Anecdotes of the Skipper: Phantoms

Ever since I learned that Skipper could hear things inside of the womb, I've been obsessed with playing all different types of music for her. No, I don't put headphones on my belly, but I do sing along to the radio or Pandora. And if Sam's home, he likes to turn music up fairly loud.

Since moving into the new house, Sam's project has been to re-rip our collection of CDs. Some of them haven't been ripped since the late nineties, and unfortunately it shows when you listen to the MP3s. A couple of nights ago, he got around to ripping the movie soundtrack of Phantom of the Opera. I expected that if any of the songs would grab Skipper's attention, it's the opening sequence, because A) it's loud and B) just seems like the sort of thing that would penetrate the womb.

Not so much as a tremor.

Ah well, I thought to myself, Sherri will have her work cut out for her.

A little later this song started playing, and Skipper started going absolutely NUTS.

I'm like, Really? This is the song that gets you going?

And then I remember that it's Gerard Butler singing it.

Sherri still has her work cut out for her.

Lions and Tigers and Cute Baby Elephants!

Ever since I went off to college, I've made it to the zoo at least once a year. Most years, I've gone to the OKC Zoo. However, I have also made it to the Fort Worth Zoo, Tulsa Zoo, and Wichita Zoo during that time.

Again, most of those times were with Sherri. (In case you were unaware of the fact, Sherri is obsessed with the zoo. Really obsessed. Like, she's-been-getting-a-Zoo-Friends-Pass-for-several-years now-as-all-of-her-friends-trade-off-buying-it-as-a-Christmas-present kind of obsessed.) Occasionally it's been without her, but on those rare occasions I typically was accompanying a small child.

Therefore, it came as no surprise when Sherri informed all of us that she was going to the zoo on Saturday, and we were more than welcome to accompany her. Our friends Rapier Wit and Literary Cat were in town, and Walking Hyperbole's birthday was this past weekend, so a trip to the zoo seemed an excellent idea.

Unfortunately, Sherri ended up not getting to go with us on Saturday because of family, but the rest of us decided to go ahead and brave the heat and crowds because, well, it's the zoo! And we had plans! And there were animals to see!

(Sometimes I channel my inner five-year-old. I'll try to keep her under control.)

Since all of us have visited the OKC Zoo multiple times in the past, we did not do a full tour, instead choosing to visit the exhibits that most interested us that day. In particular, we were on a quest to see the baby elephant, Malee. I think Adorable Nurse would have thrown us to the alligator if we had skipped the baby elephant.


We did see several other animals, of course, and I even managed to grab a few decent shots along the way. Even though I've posted most of these elsewhere, it's my blog and I feel like showing them off. After all, not everybody frequents the same places I do!

One of the first animals you see when you enter the zoo is a rhino. As this was my first trip with my new camera, I was looking forward to giving it a workout here.

These are a couple of the prairie dogs that were brave enough to risk the heat. Even though the predicted high was only for the high-to-mid-80's, by the time we left that afternoon it was pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Needless to say, most of the animals were taking an afternoon nap.

They looked quite adorable too.

Not all of them were snoozing the afternoon away, however. The black bears were full of energy.

This grizzly just kept walking the same circuit over and over again. It made me wonder what he was nervous about.

Of course, other animals were lucky and could just go for a swim to cool off. The sea lions were quite happy to be aquatic animals, and would have have teased the other animals if they'd been nearby to see.

Eventually, we succeeded in our quest and found the new Elephant Exhibit. (It's gorgeous!) Malee was also very active and willing to show off for the throngs of humans who'd gathered to gaze adoringly at her.

(Once again, I apologize for the lack of updating. I blame it on so many fantastic people coming to town for Memorial Day, the last of whom are finally home. Don't worry, I'll more posts about our adventures in the coming days.)

Laughing Penguin

This is for Sherri. The cutest sound in the world is in the last 20 seconds or so.

Meet Cookie!

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, George Takei should be Spider-man...

Yesterday I had planned to write this very touching post about Sherri's visit on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, my main hard drive had a catastrophic failure and put the kabosh on that.

And I do still want to get back to that touching Sherri post. Right now, however, I am unable to do so because my parents should be here in about an hour, hour-and-a-half, and I still need to get things done around the house.

So, instead, I present you with this absolutely wonderful video which involves Broadway, Spider-Man, and George Takei.

Will, Sherri, you're welcome.

Tradition

Saturday, in celebration of Rapier Wit's birthday, we went to Ted's Cafe Escandido for excellent Mexican food, and then we proceeded to the local Medieval Faire.

Our group of friends have attended this particular faire every year since '05. Not everyone can always make it (I missed it both years I was in Dallas), but at least four or five of us make it there every year.  Part of that is because it always falls the weekend before or after Rapier Wit's birthday, and thus it's become a tradition.

This year we did not dress up in full regalia, partly because it was in the 80's. However, we still had a great time. Sherri got to pet an owl this year. To be honest, I don't know how that matches up with the year she got to ride an elephant (pictured right), but she was pretty excited about it. I, however, did not pet an owl this year, because I made a poor choice in footwear so Sam and I left early. Ah well.

The fun thing about returning to the same faire year after year is seeing people you recognize from previous years, whether that be vendors, other vistors, or those participating in the jousting tournaments.

We of course had to make a stop for the huge glass bottles of root beer that are sold each year. I sometimes suspect that the root beer is why we make this trip each year.

Yes, it's that good.

Through virtue of lack of funds, Sam and I managed to resist purchasing any of the clothing that they sell there. However, I will confess that there were a couple of dresses which I lusted after.

First there was this blue dress, which immediately made me think of my halfling character, Annie. It's totally something that I could see her wearing.

However, the one that really got my heart pounding was this gorgeous outfit:

I make an excellent pirate wench, for the record, and this dress would be perfect. Alas, it was not meant to be.

The other outfit which we came across that excited Adorable Nurse in particular was this awesome steampunk outfit:

Adorable Nurse has a not-quite-obsession with steampunk, so she had a grand time seeing all of the steampunk-style items for sale at the faire.

Here you can see Adorable Nurse modeling that rocking hat. 

Isn't this completely awesome? I love the detail work on it!

Of course, Adorable Nurse had to show it to her husband, Walking Hyperbole.

Doesn't he look distinguished? If only he had a cane with a sword in it....

Blessings Continued

Thirty-nine days after the death of Frank, we welcomed a new, fully functioning computer into the family. This resulted in much rejoicing in our home, and I'm now actually capable of having three different windows open at once.

Plus I have my music back.

And my Photoshop.

*sighs happily*

We have not yet officially named the new computer. It takes a little bit to discover a computer's personality, after all.

Last weekend, Rapier Wit and Literary Cat came down for four days. The first day, Literary Cat, Adorable Nurse, and I walked down memory lane (literally as well as figuratively), made food for the guys, and then had a fun night just hanging out.

The next day I was considerably ill, but it could have been worse, so I'm still grateful.

Saturday all of us got back together to play D&D, and something that I've been planning for months finally occurred to my character.

(My almost-teenage cleric is going to be angsty for a little bit. Lord have mercy.)

Also, Literary Cat loaned me The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, which is the sequel to the book she gave me for Christmas, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. So far I've managed to keep from disappearing inside of it, but I have a feeling that after I'm done catching up around the house today and tomorrow, I'm going to disappear Wednesday and devour it.

It's good to have friends who feed your addiction.

Sherri made it safely back from her visit with will and family, which I'm very glad for. I've missed my sister terribly.

Overall, there's a lot of happiness in my life right now, and I felt like sharing. I hope things are going equally well for you!

Context

For about a decade of my life, I worked in theatre in one capacity or another. Over the course of that decade, I had a 20 foot A-frame ladder dropped on me (three times), I fell off the stage (more times), I fell in holes on the stage (twice), fell down a flight of stairs (once), and fell off a truss (once). Those are just the major injuries--doesn't include burns, cuts, sprained ankles, etc.

I tell you this not to make you feel sorry for me, or to comment on my klutziness, or even to brag in some perverse way. I'm telling you this to make my next few statements make more sense.

(It's not whining, it's context.)

The past two days saw snowfall (on Wednesday) and sub-zero temperatures (on Thursday). This meant that every part of my body that was damaged over the time I spent in theatre flared up with pain and refused to let me get anything done.

Yes, even blogging.

And, unfortunately, I won't be getting much blogging in today, as it's finally warm enough that I can move around the house and accomplish things. This is good because the poor house has been neglected (Sammy has been amazing about trying to get the essentials done, but he is working from home as well), and as such most of today will go to whipping it back into shape.

This evening, Rapier Wit and Literary Cat will be coming into town for the weekend, and we're hoping to spend a good deal of time with them. At the very least, tonight will be D&D and tomorrow will be Zios (mmmmmm... good stuff) and general hanging out.

All this to say, if you don't hear from me until next Monday, I promise I'm not dead, just out enjoying the world. That's not to say it's an impossibility I'll post stuff between now and then, but the chances are significantly reduced.

For that, here's a picture of a cat:

This is Nala when we were living in Dallas. Picture courtesy of Sherri.

How was the trip?

*bat* *bat* *bat* *bat*

Opening one eye, I see Nala's nose a mere inches from mine. With a sigh I reach up and scratch her ears, then close my eye and try to go back to sleep.

*bat* *bat* *bat* *bat*

Nala's decided I've been lazy enough for one morning, it's nine o'clock, and by golly she's going to bat at my face until I get up and get dressed.

For a brief moment I consider opening a Chinese restaurant, but decide she's too cute and I love her.

After stumbling out of my bed to brush my teeth and get dressed, I proceed to continue stumbling to the coffee pot before sitting in front of the computer.

I wonder what everyone's up to today? I think to myself as I open up Facebook.

Oh look, the local university has closed down for the third day in a row. They never did that while I was in school there. Kids these days... Hey, my friend posted pics of her wedding dress! She's so pretty. I hope I can make it down to Houston for the big day... Wow, I wish I was going back to London soon, lucky dog...

Having caught up on all the little updates that Facebook provides, I then move over to my blog reading, starting with people I actually know.

will's kid is so gosh darn cute. Makes me want a little one of my own. Literary Cat has posted new list of books for me to check out, awesome! Ah man, she's got a cold too. Can't blame Sam for this one--he hid away while Rapier Wit was in town. Aww, thanks Sherri! I now know exactly how much snow fell 'round these parts...


*   *   *   *   *


You may be wondering why I just posted a snippet of my morning routine--it's setup for this fascinating op-ed over at Mashable about how social media is making us more like our grandparents' generation.

Here's the core of Josh Rose's argument:

Our grandparents talked with their parents. Family dinners were an essential part of life, not to mention ball games, religious discussions, family outings and just plain hanging out on the porch. But the culture of our parents’ generation became somewhat more escapist; James Dean, punk rock, The Outsiders, TV dinners, video games, and yes, even the Internet.

But, a good portion of our grandparents’ sensibilities are back today, thanks to social media.

Kids aren’t blocking their parents from their Facebook profiles — well, OK, some are, but not all of them. Teens are texting their parents about their comings and goings. And although it looks a whole lot different than the Cleavers’ family dinner, in a strange way the book is wider open today than it has been in 100 years. Because of blogging, tweeting, checking in and status updating, the lock is off the diary.

Additionally, emotions are more accepted. Pain more vocalized. I know someone on Facebook who is dealing with cancer and posts regularly about that for all her friends and family to see. We are rediscovering what we once knew inherently; community makes us less lonely.

And in many ways I see that reflected in my own life, as shown in the snippet up above. Even though I live in a completely different state from a large swath of my friends and family, I still know when people are going on trips, what the weather is like there, and how everyone's kids are doing in school. Having grown up in a small town, that doesn't seem very strange to me, as I typically knew that information about the people in the community. But I can see how it's easier now than it was when I was a kid, and I can also see why this is such a novelty for many people who did not grow up in a town of 10,000 people.

What do you guys think?

SNES theatre...

This is freaking awesome, and totally made my day look better.

So, one last thing before I disappear.

Some geeky and web happiness

I have three things I wish to share with you, my faithful readers.

(Especially my Russian friends. I had nearly as many hits from ya'll this past week as I did from Americans. I suppose that tells you just how few people look at this site. To be fair, though, I had a large contingent of Swedes as well.

Hey will, are you still trying to find me hockey players? I'm kinda taken now, you know. I found a nice redhead all my own.)

Any way, where was I? Oh yes--some fun geeky items I've come across today.

Firstly, if you haven't seen it, you totally need to go check out this poster showing the history and development of the bat-mobile over the years. It's absolutely fantastic, and would have made an excellent Christmas present for a certain gal I know who loves masked men....

Secondly, some excellent news coming out concerning Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. We'll be seeing Sir Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, and Elijah Wood again. Maybe we'll be seeing this film after all...

Lastly, as most of you know I'm a bit of a fan of lolcats. Well, this week icanhascheezburger.com turns 4-years-old! Today they posted a brief video showing people's most favorite lolcats from the past four years.

Enjoy!

Faithful friends who are dear to us...

Outside, two pillars of red and green framed a porch drenched in icicle lights as a lightly chilled wind blew dark clouds across an eclipsing moon.

Inside, the house was cheery and bright. A modest tree stood before the front window, decorated with angels and ornaments found over the years. Beneath the tree, a pile of presents steadily grew as each group of guests arrived. Stockings were hung on the wall with care, between shelves laden with books and holiday trinkets.

Ensconced in the big chair sat Walking Hyperbole, his hand unconsciously running through Adorable Nurse's hair as she sat on the floor in front of him. Hip Gamer gestured and talked animatedly from his place on the couch, a holiday drink in hand. Beside him lounged Rapier Wit, long, lanky legs splayed before him, while Gleeful Traveler sat also on the floor and leaned against Hip Gamer's legs. Curled in a large, leather office chair next to Rapier Wit, Literary Cat relaxed and watched the proceedings with a knowing gaze. Sher-bear nibbled a cookie made especially for her while she sat at the table, with the occasional laughing exchange with Literary Cat.

My Sam was perched on the keyboard chair, leaning his chin against the back of the chair, just behind Walking Hyperbole and Hip Gamer. I sat at the table with Literary Cat and Sherri, soaking in the joy of having my family in my home.

We sat and watched as images from the past five years flickered across the screen, while Christmas Carols intermixed with Fall Out Boy, Flogging Molly, Great Big Sea, Lily Allen, and Five Iron Frenzy in the background.

As a picture of Adorable Nurse playing amongst rocks and waves came on the screen, she said "I love that shot of me!"

"I really miss that shirt. Whatever happened to it?" Hip Gamer wondered as another picture from his college days appeared.

Walking Hyperbole sat up a little straighter, "I really have lost weight already. That makes me feel awesome!"

Another picture scrolled across the screen. "Whoa! Check out Sam's monstrous beard!" Hip Gamer said.

I piped in, "That was taken my senior year, so yes, we have proof that he and I did meet at school."

"That was your birthday party Rapier Wit, remember?" Sam added.

Rapier Wit beamed. "That's right! Does this mean I can officially take credit for your relationship now?"

Meanwhile a portrait of Sherri in Central Park came up.

"That's a great picture of you, Sher-bear," said Adorable Nurse.

"Thank you!" she said, only a trifle bashful.

On the television, Literary Cat and Rapier Wit posed at their wedding.

"And that's a picture of Literary Cat going 'I'm tired of taking pictured now," Adorable Nurse laughed.

"I'd been taking pictures all morning before we even got there! Yeah, I was tired of it," Literary Cat replied.

"There's a lot of pictures from weddings on there," I said. "Weddings are about the only time we take pictures when all of us are together."

Rapier Wit gave the couple next to him a sly grin, "Hear that Hip Gamer? It's up to you to have the next wedding so we can take pictures again."

At that point Hip Gamer decided it was time for all of us to open presents.


Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.
--Edna Buchanan

200 Pounds of Awesome!

This is put up especially for my dear friends Will and Sherri.

The rest of you might enjoy this as well, but, really, I saw this and just had to put it up here for those two. It was apparently made for the Georgia Aquarium.

Isn't that absolutely epic?

New Digs

Consistency and I, well, we've always had an off-again, on-again relationship. Sometimes, consistency and I are like that couple who are constantly talking to and touching one another. Codependent, if you will. Other times, however, we're like that couple who are "in a long-distance relationship but still like to see other people."

Thankfully(?), the addition of J.J. has led to my, personally, having to stay consistent and follow a schedule; this aids in my desire to blog. Why it works, I don't know, but it does!

Now, as I've mentioned numerous times, Sherri also has a blog now. So I was checking out her page, and loved the way it looked. Personality, life, joy... so pretty to look at. Plus, I follow several other blogs through Google Reader, and after looking at Sherri's I went to check out their pages. Will's is simple and clean, with a gorgeous lighthouse, which I think is perfect because I think of Will and I think of beaches and curiosity. And sharks. But not jellyfish.

I peeked at Kelly's, and hers at least is laid out the way I remember--all those lovely books! Not to mention more "professional" sites such as Whatever, WWdN: In Exile, Boing Boing, and Pioneer Woman....

All of this to say that I became dissatisfied with they way my blog looked. So, I changed it! My home is brimming with life these days between family, friends, cats, and a dog, and I wanted to share that feeling with all of you.

I hope you enjoy it.

Also, because I felt the need to share.....





Design is an opportunity to continue telling the story, not just to sum everything up.
--Tate Linden

Week 12, Days 4-5

Week 12, Day 4



Saturday was Week 12, Day 4 for our little J.J., and he had a very good, very busy day. He continued on his streak of no accidents (hurrah!), and continued to get better at his pack walks. Despite his desire to chew on the tendril of evil which clips to his collar (his leash), we're still making progress with walking.

That afternoon/evening, Sherri came over to keep me company, since Sam was working all day and had a gig in the city that night. We fed the pup and put him out in the yard for a couple of hours while Sherri and I went to eat some tasty fish at Red Lobster. During dinner, Sherri and I decided to depart decorously and divert dollars towards delivering delicious doggie treats and dainty doggie toys to one deprived, demanding dog.

Oh, and capture a couple of captivating treats/toys for a couple of capricious cats.

(Isn't alliteration fun, children?)

When we came back, J.J. was overflowing with puppy enthusiasm. Literally. So we put him on a leash and took him for a brisk walk together. We then crawled into Sherri's car with J.J. and drove over to her house to introduce J.J. to Grandma K.

It was a good trip all around. J.J. rode excellently in the car (with the help of a treat or two), and when we got to their house he ran rampant in their backyard. J.J. was particularly fond of Grandma K's pant leg.

I wish we could have stayed over longer, but unfortunately I take after my father, and mosquitoes absolutely love the taste of my blood. Finally, the number of bites I was getting forced us to go back home, but J.J. did fairly well when all is said and done!

He rode equally well going back, and once we got him back in his pen, he went straight to sleep and slept most of the night until Sam got back.


Week 12, Day 5



Some days you wake up and not only do you know that everything is going to go your way today, but then it actually does. You get the girl, you get the job, you win the lottery--great things to make a great day.

Sunday was not that day.

Upon completing our pack walk and breakfast, we put J.J. out in the yard so that we could go to church. After church we had lunch with Sherri and Grandma K, which was quite delicious. We came back, took care of the dog, and relaxed a little bit before heading out to play D&D with our local group at about 3 o'clock.

We were a bit flummoxed as to what to do with J.J. while we were gone. On the one hand, it was supposed to be in the mid-nineties that afternoon, and we don't really have a good source of shade yet in the yard for the puppy. Plus, it had also been two days since the puppy had had an accident, so that was encouraging. On the other hand, we'd never left J.J. by himself in the house yet, and it would be about three hours before we could come back and briefly feed him and let him out to do his business. We didn't want to put him in his kennel, because we want him to only associate the kennel with bedtime, not with being punished or loneliness.

After extensive deliberation, we decided to go ahead and leave him in his pen inside the house, sans kennel. After all, we figured, it was better to have to clean up an accident than to end up with a heat-stroke-suffering J.J.

We had a fantastic time playing, and at about 5:30 took a dinner break so we could come back and take care of J.J. Unfortunately, J.J. couldn't last that long, so it took us awhile to clean up, feed him, and put him out in the yard.

However, it wasn't that bad I suppose, and we ran back to the group to finish up our session. When we returned home at about 9:30, J.J. was uber-excited to see us, as he had spent most of the day by himself. We immediately took him out for a rather long walk around the neighborhood, before coming home to play a little bit before bed.

One of the things we've been working on with J.J. is to not bite humans. He can chew on any toy he wants, but humans don't qualify as chew toys. J.J. bit Sam while they were in the back yard and managed to draw blood, so Sam flipped J.J. onto his back and held him down in the yard until he finally submitted. It took about 30 minutes or so, during which time J.J. constantly squirmed and tried to bite at Sam, but eventually J.J. relaxed. I must confess, watching it was very difficult, but Sam said it needed done. Afterward, I cuddled with J.J. for a little bit when they came back in, and then it was bedtime.

Everybody was glad for bed.

Now, if only the puppy and I can survive our fist rainy day together....


Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
--Roger Caras

Week 12, Days 1-3

Week 12*, Day 1

So Sam and I brought this little rascal home Wednesday afternoon.




In my previous post, I ended with Sam heading to the city for a gig and J.J. and I were hanging out at home (with a brief, 10 minute visit from the pretty Sherri). Thankfully, J.J. was napping and I was researching how to raise a puppy. On his drive home, Sam gave me a call saying he was stopping at Wal-Mart to get a crate for J.J. to sleep in that night. Which was fantastic, because I was planning on suggest he do that very thing.We think the same way sometimes. It's quite frightening. That's right. The world should fear us.

Sam soon returned with a portable, collapsible kennel, like Suzy and Nick use for their dog, Toby. As soon as Sam set it up, Techie ran into it and declared it his new home, and woe unto the foolish mortal who tried to say otherwise.

I then pointed out Techie that he hates any kind of pet carrier. Techie explained I'd never got him a plush, comfy carrier; I'd always provided hard, plastic carriers that were scary to ride in. I then reminded Techie that he worships the ground I walk on. Techie was like, oh yeah, and decided to get out of the carrier.

(Speaking of the cats, Techie tolerates this new animal in their lives much better than Nala. The first night Techie went up and touched noses with the puppy and followed him at a distance. Nala took one look at the dog and ran under the bed until further notice, thank-you-very-much.)

Once we evicted Techie from the kennel, we persuaded J.J. to go in and go to sleep. Sam and I then followed suit.

*When we took J.J. to the vet, they wrote him down as being 12 weeks old. Based off of our research and observations, we think J.J. may be closer to 10 weeks, but for the purposes of this blog we will go with the "official" guess-timation. Also, I'm considering his first day with us as Day 1 of that week. FYI


Week 12, Day 2



About 5 o'clock in the morning, Sam and I awoke to J.J. yelping his little head off, and we figured the poor guy had to go out to the bathroom. Sam got out of bed and told me to go back to sleep, which I quite willingly did. I found out the next morning that sometime during the night, the collapsible kennel had collapsed in on top of J.J., and that as a result he'd soiled the kennel. Not a good start to the day.

First thing in the morning, we took J.J. out for his first pack walk. The trick is teaching him to walk on his leash so that he's walking either right beside or slightly behind us, and not pulling out ahead of us, as that would make him think he is Alpha over us. Being his first time on a leash, he did fairly well. Sam is pretty good at keeping the leash the right length. From what we've read and seen, when you're walking a dog you should have your arm hanging loose at your side so there's no tension, and have just enough slack in the leash for the dog to move about 6 inches in any direction before the leash pulls him.

We ended up having to drag J.J. a bit before he caught on to what was going on, and of course he kept getting distracted by anything and everything. Each time he'd start to stop or go after something different, Sam would make a "chhhkt" noise and tug the lease so J.J. would refocus on following us. It took us about 15 minutes to make it around the block, stopping at each corner and telling/showing J.J. how to sit and wait.

Once we got back, we fed J.J. and then took him immediately outside, as when a puppy is young, food he eats puts pressure on his colon and makes him have to go pretty much immediately. Unfortunately, Sam was feeling pretty horrid due to food poisoning from the Italian restaurant we stopped at the previous day, so he called in sick and went back to bed for about three hours.
During those three hours I was about ready to pull my hair out. It wasn't too bad at first, because J.J. just collapsed at my feet under the desk and slept for an hour. When he woke up, though, I petted him for a couple of minutes and then he squatted down and started to pee.

I immediately did the "chhhkt" noise and stopped him mid-pee, as I'd read that you have to catch dogs in the act for them to understand what they're doing wrong. If you wait until after they pee, and then rub their noses in it and say "bad dog," they learn that the mess is bad, but not that the act of making the mess is bad.

After telling him no, I took him outside so he could finish the job. We stayed out there for about 20-30 minutes and nothing happened, so I brought him back inside. Perhaps a grand total of five minutes passed before he peed, I mean, eliminated, inside of the house. Back outside we went. Another 20-30 minutes pass. Again. We go inside. Again. He eliminated inside of the house. Again.

Rinse. Lather. Repeat. About 2-3 more times.

By the time Sam got up again, I was becoming highly frustrated. Sam took him out for me, and I started doing some more research. Sam went around and started patching all of the holes in the fence, J.J. staying close to him the entire time. Before Sam had finished, I had a plan of attack, which I shared with Sam (he approved). We left J.J. in our newly fixed yard, and went to Walmart.

Once there, we returned the collapsible kennel that had tormented J.J. (ah, customer service, how I don't miss working in your field). We then went and bought J.J. a real, honest-to-goodness crate, a gate, a doggie bed, and some small rawhide rolls; the rawhide bones are too big for his mouth, unfortunately.

After suffering through Walmart's oh-so-fantastic check-out lanes (why, in the name of all that's good and holy, does it always take 20-30 minutes to check out, even when you use the self-check and/or 20-items-or-less aisles?), we came home and put up the dog-fence between the kitchen and laundry room. We set up the crate, put his bed inside of it, and J.J. fell in love. I think he could spend all day curled up in his bed chewing on his rawhide rolls.

Unfortunately, the laundry room is where we were keeping the litterbox, so we had to move it out into the front room for now. Nala had an accident in the bathroom because she couldn't find the litterbox, but once we showed her she was fine. (Hallelujah for accidents not happening on the carpet!)

As the day progressed, we got a better handle on what to do as far as housebreaking is concerned. After he woke up from a nap, and after he got finished eating, we'd take him out until he eliminated. When he did, while he was doing it, we'd tell him to "Do your business!" and then tell him what a good boy he was.

We also took him for his second pack walk. He did better this time around, though he was frightened by some of the dogs we passed by. Sam would gently tug the leash to take his attention away from the dogs when we passed them, and just stayed calm and confident. At one point Sam handed me the leash and marched our two neighbor dogs (little chihuahua terrors) back to their yard, and then we kept walking J.J. He seemed to be doing pretty okay.

That evening Sherri came over, and kept us and the puppy company for a couple of hours. He was doing much better by this point, and Techie and Nala would come up to the fence and look at the sleeping puppy. Once we put J.J. into his crate, Techie even hopped over the fence to say "hi!" to me and stare at the dog in the crate.

When we went to bed, the puppy started howling (a true-blue hound dog howl, too) because we'd left. Sounded almost like a tornado siren. Okay, not really, but it was high and annoying. Based off of what we'd been reading, we just ignored him and eventually he fell asleep.

Day 3



Sam got up every three hours or so during the night to let J.J. out to do his business. Unfortunately, Sam was unable to get to J.J. quickly enough to prevent accidents in his crate, but thankfully we had a couple of different bedding options, so we could be washing one while he was sleeping on the other.

That morning we decided that I would take J.J. on his pack walk by myself, as Sam had to get a few things done before he went to work. Unfortunately, I'm not as good at it as Sam--I was keeping too much tension in my arm, which was making J.J. nervous. But, we managed to get around the block, and when I remembered to relax, he walked pretty well right beside me.

I started doing a routine with J.J. Before he goes outside, I make him sit, praise him, then make sure to walk out the door before he does, and once I'm out side I tell him "Outside, J.J., outside!" and have him follow me. I then tell him to "Go do your business!" At the beginning of the day I had to do it while he was actually eliminating, but by the end of the day, whenever I'd tell him to "Go do your business!" he actually would. In fact, he made it through the entire day (and night!) without having a single accident.

After Sam had left for work and J.J. had had his breakfast, I left J.J. outside for a couple of hours so that I could get some housework done. I'd check on him by looking out the window from time to time, and aside from almost getting his head stuck in a folding chair, he had a fairly uneventful morning; and yes, I did go fold up the chair so it was no longer a hazard.

After I brought him back inside, we did some work on the "Sit" command, though it's difficult to do with just praise and no treats. Thankfully I managed to pick some up today, so starting tomorrow/Monday I'm going to really focus on training him on the "Sit," "Stay," and "Come" commands.

Thankfully, he was tired out enough from his eventful morning that he spent most of the afternoon napping. One of his favorite "sleepy" activities is to lay down in my lap and chew on his rawhide roll while I hold it in place for him. It's a good together activity.

That evening we went on another pack walk, and Sam had to distract him from a couple of dogs that were aggressive towards J.J. However, we controlled our impulse to comfort J.J., and after a few moments he seemed as good as new. Sam's parents came over later that evening to admire our new puppy, and J.J. was pretty well behaved for it.

While Sam was bidding his parents goodnight, I was sitting in the laundry room with J.J., who was curled up in his bed. My hand was draped across his back because I'd been petting him, when Techie nonchalantly walked up to the fence and jumped over it. Regal as a king on his throne, Techie sauntered up to me to be petted by my free hand, completely ignoring the puppy. J.J. made one move as though he wanted to chase after Techie, but a quick "Chhhkt!" stopped him. Techie took three more pats before slowly turning, looking J.J. in the eye, and hissing. Before I could do more than snicker, Techie had turned his back with grace and poise and then jumped back over the fence.

Have I mentioned how much I love and adore Techie? He's the best black cat familiar a witch could hope for!

Nala, meanwhile, still wants nothing to do with "That Thing" in the laundry room.

Also of note, J.J. did not have one single accident that entire day/night.


Thank you for mulling this over. If you haven't finished this, well, I don't blame you. Though I suppose, if you didn't finish it, you didn't read that last sentence. Hmmm.... Well, thank you to those of you who did participate in this meandering, wandering post. I'll try to be more coherent in the future. As it is, it's now 10:45 and I'm going to bed.

Until next time!


Puppies are nature's remedy for feeling unloved, plus numerous other ailments of life.
--Richard Allan Palm

New Life

Klaatu barada nikto!

Whew. It's good to be back.

Okay, okay, so a lot has happened in the *cough*5 months*cough* since I last posted. Sherri's been riding my arse, reminding me that I needed to update, until she eventually declared the blog dead.

Ah well. Good thing I have an excellent res spell handy.

Since I last posted, Sam has graduated from OCU, we've moved, Sam has a job, we have a house... oh yeah, and we now have a puppy named J.J.

J.J. is the most recent change in our lives. Sam and I had been talking about getting a dog since last Christmas, but we didn't want to get one while we were in the apartment, as we felt that would be cruel to a dog. Heck, I thought it was cruel to the cats, but they were stuck with it. So, last Wednesday (in honor of our upcoming anniversary) we went to a couple of the local animal shelters to see what we could find.

Sam and I were looking for an older dog--somewhere between 1 and 3 years old. My husband had never had a dog before, and while my family had a dog when I was a child, Boots passed away when I was about 8 years old; we never got another dog. Which meant neither of us had much practical experience with dogs, and certainly none with puppies. As such, we were wanting a little older dog.

The first shelter we went to was here in town. About 8 dogs were needing a home there. Unfortunately, none seemed like a good fit--one of the poor dogs didn't even have bottom teeth left any more! Others were too hyper, or obviously had housebreaking issues (which is what we were trying to avoid). There was a gorgeous white Husky/Lab mix, but he wouldn't even come up to us--he hung out at the very back of the cage. Combating disappointment, we decided to travel out to Tecumseh (the keeper at the local shelter suggested it) to see what we could find.

It took us about an hour to locate the place and make an appointment with the gentleman who was in charge of it. Upon arrival, we found only two dogs there--an older chihuahua, and a little puppy who looked to be 2-3 months old. Now, any one who knows me knows that I feel that small dogs, like chihuahuas, are merely a snack for real dogs, so he was out of the question. I already have two cats, thank you. The puppy was very cute, but we really didn't want a puppy either. While we were talking with the man who ran the shelter, he explained that the policy at the shelter was to only keep dogs 2 days, and if no one claimed them to then put them down. They'd picked up the puppy out by the lake on Monday.

We couldn't leave this little puppy, knowing that if we didn't take him he'd be put down that evening. Just wasn't going to happen. So, against our better judgment, we went ahead and took the puppy.

The shelter man was delighted to have someone take the puppy--he didn't even charge us for him. Just said to take him and be happy. As I was settling into the van with the puppy in my lap, I looked down and saw that he was absolutely loaded with fleas and ticks--one of the ticks on his shoulder was as big as my thumbnail.

Now, what you have to understand is that ever since I was a small girl, I've had a deeply rooted fear of bugs (usually spiders, but sometimes other creepy crawlers get me going). Laying eyes upon that tick made every hair on my body stand on end, and I think I might even have started whimpering in my throat. Poor Sam got to hold the dog instead, and we drove to the vet so fast I think we violated a few laws that haven't even been invented yet.

Thankfully, the vet is used to this type of thing and had a plan ready for such a contingency. After they gave the puppy his first round of shots (who up to his point had been called such names as: Max, Malcom, Seamus, Jack, and Bandit), they then sprayed him down with this absolutely foul smelling liquid. Imagine someone taking a vial of cat pee and a bottle of rubbing alcohol and mixing it together in a can of hairspray. Now multiply that times 10, and you have a vague idea of the scent of this stuff.

However, within a minute, fleas and ticks started raining down off of this dog. You'd run your hand along his back and bugs would literally cascade down off of him. After that, they gave him a pill inside of a doggie treat, telling us that within 30 minutes it should kill off the ticks clinging to him. The final weapon in our arsenal was a small packet of Frontline, which we were to apply along his spine when we got home, to ward off fleas and ticks in the future.

Filled with joy at the prospect of new, clean puppy, we headed for home. Also, we had settled on a name for the puppy. Sam thought he looked like a bandit, because the puppy has a black "mask" marking over his eyes and ears. I didn't want to call him just Bandit, however, so after discussion we decided on Jesse James, or J.J. for short.

Here's a picture of J.J.'s face, the little bandit.

Grandma Nena quickly made the connection to the Dalton Gang when she found out about it.

Once we'd arrived home, we then commenced upon the next engagement of our battle against The Bugs. This maneuver began with a bath, to get that absolutely horrid goup off of his fur. (J.J. was unimpressed with this.) While a great many fleas were wiped out by the downpour, there were a number of survivors still clinging to J.J.'s coat, not to mention the ticks which were bunkering down. We then began the process of using my Leatherman to grab hold of ticks/fleas, pull them off of the puppy, and squish them between the Pincers of Doom(tm) or against the Post of Judgment(tm). This went on for an hour, with the terrain heaving the entire time, thwarting our aerial attacks. (J.J. was full of puppy energy and wanted to explore his new home.) We gave J.J. a second bath and rubbed him down with towels, before continuing our ongoing mission to destroy all insect life upon the pup.

(For those of you worrying, all of this took place outside. I wasn't letting J.J., no matter how cute, into my house until we'd eradicated the fleas and ticks.)

J.J. continued to squirm and whine for the next hour, before finally, finally falling asleep in Sam's lap. Once that happened, the Battle for a Clean J.J. turned for the better. We literally went over J.J. with a fine-toothed comb to find every creepy, crawly thing on him and pick'em off. Three hours after the battle was rejoined, we succeeded in wiping out the local bug population.

So we now had a clean, happy puppy.




You can see him above, finally getting a real nap. You can also see the insects' revenge upon Sam--a massive sunburn all over his legs, arms, neck, and head.

That evening, I kept J.J. company while Sam played a gig in the city. We only had one accident, which thankfully was in the laundry room, and he spent most of the evening napping at my feet while I was doing research online as to just what in the blazes you do to potty train a puppy.

For the record, I'd be absolutely lost without the Dog Breed Info Center. The person who wrote most of the articles on the website is a huge fan of Cesar Millan (of the Dog Whisperer fame), and so she is able to explain everything in excellent detail, and provide anecdotes from her adventures with Allie the Boxer, Bruno the Boxer, and Spencer the Pit Bull and how what she's learned applied to them.

I'm going to try (emphasis is on the word try) to get another post up soon detailing our adventures since getting J.J. cleaned up. However, I have learned the sad lesson of not to make promises on this blog. So I'll just try my best.

Blessings upon you!

P.S. You can view my Flikr photostream of J.J. pictures here.



Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot little puppies.
--Gene Hill

Day Twenty-Six -- Give Me Some Sugar!

For the record, I have the best sister ever! Sherri got her hands on some Sugarland tickets (check out this, this, and this for a flavor of their songs), so Sam, Sherri and I went to see them.

Sugarland is currently my favorite band in the country world, and when I mentioned I wished I could see them when they came to town to Sherri, she began performing ancient magic and tickets appeared from the ether. (Okay, so she actually used connections at her workplace, but my version sounds cooler.)

The guy who was playing when we got there was a little lackluster, but to be fair I wasn't paying much attention because I was trying to find a place for Sam to sit down, since we had just walked a couple of miles from where we had parked to the amphitheater and Sam has a bum toe.

(Sam dropped an amp case on his foot Monday, and while it didn't actually break his toe, it's completely bruised and he has a large blood blister under his toenail. Poor guy.)

The next person to play was Billy Currington, which I completely enjoyed as I knew most of the songs he played. I believe Sherri was surprised how many of the songs she knew. Sam just had fun watching the two of us, I think.

After some harrowing experiences with the bathrooms (the girl's stalls had no locks on them and would swing open on you, while the guys apparently had a "trough"), we returned in time for Sugarland to start their set.

Allow me to say, they put on a hell of a good show.

And the lead singer, Jennifer, is absolutely adorable. Also, it was apparently her birthday on Friday, so they had fun with that.

I think my favorite part was the bubbles!

Anyway, it's obvious that everyone in the band is a performer, and they were having a rocking good time up on that on that stage. I also, of course, loved the lighting and use of video throughout the performance.

Overall, a very excellent night. Sherri is awesome!


"So remember when I said it was my birthday and I was turning 22? I lied. I'm 23."
--Jennifer from Sugarland

Day Three -- Happy Birthday to Sherri and Susan!

August 19th is a pretty good day, when all is said and done. On this august occasion several different people have been born (pun intended), including but not limited to: my almost-twin Sherri, my sister-in-law Susan, and as of about 10 am this morning, Jude (Sam's best friend Paul's new son!).

That makes this a pretty rocking day in my book!

Sam and I went to Shawnee this afternoon to help Sherri celebrate her birthday, and I believe a good time was had by all. Still, I can't resist an opportunity to make a big deal about my sister, so I wanted to say one more time for all the world to see:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHERRI!

That is all.


"To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time."
--Clara Ortega