Me vs. The Scale

Reality has set in.

Our scale broke during our move into this house a little over a month ago and it was glorious.  It was a nice long stretch of not knowing how things were really going in the pounds department.  We ate and ate and drank and drank more in total denial.  I exercised a few times but nothing even close to how I used to work out in prior years due to the puppy and the home improvements.

Today a new scale arrived.

After work before dinner (we usually weigh in during the morning) we both took our turns and we've both lost weight but it was muscle and not fat.  I lost 4 pounds on muscle in one month's time and probably more, I'm sure it's more like 5+ solid pounds if I would have weighed myself this morning.  What does this mean?  It means that all my clothing is fitting nicely, but there's not an inch of muscle definition on this marshmallow-looking body.  I've become one of those fat-skinny people.  So of course it's not like I want to gain weight back, but I totally need to tone this shit up.  This weekend I'm going to make some time for some weights and maybe some hill running even if it's not very far.  I can just go up and down my 1/2 mile street like 4 times right?  Nobody around here will think I'm like totally the weirdest neighbor on the block right?... right.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where your scale goes missing - celebrate the time, because it always ends up finding a way back home to judge you and your weaknesses.  Not that you need to own a scale.  I actually didn't even own one until a couple of years ago but it's one of those things that sort of haunts you once you get attached to it.  Sort of like an alarm clock or something, it just gets into your routine and you really wish it away as much as you can but it's always there.

In other fat person news - the season of pumpkin ice cream (one of my personal favorites) is here.  Get your pumpkin lattes, ice cream, pie, soup, cake, muffins, oatmeal, whatever.  You name it, you've got it.  They will put pumpkin in just about anything, they'd probably put it in toothpaste if you asked them to.  This weekend I'm going to do my best to eat something with pumpkin in it.  I might even eat something with pumpkin and bacon.  Take that flabby butt... take that.

Doggie Bootcamp and Commuter Cars

This picture makes me laugh.  She's So funny!

And this one too.  Side by Side naps.

We're working on Mia's commands at home - sit, lay down, come, etc.  It's going Ok.  Most of the time she'll do what we ask, but the second she gets distracted by anything at all it's over and she's easily distracted.  Some days it seems like she's improving and then other days she actually seems much worse.  At this age, I'm not sure what exactly what we should be expecting from her but I've been reading that this age is basically doggie adolescence.  It seems too soon for that!  This is my little princess... Right now she is prime for training but she's not getting all that much because the two of us have no idea how to fix her anxiety issues.   I'm also pretty sure that although she's making some friends at daycare that she's also probably the daycare bully playing too rough with the other puppies.  If she plays with them the way that she sometimes plays with us, then I'm sure she's making some of them mad (she likes to nibble on ears).  We are toying with the idea of doggie bootcamp where she trains away from us for 2 weeks or for 3 weeks and then comes back and the trainer then shows us how to keep the good behavior going.  The only reason that I would ever consider doing this is because Abe actually knows someone who went through the process and she thinks it's the best thing that she could have done for herself and her dog.  We are just going to go through the inquiry process to see if they can address the problems that Mia is having: eating stuff, chewing stuff, humping stuff, barking at people and dogs really loudly and scarily, jumping up on guests, barking at little kids, not being able to focus her attention, separation anxiety, crying for no reason, not walking well on a leash all the time, and last but not least... she would run away if she had the chance and we don't want that.  So as you can see there is a laundry list of stuff that we need to work on and I'm just not sure that we have the means to help her just on our own.  This type of service is obviously intensive and also pretty expensive, but we're willing to see what they have to say.  I don't want her to come back a different dog, I'd just want her to come back a more relaxed dog that can be trusted. I'd just like to know that we can leave her unattended for two seconds without disaster ensuing.   

Other than our dog taking up all of our time, we were able to spend some time this week car shopping.  We need to get a second commuter type car (good gas mileage and cheap).  Right now we have a Jeep, which we are both super enthusiastic about but it is really meant to be our car around town and our winter car.  It costs us $75 per week to drive this thing to Boston for work every week so it's not the most efficient vehicle, and that's fine, it was never meant to be the commuter car.  Hopefully we can find something in our price range in the next couple of weeks!  It will be so nice to have two cars, for the past 5 years we've shared 1 car... can you even imagine that?  Now that we're outside of the city it doesn't make sense to have only 1 (thank God).  It's going to be so freeing to not have to do the car coordination juggle every time we find ourselves with plans on the same day.  Hopefully Mia likes what we pick out since she'll be riding in the back seat!

The Niceness...

Going to the grocery store in Cambridge was sort of like a rodeo.  You had to get there and then be prepared to circle around for parking for at least 10 minutes in the ridiculously too small parking lot and then try and squeeze your car into a spot sized for a super thin vehicle.  Once you got into the store it was like kill or be killed.  You really sort of had to be extra rude in order to get in an out of there in under an hour and then be prepared to fight traffic and idiot pedestrians to get home.

Going to the grocery store here in my new way suburban town is... so different.  It's generally pretty busy, but I can always find parking.  People talk to you and it's sort of unsettling.  Today I was picking through some miniature pumpkins to bring home and put on the kitchen table, and some really old grandma was all like, "ohhhh!!  I wanted to get some of those too, they are just so cute aren't they?!"  I was literally stunned into silence with a smile.  Was she talking to me?  I don't even know her!  Of course every single thing in this store is on sale and I walked out of there with a ton of food for way less than what I was paying for groceries in Cambridge.  I didn't even almost hit a pedestrian in the parking lot, it's sort of become such a non-event.  It used to take so much energy to do this chore that it just drove me crazy but it's so much better now!  I just need to tell myself to be nice to people because they're my new neighbors and people are Nice outside of the city.

I called a pharmacy to transfer a prescription to the area, and the pharmacist was way too nice about it.  I've never heard somebody be so cheerful about prescriptions before and like really wanting to help me get everything that I needed.  Maybe he only gets like a few calls per day versus the hundreds of pharmacy calls that go into my old location.  That place was a nut house 24 hours a day!

In other news, I'm going to start a separate blog about my dog once I think of a name for it.  I have a feeling that people here may not want to read about her everyday and other crazy dog people and go there for an extra fixing of super cuteness. 

We Survived!

Mia survived being boarded overnight on Thursday at her doggie daycare.  I'm not sure how she felt about it, but she was definitely acting a bit differently when she came home.  At first it seemed like all the progress we had made over the last week went down the drain, but a couple hours later she seemed back to her normal self.  One bad habit she seems to have picked up is that she's much more "mouthy" and it's pretty rude.  One good habit is that she hasn't had 1 bathroom accident all week!  Anyways, after that experience I'd rather not board her if we can help it.  She's not behaved well enough for my parents to take her yet so we just need to keep working on her skills so that maybe someday they can without being overwhelmed by her.  Maybe sometime next year...

While my in-laws were here, she of course barked at them and jumped up upon entry.  My MIL did not appreciate the loud barking but she did eventually simmer down 5-10 minutes later and I think they actually liked her.  My FIL enjoyed throwing the tennis ball for her, and they really liked watching her do her best "sit" and "laydown".  This was a really good test to see where she is, and just two weeks ago it would take her a much longer time to settle down.  The daycare is really helping her interact with new people!  It's really too bad that the weather is going to be bad this weekend.  We just had her washed and it's going to be sort of rainy and gloomy.  Maybe next weekend we can find her a dog park so she can run around and burn off some of her energy that she has so much of.

Mia's eating hasn't been good.  She tends to nibble at breakfast or ignore it completely, and I will pack it up in her daycare bag and they feed it to her later where they say she eats it.... but then at dinner she really just pokes at it again.  This morning after she ignored her breakfast for an hour we took her Blue Buffalo puppy food and mixed in a half can of something and she gobbled it right up, so apparently she must hate her food.  At least she finally ate something nutritious besides her treats.  We don't ever feed her people food so it's not like she's really holding out for anything, she's just picky I guess or trying to watch her slim figure.

[photo: Mia's daycare breakfast, treat, and kong tote.  The cutest is just overwhelming, I know!]

Right now she's standing at the door to the garage thinking that we're going to take her to daycare to play with her friends... too bad little girl, you're staying home today!

First night away...

Well it's happened.  Today was the first day that Mia went to daycare and didn't really feel like being there.  Unfortunately for her it is also the first night that had to board her because my 70 year old mother and father in law are staying with us for a couple nights.  She's coming home tomorrow, but it was so hard to leave her there when it was evident that she wanted to stay with us today for some reason.  The sad look on her face was just too much.  Maybe she could sense my reluctance to let go of her leash... who knows?  I thought about my poor little princess every second of the day, and I know that I'm a crazy person.  I'm also a crazy person that does Photobooth with my dog.

The only bright side about this is that they are going to groom her before she comes home.  The smell of doggie daycare better not be on that fur or else... I'm not sure what else but Something will happen. Maybe.

Doggie Daycare

This week Mia has been attending doggie daycare.  We drop her off 10 minutes away before work and pick her up when we get home - there really are no time restrictions.  I pack her leftover breakfast since she tends to not finish it and they give it to her again later in the morning.  I also pack her treats and a peanut butter filled kong into a lunch tote.  Mia jumps into the back of our Jeep with a little help and off we go and when we get there she runs right in there without even looking back at us.  They are placed into play groups based on how they play - active vs. less crazy.  Mia is in the active puppy group of course.  Then they are rotated outside in big supervised play areas for an hour and then put back into their crate for an hour for "naptime" or quiet time, which is when Mia would get her kong full of deliciousness.

People have all sorts of opinions about doggie daycare, but all I know is that my dog LOVES it.  In the past two days since she's been going there her behavior has improved, she hasn't peed or pooped in the house, she really enjoys car rides now because she knows she's going somewhere fun, she gets to have fun all day long instead of sitting in her crate at home, and she still loves us when she gets home at the end of the day.  I don't think that doggie daycare is for everyone or every dog, but I think it's a really awesome solution for puppies who want to be around other dogs all the time.  Eventually, once she gets out of puppy-hood she'll probably move on from this day activity but right now it's going so well for all of us.  I mean sure, we may need to get second jobs but it's worth it.  The one and only downside of this daycare is that it sort of really smells.... it's like a giant wet dog exploded in a warehouse.  I'm sure it's difficult to keep a facility like that super fresh smelling with all those dogs running around constantly, but omg, she comes home and stinks - it's instant, like right on day 1 she stunk.  I googled it and apparently this is a common problem for doggie daycares because they're all just jumping all over each other and playing and then laying in a crate.  We tried some freshening wipes when she got home today but they didn't really do too much.  You're not really supposed to wash your dog all the time or you'll dry out their skin, so I am not sure what else I can do - thoughts?

Perhaps, one of the best parts of doggie daycare is that we don't need to rush home so she can pee.  Monday was a shit show for me at work and we weren't able to leave Boston until around 6:30 and we got to the daycare around 7:45 which isn't good for anyone but at least someone was watching her and she wasn't alone.  The flexibility combined with our dog's happiness makes up for the strong doggy smell that now lingers on her fur.

Dinner Out!

We went to this awesome restaurant yesterday Sam's at Louis on the fan pier of Boston for a friend's birthday.  I thought this was going to be one of those really snobby places that is high fashion and stupid - since it's part of a retail store of all things, but it's not.  The atmosphere is hip and fun and the crowd is mixed (young professional to old money).  It's very small, but 2 of the walls are glass so you can look out to the water and so it feels a bit bigger than it really is.  There are also really cute tables outside on a wrap around deck for the warmer months.  Cocktails there are pretty amazing, one of them comes with a rock candy stick (I ate two of them, they were so good).  The food is even better - all American food, nothing too fancy or crazy.  I got the black peppercorn burger and it was one of the best burgers that I've ever had.  The patties were so juicy, and the bun was so butter soaked - perfect combination of a heart attack ($16 heart attack).  Abe got the grilled hangar steak ($26) and they were good, but my burger was better!  I totally loved this restaurant and I can't wait to go back.  

The fan pier is really the place to be these days, and I love it.  Parking was free.  Do you know what you have to do to get free parking in back bay?  You could offer to dish out really obscene acts of loving and you still wouldn't get free parking unless you drove around for an hour trying to find a meter and fight with 100 other people for it.  Tourists are another problem in most other parts of Boston.  There's nothing wrong with everyone coming to visit, it's great for the economy, but you know I'd rather not see them on a Saturday night when I'm out to dinner.  Tourists pretty much are nonexistent on the fan pier except during hours when the ICA is open.  

I woke up with a slight hangover this morning and it's a day packed full of house stuff and an interview at doggie daycare (omg, I know).  

Early Risers

Oh did you get up at 5:45am this lovely Saturday morning too?  I'm sure everyone loves to do that.  Welcome to my new world of early mornings and bad puppy behavior.  Mia insisted on getting up, we tried to ignore her cries and her barks but it seemed like it just wasn't going to stop so I just got up.  She went to the bathroom outside (yay!), ate breakfast, played, tore one of my socks apart, and then took a dump in the family room just for fun all before 7:30am (boo!).  Yesterday was an accident free day and she was So well behaved all night.  Today is a new day it seems.

Abe is working, so I'm trying to make the most of my time here and do some cleaning and organizing and stupid stuff around the house.  I tried to get a new duvet in a cover and throw it on the bed, but Mia attacked it.  I don't know why I thought I'd be able to do that without her jumping all over it - but hey at least she didn't hump it.  Somehow she figured out that there are dryer sheets in the laundry room and then stole one and ate it - and when I say she ate it, she literally consumed as I was screaming at her and running around the house.  It didn't go so well, she won that battle, hopefully she remembered to chew.

The only way that I'm even able to write this post right now - because I have to keep a constant eye on her, is because it takes her 25 minutes to eat a kong stuffed with frozen peanut butter.  I hear from other people that it takes their dogs upwards of an hour, but my dog has a gigantic tongue and this is no real challenge to her.  I'll take whatever I can get!

Your Dog is Crazy

This morning was horrible.  We were up till 1 and then had to get up at 5:30 to walk her (we always walk her at 5:30am) so then when I was getting ready for work (my fault totally) she pooped and peed all over the office.  I am sure she wasn't TRYING to be a jerk or to ruin my morning, but it totally was bad timing.  After clean up, it was near impossible to get her into her crate so we could go to work.  She didn't want her kong, she didn't want her bone, she just wanted us not to leave her and it was heart breaking.  It gets better.  My mom came over an hour later to be here for a furniture delivery and she thought it would be a great idea to let Mia out and take her for a walk around the yard.  Disaster ensued.  Mia pulled her so hard that the plastic bone attached to the leash full of poop bags flew off and broke, and my mom took like 10 minutes trying to get her back in her crate after.  She described Mia as being crazy... This morning was sort of an eye opener for us... we're going to try doggie daycare next week instead of the dog walker.  It's at this place that we were planning on signing up for obedience classes anyway so this is sort of a good way to get a feel for it.  I think this will solve a lot of her behavioral issues.  She needs more socialization and that should cure her reaction to seeing new people and dogs all the time, soon it will be like no big deal when she's seeing them everyday.  She'll be able to play all day long with people and dogs and we can pick her up and drop her off with no real schedule, if we're running late it's Ok because she will be cared for and not holding her pee all afternoon being all lonely.  And on very special days, she can get one on one obedience training!  This is a win/win for everyone, and only slightly more money than our dog walker was.  I mean, sure I still see a part time job in my future as your local Barista so I can afford all her Milk Bones but whatever!

Tonight we did our first run together on our regular walking route.  She ran so well - she runs better than she walks actually!  We ran together for 12 minutes and then I walked her a bit.  I'm not really sure how long she could have gone, but I thought that was a good place for her to start.  Running with her is good because she can't stop and smell every little thing on the side of the road.  We were like, "wow tonight is awesome, she's being so well behaved because we super exercised the shit out of her..." and then she literally almost took a shit in the family room.  OMG!  I don't know why because I had JUST taken her outside and she peed 5 minutes earlier, like WHY DOG, WHY!?  I stopped it before it happened by screaming at her and pulling her out the door but it was so close to disaster, and she pooped and peed this morning in the office so like.... that would have just been too much!  I can only handle so much poop in one day.

Anyhow, our coffee table came today and she insists on laying under it.  We are trying to teach her to lay on her dog bed, but she insists on eating it or humping it.  She's a little retarded...

Puppy Attack

We had two days in a row without any bathroom issues and then today was a pee explosion x 2.  We had guests and it turns out 1. Mia loves to go to the bathroom inside when we have people over, and 2.  she loves to bark at little girls.  She probably went to the bathroom inside as like some kind of rebellion against the unfun night that we gave her.  We had to keep her on a leash because the the little girl was obviously terrified of Mia, and and didn't help that she barked at her like she was some kind of intruder.  Overall, it was a really bad first impression.  This is not good, we are having 7 kids here for Christmas so we need to work out this little issue or she won't be able to be a part of the family holiday.

Later as I was trying to calm her down, she decided to attack me.  I'm not sure if she was playing or serious but she jumped all over me, scratching me and her teeth were out and she was growling.  It was probably a combination of play and anger, but it really pissed me off.  I tried to hold her down on the ground to get her to cut the shit, but she wasn't having any of it.  Abe got her to stop and now she's behaving, but I don't know what to do when it comes to stuff like this.  This dog is a serious handful at times and at other times, she is just my little princess.  I'm starting to wonder if obedience class is what we need here or if we need something more!  I'm not sure they teach solutions to separation anxiety in class or how to be nice to visitors or how not to bark at other dogs and joggers.  Why are all those other dogs that we know and in our neighborhood so well behaved?  What is the secret??

My two legged dog

We have had Mia for 1 full week now and we've now entered the stage where she's shedding that timidness and she's testing boundaries nonstop.  She's been sort of like "mouthing" and like sort of nipping.  It's more like she's taking your hand in her mouth and not really biting down or anything, but it's not a good habit.  She used to sit so nicely next to us near the kitchen table when we ate dinner, and now she begs.  We've never given her human food or anything, but she'll squeeze herself under the table and put her head on our lap or nudge us.  It's sweet and rude at the same time, we are trying to get her to stop.  On our morning walks, she does so well with me, but then at night she'll be way more aggressive with Abe and pull nonstop the whole way.  I think it's sort of strange she doesn't pull me but she does pull him since he wrestled her to the ground recently to show her who's boss.  I'm not sure she remembers that moment, I think he should remind her someday soon.  Maybe she knows that I'm weak and doesn't want to hurt me, or maybe she likes my fast pace.

Today, Abe had to stay like 15 minutes late at work which meant that we were stuck in some traffic on the way home and our poor baby had to hold her pee for like 7 hours but she did it!  I'm so proud.  I didn't think she would go in her crate (which she doesn't mind being in typically) but accidents happen and she's still a puppy.  OMG.  Today might be her first accident free day!!!  OMG!  It's only 9:20pm so there is still time for something to go wrong, but so far she's done so good.

Besides my super cute dog, things have been busy all around.  My in laws are coming next week for a day and night so I'm feeling the pressure to finish a lot of ongoing and annoying projects.  For some reason choosing a comforter for the guest bedroom causes me great anxiety and it doesn't help that the room is super sky blue and there's no time to change it.  I'll pick something soon!  And you know what I truly hate?  When people say: You HAVE to do this, or you HAVE to do that.  Guess what?  There is more than one way to skin a freaking cat, and guess what else?  It's my house.  Opinions are nice and advice is great but being bossy is reserved for jerks and nobody likes that.  True story.  So anyways, I have like a handful of house projects to get done this week and weekend before the in laws touch down.  Also - they're like 70 so having a new dog is making me really anxious and I'm constantly watching her and wondering, "I wonder how mom will react to that?!  Fuck."  I just don't want her to jump all over them and scare them or something, and then what?  They'll be scared and then she'll feel their anxiety, and then they'll hate us.  Ok, no that's like a total over exaggeration, but you know, it's a real fear.

Play Date

[yawn]

Mia had her second play date yesterday, this time it was with Bacon (French bulldog) and they didn't really play very nice.  Bacon is pretty dominant for such a tiny dog and Mia is pretty dominant in her own house.  Also, one thing that she really needs to work on is meeting new people / dogs.  For the first 30 minutes she just goes batshit crazy and then suddenly she just mellows out into the calmest of calm dogs and just hangs out but getting to that point isn't very fun for the new people... so we need to figure this out.  When the visitors left, she was suddenly all tuckered out and later that night when we went to bed she voluntarily went into her crate and laid down to go to sleep.  It was amazing.  Usually we have to trick her in there with some treats which really isn't that bad at all, and she doesn't really mind that much.

It's 7:43am on a Sunday morning and I've been up for an hour walking, feeding, and playing with my dog.  Life will never be the same.  We're going to Costco and Petco when they open...

A Long Day!

Today was a very special "Mia and Mommy Day".  OMG.  It was a long day.
6am - morning walk and breakfast
7am - play time, and then she peed in the dining room
8am - second walk
9am - play time / work time
10am - third walk, it was a long one
11:30 - dog walker arrived unexpectedly, she walked again
12pm - play time
1pm - Mia wondering aimlessly around the house looking for Abe or trouble
2pm - Mia annoyed that I was sitting on Abe's couch
3pm - nap time
3:30 - woken up to Mia staring at me
4pm - short walk with some jogging
5pm - losing mind
6pm - dinner time
7pm - first ride in the back of the Jeep and first vet visit with multiple vaccinations, micro chipping, and a long talk with the vet about how to train her to have more refined manners, a nice fat bill at the end, and we left with some new toys.

Guys, it was a long fucking day.  I'm exhausted from entertaining the equivalent of a 2year old child all day long, and let me tell you... I'm not all that great with kids.  I'm pretty sure the poor thing just stared at me thinking, "god, I'm so bored, why won't she just tap dance for me?!"  Well, I can only do so much.  Tomorrow is a new day though, and she is going to meet our French bulldog friend Bacon.  Hopefully they get along well enough.  As long as she doesn't try to eat him things should be fine!

Elephant Bracelet

How cute is this bracelet?  It was a recent gift by Natasha on a day that seemed to get worse by the minute so it was very well timed.  I love how much detail goes into the clean lines in the shape of the body.  For something that's so small, I'm impressed at how much care was taken to give the elephant a soft and friendly shape.  Also, this little guy arrived in some Vera Wang stationery - Natasha doesn't mess around.  I should probably stop sending snail mail on post its...

Mental Note - Christmas list so far: custom stationery, Keurig coffee machine, backyard dog park, hardwood flooring.  It's all so exciting...

I have a problem

Yes, I am going to post a photo of my dog like every single day from now until forever because:

1. I've taken a break from running
2. I've taken a break from dieting
3. My whole life is the new house and the new dog and I'm Ok with that

I've officially dropped out of the Newport, RI half marathon in October.  During our big move and while settling in, running was not a priority and now that we have Mia... I have way too many important things on my plate.  Eventually, I'd like to make a running buddy out of Mia but that's not for a bit down the road - I think she's probably still a bit too young.  She really needs that energy draining exercise though!

Mia gets bolder and bolder each day.  I never thought she arrived shy, but she's really testing limits all the time now... she's getting real comfortable around here,  She barks at stuff really loudly, like inanamate objects and skylights and anything that seems weird to her.  When we're just hanging out and she hears something, she's quick to jump up and start barking at anything that she might scare away.  This of course is both great and awful at the same time.  Having a guard dog is something that I did want, but I also really don't want her barking all the time.  She's still having a lot of accidents in the house unfortunately, and I'm not really sure what to do about it.  We take her out constantly and she does go outside, but for some reason she still also goes inside.  I'm pretty sure her favorite thing in the world is peeing on the carpet and the taste / smell of beer. She isn't really all that interested in human food, but she's always trying to drink our beers... which is charming.  Mia really enjoys her walks.  We walk her 2 x a day and a dog walker comes around noon and walks her as well, so girlfriend is getting lots of attention and loves every second of it.  Our entire day revolves around her well being - after work we race home to let her out of her crate.  We drive down the street yelling, "we have a dog, and she has to pee, get out of the way!!"

So yeah, we're totally obsessed with her and it doesn't hurt that she's so pretty to look at!

Potty Training Challenges

Having a dog remains joyful, especially when she takes a dump in your house when your entire family is eating dinner and then you have to run around and clean it up and take her outside while apologizing 400 times.  Or after she barks at your father for 10 minutes straight (who is the nicest man in the world), or after breaking the most God awful wind while everyone is eating dessert.  Or even after I had to clean up pee 2 x Just Today  Even after all that she still remains to be the cutest thing in the world to us.

Tomorrow we're going to have to leave her at home for the first time in her crate while we go to work.  A nice person is going to come and give her a walk at lunchtime though, so she won't have to go too long without company or without a pee break.  Hopefully this arrangement works out... or hopefully it doesn't because it costs an arm and a leg, but as long as she's happy then we're happy.

That tongue is For Real.

Mia!

She's here!!  Mia arrived from Mississippi a healthy and happy dog.  When she first got here, she was really overwhelmed and hyper... and crazy.  After about 6 hours of exploring the house and the yard (with many walks, and many house accidents) she finally calmed way down and seemed to be a totally different dog.  She has so much potential to be trained and hilarious.

She has so much energy.... and the biggest tongue known to man.

Welcome to the family!

False Alarm

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early at 7am with a list of chores a mile long to complete before picking up our new dog at 2:30pm: grocery store, picked up twigs all over the yard, mowed the lawn, swept the driveway, setup the dog crate, put all the new dog stuff away, laundry, dishes, cleaning, organizing, called in our first homeowners insurance claim (apparently a tree fell on our shed without us realizing it until now and caused damage), and then made the call to the driver of the pet transport company to get an update of the exact time.  We were told only this: call the number 1 hour before your pickup time to make sure that it's not sooner or later.  The message on the other side said that they were running at least 24 hours late... and it was really vague.  Like what happened?  I hemmed and hawed and called our rescue coordinator, who I'm sure was on a long weekend vacation or gone for the day.  We obsessively tried to find other phone numbers to call, and then finally we just went to the pickup location and waited to see if they might magically show up.  They didn't, so we proceded to Natasha's pig roast without our puppy.  It was a big let down.  We did get to hang out with this guy though:

During the pig roast we called the driver's number again and got a way more detailed update on the status.  It turns out the big van / truck that takes all the placed dogs from down south to here up north had some sort of big issue and had to stop to be repaired along the way.  During that time, the dogs were let out and cared for while they fixed it up and then they hit the road again.  They expect to arrive at our location tomorrow at 10pm which is not at all ideal since we lose out on an entire day.  Its very frustrating, but what can we really do? We'll just have to roll with it, I'm sure that guy didn't mean to have truck issues.  Hopefully our doggie didn't mind the extra time on the road too much...

So tomorrow is the day, good thing we got 90% of our to-do list done today!  I'm excited to meet her.

Cheers

I'm on the hunt for the creation of the perfect vodka dirty martini.  Last week's attempt was a disaster due to many wrong choices (bad olives, meh vodka, meh recipe).  This week's attempt was Much improved.  I picked up some martini olives at Williams Sonoma to ensure an excellent flavor (which it totally was).  I switched from Gray Goose vodka to Kettle One, and I made it extra dirty (extra olive juice).

Attempt #2

1/2 cup of Kettle One vodka
Not sure how much olive juice... I think I ended up using 2.5 teaspoons
4 olives
a teeny tiny bit of good vermouth - we're talking like 1/2 of a 1/2 teaspoon

Due to my lack of cocktail shaker, I choose to load up a big glass full of ice with all the ingredients and then I stir for about a minute nonstop and pour into the martini glass when done making sure it's nice and chilled.

I'm sure this new obsession comes as a shock to anyone who knows me since I typically don't do well with hard alcohol.  Here's the thing: 1 drink sits just fine especially after eating a big dinner and almost all my dinners are large and in charge.  This household has been trying to bring back the whole "cocktail hour" or "post dinner night cap" idea.  You'd think we have like a million more productive things to do in the evenings... and sure we do, but luckily we're not aiming to get hammered here.  My goal is to mix a delicious drink and then appreciate it while I catch up on my Google Reader.  Next week: vodka dirty martini with pickle juice - apparently that's like a thing, I totally didn't make it up!