Soccer pictures

"Sydney Defense!"


"Sydney Steal!"


"Sydney Dribble!"


"Sydney Victory!"

This evening we discovered that not only will she nudge the ball, she'll actually dribble it forward using her nose. We've seen her go five feet or more with it.

For the "Shelties are scary smart" file: In our noontime soccer session, she was completely fooled by basic stepover fakes (step over the ball to fake one way, then go the other way using your other foot). This evening, she didn't fall for it very much anymore. She's already learning my moves!

They don't make bath stuff like they used to...

I don't understand why the folks at Bath and Body Works don't get it. Every year I find a scent I like, and every year without fail they discontinue it and bring some new scent I don't like. Freesia, pear, apple, raspberry, brown sugar, grape. I mean, when you think of smelling pretty, do you think of smelling like a fruit? I don't want to smell like I just came out of the produce section of a grocery store. What ever happened to normal scents? Or even flowery scents?? Even dogs like to smell girly. =)

Our little soccer player

We'd heard that Sydney used to be a big soccer player. Today I confirmed that she still is. I took her out in the back yard with the soccerball, and she started chasing after it barking her head off. I ran her back and forth for about ten minutes and she loved it. She'll head-butt and paw the ball if you leave it for her. She got momentarily distracted having a frank exchange of ideas with the dogs on the other side of the back fence, but nothing could keep her from playing soccer. I was wiped out after about ten minutes, but she looked ready to play the full 90. She clearly had an amazing amount of fun. So did I, for that matter. We'll try to get some pictures or video soon....

Bunny?

Why do they keep calling me "honey-bunny?" Don't they know I'm a Sheltie? I'm not a rabbit, I'm a K-9!

In other news, on our morning walk I detected a squirrel in the magnolia tree right in front of the house. I scared him away, but I'm still raising the Squirrel Threat Level to Orange, indicating a high likelihood of squirrel operations. Citizens, please be alert.

Bathtime torment

"Surely you're not planning to give me a bath. Look how pitiful I am! Whaddaya mean I smell like a dog? I'm supposed to! Nope, don't need a bath. Hey! W-why are you closing the door? Help!"


Wash cycle


Rinse cycle


Spin dry cycle


"I don't want to be a punk rocker! Dry me off!"


Blow dryer time. Sydney doesn't like this part.


But she loves getting brushed. She'll happily sit there and get brushed indefinitely. She's such a girly girl.


The end result. Look at that show dog!

Trauma

Hey, what's going on? Why are we at the vet again? We were just here last week! I wouldn't have jumped in the car so eagerly if I'd known we were coming back here. Hey! Hey! Don't leave me! Help!

(Later)

Whoooa. Heeey. Whaat happened? Huh? Anes ... astha ... anemesthamatesia? Is that whyyyy I can't waaalk straight?

(Later)

You've got some nerve abandoning me at the vet like that! Whaddaya mean "teeth cleaning?" My teeth were just fine the way they were! I don't like you any more.

What's that? Do I want to go for a walk?

Well, I'll forgive you this time. Let's go let's go let's go!

Note on comments

We kept getting comment spam, so I've turned on word verification for posting comments. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thunderstorms

Sydney is currently hiding under my chair, lying on my feet, because there's a mild thunderstorm in the area. I keep telling her that she can't possibly be a scaredy-cat because she's a dog, but it doesn't seem to help. Poor sweetheart....

Guard duty at the computer desk

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

More variety, more content -- it's time to live-blog a bad movie! We begin Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children:

• 10 minutes in, I'm having a lot of "Where are we? Who is this? What's going on?" moments. And I remember the game pretty well.
• The real question is, will the movie be better than the game? The bar's not set very high! (LATER: No.)
• OK, the gang call Cloud "brother" and keep asking about their "mother." Gee, Cloud, d'ya think maybe they're talking about Jenova?
• These character models are well into the disturbing part of the "uncanny valley." (shudder)
• This fight between Tifa and what's-his-face is just dumb. "Make it like the Matrix, but more so" doesn't work out well.
• Am I wrong, or is Tifa significantly more modest than she used to be?
• OK, it made me laugh that the bad guy had the "victory" fanfare as his cell phone ring.
• Did the little girl just throw a Materia at the bad guy? Where'd that big box come from? Why did it cause him to leave Tifa alone? This scene continues to make progressively less sense.
• Can we just revive Aeris already? That's the only reason anyone's watching this.
• Cloud looks almost as confused as me.
• Hey Cloud, the children are gone! You don't care? Cloud: "I don't care about anything! I'm angsty!"
• Wow, the bad guy turns the water black. No Jenova blood for oil!
• This scene would work better without the silly heavy metal theme for the bad guys. They're bad!
• This fight in the Forgotten City is even sillier than the first. Wait, what's this red thing flying around? Is that someone's blood? Where's Cloud? It's over? What just happened? Oh, forget it.
• Oh, the red thing was Vincent in cloak-only form or something. OK.
• Huh? Now are we flashing back to before Cloud left? What, did this movie make too much sense told in chronological order?
• Philosophize blah blah Lifestream nightmare existence etc.
• It usually looks like there's no relationship between the voices and the people on-screen. That's not good. It doesn't help that most of the voice actors sound like they're on powerful medication.
• Yay, every single other main character shows up in the span of 10 seconds at just the right moment!
• We're fighting a summon? What is this, FFX? And if that's supposed to be Bahamut, he's awfully wimpy so far.
• So far the music has ranged from classical to choral to heavy metal, and not a bit of it has been either good or suited to the scene. Mr. Uematsu's phoning it in big-time.
• *tweet* Technical foul! Bahamut-or-whoever just fired a humongous energy blast straight down at Cloud with the city below him. Where'd it go?
• Something involving a motorcycle chase. I'll figure out the plot (snicker) implications later.
• First good music! It's Jenova's theme from the game, of course.
• Sephiroth: "I'm going to destroy this planet and make it into a spaceship and go find a new planet and create a shining future there." Cloud: "What about this planet?" Sephiroth: "That's up to you." Huh? That's nonsensical even by crazy villain standards!
• Cloud's falling through white light! Now he meets Aeris and she forgives him for not being able to save her.
• Well, half right.
• Yay for Cloud the Baptist! By the way, why is there a church if there's no religion?
• Translation of that final look from Tifa: "OK, are you finally over Aeris so we can get on with things?"
• Who was that guy who appeared with Aeris? Was that bad-guy-but-he's-better-now? (UPDATE: I guess it was Zack / Zachs / whatever. You don't remember him? Me neither.)
  
• What? The movie's over?
  
• I like the sequence of Cloud riding through countryside under the credits. Best part of the movie.

UPDATE: I have the "la la something Sephiroth" choral theme stuck in my head. I didn't like it the first time around. Help!

New friends

I've made so many new friends lately! But they all go away. Why won't they stay? First Hillery and Mike came to visit from Dallas for the weekend, and they were lots of fun, but then they left. Then Damitra's cardiology team came over for dinner. They were all friendly and there was a little one who was just fascinated by me. (Who wouldn't be?) But they all left too, and no one even gave me any food. Then Dustin came to visit, but he left. And they spent the whole time playing Super Smash Brothers and the Fight City card game. Don't they know that I'm more fun than anything like that? I kept trying to get their attention, but they kept going back to the cards. Silly people....