Wordless Wednesday

The Countdown is on

Right around this time last year, Jay and I were in the process of getting our PADI Open Water certifications. I was also about to meet with my now boss for the first time.

It's incredible how much can change in a year.

I now have my PADI Advanced Open Water Certification as well as my FINRA Series 7 registration. For the record, the Series 7 was a lot harder. But my dive certification will keep me safer when it comes to breathing underwater.

We went to the Dominican Republic to celebrate our three year anniversary last December, and we brought home a parasite.

After we found out we were expecting, we of course rushed out to get a puppy, since the breeder in Maryland still hadn't come through for us. Speaking of which, I still haven't heard from him and it's been over a year now.

Loki is settling down, kind of. Okay, not really. Maybe a little. Part of the problem is that he's a high energy breed and pregnancy kind of takes all of that extra energy out of you. He is awesome as long as you keep him busy playing fetch or frisbee. We had hoped to take him for a second round of obedience training, but this summer got away from us.

So on to the countdown... if due dates are to be believed, I will become a mom in five days. It's all rather surreal and terrifying.

The nursery is ready, we have childcare for when I go back to work, my awesome friends have set up a food delivery schedule to get us through the first six weeks, and we have everything that we need.

I'm trying to get some rest this weekend, but it's not easy when you're 9 months pregnant and have to pee constantly. That and having a dog who constantly wants to play.

I suppose that I should get back to writing my thank you cards... and hopefully that elusive nap!

Has it been two weeks??

Really?

So sorry! I am still alive, barely. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind... first, wrapping everything up at my old job, taking care of the puppy, then I got sick, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. Puppy biting everything. Puppy housebreaking. Puppy needs attention. More attention. MORE ATTENTION!! Why are you looking at your phone? I will bite it! BITE BITE BITE! Whine whine BARK! Throw the ball, THROW THE BALL!!!

Loki is living up to his name. Jay says it's all my fault.

No, I will not eat the rest of my food, I want to play. I will grab your pant leg and pull. Don't even think about folding laundry! I will steal your socks.

You will take me outside, I will pee. Then I will come inside and pee again, just to spite you.

It's a damn good thing the little bastard is cute, because I have wanted to strangle him nearly every day. No more puppies. Ever.

I've equated it to having a rabid two year old on crack with ADHD and VERY sharp teeth.

People are like, "Awww, it's just like having a baby."

Umm, no. At least a baby takes lots of naps and wakes up crying every hour or two. You feed it and change its diaper and it goes back to sleep. With a baby, you don't have to keep taking it outside in 10 degree weather and 6 inches of snow. And then wait for it to go potty. And repeat once every hour or two.

This little jerk takes maybe two naps a day, half an hour each, and you'd better nap while he does. I try to wear him down by taking him to the park. He'll take a mile or two mile walk, start to whine when he gets tired. He'll sleep in the car for the five minute ride home, wake up, then proceed to run around like a crazy dog, biting pant legs, fingers, and anything else he can get his sharp puppy teeth around.

When we're home, he wants to play constantly. He will play fetch for hours. He does not have an off switch. After a half hour or 45 minute play session, I will want to take a break. You know, to eat. Cue the whining. And the barking. And the biting. And the chewing. GAHHH!!!

I don't know what to do! I feel bad locking him in his crate, but he just won't sit still and chill out with me. Toys only pique his interest for a few minutes, then he's off on his next adventure of chewing power cords and table legs.

So let's just say that my week off hasn't exactly been relaxing. I've also been studying for my Series 7 exam. Talk about dry material... it's a bit like reading the phone book. Oh well, at least I'm making progress. My test score has increased by 2 points so far this week.

So that's what is going on. I probably won't be blogging quite as much until my life gets back under control. Once the puppy is housebroken and once I pass my Series 7 exam, I will be blogging much more frequently!

Loki is here!

We tried to get Loki to choose his own name. Jay threw a treat on the floor, and so did I. We decided that whichever treat he ate first would be his name - Jay's treat would be Cinder, mine would be Loki. 

So of course he ignored the treats until Jay pointed them out. He did point his out first, but Loki ate my treat first. I think it was more of Jay giving in than anything. So I guess this means that our first child will be named Cinder. :-P

Cinder had been growing on me, but I still think Loki will be a better fit.

Picking up Loki at the airport... poor little guy. Took us a while to figure out the correct Cargo space. For the record, if you are picking up a puppy from BWI that flew Delta, you will go to Building B, Door 26 or 27. The chick in there was jamming out to some Evanescence and bore a strong resemblance to Amy Lee. Maybe she took some time off from touring to work pet cargo?

He refused to come out of his crate into the cold, or to step onto the cold parking lot. Ultimately we put the kennel into the back of the car with the seat down and his bed in front of it. As soon as I buckled up, he came right out and sniffed around his bed. Guess he is not a fan of the cold!

Home safely!

Loki loves his new Kong toy

Loki in puppy jail. He got stuck under the table and couldn't figure out how to get out. It was ridiculously cute.

Last night he hardly cried at all, probably because he'd had such a rough day and was tired. He went to bed at 10:30 and started whining to go out around 5:15 this morning. No accidents in the crate, either. So far, so good!

All of that said, I'm pretty tired today because I woke up at the slightest noise. I was worried about waking up to take Loki out during the night. Turns out that I had to pee more times last night than little Loki!

Tonight we are having our first visitors and tomorrow we are going to the vet!

Almost Wordless Wednesday, Puppy Video Edition

Arriving at BWI via DTW tomorrow afternoon, January 9th. The ground transport fell through, so puppy is being flown to us.

Naming Pup

When we have kids, I have no idea how we will ever decide on a name. This is the first time we've ever named anything together, aside from Fanny the Forester. This dog naming thing is turning out to be very difficult.

Speaking of our little guy, he may be delayed a few days because of the weather. We might still be getting him on Thursday, as I had originally posted, but I haven't had an update since last night. It sounded like the transport company (hereafter known as Kyle) was hoping to get him to us by Tuesday evening, but I think that Thursday or even Friday is more likely. When I talked to Kyle last night, he was stuck in the snow a quarter mile from his house, waiting to get towed out.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

So Jay has his heart set on Cinder. He thinks it's a cool name since he's Mr. Fireman. 

I don't have my heart set on anything yet, but I'm betting that Jay will win with Cinder, just since he loves it so much and none of the names so far have really screamed out at me.

Here is the list, in likelihood of actual names:

1. Cinder
2. Loki
3. Cerberus
4. Bacchus
5. Gandalf
6. Sazed
7. Kelsier

Jay wants to narrow it down to two choices and have people vote. So I'm pretty sure that Cinder will be the pup's name. 

It's official

We are bringing little Giz home. Or at least, he is coming to us. Next Thursday, January 9th! :)

Here is a super shaky, crappy video that the breeder sent me.

And here are some pictures of his grown up siblings from an earlier breeding of his parents:

And here is Giz's daddy...

We are trying to come up with a badass name for our badass dog. So far, Jay's favorite is Cinder, after a character in the Kingkiller Chronicles. 

Here are others in the running, some suggested by friends:

1. Gandalf 
2. Anubis 
3. Cerberus
4. Atreyu 
5. Artax
6. Rand al-Thor
7. Odin (found this one today and I think it's a strong contender)

Personally, I prefer one or two-syllable names for pets. So I think that if we end up having a 3 syllable name that we would probably call him by a nickname. Like Cerby for Cerberus, or Randy for Rand al-Thor. 

All of that said, I think that we will see what his personality is like before we decide on something for certain. During his first two weeks with us, there is only one day where he will have to be crated (apart from at night) for more than two or three hours. And I'm hoping that I can either take a half day that day, have one of my girlfriends check on him at lunch, or take an extended lunch and run home in the middle of the day for an hour. Or some combination of that. Since I'll be working in Denton beginning January 27th, going home at lunch to take care of the pup won't be a problem. 

So that's my exciting news! Lots of changes coming for 2014... new job, new puppy... and I'm sure that there will be other new things as well!

And another plan...

I haven't heard anything from the person that I began stalking emailed through their Craigslist posting. I tried Facebook friending/messaging them and everything. Their last post was on December 19th, so maybe he just had no puppies left.

So I found yet another breeder, on the slightly puppy-mill-sounding website puppyfind.com. Actually, aforementioned Craigslist dude had posted on there as well. Anyway, the guy has a lot of great reviews on the site and the pups have ot Vitosha lines. Also, the puppies are pretty reasonably priced and included AKC registration, pedigree, health guarantee and vaccinations. So what the hell. I emailed him, he was responsive, answered all of my questions. He even sent pictures of dogs from a previous breeding... all very nice looking animals. 

But mostly... OMG. Giz. 

I even kinda like his name. Although I'd call him Gizmo. Or Killer McBitey.

He looks the most alert and intelligent of all of his puppy brothers. I just want to kiss his little puppy nose!

The only issue is that he is in Tennessee. Not Knoxville, TN, which we could reach by car in about 8 hours, but of course Somerville, TN which is nearly 14 hours away. If we can pick up the pup at 7 weeks, we may opt to drive, but otherwise I think that we may have him shipped. Once gas, tolls, hotel and marital happiness is factored in, I think that shipping him is the smart choice.

SO keep your fingers crossed that we will have this little guy snug in his own little puppy bed two weeks from today.

So much happening!

The last week has been a whirlwind of activity and insanity. My sister in law came to visit, parties were hosted and attended, last-minutes gifts were ordered, cooking, cleaning, wrapping. 

I'll give a full update soon, I promise.

So I discovered why it seemed that the chickens were slacking off. It turns out that they had a secret stash of about two dozen eggs outside their coop. 

Jay relaxing at home after we returned from vacation.

And meat prep before our party. I had purchased about a 4 pound beef tenderloin over the summer from Giant. I think it was on sale for $8 a pound or so. 

IT WAS AWESOME. Literally one of the best things I have ever made, and so simple. I wish that I had documented each step... and in hindsight, I didn't even take photos of the finished product. I'll have to make it again to post. Basically, I made a rub of salt, pepper, garlic and adobo, then slow-roasted the tenderloin at 300. I finished it by searing each side on the stovetop. I let it rest for about half an hour before slicing it thinly. Then I made a fresh horseradish and creme fraiche sauce, coupled with toast points. 

I'll post more photos from the party and Colleen's visit soon. I think.

In other news, I love the breeder that we originally chose for our Belgian Malinois puppy. However, no breeding has happened/taken since we visited in July (not necessarily his fault), and we really wanted to take our pup home by this time. So basically even if by some miracle, he has a dog bred today - we still would have no puppy until April. Which we have decided is not going to work for us.

Timing wise, it hasn't worked out. I'm evaluating several other options, and if all goes well, we may be taking home a puppy this weekend. There is a female pup who is actually Bear's daughter. I wanted a male, but I mean... her daddy is a movie star. Incredibly intelligent dog from great lines. But she comes with a hefty price tag.

There is another litter that is two weeks old, from Broadcreek Kennels. There is some negative press about them, so while they are local, I am a bit wary. They are also showline Malinois, where we wanted more of a working dog. 

And finally, I happened across a litter of pups on a commercial website, then found a Craigslist listing for the same litter. Turns out that they would have similar bloodlines as our planned original Triple E pup.

In other news, I decided to take that job offer. I gave notice at my present job last Friday. They were upset, but took the news pretty well overall. My last day with the group will be January 17th. 

I'll be taking a week off to prepare for the new job. I'll also begin studying for my Series 7 exam soon. Probably the 2nd week of January. Originally we were thinking of going diving with that week off, but that's obviously not going to work with a new puppy. 

Next year will be an exciting one for sure. Lots of challenges in 2014, but I am looking forward to them.

Happy Friday

Not much new to post about. 

We're still waiting on news about our puppy. We thought that we would be taking him home by now, or in a few weeks. However, it's looking like we won't be taking him home until April, as none of the summer breedings happened. I suppose that might be better for housebreaking. After all, who wants to take the pup outside when it's cold out? Brrr! Anyway, the breeder is evaluating some other stud dogs and will be trying a new stud when one of the females come in to heat.

I'm starting to get a little excited about our trip. Not so much for the trip itself, but for the diving. I can't wait to get some more dives under my belt. We may go to FL with our dive shop in January, if the dates work out. We might also just go down to FL without them if the dates don't work. We can use our travel rewards points for flights and hotel. We could spend money on diving instead of the travel. I've discovered that the points are better used by transferring them to a partner, like Southwest and Marriott. A 4 day trip to Florida might use 80,000 points if we book through the Ultimate Rewards site, but if we transfer them to Marriott and Southwest, the same trip will cost 50,000 points.

So I'm already thinking about taking the Rescue Diver course in a few months. Hopefully I will have already passed my Series 7 with flying colors so that I'll be able to concentrate on my rescue course. Jay is joking that I'll be a Divemaster by the end of next summer. Hey, if they can get us a discount on the training for both of us at once, we might pursue it. 

Tonight we're meeting up with one of the couples that we'll be going to the DR with. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to drag myself out of bed for the Turkey Trot. 

After Jay and I were both forced to get on the scale last week, we are trying to eat a little better and exercise more. I'm trying to cut back on carbs again, but not go totally Atkins. Mostly just less processed food and more exercise. 

I know not to rely on the scale too much though, as I'm back at my heaviest again. However, I don't think that I look like this again:

 

My body is more muscular. Especially my legs (but oddly my cellulite is now more apparent). I'm not saying that I couldn't stand to lose 20 pounds or that I'm comfortable wearing a bathing suit. I just know that I'm healthier than I was at this time last year, and that's good enough for me.

Will have to post some more recent photos. There will be plenty of those in a few weeks after we return from the DR. I will probably resemble a lobster, like my last trip:

Maybe this time I'll drink less Presidente and more vodka & soda. Or perhaps champagne. 

I'll let you know what I decide. 

An Adventurous Weekend

Tomorrow I'll be knocking out something on my 101 list... and a few things on my summer bucket list.

Summer Bucket List:

Do the adult ropes challenge course at Tuckahoe

Go kayaking

And this is on my 101 List:

Climb a rock wall

This is what I'll be doing tomorrow:

An Adults Only Adventure will be held at Tuckahoe State Park on Saturday, July 27 at 6 p.m. at Tuckahoe State Park. Don’t miss this chance for adults to enjoy Tuckahoe’s Challenge Course! Join park staff for an evening of fun on the course’s high elements: a 40-foot rock wall, 50-foot giant swing, 25-foot pamper pole and the zip line. 

Also possibly on the agenda for the weekend:

From the 101 list:

• Send Aunt Nancy thank you gift 
• Send Chris and Sally thank you gift
• Eat a rooster that wakes me up too early

From my seasonal bucket list:

Find frames for koala and lorikeet photos – then hang them

Clean up front garden and plant perennials

Make marshmallows from scratch

On the garden clean-up... I kind of cheated. It was such a nice and unseasonably cool day yesterday that Jay did a bunch of weeding while I was at work. So really all I need to do now is track down some perennials and plant them. 

In other news, we are beside ourselves about our puppy - we want it now now NOW!! 

We won't know for another month or two when we can expect to take our new friend home. Once Bilana or Leila have been bred, it will take a little over a month to confirm if there are puppies. 

Despite our impatience, Jay and I have come to the realization that we need to be fully prepared for this dog. We want to make sure that we have a solid plan for socialization and obedience training, as well as the shutzhund training that we're planning. I'm hoping to meet up with Bart and his owner in the next few months to see if he has any pointers. Apparently Bart gives hugs. That's the kind of dog I want. The kind that gives hugs on command and will also attack a threat on command. Maybe a dog who is a little too smart for his own good. Maybe we can even teach him to fetch a beer from the fridge. 

So we'll be keeping ourselves busy over the next few months puppy-proofing the house, fencing in the yard, and buying necessities. We're also going to have to take our cats in to get vaccinated. I'm hesitant to do it because they're indoor cats and they haven't been to the vet in years. The last time I took them to the vet was when I lived in Odenton. It required several return trips because they kept getting sick. They've been completely healthy for over 5 years now and I haven't had any problems. But since our dog might bring in some beasties from outside, we're going to have to start having them vaccinated each year. 

Oh, and Ideal Event Management was doing a special sale yesterday for their 2014 VIP passes. 2 for 1 plus a private investigation with Dustin Pari AND a private tour and lecture with John Zaffis at his Museum of the Paranormal? That's a no-brainer.

Jay doesn't want to do the Fort Mifflin event again next year, but I would love to meet Josh Gates and Erin Ryder. 

I hope to get out the camera this weekend and take some pictures. Since I've been back from vacation, I've been kind of slacking with the photography. I need to get back into it.

That's all for today. Hoping to get some things done this weekend!

A new addition

After a lot of soul-searching and many weeks on Petfinder, Jay and I decided to go the route of a breeder instead of getting a rescue dog. Rescues seem to have so many hoops to jump through (i.e. home visits, questions about children, etc.) that we just decided that it wasn't worth it. We also had to be honest with ourselves: Did we want to spend the time and energy in caring for a dog that might have been abused? My cats are both rescues and I do give money to our local rescue group. Maybe we'll even be doggie fosters at some point.

The other issue is that most of the local rescues have an overabundance of pit bulls for adoption. I know that the breed is unfairly demonized, but I also didn't want to take the chance with one. And call me shallow, but I think they're kind of ugly. My sister in law has a wonderful pit-lab mix who is a great dog. However, I just really don't want anything that could be mixed with pit. 

But I digress. Growing up, we had a wonderful Vizsla named Arrow. Jay and I discussed the qualities that we wanted in a dog. Something with a low-maintenance coat, intelligent and obedient, a larger size, good with kids, and with strong protection qualities. The latter mattered to Jay more than me, but apparently he is worried about me staying home by myself while he is at work. 

We used a breed selector tool and the Belgian Malinois turned out to be one of our top matches. 

This type of breed is commonly used in the police and military. We were also familiar with it because one of our favorite shows, Person of Interest  has a regular cast member who happens to be a Malinois. His name is Bear.

They also have a strong herding instinct, so we can use him to round up our chickens when they get out. :)

Anyway, over the weekend I found some breeders in Maryland. After submitting a request for information to Triple E Kennels, I received an immediate call from the owner, Ernie. He grilled me for half an hour about what kind of dog we were looking for, did I have any experience with dog training, what did I know about the breed, etc. I was starting to think that maybe getting a dog from a breeder was a bad idea after all of his questions!

However, Ernie just loves his dogs and is passionate about what he does. He wants to make sure he is giving his pups a great home. 

So we went out to Meet the Mutts (as Ernie put it) on Sunday.

Ernie breeds his dogs for primarily for protection, police and military use. He showed us the skills tests that the dogs are put through. These are shutzhund  (German for protection dog) tests. The dogs are highly trained and obedient. The photo above is Jay with the bite sleeve on getting ready to be bitten by Tim, who will be the father of our future pup. Tim was the only dog there that we weren't able to pet. Mostly because we didn't want to bleed. That said, we were able to pet the other five dogs there... the only thing I was worried about with them was licking me to death. And that was even after doing the bite sleeve test with Bilana (below).

This is Jay with Bilana (she was imported from Belgium), preparing to participate in a suspect apprehension drill. She nearly pulled me off of my feet during my turn. Despite Bilana weighing a third of my weight, she is crazy STRONG.

This is one of the pups from a recent litter that we were able to meet. This little guy was 9 weeks old. We won't be getting our pup until the end of the year, which will give us time to get the fence up, get a crate or two, and puppy-proof the house. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he will be ready to be picked up on or shortly after December 14th, so that we won't have to waive the first litter or find someone to watch him while we're in the Dominican Republic. I don't want to miss any fun cute puppy time with our new family member!

So it looks like we are going to have a legitimate guard dog. Not to worry, because we are going to take our pup to train with Ernie. Jay is overjoyed and can't wait to get into this kind of thing. The thing is, the training isn't something that we can half-ass or do on our own. So on top of the obedience, we'll be doing shutzhund. We might even start taking our dog to competitions. We'll see. I did teach my Vizsla to jump through a hoop. It's been a few years, but I'm sure that I've retained some of that knowledge. Biting a sleeve and jumping through hoops has to be the same kind of thing, right?

If I say Stellen, you might want to run.