Absent Bear

It's ocurred to me this evening that I've been a little slack, not just with my own ramblings, but also in my less than frequent visits to some of my favourite blogs.

I'm sorry. Really. I've just been... um... what's the word... oh, yes... "busy".

Ok. I know it's a lame excuse. "If something's important, you make time for it", my dad used to say. But I really have been busy.

Take yesterday as an example. I had to create a colour 3D rendering of our new little project for the mall managers. To do that, I had to download Google SketchUp, learn how to use it, then trawl through the Google on-line 3D model bank to see if I could find models of the various bits and pieces we want to put in the space. It took much of the day, or at least what was left of the day after a meeting (actually, a long lunch) with a great mate and lawyer extraordinaire to talk about that impending legal problem we'll have once we open.

Before all of that, I needed to translate what the bureaucracy said about cows into something one of our suppliers could understand, and then fax it off to him because him email was down. Yes. Cows. If you're a regular reader, you'll know what I mean. If not... sorry... I'll explain some other time.

Translating bureaucratese takes time... and then one has to check it... carefully... because if one leaves out the bit about Jembrana, which would be understandable because there is no Jembrana where my supplier is, the result can be very expensive.

It was also my turn to cook, and I needed a crusade to find the bocconcini I'd use for the salad (it was too bloody hot for real food).

And in between hunting and slicing/dicing, his royal highness, Zac the first, needed his six o'clock trip to the local park... which is where the day really got interesting...

...because at some point, when I wasn't watching and he wasn't charging around like the posessed with the dozen or so canine friends who gather on the green each afternoon, he ate something. I have no idea what, but within two hours, he was lying in his water bowl, drinking the thing dry, after which, he promptly staggered into the loungeroom, vomited, then fell down. The drive to the local emergency veterinary hospital involved some fancy low flying, the outcome of which was that the poor little thing spent the night with drip in leg trying to flush the toxin/poison out of his system. Don't fret. He's fine today... and well on the road to full recovery. The point is, the episode stole another three hours out of my day. (Not that I wouldn't do it again in a heartbeat, but I had things worked out for those three hours and those things didn't involve sitting at a hospital, veterinary or otherwise.)

I could also have done without Mini hobbling around with a sore front paw all day too, because it also takes time to catch the little darling, hold her down, and perform my Dolittle impersonation while rubbing said paw. "Is this where it hurts little girl? Don't worry, it's not broken", which is, of course, met with that vacant "yeah, whatever, where's my food" stare that cat owners know so well.

I'm not complaining, though All I'm saying is "sorry, but I've been a little busy". I'll make more of an effort after I get this week out of the way. I promise.