A Puppy Post

What else do I blather on and on about but the very cute dog we have. I think I need to get out more. . . without the dog.

Bacca is learning how to push buttons and make us give in to little things. His newest is his favorite side of the couch. Earlier tonight I was sitting on the left side of the couch and he was not happy.  He went between me and Grant (who was at the computer) whining and looking very agitated. He would get on the couch, curl up on the right side and look at me and let out a very huge HARUMPH.

Last night we finally shifted more to the right side than the left side, he flopped into the left cushion and was so happy.  It’s weird. I  mean, should we really worry about giving one side of the couch to the dog?

This is a dog who, when agitated, will take his stuffed dog toy (that I got at Scheel’s on Black Friday) and shake it violently making a point to thwap it against you. He really flails it around with determination. It’s like a kid throwing a temper tantrum.

If we ever get to the point of having a kid/kids, this dog has been good preparation for them.  He has a favorite toy, a favorite sleeping position, he rotates favoritism between his humans and listens more to one than the other and totally knows how to work each of us for belly rubs. . . Thankfully he doesn’t like to sleep with us.  He’s still a solitary German Shepherd that wants to have his humans in the same room so he can keep an eye on us.
What is better than being watched over by a fluffy GSD who has his head on the arm of the couch staring at you while you watch one of us play on the computer while the other sits at the other end of the couch?

Just overheard:

Grant: Is that your side of the couch, Bacca?

Grant: DAMN SKIPPY!!

Bacca: *twitches ear and continues staring at him*

Silence helps

I’ve been trying to write a blog post for a few days now and every time I get started I just run off and do something else.

The wind is currently pushing its way around our house and making things creak and whoosh. It’s nice because it’s about 40 degrees (it was over 50!) so the weather isn’t so cold that I’m bundled up and shivering at each wind whoosh.

In the indoors of our house we’ve started something that we should have done a long time ago. Actually going through some boxes. In about 20 minutes we were both thinking a lot clearer and able to verbalize some thoughts and concerns regarding the next few months. We’ve both been under a huge amount of pressure and it’s made us both a bit retarded when it comes to coherent thoughts.

I’ve also started my photo back ups again. I’m cleaning out my Lightroom catalog which also means cleaning out my computer. I plan on having a system where I only keep the GOOD photos. I have a lot of crap photos and I don’t need them. Some are good for memory’s sake, but they don’t need to take up space on my HD, so they are now on an external drive.  If something happens to them, that will really suck, but you can’t hold on to everything forever. I’m too much of a packrat to say that without cringing though. I want to keep everything forever and in great condition. My Barbies,  My Little Ponies and Cabbage Patch Kids can attest to that.

Perhaps I will donate a Cabbage Patch Kid to my cousin’s new little girl (who has yet to appear, but she’s getting ready to make her grand entrance into the oxygen filled world). I’m trying to find ways to reduce my clutter and reduce the amount of memories that are stored in my parent’s house. I can’t bring myself to say no to a few of those things, but some stuff can totally got the way of the Dodo: remembered, but no longer around.

Cleaning up our clutter is helping the two of us a lot as well.  If we clean up our physical clutter then our relationship feels less cluttered with things to trip and dwell over and we can actually breathe and be happy.  Cleaning up the clutter also makes house cleaning a lot easier and a bit less stressful. I still get all wound up and pissed every time I clean. Seriously, you want me in a bad mood, make me clean. About 30 minutes after cleaning I’m fine, but during the process I’m probably going to hurt someone if they ruin my flow. It’s an anger of both procrastinating so much that things are way more work than they need to be and the frustration that requires some quiet and alone time. Cleaning is a very solo kind of task. If one person is cleaning a bathroom, another one is cleaning the kitchen. You’re both cleaning but you need to be in charge of your own space.

Not sure I can make everything clear, but I’m just going to blather it out on here. . .

 

Different types

1. Oh my goodness I’m so depressed looking at all these fit people. I will never look like that, please pass the pie.

2. Wow, those are some well toned people. Good for them. *continue with own routine*

3. I feel sluggish, TIME TO GO TO THE GYM!!!

. . . and any mixture of the above.

I’ve been looking at my Pink Eye, Sinus Infection and Fluid-In-My-Ear as a way to recharge batteries and launch headfirst in going back to the gym. Zumba was embarrassing but fun (I don’t like to look in the mirror because I don’t feel nearly as awkward as I look). I think a mixture of Spinning (I can’t wait for the aches from that saddle. . .ow!) and Yoga will be my best bet.  I need to sweat, I need to work on my balance and regain a smidge of my flexibility. I will never be a bendy rubberband, but I can at least feel like I have a few kinks worked out.

Maybe a Sports Massage as well.

Running is something I would seriously love to be good at. I’m horrible at it. Perhaps it is just a matter of mental shoving to get my lazy butt out the door. I’m nervous about my knees though, so I think that I might need to do more gym work and strengthening my quads before I go for the running. My brain gets very jumbled when it comes to working out and it is hard for me to sit still and go, “Okay, now today I really need to do this that and the other. After 15 minutes in a weights area I’m just like, “okay. . . uh. . . I’m bored and don’t know what to do.”

I really wish Bacca was a running partner dog. I don’t trust him and the last time we tried running he nearly killed me by cutting me off, pulling the wrong way and just not listening. It was more a lesson in torquing my body than in getting an actual work out.  He’s a gimpy too, ever since his elbow surgery, so he can’t run for any real length of time. Poor thing. . . Maybe I should just take him to a track and we just run around and around and around and around and around until he gets the idea.  How dull is that?!

Time to let the blather end. . . I’m in a bit of a slump right now and just need to find my energy from somewhere.

Downer post, over.

Bacca and his bones

It isn’t all that cold outside, the weather widget on my computer says it is 50 F.  It is grey, damp and cloudy.  The clouds are hanging low over the mountains to the North and there’s no sunshine that I can see.  The sun was hitting the hills to the North for a while around 10 am.  I don’t mind this cooler weather, I just mind the dampness of it. I like the cool crisp days with the sun shining a lot more.

Who wants some stories about Bacca?  Well here are two:

Last Saturday we went to the Farmer’s Market and bought some bones for Bacca. $6 worth (2 medium sized ones and one HUGE hip socket) to be exact.  Bacca LOVES these bones and will work on them for hours on end. So we brought the bones home for him and I gave him one in the yard. It was sunny, lovely weather and perfect for him to bask in the sunshine while chomping away.  He probably worked on the one bone for about 3 hours. He didn’t ask to come inside, didn’t seem bothered by anyone walking past the yard, etc. Perfectly happy dog.  Finally he got most of the meat off and he dropped the bone in one of the raised beds in the yard. I picked it up and hosed the dirt off of it as 1. He shouldn’t get into the habit of thinking flower beds = bone storage and 2. That bone was nasty lookin’

After the bone was clean he picked it up and ran around the yard with it and after I went back on the deck to read he decided to re-dirt-ify it.  He went over to a different flower bed and rolled the bone around in the dirt with his nose. He didn’t dig, he just shoved the bone around in the dirt. I’m pretty sure he never realized I was watching him.  After that he picked the bone up and carried it off to some unknown location.  This was too good a story to pass up so I ran inside to tell Grant. We both thought it was pretty hilarious. Bacca might have made the connection to “dirty bone = fewer flies” or something along those lines.

By the time I got outside again Bacca had brought the bone up and placed it next to the chair I had been in while reading. Thanks for the present buddy, but you can keep it.  I told him to pick it up and go play, so he trotted off all happy as can be and dropped the bone somewhere in the yard.

Yesterday (Wednesday) Bacca was out in the yard again working on bone #2 and possibly bone #1 as well.  I saw him chewing away happily while his new friend watched with definite interest.  About 4 ft away from him was a HUGE magpie. Bacca would drop some bits of meat from the bone and then get up and move a bit and the bird would hop over and eat the scraps, then wait again for more scraps.  I only saw Bacca move twice, so I have no idea how long this went on.  The bird wasn’t making any sound or demanding attention. . . perhaps they’d already worked out a relationship before I saw this.  Grant said that today there was a magpie on the deck railing and Bacca would play with this bone/toy/whatever and then go sniff at the bird and then go back to what he was doing.  The bird just watched and hung out.  Interspecies friends, it happens. . .

 

Thanks Bacca for making us realize, in yet another way, that you really are a smart dog and friendly.

Now if only he’d stop with the, “I must guard Grant, he needs my protection!”  German Shepherds, you’re never done training them, and they’re never done pushing your buttons.

Cancer claims another

I am very sad to hear about Steve Jobs passing away today.  That is a blow to the technical world and to Apple.

Cancer is a terrible disease which has claimed a lot of amazing people in everyone’s life.  I know I’ve lost a lot of stellar personalities and brilliant minds in my life to cancer, and there have been a lot of famous people too.  Heck, we even lost a dog to cancer.

I’m sad and drowning my sorrows in a bottle of Powerade Zero, Lemon Lime. . . it’s pretty good. . .

I don’t have any words of wisdom or anything to really share that isn’t filling the internet already.

I will share that our first Macintosh was a Performa 68040 that my mom bought when I was in 4th Grade. We got AOL 2.7 for it, it has bronze icons, not blue ones. . . and I loved playing some of the games that came with it.  My dad was obsessed with Eric’s Solitaire Sampler.  Senior year of high school (or that summer before) I got my own Mac, a bondi blue iMac. It was right before the release of all the ‘flavors.’  I was so mad I didn’t wait. I wanted a Lime Green one.  My mom got a G4 cube at some point while I was in college, and after I got rid of my iMac I got a PowerBook. I LOVED IT . .  my mom finally got a tiny PowerBook G4 and is still using that. I sold my PowerBook to a friend and I believe she still has it. . .  now I have a 27″ iMac and love it to bits.

Our family has loved Mac and all it does for quite some time.  And yes, for a while I was a total nut for Windows because 90% of the games and things I wanted to do on my Mac were not compatible, but I never stopped loving the changes and ideas and trying to upgrade my mom’s computer to something it couldn’t handle.  We never had a high-end computer growing up, and I always wanted to do the newest and greatest thing. . .

 

Thank you Apple Macintosh for being so resilient to my persistent attempts to make you explode and crash.  I have finally learned my lesson.

 

RIP Steve Jobs, your computers have served me well.

Sunday, muggy Sunday

I’m not so sure about this hazy weather. It makes me sticky and uncomfortable. I know it would be considered a “fairly dry” day on the east coast or even “it feels like rain.”  This is so not cool in Montana. . . I am ready for whatever weather to get in and get out again so I can go back to not feeling like I am dressed for the temperature, but not the humidity.  I hate the cold and clammy, but you feel like you’re overheating reaction to the weather. Give me my dry weather back!!!

I took Bacca to the park and it was all damp and squishy, but he had a blast chasing his ball around.  The dogs we walk past every day to go to the park, or on our walk around the hill (it’s a big ol’ hill with trails all over it), were yet again up to their usual antics. The Jack Russell starts the barking which in turn sets off the shaggy herding dog next door, and then when we are finally in view of dog #3 it’s just a barking cacophony of noise.  Their humans yell at them, everyone is irritated, Bacca just keeps on walking and ignores them. Good dog. . . while he’s on the leash. I’m sure if he were off leash he’d run up to their fences and have a bark fest at them. That wouldn’t be good. . . because these dogs are just barking for the sheer power of barking, they don’t seem to mean anything by it. It’s like a little kid pointing at another kid or a toy or something and no one pays them any attention so they just keep at it, “LOOK A DOG, LOOK A DOG, LOOK A DOG, LOOK A DOG, LOOK A DOG”

SHUT UP!!!

I’m so lazy today. I just want to snuggle down with a good book and not do anything, but I need to pack for a conference and get Bacca to the kennel as both of us are going.  I’m excited to spend some time in Missoula, and I am thinking of other things to do during breaks that are nearby. Maybe I’ll go see Joe the parrot. I love that bird. .  . He lives at the Army Navy store and blushes when he sees me. What a cutie. He’s a bit picky about his people, but he loves the ladies.

I guess there are several chores I could go work on . . .

But first, one more chapter of my book. . .

Mild Success

I feel accomplished in a few items today:

I was up before my husband (SCORE! This rarely ever happens!)

I just got done cleaning the kitchen counters, drying rack and stove as well as some dishes and spoons.

I cleaned up a small portion of my computer room and still have more to sort and clean and dump

Who wants some film for a 35 mm camera that should have been developed in 2009 or 2010? Or earlier. . .

I sorted through a handful more photos in Lightroom so I don’t have a library full of ‘crap’ photos that I thought were funny at the time.

I have managed to brush a long haired chihuahua worth of hair out of my dog’s butt.  He fights it, but he has way too much loose fur.

While in WalMart the hubby and I found something to make for dinner!!

I found my totally awesome fountain pen, it’s a Pelikan…  it has a Bold nib, rather than Fine, but my Lamy will just have to be my Fine nib pen. . . once I find it.

I threw away horrible smelling things and have found a bundle of things to send to my parents including catnip and treats for Percy (she lives with them now)

I found more shorts, including some that weren’t clean (they have sap on them. . . ew)

Last night I found the charger cable for the Kindle so I can continue reading Game of Thrones, Book 4.

And best of all, yesterday by boss gave me a compliment on some ideas I sent her and that makes me all gooey inside.  I worked my butt off for 3 days on that email and making sure things read well. . . BAM!

 

Back in time

Netflix has allowed me the lovely opportunity to rewatch some of my childhood cartoons, and those I never watched. A few weeks ago Grant and I sat down to watch Voltron. I don’t remember ever watching Voltron on a regular basis and I definitely don’t remember the characters.  We both nearly fell off the couch laughing when the “Swedish Chef” started talking.  It was hilarious. These anime characters have voices that just makes you keel over in laughter.  As kids we probably never thought anything of it, even though if we’d watched Sesame Street I’m sure we would have made a connection or three.

But I have started watching a show I used to LOVE. . .and I mean L.O.V.E.  This was a “do not miss it” kind of show. She-Ra.  You can’t go wrong. . . with character names like Perfuma, Mermista, Glimmer, Angella, Frostina, Flutterina, Bow, Peekablue, Catra, etc.  They almost beat He-Man’s side kick’s name of Man-at-Arms.  Seriously!?!?  I always thought the names were goofy, even as a 7 year old, but I knew exactly which character was which. They were so easy to remember because their names were what they did.

Some of the best lines ever are in She-Ra too, it’s amazing . . . they don’t even always make sense, and they’re a great way for a kid to insult someone without actually using a ‘bad word.’  For example: Skeletor: Skeletor to King Randor. Skeletor to King Randor.  Come in you Royal Boob!

And there are always the ones that make you stop and go, ‘Really?!?! That’s a saying?!’ For example: Roll me in butter and call me a flounder, that was a close one!

Who SAYS that?!?!?! Seriously.
Anyways, enjoying the trip down memory lane and how much this show actually taught me some sayings and drilled other things into my head.  I’m still waiting for Netflix to get The Popples, Tigersharks, Silverhawks and Thundercats on Instant Queue. . . and maybe The Snorks aka Undersea Smurfs!

Thanks!

I would like to thank my super warm Gore-Tex EMS coat. . . it’s toasty, I don’t feel like a bulbous sack of potatoes in it most days and most importantly it has this great velcro thing for keeping the hood on my head (rather than just stupid little cords). This velcro flap also keeps my chin warm, and collects my drool and snot rather than letting it dribble down the front of my coat.

* The drool and snot is an effect of it being so cold the snot freezes into my nose forming a lovely plug and I have to breathe through my mouth. . .but as it is so cold I apparently start drooling. As soon as I get inside the snot-plug melts and it gushes all over my velcro flap.

 

I love winter, yes I do. . . I love winter, it’s snot true!!!!

A trip to the desert

We just got back from a long weekend in Las Vegas. Did we gamble? Yes. . .  Did we win? I did. Did we go into the desert? HECK YES!!
Actual entry and photos coming up, but first I need to go to work and take the pictures off my camera etc etc etc.