Music-loving puppy

Steve was in the kitchen this morning, loading the dishwasher. I had run out to a dental appointment. Dionne was hanging out with Steve. Until suddenly, she wasn't.

He says the sound of her feet on the stairs leading up to my office alerted him that he should retrieve her. But before he could do that, loud music (I think it was the Pussycat Dolls) began playing.

A girl could get in trouble playing with one of these.

He raced up the stairs and when he entered my office, Dionne was sitting near my desk. "Looking uneasy," Steve says. Clearly she had jumped up, seeking something to snatch, and through some magical combination of puppy paws on keys had cranked up not only iTunes but also managed to hit the forward arrow that started broadcasting "We Went As Far As We Felt Like Going."

She ALSO somehow managed to start something called Voiceover, an Apple utility that speaks descriptions of items on the screen. Steve had no idea how to turn that off. By the time I got home, he'd even forgotten it was still on. So when sat down, I found an alien box on my screen and a robot voice narrating my every movement and click of my mouse. I had to call Applecare to learn how to turn it off (Control plus F5). "It's really intended for people who are visually impaired," the nice young man on the phone informed me. But obviously it's accessible to dexterous retriever puppies.

But life is SO boring without Ella

Steve, by the way, thought Dionne must have been startled by the sudden blast of music. Mostly, however, she's been moping around in the wake of Ella's departure Sunday. Life once again is really, really boring. But there's nothing like playing on the computer to escape that, eh?