Happy birthday, Simon Gagne! :-)

My fantasy hockey team doesn't appear to have been altered much today. So far. Aside from Jack-Johnson-to-Columbus a few days ago, that is.

Man. Hugo is winning it all. I might as well answer all the Viggle app questions w/Hugo. Looks like I'll earn more points that way.

George Clooney = OOO LA LA. And Brad Pitt right after him. Be still, my heart. Oscars RedCarpet CloneThemBoth

Holy cow! How did I miss the fact that Nitty is back in the A? He's with the Syracuse Crunch (the Phantoms' current opponent).

Hee, the movie with my pet phrase is on: Singin' In The Rain. Which reminds me: I think THIS FREAKING HEADCOLD can go sing in the rain. ;-)

This headcold, this congestion, this cough and this sore throat all need to go sing in the rain. Argh. Stupid symptoms.

Back spasms, meet naproxen and its friend, the microwave heating pad.

Installed ChromeVox, a text-to-speech screen reader. Now when work causes eyestrain, I can HEAR the screen's content & keep on working.

Aaah, shoot. Raul Ibañez signed with the dang Yankees. No more cheering RAUUUUUUUUUL at Phillies games. Drat those rat fink Yankees.

Alumni, Round 2. Got back in line after taking a photo with Mark, Bryz, and Phil E. Phan. The end of the line was almost exactly where I originally got OUT of line (Sec. 218 instead of 219), so I feel like I've picked up where I left off. I'm getting these dang autographs if it kills me. ;-)

Bailed on the alumni line.

Can we have some farging team D around our net, please? KTHX.

Working my tail off online. But I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel now. I'm gonna hit Inbox Zero if it's the last thing I do.

To my iOS-using friends: I recommend the Viggle app. Watch TV, check in, earn points (which add up fast), redeem for prizes. Winning.

Ratsin' fratsin' BLACK ICE all over our front step... GRRRR... Is it Spring yet?

Mini and the Air Horn

Mini sleeps in a crate overnight. I don't know how she was raised (I have my suspicions that she slept in a hoomin's bed), but as Mark has got allergies, we have a "no critters in the bedroom" rule to keep the hair and dander level minimized in there.

In the past few weeks, she has started to wake up in the middle of the night and, apparently, get bored. Instead of going back to sleep, she has started barking.

So the question becomes, what to do? Ignoring it doesn't work, as the barking will continue for minutes on end. Going and hollering at her is a form of attention, which is why she was barking in the first place. So rewarding the barking, even with negative attention, isn't going to resolve matters.

I finally remembered a cheap little air horn I got a year or two ago. It operates with a plunger, so it never "runs out" of air. I went and dug it out of where it was stored.

A couple nights ago, every time the barking started, instead of answering with my voice or by getting up to reprimand (pay attention), the only answer was FWEEEEE. Even then, it took a couple minutes before Mini realized that FWEEEE was the only response her barking was going to draw. She stopped.

Last night, at about four AM I heard AR! AR! AR! from the crate. FWEEEEE went the horn. No more barking. A couple hours later, another bark. Another FWEEE. No more barking.

I think she "gets it" now. :-)

And now I appreciate the HOCKEY playoffs all the more. I feel cheated when I don't see a handshake line at the end of the final game.

Jiminy CRICKET! This Super Bowl has taken FOUR HOURS and it's still on? Good thing I'm earning points for having it on (yay, Viggle app)!

Small victories are great. I just devised my daily calorie budget so that I can have two Dollar Dogs tonight at the Flyers game. :-)