In a white, tent-like “bio-bubble” on a farm near Davis, eight pregnant Holsteins are eating, chewing and pooping — for science. “The ladies,” as they’re called by University of California researcher Frank Mitloehner, are doing their part to answer a question plaguing one of California’s largest agricultural industries:
Yes, someone is actually researching this 
Here it is, coming up on 8:30am, and I have already been awake for four hours. That’s harsh. I considered getting up and coming into work when I woke up at 4:30 this morning (and by that I mean WOKE UP — there was no going back to sleep… I tried for an hour), but the need to put my car in the shop overpowered the need to go in, and thusly come home, early. So what did I do? Waste time on the computer upstairs reading webcomics until 6:30 at which point I was hungry enough to deal with the pups.
The funny thing is, I have been up long enough now that I am wide awake, so I will probably be insanely productive this morning. However, I will probably crash by midafternoon…
So, this morning, I decided to put some ice cubes in the water bowl for the dogs. It’s been pretty hot and they had been running around outside for a while. Well, while they were eating, I fixed my own breakfast and sat down to watch the news . As I did so, I kept hearing this kind of dunking sound. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was until I noticed Rosie standing over the water bowl. As I watched in fascinated amazement, Rosie looked at the bowl, spotted an ice cube, and then proceeded to dunk her head into the bowl and grab the ice cube. Then she would happily munch the ice and go after another piece. She was almost done when her luck ran out. As she dunked her face into the bowl, I guess she chose that exact moment to take a breath because she came up snorting and sneezing water everywhere. Then she turned to look at me with water running off her face, and formed a puddle on the kitchen floor. Of course I was laughing hysterically. I’m surprised I didn’t wake Jon up. She just stood their, dripping, and looking at me like “Mama, why are you laughing at me…and why did I get water up my nose?” Needless to say, it was very entertaining. And poor Dante didn’t get any ice. His piggy sister ended up eating it all.
I have never before seen a dog bobbing for ice cubes…but upon telling Jon this story, he hopes to reproduce these events tonight for our evening entertainment. Who knew dogs could be this much fun 
Here is yet another interesting link I have gotten today. Apparently, today is the day for interesting links. All I can say is if the title doesn’t catch you, nothing will.
UW expert reels in the mysteries of fish sex…
Apparently there is fusion of the two sexes involved…hmmm….wacky 
Also, if the male doesn’t attach to a female within so much time, it will die. Hmpf, typical male, always has sex on the brain, even from a hatchling
But really, it’s quite an interesting article….as far as fish sex goes anyway
Okay, okay…I know, I’m going blog crazy this morning. But I keep getting all these really great links. You have to go and check this one out. Just scroll down until you get to the pictures. I can just hear the guys moaning over this one. Anyway, hope you enjoy it…
My favorite comment is as follows:
From L8 APEX *What is a Ferrari doing in Arkansas?*
From Lyfisin *People there park their F-150s on them.*
Makes you just want to up your car insurance doesn’t it?
Yay!!! I can eat realy chocolate again…hmmm, I wish. Anyway, I just got a link to an interesting article about some new research involving diabetes…and you guessed it…chocolate. If you are interested, you ought to check it out. I know I’ll be looking for more on the story
Well, it was that time again…and I was terrified. Yes, it was time to get weighed and measured at the gym to check on my progress…talk about breaking a sweat. I really wasn’t sure how the numbers were going to turn out, it’s really hard to tell if you are actually losing weight or if it’s all in your head.
As it turns out, I really didn’t have anything to worry about. According to the gym, another 6 lbs of me is gone I’m so excited about that. All of my measurements are going down wonderfully and, my BF% decreased by another percent. That makes for a total decrease of ~5% or so. Not bad for only going to the gym for close to 3 months. There may be something to this whole exercise thing afterall…and it hasn’t killed me yet….so maybe I should keep it up
So, after going on medication, watching my carbs, and going to the gym, I have lost exactly 1/3 of what I would like to lose. Go me! And yes, I can really tell a difference with the pre-diabetes since I have started to lose some weight. I’m not as tired all the time. I’m worn out from the gym, but that is a different kind of tired…it’s good tired! Before, I could have done absolutely nothing and been exhausted. It was pretty annoying. Of course, now I can really tell when it’s time for me to eat, it’s like I can just feel the sugar crashing out of my system. But, things are much better than they were. I’m learning to manage things and I think I’m doing pretty well. Of course, support from my family and friends is great as well. Thanks to all of you who look out for me. I can’t even begin to count the times that I’ve been invited over for dinner and had whoever was cooking inquire as to what would be okay for me to eat. Thanks guys. I really appreciate it.
Well, that’s all folks 
In another month, I’ll have another weight-loss update for you.
Until then keep on keepin’ on
Oh, and congrats on your new job Sean
So, maybe I bragged about my weight-loss too soon! Just a few minutes ago, one of the buttons on my pants decided it no longer wanted to stay there. Apparently, it wants to see the world and it made an escape. The button in question is now sitting on my desk, under my watchful eye in case it should decide to make another break for it. And at the moment, a large paperclip is substituting for the button. Man, it is definitely Monday…
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Well, it appears that I have gotten my email problem straightened out again. I need to do some more testing before I decided to turn back on automatic downloading of all of my email onto my home system, but so far everything seems to work ok.
Here was what was happening. First, I had set knology as my relay host, meaning that all of my email would go through them (necessary since they block all outgoing email traffic unless it is going to their server). However, they were not forwarding email on to addresses on other hosts, like my parents’ address. So, in trying to fix that problem, I got my server configuration so messed up that the automatic downloading of all of my email for most of a day just went away…. lost in the bit-bucket, as it were. Finally, I came to the conclusion that knology would not forward on email if it did not appear to come from an email address hosted on their servers, so I had to set up some address translation to make my local address appear in the email header to be from knology. Now they accept my email and send it on its merry way.
However, I still had the problem of fetchmail seeming to just delete all of my email. Turns out that it was trying to forward it through knology as well… which was not what I wanted. More configuration changes showed that I had my mail host name set up incorrectly. It is fixed now and mail appears to be moving normally. But, I think I will take more time to test…
Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke these immortal words during his 1933 inaugural address: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Saturday, as I climbed the ladder and slowly made the transition onto the roof of my house, I realized how much of that speech was pure propaganda. There is at least one thing to fear other than fear itself — heights. However, I believe that FDR summed up that fear quite nicely with the next few words in his speech, although he was not referring to heights: “… nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” This second quote accurately described my thoughts as I sat on my roof, precisely at the point where the 30 degree slope changed to a 45 degree slope (the top of which is where I needed to be), frozen in terror. There I sat for the next fifteen minutes while I slowly gathered the courage, not to move up, but just to get back down.
I have a rather nasty bit of acrophobia (fear of heights). This is not a new condition — I have had it for as long as I can remember. Long ago, I believe when I was around twelve, my family and I walked up Clingman’s Dome (the highest point in Tennessee, from which one can see five states if I remember correctly). When you get to the top of the mountain (it is not hard, there is a paved road for the half-mile hike upwards to the top), there is an observation tower maybe twenty feet in the air (it could be higher… it was a long time ago) with a two-man-width walkway that winds its way up to the top. I managed to make it about a quarter of the way up before I was shaking so bad I had to start back down.
Although I hate the feeling, I have to admit that it is kind of funny that my palms start sweating when I am watching a movie that shows some particularly bad set of heights. Strangely enough, my fourth floor office at work does not affect me the same way when I look out the window. I try not to put myself in situations where I need to be up high (which is rather funny as well since I am about 6′4″), but sometimes, like Saturday, I think “I can handle it — I really need to get this chore done.” But it just never seems to work out… maybe someday.