Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Dog Photos

A friend of ours - Tami Powell was over the other day and took some photos of the Little White Dog named Max. In the one photo he is wearing his brand new parka!












Heres a Picture of one of our other dogs - Joey.






Sunday, January 28, 2007

God's Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. ; Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us."
God brews the coffee, not the cups.......... Enjoy your coffee!

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything."
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.
I'm living on borrowed time, and I thank God for the loan.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Giving Blood Using The Alyx System

Last night was an interesting evening. I went to my local Lifesource blood center to give blood. I had an appointment 3 weeks and I have had to reschedule it every week due to a nasty cold. They asked me if I wanted to give blood using Alyx System. I asked what that was. They gave me a rundown:


Blood contains red cells, plasma and platelets. Red blood cells are an absolutely essential component in emergency medical situations and can mean the difference between life and death for trauma victims and those undergoing surgery. Red blood cells are also used to treat people with certain types of cancer and sickle cell anemia. Because red blood cells are so essential, they are also the most needed blood component – with approximately 14 million units transfused every year.


Systems that collect individual blood components have been in use for over 20 years, safely providing millions of doses of platelets and plasma. The new Alyx System specifically collects red blood cells and helps increase the supply of this critically needed blood component.


I asked if it would take longer to do this then just giving whole blood. She said about 15-20 minutes. "No problem", I replied. They hooked me up to the Alyx machine and it was very easy. I would do it again for my next donation.


As promised, here is a picture of the little white dog - Max after his fur was all cut off.


Thursday, January 25, 2007

Monday, January 22, 2007

Dog Philosophy

The Saga of the Little White Dog ends. After having him for two weeks, he get's along great with our other dogs and we kinda got attached to him. He is now staying with us permanently.
His name is Max! Photos will be coming soon after he gets groomed and his hair grows back.


There is more truth than poetry in some of the sayings:












The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue. -Anonymous
Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. -Ann Landers














If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. -Will Rogers



















There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. -Ben Williams














A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself. -Josh Billings

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person. -Andy Rooney














We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made. -M.. Acklam














Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate. -Sigmund Freud
I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult. -Rita Rudner















A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down. -Robert Benchley
Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog. -Franklin P. Jones












If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons. -James Thurber
If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise -Unknown
My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to $3.00 a can. That's almost $21.00 in dog money!-Joe Weinstein
Ever consider what our dogs must think of us? I mean, here we come from a grocery with the most amazing haul, chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth! -Anne Tyler
Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. -Robert A. Heinlein















If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. -Mark Twain
You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'Wow, you're right! I never would've thought of that!' - Dave Barry















Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. -Roger Caras

If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then give him only two of them. -Phil Pastoret

My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog thinks I am.









Friday, January 12, 2007

Words to Live By

Here is a cool list of rules to live by sent to me by my sister.

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

FOUR. When you say, "I love you," mean it.

FIVE. When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye.

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dream. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?"

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk..

FIFTEEN. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: R espect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

TWENTY-ONE. Spend some time alone.

Take Me Back To The Sixties

Check out this website for a Blast Into The Past!
Take Me Back To The Sixties

The saga of the little white dog continues....
He is still with us. I think he was dumped by his owners. I will be looking for a good home for him.

My weight loss so far - 2 pounds!!!!!

Yippee!!!!!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

More On The Saga Of The Little White Dog

The saga of the little white dog continues. It seems the last phone number I tried to call is not the owner of the little white dog. Char called and talked to the person with the same last name as on the dog tag and lives within 3-4 blocks of where we found the dog. He claimed they did not own any pets at all. I have now run into a dead end! I just put a found dog ad on the www.dogdetective.com website. It looks like no one is even looking for this poor little dog.

Yippee!

It looks like the discoveryhealth channel has Sara Snow back on the air! Sara had a show last year called Living Fresh. Her new show is called Get Fresh with Sara Snow. Here is a link to her new website - http://health.discovery.com/fansites/sara-snow/sara-snow.html

Check out this show, if you are into health and green living you might like it.

Another one of my favorite shows is Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe on the Discovery Channel and Man Vs Wild on Discovery. Another great one is Top Chef on Bravo.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

The Saga of the Little White Dog

Sunday night, my wife Char and I were returning from a friends house. It was a rainy night, about 9:00 pm. We slowly turned into our subdivision from a very busy 50 mph street. Lo and behold what do we see on the street almost getting hit by an SUV is a little white dog. I quickly stoppped the car and yelled to my wife, "quick grab that dog!" Without missing a beat, she leapt from the car, unbuckling her seatbeat in one smooth motion. She ran up to the dog before he could make it to the busy street.

The dog was very friendly, clean and white as snow. Char sat down with him in her lap and we proceeded to our driveway to read the tag on his collar. He did indeed have a collar with a phone number, name and city. Now the city name was of a city that was about 3-4 miles away. It was raining out and this dog was not that wet and dirty to travel that far.

I called the number and received one of those generic answering machine messages... "please leave a message at the tone" the robotic voice suggested. I followed it's advice and left a message that I had found a dog and it's collar had this phone number. I left my cell phone number and asked for a return call. In the meantime, I slowly brought my garbage from the gargage to the curb. Hoping and waiting to see if anyone was trolling the streets looking for a lost dog. After 15 minutes, no one even drove down our street.

No one called that night, or the next morning. I call again and left another message. I then proceeded to notify the local police department and animal control that I had this dog in my possesion and gave them my phone number in the event someone would call and ask about the dog.

I then decided to look the phone number up on the Internet using Google. The phone number was assigned to a Nail Salon, about 20 miles from here. The plot thickens! Char, calls the number again in the afternoon on Monday and gets a live person. He tells Char the dog does not belong to him, but it could have belonged to the previous owners of the salon. He does not know how to get a hold of them and he believes they have since divorced.

So I take the last name and look it up in switchboard.com amd found someone with that last name that lives about 3-4 blocks away from us. I call and leave a message. So far no one has returned my call. Doesn't anyone want this poor little white dog? If it were my dog and it was missing, I would be going crazy!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Evolution of Video Games

Here is a link to a pictorial of the history of Video Games.

http://knuttz.net/hosted_pages/Console-Evolution-20070103

Let's see I have had the following:

Odyssey
Atari 2600
Atari 400 (which was really a pc/video games)
Sega
Nintendo 64
XBox

I was driving along the tollway to Chicago the other and noticed a sign hanging over the tollbooths.

It declared - "Welcome to Chicago Rod Blagojevich - Governor"

Now isn't this just a wonderful waste of the taxpayers money? Everytime a new governor is elected, someone has to go and repaint these signs all over the state. Illinois is not the only state that does this. I have also seen this in various cities as well.

I would think that everyone that lives in the state should know who the Governor is and if they don't, they don't deserve to know. As far as people passing through, I don't think they really care.

Just my opinion.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Happy New Year

Wow! What a great way to start a New Year. The temperatures in the Chicago area are in the 40's.

My New Year's resolution is to lose 16 pounds by April 25th. That's my birthday. That is a little over 16 weeks. That is one pound per week. If I can't do that, I might as well hang it up!

What I'm Reading:

More Twisted - Jeffrey Deaver


What I'm Watching: