Another BirthDogDay! Kona the American Pit Bull Terrier/Dachshund Mix

Yes, today is another dog birthday, and this time it’s Kona’s FIRST! He’s officially old enough to know better (although he’s definitely not old enough to care yet.) Happy birthday, Kona! May many belly rubs and cuddles be yours.

Brown And White American Pit Bull Terrier Dachshund Mix

Just a little bundle of happy.

Brown And White Dachshund American Pit Bull Terrier Mix  Looking Attentive

Dad just pulled out a treat.

Brown And White American Pit Bull Terrier Dachshund Mix Eating A Treat

Om nom nom!

Brown And White American Pit Bull Terrier Dachshund Mix Looking Happy

The only part of Kona that is ALWAYS blurry is his tail.

Posted in Dog of the Day | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Dog of the Day: Foxy the German Shepherd/Shiba Inu/Australian Cattle Dog Mix

I’ve posted Foxy a couple of times before, most recently here but she’s one of the dogs I run into most often, and she’s a really good sport about it (and so’s her owner). And when I saw her lounging like this, I just had to get a couple of shots.

Dog Lying Down With Legs Splayed Behind Her Grinning Over Her Shoulder At The Camera

This might be the first good picture I’ve gotten of Foxy’s tail. That little black band and the white ploof right at the tip.

Dog Lying Down With Legs Splayed Behind Her Grinning At The Camera

Autumn calls the position ‘bunny butt’, although it looks more like a bunny when it’s a corgi (with no tail) doing it.

Posted in Dog of the Day | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Dog of the Day: French Bulldog Puppy

Weird, I know I got this guy’s name and age down, but it didn’t stay got. I do know he was less than a year old, and I think (not sure) that he was a he.

Grey And White French Bulldog Puppy In A Bag Around A Woman's Neck

Dog-in-a-doggie-bag.

Grey And White French Bulldog Puppy In A Bag Around A Woman's Neck

I’m glad he was in the bag, because if he wasn’t I’m not sure I could have stopped him licking my ankles for long enough to get pictures.

Grey And White French Bulldog Puppy In A Bag Around A Woman's Neck

He had just gotten a bath at our local dog wash, Wags, so I bet he was still pretty itchy.

Grey And White French Bulldog Puppy In A Bag Around A Woman's Neck

I have to admit, the visual image is a little trippy, when you can’t see the bag against the skirt.

Posted in Dog of the Day | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dog of the (Birth)Day: Zorro the Giant Schnauzer

Oh man. You all know I think giant schnauzers are awesome as it is, and it’s Zorro’s birthday today, so how could I not post him? He’s six years old, and he was clearly getting excited in the run-up to his birthday… he barked at me a bit, although he settled down and let me pet him after I was there a little while. Happy birthday, Zorro! Here’s to many more years of you schnauzing around and being adorable.

Black Giant Schnauzer With Traditional Cut

I think Zorro’s the first giant schnauzer I’ve run into that had the traditional haircut, outside of a dog show.

Black Giant Schnauzer With Traditional Cut

I really need a weekend of dogsitting again. Zorro would be the perfect size dog. We could wrestle! (He would probably win.)

Black Giant Schnauzer With Traditional Cut Biting At His Leash

This is Zorro, as his dad put it, wanting to take himself for a walk.

Posted in Dog of the Day | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sunday Switchup: Sun Bear

Saw this beastie at the Oakland Zoo.

African Sun Bear On Tree

I… He… I dunno. I got nothin’ tonight.

Posted in Sunday Switchup | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Caturday Supplement: Sphinx (Hairless Cat)

Well, one of my friends is going to hate me for this (hi Louise!) but I just had to post this kitty. I think she’s gorgeous and glamorous, myself. And I think she is in fact a sphinx, although there are several other kinds of hairless cats that she could be.

Sphinx Cat Sleeping In A Leopard-Print Sleeping Bag

I want a bed that glamorous!

Sphinx Cat With Yellow Eyes In A Leopard Print Sleeping Bag About To Bat At An iPhone

Yes. I DO think she’s pretty.

Posted in Caturday Supplement | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Site News: Changing Providers

Sorry about the lack of an update last night, but my site (as a couple of you apparently noticed) was down for several hours. You couldn’t get to it, I couldn’t get to it. This was the last straw… I like my provider, I really do, but the specific hosting plan I have with them is pretty bad for any site that wants to actually be up all the time, and the ones that are better-suited are also four to ten times more expensive.

So I finally ordered myself a refurbished Mac mini this morning at 8 AM, and will be sending it off to one of the surprisingly many Mac mini colocation companies once it gets here. Yes, I’ll be back to running my own server, but minis are quite reliable and at any rate it could go down for two hours a week and I’d still be doing better than I am now by a long shot. If I ever need even better uptime, I’ll get a second mini, put it in a different colo, configure some failover, and then I get to blame myself entirely if anything goes wrong.

Seriously, the mini is a really sweet little server, especially the 2012 four-core i7 version. (The latest ones only come in two-core versions, probably because they would have had to have an entirely redesigned motherboard for a four-core version of the latest i7, which is really annoying of Intel to do. I suspect the next version to come out will be two and four, or even four and eight.)  Stick 16 gigs of RAM in there, a 1 TB SSD and a 2 TB hard disk for backups and maybe a few high-speed USB3 flash drives RAIDed together as a secondary working drive, and put Mac OS X Server and Virtual Box on there (or even VMware ESXi!), and you have the equivalent of $100 to $200 a month in AWS servers, even if you include only modest use of the unlimited bandwidth that some of the hosting companies offer, for $30 to $50 a month. Plus it’s yours, so if it goes down, it’s your fault. And the hosting companies have licensed Apple techs on site so they can fix it for you, too… under warrantee, even.

Pretty neat. I’ll let you all know when I am set up on there, and we’ll see how it works together.

Posted in Site News | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Dog of the Day: Bernie the Miniature Golden Retriever Puppy

Bernie is two hundred and eighty pounds of OH MY GOD wrapped in a svelte 25 to 30 pound frame. She looks just like a golden retriever, but she’s eight months old and won’t be getting much bigger and she’s so little and adorable and happy she makes you want to just pick her up and tuck her under one arm and saunter off whistling. Autumn and I delayed her parents for far longer than should probably be legal. They were good sports about it, thank goodness.

Miniature Golden Retriever Comfort Retriever

It really is hard to get a sense of scale here. Trust me… she’s tiny.

Miniature Golden Retriever Comfort Retriever Looking Delighted To See Me

Some days, I really need something or someone to give me a look like that. It says, ‘HOORAY, IT’S YOU!’ It’s not something most human beings see too often, apart from a dog.

Comfort Retriever Miniature Golden Retriever Looking Adoringly Up At Unworthy Photographer

If that doesn’t make you want to get up from your chair and go find a dog to hug, there’s something wrong with you.

My great goal in life is to be the person this dog thinks I am. Or just about any dog, really.

Posted in Dog of the Day | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dog of the Day: Golden Retriever And Friend

I suspect this woman wouldn’t thank me for the comparison, and for that reason I would never make such a comparison to anyone’s face, but, well, if I compare anyone to a dog, you can assume it is a high compliment. So, with that said… don’t they both have the most gorgeous tails ever?

Edit: Her HAIR, people, her HAIR. God. Some of you people need to dredge your minds out of the gutter. (*sigh* And yes, for the record, I did actually miss the double entendre when I originally posted this. In my defense, I was tired. But I’m going to leave it there, because erasing my own boorishness, unintentional though it was, seems worse than leaving it there and apologizing for it. Plus, the two people who linked to this would look incomprehensible if I changed it now.)

Golden Retriever Walking With Woman With Long Blond Hair That Looks Like The Dog's Tail

The dog’s tail and the woman’s hair even swayed back and forth in rhythm.

Posted in Dog of the Day | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Dog of the Autumn’s Birthday: Sad Corgi

So it’s Autumn’s birthday, but she’s out of town. This makes Adam a sad corgi.

Sad Tricolor Pembroke Welsh Corgi Tied Up Outside A Bakery

Look at that sad face.

Posted in Dog of the Day | Tagged , , | Leave a comment