Oh, Minnesota, you fickle girl. One day you decide to roast your inhabitants and the next day you stick them back in the fridge. While I hardly know why you seem determined to treat us like leftover pizza, I only ask that your next step is not to give us a quick reheat in the microwave. Thank you.
Good news, people. My brother is coming home for a visit and arrives TODAY! My mother craftily made him a dentist appointment this afternoon so that he would feel motivated to get himself on the road from Madison before mid-afternoon and this means that he will be at the house when Lena and I arrive tonight. He is not coming alone either - Kady the Pooper Dog is coming as well. Sadly, Kady's mama, my brother's lovely ladyfriend Heidi cannot come, but we will miss her. Not just Kady.
More good news: my ant problem seems to be abating. Not only that, but a wee spider seems to have taken advantage of the ant-zone and has set up shop. Normally I might find this disturbing, but as long as it doesn't turn into a wee spider infestation, I'm cool with it.
If you can believe it, I have even more good news. OK, so this is only quasi-good news as there really isn't a reason to celebrate or anything, but still. While casually browsing a nonprofit job board the other day, I happened upon a job posting at a local law library, so I checked it out. As luck would have it, the position is at a level for which I could possibly qualify, AND it just so happens that I know someone who already works there. How is THAT for networking? To think that just recently I had been privately chastising myself for not getting "out there" in the world of professional associations and that the benefit of knowing the right people would forever elude me.
To be fair, I have only just applied for the job. In fact, I probably won't have any kind of response for a good week or so. But I did contact my peep over at the library and she encouraged me to go for it and even volunteered to be one of my references. So even if I don't end up getting the job, at least I am now getting an opportunity to make a pretty good shot at it (and hopefully get through an interview process).
This is also funny because I had just been thinking to myself that unless some really good postings came up there was a strong chance that I would not fulfill my goal of finding a new job by the end of summer. Again, I'm not going to get ahead of myself to the point of getting all nostalgic about my tenure at my current company. True, there have been good times. In fact, there have been AWESOME times at this place. My reasons for leaving are not that this has been a bad place to spend the last decade; I am ready for a new challenge. It is a process that started when I made the decision to go to grad school two years ago. It is just a little hard to imagine that my decision is really going to affect my life in such a profound way.
Enough of that sentimental rambling crap. Does anyone have any fun plans for the summer? Seriously, although my summer is somewhat busy, it is thus far completely without lake access. I believe I have whined about this in previous entries, but this is because my usual cabin funtime outlet is either being cancelled (at worst) or delayed (at best) due to the impending birth of my friend's first child. There have been hints that we could perhaps attempt a late summer/early fall voyage, but the end of July is really the best lake time. We certainly could hang out and relax at the cabin any time, but naked swim day may be off the agenda. That's right, you heard me and that's ALL I'm going to say about it.
Nice, right? Well, if you know me in person, you probably already know about the tradition. As much as I would like to say that what happens in Ely stays in Ely, the four of us have told far too many outsiders to be modest about it any more. I will only say that the details cannot be divulged in writing. It's that sacred.
So then. Well. I hope you all have a lovely day!
Showing posts with label dogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dogs. Show all posts
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The Mighty Thor
Good news folks: today the temperature is supposed to be a bit more "normal." Allergies seem to be coming into full bloom for many, which means that mine cannot be far off. For now, I'm good and avoiding the need to medicate, but it can always change quickly.
Yesterday was not terribly exciting for many reasons. That is, until Thor decided to kick it up a notch. For the new readers, Thor is my parents' two year old Jack Russell Terrier. He is about the sweetest little guy you could ever meet and goes by many nicknames: T-Hor, Tius von Bius, Spicy T, T-Bag, T-Money Nice, Buddy Munch etc. You get the picture.
By nature, Thor is a lover and not a fighter, although he does give off a pretty scary "fierce purr" when you try to disturb him in the evening when he is tired. However, he does have one strange neurotic fixation with flowing water, especially when it is in his backyard. This typically manifests itself when my mom is using the garden hose. He will BITE at the water as it flows from the nozzle, usually resulting in one drenched dog and mildly amused humans.
I don't think that this is completely unusual for a dog as I have heard others tell similar stories. He has also been known to pursue sprinkler streams, but usually our in ground system goes off too early in the morning for him to do this.
With all of the hot weather, my mother has become concerned that the grass is getting dry. For this reason, she asked my father to turn on the sprinklers yesterday evening to supplement the normally scheduled run. He complied with her request and the watering began.
It didn't take long for us to realize that this could pose a problem for the canine contingency of the household as it was still daylight and these dogs perform their bathroom functions in the yard at this time. Like fools, we reasoned that they would be fine and let them out. Indeed, Pippi and Lena simply went out and did their business, carefully avoiding the spraying water from the three active sprinkler heads. Thor did not.
Rather than take care of business, Thor began to slowly circle the yard, clearly assessing the situation. Then he attacked. Seriously, he ATTACKED. For the next ten minutes, Thor was a sprinkler hunting machine and was entirely soaked. After the first two minutes, I still thought it was funny. Then I decided to get him inside to dry off and realized that there was a problem. All of the usual temptations (treats, food, visitors) were not enough to break his focus.
Before long, both of my parents joined me in the yard. My mom brought a towel to receive the wet and now shivering dog, but he was not interested. Finally, I bit the bullet and went out into the cold and muddy fray. Unfortunately, when I approached Thor at the first sprinkler head, he expertly dodged my advance and retreated to one of the other spray sources. This game went back and forth until my mother joined us. She stood by the "favorite" sprinkler while I blocked him from the other two.
Meanwhile, my father went after the problem at the source: he shut off the sprinkler system. Just before the water spray ceased, Thor finally acquiesed to reality and accepted his fate by slowly approaching me. I scooped him up and promptly handed the soaking pooch off to my mom and her towels. It turned out to be a two towel situation and the poor boy was shivering for quite a while.
Eventually he dried off and we thought that was the end of it. We turned the sprinklers back on and kept the dogs inside. Unfortunately we had forgotten that in his madcap psychotic sprinkler pursuit, Thor swallowed a LOT of water. Sure enough, for the next hour, Thor kept signalling that he needed to go out. We assumed he wanted to resume his antics and ignored it. Until he proceeded to urinate about a gallon of pee all over the tiled back entry area. Poor guy.
If only that was the conclusion. Oh no. After the entire household had retired to bed, just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard the creak of footsteps in the hallway. As I was nearly asleep, I ignored it.
This morning I was informed of the reason for the disturbance. I am not certain if it was his stomach or nervous system (the little dude always gets carsick), but whatever the cause, he vomited shortly after bedtime. As my father had the dogs in bed with him, he was responsible for the aftermath and cleaning.
The moral of this story is that while watching the dog try to kill a shooting stream of water can be wildly entertaining, it is likely not worth the messy fluid dispersal that follows. I am certain that my veterinarian brother would have some harsh words for us on the subject and he may relay it to us upon his arrival this weekend. Maybe we just won't tell him.
Yesterday was not terribly exciting for many reasons. That is, until Thor decided to kick it up a notch. For the new readers, Thor is my parents' two year old Jack Russell Terrier. He is about the sweetest little guy you could ever meet and goes by many nicknames: T-Hor, Tius von Bius, Spicy T, T-Bag, T-Money Nice, Buddy Munch etc. You get the picture.
By nature, Thor is a lover and not a fighter, although he does give off a pretty scary "fierce purr" when you try to disturb him in the evening when he is tired. However, he does have one strange neurotic fixation with flowing water, especially when it is in his backyard. This typically manifests itself when my mom is using the garden hose. He will BITE at the water as it flows from the nozzle, usually resulting in one drenched dog and mildly amused humans.
I don't think that this is completely unusual for a dog as I have heard others tell similar stories. He has also been known to pursue sprinkler streams, but usually our in ground system goes off too early in the morning for him to do this.
With all of the hot weather, my mother has become concerned that the grass is getting dry. For this reason, she asked my father to turn on the sprinklers yesterday evening to supplement the normally scheduled run. He complied with her request and the watering began.
It didn't take long for us to realize that this could pose a problem for the canine contingency of the household as it was still daylight and these dogs perform their bathroom functions in the yard at this time. Like fools, we reasoned that they would be fine and let them out. Indeed, Pippi and Lena simply went out and did their business, carefully avoiding the spraying water from the three active sprinkler heads. Thor did not.
Rather than take care of business, Thor began to slowly circle the yard, clearly assessing the situation. Then he attacked. Seriously, he ATTACKED. For the next ten minutes, Thor was a sprinkler hunting machine and was entirely soaked. After the first two minutes, I still thought it was funny. Then I decided to get him inside to dry off and realized that there was a problem. All of the usual temptations (treats, food, visitors) were not enough to break his focus.
Before long, both of my parents joined me in the yard. My mom brought a towel to receive the wet and now shivering dog, but he was not interested. Finally, I bit the bullet and went out into the cold and muddy fray. Unfortunately, when I approached Thor at the first sprinkler head, he expertly dodged my advance and retreated to one of the other spray sources. This game went back and forth until my mother joined us. She stood by the "favorite" sprinkler while I blocked him from the other two.
Meanwhile, my father went after the problem at the source: he shut off the sprinkler system. Just before the water spray ceased, Thor finally acquiesed to reality and accepted his fate by slowly approaching me. I scooped him up and promptly handed the soaking pooch off to my mom and her towels. It turned out to be a two towel situation and the poor boy was shivering for quite a while.
Eventually he dried off and we thought that was the end of it. We turned the sprinklers back on and kept the dogs inside. Unfortunately we had forgotten that in his madcap psychotic sprinkler pursuit, Thor swallowed a LOT of water. Sure enough, for the next hour, Thor kept signalling that he needed to go out. We assumed he wanted to resume his antics and ignored it. Until he proceeded to urinate about a gallon of pee all over the tiled back entry area. Poor guy.
If only that was the conclusion. Oh no. After the entire household had retired to bed, just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard the creak of footsteps in the hallway. As I was nearly asleep, I ignored it.
This morning I was informed of the reason for the disturbance. I am not certain if it was his stomach or nervous system (the little dude always gets carsick), but whatever the cause, he vomited shortly after bedtime. As my father had the dogs in bed with him, he was responsible for the aftermath and cleaning.
The moral of this story is that while watching the dog try to kill a shooting stream of water can be wildly entertaining, it is likely not worth the messy fluid dispersal that follows. I am certain that my veterinarian brother would have some harsh words for us on the subject and he may relay it to us upon his arrival this weekend. Maybe we just won't tell him.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Stylish Shoes and Foxy Conclusions
In case anyone has been waiting anxiously to find an update on the Edina coyote situation, I have some news. It is actually cause for relief, which is good, but I am not quite ready to let my guard down totally on the subject.
This morning I was having my breakfast in my parents' kitchen by myself. My mother had already left for work and my father was upstairs getting dressed. The thug posse was happily occupied with Dingos in the living room.
All of a sudden, I heard my father shouting my name. When one's parents start to have physical issues, this sort of shouting can be cause for alarm. My dad recently had knee surgery, and although his recovery has been just peachy, you never know what can happen.
After shouting my name, my dad yelled for me to come up there "right away." Shoot. I stopped eating and dashed up the stairs to his room to discover him standing in his closet, halfway dressed and looking out the window towards our neighbor's yard. (Yes, their closet has windows. Two of them. Posh, right?)
I peered out the window and squinted (I was not yet wearing my glasses) towards the tree my father indicated. Sure enough, a small reddish creature emerged into the yard: clearly a FOX. But that's not all. My father instructed me to keep watching, and lo and behold a second fox came out and the two trotted off together.
To clarify, as the Animal Control Officer explained to my mother, coyotes kill foxes. If there was indeed a coyote in our neighborhood, there would not be any foxes out parading around like pigeons in an Italian piazza. Therefore, my father has now surmised that there may be a den of foxes living in our neighborhood.
This is not nearly as distressing to me for many reasons. First, foxes are not known to be predators of Jack Russell Terriers and Rat Terrier/Papillon mixes. (Yay!) Second, foxes are kind of cute. Third, it sort of reminds me of the Disney version of Robin Hood. You know, with the foxes playing Robin Hood and Maid Marian? The bear who plays Little John and sings the "Oodelally" song? That takes me back. My good friend Kellee used to sing it all the time in her lovely and unique tenor voice. Ah, memories.
So now that I am on a stream of consciousness type of rant, I have realized that one of my current favorite songs also features foxes. At least in name. "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes has been in heavy circulation for me for a few months now. My favorite thing about it is the first stanza (verse). I am not going to quote or even paraphrase it here, so if you are really curious, check it out. It is dreamy.
To bring it all back down to earth, my first Zappos.com purchase arrived today! I have casually perused this site for a long time, but never really had cause to order anything. However, with the number of formal occasions on the docket for me this summer, I decided to take some action and get some "fun" formal shoes.
Normally I stick to black heels, mainly because most of what I wear for formal events is black. I toyed with the idea of getting a pair of really awesome sky-high patent leather red heels, but a friend of mine kindly reminded me that that might be a bit too much for me. Maybe if I kicked my normal look up a notch and started wearing some more dramatic makeup and hairstyles and went for some less conservative hem and necklines on my clothing. But these red shoes were borderline hooker-shoes, complete with corset-type lacing up the back. I think my friend was right to push me in another direction. Baby steps, people.
This morning I was having my breakfast in my parents' kitchen by myself. My mother had already left for work and my father was upstairs getting dressed. The thug posse was happily occupied with Dingos in the living room.
All of a sudden, I heard my father shouting my name. When one's parents start to have physical issues, this sort of shouting can be cause for alarm. My dad recently had knee surgery, and although his recovery has been just peachy, you never know what can happen.
After shouting my name, my dad yelled for me to come up there "right away." Shoot. I stopped eating and dashed up the stairs to his room to discover him standing in his closet, halfway dressed and looking out the window towards our neighbor's yard. (Yes, their closet has windows. Two of them. Posh, right?)
I peered out the window and squinted (I was not yet wearing my glasses) towards the tree my father indicated. Sure enough, a small reddish creature emerged into the yard: clearly a FOX. But that's not all. My father instructed me to keep watching, and lo and behold a second fox came out and the two trotted off together.
To clarify, as the Animal Control Officer explained to my mother, coyotes kill foxes. If there was indeed a coyote in our neighborhood, there would not be any foxes out parading around like pigeons in an Italian piazza. Therefore, my father has now surmised that there may be a den of foxes living in our neighborhood.
This is not nearly as distressing to me for many reasons. First, foxes are not known to be predators of Jack Russell Terriers and Rat Terrier/Papillon mixes. (Yay!) Second, foxes are kind of cute. Third, it sort of reminds me of the Disney version of Robin Hood. You know, with the foxes playing Robin Hood and Maid Marian? The bear who plays Little John and sings the "Oodelally" song? That takes me back. My good friend Kellee used to sing it all the time in her lovely and unique tenor voice. Ah, memories.
So now that I am on a stream of consciousness type of rant, I have realized that one of my current favorite songs also features foxes. At least in name. "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes has been in heavy circulation for me for a few months now. My favorite thing about it is the first stanza (verse). I am not going to quote or even paraphrase it here, so if you are really curious, check it out. It is dreamy.
To bring it all back down to earth, my first Zappos.com purchase arrived today! I have casually perused this site for a long time, but never really had cause to order anything. However, with the number of formal occasions on the docket for me this summer, I decided to take some action and get some "fun" formal shoes.
Normally I stick to black heels, mainly because most of what I wear for formal events is black. I toyed with the idea of getting a pair of really awesome sky-high patent leather red heels, but a friend of mine kindly reminded me that that might be a bit too much for me. Maybe if I kicked my normal look up a notch and started wearing some more dramatic makeup and hairstyles and went for some less conservative hem and necklines on my clothing. But these red shoes were borderline hooker-shoes, complete with corset-type lacing up the back. I think my friend was right to push me in another direction. Baby steps, people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)