Ross E. Lockhart's Blog, page 98

(Imagine, if you will, the "fwip, fwip, fwip" of Maddie's tail...)

"Hurrah!" shouts Maddie as the door opens. She pirouettes. "You're home! You're home! I was so worried. I thought you'd be gone forever. But now you're home!" Maddie wags her tail fiercely.

"Maddie," I answer. "We were only next door for five minutes." I hold up a hand, fingers splayed, countable. "Five minutes."

"Five l-o-n-g minutes," says Maddie. "Now that you're home, have you got any treats?"

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Charles. Location: Randy's knee.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Just a few more pictures from our afternoon with Aslan:


Water dog. Aslan enjoys playing with the hose almost as much as he does standing in his water dish.


Puppy tongue!


(Not so) Little Puppy's (not so) Big Sister, Peanut, takes a break on Jan's lap.

Last night, Janine invited us over to barbecue black bean burgers and zucchini (among other things), and we got to hang out with Aslan, the Giant Puppy, Janine's not-so-little Leonberger (not to be confused with a black bean burger), who is currently gaining between four and five pounds per week. That's one big puppy. Here are a few pictures:


No one can resist the head tilt. "Baroo?"


Wet face and snowball.


Tough guy puppy. "You talkin' to me?"


One tired puppy.

Yeah, the Fifth Street Militia did it again. This time, we had help from our New Zealand contingent, JQ and Ian. Here's proof:


First, a few sparklers to set the mood...







That's one big G.



Followed by the main event. Kaboom!










Bizarre!




















King Kong!




























What can I say? It's a tradition. And needless to say, a good time was had by all.

We've got an arsenal, and we're not afraid to use it. Is it dusk yet?

As you can see, we bought fireworks yesterday, so the Fifth Street Militia will once again be blowing things up in celebration of Independence Day. Purchasing fireworks was a little challenging this year. Usually, we seek out the booth run by the local Lokahi Outrigger Canoe Club, as I'd rather support them than some of the more polarizing nonprofit groups. Alas, an hour of driving around from booth to booth yielded no...

There's a meme going around, it does so right about this time every year. It's the text of the Pledge of Allegiance followed by an implied admonition of those not "patriotic" enough to repost it. Now, don't get me wrong, I like the Pledge, it's quite a poetic credo, but memes annoy me, so I have to note that this meme includes only the 1954 version of the Pledge.

I'm actually more fond of the Pledge the way Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and Christian Socialist, wrote it in 1892:

"I...

Look, more books! This shelf: Magical Realism, or Fantasy? Or both?

Borges was the man, a brilliant writer that I cannot help but view through the lens of having read Lovecraft first. I dreamed my way into his Library of Babel long before I read it, and because of that, the story chills me to this day.

Jorge Luis Borges: Selected Poems
Jorge Luis Borges: Collected Fictions
Jorge Luis Borges: Selected Non-Fictions
Jorge Luis Borges: Labyrinths
Jorge Luis Borges: Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges: The...

I've got a lot of books. Comes with the territory when one works in publishing, I guess. And while I'm a little better organized than some of my friends, I'm not really a collector, per se, gathering together first editions as an investment. Nope, I'm a reader: I amass books with every intention of eventually reading them. Thing is, books add up, and eventually you realize that you're never going to get a chance to read every single book on the shelves. Particularly once you start double...

So, the plasticky Dental Pack covering my front gums fell off tonight. There I was, minding my own business, occupying myself with a saltwater rinse, and the darn thing just jumped into the sink. I'm not surprised, I'd been warned, I'd lost a chunk of the wish-it-would-fall-off-already top-of-mouth Dental Pack this morning, but still... I feel so... exposed.

Like I said, terrible picture. Shared purely in the interest of science! and before you say anything, you're the one that clicked the...