Ack, I forgot I have a ton of beta to do for a Big Bang. ::pencils that in for the weekend::

My phone just pinged me: yay my new dog bed has been delivered! I ordered the really sturdy canvas dog-bed from LL Bean for TNG. No more cheap $15 beds from Cost Plus or Target! She better like it...

Tom, the class sounds like a very positive thing both in terms of practicalities and the decision to prioritize things you need, and I applaud you for it.

so this dog I am sitting for an indefinite amount of time. she chews any bed previously given to her. She is sleeping in a crate with nothing in there. suggestions of what might work that would be a little soft. Outside I am not so worried because now while the temps are nice she can lay in the grass. Obviously if she is still here in the summer, I will fix some sort of shade situation. Actually if she is still here by the summer, she will be our dog and I will have a doggie door into the mudroom.

You know what's a fun way to end a very long week? Having a government agency be completely wrong on the internet but figuring out the government agency was completely wrong on the internet AND how to work around the fact that the government agency was completely wrong on the internet but then realizing that the way the government agency was wrong on the internet was so WTF wrong that no one really understands and just thinks you didn't do things right.

she chews any bed previously given to her. She is sleeping in a crate with nothing in there. suggestions of what might work that would be a little soft.

Errr. If she chews everything, anything you put in there will be chewed. I suppose you could some rug scraps (like they sell cheap at Home Despot), and spray it with bitter apple...

Have you given her something else to chew, like a Nylabone? That might keep her occupied.

Tom, glad you are doing something for you.

Msbelle, I don't know. I had a friend whose dog chewed the plastic tray to their wire crate. What if you just put an old towel down and gave him a chew toy at the same time? In the long term most young dogs do seem to grow out of the terrible chewing phase, but that doesn't help you with now.

I have friends who have trained their border collie to bring anything to them for approval before he chews. But their daughter was a professional horse handler and worked with the dog a LOT as a pup, and they are home all the time and really big on giving the dog mental stimulation and jobs to do. (Their daughter is now studying for her B Ed and I joke that she's going to use animal techniques on the kids.)

Lee, I don't even know how to parse that.

Today may have been my laziest day ever.

Lee, I don't even know how to parse that.

What Sue said.

I do! I understand, Lee!

Lee, I don't even know how to parse that.

Neither do the attorneys. That's part of the problem.

It may a librarian thing, since Flea got it.

Basically, the USPTO screwed up their online records so badly that I felt really proud of myself for unraveling it, but they screwed up their records in such an odd way it was impossible to explain, so it ended up looking like I was the one who messed up.

Tom, my condolences on the complicated nature of all of this, but it sounds like you're firmly taking good care of your own wellbeing, for which I'm grateful.

So Mister Kitty's ashes are finally home (there were apparently supply issues for the boxes or some shit.) It's...odd. The box had been sitting in the sun, so it was warm. Body temp warm. And for some reason, that made me involuntarily lose it a little in public for the first time basically since that day.

Not sure where I want to keep MK. Right now he's on a shelf with a little cast Bast sitting atop it. But it's not the right place. I think he's going to be moving room to room with me for a bit. Which is just weird.

Damn, I miss that cat. He filled so much space.

I nearly killed myself in the pool (hyperventilation is hard to stop when you keep swimming, ) but got my pace under 56 seconds on the two miles. FINALLY.