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.

Laptop on the fritz...

My big blue Dell laptop may be on its last legs. At least, when I attempted to turn it on several dozen times (and only succeeded hours later on attempt#severaldozen+1), I began to realize that a new laptop might have to be in my very near future.

So, do any readers have advice on a new laptop purchase? Or a tragic story about a laptop crashing at just the wrong time?

This post also serves to tell you that I may be light on blog entries if my laptop doesn't turn back on next time. I do still have baby laptop, but I only have so much patience for typing and photo uploading on something that tiny.

Anyway, I'm off to 台北 for the weekend, but after that, I may be spending my free time on 建國二路, the technology hotspot of Kaohsiung, as I go from shop to shop trying to bargain in Chinese for a laptop I want and can actually afford.

Happy Birthday, Madeline!

I know you've all been yearning for a Krakow update, but between my schedule and the slow internet, I haven't had time for one. But you'll see lots of pictures of my Krakowian adventures soon, I promise!

In the meantime, it's my cousin Maddie's 11th birthday. Happy birthday from Krakow, Maddie!

A picture of a Krakow staple:

A modified Zywiec label. Wearing traditional Polish clothing: left, my cousin Madeline; right, "High School Musical" star Zac Efron. (Not sure if he's the current heartthrob, but that's what the internet tells me...)

Television musings

One of the things that minimizes the homesickness and keeps me sane is being able to watch good old American TV, whether found online, recorded via Slingbox, or rented at Blockbuster. There are a handful of shows that I'm keeping up with, and by "keeping up with," I mean some days I can't wait to get home to watch my recording from a few hours earlier, and other days I'll realize I haven't seen the show in weeks and should probably catch up. In any case, my TV repertoire strikes an interesting balance.

Mondays

• Chuck (NBC): half-action, half-comedy with a dash of never-gonna-happen romance.
• How I Met Your Mother (CBS): romantic comedy, twenty-something humor.

Wednesdays

• Private Practice (ABC): total guilty pleasure. Primetime soap opera.
  
• Pushing Daisies (ABC): whimsical, artistic, clever.

Thursdays

• Grey's Anatomy (ABC): total guilty pleasure. Primetime soap opera.
  
• The Office (NBC): smart, awkward comedy with a dash of romance.
• 30 Rock (NBC): smart, awkward comedy.

Anyway, mid-season schedules have been released, and it appears that Chuck will be on hiatus until February, and Pushing Daisies is being canceled completely. If you take a look at what's left, that leaves a lot of awkward humor and guilty pleasures. Where's the substance? Where's the legitimacy?

Many of you laugh at how seriously I take TV (whatever, please observe my stress levels, even during peak thesis season at Harvard), but I'm not the only one. I read this article mourning the cancelation of Pushing Daisies, in the meantime jabbing at this season of Grey's Anatomy. The comparison was too entertaining to pass up:

Well in terms of artistic legitmacy (which is a relevant topic when talking about “Pushing Daisies”) at least ABC still has “Grey’s Anatomy,” right? Aren’t the critics wild for that [...]? Yeaaah, no. My wife still watches it despite the fact it officially jumped the shark after the second season... “Grey’s Anatomy” seems to circle around and find a new stunt to jump over the shark every week. The other week it had a robot on it. Yes, a [...] robot! And then I noticed the other night they’re telling a ghost story with the dude who died from a bad heart a few seasons ago. It’s time to retire the phrase “jumped the shark.” We’re now in the era of “Grey’s Anatomy” and when a show screws itself beyond repair I’m saying it’s either “gone robot” or “ghosted Denny.”

Anyway, of my few loyal blog readers, I'm sure that none-to-one of you actually cares about the content of this post. But still, I had to throw it out there. When English storytelling competitions and teaching observations and travel plans and scheduled-and-rescheduled events are around, it's nice to have something that keeps me sane.

Don't buy stuff you cannot afford!

Being in Taiwan and having little knowledge of how the financial world works, let alone actually having investments of my own, I feel very disconnected from what's going on with the American (and world?) economy. Anyway, all of this stuff reminds me of one of my favorite SNL videos. Enjoy.

Do you like 奧巴馬?

A friendly reminder for others overseas to send in their absentee ballot applications...