I haven’t blogged about this previously because the past week has been so hectic… but Robbie had quite a day on Sunday, my graduation day. On our last full day in South Bend, we almost lost our dog!

The above picture was taken at 8:12 AM, as my parents, Becky and I were preparing to leave for the 9:30 “hooding” ceremony at the Basilica. Because of limited seating, we only had three tickets, so Becky’s parents were planning to stay at the apartment and keep packing up the Penske, then meet us for lunch at around 11:30. So, about 15 or 20 minutes after the picture was taken, we left for campus, while Ted, Ginny and the animals stayed behind.

Less than an hour later, as I was walking toward the law school to line up for the procession (my parents and Becky were en route to the Basilica), I noticed that I had voicemail on my cell phone, so I checked it. This is what I heard:

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The message had been left at 9:07 AM by a gentleman named Mark, who got my cell phone number from Robbie’s tag. He had found Robbie roaming free on Vernerlee Lane, which is about a half-mile from our apartment as the crow flies greyhound runs.

More details after the jump.

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It’s been a long time since I had a “Friday catblogging” post, but this video is too cute to pass up. It shows Toby engaging in one of her favorite newfound pastimes, attacking my shoelaces from below while I tie my shoes on the table:

Heh. Aww.

In a related story, Robbie would like to point out that he, too, is cute:

Technically, the above photo does, in fact, qualify as “catblogging,” because Robbie was staring at a cat when I took it. ;) Hence the focused look in his eyes, and his ears being all perked up.

Packing up 2 1/2 years in South Bend into cardboard boxes = annoying, tiring and time-consuming.

Sasha standing on those boxes = cute.

Our parents arrive tomorrow night (mine) and Saturday morning (Becky’s), we back up our Penske truck Saturday, I graduate Sunday, and we leave for Knoxville Monday morning. So, needless to say, the packing continues apace.

“You see, we lost the Ent Albatross wives. We lost them and cannot find them.”

A lovesick albatross has spent the last 40 years unsuccessfully looking for romance in Scotland, 8,000 miles away from his natural breeding grounds.

The lonely bird, dubbed Albert, is thought to have first arrived in Scotland after being blown off course in the South Atlantic in 1967.

For the past four decades he has been engaged in a futile attempt to woo gannets on several remote islands.

But experts said Albert had no prospect of finding a mate so far from home.

You know, Albert the Albatross isn’t the first creature to spend many lonely years in Scotland, unable to find a mate from within his own species. He just needs to discover the solution that other lovesick Scotsmen stumbled upon long ago. :)

(Hat tip: my dad.)

Aww.

Last Wednesday evening, I blogged about the special Bud Light bottles with Sabres logos on them that are being sold in western New York in honor of Buffalo’s playoff drive. I learned about this from Bfloblog (which wrote, “The fact people would change their beer because there’s a Sabres logo on the bottle is a bit frightening. The fact it is considered news is terrifying.”) and thought it was rather amusing, which is why I blogged about it. Alas, I hadn’t gone beer shopping while in Buffalo the previous weekend, and I didn’t know about the bottles then, so I didn’t expect I’d have the chance to drink from one of them while watching a Sabres game. And I certainly didn’t expect that my blog post would earn me any freebies.

But, lo and behold, the next day in ConLaw, one of my classmates clandestinely handed me the the bottle you that see photographed above (posed next to Toby, our one Buffalo-area-native pet). This classmate, who shall remain nameless because I’m not sure whether alcohol trafficking in class violates the Honor Code :), had been in Buffalo the previous weekend, and had bought some of the special Sabres-branded Bud Lights and brought them back to South Bend. He then saw my blog post, and decided to give me one of them.

This is amusing on several levels. One, my blog got me free beer. Two, it took less than 18 hours for a blog post about beer to translate into actual beer. Three, a fellow law student brought in beer and gave it to me in class. I can honestly say that’s the first time, at any level of school, that I’ve had alcohol smuggled to me in the classroom. And it happened a month before graduation. I think my education is now officially complete. :)

Anyway, I have yet to actually drink the beer. I figure I should save it for when I’m watching the Sabres play. I was going to drink it during Game 5 of the Islanders series, but then I wasn’t really in the mood for beer, so I decided to hold off. I would consider saving it until the Stanley Cup finals (knock on wood furiously), but by then we’ll be living in Knoxville, and moving a bottle of Bud Light from Indiana to Tennessee seems a little excessive. Besides, if the Sabres make it to the finals and get within a game of winning the Cup, Becky and I are totally going to drive up to B’lo, just to be in the city when they (again, knock on wood furiously) win… so I can buy another Buffaslug Light then, if I want. (Then again, once I’m in Buffalo, at Pearl Street or someplace similar, why would I drink Bud Light?) Anyway, perhaps I’ll drink this bottle during Game 1 of the Rangers series.

Speaking of which, the schedule for the Sabres-Rangers series hasn’t been officially announced yet, but Newsday reports that NBC has said it will televise Game 2 on Saturday, which probably means Game 1 is on Thursday. (Hat tip: Sabres Insider.) In any event, the first two games will be in Buffalo, as well as games 5 and 7, if necessary.

One thing’s for sure: if they win this series, the Sabres won’t just be in the Eastern Conference finals, and halfway to their first-ever Stanley Cup. They’ll also be the undisputed New York state champions. ;)

P.S. Here’s a picture of Toby defending the beer from Sasha’s advances:

That exchange resulted in a brief staring contest…

…followed by an uneasy truce:

Toby’s defensiveness is understandable. Sasha is a Coyotes fan.

During our trip to Buffalo last weekend, we had a great time visiting with Shannon, P.J., Barb, Weston, Casey, a couple of Casey’s Ph.D. friends, and the Bfloblog guys. But with all due respect to all of them, in terms of raw entertainment value, they just can’t match Casey’s octopus or Shannon and P.J.’s baby. :) Here are some video clips of those two — first Pericles, then Logan:

Sorry it took so long to get those online. Incidentally, my photo gallery of the trip, including the Sabres game, is here.

I think this is a pretty accurate representation of our cats’ attitude toward Robbie. Heh. (Hat tip: Becca.)

Speaking of Becca, on her other blog, she recently posted this really beautiful picture of a recent snowy morning at Notre Dame, and these nice ones too. And if that wasn’t enough, she also offers a good music alert, which I will be intergrating into my iCal momentarily.

P.S. LOL!

The Bush Administration wants to loosen environmental restrictions protecting manatees. Oh, the Hugh Manatee!!!

And speaking of Eastertide Offenses :} … stopped for running a red light, apparently the dude Forgot where he’d Put his Paperwork, maaan :> and this led, indirectly, to discovery of the Weed inside the Wabbit… ;>

I think Butter is having a kitty nightmare. She’s lying next to me, all curled up in a little furry ball, and she keeps twitching her whiskers and making distressed noises in her sleep. I suppose I could wake her up, but who knows, maybe her feline subconscious is working out something important. :) Anyway, I think this is the first time I’ve observed one of our cats having a bad dream; it happens to Robbie more frequently. I wonder what constitutes a bad dream for a cat, anyway? Discovering that the food dish is empty? Not being able to find the litter box? Getting unceremoniously and unexpectedly sniffed by the dog’s cold nose?

(Cue my late paternal grandmother, Nana Loy, commenting in her legendarily acerbic, out-of-the-corner-of-her-mouth way on my parents’ announcement that my mom was pregnant with me: “Thank God, now we can stop hearing so much about those G–damned cats.” Hee hee.)

It’s toenail-trimming day for the cats, and Becky’s getting her Jack Bauer groove on:

“I don’t know where Gredenko is, I swear!”

“Okay, okay! He’s in the Shadow Valley, launching drones!”

It’s people like this that cause apartment complexes to set arbitrary two-pet limits which make it nearly impossible for people like me and Becky (with our dog and three cats) to find a place to live. Argh.

Not that I’m bitter over our stagnating search for an apartment in Knoxville, or anything. Harumph.

While I’m on the topic: limits on dog size are SO FREAKING DUMB. Your average Jack Russell Terrier will do vastly more damage to an apartment, and cause vastly more grief for neighbors, than any Greyhound or Great Dane — two large breeds that are actually ideal apartment dogs.

It’s not the discrimination that bothers me; it’s the irrationality of it. I could more easily stomach being told “you can’t live here because you have a large dog” or “you can’t live here because you have four pets” if there was actually any rational reason for anyone to think that any of our pets would cause them any problems whatsoever. But our most-passive-dog-in-the-universe greyhound and our three adorable, harmless cats? Please.

Two-pet limits and large-dog restrictions are simultaneously overbroad and underbroad. And I don’t like them. And they suck. So there. :)

Becky and I just got back to South Bend from Chicago. For reasons that we shan’t be getting into here (nothing bad), we actually didn’t end up participating in the Architecture Tour Pub Crawl, but we had a great weekend anyway. Here are a couple of pictures from our trip to the Shedd Aquarium today:


Is it just me, or does this fish look a bit like Professor Rodes?

A tiny little starfish. God bless the “macro” setting on my camera.

And now, I invite you to insert your own awkward segue from aquarium pictures to a college-basketball roundup here. An extensive review of yesterday’s cross-country orgy of hoops action, including video of one of the most awesome dunks you’ll ever see in a college game, follows after the jump.

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