Who set the clock on my stove?

So on Thursday we had in Las Vegas terms, a heavy thunderstorm. Holy cow, almost 0.25 inches of rain? How did we survive (much sarcasm intended).

The important part of this story is that on Wednesday, the battery on my uninterrupted power supply for my computer died after many years of faithful service. That almost requires in the life of a geek that you lose power or have some sort of power related incident. It is almost required.

So on Thursday during the scary thunderstorm, (again much sarcasm intended) the power went out for a few minutes. This required me to restart my primary computer once the electricity returned and be slightly annoyed at the few things in my house that do not reset themselves and their clocks. The stove, microwave and coffee maker were blinking at me in a we are too low tech to fix ourselves kind of way.

I am pretty lazy and don't really depend on the stove, microwave or coffee maker to tell me what time it is so I was in no rush to set the clocks on these devices. No big deal, I would fix the blinking light issue later when I felt like it. Saturday evening is when I felt like fixing this if only to rid my home of blinking lights.

I looked at the clock on the stove and tried to remember how you go about setting the clock. I checked at my watch and realized that the stove was displaying the same time and was no longer blinking. Odd. Not sure how that happened. I turned to the coffee maker to correct it's blinking issue only to see that it too was displaying the correct time and no longer blinking. Only the microwave seemed to be in the I don't know what time it is blinking stage.

Now I am starting to be a little concerned. I did not set the clock on the stove or coffee maker. When did they magically fix themselves and why is the microwave not playing along with this freak me out moment?

So the question is, who or what set the clock on my stove? There was no one in the house but Huggy Bear and me. Unless my goofy Pomeranian has suddenly learned how to jump up on the counter and adjust the clock settings on kitchen appliances, something odd is going on in my house. Again, why was the microwave not playing along? I am pretty sure something is messing with me. I am starting to suspect the microwave. It knows I don't really care for what it does to my food or plastic containers. I think it is retaliating in the only way a microwave can fight. Convincing the other kitchen appliances to make me think I am losing my mind. I'm on to you Mr. Microwave, this fight is just getting started!

You may want to check in on me every few days, worried that kitchen appliances are conspiring against you has got to me some kind of warning sign. May just be the result of too much time alone with a Pomeranian.

Traveling to Florida

Image by calebism via FlickrI am not a big fan of airlines, with their lack of set prices, bad food, and the need to take me sometimes several places I don't want to go before delivering me to my destination. So whenever possible I travel by car. If time permits and it has been long enough between trips to forget the details of the last mind-numbing day long drive to visit family or friends. Once I start driving, I rarely stop until I reach my destination. For my Christmas trip to Florida, time was available and I planned on staying for more than a couple of days, so driving seemed the way to go. The fact that a round trip drive to Florida was nearly 3500 miles was somehow blocked from my thought process.

When you travel by airplane, you pack carefully and efficiently. Everything you might need will have to be carried in one or two bags. When you travel by car, especially one with a good size trunk, it seems that all reason regarding packing goes out the window. This became very clear as both my wife and I wandered from room to room in our house gathering as many of our household possessions as we could stuff into the car. Anyone who might have been watching our countless trips from house to car with armloads of bags, boxes and assorted shiny objects may have guessed that we were moving, not just loading the car for a vacation. It was my desire to be able to actually see out of the rear window of the car that prevented us from loading any more. After all, it is better to be prepared than find yourself miles from home without that pair of socks I haven't worn in four years or enough dog food to feed Ted the Wonder Fuzzball for three months.

With the car loaded, and after Ted has found the best place to stand for his viewing pleasure. Let the vacation begin, we have a long way to go, miles to drive and we ain't stopping except for food, fuel, and letting Ted add to his list of places where he watered the bushes.

Getting Ready To Go To Vegas

Image via WikipediaMy wife has been in Las Vegas for the past week or so playing Grandma to our new Granddaughter. So Ted the Wonder Fuzz Ball and I have been making use of our time alone at home by doing guy stuff like sitting around in our underwear, OK so Ted still sits around in his fuzz coat but you get the picture.

We go for long walks (three times around the park), eat fast food (Ted decided French fries don't agree with him), watch TV and only do laundry when I run out of clean underwear. It has been fun, but this week we have to get ready to make the trip to Las Vegas ourselves. Ted and I both have new haircuts, I got a new pair of shoes and Ted got a new retractable leash, the underwear is in the washer as I write and the suitcase has been brought up from the basement.

Just a couple more errands to run and we will be ready for our journey. Hopefully, my 1100 mile drive with a small fuzzy dog will go well and by Friday I will be in Vegas and doing happy Grandpa stuff.

A Trip To The Park

It cooled off a little the past couple of days and it was pretty nice this evening so I thought the dogs would like a trip to the park. I opened the drawer where we keep the leashes and before I could pick up the first one, the Hoover & Ted Happy Dance Of Joy had started. Bouncing, jumping, yelping, dancing on their hind legs, racing to the door and back, wiggling and doing everything except stand still long enough to put the leash on. This goofy dog pre-walk celebration goes on every single time we go out and would be entertaining if I wasn't the one trying to hook a leash to their collars. 

Ten minutes later we were finally out the door and headed toward the park. When we got to the park I looked around to verify that we had the place to ourselves and I let go of the leash. This is my favorite part of our visits to the park because both dogs have to find out what other dogs have been there since their last visit. They rush off, noses to the ground, running in some random pattern following every scent. To me it looks like a kind of fast paced furry vacuum cleaner dance. It was still pretty hot outside so after they had run around a while we headed back home where they emptied the water bowl before flopping down on the kitchen floor to rest. 

A half hour later I had cooled off, the dogs were snoozing, the house was quiet, everything was fine, then as I was looking for a battery in the junk drawer I opened the wrong one. You guessed it, the Happy Dance Of Joy drawer. :)

Whrooooooo!

This afternoon I was in the kitchen digging through the fridge when I heard a really odd noise. I looked at Hoover, who was of course sitting at my feet waiting to see if I was going share whatever I found but he was not the one making the noise. I heard the sound again and this time I decided it was coming from outside. So as I walked over to the back door I noticed a second sound, this one I recognized as the siren from a fire truck. 

Standing on the back porch with his head in the air was our Pomeranian Ted doing his version of a howl. Now I have seen him howl at sirens before, but they were always just a short attempt. This time he was going for the full on tiny wolf impression. He had the stance right and his little nose was pointed toward the sky but the sound was just not right. His howl went something to the effect of whrooooo, whrooooo, which if I can explain this properly sounds a lot like a high pitched electric can opener but not as loud. Next time you use your can opener, try to picture that sound coming out of a small dog who thinks he howling like the big dogs. 

Ted's normal barks are loud and sharp enough to hurt your ears but this howl was low and soft and just plain funny. I stayed at the door to watch his entire performance wishing I had a video camera to catch this so I could share the visual instead of trying to put it in words. The show only lasted a couple of minutes but I think Ted was pleased with his performance, when he finished he turned to face us and gave a little bow.

Ted The Wonder Fuzzball

My wife has been out of town for a few days on vacation to visit with family. So this means that the dogs and I have the run of the house!

The mighty Hoover and his little sidekick Ted have no one but me to follow around the house, or the yard or into the bathroom. This has had the largest effect on Ted. Ted is my wife's shadow, wherever she goes, he goes, if she sits down, he jumps in her lap, if she goes to bed, he snuggles up next to her .. you get the idea. The past few days he has had only me to shadow and I am afraid that I am just not as entertaining to him as my wife is. 

Boring as I am to this small fuzzy dog he has had much more time to devote to his only other interest .. patrolling the perimeter of the yard. To Ted, this is his domain and no one shall enter his domain nor shall they walk near or for that matter fly over his domain. He is diligent in his duty to bark sharp high pitched yelps at whatever he can see or hear or imagine is within his area. Anything that dares enter his yard (and is smaller that he is), will be dealt with in a severe manner. 

Over the past few years this tiny terror has caught and attempted to eat a large number of creatures foolish enough to enter his yard including 3 or 4 bunnies, a dozen snakes, several birds,  a squirrel, and at least three possum. The bunnies I understand, our neighborhood is home to dozens of little rabbits and when one comes into the yard, sometimes they just can't get back through the fence fast enough to avoid capture. The same could apply to the possum, but what I wonder about is how does he catch the birds? Are the birds in my yard just so full from emptying my feeders that they can't escape a small dog? Or does Ted have some form of stealth shielding that allows him to sneak up and attack without warning? I may never know for sure, but I can offer that if you wish to rid your yard of small vermin or you just want to keep your lap warm, get yourself a Pomeranian. If you are lucky, yours won't carry a dead possum into the living room.