Just a bit of a silly little fluff entry for today. I will admit to being a bit of a reality-TV junkie. I don't tend to watch the dating-type shows, but ones like Survivor and American Idol I find endlessly entertaining. By far my favorite show during the summer is So You Think You Can Dance. I will admit to not being much of a dancer myself, even when I did musical freestyle with Taz (affectionately known as Dancing with your Dog) my idea of dance was bouncing around a little and waving your arms. But I love music and watching talented dancers perform just always has me in awe. Unlike the show "Dancing with the Stars" which focuses on beginner dancers and strictly one style of dance (ballroom) this show is more like a true American Idol search for the best new dancer and is very enjoyable to watch particularly because it features so many different dance styles. Not to mention the challenge for the dancers in having to learn so many styles! Watching a hip-hop dancer tackle a tango or a contemporary dancer do a krump is always interesting, whether they succeed or fail. And every season there are always a handful of dances that literally take my breath away, they are so moving and emotional and beautiful to watch. The choreographers on the show are overall very talented and it's fun to see their creative minds at work as well!

This week was the first time a Bollywood routine was featured on the show. This style of dance from India has been finding its way into movies and music videos here in the states and it was great fun to see a number done on the show with the beautiful Indian costumes as well. Not quite as exciting as seeing a whole troop of Bollywood dancers but fun nonetheless! After the dance, one of the judges made the comment about how he wished the whole world would just come together in dance "instead of what we are doing now". How true! The comment did make me think of this awesome website and video that has made the rounds of the internet and if you haven't seen it, I hope you'll take the time to sit and enjoy the whole thing. If this doesn't put a smile on your face nothing will! And after watching it, get out and dance!

Where the Hell is Matt?

I don't consider myself much of a poet, but bits and pieces of this kept running through my head, and I finally had to take the time to get it written down and tweak it until it seemed right. Get a tissue ready, it's definitely a bit of a tear-jerker (but straight from my heart).

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I hope if you subscribe to this blog, you will forgive me for indulging in using it as a bit of a personal journal as I get through what is a very painful time for me. If you read through all this, I thank you for wanting to share in my celebration of this special life and if you don't, that's fine too! I know all of this may seem really boring to a lot of people and those of you that haven't had the experience of sharing your life with a beloved pet may not understand the level of grief that can be experienced by such a loss. The suddenness that this happened has in many ways made it all the more difficult and I've struggled a lot this week with feelings of guilt and remorse. Gradually by talking with a lot of people, including the vet that worked on him, I'm starting to get past that and better accept what happened and the fact that I could not have changed it and that there was much to be grateful for, not the least of which is that this at least happened while I was home and able to at least help him to be relatively comfortable in his last hour and be there in his final moments.

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Just 3 weeks ago I posted about my wonderful dog Taz and our trip to New York to appear on TV. Today, my heart is shattered as I had to put this amazing, wonderful, cherished 13-year-old dog to sleep. When I got up today he was fine (I was up very late last night so only got up around noon), although he was not as perky as usual and refused to eat (something he never does even when sick), by 4 pm I noticed when he stood up to follow me out of my office where I was working that he was very unsteady on his feet, almost falling over, and looking quite perturbed, so I immediately called the emergency vet to let them know we were coming but they were busy with other cases and just made us an appointment for 8 pm, 4 hours later. His temperature was normal but I was very worried as this seemed to come on so sudden, so I watched him closely, becoming more concerned as time passed and 45 minutes later I noticed he was definitely going downhill, not able to stand up on his own now, so I called them again and they said I could either come in and wait until someone could see him, or drive a hour to the next closest emergency vet. I called the other office and they felt they would be able to take us, so I made the difficult decision to drive him that far away, took off and got him there still conscious but now laid out on his side obviously in real distress. A hour or so later after working on him, it was clear that it would take extraordinary measures to save him, he was continually crashing and needed CPR at that point, blood work indicated he was bleeding out and didn't have the platelets needed to deal with it. (The vet that worked on him and I both think it was hemangiosarcoma, a very aggressive cancer in dogs that attacks the blood vessels and spleen and can commonly cause a sudden collapse like this.) Even if we were able to get him stable enough with blood transfusions and even if they could determine if it was operable, and even if he survived the surgery, his life expectancy would not likely be good, maybe only a few months. I made the difficult decision to say goodbye, kissed him on the head and at about 7:30 pm we ended his valiant struggle to survive. Just a few short weeks ago we had been to the vet and even had some blood work done to see how he was doing and not found anything to worry about, so it's a sad reminder of how quickly we can lose them.

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Those of you that have been customers of mine for awhile are probably aware of my star dog Taz. This little sheltie is the most amazing dog that I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Taz and I have traveled all over the country competing in various dog sports and appearing on TV. From numerous appearances on Pet Star to competing in the Great Outdoor Games, he gives me 100% in everything he does, and is only limited by my own skill as a trainer.

Taz is now 13 years old and pretty much retired from all the sports that we spent so many years doing. We do weekly visits to hospice patients in a nearby nursing home where he does little tricks to brighten their day. Recently we just missed out on him being cast in a movie with Uma Thurman (he didn't look OLD enough!) but his videos on YouTube caught the eye of another producer and he's been asked to go to New York to appear on the Mike and Juliet Morning Show (typically syndicated to Fox stations). We go up to film on Monday May 5th and will be shown on the Wednesday morning airing of the show, so if you'd like to catch us, be sure to set your Tivos. And wish us luck, of course!

You can view Taz's latest YouTube video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuKmxOEJMA

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a pretty avid recycler. And it's not easy in my area. To recycle cardboard, I have to break down boxes into small enough sizes of cardboard for the trash company to accept them. Many types of plastics are not accepted, and some items have to be taken to special locations. I long ago stopped getting a print newspaper preferring to use online sites for news. I generally use CFL bulbs in my house and am careful about turning out lights and electronics when they are not in use.

My latest switch was to stop using plastic bags at the grocery store but instead to get my own set of a dozen reusable bags which stay in my car so they are always handy when I need to grab some items at the store. We've learned that plastic bags have a big impact on the environment in many ways...from the oil used to make them to the thousand years they take to break down, to the damaging effects they can have on wildlife. Some countries have banned their use or are imposing a surcharge on them. I used to think I was doing a good job by saving them and dropping them off in recycle bins at local stores, but have since learned that only a small percentage of those ever get recycled. So I now save myself the hassle of keeping those plastic bags and use my canvas bags instead, which hold the items without falling over and letting them roll all over the car and are nice and easy to store. I just keep a few plastic bags on hand for items like meat that may leak. I got my bags on ebay but you can buy them at many grocery stores these days as well. And many stores now give you a few cents off for every bag you *don't* use!

So today on Earth Day I hope you will think about what your effect on the planet is. Because one person really *can* make a difference. Think about what one thing you might be able to do, not just for today, but every day going forward, that will help lessen your impact on the environment. You may find that not only is it something that can help save the planet, but may actually save you money as well.

This is a repost of what I sent to the CFWebstore email list, for those of you that did not see it there. Basically, I'm having some major problems here at Dogpatch Software, so wanted to be sure you all know about that particularly if you are needing assistance for anything. It seems like anything that can go wrong, all does so at the same time! I've been working on getting my development server working again (dead hard drive apparently) and just got my car back from being in the body shop for almost 2 weeks (run in with a deer) when today I go to use my main desktop system and find it dead in the water. A couple hours on the phone with Dell and it's clear that it's probably a dead motherboard...this is my new brand-new system so under warranty at least...but they say with the holiday it will be at least a week before they can get a tech out to fix it. Aggh!! Well, I do have a small laptop that I use on trips that at least I can check email and do fairly easy stuff on, but it really sucks for doing any real work on with a fairly small screen and keyboard.

Then later today, as I'm trying to see what I've got loaded on it, my young dog, who has not chewed up anything since the first few months when I got him, decided that the laptop power cord makes a perfectly fine chew toy! Agggh again!! Somehow it seems to still be getting power as badly as he chewed the cord before I noticed, which is a HUGE relief, because if I end up with nothing more than a cell phone to do email and internet, this is going to be a *really* tough week! In any case, for now assume I am not able to do much more than that regardless, I don't yet have access to any of my software files, databases, ftp accounts, etc. I will see what I can figure out in the next couple days (if I can rent a system that I can just swap my hard drive into, that would be ideal, otherwise I'll need to see what I can do using the system backups) but please be patient as it's going to be pretty rough for a little while at least. I was planning to go visit my brother and his family down in NC next week too since he didn't make it up for Christmas, sadly it looks like that will have to wait for another time. ;-(