

That is it for today.  Katy, Buckley and I are all ready for bed.  It is a whole lot of work learning how to be well behaved. I think we all earned our bedtime.

Be happy and healthy!

Coincidence? You be the judge.

I saw two "unrelated" stories on the news last night. In the first story, a cow had fallen into a swimming pool and had to be pulled out. In the second story, a 5 year old boy almost drowned at a community pool and was rescued by a lifeguard who had to give mouth to mouth to resuscitate the boy. Coincidence? I don't think so!

In other news, Buckley and I had a tough training session today. We were supposed to learn "sit" but he didn't want to learn it. The trainer came over to help and got the super extra special delicious treats to tempt the little guy to sit. After approximately 20 attempts, he sat. Good boy? We've practiced several times since getting home, and he is doing better. We'll keep it up for the next week and see what comes out of this. Wish us luck.

Still no wind or rain to wash away the pollution. The stagnation alert was lengthened until tomorrow afternoon. We'll see how breathing goes tomorrow.

Be happy and healthy!