The girl with the long flowing blond butt-hair turns 1

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A year ago I knew that I wanted a dog. I wanted one very badly because I had grown up with a good dog and knew what wonderful friends and companions they are. I also knew that this time around I wanted either a golden retriever or a bernese mountain dog because they’re supposed to be so friendly. The problem was convincing Bart because he doesn’t like to change much of anything, and he’s always been more of a cat person. What I didn’t know a year ago was that a little puppy with orangeish / red fur and a white spot on both her head and chest was taking her first breaths.

I had finally managed to get Bart to consent to a “maybe” in regards to getting a dog for Christmas / anniversary. So, all fall I scoured over newspapers ads and websites looking for an affordable puppy. Finally on Sunday, December 16′th I saw an ad in the paper for golden retriever puppies, Bart was home to go look for once, and told me to give them a call. It just so happened that they were at the K-Mart in Springdale and had one female puppy. Bart said, “Let’s go get you a puppy.”

It was love at first sight, let me tell you. She was just so sweet and scared. When we drove to Petco to get supplies then home, she just kept her little head in the crook of my arm, while farting. Once we got home, she started settling in fairly quickly.

At first I wondered if it had been a mistake to get her. I loved her, but the lack of sleep and the extra energy a new puppy takes were both SOOOOO consuming. Then somehow, we all three got used to the new living arrangements, and developed a routine. Thankfully Lucy lives for routine. That has come in very handy with everything from potty-training, to bedtime, and especially our having to leave for work.

Even though she started out as “my” dog, she’s very much our dog, our starter kid. She’s as much a member of the family as anyone else. I look forward to playing hours of racquetball with her and coming home to cuddle up on the couch with her. She’s our little Blue-Light Special, our Puppy Snowflake, our Pumpkin, our Lucy-girl. I hope we have many more happy years together.

“Dearest Friends”

These pictures are horribly out of focus, and the light is horrendous.  However, it’s not always easy to photograph a four-year-old and a ten-month-old puppy.  Nonetheless, I think they’re sweet and wanted to share.  This is Emma, my niece, and Lucy at our house on Labor Day after Emma and her sister, Kelsey, spent the night with us.  Emma calls Lucy her “dearest friend.”  Lucy’s fond of her too.  When their parents picked them up soon after this picture, Lucy kept looking all over the house for her girls.

"Dearest Friends"

These pictures are horribly out of focus, and the light is horrendous.  However, it’s not always easy to photograph a four-year-old and a ten-month-old puppy.  Nonetheless, I think they’re sweet and wanted to share.  This is Emma, my niece, and Lucy at our house on Labor Day after Emma and her sister, Kelsey, spent the night with us.  Emma calls Lucy her “dearest friend.”  Lucy’s fond of her too.  When their parents picked them up soon after this picture, Lucy kept looking all over the house for her girls.

Lucy’s Television Debut

Last night, Lucy made her TV debut on the KNWA 10 O’Clock News, during Dan Skoff’s Weather.

Also, here’s a video from that night of her bobbing for ice cubes. She’s the only dog I’ve ever seen just lie down in a pool.

Random Thoughts and Observations – August 4, 2008 Edition

I’ve started several posts today that have all been discarded to the vacuous limbo of things Internet lost. Each post seemed more like a complaint or a gripe. Though most posts have some complaints, I hope to have a lighter side to each of them. I have no desire to be a Debby Downer. I had a rather interesting weekend, and though it has left me somewhat tired as well as having my sinuses on overdrive, I wish to share some “thoughts and observations.”

• Saturday morning I learned how much it costs to take a golden retriever in to the NWA Emergency Vet Clinic to have vomiting induced after eating a Folgers Single at 6:30 AM on a Saturday – $116.00.
• I also learned that it isn’t worth braving the heat to go the “Yards and Yards of Yard Sales” in Eureka Springs.
• I learned that when the temperature is over 100°, Lucy will lay down in the cool, fresh water of her pool while playing with her new Kong Wubba. Yes, she got a new toy after her ordeal.
• While watching the Hall of Fame Game, last night, I decided that I’m even more ready for football season to begin. I’m more ready for NCAA football then NFL, of course.

Random Thoughts and Observations – July 31, 2008 Edition

I’ve been reminded lately, as I am every year when the temperatures hover around a certain point, that I suffer from insomnia in the summer.  Even though we keep the air conditioner set to a relatively low setting and have the ceiling fan running, it’s just uncomfortable.  When I’m hot, my legs ache and become restless, my arms become very restless, and I often have a headache.  The mold spore count hasn’t been below 20,000 in ages, and that always causes dry, scratchy eyes, ticklish throat, and major sinus pressure.  Sadly, it’s not just me having these problems, Bart and Lucy both had their own insomnia issues.  We make each other miserable and keep the others awake.  We’re all just as much to blame as the others.  Of course the icing to the cake is that Lucy has started waking up growling and barking at random times of the night after the incident earlier in the week.

Oh, I’ve not posted about that yet, have I?  Well, it’s pretty funny, if you don’t mind that it’s keeping us from sleeping.  Bart had to go take pictures and lighting measurements at a parking garage that the local city government says is too bright.  This had to be done after dark, so he was gone from like 8 PM until midnight one night this week.  Well, Lucy and I didn’t wait up for him and went to bed around 10:30, like we try to do most nights.  Both of us were asleep in the bed when Bart started opening the front door.  Lucy jumped up, with fierce growls and barks from deep within, she went to go take care of the intruder.  Well, Bart was carrying his tripod, so he looked especially menacing, even though we both by that point were assuring her that all was well.  She ended up in the living room, on her spot on the couch, still growling and barking.  It was then that we noticed that her little, puppy eyes couldn’t stay open despite her perceived need to protect the house.  A while later, the three of us were in bed, just getting to sleep when suddenly Lucy started barking and growling.  She was obviously reliving the excitement in her dreams.  This happened again last night.  I’m hoping that it won’t be a recurring event every night.

On other thoughts, I love having a stat-counter for this blog.  It’s fun seeing who reads this blog, what parts they read, and such.  The use of tags and categories makes this a fun, invaluable, and interesting tool to have.  I couldn’t imagine having a blog where I can’t keep up with whom has been reading it and what posts attract the most viewers.  As always, please leave any and all comments.  I love feedback from everyone.

Now, just for fun, here’s a list of things I’ve been particularly enjoying of late:

• As always, my iPod Touch, thought with the 2.0 software, it’s even better.  I’m making great use of the new applications.
• Last.fm and Pandora.  I’ve lately become addicted to these.
• The book, “Fallen Founder,” a biography of Aaron Burr.
• WordPress.  I’m enjoying this much more than Vox or Blogger.
• The knowledge that football season is drawing near.  I can’t wait.
• Working with awesome people.  I know that I’m ready to be a mom and stay at home, but it’s not because I don’t like the people I work with.

Random Observations and Such – July 24, 2008 Edition

• I don’t know why, but for some reason every time I go to any type of restaurant and order a Coke, I am given a Diet Coke. Now I would rather drink paint varnish than anything Diet. The taste of aspartame
  always makes me want to drag my tongue across a carpet. I can always tell the difference. Don’t even try to give me Pepsi. Anyway, I don’t know if it’s because I’m a thin woman that it’s assumed I would want to drink the nasty stuff, or what, but I’m slowly learning that I have to be very particular in asking for it. I just want Coke-a-Cola Classic – not Diet, Cherry, Vanilla, Lime, Zero, Caffeine Free, nor any combination thereof. If you can’t give me that, just give me a Dr. Pepper – regular, not diet, etc.
• I seriously believe that we have hired a real-life Sideshow Bob to run a camera at work. He certainly has the hair. I hope the murderous personality doesn’t match.
• I’m ready to get Lucy a baby sister golden retriever to play with, both for her and for us. She’s been in the habit of chewing things up again in boredom. I want to alleviate some of that boredom and maybe just a little of her excess energy.

Things That Make You Go Hmm….. Volume I

    I will never understand the obsession people have with taking a picture of themselves in a car andthen using that picture for their profile on countless social networks.  I suppose most are decent pictures, taken when the subject is made up for something.  However I don’t think that I’ve ever been sitting behind the wheel, camera in hand, and thought, “I think I just snap a quick photo of myself.”

    I think thiswoman’s golden retriever puppies are part yellow lab.  She keeps dropping the price, and an email confirmed she thinks her lab may be the babydaddy.  I wonder if I could talk Bart into another baby-dog for my birthday?  Probably not.

    What will become of the kiss that ended last night’s episode ofHow I Met Your Mother?  I can’t see the show being the same withBarneyin a monogamous relationship, but I imagine it will beRobinwho puts the breaks on things.  Speaking of HIMYM, doesn’t it just suck that you can’t embed video? HulubeatsJoosthands down.

My Smart Dog

The Things We Fear: Receiving the Ultimate Understanding

    As a child I was afraid of theKu Klux Klan.  I know that sounds totally preposterous coming from a middle-class, white woman, but it’s true.  What’s also true is that I didn’t really know what they were.  I recall being four or five years old and watching a documentary on KTUL on the anniversary of theGreenwood Race Riots of 1921.  The pictures of the men in hoods and burning crosses frightened me, and I didn’t understand why they would harass anyone, much less someone of a different color.  I thought them some sort of phantom like onScooby Doo or The Real Ghostbusters, and thought they would swoop down from theRunestone and get me.

    In the end, it was an odd fear, but at the time I took it quite seriously and found a reason to sleep with my older sister almost every night.  Now I have much morerational fears, such as the fear of a bird pooping on my head.  Nowthat is a real fear because birds are in actuality quite capable of pooping on top of my head.  We all have fears of some type or another.  Those who claim to fearnothingprobably actually fearbeingafraid of something.  Some fears are serious and debilitating and some are just humorous.

    Take my dog, Lucy.  Sunday Bart thought it would be a good idea to but her a comfy-cozy bed, all her own.  She’s been sleeping on old pillows and blankets since she came to live with us as a six-week-old pup in December.  Normally Lucy is only too excited to be given something new.  This was not the case, though.  She took one sniff of it with her excellent little pink sniffer and ran off with her tail between her legs.  We tried to place her on it, and she ran off.  I put a treat in it, the same.  I put her bedding on it, and she still wouldn’t have anything to do with the new bed.  Finally, Bart and I had to run an errand and put her in her room with her bed, hoping that she would get used to it.  She didn’t.  Two hours later, we found her sitting behind the toilet, staring at the bed.  When we let her out, she ran upstairs and would not come back.  So, we hid the bed in the trunk of the car until we can return it toPetcothis weekend.  We’re not sure exactly what is wrong with the bed, but we’re thinking it must smell like another dog(s).  we even had to wash her bedclothes because they then smelled like the bed.

   That is an odd fear.  At least it appears so in our eyes.  To Lucy I’m sure she feels as justified in her fear of that bed as I felt in my fear of theKKK.  How often do we make fun of the fears of others without even taking into account why it is that they are afraid?  How often do we discount such fears as craziness and fodder for jokes?  Itis funny how a little dog’s behavior has brought back a quote from one of the best books I have ever had the privilege to read, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

       “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb         inside of his skin and walk around in it.” -Atticus Finch.

    Wouldn’t life be all the sweeter if before jumping to conclusions and mockery we climbed into the skin of the person being judged’s skin and walked around where they walk?  To tread the paths of another’s feet, to glimpse the sights of another’s eyes would most likely open our own eyes and hearts to an understanding that only Jesus Himself possesses.   How grateful should we be that He does understand our fears and all the other things in our hearts from concerns to sins, and that He is Love and compassion.  That by taking all our cares upon Himself while on the cross, we really have nothing at all to fear?