Category Archives: Dogs

Because the biggest fg problem with the ADA is too many fg drive-by plaintiffs

This evening we went back to the completely gutted and remodeled Izakaya Den restaurant and found that they installed a raised sushi bar with no ramp. Here’s a photo from Westword with my added mark-up.

Sigh.

Just that, by itself, is deeply frustrating. As we’ve discussed in connection with our lawsuit against the El Diablo restaurant, you can’t take an empty space and make part of it inaccessible. While this should be obvious, it’s also illegal.

But what made this depressing, frustrating, infuriating and really sad was that we have been patronizing Izakaya Den and its sister restaurant, Sushi Den, for years. They know us in both restaurants, well enough at Sushi Den that we had a table where we always sat, and most of the waitstaff had served us so often they automatically brought me a phone book to sit on.* We had participated in a private sushi tasting with a chef visiting from Japan, and at that point (and others) met the owners.

It’s bad enough that Izakaya Den got seriously bad architectural advice. It’s really depressing that no one ever stopped to think, this isn’t just a theoretical legal question; we have a regular customer who will want access to the sushi bar. And what’s funny: they have an elevator. They added a second floor and an elevator. Very fucking cool. But damn! Why on earth add an unnecessary, new, inaccessible raised area?

We proceeded from Izakaya Den to Kaos** pizza, which was also inaccessible, then*** on to the Black Pearl which had this gorgeous ramp

as well as truffle fries, an excellent cheese plate, and a nice refreshing bottle of 90 Shilling.

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* Yes, I’m that short and have that little pride. But it’s nice to be able to look my fellow diners in the eye.

** Sounds like Maxwell Smart should be nearby, talking on his shoe phone.

*** I’m leaving out the part where I crossed the street from Kaos to where Tim was waiting, swearing my ass off, while he made “maybe you don’t want to use those words just now” eyebrow motions. Turns out he was chatting with a nice woman — hidden to me by a parked car — and her cute Lab puppy. I was embarrassed, she was understanding (“that’s OK; let it all hang out!”), and the puppy was really really cute.

Morning at the dog park

Because what would you photograph if you just got your new Olympus EX-25 Extension Tube?

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The EX-25 is a piece that goes between the camera body and the lens that permits you to take macro-like photos with an ordinary lens. It has the advantage over a true macro lens of being way less expensive, so I can goof around with this style of photography without investing a lot of money. Many of the reviews noted that you’ll probably want to use a tripod, and they appear to be correct. But, having just taken the device out of the box and put it on my camera, attaching the camera to a tripod would have required far more patience than I have. And a slightly greater depth of field would have brought more of the nostril into focus. I have a lot to learn — but this is going to be fun!

Sit! Stay! Code!

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Saguaro is all set to receive legal software training.

We recently needed to purchase a fourth license for our favorite legal software to install on our remote server. Unfortunately, there are only three of us (me, Tim, paralegal extraordinaire Caitlin) and the company would not issue two licenses to one person. I emailed our rep, “Hmmm. No. Just the 3 of us. And the dog: Saguaro.”

Demonstrating why we love this software and this rep,* she responded:

Ok, so……all kidding aside…I am going to have to assign the license to Saguaro. LOL! … He is going to be contacted for training!

He got his license in the next email:

Dear Saguaro:

Thank you for being a registered licensee for [Software].

Here’s the link to download our … Suite of Software Tools:

. . .

Here is your [Software] Registration Information:

Registration Name: Saguaro Fox

Registration ID:

And, as promised, he was contacted for training.

Hi Saguaro,

My name is [Name], I work in the [Software] training & support department and will be your go to resource for [Software] questions.

I thought I’d check in to introduce myself and see how you’re doing with [Software] tools so far.

And so on.

If Chinook can learn legal research

Saguaro can master this software!

And for your entertainment, my other attempts to pose Saguaro and a laptop.

Aaaaaand “Why do you keep making me put my paws there? I’m done now.”

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*Both the software and the rep will remain nameless, so as not to get anyone in trouble. Suffice it to say, it’s not Summation: in my experience, their reps have no sense of humor whatsoever.

Remembering Chinook

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We said goodbye to our sweet Chinook a couple of weeks ago. Herewith a couple (OK a ton) of photos.

We tried, for a very short time, to train him as a service dog. The failure of that project was a reflection only on us. Well, and you can sort of sense his attitude in this picture.

He loved to swim:

He loved to roll:

His human friends:

His canine friends (the first one is actually his dad!):

And of course his best friend:

From our holiday card a few years ago; truly sums up their personalities!

Grumpy conehead puppy

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Saguaro has a “hot spot,” the bane of large, hairy dogs. But also sort of an embarrassing injury, and by “embarrassing” I mean completely avoidable, exacerbated by his own licking, and involving a trip to the vet, shaving, and expensive internal and external antibiotics.

“Winterfest”

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South Pearl Street’s Winterfest — as advertised:

and in reality, at 72 degrees on December 1:*

Yes, that guy is selling poems. Why not, eh? South Pearl Street is a little slice of Portlandia in Denver. In fact, if you look carefully, the booth behind the poet is

where Tim bought a $12 jar of pickles, and which of course reminded me of

We also bought $50 worth of organic crap — what sort of weird spell do local farmers’ markets cast? — and I took some pictures. Like this one, which seems to fit with my penchant for photographing random textured distressed things,

but was in fact taken at a stand selling random textured distressed things.

But this is the real deal: the side of an ancient pick-up truck. Not sure why I like distressed vehicles so much. Oh. Right.

Another random photo:

And two bonus dog photos. Watching the Winterfest crowds wander by.

And Saguaro, just after this morning’s bath, helping me practice with the new flash.

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* That is not a political statement. It is an accurate statement about the weather. That is, we did not get pulled by snow-covered horses through snow-covered streets. I walked through Winterfest in shorts and sandals. In Denver. In December.