ÀÏ¿äÀÏ ¾Æħ, 9:39 am: wow, the month is ending, and i can soon revert to benospelling, if i choose, (and not violate my new year's resolution).   actually, come to think of it, i have now fulfilled many of my new year's resolutions!   1) i bought a skateboard (and rode it).   2) i bought a mutual fund.   3) i've been writing beno journal entries in normal, american english.   anything else?   i believe i have been taking better care of my career, but that's subjective and not measurable.   i suppose if i get a nice raise or (less likely) a promotion of any sort; that would be a metric.   i have yet to fix my desktop computer's soundcard, and i should.

well, it's almost a month since the solar new year, but i suppose today is the lunar new year.   that's cool.   as asians, we should take note of that.   it's the year of the dog!   that brings me to my recount of an exciting little adventure in the hwang household this weekend.

frankie and sooni

no, we didn't acquire a second doggy, no.   that would be crazy.   ok, we did however have a second dog for less than 24 hours.   on friday, i came home for lunch in order to clean up the house a little during my lunchbreak for the night's grx t3 south couples bible study.   yes, we had about 16 people at our house for the "small group" event.   our house honestly isn't as luxurious or as big as some of the other couples' houses, but we wanted to have people over at least once.   the house was probably cleaner back during thanksgiving last year, but it thankfully wasn't at its messiest.   the beautiful kaela hwang n' i tried our best to clean the house and keep it clean despite the fact that we both have been very busy lately.   kaela has been very busy with school, and i have been very busy with work.   anyway, on my way home, i almost hit a runaway beagle!   i slowed down to a stop and opened my door.   the beagle approached me.   when i asked it to hop in, it ran off.   later, when i got to our garage, it came into our garage, which meant it ran fast and decently far from where i saw it earlier.   i closed the garage door to trap the loose doggy.   it ran out thus triggering the optical safety switch that shuts down the garage door motor.   i took out a piece of jamaican beef jerky.   it ran back.   then it smelled sooni through the crack at the bottom of the kitchen door.   i closed the garage door, and it was now safely off the streets.   well, at lunch, i put the beagle with sooni in the backyard.   of course, they had their fair share of posturing.   the real doggy experts knows that real doggies aren't just about panting with stupid, brainless smiles on their faces; but rather things get politically right away.   the beagle wasn't the most submissive doggy, and we know sooni wants to be dominant.   well, the eventually settled down.   i ate some lefotver whole foods food that kaela ditched in our fridge for lunch.   i cleaned.   i left them back there in the yard when i returned to work.   later, i sent kaela a text message about the lost doggy.   when she came home, she saw it.   honestly, the sight of the two of them together was very cute.   they would both sit with wagging tails in front of our french doors, eagerly waiting for us to open the door.   eventually, they would realize that we weren't going to let them in, and then they'd go lie down nearby.   it was very cute.   really, sooni's not an aggressive doggy.   froo-froo, kick-me dog owners simply freak out when she acts... well... like a dog.   she's all into doggy politics.   to see her sit side by side with another dog really touched our hearts!

well, in the evening, we had the bible study group over.   i suppose i'll talk about that later.   we kept the doggies outside.   if it were just sooni, we would have gladly let her hang out with the humans.   however, we knew having sooni and the beagle in the house would be hectic.   actually, at the end of the night, we let them in; and yes, it was a riot!   the two dogs ran around the house.   this beagles was not well mannered, as kaela pointed out.   it kept wanting to jump on the couch, not just because it was obviously used to lying on the couch but it knew it needed elevation to rival sooni's size in the whole political scene!   keep in mind that froo-froo, kick me doggies relish being picked up and held up high so that they can exercise undue political dominance over other doggies.   humans should not mess with doggy politics in that way.   by the way, the beagle was an unaltered male, which means it had its "twig and berries" or "beans and frank" intact.   unaltered doggies are generally not as well behaved.   i'm often sad about altering sooni because i wish she could have babies, but the benefits don't seem to outweigh the price.   i wish we could simply clone her.   (Ȳ¿ì¼® ±³¼ö´Ô... professor hwang woosuk...)

after our friends all left, we considered letting both the beagle and sooni sleep inside.   sooni does sleep inside every night because that's what good dog owners let their doggies do.   modern doggy experts know that the doggy should be "part of the family," obviously not the leader of the family, but simply part of it; i guess its lowest rung.   in the end i put both doggies outside because the beagle was just too untrained, and we had no basis to trust him.   feeling bad for him, i put sooni outside to keep him company.   as kaela and i tried to sleep, the beagle bayed and howled.   ugh!   i sandwiched my head between the pillow and the (pillow) sham!   i worried the neighbors would think it was sooni and complain.   however, sooni's quiet.   in fact, she only spoke up to shut the beagle up.   when the beagle would howl, she would emit a short, annoyed "gruff!" to tell her yardmate to shut up.   it was so funny.   oh yeah, because it's winter, we left the back garage door open for the doggies to access a covered room.   the beagle looked cold without a double coat like that which sooni sports.   eventually, the howling moved from our yard to the garage, and it got quiet.

in the morning, i discovered that the beagle and sooni both entered the garage and the beagle somehow managed to trap them in their by accidentally shutting the door.   i realize that beagles are not smart and much less intelligent than jindo dogs.   wow!   it was such a contrast.   sooni can open doors when she wants to, and this dog ends up accdientally trapping the both of them in the garage.   it was cute to find them both in the garage in the morning.   sooni really kept the beagle in check.   on its own, it probably would have chewed up our shoes, but sooni regulated.

well, in the early morning before heading off to habitat for humanity, i wanted to post more "dog found" posters.   i had posted some the night before but didn't finish since i had to come home to help host the bible study.   as i approached a lightpost to post my first sign of the morning, i saw it occupied by a "lost dog" poster.   i found the situation a bit ridiculous: why was it that every lightpost that i hadn't posted a "dog found" sign on had the "lost dog" poster?!   anyway, as i was already walking both the beagle and sooni, i brought them over the house and knocked.   no answer.   i knocked more, but still no answer.   i tried to leave the beagle in its backyard, but it refused to stay.   i had left my cell phone in the bedroom so i returned home with the two dogs.   it was quite a joy to walk both dogs at once!   i felt like cesar milan! heh heh...   well, i called the first of three phone numbers on the poster and an adolescent girl answered.   i returned "frankie" to the little girl.   she said there was a reward, but i told her that sooni used to escape all the time, that i understood their situation, and the reward wasn't necessary.   then i left and walked sooni around, taking back the leash and collar i had put on frankie.   i started walking one way but turned around to start collecting "dog found" posters.   as i walked past the house, i saw frankie in the window, watching us.

i went to habitat for humanity yesterday.   we didn't get a whole lot done, but it's always great to work there.

in the evening, kaela and i went to grace and steve's house for a lunar new year dinner with my dad.   we stopped by five paw bakery first to get some free treats.   after dinner, kaela and i watched fun with dick and jane.