links for 2009-11-12
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A page that details some software that can be used to script restarting an Intel Mac that is running Windows back into Mac OS X.
Remembering Belle: Wedding Belle
My wife and I got married at a park shelter at Parker’s Lake in Plymouth, MN. Since Belle was such a big part of lives, she was part of our wedding party — she even had her own little hat. A few minutes before the wedding was supposed to start, she snuck out the back door of the shelter and went swimming in the lake. When we realized she was gone, we called her name and she quickly came right back — and proceeded to shake off her wet body all over us and our guests! Someone snapped this picture a few minutes later, just before the wedding was supposed to start. She was still soaking wet and she looked rather proud of herself.
Belle was our Labrador/Sheltie mix. My wife adopted her from the Animal Humane Society in 1993 when she was just nine weeks old. She lived 16 years and seven months — an amazingly long time for a dog her size. She died on October 24, 2009, surrounded by her family and our other animals.
Remembering Belle: The Great Tail Amputation Incident
Due to a freak accident with a screen door slamming on her tail, Belle lost about six inches of her tail. It happened in a flash, and Belle, always the stoic one, yelped once and never made another sound about it. The result of the accident was she lost the fur, skin, and muscle off the last six inches of her tail — a term doctors call de-gloving. There wasn’t anything they could do to reattach the missing tissue, so they just cut off the exposed bone and sewed up what was left. The result was the curly tail Belle had as a young dog was decidedly less curly in her older years.
Belle didn’t even miss a beat. This photo was taken just a few days after the incident (note the bandage) at fundraising walk for a local charity. She walked several miles with us that day.
Belle was our Labrador/Sheltie mix. My wife adopted her from the Animal Humane Society in 1993 when she was just nine weeks old. She lived 16 years and seven months — an amazingly long time for a dog her size. She died on October 24, 2009, surrounded by her family and our other animals.
Baby Helen: A Quadruple Upper Canine Yawn!
I hadn’t even noticed this until I had her at the veterinarian today for her final round of her kitten vaccines. Look at her upper canine teeth. Did you notice that she has four of them? Two on each side. It looks like her baby canines haven’t fallen out yet, but she now has her adult ones too. That’s weird! The vet checked them and they aren’t loose yet, but aren’t causing any bite problems either. We’ll leave them alone and if she doesn’t lose them by the time she goes to get spayed, we’ll have them removed then.
So now she is even more unique. How many cats have you met that have six canine teeth?
Remembering Belle: The Frisbee Dog
When Belle was young, her absolute favorite thing to do was to play frisbee. She was very good at it too. She was one of those dogs that could leap into the air, flip over backward and grab the frisbee before it touched the ground. After she blew out one of her knees playing frisbee at the park one afternoon, she stopped leaping up to grab them, but she continued to play until just a couple of years ago.
When she finally got too old to race out to get it herself, she’d wait for the younger dogs to run out and retrieve it. When they brought it back to me, she’d run out to them when they were just 10 feet or so away from me, growl at them until they dropped the frisbee, and then she’d pick it up and bring it to me. Not as athletic of a solution — but it kept her playing!
Belle was probably 2 or 3 when this photo was taken.
Belle was our Labrador/Sheltie mix. My wife adopted her from the Animal Humane Society in 1993 when she was just nine weeks old. She lived 16 years and seven months — an amazingly long time for a dog her size. She died on October 24, 2009, surrounded by her family and our other animals.
Happy Birthday Jordan!
Jordan turned 12 today — one day after I turned 38. Twelve years-old is old for a Golden Retriever, but he is still doing just fine. In fact, to celebrate his birthday, we walked almost two miles today.
Here’s to hoping Jordan will still be part of our lives when his thirteenth birthday comes around.
Beautiful Belle Passes On
On Saturday, October 24, 2009, our beautiful lab/sheltie mix named Belle died in our arms. She had lived 16 years and 7 months — an amazingly long time for a dog her size. Our house feels so empty without her. There will never be another dog that could replace her.
My thanks go out to the staff and vets at the Delano Veterinary Clinic and to our friend Dr. Brek Perry, a vet that we met when he worked at the New Hope Animal Hospital and who is now on staff with the Westgate Clinic. These wonderful people helped Belle live her extraordinary life and helped her die in comfort and with dignity and when the time came. We are extremely grateful.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting photos of Belle on my Flickr site and stories about her here at the Minnesota Geek. I hope you’ll stick around and celebrate her life with me.
–Pete
Photo of the Week: Summer’s End
We had our first frost earlier this week, which pretty much spells an end to our beautiful summer flowering plants. Of course, the inch of snow last night didn’t help either. Worse yet, they are talking about another storm Sunday night into Monday that will drop another 2-4 inches of snow on us. What month is this???
This shot was of some flowers from our perennial garden in our front yard. It was still early in the morning, so I had to use my Nikon SB-600 flash, which was mounted to the hot shoe of the camera. Nothing fancy.
Week Five with Helen the Amazing Kitten
Helen the Amazing Kitten
We’ve now had Helen the Amazing Kitten living in our house for five weeks and so far she is doing very well. I had her at the vet this week for another checkup and for her next round of vaccines. The vet thinks she is doing fine too. The only concern was that she hasn’t gained as much as she should have over the last five weeks. The remedy — we hope — is to give her extra feedings of a high calorie kitten food. I’ll weigh her again on Monday and see if we are making any progress.
It is so interesting to watch Helen maneuver around the house. She knows her way around our house extremely well. She knows where all the litter boxes are, where to find the food and water bowls, and where the safe places are to hide if she is feeling vulnerable. She is also sure enough of herself now that she will sometimes run and chase and the other cats around the house when she is in a playful mood. What an amazing little kitten.
By the way — the video I posted to Flickr a few weeks ago is now also up on YouTube. You can watch it by going here.
–Pete
Two Harbors Trip
Sunrise at Splitrock Lighthouse
I visited Two Harbors, MN last weekend with my friends Skip and Steve. We’ve done this trip now for three years in a row. I went to college in Duluth, so spending time on the North Shore of Lake Superior always feels like coming home.
The North Shore always has lots of opportunities for photography and this trip was no exception. I got to photograph sunrise at Splitrock Lighthouse, a classic steam engine that was pulling the North Shore Scenic Railroad, a 1950’s era diesel locomotive that was also part of the North Shore Scenic Railroad, a 1000 foot iron ore freighter, and a United States Coast Guard cutter. As of today, I haven’t finished uploading all the photos yet, but you can see what is there right now by visiting this album on Flickr.
Helen the Amazing Kitten
We’ve had quite a week with Helen, our kitten with special needs. She has turned out to be an amazing little cat. I think the video speaks volumes about how she will live her life.
I recorded the video with my Flip Mino and edited it with iMovie ’09. It is also the first video that I have ever uploaded to Flickr.
–Pete
Petting Zoo a Success
For the last couple of years, our church has sponsored a community family day, where they invite family from all over the area to come to the church parking lot and enjoy some fellowship, some fair style food (roasted corn on the cob, mini donuts, etc), helicopter rides, and of course a petting zoo. For the second year in a row, we provided the animals for the petting zoo. We brought Catazo the llama, Ginger the horse, Sheba the mini-donkey, Jackie the Donkey, G.G. the Goat, Casey the Goat, Bambi the Goat, and Jordan the Golden Retriever from our group of animals. We also brought two kittens, Rose and Lilac, that Carina and Steve rescued from the concrete plant that Steve works at.
The day was a big success for us. We had lots of visitors who came to meet our animals. We also found homes for Lilac and Rose.
Thanks for everyone who helped make the day a big success.
A Tail Waggin’ Night
You may or may not know that I have been involved with a non-profit organization called Helping Paws for 12 years now. I think it is a fantastic organization that does extremely worthwhile work. Over the years my wife and I have been a volunteer foster home three times (Daisy, Emmet, and Holly) and retired two service dogs at our house (Daisy and Jordan). I’ve also helped them with computer and technology stuff, designed and maintained an early version of their website, and served six years as the President of the Board of Directors. Why have I spent so much time and energy there? Because some of the finest people in Minnesota work and volunteer with them and because their mission truly changes lives.
Tonight was the Helping Paws Tail Waggin’ Dinner, a fundraising event that is the biggest of the year for Helping Paws. Once again, I was priviliged to be invited to emcee the event. We had a sold out crowd, ate some very good food, and raised a bunch of money for my favorite charity. My thanks and congratulations go out to all of the Helping Paws staff and all of the event volunteers for a terrific event. You have done yourselves proud once again!
Are you looking for a worthwhile cause to donate a few bucks to? Consider Helping Paws. They change lives every day through the love and work of service dogs.
–Pete
links for 2009-09-08
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A nice short list of some of the nice refinements in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
A Portrait of Helen the Kitten
A Portrait of Helen
Helen is starting to adapt to our house. We are now able to give her some supervised time exploring our house and she seems to really enjoy it. It is very interesting to watch her explore despite her lack of eyesight (she has no eyes and probably never did). She sniffs at everything and moves very slowly and tentatively. When she finds things that typical kittens play with, she plays with them just like a typical kitty. If she finds a string, she rolls onto her back and bats at it. If she finds a ball, she pushes it around and chases it.
It’ll be very interesting to watch her grow and learn.
I took this portrait of her while she was exploring the kitchen. Every once and a while she would stop and hold her head up proudly as she listened to the sounds in the room. It was during one of those moments that I took this photo.