Regular Life

There are millions of people in the world who would be glad to have chicken noodle soup. So, I took my lumps and put up with the broth running off the noodles and onto my chin as I fished for the actual chicken in Campbell’s version of the classic.

To be honest, I was not thinking of the starving millions as I watched person after person perilously pile paper plates high with delectable desserts. I was torn between having them describe it to me and telling them to keep their big traps shut.

But enough about that…

Life has improved greatly since last weekend. Ben is as amazing as ever, as is my wife, and our deaf dog is plugging along just fine.

That last bit makes me sad, because she was our first “child.” Oh, wow, did we ever treat her like that — until the day we brought home the real thing. I remember having to help her lick milk off my finger because she didn’t know how to drink. We found out when her papers came to us that she was only four weeks old when we bought her, not the six weeks and “eating the Ol’ Roy I throw out there” purported by the breeder. She was quite pitiful, but we eventually moved her up to dry food and even in her old age she still manages to chomp it with the few teeth she has left in her head.

She’s just a sweet old dog who doesn’t understand why we had to go and mess up a system that worked perfectly for 11 long years. Now, she’s indeed just a dog. We pay her attention and give her loving belly rubs when we can, but she just doesn’t do “it” for us now that Ben’s here. Sorry, Lexie, but he’s got something you’ll never have — a part of each of us. He’s the only tangible evidence that we can live on in this world long after our bodies have departed.

That said, Ben still doesn’t catch a soft rubber corncob chewtoy in his mouth. I taught Lexie that one, and I get all nostalgic-like when I remember how she would get on her haunches when I held it out in front of her, then back up a few steps when I would shoo her farther and say, “Go out.”

Nice New Software, But…

You can’t run it on your year-old computer. What?

I got a nice gift of Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 for Christmas. I’ve been looking forward to a departure from free and bundled video editing software. A minute after the installation program started Monday night, Setup informed me that I needed a processor that supports the SSE2 instruction set, and that the installation had halted because I obviously didn’t have that.

I just bought and put together all the parts for this computer a year ago. Granted, they weren’t the latest-greatest technologies, but I have a 2GHz AMD Athlon XP (not 64) under the hood. Man, this really burns me. I guess I know where that surprise Christmas money from my folks is going — toward a new motherboard and CPU. I’d rather invest in that than a different video editing application.

Kodak Announces Ground-Breaking Two-Eyed Digital Camera

Slated for January release, the V570 sports many great features. Most striking, however, is one lens dedicated to a wide 23mm equivalent focal length, atop a more traditional 37mm-117mm zoom lens. Each lens has its own 5MP sensor, but it’s a pocket camera. No more backing up to get everybody in the picture. Plus, DIY’ers can use it for nice, wide before/after shots (Simon). Not to mention realtors, but I try not to every chance I get. See a preview of it here.

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