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Now is the time for signing up to be a poll worker! I just got a call today from the chief judge of my precinct to confirm that I would be there this November. In Durham County, all you have to do is attend a 2 hour training session a couple of weeks before the election, show up the night before to set up, and then be at the polling place all day on election day. It's not hard or scary work: I had to take people's names, look them up in a book and give them an ATV (authorization to vote) form. Anything out of the ordinary was referred to the chief judge.

If you're interested, just call your local board of elections and tell them you want to be a poll worker. Considering the record turnout expected this year, I'm sure they'll be glad to have you.

Good car news. The short probably isn't in the radio; it's probably in the cigarette lighter, which I forgot to mention was also on the same fuse that kept blowing. In fact the mechanic said there's a good chance it isn't even the cigarette lighter, but the iPod charger I had plugged into it. He said it happens all the time with cell phone chargers. Even if it is the lighter itself, that's not difficult to replace. So either way I'll have the car back today, and have music again.

I have to admit I was a bit worried about this one, just because electrical problems in a car can be so ... problematic. Expensive and difficult to fix. But the mechanic sounded confident that it will be an easy fix. whew!

Things were a bit chaotic here this morning. First we took Jane with us to drive Georg to work, so she'd have some alone time with us, and then the downpour really opened up just as we got home and Jane wouldn't get out of the car. I got drenched trying to coax, pull, shove her out. Then there was a barking incident so we're back to the tether. Everyone is calm now though. The rain has stopped and Jane is sitting in her favorite spot on the porch, rather than hiding out in the backyard. The beasties are sleeping blissfully. They really are adorable.

I just saw a speech at the convention that didn't end with "God bless you all, and God bless America!" Warner's speech ended "God bless you all, and thank you very much!"

Why does he hate America?

I googled shih tzu / bichon mix, and apparently it's called "zuchon" or "shichon" and it's a popular designer mix. I can see why; the beasties are super cute and affectionate.

They're doing really well. I didn't need the tether today and they didn't bark at Jane. I don't think they actually learned the lesson of the time outs that fast; more likely it was just that asserting myself a bit, reminding them that anything does not go, calmed them down and encouraged good behavior.

Jane still has the wig, alas, but she's getting better. This morning she came in for about a half hour. When all three of them are together, it's a lot of dog in one place. I guess I've gotten used to having just one dog.

Now Jane is on her bed in the bedroom with Georg. I'm out in the living room with the beasties, who are happily ensconced in their crate. At first I felt like a meanie for putting them inside a cage, but they really like it in there. They have a pile of blankets to dig a nest in, and a big stuffed toy to lie on top of.

They have an appointment at the groomer on Thursday, and at the vet on Friday. And tomorrow my car goes back to the shop. It ran great on the trip to Delaware last week, but while I was there it developed a short in the radio. The fuse blew, and when we replaced it, it immediately blew again. Nothing important was affected -- the dashboard lights and etc. still run -- just no clock or radio. Which is a bummer on a road trip.

So (knock on wood) they'll fix the car tomorrow, the beasties will get beautified and vaccinated, and then they'll be all ready to adopt out. All I need now is to connect with the rescue league!

The good news is the Pants Plan seems to be working. There's been immediate improvement in dog relations. This afternoon Jane came in for about 20 minutes and there was no barking from the beasties. Granted, I had to keep everyone calm with constant petting and sweet talk, but still it was a big step forward.

The bad news is that despite being half bichon, they don't look anything like the breed. And therefore the bichon rescue league can't take them. I don't know anything about purebreds, and I didn't realize that when I was told the dogs were bichons, not really. Actually they take after their shihtzu parent. They have that short muzzle, almost flat face and underbite. The lower teeth of one even show when her mouth is closed.

I heard back from the bichon group around 6, and spent a couple of hours trying not to freak out and wondering what the hell I was going to do. I really do not have the ability to take on two new dogs long-term, especially when one of them requires such close attention until the issues with Jane are worked out. However, the bichon person gave me the name of a shihtzu rescue group in Georgia, and I just heard back from them, and it sounds like they're willing to take the dogs. Thank god! These folks are much farther away, but it will be worth it to get these two to a good rescue group who will keep them together.

So I'm going to talk to the shihtzu group in the morning, and I have an appointment to get the beasties' shots up to date and get them on heartguard, and they really ought to be groomed too.

Here's a question for those who travel with pets: how do you handle bathroom breaks for yourself? On the way here from Delaware I stopped every 90 minutes for the beasties, but could only manage once for myself. And of course stopping at a restaurant to eat was out of the question; I took a sandwich and ate it while I drove. Even the one bathroom break was a huge hassle: first I walked the dogs, then moved the car into the shade (unfortunately far from the bathroom house), got my computer bag and purse out of the car, rolled down all the windows, ran to the bathroom lugging my heavy computer bag, peed as fast as possible, then ran back. Is there an easier way? This drive is going to be farther (7 hours without stops) and I'll be going south so it will be hotter, and harder to leave animals alone in the car.

Through circumstances too complicated to go into, we are providing temporary shelter for two bichon-shihtzu mixes. The plan is to have them here for just a couple of days while I coordinate with a bichon rescue league. They are sweet dogs, just not our thing. They'll make great pets for someone who likes lap dogs.

They've been here since yesterday afternoon and I like them very much, except for one problem: one of them barks at Jane. Unfortunately Jane has a nervous temperament, and runs away when the bichon barks at her. The result is that, predictably, the bichon barks more often and with more force. Now Jane won't come in at all, she acts like she's been exiled to the yard, and the bichon thinks she rules the roost. It would be comical -- a 15 pound yappy dog scaring off a 70 pound shepherd mix -- if I didn't feel like the biggest heel in the world for introducing this conflict into Jane's home. These bichons are cute and all, but Jane is family.

With some expert advice from Ms. Pants we have a new approach to the problem. Hopefully this will work better than "wring my hands, hope for the best, and scold the bichon when she barks." Which didn't work at all because the scolding seemed to upset Jane more than anybody.

Ms. Pants suggested, first of all, not to give the bichon run of the house. Keep her tethered to me (or to my chair) at all times she isn't crated. This way she has less opportunity to bully Jane; for instance she can't sit at the front door and bark if Jane tries to come in. At first the bichon was excited by the leash because she thought, you know, walkies. Eventually she realized that we're doing the same puttering around the house, just now she can't go more than four feet away from me. It doesn't seem like a great hardship to her because these dogs are fairly people-oriented and want to be right near me all the time anyway.

Part 2 of the Pants Plan is that every time the bichon barks, she gets a time out. No scolding, just put her in the crate for ten minutes. If I'm consistent, the bichon will realize that her behavior (bullying), instead of a positive result (intimidate other dog) now has a negative result (short period of isolation). I decided to use the travel crate because their wire crate is so big and so crammed full of toys, it hardly seems like a punishment to be in there.

Only a half hour into the Pants Plan I had to administer a time out. The bichons and I were in the kitchen making my lunch; Jane was outside looking in the back door. I started talking to Jane and the bichon barked. Just once, but that was the first time she had done that (barked at Jane for just looking in, not even trying to come in).

I didn't scold, just said "Time out!" scooped her up and into the travel crate. The other bichon tried to go in too but I thought the bully should be alone for the time out to be effective. It certainly caught her by surprise. She spent five minutes yipping and scratching at the door while I ignored her. Then she calmed down and after five minutes of quiet I let her out. Gave her lots of affection so she wouldn't think I put her in there just because I'm a meanie.

Now they're both sleeping by my office chair. Here's hoping the Pants Plan puts an end to the bullying. Like I said, I hope this will only be for a few days. And I don't want these days to be miserable for Jane. The other bichon, by the way, is equally outgoing but much less aggressive. She seems content to follow the first one's lead, and only barks when the first one barks a lot and gets her riled up.

August 22 movie: Diabolique. My dad and I watched this together. (I mean the original by Clouzot, not the remake. Of course!) Neither of us had seen it in a long time, and we were both struck all over again by how good it is. The tension builds steadily, with just enough funny moments, and the climactic scene is one of the scariest things I've seen in a movie. If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for?

August 20 movie: House of Cards. This is a BBC miniseries, a black comedy about a ruthless MP who cheats, blackmails and kills his way to becoming Prime Minister. I enjoyed it immensely. It's an ensemble piece with over a dozen characters, but I particularly liked Ian Richardson in the starring role Miles Anderson as another MP, a sleaze with a cocaine problem, and Susannah Harker as a spunky reporter who develops a relationship with Richardson.

August 17 movie: Singing in the Rain. Another movie that I love, I've seen a million times, and I have nothing to say about.

August 17 movie: On the Town. I love this movie, I've seen it a million times, and I have nothing to say about it.

August 17 movie: Broadway Melody of 1940. I love this movie! Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell are just terrific together. Robert Osborne said that Astaire chose not to work with Powell again because he felt like she outshone him. Which is a damned shame.

August 17 movie: Roberta. Aside from The Barkeleys of Broadway this is the Fred and Ginger movie I've seen the least. It's their second movie, and they weren't the stars: they played second lead to Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott. The music by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach includes some wonderful songs, like "I Won't Dance" and "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." Unfortunately the latter is marred by Dunne's performance, which I'm sure was all the rage at the time, but isn't to my taste at all.

August 16 movie: The Fred Astaire Songbook. This nice documentary about Fred Astaire's singing was actually an episode of Great Performances. Narrated by Audrey Hepburn, who was still incredibly beautiful in 1991. Includes interviews with Hermes Pan, and some really interesting photos of Fred as a boy and young man with his sister Adele. From this movie I learned that Astaire was a talented pianest and drummer, and when he plays either in the movies (for instance his piano solo in Broadway Melody of 1940) it's really him playing.

S. and I went to Obama's town hall meeting in Raleigh tonight. S. was amazing and waited in line for an hour yesterday to get us the tickets. We arrived separately, I got there first and wasn't allowed to save a seat for her. But then she got there just in time to be seated on the bleachers near the big flag, and luckily I was able to join her there. We were farther away than my first seat, but since we were elevated a bit it was much easier to see. I think if I had stayed at the first seat, I would have spent the entire town hall staring at the backs of people's heads and feeling frustrated.

The configuration of the audience was a bit of a surprise. Most of the audience was on two sides of the hall, and the press were on the other two sides, with a small number of VIP spectators sitting in front of them (the cameras were on a platform so the VIPs didn't block their view). I guess they do it that way so that Obama can be filmed with a lot of people behind him. But it means that he had his back to about half of the audience whenever he faced the cameras. He did walk around a lot so as to face all directions. Still it was kind of odd to see him turn towards the cameras, away from us, and continue gesturing and talking to an audience that wasn't there. I guess I only found it odd because I'd never seen a live stump speech before.

Obama connected with the audience immediately -- of course it was a sympathetic audience, but still it seemed like he hit just the right note many times. He was serious at times, inspired many cheers and standing ovations, and funny other times: like once he sneezed, then joked about having caught a cold from his daughter's friends because seven-year-olds "have a lot of germs" and therefore we should all wash our hands after shaking hands with him.

He gave a speech first, and then answered audience questions. We were both very surprised that the "town hall" format meant apparently random people raising their hands and being called on to ask whatever question they wanted. Some of the questions were silly, some very relevant, and none of them appeared to have been pre-vetted. I'm so used to the Bush administration approach, where every interaction is carefully stage-managed, that it was a big change to see a major political figure answering random questions. (I could be wrong about this of course, it's possible that the whole thing was staged. But I think if so, they would have chosen the questions more carefully to lead into Obama's talking points. A few of these questions were really off the wall and just sounded so unscripted.) I suspect the last question may have been an exception: the question, from a homeless veteran, was just so perfect that it made me wonder. I'm sure the guy is completely sincere; I just wouldn't be surprised if staffers had heard his story in advance and decided that he'd be a good way to end the town hall.

The hall, and the line to get in, were swarming with volunteers asking people to register to vote or to sign up as volunteers. And I must say, if I weren't already volunteering I would have signed up today. The meeting left both S. and I feeling fired up and ready to get back to work. We were so enthused that we didn't realize how hungry we were until we got back to the car after the speech was over. We stopped for a great dinner at Tyler's on the way home. And then I got home and found out that Spencer had called me about phone banking again! Just in time to take advantage of my excitement about volunteering. I'm glad he called because I need to find out the events we're promoting this week. But in general I'd rather do email than phone calls, because I can save the email messages as reminders of what I've signed up to do. He seems like a phone guy though, so I may not be able to convince him to email me instead.

August 15 movie: Advise and Consent. Really interesting 60s drama about the confirmation hearing for a Secretary of State candidate. It's a bit preachy at times, but well worth it for the look at the internal politics of the Senate. And the cast is stellar: there's Henry Fonda as the Sec. of State candidate, Franchot Tone as the ailing President trying to preserve his legacy, Walter Pidgeon as the Senate majority leader, Charles Laughton as a Dixiecrat determined to take Fonda down, plus Gene Tierney, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, Lew Ayres and Don Murray.

To my surprise, Henry Fonda turns out to play a fairly minor character. He's in the first half hour a lot, then basically disappears from the movie. The real stars are Walter Pidgeon and Charles Laughton, and they are superb.