Animal Control

Got a letter from the Gardiner Police Department today. Specifically, it was from the Office of the Animal Control Officer. Their records indicated that I am the owner of a dog(s) over 6 months of age, which has not been licensed. In accordance with Title 7, MRSA, 3921 & 3943, I am obligated to license my dog at the municipal clerk's office annually on or before January 31, 2009. Fortunately, the letter arrived today, on the 19th of March, 2009.

First of all, I wonder who the gumshoe is that determined I had an unregistered dog, or dogs. Apparently the Gardiner Police Department's files are so exact that their records indicate that I have either a dog or multiple dogs. Frightening perspicacity! And I don't know if it's the flu I've had recently or what, but Title 7, MRSA, 3921 & 3943 completely slipped my mind. I feel like a fool.

Regardless, I don't own a dog, and so I called up the office. I spoke to a woman on the other end of the line and told her so. She said her records indicated that I did indeed have a dog. I said, Nope, I've never had one- which isn't true, but for some reason, I said it. So she said she'd get back to me but that they might have to send someone around to investigate. And I hope they do.

Training and the Draft: Why the Army is fun

I'm trying to kick start my Olympic training. The 2009 Maine Summer Olympics are only 5 months away. I went for a jog today, about 6 miles, around a loop that included the beach. My legs felt fine- as they should have considering I hadn't used them in a month- but I was desperately out of breath at the end. I was running 6 miles on my down days in San Francisco, and it's much hillier out there. I haven't done much else in the way of training other than lifting weights. I guess that might help in the tug-of-war. I'm on the verge of getting fat, which happens every few months, but hopefully with the arrival of warm weather, I can get myself running and exercising more.
Last night was the draft for my fantasy baseball league, The Barnstorming Union. The turnout was OK, a bit better than last year. My brother drove down from Manchester to conduct his draft here- he doesn't have the internet. He brought a three-ring binder with him that had some cheat sheets in it and I think it helped because he wound up with a good team. Overall, I was satisfied with my draft. I didn't get the big closer that I wanted, but I did get four solid picks at spots 1, 14, 15, and 21, in Holliday, Bedard, O. Cabrera, and DeRosa respectively. At one point in the draft the autopilot kicked in on it's own, which prevented my drafting of Clay Buchholz, and later on I was "skipped" two rounds in a row, for reasons still unknown to me. But I can't complain, my team is looking exceptionally strong this year, lacking only perhaps in one consistent SP and a mid level reliever.
Right now I'm working on fixing that problem by moving one of my OF for a good starting pitcher.

To Do

Made a long To Do list today, and I finished everything but "lift weights." I actually finished some things today that weren't on the list. Things that I'd been putting off. A fairly productive day overall. I exchanged my new router at Target because the one I'd purchased didn't come with the installation CD. I had to get one that was 10 bucks more but I hooked it up today and it's working well. I cleaned the whole house. That ate up a lot of my day. I filled out a bunch of online applications, mostly at Maine Med. If I get any of the jobs I applied for there, I hope it's the garage attendant. I've always wanted that job. It's a lot like the toll booth job I had, I imagine, without the constant hassle of motorists and change making. Though garage attendants are almost always brutally shot in 80's action movies, I'm assuming it's safer today. But, I probably won't get the job anyway so I don't have to fret.
I made an excel-ent spreadsheet today of Scrabble scores. I tabulated averages for all the free range games (in which you have "free range" of any dictionary, word list, whatever) and challenge games I've kept track of in my Scrabble Tracker book. I only included people who have played at least 5 recorded games, which included myself, Ethan, Breb, Jesse, Manda, and Joe C. It's a good spreadsheet and I'm going to keep up with it.
I also printed off the registration forms for the Scrabble tournament, and emailed the slackers in my fantasy league.
Now I'm rearranging the house. At one time, I determined that I only performed interior decorating and rearranging when depressed. Well I don't feel depressed. In fact I feel better than I have for the last month on account of getting done at the bakery. I still have the pressure of finding another job, but it's not nearly as bad as reporting to the bakery 5 days a week in the middle of the night and trying to be nice to people I'd rather to throttle. Anyway, in preparation for the organ, which I plan to move down next week if it doesn't snow again, I'm putting all the book shelves in one room: the porch room- or as Breb and I call it, the sun room. So I'll probably be working on that into the wee hours. That's all I got.