Hush Puppy

Trixie has been a bit mopey since I left with Toby and he never came home. It's understandable since he has been the head cheese since she got here to suddenly not have that security blanket. I'm honestly surprised at how she still seems to be waiting for him to come in the dog door or something. I guess when your brain is the size of a walnut it makes sense.

Trixie is a social dog, much more so than Toby was. I think it helps that the neighborhood has embraced the idea of having dogs as house pets so she has more dogs available than Toby did. We realized after getting Trixie that we waited too long with Toby. He didn't want to play with her and she was an annoying puppy to him. They got along like old people and midgets.

So we decided that if we were going to get another dog, we better do it sooner rather than later, so that Trixie would actually play with the new dog and hopefully become fast friends. I hope we are all picturing a scene behind an Italian restaurant with a plate of spaghetti and a single meatball. We didn't want to be potty training a dog in the snow so we were going to wait until the spring to get one, but we have had such a mild winter we decided to go ahead.

We found a litter of 8 week old Cocker Spaniel and mini-Australian shepherd mix puppies that were "crate trained". They were in West Valley so we donned our neutral gang colors and headed over to see if there were any suitable males. We decided to take Trixie. It made sense at the time, since we were picking not only a pet for us, but also a playmate for her that she should have some say in the matter so to speak. Alas she was as useless as a double sided wristwatch (I don't know okay?). She just hid on the couch behind Wendi the whole time which was funny since she was the biggest one there.

There were 4 males so we proceeded to check them all.
#1 (The Biggest) - Freaked out and peed all over us when we tried to pick him up and hold him. When I say freaked out, you would have thought we were skinning him alive and the pee was just the topping on the cake. DENIED!!
#2 (Next Largest) - Was nice enough but had a bad reaction to his shots and his muzzle was in bad shape. His ears appeared to be infected so we opted to not take the chance on him and risk large medical bills down the road. Sorry bud.
#3 (The Runt) - Much smaller than the others but very playful. He didn't like being on his back much and tried to wiggle free. Viable option #1.
#4 (Pick of the Litter) - This dog was such a doll. He was mild mannered and just loved to be petted and didn't mind not being in control. He was the only one that wasn't black and brown, instead he was white and brown.

We decided on #4 but we the lady said they weren't getting rid of that one...of course. So we opted to get the runt instead. We put him in the car (queue the crying) and drove home.We started the chore of picking a name for our little bundle of teeth. I voted for fun ones such as "Dammit" or "Treat" which I thought would drive the other dogs crazy, and "Carma". I really just wanted to yell "Bad Carma" through my neighborhood. Wendi voted for more normal names like "Edward" (10 guesses where that came from). In the end we compromised and decided to call him "Paul" but then we decided that isn't a dog's name, it's a persons name so we went with "Daxter".

The rest of that day Daxter wandered around our house crying. When time for sleepy-pie he laid in his crate and cried for an hour (not so much crate trained). So Wendi took him out he spent the night curling up around her head while we slept very little. The next day it rained, and it has snowed on and off for the last week which is so nice. One of my favorite things in the world has to be standing out in the snow half dressed trying to get a puppy to pee when all he wants to do is play with dead plants.

He is supposed to be super smart with the Australian shepherd in him, but a week has gone by and I'm not quite convinced. He learned to used the dog door after a few days which took Trixie a month to figure out. But the potty training isn't going so well. He keeps peeing and pooping right in front of the dog door, so either the effort it takes to get through the dog door is causing him to go or he is trying to be more earth friendly by not polluting our water table by going outside. Either way it's quite annoying.

He also has this bad idea of crawling in tight spaces. He has spent many an hour under our bed while we are walking around the house calling his name. He also likes to curl up under the recliner, which is a really good place for him as well. The other day though he found that there was a hole in the back yard that went under the cement patio and climbed in there. Wendi was able to get him out but he had some trouble. We plugged the hole with bricks until we can fill it in, but when we let him back out he ran straight back to the hole.








On the plus side Trixie seems to like him. The first day she pretty much avoided him, but the next morning she jumped up on our bed and they played for a bit. They seem to be getting along great other than they don't like to share food.

They learned that they can play tug-of-war with each other which has been nice. Daxter has had some trouble differentiating between dog toys and other items around the house. The other day he brought a sprinkler into the house that is apparently a dog toy now. Oh to have the worries of a dog...but the neutering is kinda a deal breaker for me.

Valentines Shmalentines

I guess I need to get back on the horse. I haven't really felt like posting anything since we had to put Toby down, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet.

It's Valentines day. If you didn't know it is probably too late to run out and grab something and pretend that you were "acting" like you forgot. Sorry bud.

Valentines day is one of those days that I find annoying. Yes, it has a lot to do with all of the commercials that try to suggest that you are a bad person if you don't buy your girl something shiny with lots of diamonds. It has become a marketing tool much like Mother's Day and Christmas. Beyond that though I find it humorous that we have a day set aside to let somebody know that you love them. If you are in a relationship I hope that you already know how the other person feels about you.

I don't object to Valentines day completely though. It serves it's purpose for those who may be struggling or distant. It does provide one day a year to set difference aside and remember why you are with the person.

I feel bad for Wendi really. She is awesome and I know that she knows that I know that she knows, you know? But I don't buy the flowers and bling for her to prove that I love her. But I hope that I make it pretty obvious the rest of the days in the year.

If not here goes. Wendi...I like you....a lot! You are the kettle to my pot. You are the ice in my Mountain Dew. You are the batteries to my remote control. You are the helium to my balloon. Thanks for being such a cool wife. Everybody is sooo jealous of me and they should be :-)

Puppy's for sale.

We went out tonight to hunt and gather, as so often is the case. We passed by a house on one of the main roads nearby where I saw a hand painted sign that read "Puppy's for sale." Really? That looked right to you? Bill Engvall would be so proud.

Don't get me wrong. I don't have really high standards for using the English language. Through or Thru I don't care. Their heading over they're to see there parents... okay, maybe not that low. If you are texting or IMing then maybe. But if you are going to hand paint a sign and place it on your front lawn for all to see, for the love, seek the advice of a literate family member before putting brush to canvas.




My wife sent me this and it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the sign. Who knew that the only thing standing between a nice family dinner and cannibalism was a comma. Good times.

There is a guy down the street from us that frequently has a "Free Kittens" sign out front. I think I'll sneak out and change it to "Free, Kitten's".

Let's not fight you and I.

Technology and I usually get along pretty good. I think that it has learned that I don't really accept "No" as a valid answer from inanimate objects. There are times when computers and other electronics will work when I try perform the same steps that somebody else has performed numerous times before I did. This tends to annoy other more than you would think it would.

For the last few days technology (and tech support people in India) and I have not been getting along. At some point on Saturday our DSL modem decided that it no longer wanted to be a modem but a "red light, green light" machine instead. We had a little talk it's RAM was made up.

So I decided to turn to the Internet for help. Yeah, I couldn't find a thing on it or even get a page to load. Luckily my phone has some access to the web and I was able to determine the magnitude of the situation. Since we lease our modem I was forced to turn to my arch enemy...tech support.

After the 15 minute ordeal to prove that I am who I say I am we get down to proving that the modem is indeed not working.

Indian Lady: Sir, can you press the power button?
Me: No, it doesn't have one.
Indian Lady: OK, I'm sorry to hear that. Can you tell me are there any lights on it?
Me: Yes, there are.
Indian Lady: OK, thank you sir...so you should now be able to see Internet.
Me: Should? Yes, but no, still nothing.
Indian Lady: OK, give me a few minutes to check on something.
5 minutes late
Indian Lady: Are you still there sir?
Me: Yep
Indian Lady: OK, thank you for your patience sir.
Me: /eyeroll
Indian Lady: Can you tell me what modem you have?
Me: Sure, it's a...
Indian Lady: Okay, let me look that up in our system.
Indian Lady: Uh huh
Indian Lady: Okay
Indian Lady: Hmmm
Indian Lady: Uh huh
Indian Lady: Okay, it looks like your modem is broken.

So they send us a new one. In the mean time I have been without the Internet at home. I use the Internet for almost everything now days. I have stopped asking Wendi where I left my keys, I just Google it. I also go online to blog and to contact people, and to download coloring pages, and to bet on horse races, and to watch movies, etc. We had to relearn how to play bored games at our house.

I was able to prove a theory. That not having the Internet will not actually kill you. Or at least not in small doses.

Dead or just sleeping

We had a busy day today. We bummed around second hand stores looking for old looking bottles and Gothic looking candelabras. Our final stop was at a local Savers store. I won't bore you with the details but our greatest find was this fella.



Poor guy must have just run out of gas. He obviously found a couple of suitcases he was interested in. He must have just sat down for a second. His eyelids must have been so heavy. We figured he laid back for just a second, just to rest his head for a second. I think we can all relate.

The funny thing about this little guy is that he was totally out. I mean O U T...out. Little kids were running by "Mama, Mama". A lady just out of frame was testing a blow dryer out. Nothing, this guy crashed hard. I'd be willing to be that he was there until the place closed down for the day. I hope that he is still there now and that he wakes up in a dark store all by himself.


I'm still not sure how he has so much of his body in contact with 2nd hand things and able to cope. Whenever I go to these places I handle everything like it has the potential to give me pinkeye...which is probably not that far off. I don't think I could sit on that couch much less lay down on it. The only thing I could come up with is what if he wasn't asleep but had actually passed away while shopping for suitcases. Wendi wanted to go drop something really loud by his head but we decided to let him enjoy his nap. He would probably be cranky if we woke him anyway.

Re-RUOTED

You would probably think that a whole state could not possibly be under road construction at the same time...and you'd be wrong. Currently every single road in Utah is being worked on to one extent or another.

Things have got so bad here that they have run out of left pointing detour signs. But fear not, the people in charge held a meeting and determined that drivers are able to read upside-down letters while driving on unfamiliar back roads and avoiding potholes at the same time.

The construction is not only inconvenient but also confusing, even downright incosiderate sometimes. And my Garmin doesn't like it either. Case in point, today we had a dentist appointment that we were running a little late for. We headed toward the freeway where the on-ramps are, and have been for some time, under construction. As we reached the freeway we found that the ramp going northbound, the direction of our dentist's office, was closed. But luckily the construction personnel anticipated that this could potentially be problematic for commuters so they devised backup plan, to direct people onto the freeway on-ramp going in the opposite direction.

So here we are, late for our appointment, and forced onto the freeway, during rush hour traffic, traveling in the wrong direction in a construction zone. 10 minutes, 2 miles and 1 exit later we, and 40 of our now close friends, are sitting on the off ramp so we can turn around and get on the freeway going in the right direction.

One would think that they there would at least be a sign of some kind indicating that the ramp was closed. Heck, I'll even take an upside-down one. One would be wrong! No sign, no detour, no turnaround lane, nobody giving a damn.

I know that road construction is necessary, and even welcomed when it paves the way (pun intended) for future progress. But when it is poorly implemented and coordinated it seems to cause unnecessary problems for the tax payers funding it.

In the words of a dinosaur from the future "I'm starting to wonder how well though out this plan was." For the next 2 weeks I get to drive past the upside-down detour sign. I just can't help but think, "yep, that about sums it up."

Two Weddings and a present

We had two weddings this weekend. My Sister got married on Friday morning with a reception about as far away as possible without us having to rent a hotel room. The other is the daughter of a friend. That one was a good drive away as well. But the drive ended at the much more beautiful Woodland Hills. It is a nice community nestled at the base of the mountains. The community is actually build in small patch of forest, which in Utah is hard to come by.



From the reception hall we could see the snow still clinging to the very tip top of the peaks. It's almost July, just give it up already!!! All of our water ways are filled to the brim right now due to the late snowfall this year, and the lengthy spring. I love spring so I wasn't complaining at the time.

My quorum called to see if I could help sandbag the rivers. Unfortunately I had two weddings to go to so I was all booked up. Maybe next year guys :-).

On they way home we were treated to a beautiful sunset. It was one of those "How does anybody think that all this happened by chance?" moments. Wendi and I had one of our strange conversations about it. I decided that people have spent a lot of time trying to create a perpetual motion machine. Many have come to the conclusion that it is impossible. But really that is what our solar system is. A self sustaining machine in motion that does not require intervention to keep running. It's pretty amazing that our greatest minds can't do it, but somehow random events in the cosmos can.

I can't wait for the 4th of July. We are going to have a BLAST!!!