More About Howie

Howie seems a little sad today. He's been sleeping all day and doesn't really want to play with us much. I know puppies sleep a lot, like babies, but he just seems a little off to me. Plus I don't want him to sleep all day and cry all night... Pete and I just gave him a bath to wake him up a little. Too soon to tell if it worked. He was super good for us, though. Although he still smells like Howie...

Howie!

You should come visit us if you want to meet this fuzzy-faced cutie...

That's Not Right

Some man gave Lulu a $100 bill yesterday at breakfast! I tried to give it back to him, but he ran off. I managed to give it to a woman who was with him who put it in her pocket. So he may or may not get it back, but we didn't keep it. It was very strange. And creepy.

Not Our Prince

That cute little old-lady's dog, it turns out, is not the dog for us. We love him. He's sweet and submissive and pretty obedient (he'll drop the ball when you tell him to), but he's almost 6 years old, hasn't yet been spayed, and appears to not be completely housebroken - one of the handlers mentioned that he has a tendancy to lift his leg to mark his territory and that "that should get better when he's neutered," but if I'm going to have to train a dog not to pee in the house, we might as well get a puppy. I don't know. I feel bad. I called and told them nevermind, though. We'll keep looking.

I promise I'll just let you know when we actually get a dog. You're probably pretty tired of all this almost-getting-a-dog stuff. I know I am. If you start to wonder what's going on, just ask and I'll specifically send you an update...

We Should Record an Album

Hey, PSP! I had a great idea in the car on the way to Nana and Poppop's yesterday. You and I should put out a Christmas album. We could call it something like "A Sparkly Pants Christmas" or something. And we could sell it on our blogs, download only, to keep from having to pay to make CDs. What do you think? Do you know a good backup band?

Dog Update (do you care?)

Seeing that I apparently really want a dog, Pete and Lulu and I went to the shelter and visited with a couple. The first one, a very sweet, medium-size Terrier/Hound mix was exactly the type of dog I was expecting our family to get when we started all of this. She wasn't right for us, though, because Pete was intimidated by her, which isn't cool. I get if Lulu is a little uncertain. As long as she isn't terrified (or scared at all, really), we can moderate her contact with the dog until she's comfortable, but Pete has to be confident and able to really pet and play with the dog. So we sent her (the dog, not Pete) back to her run and the nice helper-lady went in search of another dog. After a few minutes she came back and said, "Follow me. I've found the perfect dog for your family."
Seriously? This is our dog? A foofy little fluffball? That's an old lady's dog! Lulu wasn't sure about him at first because he's just the right size to put his paws on her shoulders and kiss her face, which he did first thing. But here's the thing: by the end of our visit, both girls - BOTH girls- had played with him and petted him and loved on him. He likes to play fetch with tennis balls, which we can do indoors, which is great because we could get away with only walking him twice a day, I think. He'll fit in the kennel we bought for the other dog we didn't get so we don't have to exchange it.

On the other hand, though, he's a boy, he's almost 5 years old, and he hasn't been neutered yet (they'll do that before they let us adopt him). I really wanted a girl, under 2. But we can still change our minds if we find someone somepup better while we're waiting for him to recover from his cold so he can be neutered.

HG is going with us on Saturday to visit with him too. We'll see what he thinks...

MSC Cooking Camp

Many months ago, Pete mentioned that her friend had taken a cooking camp last summer and said she (Pete) would like to do that this summer. When I asked her friend's mom about it, she said that this summer they were just going to cook together instead and maybe Pete could join them sometimes. I thought that sounded cool and said maybe we could return the favor and have Pete's friend cook with us and from there it turned into a regular, once-a-week thing. Then Pete and her friend invited everyone they know to join us. Not a good idea in my tiny kitchen... Fortunately only one more friend could do it.

This week is the third week. So far the girls have decorated recipe boxes (they get a recipe card to put in it with each week's recipe) and made s'mores and deviled eggs. I think they're making some sort of Cheerio/marshmallow thing this week (it's not my week to lead), which they will love, I'm sure. I need to come up with a good (nutritious, yummy, easy) recipe for next week that doesn't include marshmallows, though. Maybe something they could eat for lunch? Anybody got any ideas?

A Post That's Not About the Dog!

The other day, the Grandpa suggested that I write a synopsis of my novel. That sounded to me like a really good way to get started, since I've been having trouble just writing the thing. I am about 3/5 of the way through it, and here's what I've discovered. I think the reason that I can't start actually writing it is that I don't really have a beginning. The middle and end are fairly well developed (I think - I haven't actually written down the ending, yet), but if I write a novel that starts the way my synopsis starts, you all will get bored and give up before you get to the interesting parts. I would.

This is what they mean by work-in-progress...

Phooey!

She's been adopted. Man! We loved her!! It's okay. At least she's got a home.

On the plus side... Well, two things: First, we're approved to get a dog and so can go whenever and pick out an even more perfect new family member. Second, we don't have to worry about the new dog on the 4th. What with the fireworks booming frighteningly and a potential trip to see Nana and Poppop, we were a little iffy about having a new dog. So we'll go Saturday. Early. And be first in line for whatever wonderful lovey needs us most.

Meanwhile, Pete and I are watching the website and have a couple picked out to visit with if they're still there this weekend.

Sorry that I'm all One-Track-Mind-y

I think Husbandguy has joined the dog bandwagon because we just had an email exchange that went like this:

MN: If they don't call by the end of the day tomorrow, I'm going to call them Thursday and just check on the status of our application.
HG: You may not want to wait that long. Call end of today or tomorrow morning. Just to check on status. You don't want it to fall through the cracks or our application to be lost.

Right? He's on board. Right? Because if not, he wouldn't have said that. That's a direct quote from his email (I can forward it to you if you don't believe me). He wouldn't have said anything, probably.

And Moomie said, "If you get a dog, do you want me to come visit you?" and I said, "Um, yeah? But we want you to come visit us even if we don't get a dog."

And Pete and I checked the website this morning. The other dog that we had considered is gone from the pictures so we think she's been adopted. We were relieved to see that ours is still there.

Fingers crossed! Right, guys?