We’ve loved the Samoyed breed and really miss some common Samoyed characteristics that we’ve had in the house for 12 years. I know we’re not ever going to replace Cali, but we thought that getting another Samoyed would make us happy and give Sydney a familiar-ish playmate.

So, we started talking to breeders.

Of course, after having the “once in a lifetime” experience with Cali, Holly talked to Cali’s breeder first. And, to our dismay, she was no longer breeding and is running a Samoyed Rescue. Obviously we applaud her for rescuing these special dogs, but were hoping to possibly get another dog like Cali or even a relative of hers.

We found one about an hour away in Myersville, MD. Marge (the breeder) is awesome. She has so much information to share to make sure your doggie (Samoyed or otherwise) is a happy, healthy dog. She obviously loves her dogs and the only negative thing I have to say is that when all of her dogs get worked up, my ears start to hurt. :) One of her Samoyeds won MVP for the Animal Planet Puppy Bowl! Her little boy puppy that was so cute, we started thinking about getting him and bringing him home.

We spent some time trying to decide if we wanted a boy puppy and if now was the right time to get a new puppy. We decided that Eddie was perfect for us and we should get him before he’s gone. I mean, one of Eddie’s sisters is going to Denmark! Eddie is SO cute and so playful. And Marge really made us feel comfortable and was great to work with.

So, we arranged a time with Marge (in-between her crazy schedule) to come last Saturday (Friday, August 14) and pick up Eddie. She was due to leave on a trip that afternoon, but took the time to give us tips on Eddie’s care and even helped us bathe him (she did most of the work). We took a picture of him with her (look left) and she took a picture of us with him (see left).

Then she had to run. So, we put him in the back of the Explorer and headed home. He whined a bit, but Samoyeds are known for that. It’s not always sadness that causes the “chirping”, but talkative-ness. So, he was looking out the window and then would lay down until we hit some traffic and had to slow down, or hit a bump, or made a turn. Then, he’d move around for a minute, maybe chirp and then lay down again. We took a picture of him peering between the seats at us during the drive.

When we got home, to our surprise, he didn’t pee, poo, or throw up. Wow. For a 13 week old puppy’s first car ride and having it be over an hour, that’s amazing. We fully expected to just throw the blanket in the back of the Explorer in the wash, but no need.

To try to ease the transition, we elected to introduce Eddie to Sydney on neutral ground, so we took them to tennis courts nearby our house. Holly carried Eddie (he’s not used to a leash yet) to the tennis course while I went inside to get Sydney. I wish I had taken a picture, but Sydney was just chillin’ on the couch. When I walked in, she looked at me with, “OH HAI! Let’s watch some TV”. So, I let her out and grabbed her leash. About 90% of the way to the courts, she saw Holly and got really excited. Then, she saw Eddie and sort of got excited: WHAT IS THAT?

The two of them playing in the tennis court was hilarious. Sydney would pounce on Eddie and then run away. Eddie would chase her than try to pounce on Sydney and then start running away. This continued several times until they clearly wanted water… so we headed home.

The afternoon was pretty normal. Eddie chilled out by their water bowl (left). In the afternoon, CJ, Megan, Heather, Martha, and Glenn came by to visit (after Karen and Brandon earlier). We have pictures of CJ and Megan still to upload. CJ was a little apprehensive but Megan was very excited to meet Eddie. It was nice to have Heather, CJ, Megan, and Holly’s parents over to see him this afternoon. It was funny watching Eddie run from everyone. He did that to us too, but by the end of the day today, he was coming to us when called and was even walking inside from outside when asked to “come inside”.

My mom came over the next day to meet Eddie and thought he was so cute. I’ll post pictures soon.

The first few days with Eddie were perfection. He slept all night and didn’t have any accidents. Since then, he doesn’t sleep through the night as much. But he’s only had two accidents. And both are understandable. First, he peed and Sydney peed, then Sydney wanted to come in. But Eddie still had to go #2. But since Sydney was coming inside, so was he… I mean, he can’t go anywhere without her. :) The second accident was because he didn’t want to pee out in the pouring rain. So, he did when he came inside. :( But two accidents in a week… not bad.

We’re taking Eddie to meet Tom (my brother) and Ragnhild, Eric, Noah, and Kevin this afternoon. Pictures will follow.

Why “Eddie?” You don’t know us at all, do you?

I can’t read that without crying. Cali as a special girl and we’ll always miss her. I love you, Holly.

I miss you greeting me at the door when I get home, girl.

Check out the Holly Elbow09 section of this site. It’s probably best to start at the first post and work your way backwards.

Lucky for me, I was vetoed. Holly insisted we get a dog and we went to a breeder to look at the new puppies. That’s when we found Cali. Who knew how much happiness that beautiful fluffball would bring to Holly and I and anyone that ever came in contact with her.

A couple weeks ago Cali stopped eating. A lot was going on at our house with Holly traveling and me traveling and it’s not too uncommon for Cali to get stressed and not eat as much as normal. But she was hardly eating at all. We started to get concerned and took her to the vet.

The vet ran several tests and took some x-rays, but nothing conclusive showed up. They suggested that we try different foods to see if Cali’s tastes had changed. During another visit, the vet and Holly noticed that her four front teeth were loose and we hoped that might be causing her not to eat, so they were pulled. But she still wouldn’t eat.

Most of this happened while I was at C2K9, the general OpenBSD hackathon in Edmonton, CA. Then, I came home for our anniversary on June 7 to spend the day with Holly before she took off on the 8th to visit Jeni and her new baby, Logan. While I was gone, Holly said she was extremely stressed out worrying about Cali. When I got home, I got to experience that first hand. Cali looked pitiful. And she had no interest in eating. I would imagine she probably at two full meals in about two weeks.

Finally, on Wednesday, the 10th, Holly’s mom took Cali to the vet again. They did an ultrasound of her abdomen which showed a likely tumor on her liver. The vet wanted to open her up and take a look inside to see what was really going on. They wanted to do the surgery on Thursday and Holly was still visiting Jeni. She just grabbed the next flight and I picked her up at BWI. We headed straight for the vet’s office. Cali was so excited to see us and very anxious to go home. While the vet thought it was best to keep Cali overnight, she realized that Cali’s odds in surgery were really very low. So, she let us take Cali home.

We tried to make Cali’s probable last night with us a special one. She seemed eager to eat so we gave her some chocolate chip cookies, Frosty Paws, and other treats. We spent most of the evening petting her and telling her how much we loved her and that she’s a good girl. We took pictures of Cali and Sydney together, Cali and Holly, and Cali and I. It was a good night and Cali truly seemed happy. Because of her IV (which was capped), we couldn’t let her roughhouse, but she seemed very happy to be at home with us. It was a very emotional night for us and I’m sure for Cali (and Sydney). We knew what we were going to probably deal with the next day, so we just wanted Cali to be as happy as possible.

We had to get up reasonably early on Thursday. Both of us took the day off to be with Cali. We took her to the vet around 8 AM. She was hooked back up to her IV to hopefully build her up for surgery. Along with Holly’s mom and dad (and their cat, Thunder), we waited in a private waiting room while the vet prepared for the surgery. Then, the vet came back to get Cali and let us stay in the surgery room until she was under. Then, Holly and I waited. It wasn’t very long until the vet came back out.


Cali had two tumors. From an email Holly sent to a friend:

She actually had two tumors, one we finally detected on ultrasound and another that didn’t show up until they got in there (neither showed up on several radiographs). The first one was about 7×4 cm and was on one of the lobes of her liver. It was clearly vascularized based on u/s and her clotting profile (one level was high indicating a strong possibility of DIC), but there was a long shot that they could take it ok if it was localized to just one lobe.

The other one was much, much larger, and was adhered to the bottom part of her stomach, duodenum, pancreas, and a different lobe of her liver. Clearly malignant looking and most likely hemangiosarcoma (I haven’t biopsied). Either way, the only real option was just to not wake her up. We were able to go in with her to be induced for surgery (benefit of being a former employee :-)), so she had us there basically until the end.

I think we did always suspect the big C, but had a small glimmer of hope since we found nothing at first on radiographs and she had little symptoms other than becoming picky about food.

She was truly one of those very special dogs. We knew it would be hard when she went (she was my mom’s favorite- and my mom has her own Sammy!), and this was even harder since she was the first one (and otherwise seemed the healthiest).

The vet came out and said that she could probably take care of the tumor on top that was on one lobe of her liver. But the second tumor would have been too much. And even if she got most of it, it would come back and Cali would be dead within six months. The vet old us that going through with removing the tumors would not be doing Cali any favors. At this point, we think that Cali was just uncomfortable. The tumor was pushing against her stomach which caused her not to eat. Had Cali not stopped eating, we probably never would have known about either tumor and she would have just bled out (dying a painful death). So, we think that Cali passed without suffering and that was the best thing we could have done for her.

The last couple days have been extremely difficult for Holly and me (and Sydney). Little things seem to be hard. When we leave the house, we always give the pets treats and Holly caught herself on our way out to Chipotle Thursday night getting two dog treats. Cali sleeps on the floor on my side of the bed and I went out of my way not to step on Cali when I woke up (of course she wasn’t there). Neither Holly or I really want to do anything, but we’re trying to take care of the things we’re responsible for.

From the day we brought Cali home, she’s been such a happy dog. You could just see it in her eyes that she just loved us and loved to be around us. She loved to play (especially with Holly’s mom’s samoyed, Mandy and then, later, Sydney). Whether she played her favorite “tree game” (her own creation where she would hide behind a tree and then chase Sydney or Mandy when they got close to the tree) or playing with one of her stuffed toys (the “shag” (on the left in the picture to the right) and the hedgehog were her favorites), she loved to play. She was (almost) always eager to eat (like she was worried a litter mate would steal her food) so it was more worrying when she refused to eat.

At first when we found Sydney, Cali was annoyed that she wasn’t the primary focus of our doggie attention. And Sydney was very eager to be her best friend. Many times as a puppy, Sydney would try to lay next to Cali, but Cali would get up and move five feet away from her. That didn’t last long. It was a common sight to see Cali and Sydney laying butt to butt or back to back. They were good about sharing their toys (Sydney always wanted whatever Cali had). After getting used to Sydney and after Sydney grew out of being a crazy puppy, Cali and Sydney became best friends. They loved sitting next to each other on the floor playing with toys or sitting together on the couch while Holly and I were watching TV. Or, one dog would sit next to Holly on the couch while the other would sit next to me on the love seat while I worked on my computer. They also loved to wrestle with each other growling and barking at each other and generally making a mess in our bedroom.

Cali loved to talk to us. When we would come home from work, Cali would greet us with “woo-woo-woo-woo” (see the picture to the left). She also was very protective of us. Especially Holly. If I wasn’t in the house at night because I was out late or because I was away, Cali would be “on duty”. She would usually put herself halfway between Holly and the front door. And she growled at people that even thought about walking near our house. And when Holly or I were injured (happens a lot at our house), she would stand at the bathroom door ready to bark if we fell in the shower. Along those lines, one of my proudest moments in life was when I was ready to protect her. We were out for a walk one night, just her and I, when a rottweiler without a lease ran away from its owner towards us growling and barking like it was in kill mode. Without thinking, I choked up on Cali’s leash and put myself between Cali and the approaching dog while yelling at the owner to get control of their @#$%ing dog. Luckily, the dog responded to its owner before getting to us, but it was a scary situation.


We miss you, Cali. You’re a good girl and we love you. Woo-woo-woo! :(

Yay, Holly!

After the interview, the interviewer asked if I’d like to join him and other members of the team for lunch. The team members and the interviewer were dressed in business casual attire while I was in a black suit. The potential new company and my current employer are both located in the same city and I knew it was possible that I would see some of my co-workers out at lunch. But since the interview went so well, I figured it was a risk I was willing to take.

The interviewer asked where I wanted to go for lunch. Not being picky, I told him that it didn’t matter to me. He offered Italian and Tex-Mex and I said that I would like Italian. So, he chose Macaroni Grill. It was fairly early for lunch (11:30), so I hoped that the chances of running into co-workers were slim.

I was wrong. As we’re being seated, I glance over to the corner of the restaurant. I see one of the restaurant’s largest tables full of co-workers. And they were all looking at me. To my lunch companions I start cursing under my breath that those people over there work with me.

I immediately turned red and started to smile out of embarrassment. Many of my co-workers at the other table were laughing and enjoying my embarrassment. Lunch was uncomfortable for me. I would glance over and occasionally see someone looking at me and laughing. I enjoyed meeting my potential new co-workers but every other thought was, “you’ve been caught!”

I had taken the whole day off, so I didn’t have to suffer through going to the office and getting ridiculed. And it was a Friday, so I had the weekend to stress over what could happen Monday morning. But, then I started to realize that it wasn’t as bad as I first thought. My current company would gain nothing by punishing me for going on an interview and the new company had offered me a job so I had somewhere to go if they did.

So Monday morning, I get to work and chat with a co-worker that already knew I had an interview. I asked if he heard about my lunch and he said, “everyone knows!” Great. So, I said I wasn’t going to go upstairs to get coffee and got called names insinuating that I didn’t have guts. Another co-worker came down to my work area a few minutes later and I talked to her to test the water: “Is ${manager} upset?” “Not at all. You should really go talk to her.” So I did.

My manager was actually very cool about the whole thing. She said that she had a pretty constant flow of people coming to her door on Friday telling her about my lunch interview. She said she knew that I was unhappy and was not surprised to see that I was looking. The whole transition so far as been very friendly and I’m glad things have worked out like they did.

But, this is probably one interview I’ll never forget. :)

At this point, she still can’t bear weight but she can reasonably do anything else. She’s been driving for about a week now and has been going to work too. She’s still a couple weeks away from riding and she’s going to start out slow. And she promises to be careful!

We go back to see the doctor in six weeks and if things continue the way they have, he’ll discharge her.

Now to remind her how to do laundry! :)

Nice angle of the screw and plates. Not for the squeamish.

View from elbow to wrist. Not for the squeamish.

View of the elbow joint. Not for the squeamish.

These pictures were taken after four weeks. They took x-rays at each visit, but these were the first ones that we were allowed to have copies of. So we got them in the regular medical image format and I converted them to JPEG images using xmedcon on OpenBSD.

The X-Rays look awesome and her bones are healing nicely. I will see if I can convert them and post them later tonight along with an updated picture of her scar. All of the doctors called her a fast healer. I’m so proud.

The biggest news of the morning is that Holly doesn’t have to use her splint anymore. So, she’s excited to be able to wear some of her own shirts and to be able to wear a jacket like a normal person. She’d been wearing my shirts a lot because they were easier to get on and off.

So, splint-less Holly is extrememly excited about physical therapy and making greater strides! She has been warned very sternly (by me) against pushing herself too hard. She has to remember that I am still here to help her. She also asked the doctor about driving. He said, “Well, I never actually said you couldn’t drive. But I’m not saying you can drive either.” We’ve agreed that she’ll wait to drive until she can start some strength conditioning (about 2 weeks).

If she continues to improve over the next three weeks, the doctor said that she’d be free to go full out in rehab.

All for now… look back tonight/tomorrow for some pictures.

Then, I got a job offer. I was working at Bell Atlantic Corporate Television almost full-time while taking classes. I enjoyed the work I was doing. I set up and managed a multimedia lab and assisted in managing (and then took over) the network systems. I loved the work, so I stopped going to school (intending to go back) and took the job. Then, I got a Network Engineer job at NCI/NIH and then the US Mint and my career took off. Before I knew what was going on, I had my MCSE certification for NT 4.0. Then, the CCNA (Cisco) certification and upgrades to Windows 2000 for Server and Pro (certifications but not MCSE 2000).

A couple times I tried to go back to school to finish my (programming) Computer Science degree. I just wasn’t into it.

Then, last summer (2008), I finally decided to just do it. I had to get that piece of paper. So, I took a writing class that satisfied requirements for my Computer Science degree. I took the class on-line through UMUC and was happy with the web interface. The class was a technical writing class. It’s the type of writing I do for my website, The OpenBSD Journal, and at work every day. I got an “A” in the class and decided to continue on my degree path.

I decided to enroll in the EXCL 301 class to earn credit for the work experience I’ve gained in my career. I also signed up for a Java class that satisfied a (freshmen) CMSC requirement. The Java class was pretty easy and I got an “A”. But, the EXCL class was not easy at all. Like all UMUC WebTycho classes, there is a weekly “Conference” that, depending on the class, requires interaction. At the very beginning of the class, the assignments were easy and centered on the Conference. Then, it was up to the student.

Several of the early assignments were geared towards figuring out what of your experience applied to EXCL 301 and what classes they related to. I had intended to complete a Computer Science degree, but with my experience, I just couldn’t target classes in CMSC that related to my experience. Then I found CMIT (Computer Information Technology). Many of the classes related directly to certifications and experience I had. Then I had to document my learning…

Wow. What an incredible amount of work. I am 35 years old and have had a 17+ year career dating back to 1991. The point of the class is to demonstrate classroom learning that occurred outside the classroom. And, you have to target specific classes to get credit for. So, targeting the Windows Server 2003 class for credit is difficult when I have never taken classes about Windows Server 2003. But, I did start using Windows NT 3.1 -> 3.5 -> 3.51 -> 4.0 -> 2000 -> 2003. So, I demonstrated that. I even started with DOS -> Windows 3.1 -> NT 3.1…

I targeted these 3 credit classes:

1. Network Essentials
2. Windows XP Profressional
3. Windows Server 2003
4. Interconnecting Cisco Devices
5. Unix Administration
6. Advanced Unix Administration
7. Writing in the Computer Industry
8. Advanced Computer Applications

So, 24 credits is quite a lot from what I’ve heard. I started writing and it was wrong. My professor gave me advice how to make my writing honor the requirements of the course. Instead of writing how I know stuff, I had to show I know learned stuff. I had to write as if I were writing a lesson plan.

So I started from the very, very beginning. At seven years old, I wrote a program on our Vic-20 to emulate a Unix login process. Then, I had the luck and opportunity to work with my dad. He taught me the fundamentals of how computers work and gave me my start. From there, I became the Systems Administrator I am today. I had to document the whole process. To add to that documentation, I requested managers/co-workers at each of my previous jobs write a letter documenting specific learning I did on the job for each of my classes. Five of the requests were honored (including my dad, my friend Steve, my co-worker Andy, my Epok manager Chip, and my other Epok manager Jerome). They helped me demonstrate the on-the-job learning that I’ve achieved in my career.

Again, my career spans 17 years. Demonstrating how I learned that Windows 2003 has file security requires me to discuss when my father and I sat together and installed Windows NT 3.1 on our slow computer with 31 floppy disks and each step forward. So, I took the path of writing which technologies in NT 3.1 directly related to Windows Server 2003. Then, I went to NT 3.5, NT 3.51, NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and then Windows 2003. I wanted to show that through years of experience, I learned how to use Windows Server 2003. I had to take a very similar track with Windows XP Professional and the other classes I targeted. I used screenshots and real examples of output from machines I work with today for supporting evidence. I even included a detailed Visio diagram of my home network.

I wrote every night during the semester for the class. The deadline was December 14. My work-work also became crazy around the same time. I got very little sleep. I had work deadlines that also centered around the December holidays. I felt like I worked day and night between work and class. Luckily the EXCL 301 deadline included a 10 day grace period. So, I used those 9 days to finish writing my narrative to describe my learning. I compiled my narrative with UMUC forms, certificates, and documents of learning from five of my previous managers/co-workers to create a CD for delivery to UMUC Prior Learning. At the same time I delivered my CD to my professor, I sent the CD using UPS (overnight) to UMUC. My professor informed me that he had to sign a form that was to be included in my narrative CD for it to be accepted. So, at the zero hour, I submitted a second CD with all of the required documentation for credit through the EXCL 301 class.

As the deadline approached, I realized I wouldn’t be able to document learning for the Writing in the Computer Industry class or the Computer Applications class.. So, I settled on 18 credits.

…

We were told that it could take four months to learn of the level of success from the class. But a few weeks ago, I was billed for 18 credits for Prior Learning. Yay! And, switching to CMIT meant that I met all but 9 credits for graduation. So, after this semester, I have to take 3 classes to graduate. This summer I’m taking Network Security. In the fall, a grammar class and Advanced network Security. And then: “Where did you get your degree?” “Maryland!” Horray!

Next a computer related masters.