Golden in My Home

Today, I scheduled my home visit with the golden retriever rescue group. This is the 2nd step in the application process. The first was the phone interview screen, which went very well. Now they will come to the house, and confirm that I have a fenced yard and I guess look like I am responsible enough to adopt a sweet little golden. The evaluator will also bring two of her own dogs to the house to show me how to properly groom a golden and to give Livia more exposure to dogs. I think the home outings I have been doing with the shelter dogs is also helping her get a little used to dogs. She is not going to love it when I get a dog, I know but I am hoping she will just learn to tolerate him and all will live in peace. I have read everything I can find about how to properly introduce them and I am hoping that will help ensure a successful transition. Oh and did I mention that one of the evaluator's dogs is a 4 month old puppy! I can't wait to see the little pupsterooni!

House Guest

So, over this weekend we hosted 5 twenty-somethings as mentioned in the post below. And it was a very fun time. After they left I must have been suffering from a variation of the empty nest syndrome because I immediately went to the shelter and brought a dog home for an overnight stay. As CornyT requested, I found a well behaved dog with a good gastro-intestinal trac- last time I brought home a dog as farty as an 80 year-old grandpa. Drake, a one-year old rough-collie mix, was an excellent house guest. He is a great dog who is just a little shy and anxious when confronting new situations. This was first evidenced when we got to the car. He immediately layed down by the open door, refusing to jump inside. It took a LOT of persuading with treats and some gentle pushing to actually get him in the car. In fact, he was reluctant both times we got into the car. Once he was in the car he was ok, although he got out of the seat belt pretty easily and stood up and got jostled around. At home he did not have any potty accidents and enjoyed playing with a stuffed toy and going for a long walk around the neighborhood. He was good on the walk and only showed mild interest in other dogs that passed by. He only barked once when a man on a bike "walking" his dog went by us. When we went to potty in the backyard at night he seemed very fearful of going on the side of the house until I coaxed him in an excited voice to follow me to the side door. He seemed to have little interest in our cat and did not want to walk by the room where she was sleeping. I am not sure if it is because that was down a dark hallway or because he could smell Livia. We thought that was strange behavior. All in all he spent the evening curled up on the floor by the couch next to us. He tried to get up on the couch once or twice but we corrected him and he sat nicely on the floor. The only really naughty behavior I noticed was when I placed a small wallet on an end table he picked it up with his mouth and dropped it on the floor. Though, no counter surfing or interest in food we snacked on. He did get a little anxious with TV and kitchen noises when he first heard them but he would quickly settle down and was calm most of the night. He is so sweet and so people oriented that I think he will be a great dog for someone who is patient and willing to work with him to get over his fears.

Party Like A 21 Year Old

That's what I did this weekend with my newly legal to drink sister! We had originally planned to go to Vegas for her big birthday but our schedules didn't really allow for it. But we really wanted to spend the day together. So on Friday, her birthday, she rented a car and drove to Austin with 4 of her Americorp team and went to at least 4 or 5 clubs in Austin. We barely skimmed the surface of all the fun places to go in Austin so I can't wait till she comes back so we can do more of those things together. I hope her and her friends had a fun time. I would have liked to have shown them more Austin type stuff but I didn't plan as well as I should have. I should have taken them out to the Oasis for margaritas and sunset viewing but I didn't think of it until about 5:30 Saturday night- a little too late. Oh well there is always another time I guess. I am just glad I got to celebrate with Mame. I also hope she appreciated the giant costco birthday cake I bought her! It is enormous- I don't know what I was thinking by not forcing the gang to take some back to Americorp with them. We are going die of diabetes eating that thing. Does anyone want some chocolate cake?

Spring??

Right now I am sitting in a coffee shop with the sun beating down on me and I am comtemplating changing into shorts. Hard to believe it is this warm after we spent almost an entire week holed up in the house. On this sunny, warm day we should have been out working in the yard or taking a walk but instead we saw a movie. Silly I know but we have wanted to see Pan's Labyrinth for a while- you might remember from the last post when I whined about the movie being sold out that was the one we were trying to see. Anyway, we finally got there early enough to get in (this show was also sold out) and we both really enjoyed it. It's a little dark and definitely not a children's movie (violent!) but well made and worth seeing on the big screen.
Yesterday, it was more like winter and was a very drizzly and cold dog walking day. Not of course as wet as last week, none of the runs were flooded this time but rainy enough to make field walking a real bummer. I took most of the dogs to the auditorium and let them run around chasing stuffed animals and tennis balls. My favorite time of the day was watching a huge Rottweiler named Bishop chase a cuddly, white teddy bear around the auditorium. He would toss it across the room and scamper after it. Very cute. Kind of like watching a line backer play with kittens:).

The Big Melt

Well, I am pretty sure today is my last day of working at home and tomorrow I will have have to start showering again and exchange my comfty sweat pants for real clothes. Just kidding I have been showering, um today at least. Oh and I am going to have to find my hairbrush. I haven't had need for that in a couple of days either. We did actually venture out this afternoon and the roads were pretty clear as long as you stayed off the highways. We thought we would catch an early movie after I finished up work and were pretty sure we would have the theatre to ourselves. Ha some original idea. The rest of the city had bravely crawled out of their little holes too and the movie we wanted to see was sold out. We settled for an early dinner and an abbreviated browse through Borders which closed early due to lack of staffing. All the employees must have been watching Pan's Labyrinth. Anyway here is a picture of the ice that brought our brave Texas city to its knees. I thought you northeners would get a kick out of the pictures.

The Big Chill

Winter has come to Texas and we are hunkering down in the house watching the weather and wallowing around in our pjs. We have been calling the ice storm the STORM of the CENTURY (in dramatic news caster voice) but the news here is actually a little more low key and calling the storm "The Big Chill". The house looks so cute with icicles lining the eaves and frost dotting the front lawn. Any where in the country I think this would be business as usual but in the Hill Country it is shutting down the city. We haven't got our mail today and some places didn't get trash picked up.
Actually, it is kind of fun to have something out of the ordinary break up the routine. Although, it would be a little more fun if I had a job where I couldn't work from home but it is still fun to do all my work in a sweatshirt and puppy slippers plus I am getting paid so I can't complain too much.

Cozy Sunday

Don't just love days when you feel like you got done everything you wanted to do accomplished. Often the weekend days get away from me and I feel like I only finished a fraction of what I wanted to do. Somehow though today I managed to be fairly productive despite the cold, gloomy weather. I did spend the first 2 hours of the day curled up in the covers but while I was there I finished my book club book so that was the first thing I could scratch off my list for the weekend. I then cleaned up the clutter on my vanity, nightstand, and my desk. Now, I can look over at those places and not feel overwhelmed by all the junk mail, books, and notebooks stacked up; it's a nice feeling. I then did some chores around the house like sweeping, dusting, and all that other boring but necessary stuff. Now that all the household jobs are done I am ready to head back to work. However, we will see if I actually work in the office tomorrow. We are having our yearly bad ice storm and if the roads are bad I might just work from home tomorrow. I hope everyone is staying warm where they are right now. It looks like this bad weather is hitting the entire country. Well, here's to cuddling up with a hot chocolate and a good book; doesn't that sound perfect?!

Rainy Rainy Saturday

Oooh it is chilly and rainy here. I don't think the rain has abated all day. All this rain, made for a soggy dog walking morning. All three of the dog runs, where we take them to go potty were fully submersed in about 5 inches of water when I got there this morning. Apparently there was one dry spot in a corner where the first two volunteers took one dog at a time to go potty. That of course would not work, so another volunteer brought a shovel and they began digging out the runs and creating a drainage system to evacuate the water. I was so impressed with my fellow volunteers for doing all that hard work to fix the runs. That is dedication.

My first dog of the day, Louisa a Finnish Spitz mix, was not at all into being in the rain or going into the flooded runs. She sweetly would lean against my leg kind of pushing me towards the door. Eventually, I got the message and we went back inside and snuggled in a nice dry, warm visitation room. What a sweet dog she was, she would gently lick my hand and sit nicely for lots of head rubs. Actually, all the dogs I took out today were just super sweet. My new favorite dog at the shelter is Herman a black retriever mix. He has a beautiful full coat and is very calm and very affectionate. I can't understand why someone would give him up. He seems like a great dog who would just quietly lay next to you while you watched TV. If I don't hear back from the gold ribbon rescue soon and Herman is still in shelter I may consider adopting him. But I doubt he will stay at the shelter for very long someone will certainly snatch him up soon.
On Thursday when I last wrote, I was running off to Girl's Night at Cork and Company. This was my first experience at a wine bar and I have to say it was really nice. The atmosphere was elegant yet casual and the selection of wine was amazing. You can sample a variety of wines grouped as tasters or flights. The flights had fun names like my friend's Chardonnay flight Blonde Bombshell or my favorite the Hot Texas Redhead (mmm there was a hair color theme wasn't there). Mmm it was fun to taste those wines and I would love to go back but oh buddy was it expensive. That is one thing beer has over wine it is a lot cheaper.

Bad Blogger

Oh I have been such a bad blogger and I was going to really try to blog more this year. I could make a lot of excuses but instead I will just tell you about my weekend now that is almost time for the next weekend. This was my first week back to the shelter after xmas break and I was so glad to have some quality time with the doggies again. CornyT was busy doing some contract writing so I spent 3 and 1/2 hours with the dogs. Luckily I had that much time to spend there because for most of it there was just me and another volunteer. Sadly, there were at least 3 dogs returned back to the shelter that have been adopted earlier last year. The one I was not surprised to see was a sweet border terrier named Seamus who is just a whirl wind of energy. The first time I took that dog for a walk I knew he was going to have a hard time in a home.- if you've seen the old warner brothers tasmanian devil Taz you would have some idea of what Seamus looks like when he gets out of the kennel. Phew, hopefully we can do some crate training with him and he will be more adoptable because he is a really nice dog. I can however happily report that Casey, the smart and endearing shar-pei mix that I had a soft spot for, was adopted over the weekend. Oh by the way, I never got to take her home for an overnight like I planned. When I went to the shleter to pick her up she had already been taken by another volunteer. It is probably a good thing because I heard she liked to chew on furniture a lot. Hopefully, her new family was warned and will break her of the habit. I did bring a dog home that night though. A Harrier (a lot like a fox hound) named Jack. He was a sweet dog but he did not get along with poor Livia- he really wanted hunt her. There went my plan to get her used to dogs. The funny thing about Jack was that he had a bad case of irritable bowel syndrome. FArty farterson all night long! Hopefully, his new family won't mind that either. WEll I have to run for now to meet a couple friends for girl's night at a local wine bar called Cork & Company. I swear I will try to blog more.

Book club and other stuff

The other night was the first book club of the year and the third anniversary of our little group. I am so proud we have been keeping it up for three years. Although I have not always finished every book (too many books too little time to read the boring ones) I have only missed one meeting in our three-year history and that was because I was out of town on business. Keep in mind though showing up to the meetings is not really hard work... hmm stay at home or hang out with intelligent women, eat yummy snacks and talk about books boy that's a hard one. Anyway, here is to three more years of good book talk and good snacks. This month's book was Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith and it was well received by everyone. We did spend most of the night talking about the quirks of Mormonism rather than the book itself but it was a lively chat. I highly recommend this book it is a powerful combination of true crime and American history. Krakauer is just a great writer and the fact that this very young, American religion has grown to have such immense global power is fascinating.
We have chosen Limbo by Alfred Lubrano for next month. A collection of essays concerning people from blue collar backgrounds striving to emerge into the white collar class i.e. the American dream, right. Should be an interesting read. I suggested Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell of this American Life and received a few votes but still lost out. Oh well I will try next month.:) Time to run off to work now. Have a great Friday.

Vacation is over

Finally, we are back from our Christmas tour. We were only gone for a week and a half but it felt a lot longer. We started in northern New Mexico, stopped over in South Dakota, and ended the whole thing in a rented beach house in Port Aranssas with two other couples celebrating 2007. Phew that was fun. Today it was back to work, no more idling away the days. The one good thing about being back was that traffic was so much better. Thank God the holiday season is over. The highlights of the holiday were definitely skiing in Taos and playing the new Nintendo Wii at a relatives house. Who would think that a video game could be as physically exerting as skiing. What a blast though- finally I was able to actually volley in tennis and bowl over 200! Luckily we had secure arm straps. I would felt terrible if I had taken someone's eye out. I think I am going to quit my job and join the pro-bowling circuit. What a great blog that would be - my experiences as a pro-Wii bowler.