Just finished observing Jupiter with Gavin using the 4" reflector telescope he just got for his birthday. He's so excited. So am I. It's so great to get to share this love of astronomy with him. I told him about how I used to have equipment to mount my camera on the telescope and take pictures of what we saw, before all my camera gear was stolen. He asked me how much it was worth, and when I told him it was around $3500, he decided he was going to save up and buy it all back for me for my birthday. A heart the size of Jupiter.

I just realized the new season of It's Always Sunny starts two days after my Lasik surgery. By god, I'd better be able to see by then.

Well, I could have my LASIK surgery in a few weeks... If I were willing to risk jeopardizing the big Senryu show three days later. Instead, I'll have to wait a month and a half. Curse you, responsible decision-making!

Well, that was an exciting few hours. My family is about to leave on a one-week cruise to celebrate my sister's quinceañero (15th birthday), and my dad called and mentioned that my grandmother hasn't been feeling very well, so they're not going on the cruise. That left their two-person suite (with balcony) available. He said they weren't yet sure whether the ticket could be reassigned to someone else, but he was curious whether it would be possible for us to go if it turned out to be an option. The complication was that the cruise leaves this Sunday (from Puerto Rico), so we'd have to make all the arrangements to be away for a week and get ourselves down to PR in the next day or so.

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More and more, I'm realizing that my adoption of Twitter as a "front-end" for getting my posts onto both Facebook and my own website has resulted in a two-year gap in the Recorded History Of Dan. I used to have such rich, full blog posts recording my thoughts and activities, but the last two years have more or less slipped unnoticed into the aether. So many momentous things have happened these past few years! I can't believe I don't have any post describing the experience of first meeting Naomi, or of my first experience recording a full-length album in a professional studio, or of my first proper tour. I think it's time to get away from Twitter and start writing longer posts on my site again.

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It's so funny seeing Kaylee grow and learn day by day. When we first brought her home, she was more or less helpless — she was far too small to get on or off the couch, and even single stairs were impassable (she'd just stand there, hopping an inch off the ground and whining, asking to be let up). She never barked, and when we took her in the front yard to go pee, she never strayed farther than a few feet from us.

She has now been home for about a week, and we've seen her discover her barking abilities (mostly by aping the other dogs when they bark at a cat or neighbor), and has gotten much more confident in exploring the yard. We now have to keep her on a leash when we take her outside, because she will happily run off into the street or neighbor's yard, and hasn't yet learned to come when called.

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It's not as momentous as a baby announcement or anything (don't expect that anytime soon :), but I just wanted to let you all know that Naomi and I just got a new puppy, a miniature dachshund that we've named Kaylee :) As you might expect, there are plenty of pictures.

We'd been talking about getting another pet for a while, considering sugar gliders etc, but we decided that a non-exotic animal would make more sense. We saw Kaylee at Puppy Zone and fell in love. We went home and discussed things for a few hours and decided it was the right decision, so we went back and brought our newest family member home.

She's got the perfect personality — she loves to run around and play with toys etc, but she also loves to be held and as soon as you pick her up she calms right down and will lay in your arms for hours. We're so happy with her, and hope you all get to meet her sometime soon :)

Update: We had initially chosen the name Panini for her, but after saying it a bunch of times we realized it started to get a little tiresome, so we went with our second choice, Kaylee. As you might have guessed, that one was my suggestion :)

Slept in the basement of an old mortuary. Still have my blood. Phew.

Rudy 2: Tee Fresh And Fruity

"Don't hit girls! It's more polite to hit a girl's car." -Gavin #chivalrysnotdead