the fray and sick as a dog

went to see the fray last night. cary brothers (not the cary brothers, his last name is brothers) and a local guy tim brantley opened. it was a really good show, but i'm not a big fan of the venue. it was at the loft at earthlink live. it's easy to get to and there's plenty of reasonable parking around, but i didn't like the room. it's a big room that's flanked with bars on all sides, the ceiling's only about 10 or 12 feet high, and the stage might be 2 and a half feet above the floor level. when the band playing has a piano, you can't really see the guy at the piano, in the fray's case, it's the singer. they played my favorite song first ("how to save a life") and filled the rest of the set with songs from their album, a cover of "have you ever seen the rain," and what i'm guessing was some improv to stretch some songs too long. overall it was a great show though. i played taxi when i got back into town, and that was just about as entertaining than the show. i've always said "if you need a ride, my phone's on," but i've never had so many people take advantage of it.

i had been wary of leaving blue because he's been really sick since friday, and i've cleaned up too many messes already. i decided it would be nicer to him to leave him in the bathroom than the crate, but there was no way i was leaving him anywhere near carpet. he made it from 5 until i got home at about 3, but he's still sick. at least he's making it outside though. what i've learned from this:

* kids scissors can cut the hair on a dog's backside if you don't have any others around
* if your dog whimpers to you and his back legs are trembling, it's not because he's excited, take him outside immediately
* if you need to go through a roll of paper towels, 2 cans of spot shot stain remover, 1 can of foamy carpet cleaner, and a bunch of gallon zip lock bags (a.k.a. gloves), i can loan you a dog
* don't talk to your cute neighbor and ignore whatever it is that your dog's eating off the ground. you will regret it later.

i've got a lot of work to do. i't's gonna be nice having presidents day off, then i'll endure a tuesday full of county-wide meetings.

and i leave you with this, quite possibly the funniest and most obvious joke that could have been made about cheney's car-ride hunting trip.

Jon Stewart: "I'm joined now by our own vice-presidential firearms mishap analyst, Rob Corddry. Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation. How is the vice president handling it?

Rob Corddry: "Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Wittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush.

"And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington's face."

Jon Stewart: "But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, in a post-9-11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak."

Jon Stewart: "That's horrible."

Rob Corddry: "Look, the mere fact that we're even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know 'how' we're hunting them. I'm sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little 'covey' of theirs.

Jon Stewart: "I'm not sure birds can laugh, Rob."

Rob Corddry: "Well, whatever it is they do … coo .. they're cooing at us right now, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them. Jig is up. Quails one, America zero.

Jon Stewart: "On a human level, is the vice president at least sorry?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, what difference does it make? The bullets are already in the man's face. Let's move forward across party lines as a people to get him some sort of mask. Hindsight's 20/20 Jon, as was, ironically, the shotgun the vice president used to shoot his friend, a 78-year-old man in what can only be described as his face."