My First Trip to Tennessee

For maybe just the third or fourth time in my life, I got to leave the state of Indiana last weekend! I’ve been to Ohio a couple of times to visit family and friends, but that’s it, until this past weekend when my parents took me down to Tennessee!

Unfortunately, we didn’t get over to Knoxville, Tenn. so that I could call on Smokey, but we did make it all the way down to Nashville/Nolensville, Tenn. to stay with my good friend, Reese (Peanut Butter Cup) the miniature daschund and her parents Jason and Betsy Weatherly.

It was also the first time that I got to go along with my parents for a race weekend as my dad was going there with Vision Racing to work the Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway.
I didn’t end up getting to go to the track with him, but I probably could have. I had my credential (Its true. See picture below) and Ed Carpenter (2003 Butler grad) had his motor coach there with the A/C running. It could have worked!

Instead I stayed back at the Weatherly residence and tired myself out playing with Reese. Her and I are like a regular “Milo and Otis,” so to speak. I enjoy stealing her toys, she enjoys stealing my food and we both like to chase each other around the furniture as displayed in the video below. Ahh, good times.

It was a good weekend and fun for me to get away with my parents for once. I had such a good time and wore myself out so much that I slept the entire way home.

Yep, for the 5+ hour ride home, instead of sleeping on the back seat, I laid down on the floorboard in the back and sawed logs all the way home. I only got up once when we stopped for a quick potty break.

Other than that the past couple of weeks have been fairly uneventful. I’ve just passed the time by taking naps and tearing up my toys around the office. Below is a picture and evidence of the destruction. The victim in those pictures was an alligator of mine, which has actually been in my stash of office toys for probably two years. I finally decided it was time to cause havoc on the poor gator. I was particularly proud of myself that day.

On Wednesday morning I had to go visit the vet b/c my mom found a chipped tooth underneath all my defining flabs and wrinkles. My parents are kind of sensitive about my teeth because well, I don’t have that many, and because one time I broke a molar in half and had to have it removed before it caused infection. What can I say, I’m a British bulldog…I naturally have bad teeth.

Anyway, a tip of one of my fangs has been chipped and the tooth is starting to die (don’t worry, you can’t see it…my flab covers it). Dr. Kurt Phillips (a Butler grad) at Woodland Animal Hospital in Carmel, Ind. said that it looked fine and as long as it wasn’t causing me any pain, then my health was not in jeopardy. He said a doggy dentist would want to do a root canal and cap it, which he said at this stage was excessive.

I was happy to oblige with the no-treatment route and be on my merry way. (In the picture it might be hard to tell that my fang is chipped, but you can start to see the discoloration caused by the slow death of the tooth.)


Speaking of the vet, I think I may have failed to mention that I was there a while back for my annual check-up…shots/vaccinations, ears, eyes, etc. I weighed 62 lbs. and received a clean bill of health. I also got a new jangle to my jingle with my updated rabies vacc. tag (pictured).

This weekend my parents are headed off to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for another race and a bit of camping. I love to camp and you’d think that this would be one of the races that I’d get to go to as it’s probably the most conducive venue on the circuit to having dogs around. But, the owners of the place must not like dogs or something because pets aren’t allowed at Mid-Ohio.

So, that means I’ll be headed north again (read: Wabash, Ind.) to spend some time with both the Kaltenmark and Richards grandparents. I’m so lucky to have such a loving place to go. I’m looking forward to the attention, sleeping-in and special treats!

To get ready I spent a lot of quality time with my parents last night. I got a bath and was thoroughly furminated. Then we went outside on the back deck where we all got on the swing and enjoyed listening to the locusts and just hanging out.

Today I have another piano camp photo-op and that’s about it. So I’ll probably just nap, eat, bark at inanimate objects, shred some toys or boxes, sleep some more and just hang out. It’s hard being me. Luckily I’m up for the task.


I hope your summer is going as well as mine is. The weatherman says that it’s only supposed to warm up over the next few days so crank up that A/C, keep cool and apply sunscreen liberally.

Blue II

A New Friend, Sparky the Dragon, HL Tournament, and Bath Time

Well, how did my web cameras (read Blue2TV) affect your productivity on the job this past week? Add that to March Madness and by May you’ll be on the streets looking for work.

In addition to staring on my own lifecasting network this week, I also got to meet a new friend on Thursday. Her name is Reese, as in “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups,” and she’s a 12-week old Daschund. She belongs to Jason and Betsy Weatherly of Nashville, Tenn.

I don’t think Reese knew what to think of me at first. After all, she’s so small that she was even scared of my toys, because like me, they are all bigger than her too!

When I first saw her, I thought she might be a new toy, but then I realized it was a real dog. I didn’t know they made them so small! I think I was bigger than her before I even had my eyes open as a newborn pup. (See pictures below.)


After a while she warmed up pretty well and we had a great time. While I like being the sole dog at home, it was kind of fun to have playmate around too.

I ended up having too much fun on Thursday night with Reese and staying up way past my bed time, so if you logged on to Blue2TV on Friday morning, you probably just saw me sleeping. I know, I know, that’s nothing new, but I was REALLY sleeping on Friday morning.

Once I woke up, it was time to head over to the West Gym in Hinkle Fieldhouse to setup the Bulldog Club/OBS hospitality area for Saturday’s Horizon League Men’s Basketball Tournament games.

Actually, I don’t do any setting up, I let my dad and his colleagues handle that. I just run around the wide-open space of the West Gym and wear myself out.

On Saturday, I got to sleep-in and then went to the HRC while my dad worked out. After that, it was a quick trip back home and then back to campus for the HL Tournament to watch the Bulldogs take on the UIC Flames for an opportunity to play in the finals on Tuesday.

That’s right, I said UIC Flames. When teams started picking the Earth’s natural elements as mascots, I’m not sure. Just think, instead of an English Bulldog writing this blog right now, maybe it could be the “wind,” “air,” or “water.” Seriously, “flames,” that’s the best you could do? I feel bad for the mascot costume maker that got that work order. No matter what you construct, you can’t win on that deal.

Oh well, I’m going to make fun of it anyway. Just look at this thing, they call “Sparky the Dragon.” It looks like said mascot costume maker scraped the whole flame idea and just went for a cartoonish pre-historic dinosaur that appears to be a reject from the Barney show. I get that a dragon breathes “flames,” but that’s stretching it, ya’ think?



Perhaps it’s just a left over costume from the Jim Henson’s HBO show, Fraggle Rock, sans the crazy hair.


Anyway, back on point, the Bulldogs braved the heat of the Flames to win convincingly by a score of 66-50. (That sentence was so cliché, but that’s what you get when your mascot is the “Flames.” You will always be written about in cliché fashion.)

A.J. Graves did not pet me before this match-up and went for 14 points in the game. It’s interesting…for his entire career, people have pleading for him to pet the dog during the announcement of starting lineups. He finally did on Senior Day and only scored two points. Now before games people are coming up to me and saying, “Don’t let Graves touch you!” Whatever people…just be careful what you wish for.

Up next are the Vikings of Cleveland State for the HL Tournament title which will air live on ESPN, Tuesday, March 11th at 9 p.m. from Hinkle Fieldhouse. The winner will not only take the title, but receive an automatic berth into the men’s NCAA tournament. I already can’t wait to have one last game at home this season.

Also, a special thanks to Joel Barnhill of the Horizon League for ordering promotional shirts to be thrown out during the games. I didn’t get a shirt, but I did get to destroy one of the boxes the shirts came in after the game over at the south Dawg Pound. The box was addressed to Joel so I figured he was the appropriate person to thank.

A congratulations is in order for the Lady Bulldogs of the women’s basketball program on getting their 20th win on the season Saturday as they took down Valparaiso. They will now prepare for their own Horizon League Tournament and a chance for post-season play. Well done!

Today, Sunday, I again got to sleep-in, followed by another trip to the HRC. After that it was more skateboard practice and some sun-bathing on the deck.

I then took a nap during the NASCAR race (because that’s what you do during those things) and after that it was bath time. I don’t dislike baths, but I don’t really get all pumped up for them either. I do enjoy that fresh clean feeling once it’s all over. Here is some video of the event:

I forgot to mention this last week, but when the Bulldogs took on the Wright State Raiders a couple Thursday’s ago, I had the opportunity to meet Indianapolis Colts’ Pro-Bowl center, Jeff Saturday who was in attendance at the game.

That really has no significance, other than Jeff is semi-famous and the fact that I wanted to record the event. Plus, he's a cool dude. End of story.

Finally, it’s spring break week at Butler University and while many members of the student body are somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line, yours truly is staying put. That’s right, no spring break for me, so be sure to check out Blue2TV all week long to check in on my ever-exciting office life.