Joey got his tooth sharpened cleaned today, which also meant a nice car ride along I-35, listening to the audiobook version of Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man. He seemed to enjoy the ride and the entertainment, though there wasn’t enough eating or peeing on trees in the book to hold his attention for long.
[saveagrey]
Another Friday another Friday Random Ten with little asterisks by the two I’ve seen live.
After the failure and subsequent restocking of my ‘pod, I’m still not through cleaning house and I’m only halfway through adding the ‘s’ albums.
It takes a regularly scheduled workday to fully notice the end of daylight savings time.
Each day the shadows have lengthened, often without notice, but with the changing of just one hour, falling back and giving us – for a few days – more time, those shadows seem to lengthen faster. Perhaps it’s in the way they cut across the highway like great zebra stripes ticking off the miles on my way home. They weren’t there last week, though.
The dogs, of course, can’t understand why they’re having to wait an extra hour to be fed. You’d think they were starving.
See my post at In the Pink Texas: Coyotes Blamed in Chupacabra Cover-Up
Halloween came and went without too many trick-or-treaters. Captain Joey gave up barking halfway through the night while not-so-wicked witch Phoebe watched from the couch.
Daphne wouldn’t come out until after I took off her costume. Then, she started coming to the door. She knows when she’s being made the fool…
For some other costumed greyhounds, check out Kelso as the big bad wolf disguised as Grandma, and Long Nose as Super Greyhound.
[saveagrey]
Today a jazz shuffle with *’s by the ones I’ve seen live…
The Bad Plus played a very cool show at Antone’s a few years back. They gave a sneak preview of their then-upcoming second album with their version of The Pixie’s “Velouria.” Loads of fun that night.
Annette Simmons’ Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins is about using storytelling as a tool for communication in the workplace. Our principal chose it as this year’s assigned reading for the teachers, and it’s a great choice. It isn’t geared toward educators, but its lessons can be easily applied to the classroom.
Simmons’ target audience is businesspeople, particularly the kind who get hung up on objectivity and rational decision making. Her point: It’s okay to tell stories. In fact, it’s a great way to get people past their hangups and working together more productively. It’s not something about which I needed much convincing since I tend to tell a lot of stories in the classroom.
The bulk of the book is advice and strategies for using those stories that we all carry around with us anyway to enhance our communication, build trust and influence people. It’s a good read and her sense of humor – and her stories – keep things moving along.
Wasn’t that the title of a Cat Stevens record?
Until Saturday, I had never seen a woodpecker. Heard ’em, but never seen one. Then, last Saturday morning while sitting out back with the pups, I heard a faint rustling high in a tree in the backyard. I looked up and saw an unfamiliar bird with a striped back climbing along the upper branches of the tree.
This isn’t a great picture, but he was moving quite a bit, and I was trying to get something (anything!) so I could ID him before he took off. Fortunately, I got this and by zooming in with Photoshop, I could figure out his species. (I’m pretty sure I’m right).
Later, I put a woodpecker block in one of the hanging feeders. Hopefully he’ll come back so I can get a better look at him (and hopefully a better picture of him, too).
Still, adding a new bird to my list made for a great start to a really nice weekend.