Not that you can tell, but the dog is still alive.

Bella woke up enough for a walk around the block. She was pretty spry on it, too, even howling when we returned home.

And other than that, she's pretty much unsurprisingly a slug. She's been walking into things, hanging out underfoot, bonking herself on the nose, and sleeping. Mostly sleeping. It's hard to watch her be unable to go down the stairs to go outside to pee, walking circles in the kitchen. It's probably only a matter of time before she starts defecating on the floor.

Related, I've been passed out most of the weekend myself. The weekends are the worst time to be sick, though, really, weekdays aren't much better.

This is the view from a client's office. It's a lovely view. I think if I had to go into an office, this is the kind of view I'd like.

I swear, Jonathan's work seems like one of the most awesomest places to work. They have (internal) contests and group outings and presentations and all sorts of bonding experiences. From the outside, it sounds awesome. I'm sure that someone on the inside could comment, but really, it's a place I believe I'd like to work.

This week's internal project for the design team is to create an ampersand. You know, something like this:

I watched Jonathan work on his last night, and was completely fascinated by the way he works. He, as is typical of most designers/developers, used his computer to design his ampersand. It was delightfully stylized and fun to watch.

I commented, though, that I would probably use pen and paper, possibly pencil and paper, to draw mine, then scan it in and redo the character in some program, photoshop, illustrator or, in Jonathan's case, fireworks. Part of the reason to use pen and paper is simply that I'm more efficient with pen and paper when drawing, and part of it is because I prefer the medium.

So, I drew my ampersand and showed it to Jonathan.

He looked at it and said, "That's your ampersand?"

Indeed it is. It's a stylized & that I picked up from Martha Meyers back in the 8th grade.

Small things can have big impacts in ways we never realize. I'd be surprised if Martha knew the influence she had on me.

Last night was a rough night for Bella. I forgot to refill her painkillers on Tuesday, and ran out today. She's been taken a half pill twice a day, where the full dose is 1 pill every 8 hours, for 3 total per day. I didn't give her one in the morning. She was out of sorts all day yesterday, wandering around, unable to walk down the single stair out the back door, walking in circles around the back yard, eyes moving rapidly back and forth, trouble standing, trouble lying down, never quite staying still, never quite settling down. She's struggling, and I'm kicking myself for forgetting to pick up her prescription yesterday or even today.

Yet, she's still here. First really bad day I've seen in a while.