The Mother of Invention.

I've been logging a lot of internet time since I have a lot of it on my hands, and I don't have to share "WiFi time". Tonight I finally decided to check out a relatively new service from Netflix, called "Watch Instantly". I/We've been subscibers of Netflix for a number of years, and enjoy the huge catalog of movies they have to offer.. mainstream flicks, indies, documentaries, TV shows, foreign, classics... the list goes on. Our problem is our travel schedule. The movies have to catch up with us, and we don't always watch them right away. In fact, right now we've got a movie on our shelf we've been carrying around for over a month. That's not economical at $16.95 a month.

With the "Watch Instantly" option, I can download up to 16 hours of movies during any billing period, so tonight for my "road test" I downloaded some Japanese Anime... a little ditty called "Girl's School"... (and now I know why geeks and adolescent boys are so enamored of this genre ;^)

Next, wanting to watch something short, I chose Season 1 of 30 Rock, (primarily because I was forced to miss it when it was on air because - someone - always wanted to watch CSI instead). My personal opinion is that 30 Rock is one of the funniest, and best written programs on television due, in no small part, to it's creator, Tina Fey. Not only is she wickedly, brilliantly funny, but she's so damn hot! (It's OK... Margaret knows about this crush and is cool with it.. right?) Besides, I'm not alone!


Anyway, my experiment with Netflix downloads.. (which are included in our monthly service, by the way) was a mixed positive. Because I'm parked a fair ways from the antenna at this campground, the signal was low, causing some buffering issues, but Netflix has a nice fix, which halts the stream until a sufficient amount of buffering has occurred to not hold up the movie again. Their viewer (which you download for your first movie) adjusts to the speed of your connection. Overall, I like it, and will probably use it whenever we're in a place that has faster than dial-up speeds.

A Pretty Cool Dog.

HT Linda Stillwell in Oklahoma.

Not to bum everybody out, but it's been reported that Skidboot passed on earlier this year.

A Problem.

The return flight's not until the following Friday!

Shades of "Donald & Lydia". So much for doing our part for world peace.

I've Got Some Bad News.. and Some Good News.

There. It's not just the South. Received word last week from Margory that the spectre of AB1634 is about to raise it's ugly head again. Just when we were ready to venture into the Sunshine Golden State next Summer for the Scottish Deerhound Club of America National Specialty at Lompoc. Not if this piece of garbage passes, we won't. Not one tire tread will cross that border, and if the Club is smart, they'll pull their event out of the state. Anyway, keep abreast of the news on this issue by regularly checking (and supporting) the link above.

On a related subject, Steve Bodio informs us of a new advocacy group directed specifically at sporting dogs. Check out the website, and see if it deserves your support. I like the looks of it.

The Bachelor

That's me. Took Margaret to Houston Intercontinental Airport.. (yeah, yeah, I know.. think Washington National.. or Idlewild).. to fly to spend Christmas with "the Georgia Reiniches". (Congratulations reader Cynthia!). Ordinarily, we'd both go, but with no events to attend in Georgia it made no sense to make the 900 mile trip there when we were going to be back here in Texas for year end.

So here I sit, at the Escapees Rainbow's End RV park in Livingston, TX. Just me, 5 dogs, and a cat. There's a big ham dinner on Christmas at the Activity Center, and maybe one of the single RV geezer ladies will hit on me. You never know.

Anyway, there's plenty to do around here. The Big Thicket National Preserve is not far, and Lake Livingston offers much to explore as well. I'll survive.

Oh! One more thing: We never got around to getting a Christmas card done this year. So don't be running breathlessly to your mailboxes every day. I should come up with something before the holiday.

If not, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody!

Wow! It's Like Christmas in.. in.. December!

Yes, that's brand spankin' new University of Michigan football coach, Rich Rodriguez... Godfather of the spread offense. And believe you me, boys and girls there's going to be some changes made... not just at Michigan, but the whole Big Ten; if they want to keep up, that is. This will represent a sea change, a paradigm shift, a... a... oh, I don't know- pick a superlative- in the conference. This might just be the guy to drag the Big Ten, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century. And I couldn't be more excited. We will soon be playing a very un-Big Ten brand of football!

When the rumors first surfaced last Friday, I thought it would be a great hire, but didn't think it would have a prayer. We talked about it at the lure trial this weekend, but no one thought, given the ridiculous way the coaching search had progressed over the last month, that Michigan would accomplish anything more than getting Rodriguez a healthy raise from West Virginia U. When I was told yesterday that Michigan actually pulled it off, I was ecstatic.

The same can't be said for the poor residents and students in West Virginia. For the second time in less than a year, Michigan has grabbed a high profile coach from West Virginia University. Last spring it was John Belein, the basketball coach. They're feeling abused down there, but it's been going on for over a hundred years. As it happens, Michigan's first great football coach, the legendary Fielding H. "Hurry Up" Yost, known best for his "point a minute" teams at the turn of the last century was born in Fairview, West Virginia in 1871, only a handful of miles away from Rodriguez' home town. Wow.

I even got an email from a well known veterinary orthopedic surgeon who operates out of Wheeling, WV and is a WVU grad, voicing his disappointment in Coach Rod, and wondering how he could leave the team in the lurch and not even coach the Fiesta Bowl game. But this is just how the game is played in the big time, like it or not.

And speaking of playing the game... if West Virginia had done it's part, and not gotten upset by the lowly Pittsburgh Panthers in the last game of the year, then "Coach Rod" doesn't have his secret meeting with the Michigan search team in Toledo, Ohio, and Les Miles is assembling his new coaching staff in Ann Arbor, and not preparing to put a whoopin' on Ohio State in the BCS National Championship game. Funny how things work out.

For now, we'll just have to remember, if we have to take a dog to WV for treatment, we'd better remove our "M" sticker from the rear window, and the "Big House Football" frame from around the license plate.

Just like I can't wait to get to New Mexico to run the dogs on jackrabbits, I can't wait for next Fall!

Yeah. They're That Good!

Patriots Proud Of Defeating Whoever That Last Team Was

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