amy l. kovac-ashley

After trying to dog-handle another pooch out of his food, Neepa ended up with a scratched face (right below the eye), which meant an emergency trip to the vet on a Sunday.

A few hundred dollars later, she walked out with the E-cone, as the vet called it. On the invoice, the full name was given: Elizabethan cone.

So, here’s our Elizabethan dog in all of her (pathetic) glory:

I am not a fan girl. I’m a computer user who wants her machines - PC, Mac, whatever - to work. That’s it.

Now that that’s out there, I can tell my story:

After only a little more than a year, my work MacBook Pro stopped connecting to the Internet. (That’s a problem when you work remotely for a website.) It didn’t matter how I tried to make contact with the outside world - Ethernet, wireless, aircard - nothing worked. Without Internet, there was no way for our IT folks to remote into my computer to fix it, so they suggested I go to the Apple store to get my laptop checked out.

I made my appointment online, because I know how crazy the stores can be. I showed up early and waited my turn, watching in awe at the hordes of people consuming and buying in the middle of what I still consider a recession.

When my name was called, I headed to the so-called Genius Bar. With a name like that, these people should be able to fix my computer, right?

As my designated Genius (who was quite nice, by the way) tried to figure out what was wrong with my computer, trying to connect with the Internet through various means, she kept opening Safari to check to see if the connection was working.

At some point, I couldn’t help it and I said, “I don’t ever use Safari if I don’t have to. It’s not a very good browser, and it crashes my machine all the time. You should try Firefox. It’s much better.”

I know. What was I thinking?!?

As the words came out of my mouth, all the other folks at the Genius Bar (who, by the way, were having very serious hardware problems of their own with their almighty Macs) and anyone in earshot, employees and customers alike, were silent for a moment and just gawked at me.

It was as if I were the devil and I had just walked into the Catholic Church. How dare I say such a thing??

I found it ironic that folks who couldn’t get their various Apple products to work properly would be so loyal to a company that at least appears to be the inventor of planned obsolescence.

After the shock of my blasphemous comment wore off, the Genius went back to work, and the others around me went back to explaining how their hard drive had crashed or their computer was just ridiculously slow, etc.

An hour or so later, after trying everything she could think of, except wiping my machine and completely starting over with everything, the Genius admitted defeat. I gathered up my sad Mac and headed home, only to call my tech folks the next morning to figure out how I could send the computer back to them for major surgery.

They shipped me a new MacBook the next day, and so far my new computer is running fine. Let’s hope it lasts longer than the last one. (Steve Jobs, I’m looking at you.)

pierrekattar:

The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild wrote:

 ”As employees of the Washington Post and members of the Newspaper Guild, we were disappointed to hear that you accepted a bonus of nearly $500,000 at a time when the sacrifices made by so many people who work here — or used to work here — are still fresh.”

Full letter here.

On our way to Kansas City for a short trip to spend pre-Thanksgiving with J’s family, I noticed this sign in the Washington National Airport. I was pretty saddened by it - not because I was carrying a snow globe, but because it seemed sort of anti-holiday to me. But I understand the point. It just goes to show how one (or several) bad apples can ruin it for everyone.

Guess everyone has to pack all those snow globes in their checked luggage and hope they don’t break on the way from here to there! I wonder if the TSA will reimburse for broken snow globes…

I’m a sucker for all things Christmas. I agree that the decorations come up a little too early, and that Thanksgiving gets short shrift. But I’m excited and have a little spring in my step since seeing the Christmas train being put up in Union Station.

I was in Union Station today for a few minutes and noticed that Chipotle is now open. It had a pretty healthy line going around 6 p.m. Looks like it’s already popular!

I haven’t written in awhile, because it’s been a really busy couple of weeks. In that time I’ve done the following:

-Launched two Patch sites (Riverdale Park-University Park Patch and College Park Patch)
-Visited Seattle for the second time this summer
-Attended my first Korean-Hindu wedding (a big congrats to Anna and Swaroop!)
-Kayaked for the first time ever (see photos below)
-Had my permanent retainer detached after 15 years in my mouth
-Had my permanent retainer reattached (let’s hope for another 15 years out of this bonding!)
-Found a dentist
-Dog sat
-Cat sat
-And about a million other little things I can’t even remember.

By far the most fun of the bunch was kayaking for the first time. We went out with a guide from Alki Kayak Tours named Ben who was awesome. He explained everything to us, from safety tips to how to put on our spray skirts. (Yes, Jim wore a skirt!)

We rode in a two-seater; Jim took the back, where he could steer using pedals, and I was in front. I was a little anxious at first, as we were strapped into the boat (again, with the spray skirts); if we had tipped over, we would have had to remove the skirts under water in order to get back up where we could breathe. But the boat we were in - the name brand of which I can’t recall - was very steady, the “Cadillac of kayaks,” according to Ben. Once we got on the water, I didn’t worry so much about flipping over.

The paddle out to the Alki Lighthouse was lots of fun. We chatted with Ben, noting some of the real estate along the shoreline and even seeing some harbor seals. (Unfortunately, the seals moved too quickly to catch them in photographs, but they were quite cute when they popped their heads up from the water.)

My arms got a little tired along the way, but when I started using my core a little more by twisting at the waist, I was able to keep going for longer. Here are some photos that we got at the lighthouse where we stopped.

Here, you can see our “Cadillac” boats and paddles. In the foreground, you can also see the much more awesome kayak that Ben was using. (Thanks to Ben for taking this photo.)

In this one, you can see the lighthouse in the background. It was very modern looking. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by a fence, so we couldn’t go inside to explore. You can see better that we’re both wearing the spray skirts. Aren’t they attractive?

This photo makes me look sporty, even though I’m not, so I like it. We didn’t get too wet, but you can see that my hands are balled up in my coat because they got pretty cold and wet when I was paddling.

I’m hoping we can do this again sometime soon. Maybe the Potomac will be next on our list.

After returning home from watching Inception at the Prince George’s Plaza in Hyattsville (and dodging lots of debris on 295 and trying not to hydroplane on the East-West Highway), this is what I saw on our street:

You can’t tell from that photo, but the tree came down and completely smashed a red car on the eastern side of the street. Here you can see the car underneath:

The police responded pretty quickly.

They were trying to help figure out how to get in touch with the owners of another car that was on the verge of being smashed by the same limb.

Another view of the tree limb over the car:

It took a bit, but the owners finally came out, and they were able to back the car out from under the tree, thereby saving themselves a major headache and a lot of money.

Thankfully, no one was hurt by any of this! But it was quite dramatic for our small street.