Very loosely Sanjo translated seems to mean Mountain in Japanese (Sanjou), which I think is hilarious. Also there was some Japanese Emperor. And it’s a style of music. And now, our second dog.

Regardless, Sanjo is a Pekingese. He currently weighs eight pounds and he’ll max out at a whopping ten. He’s about 3 months old. We got him from B.’s sister, who got him from some lady, who got Sanjo from a breeder. Supposedly. Might have been a shady deal somewhere. The chain of custody is a bit vague. Seems the lady that B’s sister bought her from isn’t an “honest person” and is currently cooling her heels in the clink, so there’s limited opportunity for researching the chain of custody past her.

Anyway, B. fell in love with Sanjo on a recent visit and ended up taking him home. She’s wanted a little dog for a long time. And finally she wore me down and I agreed that we could give him a good home. I’m not a huge fan of little dogs in general but I’ve got to admit, Sanjo is growing on me. He looks like a little Ewok. And he’s surprisingly mellow and quiet. He’s super friendly and cute.

I took him to the Vet today and he got some shots, a microchip, flea medicine, and his nails clipped. And a clean bill of health. All is well. All the ladies at the Vet office were fawning over him.

Jack seems to be largely indifferent to Sanjo. Though he does get a bit worked up when we’re dealing with Sanjo and ignoring him. Everybody is still adjusting. My only worry is that Jack might accidently hurt Sanjo because Jack pounces on stuff with his front paws when he’s excited. That wouldn’t be good since Jack weighs over seventy pounds. Jack has barked and growled briefly at Sanjo, which is new behavior, but I think Jack is just expressing his dominance and will get used to Sanjo.

Either way, this ain’t gonna be boring.

I’ve now spent significant time now with both XM and Sirius Satelitte radio. Sirius is way way better. Trust me. Plus their logo is a little dog. Comedy channels (even if you don’t like Howard Stern) are better. For example, they actually have a “blue collar” humor station. This is good. No redneck jokes on the other stations. That’s good if you’re like me and think redneck jokes are about as funny as a poke in the cornea with sharp pencil.

Also the music channels are awesome. There’s like a dozen rock channels. I especially like the “Jam-On” and “Spectrum” channels. For example, I actually heard the Police’s “Murder by Numbers” on the latter. How’s that for obscure. And cool. There are also no commercials (a lot of XM channels have commercials). But the thing I like is that they seem to really be trying to push the boundaries of what they can do. So there’s more to come. Seems like XM is just phoning it in a this point. I think XM is cool, but if you have a choice, get Sirius. It’s just hipper. Many car manufacturers only offer one or the other. Nissan offers either, so I chose Sirius. I’m thrilled I did.

I’m staying at the Sheraton in Albuquerque. I’m pooped. New Mexico is beautiful. Texas, or at least the part I drove through, is mind bogglingly flat. I heard some truckers talking about lawn mowers. On my handheld CB. They must have been near me, going the same direction. It was a long conversation. Like twenty minutes. It was amusing. And surprisingly informative. “My wife got on my new John Deer and took out all the sprinkler heads quicker n’ snot.” And that’s an exact quote. I also heard a lot of m.f. swearing, kids screaming, and and long rambling soliloquies in southern accents blasted over the air waves like a machine gun fire. I hear a lot of “sure nuff” and “ya’ll”. The citizens band truly is like internet chat rooms, geographically contrained, with static and southern accents. I heard some insanity, let me tell you.

Tomorrow I’m aiming for Barstow. But I might make it as far as Bakersfield. Today I wasted a lot of time futzing with my gear instead of driving. I hooked my new 60gig iPod up to the car, which has an audio aux input right on the dashboard. Learned how to use my Valentine One radar detector (and it saved my frickin’ ass twice). I hooked up the cb ( I’ve this had for a few years now). I also spent some time pulled over figuring out how to use the truck’s navigation system and other stuff like the sunroof and neck massager. Ok I made that last one up. My point is tomorrow I expect to spend less time futzing and more time driving.

Don’t think I’ll post any pictures tonight. Unless I get a second wind.

The truck is way cool. Drives great. Lot’s of power. It’s surprisingly quiet. My biggest complaint is that every time I stopped I managed to get a fly in the car that dive bombs my eyeball right when I’m merging between two semis at mach II. This was driving me nuts and I was weaving around the road trying to hit it with my map. But then I figured out that if I open all the windows, including the back window, and the sunroof, I experience the fly version of explosive decompression. Fly immediately sucked out.

But then it’d be back later. Landing on my eyelid. Either there’s an organized assault I’m barely noticing happening or it’s the same fly is back and mad as hell. Maybe when he got sucked out he was able to grab onto the radio antennae with one fly hand and haul himself backup into the cab hand over fly hand. Like Ripley at the end of Aliens, though she’s not particularly fly like.

Room service is here. Gotta go eat. Brain malfunctioning.