Witches and zombies and ghouls, oh my!

This year's Halloween costume...



That's not me, it's the costume model. I'll add an additional entry after the Halloween party, showing me in the costume. It's called the Ghostly Gentleman (though Annie's Costumes calls it the Ghastly Costume).

Upcoming Events

Okay, how cool is this. November 7th, some friends and I will be attending a talk by Dr. Stephen Hawking at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.

Time brings about change

Geez, I just realized it's been a month since my last update.

Buddy

Buddy's doing well, and seems to be fitting into the household nicely. He's finally started playing Tug with Toby, though I don't think he really thinks of it as Tug, so much as Taunt (as in, "Hey, you brought me that toy, now you're trying to take it away from me?").

He's lost a lot of weight, though. When I first took him to the vet, she told me I needed to put some weight on him. He weighed 52 lbs at the beginning of September, but now weighs only 44 lbs. He's getting almost twice the amount of food Toby is each day, but keeps losing it. The vet now has him on some de-worming meds, to see if that helps. If he keeps losing, we then need to put him through a thorough exam to see what else might be wrong. I'm hoping the de-worming will do the trick.

I'm also trusting him in the house, now. He didn't pee inside after that first time, when he started marking things (the wall, the blinds, the sofa). Now he understands outside is for potty, inside is for sleeping, eating, playing, getting out of the cold. I still don't trust him unattended at night though, and close the bedroom door (whereas I used to let Toby roam around as he pleased at night.)

Toby

Toby's become more aggressive since Buddy arrived. For example, a couple of days he actually bit me while taking a treat. He's so paranoid about Buddy getting his food, that he doesn't take treats nicely any longer and instead lunges for them. Bad behavior, which is now being corrected. I have to reinforce the soft taking of treats.

He still sleeps on my bed, and gets irritated if Buddy even comes near the bed. He also gets irritated if Buddy comes near me in general, so I have to make sure to pet both of them at the same time, or Toby first then Buddy.

But unlike Buddy, Toby doesn't have a weight problem. He has plenty of it. In fact, I had to cut his food slightly, to keep his weight down. With all that fur, it's hard to tell just how heavy he is shy of a scale. Where Buddy currently weighs 44 lbs, Toby's currently around 56 lbs, which looks just about right on him. He was up to 60 lbs, which was a bit much.

I'm still walking him regularly, but without Buddy. I walk Toby alone. With Buddy in the house, it seems even more important to make sure he has time alone with me without the other dog. Although, walking him is still a frustrating litany of "Toby, come on," "Toby, come on," "Toby, come on!" Every ten seconds, he feels the need to bury his nose in something, which drives me nuts.

The Big News

Now for the really big news.

I quit.

I never wanted to be in the group I'd been in, and was re-orged there four and a half years ago. I spent the next three years working pretty much solo on a project, then started working full time on the new group's product. But I never really fit into the new group. The management style was completely different from anything I'd previously encountered, there were a number of high-strung individuals within the group, my office mate was driving me nuts eating carrots and apples for lunch every day, and after 10+ years I was really getting tired of the 60 mile daily commute.

So I left.

I don't yet have a new job, and frankly am enjoying some time off. I've been working for fifteen years now, after college, and I worked all the time through college, so the break is nice. I'm looking at opportunities within Apple, where I've always wanted to work. There's a Java position for which I feel I'm perfectly qualified, and in looking at the Yahoo! listings I find myself reviewing technologies I haven't used in a few years -- HTML, CSS, JavaScript. (I haven't really used any of these since I was running my volunteer web site for Team in Training.)

Team in Training

Speaking of Team in Training, I'm thinking about returning to mentor for the upcoming Winter season, and running my ninth marathon, the Napa Valley Marathon, in March. I've been away from TNT for four years, since riding the Kokopelli Trail with the mountain bike team. I'd be nice to get back into psycho training mode, after such a long break.