Warp Speed Ahead!

Sitrep: Painting low walls & sloping ceilings = squats. Oy, do my butt muscles ache this morning!

Mom & Dad arrived Friday evening. It's great to see them again. The dogs are doing okay with them, I supppose, although they were both intimidated by Dad. Max warmed up to him first. Leia is still a bit skittish. But whenever he or mom walk into a room the dogs are in and I'm not there, they freak out barking. Ughh. And this morning, when Dad got up, Leia flipped out which set Max off. Poor thing. Half the time I don't think he has a clue why they're barking. Just knows something upset her so he must need to bark as well! But he settles down much quicker when I tell them to be quiet. Definitely need to start working on that!

And oh, Max can fly. [g] We painted the upstairs yesterday. To keep the dogs out of the way, I put up the baby gate in the doorway from the living room into the kitchen, so they couldn't get to the stairs (off the sunroom you access through the kitchen). Well, they didn't like us upstairs without them. The usual whining, barking, scratching at the gate, etc. After a few minutes of painting, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet on the stairs. And there was Max, looking mighty pleased with himself. The gate was still up, and Leia was still on the other side. So I had to put a second gate up in the doorway above the first. [g]

Later on, Mom didn't realize Dad & I were outside cleaning up the paint trays (she was in the kitchen cooking dinner) and she let the dogs out. Ooops. Of course, they charge through the wet grass & paint splatters. I chased them back inside and Leia went right through a paint spill on the cardboard we'd placed on the sunroom floor. I yelled at Mom "Catch her! She walked in paint!" Of course, the second Mom moved for her Leia dodged and made it to the living room.  I had to come in and catch her because Mom couldn't.Then had to clean up the little white paw prints on the nice laminate flooring. LOL. At least it cleaned up easily. We should have gotten that on tape. One silly little 6.5 lb dog successfully evading two adult women. Sheesh.

Today I'm going to get color samples for upstairs and hopefully we'll paint that tomorrow. Wednesday the trim, and maybe Thursday we'll be able to move all the stuff back upstairs. Whoo-hoo!

First Sighting of the Pink Beast

We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

I've been forced to drag out my winter coat. It's warm, but a bit on the bulky side. And purply pink. Unbelievably so. You can't miss me when I'm wearing this thing. Wind chill was 8* this morning. Ughh.

It doesn't help that I'm fighting off whatever bug is going around. I'm sitting here at work, alone, all wrapped up in a fleece wrap and I'm cold. I better not get the flu. Especially not with Mom & Dad arriving in one week. Way too much to do.  But I'm tired, and have had this headache since yesterday afternoon that nothing helps, and starting to feel achy. Thankfully it's Friday.

Dog Update
The dogs are doing good. Lots of progress with Max. He even ate his breakfast today without my having to stand next to him. I was able to move to the other side of the room and fix my own, only redirecting him to his bowl once. He's been like a shadow. Outside, he doesn't just hide behind my legs, he'll wander now. He and Leia were actually playing the other night. Too bad it was our last potty time before bed...Not the best time to play. [g] But I let them for a few minutes.

Leia is just too adorable for words. They both are. She is a hoot. Every once in awhile while running around the backyard she'll suddenly pick both back legs up and run forward a few steps on her front feet. It's bizarre, and hilarious. I remember Cherie, the mini poodle we had growing up, was finicky about walking on grass. I'm hoping I can eventually teach Leia to do this on command. And why not? There's a reason poodles are circus dogs! I'm thinking of training them as therapy dogs to visit M's group home. They are a good size to cuddle, and love cuddling. Especially as their resident dog is nearing her final years. We'll just have to see how they do at obedience training. So far so good though, just with the commands I'm using at home. Leia is beginning to understand "drop it" and "leave it" as well as "off".

Book Review
But enough on the dogs. I just finished listening to J.Evanovich's last Stephanie Plum novel "Finger Lickin' Fifteen" on audio. I must say, I was a bit disappointed. Was there this much reliance on bodily funtion humor in previous books? I don't remember it that way. Maybe I'm too much of a prude. Maybe I'm just being female. But I don't like the majority of the "humor" being about farts, etc.

Had a couple other quibbles. Like Ranger hiring Stephanie to figure out who was doing the break ins. Huh? Like the guys working for him wouldn't know she'd report everything back to him. And then when they did catch who it was, they never explained how they knew enough about the accounts to be so particular about what they stole. Because the crooks were from outside his organization. And great emphasis was placed on the types of things stolen, etc. I just find it hard to believe that someone with Ranger's background, skills and supposed experience could be stumped that easily...

And the whole Chipotle killer ending...I don't know. Just was off to me. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood.

And seriously. How many years has Stephanie been a bounty hunter now? How many times has she had someone go in the other room to get dressed/used the bathroom/whatever and then sneak out? Or put handcuffs on one of their wrists and they take off? She's not the best bounty hunter, but she's not as stupid as in this book, either. It's getting irritating.

And the paint thing, flour thing, where Stephanie is the only one that gets hit with the stuff, and Ranger never does, even when standing next to her for the paint...Yeah, right. He'd get splattered a bit.

And speaking of Ranger. In this book his interest in Stephanie didn't seem good to me. I can't quite explain it. It just came across as he's just toying with her, she amuses him because she's less. You know, the blond bimbo type thing. More of a paternalistic/superior attitude. I don't know. It's hard to put into words.

I'm starting to wish Evanovich would just finish the series.

Next on the list to read: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Part of the "Big Read in the Big Sky" events this month. The author is going to be here to discuss the book. I'm thinking of going.

Next on the list to review: Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard (Young Adult book). The book series Little Sis and her mom were arguing over.

Puppy Pics

Sitrep: 30 minutes treadmill, 15 minutes swimming pool. Climbing team starts again tomorrow, so my 2x week trips to the gym are back on! Yay!

These are funner to look at and blog about than the snow we've been getting. First snow in town for the year. Whoo-hoo. :(

Here's Leia (much cuter in person)

Here's Max

I'm starting to think Max came from some type of puppy mill situation or one where he was never let out of his crate. Because when left home alone he will pee on his bed and still lay on it. {sigh}. He doesn't go in the house if I'm home...only when I'm at work. Even though I come home at lunch to let them out. So I'm going to have to get him used to feeling clean & liking that, and reinforce potty training. Crate training not really an option since he'd pee in his crate. Lovely.

I'm liking having them around, although it's hard to be out of the routine Scully & I were in. I'm very much a routine type of person. :)

Book Censorship Map

Another lovely Goo.gle Map. Here's one compiled by the ALA showing book bans and challenges from 2007-2009 in the US.


View Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2009 in a larger map

Dogs in the House, Part Two

Meet Max

Turns out his name is actually “Neo” and I heard “Neil”. Neo sounds too much like “no” to my ears, and I don’t like it much anyway. Even though I’m just fostering him, I’m changing his name. Max is the name that came to me when thinking of him the weekend I first met him & Leia, so Max it is.

He is very timid. More so than I expected. I got him to the house and showed him the kitchen, where food & water are set out, and then the sofa. And that was that. He jumped up on the sofa and hid in a corner of it. Wouldn’t come out. I carried him outside to go to the bathroom, to the kitchen to eat. He wouldn’t eat or drink that first day. When I took them out just before bedtime, Leia came back in on her own but he didn’t. Even though he’d used the doggie door when we first arrived. I had to get a flashlight to find him. He’d bedded down in the tall grass along the side of the house. He was trembling so when I got him and took him inside for the night. He stayed where he was put those first days. On Saturday evening, he inched closer to me on the sofa while I was reading. And later that night he came running across the sofa to me when I patted my leg. I’m trying hard to ignore him when he’s being timid…no soothing pats to reinforce the timidity. It’s tough. Poor little thing.

Also Saturday I got him to follow me to the kitchen where he drank; he wouldn’t eat until I tried desensitizing him to my presence/hands with kibble. Sunday he followed me outside. Now he comes outside most of the time when I take them out together, and comes back inside when I tell him it’s okay. Yesterday morning he started wandering around when I wasn’t in the room. Today he learned how to get on and off the bed using the stairs. That was great. I also put the leash on him for a few minutes so he can get used to it.

So slowly we make progress. He is going to be tougher than Leia. I’m not sure on too many details of his past; the shelter wasn’t very informative. I think they can’t say too much because there is a pending court case. I do hope I can keep him. At the least, I’m going to do my best to get him stabilized and have more courage.

I’m currently reading Cesar Milan’s “Be the Pack Leader” which is pretty insightful. If you watch his show enough, you already know most of it. That’s what the first half of the book is about. But now it’s getting to the nitty-gritty. If he is stable enough, we’ll do dog training in January as well.

Dogs in the House

Friday afternoon Little Sis, Mom M and I went down to the shelter in B___ to pick up the dogs. I think we made record time getting there! I was so excited. Nervous, too. Did all the paperwork (they are very thorough, and gave me tons of great info), and then they brought out the dogs.

Meet Leia

The nine month old poodle is adorable. She’s timid, not sure what all is going on, but adapting much easier because she’s so young. She is a hoot. She took to the doggie door fairly easily, and now runs in and out like it’s the coolest thing on the planet. I guess it is, to her! Second best was when she figured out the stairs to get up on the bed. That was on Sunday night. It was up-down-up-down-up-down until I thought I’d go mad. I invited her up on the bed, and then moved the stairs away. She promptly went to sleep. She listens well, but is still a bit skittish coming to me, especially when I put my hand down or lean down to her. But we are working on it and she improves daily.

This morning I actually walked her a few minutes in the house with a leash on. I’d put in on her for a bit yesterday and let her walk with it dragging. Just so she’d get used to it being on. The trainer we’re going to recommended this. The next scheduled training class starts in January, but the trainer is great. She gave me tons of advice and told me to call her if I have any questions or need advice before the class starts.

Today she also started playing with the little stuffed toy I gave her. It was quite cute. We’ve been playing, but without toys. She really wants the Yorkie to play with her, but he’s a bit too timid right now. I'm going to focus on training her on the leash, and getting her to learn her name. Those are the priorities on top of the usual house rules. She's doing great so far.