Hunting

When Jeff's sporting clays friends hear of our trip to Alaska, they ask "Are you going hunting ?"

Jeff's response of "No, we are going to see the Northern Lights" is usually met with silence.

I told Jeff that he should say we are hunting the rare Aurora Borealis. That might generate more excitement.

Photo: Roman Krochuk

Growing

Slowly, ever so slowly the amaryllis is growing. We now have green leaves, but there is not a sign of a flower yet.

Brain Freeze

Otis is prone to ear infections. We know this, because Oti's ears are very thick and the insides are misshapen.

I noticed that Oti was scratching at his ear. When I looked, Oti's ear was extremely dirty, even though Jeff cleaned them a few days earlier.

I reached into the refrig and pulled out the ear drops. I went over to Oti and placed 3 drops in his ear. Oti began to yelp and rubbed his head along the carpet.

I realized that the cold drops in his ear canal must have been painful. I left the drops out on the counter to warm. However, when it was time for today's medication Oti would not come over to me.

NPR on the rise and fall of Chris Dodd

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121301910

Snow II

Oti did not show much interest in the snow this weekend. We had a heavier storm during the week and ended up with about an inch accumulation in the yard.

When we walked Oti in the morning, he just slogged thru the snow. I thought that Oti was not a snow lover.

However, that evening I let Oti out in the back yard. Oti put his head down and grazed on the snow. He walked back and forth, never lifting his head. Maybe Oti does like snow after all.

Is Chris Dodd Unelectable?

Some seem to think so. From the Courant:

"[I]t is increasingly clear to both independent analysts and Democratic leaders that Dodd is just too badly damaged to have a decent shot at getting re-elected, almost regardless of who wins the Republican nomination. Democrats have given Dodd time to attempt to repair his problems, but nothing appears to have helped enough to salvage his position,'' Duffy writes.

The publication has moved the Connecticut Senate race from "toss up" to "leans Republican.''

UPDATE: Colleen Flanagan, spokeswoman for state Democrats, dismissed the Cook Report ratings change as inside-the-beltway political handicapping.

"It's no secret what the Washington smart guys think about this race,'' she said in an email after the Courant asked for a comment. "But it just doesn't matter what they think. They don't vote in Connecticut and they don't really understand Chris Dodd's decades of service and the relationship he's built with folks here by delivering for them time and again."

Yet, the depth of Dodd' troubles are clear to many in Connecticut, where once heretical whispers that the state's senior senator step aside in favor of the immense popular Attorney General Richard Blumenthal or perhaps U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, have grown louder.

Following Dodd's lousy showing in a Quinnipiac University poll last month, the Courant spoke with more than a dozen Democratic party activists and left-leaning bloggers. While few were willing go on the record, they all spoke of their fears that Dodd wouldn't be able turn things around by election day, 2010 and many privately expressed their hopes that he would step aside for the overall benefit of the party.

Herding as art