Thursday, December 29, 2005
Merry Christmas to all!!
And to all, a good night, indeed!! Christmas was a good one this year:
It started out on December 23rd, when, after work, we wanted to walk down to the little wine store about ten blocks from our place. We were originally going to take all four dogs with us, but that didn’t work out so well since Bullet and Beau have no manners on a leash, and when we started out, they seemed to want to pull my arms off. Rob, of course, had the two “good” dogs. I gave up after about four blocks and said I was going home, and instead, Rob and I hooked the two new dogs up to training collars and took them to the store, teaching them to “heel” along the way. They learned the idea pretty quickly and by the time we got home, they were doing very well.
That evening, we went out to visit with Rob’s friends at a neighborhood restaurant near where they all grew up. Fantastic pizza.
We spent Christmas Eve with Rob’s family at his father’s house. His brother and sister-in-law have two girls at just the right age for presents and appreciating the stuff of Christmas, so it was fun. Dinner was, as usual, very good. We ate, opened presents with the kids and had a great time in general. I headed home because I was just so tired, though, instead of staying to sit around and visit with the family. Rob drove his aunt back to her residence, and then caught up with some friends at their big Christmas Eve do. I was sad to miss them, but was just too tired to drag myself around.
Christmas morning, we woke up covered in dogs and cats, and opened some presents at home by ourselves. Then, we trucked a bunch of presents to my parents’ place to open with my family. My family does Christmas in a big way, and it’s probably the only time of year we really have to spend hanging out with one another. It was fun and relaxed and a good time all around. Rob and I returned to the house to tend to the animals, inviting the Mac and Lala to join us later on. Christmas Day here was fabulous weather – warm enough for us to sit out in the yard with a fire going in the fire pit. Lala and the Mac bailed out on us, so we didn’t have to do too much cleaning, after all, and just enjoyed the afternoon. We played ball with the dogs, and worked a little with Bullet and Beau on their training collars, continuing our teaching them to “heel”. They’re doing remarkably well with “heel” considering they had no concept of the word a week ago.
We went back for Christmas dinner to my parents’ place and played a game with Lala and the Mac afterwards, and it was pretty fun, all around. Uneventful is the way I like to play it…
Christmas night, we parked the camper in the parking lot of the electronics store where we wanted to get a big screen TV. We went back at 3:30a to get in line, and managed to be about 30th in line, where we watched a movie on the camper TV and had hot chocolate and fresh coffee from the camper. You’d think that would be good enough for us to get what we came for, but it wasn’t. They had sold out of the TVs in the flyer by the time we got into the store, much to our disappointment. We shopped around, though, and found a different TV that seemed like a reasonable buy, so we bought it. We also got three DVD players – one for a dollar, which we gave to Rob’s father, one with a VCR component (since our VCR upstairs has died), and a new one for downstairs. The deals were alright this year, but nothing like they used to be. I was a little disappointed with the sale, but not with our purchases. We will be expecting delivery of a new Sony Grand Wega some time next week.
Instead of following our original plan of then going shopping at the mall after the electronics store, we went home to sleep. I was flat-out exhausted, and I think Rob was pretty tired, too, and we slept for a few more hours to make up for our early morning. We saw the Mac for lunch, and did a little running around, and somewhere in there, Rob lost his wallet and palm pilot thing. We didn’t discover that until the next day, of course… Boxing Day evening was spent watching slides at my parents’ place. My father does up a slideshow every year, and this year’s was pretty good – a lot of different slides we kids had never seen from before we were born. And of course some from when we were kids, and some from our teen years… Poor Rob – this was his first exposure to the slide night. I think he did alright, though, in spite of our being very tired towards the end of the evening!
The holidays have been great except for the wallet loss… Rob is currently replacing all of his I.D. today, which is a bit of a pain, and not how he expected to spend his days off. I, of course, am at work. I’m not working very hard, though, as you can see.
We did a home check this morning to see if a guy who had applied to adopt Bullet is any good. He sounded great on paper, and when I talked with him on the phone, he seemed like a great guy. After thinking about it, I decided that we’d take Bullet with us this morning rather than drawing out the goodbye process… The guy turned out to be a very nice guy. When he heard that I was bringing Bullet this morning to meet him, he called in and took the day off work on the chance that he’d get to keep him, so that indicated to me he really values the dog… And Bullet liked the house (I think!), and it’s well laid-out for him. We brought some toys along with us to leave with him, and a bag of food, and his leash, of course. Bullet fit right in, and explored the place and we asked and answered questions for a little while. Even though he’s in a great home and will do very well with this guy, I am still going to miss him, and cried nearly the whole way home this morning after we left him. He’s such a good dog – all wiggly and happy and sweet. I hope his new owner gives him tons of hugs, all the time, and plays with him and treats him like gold.
We’re going camping for New Year’s Eve again this year, leaving tomorrow after work and returning on Sunday. We have to take two vehicles since we have three dogs, and we won’t all fit into the truck. I’m not sad about that at all – I kind of prefer driving myself in the Jeep… it’s an emergency out if I get too cold camping or have a bad experience, and it’s good to have a second vehicle available. We’re also going to get some firewood to bring home, which I always enjoy. I love getting firewood, for some reason. I’m not too sure why, except I think it’s because we’re getting wood for no money. Sure, there are the incidental costs of gas and time, but it’s fun, and we get to spend time outside with the dogs, and we get firewood!
Beau and I are scheduled to start obedience classes next Tuesday. I’m kind of secretly hoping that if Beau turns out to be a well-behaved dog and doesn’t cause us any additional trouble, Rob will want to keep him as much as I do. I know that’s silly, because he’s already said that he only wants two dogs, but I love the Beau… and if he’s better-behaved, maybe it won’t be too much trouble to have three. And teaching him obedience will make him a better dog all around… even though I hate the idea of him being adopted… He’s doing so well on the leash with the training collar now, and I think he’s smart enough to learn quickly, I’d also like to teach him to track. He’s got a great schnozz on him…
That’s all for now. I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and that your New Year’s Eve plans are all set and will be fun and safe.
It started out on December 23rd, when, after work, we wanted to walk down to the little wine store about ten blocks from our place. We were originally going to take all four dogs with us, but that didn’t work out so well since Bullet and Beau have no manners on a leash, and when we started out, they seemed to want to pull my arms off. Rob, of course, had the two “good” dogs. I gave up after about four blocks and said I was going home, and instead, Rob and I hooked the two new dogs up to training collars and took them to the store, teaching them to “heel” along the way. They learned the idea pretty quickly and by the time we got home, they were doing very well.
That evening, we went out to visit with Rob’s friends at a neighborhood restaurant near where they all grew up. Fantastic pizza.
We spent Christmas Eve with Rob’s family at his father’s house. His brother and sister-in-law have two girls at just the right age for presents and appreciating the stuff of Christmas, so it was fun. Dinner was, as usual, very good. We ate, opened presents with the kids and had a great time in general. I headed home because I was just so tired, though, instead of staying to sit around and visit with the family. Rob drove his aunt back to her residence, and then caught up with some friends at their big Christmas Eve do. I was sad to miss them, but was just too tired to drag myself around.
Christmas morning, we woke up covered in dogs and cats, and opened some presents at home by ourselves. Then, we trucked a bunch of presents to my parents’ place to open with my family. My family does Christmas in a big way, and it’s probably the only time of year we really have to spend hanging out with one another. It was fun and relaxed and a good time all around. Rob and I returned to the house to tend to the animals, inviting the Mac and Lala to join us later on. Christmas Day here was fabulous weather – warm enough for us to sit out in the yard with a fire going in the fire pit. Lala and the Mac bailed out on us, so we didn’t have to do too much cleaning, after all, and just enjoyed the afternoon. We played ball with the dogs, and worked a little with Bullet and Beau on their training collars, continuing our teaching them to “heel”. They’re doing remarkably well with “heel” considering they had no concept of the word a week ago.
We went back for Christmas dinner to my parents’ place and played a game with Lala and the Mac afterwards, and it was pretty fun, all around. Uneventful is the way I like to play it…
Christmas night, we parked the camper in the parking lot of the electronics store where we wanted to get a big screen TV. We went back at 3:30a to get in line, and managed to be about 30th in line, where we watched a movie on the camper TV and had hot chocolate and fresh coffee from the camper. You’d think that would be good enough for us to get what we came for, but it wasn’t. They had sold out of the TVs in the flyer by the time we got into the store, much to our disappointment. We shopped around, though, and found a different TV that seemed like a reasonable buy, so we bought it. We also got three DVD players – one for a dollar, which we gave to Rob’s father, one with a VCR component (since our VCR upstairs has died), and a new one for downstairs. The deals were alright this year, but nothing like they used to be. I was a little disappointed with the sale, but not with our purchases. We will be expecting delivery of a new Sony Grand Wega some time next week.
Instead of following our original plan of then going shopping at the mall after the electronics store, we went home to sleep. I was flat-out exhausted, and I think Rob was pretty tired, too, and we slept for a few more hours to make up for our early morning. We saw the Mac for lunch, and did a little running around, and somewhere in there, Rob lost his wallet and palm pilot thing. We didn’t discover that until the next day, of course… Boxing Day evening was spent watching slides at my parents’ place. My father does up a slideshow every year, and this year’s was pretty good – a lot of different slides we kids had never seen from before we were born. And of course some from when we were kids, and some from our teen years… Poor Rob – this was his first exposure to the slide night. I think he did alright, though, in spite of our being very tired towards the end of the evening!
The holidays have been great except for the wallet loss… Rob is currently replacing all of his I.D. today, which is a bit of a pain, and not how he expected to spend his days off. I, of course, am at work. I’m not working very hard, though, as you can see.
We did a home check this morning to see if a guy who had applied to adopt Bullet is any good. He sounded great on paper, and when I talked with him on the phone, he seemed like a great guy. After thinking about it, I decided that we’d take Bullet with us this morning rather than drawing out the goodbye process… The guy turned out to be a very nice guy. When he heard that I was bringing Bullet this morning to meet him, he called in and took the day off work on the chance that he’d get to keep him, so that indicated to me he really values the dog… And Bullet liked the house (I think!), and it’s well laid-out for him. We brought some toys along with us to leave with him, and a bag of food, and his leash, of course. Bullet fit right in, and explored the place and we asked and answered questions for a little while. Even though he’s in a great home and will do very well with this guy, I am still going to miss him, and cried nearly the whole way home this morning after we left him. He’s such a good dog – all wiggly and happy and sweet. I hope his new owner gives him tons of hugs, all the time, and plays with him and treats him like gold.
We’re going camping for New Year’s Eve again this year, leaving tomorrow after work and returning on Sunday. We have to take two vehicles since we have three dogs, and we won’t all fit into the truck. I’m not sad about that at all – I kind of prefer driving myself in the Jeep… it’s an emergency out if I get too cold camping or have a bad experience, and it’s good to have a second vehicle available. We’re also going to get some firewood to bring home, which I always enjoy. I love getting firewood, for some reason. I’m not too sure why, except I think it’s because we’re getting wood for no money. Sure, there are the incidental costs of gas and time, but it’s fun, and we get to spend time outside with the dogs, and we get firewood!
Beau and I are scheduled to start obedience classes next Tuesday. I’m kind of secretly hoping that if Beau turns out to be a well-behaved dog and doesn’t cause us any additional trouble, Rob will want to keep him as much as I do. I know that’s silly, because he’s already said that he only wants two dogs, but I love the Beau… and if he’s better-behaved, maybe it won’t be too much trouble to have three. And teaching him obedience will make him a better dog all around… even though I hate the idea of him being adopted… He’s doing so well on the leash with the training collar now, and I think he’s smart enough to learn quickly, I’d also like to teach him to track. He’s got a great schnozz on him…
That’s all for now. I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and that your New Year’s Eve plans are all set and will be fun and safe.
