Well - it was a month ago yesterday that my beautiful girl Triscuit died. We started the adoption process (application/class/etc) that goes into adopting a greyhound. Yesterday after completing a “greyhounds and kids” class that we were required to take (because of the strong pack mentality of greyhounds fresh off the track). We go next weekend to the greyhound kennel to meet some dogs…and one in particular - a brother of Triscuit: Ricky He looks pretty much exactly like Triscuit which I initially did not know if I could handle, but then thinking about the possibility to have one of her family members - I knew it was right. I hope we like each other and that in a few weeks we would have the honor of having him in our home.

In the past few days I have found it really hard to focus on work because my mind keeps drifting back to Triscuit. Because of this I have tried to do some things that I have been meaning to do but have not had time/want to do them. One of them: take a break and walk every single day. The other so far: clean out that nasty iPhoto Library. Gone are the blurred, duplicates, and photos I really do not care about. I feel so much better about my photos now. Not only did I decrease the size of my library, I made it easier to backup/restore, and have made it much more manageable. If you are like me and are overwhelmed with something like this - do it in steps. Go through a few to a few hundred pictures at a time. Scared? Make a backup first. Trust me, you will feel so much better!

Today was my first full day without Triscuit with me. Working at home was such a treat for both Triscuit and me. Every time I would get up to get a drink, check the mail, etc I would go over and see her, pet her, and talk to her. She kept me company and tried to convince me to take her for a walk. Today - the house was especially quiet without the click clack of her claws, and her tags on her collar shaking as she would do a good shake. To round out these past few sad and trying days - I ended up having to get a root canal today while at the dentist getting my crowns (from July) redone. Hopefully my luck will change and this weekend will be great!

On June 10th, 2000 - Triscuit came into this life, and without us knowing it at the time, the perfect dog was born. She bred to race and had a successful racing career (Triscuit’s racing stats) for two years. The first race she ever raced in she got 3rd and the next race she got 1st. Almost to the day, our little racer got 3rd place in a race in 2002. Within a few months of retiring, Amy and I had were the luckiest two people to meet her at the the Greyhounds Only rescue kennel where we instantly fell in love with our girl. Greyhounds will often lean on someone if they feel really comfortable with them and as soon as she leaned on me - I knew we just had to have her in our lives.

She was the best dog I could have ever asked for. She never complained, rarely barked, never jumped up on anyone, had amazingly soft “bunny fur”, and was … [more]

We just got a call from Triscuit’s neurologist. He is going to do a MRI in about an hour to see what is going on. He thinks there is a good chance it is either a slipped disc or possibly a tumor. If it is a slipped disc - they can do surgery and the outlook is good. If it is a tumor - they are usually inoperable and the outlook…not so great. Send positive thoughts.

I was hoping to use the Wordpress iPhone app while somewhere fun or boring but instead I find myself in an animal ER while my beautiful girl Triscuit is getting looked at.

A few days ago T started having problems with walking and today I had to carry her everywhere. We are not sure what is going on but it looks like a spine issue. T is only 8, but with that said, just lost her best friend Wish (a fellow grey) last week.

Please send positive thoughts…she is such a sweet girl.

This post was going to be about updating jappler.com from WordPress 2.2.x to WordPress 2.3RC 1, but on the way back from my daily walk with Triscuit (my greyhound) I noticed a super cool bug on the side of my house. I decided to share my picture of it instead of talking about the bugs I ran into when upgrading to the latest version of WordPress (Don’t be too jealous of my sweet sandbox). Speaking of bugs - I also had 3 swarms of flying ants in my house yesterday that I noticed while on a conference call. Good thing I handle these situations very calm, cool, and collected.