Milo has fallen for an older woman

I knew it would be an adjustment bringing Milo from our 4-bedroom, 4-person apartment in Taiwan to my 2-to-3-person, multi-level house with my mom's 12 year old dachshund Daphne in the Philadelphia suburbs. Daphne and Milo started off curious about each other. Despite the fact that he is at least four times her size, Daphne calls the shots in this house. Still, though, he occasionally baits her into playing, and has influenced her to stay frolicking outside just a little bit longer than she had before.

Lately, though, instead of claiming spots at opposite corners of the kitchen (their domain during the day-- at night Milo stays with me and Daphne with my mom), they've been sharing the bigger bed and cuddling. While I'm pretty sure Daphne is in it for the comfort and warmth as the temperatures grow colder, Milo seems to have drawn bigger conclusions.

A few mornings ago, I woke up earlier than usual and brought Milo downstairs. As usual, he eagerly went outside to release his bladder's nightly accrual. When I let him in and filled his dog bowl with breakfast, though, he just looked up at me confused. He kept looking from the bowl to the door and back to the bowl. In Taiwan, Milo always downed his food almost before it hit the bowl, eating it more quickly than we thought caninely possible. But here he was, eating a few pieces and then looking nervously to the door.

When Daphne came down just a few minutes later, and I gave her her breakfast, Milo began eating as quickly and enthusiastically as ever. Apparently, he didn't want to get in trouble for starting to eat without his date.

This morning, Milo and I slept in. When we came downstairs, Daphne was already here and (I'm pretty sure) successfully breakfasted. So I let Milo out and filled his bowl. He just looked at it. No eating, not even picking at it. I figured the late wake-up time had thrown off his hunger, so I figured he'd eat it when he wanted. After 20 minutes, he started throwing up. To avoid grossing you out, I'll just say that this kind of throw-up comes from the dog not having any food in his stomach. So here Milo was, getting sick in front of a very indifferent Daphne, with a full bowl of food only a few feet away. So I poured Daphne a second breakfast and coaxed her into eating it, and Milo began gulping his food with gusto.

The poor little guy, hopelessly attached to this older woman who only occasionally cares about him in return. Unfortunately for me, Daphne's biggest manifestation of love for Milo is in the way she often runs to my door to wake him before heading to the kitchen. Thanks, Daphne.

Let's hope he can shake this affection when we finally move out of the house!



Note: This kind of material is all I have to write about while my life is restricted to the Main Line. What can I say, I'm giving it a shot.

New addition to the technology family

After leaving Poland on September 23rd, after having Jonathan's real computers with which to upload photos and type blog entries, I just couldn't manage to update on my 7" netbook, a.k.a. "baby laptop." Since my normal Dell laptop has been moody for months (by "moody," I mean that it refuses to turn on most of the time), and unemployed people rely on technology to find jobs, connect with others, and keep themselves entertained, I decided to stop putting off the inevitable and get a new computer.

Except now, as I have loads of time on my hands and not so much money, I went the somewhat cheaper route and decided to build my own computer. Of course, building your own PC is not the cheapest route for everyone. If you aren't picky about the quality of your parts, or you have to buy an operating system separately, it's better to buy one from Dell or HP or something. As it is, though, I had the time and the pickiness and the generous-Microsoft-brother connections to build my own computer.

So, after painstakingly going through newegg sales and combo deals, I picked out my parts and gathered enough courage to hit the "Submit Order" button. I can continue to wonder if more searching on more websites would have led to cheaper parts, but it's all in the past, and I resolve to be happy with what I have.

There were three points where I wanted to cry and send it all back to the store:

1. I opened the box for the case and the front cover had snapped off. After a few deep breaths, I tried to superglue it back together instead of sending it back. And it worked! Problem solved.
   
   
2. After putting everything together, I flipped the switch to the power supply and everything started flashing and clicking. Apparently, this was a bad thing... After deciding I needed a new power supply (thanks to advice from the internet), I took out the power supply and wiggled the wires and tried again, just for funsies. And what do you know, it worked!
   
   
3. When I was sure I had everything right (including a functional power supply), I kept getting a video card error. After much panic and frustration, I just pushed a little harder and the video card clicked in.
   

So seriously, these were my three biggest problems, and they were fixed by supergluing plastic, wiggling wires, and pushing to hear a click.

Now, as I anxiously await the Windows 7 release on 10/22, I'm using the free Linux-based operating system Ubuntu. I don't know much about Linux or command prompts, but I am internet-surfing and document-editing (and blog-posting) at unprecedented rates. And I get that little pinch of satisfaction from knowing it's on something I built on my own!

You've probably read to here (if you've gotten this far) thinking, "...so?" Well, the moral of this story is that building your own computer is totally doable. I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about software issues, but I didn't know the first thing about PC components a few weeks ago. Between the (albeit somewhat outdated) tutorial on PCMech and the manual that came with my motherboard, it wasn't an incredibly challenging experience, and was finished within a 24-hour period.

And now that I'm back to the world of real computing, I'm of course on a strict regimen of hulu, grooveshark. and writing.

Wienertrip 2k9: Day three

Now, the long-awaited conclusion to Jonathan and my trip to Vienna!

Sunday was less exciting than Friday and Saturday, so you haven't been missing much. We overslept and missed mass with the Vienna boys choir, but did manage to get standing room tickets to see the Lipizzaner Stallions at the Spanish Riding School, which is part of the Hofburg Palace. No pictures allowed, but I snuck a few as evidence:

As the venue emptied afterward, I took another. A very pretty interior for a horse show:

I'd say that the show must be great for people who love and appreciate horses. For those who are allergic and have kept their distance from the animals (me), it's not the best choice. It was still a good experience, despite the 3 packs of tissues I went through.

Afterward we walked around Vienna and got some of the famed Wiener schnitzel; some sort of meat (veal?) cut very thin and then breaded. Fantastic? Not really. But good enough for me to eat, which is more than I can say for a lot of foreign food.


As you can guess from the size, I wasn't able to eat the whole thing. I'm pretty sure Jonathan rose to the challenge, though.

After a little more aimless wandering around the city, it was time to go to the airport and head back to Krakow. As wonderful as Vienna was, it was nice to get back to Poland, where the exchange rate means dividing, not multiplying.