I have a confession to make. I downloaded Britney Spears's new album, Circus, from iTunes earlier this week. It's surprisingly good. The title track is catchy and has a good beat. Out from Under and Unusual You are really lovely. I liked Womanizer when it first came out, and was pleased that the other tracks on the album are really well done. The album scored 3-1/2 stars from a Rolling Stone review, with Rolling Stone users rating it higher at 4-1/2 stars. Most of the songs would be great for working out or bouncing around the house while cleaning. I listened to it tonight while I wrapped Christmas presents.
I'm glad to see Britney making some progress in her life. As I wrote about awhile back in my post, Oh Britney, I really wanted to see her take some time off and heal. So, it's good that she's back in the studio and producing something akin to the days at the height of her career.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Sometimes it's right on
This is my horoscope for the week of December 11th. I haven't checked my horoscope forever, it seems, and I was looking through The Stranger, remembering Freewill Astrology and the weird horoscopes that sometimes appeared. So, I searched online for Freewill Astrology, and bravo, there it was.
This is actually pretty close to how I've been feeling lately. Grappling with the many pieces of me who have come before and those yet to develop. I've been reflecting on my life a lot in the past few months due to the big changes L. and I recently made, and upon reconnecting with some old friends and making new friends. It's interesting that after not seeing my horoscope for probably over a year now, I somehow came across this one at this exact time. Sometimes it is right on.
It's an ideal time for you to throw a party for all the people you've ever been and all the different selves who live within you now. Invite the teenager who once seethed with frustrated potential and the four-year-old who loved nothing more than to play. Include the hopeful complainer who stands in the shadows and dares you to ask for more, as well as the brave hero who comes out every now and then to attempt seemingly impossible feats of happiness. Don't forget any of the various personalities who have contributed to making you who you are. Celebrate your internal diversity. Marvel at how good you are at changing.
This is actually pretty close to how I've been feeling lately. Grappling with the many pieces of me who have come before and those yet to develop. I've been reflecting on my life a lot in the past few months due to the big changes L. and I recently made, and upon reconnecting with some old friends and making new friends. It's interesting that after not seeing my horoscope for probably over a year now, I somehow came across this one at this exact time. Sometimes it is right on.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Oli's first snow
We started getting quite a bit of snow last night, and it was funny to see Oli's first reaction to the disappearance of our lawn and replacement with this cold, fluffy stuff. He thinks it's pretty fun now, so I took a few pictures from last night and this morning.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Something for the Dilbert files
This cracks L. and me up.
L. works at an aircraft supply company as an engineer. Due to the strikes and decreased production at a large aircraft manufacturer in the area, L.'s company has to scale back a bit. This year, the plant shut down the week of Thanksgiving, and will be shutting down the week of Christmas and New Years. People are encouraged to use their vacation time or sick leave to make up the cost of his mandatory time off. This is for the salaried employees. The hourly employees have been on a reduced schedule for some time now, and work only Mondays through Wednesdays at the plant.
In a "festive" effort, employees are invited to come celebrate and decorate a Christmas tree in the afternoon on December 19th. So, the salaried employees are the only ones who would be there since the hourly employees don't work on Thursdays and Fridays now. And they get to decorate in the late afternoon right before the plant shuts down for two weeks. That's going to be one dried out Christmas tree when everyone returns from their mandatory leave. Not to mention, this is quite a way to communicate how little you actually care about morale at your workplace. Classy.
L. works at an aircraft supply company as an engineer. Due to the strikes and decreased production at a large aircraft manufacturer in the area, L.'s company has to scale back a bit. This year, the plant shut down the week of Thanksgiving, and will be shutting down the week of Christmas and New Years. People are encouraged to use their vacation time or sick leave to make up the cost of his mandatory time off. This is for the salaried employees. The hourly employees have been on a reduced schedule for some time now, and work only Mondays through Wednesdays at the plant.
In a "festive" effort, employees are invited to come celebrate and decorate a Christmas tree in the afternoon on December 19th. So, the salaried employees are the only ones who would be there since the hourly employees don't work on Thursdays and Fridays now. And they get to decorate in the late afternoon right before the plant shuts down for two weeks. That's going to be one dried out Christmas tree when everyone returns from their mandatory leave. Not to mention, this is quite a way to communicate how little you actually care about morale at your workplace. Classy.
Having to say no
According to a lot of the puppy training stuff I've been reading, having to say "no" a lot to your puppy means that you haven't properly prepared his surroundings well enough. Before your puppy comes home, you puppy-proof the house by putting up things that he shouldn't get into, block off areas where he shouldn't go, etc. If they have an accident on the carpet, it's your fault not the puppy's fault.
To which I say, not always! L. and I have prepared our house for Oli. We have baby gates setup to keep him within the confines of our family room, kitchen, dining room, and hallway. In the family room, we have setup an exercise pen where he can go to hang out in his doggy bed, eat, drink, play, and go potty on his papers. He rarely goes in there to do anything other than eat or drink, but it's there nonetheless. We also have papers laying on the floor outside of the pen in case he is wandering around and suddenly needs to go.
For the most part, Oli always uses his papers or goes to the door to let us know that he needs out. This gets more complicated when the weather sucks (like it does right now), because I don't think either one of us enjoy the prospect of standing out in the pouring rain and wind, but it's not the end of the world. Usually if he figures he doesn't want to go out, he'll run to the papers and go.
Here's where that information from the beginning of this post becomes moot. Sometimes dogs get mad. Sometimes they pee in a no-no spot to let you know that they're mad. Sometimes Oli gets mad when L. and I have to go to work for the day, and we leave him in his exercise pen where he can wander around and play with all of his beloved toys, eat a good snack, and eliminate when he needs to. Sometimes he even gets mad when I work from home, because I know that his tummy is sick and needs to be let out more often throughout the day rather than using the same paper for 5-6 hours.
And sometimes he'll pee while I'm putting his leash on to take him out to eliminate...like today. I'm sure that he's mad because I'm not paying full attention to him. I'm trying to work in the midst of his running around, chewing, and attempts to get my attention to play with him. So, when I got up and carried him to the door, and grabbed his leash, he promptly peed on the carpet. Message received little bugger. We went outside anyway, and we stood there until he peed again.
And there is no way to puppy-proof every single thing. He loves to chew on our clothes, blankets, table, shoes, feet, hands, and hair. I'm going to be in a constant pony-tail until he gets out of this stage. So unless L. and I suddenly become minimalist nudists, shave our heads, and cut off our feet and hands, we're going to have to say no. A lot. Oh, of course we do what the books say - replace whatever he's chewing with a toy, but that only works so much of the time. Other times, he's determined to keep chewing on whatever object he's focused on, no matter how many times you try to give him something else or move him. So, just like most things in life, nothing goes smoothly 100% of the time, especially when it comes to puppies.
To which I say, not always! L. and I have prepared our house for Oli. We have baby gates setup to keep him within the confines of our family room, kitchen, dining room, and hallway. In the family room, we have setup an exercise pen where he can go to hang out in his doggy bed, eat, drink, play, and go potty on his papers. He rarely goes in there to do anything other than eat or drink, but it's there nonetheless. We also have papers laying on the floor outside of the pen in case he is wandering around and suddenly needs to go.
For the most part, Oli always uses his papers or goes to the door to let us know that he needs out. This gets more complicated when the weather sucks (like it does right now), because I don't think either one of us enjoy the prospect of standing out in the pouring rain and wind, but it's not the end of the world. Usually if he figures he doesn't want to go out, he'll run to the papers and go.
Here's where that information from the beginning of this post becomes moot. Sometimes dogs get mad. Sometimes they pee in a no-no spot to let you know that they're mad. Sometimes Oli gets mad when L. and I have to go to work for the day, and we leave him in his exercise pen where he can wander around and play with all of his beloved toys, eat a good snack, and eliminate when he needs to. Sometimes he even gets mad when I work from home, because I know that his tummy is sick and needs to be let out more often throughout the day rather than using the same paper for 5-6 hours.
And sometimes he'll pee while I'm putting his leash on to take him out to eliminate...like today. I'm sure that he's mad because I'm not paying full attention to him. I'm trying to work in the midst of his running around, chewing, and attempts to get my attention to play with him. So, when I got up and carried him to the door, and grabbed his leash, he promptly peed on the carpet. Message received little bugger. We went outside anyway, and we stood there until he peed again.
And there is no way to puppy-proof every single thing. He loves to chew on our clothes, blankets, table, shoes, feet, hands, and hair. I'm going to be in a constant pony-tail until he gets out of this stage. So unless L. and I suddenly become minimalist nudists, shave our heads, and cut off our feet and hands, we're going to have to say no. A lot. Oh, of course we do what the books say - replace whatever he's chewing with a toy, but that only works so much of the time. Other times, he's determined to keep chewing on whatever object he's focused on, no matter how many times you try to give him something else or move him. So, just like most things in life, nothing goes smoothly 100% of the time, especially when it comes to puppies.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Organization
I spent the better part of this evening organizing my Outlook inbox at work. I got the email messages in my inbox down from almost 2500 emails to less than 150 emails. It feels great. I filed a lot of things in various folders, but also deleted a ton of them that I no longer needed. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Oli is a trooper
First an update, then some cute pictures...
In my last post, I was bemoaning the rough day I had with Oli. I'm happy to report that he started doing much better the following day and has been doing quite well ever since. I think that he got over-stimulated by meeting so many people at my work and being in so many different environments the prior day. So, he had a little doggy melt-down and he let me know by acting out. Once he rested up and got back on track, he stopped peeing on the carpet, and instead went to the door to let me know that he needed to go out. See, he's smart like that. He is doing well with the potty training, but he was pissed off and he knew that peeing on the carpet would be a no-no. Dogs...
Anyway, we had a very stressful weekend starting late Saturday night / early Sunday morning. L. and I were playing with Oli, and he was hopping at my feet wanting to be picked up. So, I picked him up and he was happy to just be hanging out in my arms until he suddenly wanted down and started squirming. As I was bending over to put him down, he did this backward lunge thing and broke out of my hands, falling to the carpet. He yelped, and then backed up, and my heart sank to the floor. Immediately Oli was fine, and bounded off to play with his toys, and then took a break for a drink of water. Meanwhile, L. was trying to pick me up off of the floor and calm me down. L. picked up Oli and felt around to make sure that Oli didn't cry out or anything, and he seemed fine. But I was still a mess, worried about internal bleeding or something that we couldn't see right away.
No matter how much Oli continued to play, eat, potty, etc. just like his normal self, I just couldn't be consoled. And then when he went out to the yard to potty, he had some residual matter on his behind which I went to wipe off with a cloth, and I noticed a drop of blood. I immediately called the 24-hour emergency vet and explained the situation. She said that it was likely just from the stress of the fall, and nothing serious, but to keep an eye on it and bring him in if it happened again. I cried all Sunday wrought with fear that I'd done some horrible damage to Oli, and I followed Oli around making sure that there was no more blood. And there wasn't - until yesterday. We saw another drop of blood and couldn't figure out what was going on. So, I called the vet and made an appointment to take Oli in this morning. His second stool sample showed that he has a Giardia infection, which is what was causing the problem. So, the vet gave me some medicine to give to Oli for the next week and instructions about how to clean everything to keep him from re-infecting himself.
Tonight, L. and I washed Oli, cleaned everything thoroughly, and washed all of his bedding in hot, hot, hot water. We're now carrying Oli outside on his leash and putting him down in one spot to do his business so that he doesn't lick the concrete patio (something he loves to do when it rains). And we have to clean off his feet and bottom when he comes back in. We teamed up to give Oli his medicine, which is called Panacur and comes in a syringe (without needle) that we have to squirt into Oli's mouth. This is no small feat to get Oli to open his mouth for this stuff.
But despite seeing the vet today and getting his puppy booster shots, Panacur for the Giardia, a bath, drying with the hair dryer, and a quick snip of scissors to clean up the hair around his face, Oli was just as a happy as ever. Oh sure, he slept a little more today from the booster shot. And he was really averse to the Panacur process. But overall, he was his playful, cute little self.
So, you see where this leads. Last week Oli did really well until an overwhelming day. Then he fell apart for a day. Totally makes sense. So, I'm waiting for the storm tomorrow. I can feel it coming. But I'd rather he be healthy, and I was just so happy that it wasn't the fall that hurt him. It's not like he fell a great distance or onto a hard surface, but as puppy's bones aren't always so strong yet. So, I am very thankful to God that Oli was OK. Nothing was broken, and there was no internal damage. Just the Giardia infection, which it turns out is rather common in puppies, and is something that his littermates were dealing with. Thank God. Now I just hope that he gets over this quickly and feels better!
Here are some updated photos - he is 10 weeks old now.
Oli, guarding his toys at L.'s feet. He is looking at me like, "don't even think about taking my toys mama."
Oli sitting in my lap. Yes, those are flannel sock monkey pajamas that I'm wearing in the picture. Oli loves sitting in my lap when I wear flannel or fleece pajama pants.
Oli taking a bath in our kitchen sink. Not his favorite pastime, but he makes it through. Now the hair dryer afterward...that's another story.
Oli with his toy Madison Moose, AKA Maddy. Maddy receives some rough treatment when Oli is in a playful mood. It's cute because Maddy is about as big as Oli, so he's busy running around with this huge stuffed moose in his mouth.
In my last post, I was bemoaning the rough day I had with Oli. I'm happy to report that he started doing much better the following day and has been doing quite well ever since. I think that he got over-stimulated by meeting so many people at my work and being in so many different environments the prior day. So, he had a little doggy melt-down and he let me know by acting out. Once he rested up and got back on track, he stopped peeing on the carpet, and instead went to the door to let me know that he needed to go out. See, he's smart like that. He is doing well with the potty training, but he was pissed off and he knew that peeing on the carpet would be a no-no. Dogs...
Anyway, we had a very stressful weekend starting late Saturday night / early Sunday morning. L. and I were playing with Oli, and he was hopping at my feet wanting to be picked up. So, I picked him up and he was happy to just be hanging out in my arms until he suddenly wanted down and started squirming. As I was bending over to put him down, he did this backward lunge thing and broke out of my hands, falling to the carpet. He yelped, and then backed up, and my heart sank to the floor. Immediately Oli was fine, and bounded off to play with his toys, and then took a break for a drink of water. Meanwhile, L. was trying to pick me up off of the floor and calm me down. L. picked up Oli and felt around to make sure that Oli didn't cry out or anything, and he seemed fine. But I was still a mess, worried about internal bleeding or something that we couldn't see right away.
No matter how much Oli continued to play, eat, potty, etc. just like his normal self, I just couldn't be consoled. And then when he went out to the yard to potty, he had some residual matter on his behind which I went to wipe off with a cloth, and I noticed a drop of blood. I immediately called the 24-hour emergency vet and explained the situation. She said that it was likely just from the stress of the fall, and nothing serious, but to keep an eye on it and bring him in if it happened again. I cried all Sunday wrought with fear that I'd done some horrible damage to Oli, and I followed Oli around making sure that there was no more blood. And there wasn't - until yesterday. We saw another drop of blood and couldn't figure out what was going on. So, I called the vet and made an appointment to take Oli in this morning. His second stool sample showed that he has a Giardia infection, which is what was causing the problem. So, the vet gave me some medicine to give to Oli for the next week and instructions about how to clean everything to keep him from re-infecting himself.
Tonight, L. and I washed Oli, cleaned everything thoroughly, and washed all of his bedding in hot, hot, hot water. We're now carrying Oli outside on his leash and putting him down in one spot to do his business so that he doesn't lick the concrete patio (something he loves to do when it rains). And we have to clean off his feet and bottom when he comes back in. We teamed up to give Oli his medicine, which is called Panacur and comes in a syringe (without needle) that we have to squirt into Oli's mouth. This is no small feat to get Oli to open his mouth for this stuff.
But despite seeing the vet today and getting his puppy booster shots, Panacur for the Giardia, a bath, drying with the hair dryer, and a quick snip of scissors to clean up the hair around his face, Oli was just as a happy as ever. Oh sure, he slept a little more today from the booster shot. And he was really averse to the Panacur process. But overall, he was his playful, cute little self.
So, you see where this leads. Last week Oli did really well until an overwhelming day. Then he fell apart for a day. Totally makes sense. So, I'm waiting for the storm tomorrow. I can feel it coming. But I'd rather he be healthy, and I was just so happy that it wasn't the fall that hurt him. It's not like he fell a great distance or onto a hard surface, but as puppy's bones aren't always so strong yet. So, I am very thankful to God that Oli was OK. Nothing was broken, and there was no internal damage. Just the Giardia infection, which it turns out is rather common in puppies, and is something that his littermates were dealing with. Thank God. Now I just hope that he gets over this quickly and feels better!
Here are some updated photos - he is 10 weeks old now.
Oli, guarding his toys at L.'s feet. He is looking at me like, "don't even think about taking my toys mama."
Oli sitting in my lap. Yes, those are flannel sock monkey pajamas that I'm wearing in the picture. Oli loves sitting in my lap when I wear flannel or fleece pajama pants.
Oli taking a bath in our kitchen sink. Not his favorite pastime, but he makes it through. Now the hair dryer afterward...that's another story.
Oli with his toy Madison Moose, AKA Maddy. Maddy receives some rough treatment when Oli is in a playful mood. It's cute because Maddy is about as big as Oli, so he's busy running around with this huge stuffed moose in his mouth.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Rough day
Ugh, today was rough. I worked from home today and Oli was a little hellion...all day long. I took him outside frequently, but despite that he was determined to pee on the carpet in rebellion instead of go to the door or pee on his pads. I practically had to drag him around the coul de sac for one short walk at lunch time. And he was very growly and grumpy all around.
I think that yesterday was too much for him with going to my work and meeting so many people. Tonight I finally quarantined him in his exercise pen for awhile this evening to save my family room carpet from any more damage. Thank goodness for Nature's Miracle cleaner. He did alright playing with L. after L. got home from work, but then he got ornery again. So, he's in his crate now fast asleep. I think he got way overstimulated yesterday and this morning when my sister and her dog were around. He hasn't made a peep for over an hour and a half. I'm hoping that some additional rest will help him go back to his little sunny personality again. Tomorrow he'll have to be at home by himself for about 6 hours in his exercise pen, but it will be pretty cushy. He has his doggy bed, toys, food, water, papers, and crate in there. I have back-to-back meetings all day tomorrow, so L. is going in to work early so that he can get home early to let the dog out. Maybe a day on his own will help little Oli recover. We can only hope!
I think that yesterday was too much for him with going to my work and meeting so many people. Tonight I finally quarantined him in his exercise pen for awhile this evening to save my family room carpet from any more damage. Thank goodness for Nature's Miracle cleaner. He did alright playing with L. after L. got home from work, but then he got ornery again. So, he's in his crate now fast asleep. I think he got way overstimulated yesterday and this morning when my sister and her dog were around. He hasn't made a peep for over an hour and a half. I'm hoping that some additional rest will help him go back to his little sunny personality again. Tomorrow he'll have to be at home by himself for about 6 hours in his exercise pen, but it will be pretty cushy. He has his doggy bed, toys, food, water, papers, and crate in there. I have back-to-back meetings all day tomorrow, so L. is going in to work early so that he can get home early to let the dog out. Maybe a day on his own will help little Oli recover. We can only hope!
Blog update
So, yesterday I deleted the last couple of blog entries because I was receiving a virus popup when I came to my blog page. My antivirus caught it immediately each time, but still. It turned out that it happened on all of the blogspot blogs that I read, but before I realized that, I'd already deleted my last couple of entries, including the one about getting our new toy poodle puppy, Oli. In any case, it looks like Computer Associates (CA) was coming up with false positives about this particular "virus", so there wasn't actually an issue and I deleted those entries for nothing. But oh well. I didn't want to be causing any issues for anyone who read my blog. Luckily it turned out to be a non-issue.
In any case, L. and I are having so much fun with Oli. I took him to work today and he met all of my co-workers. Everyone agreed that he is a really sweet little dog and I have a ton of offers to walk him and watch him when I'm in meetings. It's quite nice to have such a great group of people to work with, who actually want you to bring your dog into work. I'll do this for awhile until Oli gets a little bit older and can be at the house on his own for a longer period of time. But right now, at nine weeks, he's just too young to be at home while L. and I are at work all day. Come Thursday, I'll have my own office again, so that will make things easier with taking Oli into work. He did really well today, and his potty training is coming right along. He does really well with his papers, and he's figuring out now how to let us know that he needs to go out. We've only had a few accidents with him in the house, and nothing that was too terrible. He's incredibly smart and is already learning how to fetch and recognize his name. I've been reading up a lot on dog psychology these last few weeks to figure out how best to integrate him into our family and train him. There are so many books out there and differing views. Things have definitely changed since the last dog I raised over 12 years ago.
I have to say that having little Oli has really enriched our lives already. We have so much fun with him, and he makes me laugh all the time. I love watching him play with his "uncle" Diego (my mom's toy poodle) and "cousin" Malcolm (my sister's schnoodle). Both Diego and Malcolm play really nicely with Oli, and Malcolm even tosses toys for Oli. It cracks me up to watch a dog playing fetch with another dog. Too cute.
In any case, L. and I are having so much fun with Oli. I took him to work today and he met all of my co-workers. Everyone agreed that he is a really sweet little dog and I have a ton of offers to walk him and watch him when I'm in meetings. It's quite nice to have such a great group of people to work with, who actually want you to bring your dog into work. I'll do this for awhile until Oli gets a little bit older and can be at the house on his own for a longer period of time. But right now, at nine weeks, he's just too young to be at home while L. and I are at work all day. Come Thursday, I'll have my own office again, so that will make things easier with taking Oli into work. He did really well today, and his potty training is coming right along. He does really well with his papers, and he's figuring out now how to let us know that he needs to go out. We've only had a few accidents with him in the house, and nothing that was too terrible. He's incredibly smart and is already learning how to fetch and recognize his name. I've been reading up a lot on dog psychology these last few weeks to figure out how best to integrate him into our family and train him. There are so many books out there and differing views. Things have definitely changed since the last dog I raised over 12 years ago.
I have to say that having little Oli has really enriched our lives already. We have so much fun with him, and he makes me laugh all the time. I love watching him play with his "uncle" Diego (my mom's toy poodle) and "cousin" Malcolm (my sister's schnoodle). Both Diego and Malcolm play really nicely with Oli, and Malcolm even tosses toys for Oli. It cracks me up to watch a dog playing fetch with another dog. Too cute.
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