Poor Lost Puppy

This dog was found wondering Longview Loop in Council Bluffs, IA on May 29 at around 9:30pm
He (or she?) is white with black on his head and ears, a black spot on his back, and a little brown on his face. He does not have fur on his belly or legs, and he doesn't have much of a tail.

If this is your dog, please call Pat @ 402-253-0352

I really hope we can find this poor guys home.
I gave him a bath and he was pretty dirty. I hope he hasn't been lost for too long.

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Update:
It turns out our little buddy isn't a puppy at all. In fact, he is quite elderly.
This morning, I put him on a leash and walked him around the neighborhood, hoping he would lead me in the direction of his home. Unfortunately, not only was he clueless about where he came from, but it didn't seem like he was used to being on a leash at all.

I took him to the Pottawattamie County Animal Shelter where he'll have an appointment with the vet and a groomer this afternoon.
They told me the lack of hair on his underside was due to a nasty skin disease he had, and he was very undernourished.
Given his condition and old age, it is unlikely that his owner will be found.
If the owner is found, he will face animal neglect charges.

Little buddy will be at the animal shelter for a week to get cleaned up and taken care of, after which time they'll give me a call and let me know how he's doing.

This kind of stuff really makes me sad.

New England Wrap

Christine and I recently spent a week in New England. Sorry it's taken me so long to post anything. I've been busy working on our website at work.

It was an amazing trip.
Incredible.

We took the Amtrak (which is slow, but a very nice way to travel) to New York, then we rented a car and tooled around Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts (which are all a part of New England, which is not a State). (Notice the lack of an Oxford Comma in that sentence. I'm all about proper grammar, folks.)

There was a ton of historical stuff to see.

• The USS Constitution Oldest commisioned floating battleship in the world, and the 6th ship in the US Navy
• The Friendship of Salem
  Not nearly as old, but the same style/li>
• The Mayflower II
  Of course, a replica of the original Mayflower that the pilgrims came over on
• The bridge where the first shot of the Revolutionary War was fired and the lantern that was used to signal Paul Revere
  Much more interesting than it sounds
• Ralph Waldo Emerson's birthplace
  My friend Alicia can tell you what a fan of Emerson I was in college X(
• A bunch of other stuff that wasn't nearly as cool as getting my picture taken with the Blue Man Group

But, surprisingly to me, the best part of the trip wasn't even seeing the Blue Man Group for the third time.
Christine is convinced I could see them every week and not get sick of it.
The best part of the trip was meeting Christine's family.

This was the first time she had seen her mom's side of the family in something like 15 years, and they were all so happy to see her. They were really cool people too.

Her uncle George gave us the grand tour of where Christine's mom grew up, and showed us the shop where he works (he owns his own landscaping business). It was a lot of fun to see all the landmarks that I've heard stories about.

But I had this feeling I can't describe the whole time we were staying with them.
There was just so much love. Of course they were all excited to see Christine now that she's all grown up, but in some ways, it felt like there hadn't been anytime at all since they had last seen here.

Both Christine and I were worried that it might be awkward, like we were talking to a bunch of strangers, or that we would run out of things to say.
There was not one minute that I felt uncomfortable. From the moment that George greeted us at the end of the driveway until when we realized that we had to leave if we wanted to catch our train home, we both felt very welcomed.

It really showed me that, while going to the Florida Keys or Padre Island is a lot of fun, you can't beat seeing family.

I really don't want to take my family for granted (as I have been guilty of).

If anybody is interested, a map of all the photos I took on the trip is available on Flickr.

Bad Monday

I really haven't given up on Every Monday Matters, I've just fell a bit behind. I was going to catch up yesterday, but I've been really sick.
Bad sick.

See, Sunday night I was going to give one of Dr. Warner's cats (Mercury) a bath, but he decided he'd rather bite my shoulder.
Now, I've had my fair share of animal bites, but this was by far the worst. He sunk his teeth right into me.
I'm talking his gums, my skin.

So, not only has my shoulder been hurting, but yesterday I couldn't keep down any food, or even water (if you know what I mean).

I really do hate cats.