chill.

this morning the air was definitely chilled. my outdoor thermometer (an old fashioned type one) says 45 degrees although it feels much chillier than that. i think it's officially fall and i love it. so does petey. he's escaped this morning and is stalking around in the yard. he comes to the door to peek as if to say "neener neener neener!" before dashing off to stalk all manner of invisible creatures. he's such a goob.

yesterday, ainsley and i went to central park for the "my dog loves central park country fair" and had a blast. she wore her vest and was very good the whole time. ok well except for that one time she and noah and the other cci dog (acre i think is his name--something like that anyway). ok maybe it was more than once, but i digress. she was wonderful as usual. she had her picture taken with Clifford the Big Red Dog. she really liked clifford. we scored some big time schwag--even some schwag for petey! we also saw more dogs in once place than i have ever seen in my entire lifetime. it was crazy wild in a good way. we saw big dogs, little dogs, in between dogs, working dogs, playing dogs, dressed up dogs, naked dogs, all kinda dogs! it was awesome! it made me kinda warm and fuzzy inside to realize that so many new yorkers are dog people! :-)

i talked to many of my family members this week which was really nice. i don't get enough time to just catch up anymore and i got to do that with my two aunts and two of my cousins. i'll be seeing aunt cookie and uncle butch when i go down to alabama/florida for a wedding this coming halloween weekend, which is, incidentally, also my birthday weekend. i got my uncle butch a cool gift just for the hell of it and my aunt cookie's birthday is coming up the weekend prior to the trip. i've gotten her a pretty cool gift also. so cool i wanted to keep it for myself :-) but i won't.

speaking of gifts, my aunt kat sent me an early birthday present. i wore it to central park yesterday. it is maroon and says "southern girl" on the front and on the back it says "southern girls love their bulldogs". my alma mater is miss. state university and the bulldogs are our mascot.

and speaking of mascots, sort of, i met some really nice people at the canine companions for independence (CCI) booth at central park yesterday. CCI is the agency that bred, raised, and trained ainsley. ginger is a lady who lives on long island and is acre's partner. (there will be pictures later on my flickr page). she was so nice and sweet. i enjoyed talking with her. another lady, alice is a puppy raiser and her neice, eve, was with her and her released puppy. sweet ladies. i really appreciate puppy raisers for all they do because if it weren't for puppy raisers like alice and eve, i wouldn't have my ainsley. i also met lisa, one of the trainers at the CCI northeast regional center. she and one of the dogs were working very hard giving out brochures and speaking with fair-goers. she was very nice and helpful. if you know me, i really like meeting interesting and nice people. if you're a jackass, not so much. (yes, i have picked up that phrase which i abhor! i think it is a yankee thing, i dunno).

speaking of jackasses, kinda. a little girl (about 9 i would guess) got stuck in the lavatory on the train as we were waiting for departure at penn station. her dad kinda pissed me off. at first he was really pushy and mean with her before she went into the rest room. i just didn't like his attitude with her. she waited her turn to the lav and went in, then she couldn't get the door to open. it must be soem kind of complicated button & lever mechanism, but she couldn't figure it out and she paniced. initially, her dad was upset at her and he seemed to be embarrassed by the whole situation and he seemed to be embarrassed by her. he kept yelling at her through the door to keep trying to open the door etc. eventually, the guy started panicing too. he got on the emergency intercom and was trying to get train personnel to come help his daughter. all the while, i might add, people were pouring onto the train as boarding was going on and this goober dad was running around (almost stepping on ainsley a few times--which woulda been bad for him) yelling and just generally not keeping his shit together. the train started moving and she was still stuck. she was crying and she was really freaking out. my seat in the disabled seating area was right across from the door to the lav so that's how i witnessed all this shit so clearly. several other male passengers tried to get the door open but it wouldn't work and they tried to talk elizabeth (the little girl) through opening the door, but she was just too freaked out. finally, a train conductor (a really really hot dude, by the way) showed up and he managed to get the door open. there stood little elizabeth, a beautiful little girl with dark curly hair, all red-faced and crying. what did her dad do immediately? no he didn't hug his little girl or try to comfort her in any way. he just lit right into the conductor yelling at him about them not getting there immediately to help him. the whole time, elizabeth was just standing there trying not to cry. i took her hand and had her come sit in my seat and let her love on ainsley a little bit, and talked to her to help her calm down. it didn't take much to help calm her down but of course it was me doing this and not her dad, who should have been doing it. now i realize that he was freaked out but his first priority should have been his daughter. he didn't even ask her if she was ok or reassure her or anything! and at the same time, i can readily admit that, not to long ago, that would have been me, only worse, in reacting to a stressful event like that. so i can understand how he was feeling and how he could have reacted the way he did. i also realize that elizabeth will always remember his lack of concern for her. i couldn't help but wonder if he treats her like that in general.

anyway.

i do need helpful advice if anyone has any (or just plain old advice is fine, too). i have been researching iphone VS. blackberry as i want to upgrade. i'm also trying to figure out do i want to get different devices for different functions or do i want the most all-in-one device there is. anyone have an opinion? for example, do i want to get a phone that covers the phone/email bases and then get a separate mp3 player for music, podcasts, and videos? i was even thinking i could keep my current phone (the fairly new NV2 banged up as it is) and get an ipod touch or other ipod for music, podcasts, games, etc. basically, i need access to email, phone, and calender in a phone. i have become very dependant upon my gps navigation service through my current (and previous) phone models so that would be something i'd like to keep. i heavily use my phone's calender feature, but i would really prefer to have something that would sync with my google calenders so i have just one interface rather than two separate interfaces for my calenders (personal, teaching, administrative, etc). it's easy for something to get lost in the shuffle there.
i've already done one of those pre-approval things for an iphone 3g, but do i really want to take that plunge? my current service is with verizon. another option, maybe, is the new tiny little ultra mobile pc from asus. i saw them in target last week. i don't know what features it has or what the true functionality of it is, but it's there. it might be a possible alternative.
anyone? bueller? bueller? bueller?