What dark sorcery is this. I got amazingly close to this red-tail hawk (by hawk standards) and it’s slightly distinguishable from a shmoodge on the lens, if you squint.

You also need a crappy phone to take photos that are meaningful to you even though the bird is like three semi-focused pixels

Pittsburgh people - do you see fewer bees this year? My plants have almost no visitors this year, even the fan favorite mountain mint, and I’ve seen the same all over on my dog walks. The only exception is this bush, Deutzia I think?, that was hopping with bumbles. No other bees there either.

I’ve got all kinds of feelings about the guy who buys a Jaguar E-type, maybe the most elegant car ever made, and says I’m going to take this thing to vintage races and drive it like I stole it.

Our pumpkin from Halloween last year. 12yo daughter loves Jerboas!

Tactical culture in Italy.

And now Bowie’s teaching himself door handles, like he’s a velociraptor from Jurassic Park. He got the push side a year ago. Now he’s practicing the pull side: turn the handle, pull the door in with his nose, let it swing open, push it shut, repeat.

Ahem.

Palate cleanser

Good morning!

You see an individual at war with himself, pinioned between precisely balanced needs, on the one hand, to chase the ball, and on the other, a just as terrible need to not put the ball down. Bo has a whole dance he does negotiate an agreement with himself, then the ball drops, and we go again.

Pictured: Hobbes and Nietszsche attend some poor 2nd year’s departmental presentation on moral philosophy, and take turns asking increasingly pointed questions-that-are-also-comments without directly acknowledging each other

You will never believe what the dog who drops balls in places he can’t reach, so that he can stand around crying over it, just did.

Bowie’s paw on the large branch telegraphs his concern I might not know the rule that dragging a large branch around the yard for fifteen minutes means you officially own it.

Solid Viggo the Carpathian energy (Ghostbusters 2 reference for the youngs)

It’s been 10+ years and I feel like The Magicians is one of the rare two-fers: an incredible book series that became a different, equally incredible multi-season show. I can’t even pick ten favorite moments, though the Mar-golem ranks up with the musical episodes.

Holy balls, Morgan Freeman just very seriously pointed out the ‘thagomizer’ on the Netflix/Spielberg dinosaurs show. Like 100% educational tone of voice, that is what professionals call it, because I looked it up and they do now? How cool is that.

Sock turnover rate has become unacceptably high lately. Without unduly prejudicing the investigation, a leading suspect has emerged.

Typical Doberman aggression, right here: as soon as I’m in the shower, Bowie stretches himself out like this over all my clothes, sort of a whole body version of putting your paw on a stick to claim it.

City park, morning.

Bowie has decided that our fish situation is not ok. Unclear at this time what further steps are needed, so monitoring will continue as the situation develops.

After three years in this house our dog discovered that we have a fish tank, and now he barks at the fish. They seem pretty stoic about it, all things considered. I don’t have a pic of the action yet, so here’s a quiet moment instead.

Finishing the year with a cool cloud! I don’t think I have seen this kind before. It must be a neat effect of the mountains.

Dog, woods.

“…malware that can use large language models to write custom code for each hacking attempt” That’s basically a digital version of Stephen King’s flu from The Stand.