Through My Lense

Since we moved into this building, I have shut the light off when I left the bathroom. Does it really need to be lit when no one was in there? I didn’t think so but evidently lots of other people thought it did as I very rarely found the light off when I went to use the facility. Today (being Earth Day), I made a small sign letting people know that it was earth day and to shut the light off. I put the sign there this morning and I just visited the men’s room to find… DARKNESS!

Success is sweet. Now… to think of what goes on tomorrow’s sign.

*update* I just expanded my bathroom signs to the women’s bathroom as well with the help of Falon to let me know that no one was in there.

I took my lunch hour today and rode around downtown Grand Rapids a bit. Here is the path on Google Maps and here are the photos on Flickr. Good times. The hill on Michigan is definitely a killer but it was well worth it when I got to the top. Its weird how accomplishment can drive me so hard to do some things but procrastination and laziness over power it quite often.

I just saw Amit post this on twitter so I re-tweeted it but that almost didn’t seem good enough. This is easily the single handed best description and advertisement for Twitter ever. Enjoy.

http://superamit.tumblr.com/post/31498263

(4/11/2008 4:28:51 PM) thewlbl:twitter is taking away your life.
(4/11/2008 4:29:21 PM) cowboyEricGVSU: well in a sense, twitter is my life.

I love you Twitter.

Well… not exactly my first ride into downtown GR but definitely the first to our new (2 months old) office. It was a bit cold but I really wanted my bike so I could ride home from the bus stop after going to Allendale for a couple presentations earlier. I forgot to have Falon take the lunch bag so it took me just under 15 minutes to ride with my camera bag in one arm, lunch in the other and backpack on my back.

It felt so nice to ride past the gas station and see 3.49 on the board for Unleaded Regular. That’s just nuts and should be illegal.

I can’t wait till its a bit warmer and I can ride every day.

Jason was checking out the window when he noticed a duck on the next building. I just had to photograph it. We’ve seen lots of ducks in the river but never on top of a building. Fun!

This morning this frost was spidered all over the garage windows. I just had to snag this photo before we leave even though we were almost late for work. Damn photography addiction.

So about a month ago, Falon and I decided to adopt a female pit bull. We had kind of been interested in them based on the fact that some good friends in the dock jumping world have one that is the calmest dog you’ve ever met and he can spring off the dock 25 feet or so as well. After the last GSP that we fostered was gone, we decided that we wanted to find the perfect pit bull that could serve as an ambassador for the breed as the breed as a whole gets quite the bad rap.

We were told that Kya was 10 months old when we adopted her but the vet swears by the fact that she is around one and a half years old. I am not entirely sure how I feel but seems to me that the tartar build up (how the vet made her recommendation) could be from neglect and not age.  Then again… she went to vet school so maybe I shouldn’t second guess her. Either way, she is ours and we are working with her. She must have been abused at her previous home because she is the most timid/shy dog I’ve ever met. I assumed that we were getting ourselves into a handful but the size of that hand just keeps growing and growing.

We’ve had episodes of escape (which normally end in us coaxing her back after a good amount of time in the surrounding yards), lots of crouching (basically crawling) along the ground, mostly tucked tail, and just overall depressing behavior. But it’s nights like tonight that make it all worth it.

We just got home from a movie and I let the boys out first before letting her out. We put a overhead trolley line in the back yard so I put her on there and went inside to watch. She went to the bathroom but then got tangled in the line so I went to fetch her. She normally backs up a few feet before letting me unhook her but tonight she just froze and let me walk up. Small improvement but still the positive direction. We went inside and I brought her to get some water before going back in her kennel for some food. Watering went better than the last two nights but I still couldn’t sit next to her while she drinks. We will get there.

I have never tried sitting near her when she eats but Falon has gotten her to successfully eat out of her hand. At the time, she was going through a few days where she didn’t like me and would “hide” whenever I was around. Since then her/I have made strides in the right direction. I got some food and sat down near the kennel. I put a piece of food in the middle of the kennel and turned around. What seemed like FOREVER later, I heard her eat it. I praise her up and repeat. After a few times and moving slightly closer to me, I decided to try the food in my hand. Another FOREVER later and she ate it. WOOHOO! I repeated this a few times before giving her the bowl and telling her goodnight. I was so excited and proud of her.

Now this might not seem like a ton of work but with the patience of a 4 year old, this took lots of work on my part and she was perfect!

Now…. I sleep.

So it’s official. I suck at blogging. My twitter account is insanely busy and updated but I just never “find” time to sit down and write blog entries. It’s quite depressing when I look back because there are so many memories missed. I was thinking the other day about blogs because I tried to convince my sister in law to start a baby blog but no go evidently. I just thought it sounded like a great way to hold on to the memories that will come and go so fast in the growing process.

But then again, who am I to tell someone else to capture memories when I lose them by the day. Admitting it is the first step though right? I shall try again. No specific goals. No crazy ambitions. Just try to blog more. And at this point… more doesn’t take much.

Today is quite gloomy outside and it makes for a darker day at the office. And… I’m tired. I think the weather is starting to get to me. I hate spring. Green is good but wet is horrible.

I snapped this out my boss’ window today just after lunch. You can’t even see the huge crane that is on top of the Riverhouse Condominium building that is probably 5 stories tall.

Who wanted it to be spring again? Either turn on the snow or the sun…

Here are my TweetStats.com graphs. Interesting fun data.

Like the fact that I seem to tweet more on Tuesdays and Thursdays and my most frequent hour of tweeting is 6 pm to 7 pm. I am guessing its because we are always going somewhere during that time and I text a tweet in on the way.