Backyard squirrel porn

Foreplay.

Consummation.

Things I do not want to hear before dawn

(1) My ear-splitting house alarm go off when I open the back door.

(2) A cell phone conversation recap of last night's "Dancing with the Stars" episode from the person sitting behind me on the train.

Happy Easter!

Witness my gardening prowess.

All is well here. Nacho survived the heartworm treatment, although he hates being in the house all day long when the weather is beautiful outside. Two more weeks of restricted activity, and then he can chase the baby squirrels to his heart's delight.

The patient is doing fine

Nacho is back from the vet's. I checked him in on Monday morning for his heartworm treatment and picked him up this afternoon. They took good care of him, but he is *definitely* glad to be home, and I'm glad to have him back. He seems a little weak and tired, but that is to be expected since the vet pumped him full of an arsenic-based medication with the scary name of Immiticide. I still have to take Nacho to the vet for a weekly checkup for the next six weeks, but the worst part of the medical treatment is over.

The next month is going to be difficult at home, though. I have to restrict Nacho's activity, which means crating him during the day and leaving him inside during the beautiful spring weather. Also, I can't take him for long walks or take him to the dog park. The reduced activity is necessary because as the adult worms die, they exit the heart through the pulmonary artery. Sudden activity increases the risk of a pulmonary embolism.

I wonder if Nacho is going to cough up bloody bits of worm. If I find any, I'll be sure to post a picture.

Crappy Monday

(1) Nacho has heartworms, despite being on a prophylaxis for the past year. The vet thinks it was a failure in medication, and I agree since he also contracted roundworms, which the medication is also supposed to prevent. The company supposedly has a guarantee, but they are saying he contracted heartworms before his first (negative) test. Possible, but not likely. They are offering to pay a quarter of the $1,000 treatment cost and they'll give me a year's supply of their ineffective medication. Thanks! It is going to be a battle to make them pay more, but they are messing with the wrong owner.

(2) Nacho peed on the floor today. I left him inside b/c it cold and rainy, but evidently he couldn't hold it.

(3) I'm currently working on a motion where the USG can't seem to get through its thick skull that exhaustion is a condition precedent, not a jurisdictional prerequisite, to suit for employment discrimination. This is probably the sixth or seventh time I've addressed this issue, yet for some reason the USG continues to argue that the burden is on the plaintiff to prove exhaustion.

(4) I owe taxes for FY 2007. Some of these taxes will go towards my salary which pays me to tell other people funded by my salary time and time again that exhaustion is not a jurisdictional prerequisite.

(5) All of my expected fiscal stimulus will go towards the taxes I owe. So much for doing my part to stimulate the economy via the stupid idea thought up by our leaders. Instead, I'll get an increased federal deficit funded by government bonds sold to foreign countries.

Why can't I be back in Honduras?

Tela

The last stop in my vacation is Tela, a small city on the Caribbean coast of Honduras about an hour and a half south and east of San Pedro Sula.

Tela is nice, but the beach would benefit from an organized clean-up to pick up the trash that litters the sand.

Tela, as seen from the Maya Vista hotel

My days here have been pretty lazy. I walked along the beach for two hours on Saturday; on Sunday I went to Parque Nacional Jeanette Kawas (Punta Sal); and today I went to the Lancetilla botanical gardens and sat on the beach. I´m staying at the Maya Vista, which has a good restaurant and great patio conducive to drinking and watching the sunset.

Parque Nacional Jeanette Kawas

Howler monkeys at PN Jeanette Kawas

I head back to the U.S. tomorrow. I´ll catch a mid-morning bus from Tela to San Pedro Sula and sit in the airport until my flight leaves. Overall, this has been a good vacation and I feel rejuvenated.

Utila II

My week of diving in Utila was good. I liked the rhythym of the day, except for the waking up at 6:15 AM part for the 7:00 departure for the morning dives. The upshot of such an early start is that by 11, I was "done" for the day and could eat lunch, sit around, read-nap, and enjoy the sunset before dinner and turning in at 8. There isn´t a whole lot to do on Utila - what I just described pretty much sums it up. I took a walk one afternoon but aborted after about an hour b-c I decided it was hot and that I´d rather be napping.

View from Rubi's Inn pier at dawn

Utila's happenin' main street

Overall, the diving was good, not great. The reefs were pretty healthy and there was a good diversity of hard and soft corals, sponges, and fish. I was happy with the dive shop. I was a little underwhelmed b-c I think Asia really spoiled me. At Sipadan (in Malaysia), I saw a bajillion (yes, I counted) sharks and turtles and huge schools of fish. In Utila, no sharks, no turtles, some schooling fish, and certainly no whale sharks. But still, the diving was good, and I don´t regret returning to the Bay Islands.