whispers of winter

the days are getting shorter. the sun sets well before we come home from work and is just barely up as we head out. soon, it won't rise before midday. i have been trying desperately to generate the motivation to get up early and head to the gym for an early morning, anti-arm flab, workout and sauna before starting work. needless to say, this is proving tricky.

more importantly, it appears winter is upon us because everyone is driving like idiots--snow tires not on, quick stops fail often.  neah and i were almost hit on our way to the holy day tonight. stopped at a corner facing west and getting ready to turn south, one of the cars coming from the south in the northbound lane (this reminding you of a fifth grade word problem yet) slammed on brakes and in an attempt to not rear end the other cars came careening towards us--only to be stopped (and us saved) by the pole that holds the stoplights about four feet to my right. ugh. dear idiot with the big truck....please please do the speed limit and remember its icy...we'd like to live another day...thanks, EVERYONE.

Been trying out some new recipes....so the roast

is from those adventures. neah was very intrigued---perhaps too intrigued because her tummy doesn't seem to like us tonight. 

It has been nice to have some friends over for dinner and kinect and feel like we are settling into this house. neah has been great about the new people, only barking for a minute or two before warily wandering around until peanut butter pretzels stealthily appear in new hands and the intrusion into her space is forgiven. 

about neah...

i read some article about a guy whose dog just died. baad idea. after i got done crying i realized that as much as i hate her, losing her would break my heart.

She likes to lie directly in front of the door...blocking whoever is leaving last in the morning...a last ditch effort to not be abandoned. Although, truth be told, the other morning she pouted and refused to come downstairs at all when we left.

in the evenings if we are going out she stands directly in front of the door like a statue until we agree she can come, only moving when she gets a leash.

if she thinks someone is going out, she skids like fred flinstone when she tries to race to block the door.

we think we have turned a corner finally. our ferocious puppy has finally realized (with the aid of the shock collar---brought back from a lengthy hiatus) that she can chill out. from the time she found her voice, neah would lose her proverbial mind and become uncontrollably angry, barking snarling, etc. we couldn't calm her or get her attention and had to take her out of the situation where she would stomp around mini-barking for a very long time. Finally at 20 months she is learning that she doesn't have to be angry. if she starts to bark we can get her attention back and she settles. She seems to have learned that other people are allowed to go a different direction, that bikes are not evil, and that motorcycles (while very loud) are not going to harm her. 

With all that said, it does NOT apply to the door bell. We still have problems with the door bell. if you EVER come over--do.not.ring.the.bell.  the doorbell reverts her to her 8 month old tantrums.

On the other hand, she is loving, loyal, funny, and loves to cuddle from about 4am onwards. her favorite game is chase. she loves anti-static dryer balls, her three beds, and cheese. and we can't imagine life without her.

Neah's House

Just in case anyone had ANY doubt who thinks she owns this house....

Warning: semi-graphic pictures.

warning: Semi graphic photos below.

We've talked about it a few times. See here and here, But admittedly, i have been hiding from the interwebs the full extent of the issue. our cute, loving aussie is deathly afraid new situations and new people. she's been like this since we got her--but now that fear is complicated by protectiveness. i know i exaggerate a lot...but this isn't one of those times when embellishment is required for dramatic effect.

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunnyish day. Adam's softball team had a double header after work and he's been shouldering the neah exercise burden lately....so i decided to take her to the park to play frisbee. we pulled up and i saw this little 3 year old running around with a mostly inattentive mother. I tried driving to another park, but there were people playing baseball, so i decided that if i could just get far enough onto the frisbee area it would probably be okay.

Neah was so happy and excited. She loves frisbee. She loves to run. We were still on leash walking towards an open part of the field when she started growling. i turned around and saw the little three year old running towards us with it's mother and sister at distance watching. I started yelling, "no, go away, she's not friendly" frantically shaking my head, but the kid kept coming. The kid kept charging toward her with open arms and Neah became more frantic barking, growling and rearing up.

When the kid was finally about 2 feet from Neah, the supervisory units finally realized what was happening and sauntered our direction. Neah was fit to be tied--red zone kinda crazy--and what happened to be between her and this small idiot happened to be me. I felt her teeth sink in and knew it was going to be bad. She recoiled instantly--realizing she had gotten me by accident. I wrangled her between my legs and pulled her muzzle on--dripping blood onto my flipflopped feet and the ground. I yelled at the supervisory unit of the small idiot to get it away from her already. To which the sibling shrugged and the kid started screaming because he couldn't pet Neah.

I managed to get back to the car and find one of the 3 first aid kits i keep in it. i hadn't realized how challenging it is to open stuff with out thumbs. Once the bleeding was contained we went home and i went to the doctor. I finally had a full blown attack of the crying martha when i got in the car to go to the doctor's office and of course couldn't get a hold of adam.

There's something to be said about facebook knowing you are hurt before  your spouse does. I am not sure what it is though.

The poor little monster got three of her sharp teeths in my thumb. The most painful of which is the top one that went into the knuckle and the most infected of which appear this morning to be the bottom ones. My right thumb has swollen to three times the size of the left one and am praying the augmentin does it's magic.

I'm mad at that kid's mom for letting it run toward a barking snarling animal. i'm mad there isn't a single dog park in anchorage that is fenced---so there's no where i can take her that bikes don't ride through. and i am especially pissed off that my thumb got hurt before the big move. ----doing anything useful with it is VERY difficult.

The reality of the situation is that neah avoided me for the rest of the night....keeping her head down in shame when she saw me. I'm not mad at her. I'm mad at myself for putting her in a position where she didn't feel safe. She was still worried this morning that i didn't love her anymore. It breaks my heart. She's not a mean dog--she's scared and i don't know what to do to help that.

obedience training round 2

I promised some folks a description of our dog classes. It is interesting----last night, the number of folks in the class had decreased---at least, it seemed like that but i think there were only two dogs not there. The first was an Afghan Hound, who's owner too had a long face, tall stature, and quiet demeanor. The second missing dog was an over excited sled dog who was clearly in control of owners who had no idea what to do with it, engaged in pulling competitions around the room, and got dragged around like it was no one's business. The sled dog, in its thrashing, bumped into Neah---who looked horrified at its rude behavior and hid between Adam's legs to prove she knew it was mentally unstable.

The other freak show dog is a jack Russell terrier mix owned by a tall skinny chick in her 20s who lets it get away with murder. It is getting better, but she doesn't exude confidence. I take that back, there is also a springer spaniel with world's largest head that looks crossed with a Bernese but isn't that takes its yuppie mama owner to humiliation each class. this week her significant other/housemate/whatever came to get the dog in the door since last week it dragged her in and pulled her off her chair about 800 times.

There are two boxers...a black male and a brown female. The female is very cute. The male less so.

Neah's closest doggie friend is named Callie and is a husky mix about her age with similar coloring.
The teacher is a late 70s woman with red hair in a 4 inch long buzz cut, who owns a dachshund named speedy. watching this dog sit is funniness, mostly because there's only 1 inch between the ground and its stomach. her praise is always the same "look how smart you are speedy, good for you!!"

Neah's doin great....best dog in the class by far :) She's calming down much faster and minding very well even with the distractions. And we learned that pinch collars are magical things.
Bring on week 3.

a(hhhhhh)yyamiha

 Aside from the gift of the mixer, i got a pretty great set of presents this year.....bob and lissa!!! they arrived very late with a gun case and big jackets. we promptly got them snow boots---since we got a few inches yesterday this turned out to be a rather brilliant plan--and they decided that the fact that it was only 60 degrees colder than at their house might be okay. in other words, we've been scurrying to the car and inside places for a few days to aclimitize them.....tomorrow starts outdoor adventure land with FUR RONDY!!

 There was some trepridation before entering the apartment for the first time----after all the watchdog tried to eat lissa last year. We went through the new routine:

• call her name,
• be excited,
• act like seeing her is the best.thing.ever.
• They held by the door, ready to flee when i let the creature out of her box if she didn't realize they weren't moose. as i rounded the corner, it was obvious her nose had already told her we weren't alone. She was eyeing the hallway intently, looking a little confused.  All the worry proved for nothing though because Neah recognized her maternal grandparents, talked to them excitedly, and promptly placed them in assigned roles....

Lissa was assigned keeper of the bone....see upper right hidden sofa stash. Bob was assigned tug of war partner.

They are staying around the corner at a b&b, which is very convenient. in fact they can see our apartment complex from the back porch of the place....except that there's like 5 feet of snow out there, so venturing into the back yard without snow shoes is a no go. and while there has yet to be a welcome moose there was welcome moose footprints and pee outside the b&b to greet them.

now, off to take pictures of stop signs buried in snow.

none of that mushy crap...

My valentines, doing what they love to do most--play outside.

who needs hip-flexors anyways?

It was 8pm. i was huddled next to a heater in a 500 ft apt, looking at blogs and trying to make my mind wind down. it snowed outside and there was another 6-10 inches in the forecast. i was fried from conducting trainings all day.

i know, how is this different from any other day....well that day i was crouched along side a heater on the floor in a corner trying to get wi-fi in my hotel in juneau. the night i got there it was a whiteout. by mid day today the rain had started, but post dinner it was back to snow and people whispering the "a" word all over the state office building. i see you out there....contemplating legislators and "a" words....the one we are going for here is AVALANCHE.

We are headed for a record cold January here in Anchorage. Record snowy Dec, record cold Jan. Nice, Alaska. I love you too.

This weekend that offensive little stripper on my thermometer didn't look like he was building an igloo. the temperature was finally in the positives, albeit by only three degrees, and the lovely downstairs neighbors (the one who fell through the ice last winter) offered to take neah with their husky, sable, to the park. adam and i girded up our loins and went cross-country skiing. 4km later, i can't seem to cross my legs. literally, i cannot lift my right leg up and over the left one without using my hands. it is pathetic. i did however manage to go the entire 4 km without stopping for more than 10 seconds at a time. so i guess that means psuedo-pathetic.

a non-whiny post about the dog

Neah was gifted two wonderful toys over the xmas holidays. It took her 1.5 hours to destroy each of them.

The first was a tennis ball with arms and legs---like the one on the right of this photo. She grabbed it by the foot, shook it furiously, smacking herself in the head with its various appendages.  It took her no time at all to dismantle the tennis ball in the middle. Then she devoured a foot, dismantled the string legs and got the rest confiscated.

Dismembering toys....oh my!

The second was from her grandparents and was a different color version of the ball on the left. She loved it. Shook it, threw it, pounced on it, and was protectively hiding it when i went to bed last night. However, this morning, there was a heap of felt pieces where the ball used to be and a slightly shamed but mostly proud looking Neah standing over the carnage pile. Oye Vey!

So, Neah thanks you for the presents. She doesn't apologize for destroying them, but is grateful she had something new to tear up because the gutted raccoon and skunk are getting boring.

Mostly though, this is a post about how crappily dog toys are made. Some we have literally have not survived for more than a few minutes. As it turns out, Maya (Raina's doggie) destroyed her version of the first toy in no time, too. I've come to the conclusion that either dog toy makers are brilliant capitalists---they know we can't resist and purchase pretty fun things for our dogs who destroy them, instantly requiring new toys--or they are evil brilliant capitalists--deliberately making crappy toys that fall apart instantaneously for the sake of being brilliant capitalists.

Either way, if one of you knows something my little shredder can't destroy, please please send along its name and i will buy like 50 of them.

please confiscate the internet

...from my possession because clearly i cannot be trusted. I surf aimlessly while i rework wording in my head---flip through celebrity sites when i am trying to put arguments together.

I keep looking at craigslist pets, looking at cute puppies i want to bring home. Lord knows, i should know better, afterall that's how we ended up with this:

she came to us 11 months ago. It's crazy to think how much bigger she's gotten, but how she's still as playful, nippy, and skittish as she was then.

i keep looking at this picture reminding myself that the ones in the ads are super cute too and we don't need another neurotic mess on our hands---clearly three of us is enough!!

despite my constant bitching about the dog, she is seriously a sweetheart, very obedient and very protective of her herd. All of which are wonderful qualities. She never bites in anger or frusteration, likes to cuddle in the mornings, and is very funny.

all of which, i try to forget when i go back to switching back and forth between the puppies who need homes and the work i am running in the background.

Chinook winds did not materialize. Yet another reminder not to pay attention to the weathermen in Alaska.

Chinook Winds

Neah was going ballistic....and then i realized,
she was defending the house from this moose,
who was looking for her because she's so loud.

The other week my girl Amelia was dissapointed when we started talking about the weather. I didn't know how to explain its central role in my existence, that each day is determined by what's brewing, and that i never know for sure what lies in my future because the weathermen are less right here than they are in seattle---which is to say NEVER.


However, there's a storm a brewin in the Gulf of Alaska--set to bring blizzard conditions to some areas (not ANC) and perhaps (hold your breath for it) warm up the weather enough for RAIN.  i know. there are two burning questions in your mind:

1. Mar, you said it was like 6 degrees, how on earth is some storm in the GULF of ALASKA going to warm it up enough to make it rain.
2. Rain on top of that 31.4 inches of snow this month you've been whining about--how does that work?

Well, good points my wise friends!  A Chinook wind is a very strong and brings with it warm winds. It can dissapate up to a foot of snow a day by causing evaporation and blowing it away. Also, it can change temperatures by up to 30 degrees in a matter of hours, although not usually that extreme. It can also cause blizzards in places that don't get warm enough. here's the wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_wind .

Apparently this happens here sometimes in like January---looks like we are in for a long winter and makes me think of Chris and Leili out in Ft. Smith and wonder about their weather. Point being, no one likes when this happens---because, in answer to number 2, it invariably turns all roads/surfaces/etc into ice skating rinks.

Yuck. On a brighter note, it warmed up to 21F yesterday and i was so excited that my nose hair wasn't freezing that Neah and I played outside for 45 minutes. Small victories.

40F....

happy friday.when we were off on that camping trip, i took a bunch of pictures of weird mushrooms....and today is the day you get to see the one that looks like a cracked egg.

Weeping egg mushroom



this morning was a whomping 40 degrees at our little apartment. i should probably remember that the next time i pull on my hoodie over my t-shirt, slide feet into flip flops and head out the door to convince the dog to do her business and not to try to play or eat the leash at 745 in the morning.  Let's be real though, the coffee hasn't worked its magic at that time of morning and i, therefore, cannot be held accountable for whatever stupidity ensues. also, for the record, i haven't broken out the winter jacket yet, just the vest....and i've only worn that once.



tastes like pig ear?

also, in tribute to football season, neah tried to bite the football. alas, her mouth isn't big enough. adam did rescue it before she managed to remove the laces....she was working hard on them.  it bounces and moves differently than her tennis or baseballs....so it took some getting used to.

And last but not least is the start of dinner the other night...quinoa, chard, and my favorite hand towel. while one of the ladies i work with will ACTUALLY be making moose in the kitchen (slicing up a kill from last weekend) i will stick with the moose/mess theme on the hand towel.

two weeks and one day

in two weeks and one day i get to do this again:

I am beyond excited that Mona is coming to visit for the long weekend. I cannot wait to squeeze her, hear about all her adventures, and watch West Wing. We will go walking, not hiking, sit in yummy restaurants and laze about.

In other news, i think i am the dog's problem. when Adam drops her off at day camp, she just whines and acts sad he is leaving her. when i drop her off all hell breaks loose and she barks like a nutjob.

also in other news, when it is like 47 F in the morning and i go out in my hoodie with wonder dog, i'm not actually cold. i take her out in the morning because i am scared of the dark...i have no idea why....and refuse to take her out at night. about the cold thing--i'm not sure if that means i'm slowly adapting to anchorage or if i have a really good hoodie or if the part of my body that acknowledges cold has just thrown in the towel out of frusteration at the permanent state of affairs.



a bear-tale.

You know the saying about something being a fish tale...you know, it was THISSSSSS big (with arms dramatically outstretched). so forget fishtales, this is Alaska!!  Let's change that to a bear-tale.

This week was my last Ruhi Book 8 Unit 1 class. It has been a real joy both to me and to Adam who gets to go hiking the night I am at class. He jokingly calls it God-class, but really, we both get to do magic for our souls---me through Ruhi and him through nature.

So this week i get home at 930, its dark outside and there's no sign of adam, neah or matt. i know they've gone to an area that's supposed to be closed because of a bear running over some guy (literally...not maiming) a couple weeks ago. when they finally appear at like 1015, they start telling me in excited voices how neah chased off two bears with her ferocious barking. i asked, "seriously?" like 8 times before they finally admitted that no, in fact, they didn't see any bears, although she did bark at some phantom in the bush that could have been a bear. or it could have been nothing. with her both are about equally plausible.

gullable, folks.  also, you would think i should have figured out when my spouse is not speaking the full truth....gullable.

Booties, bike, and a bear??

Sadly, this is going to be epically less dramatic than watching her prance, highstepping down the stairs. Here's Neah's first time running in the booties with the bike. Adam only had to run over her a couple times today ;) It does give you a good idea of the pulling that caused those damn blisters.

Oh, and the crazy neighbor downstairs says there was a good sized black bear in the back yard two days ago.....

pawgress report.

Here's Neah's Day Camp Report card:



Too bad Domino (her friend from last week, too) is the world's most slobbery English Sheep Dog EVER. Also, apparently Neah dominated the slide...because there's a window to the kitchen and she wanted attention from the humans.

two

my weekend can be summed up in two pictures:

This is mostly what we did all weekend. The boys stuck things in the fire to see if they would burn. We learned that pennies evaporate, bottles melt, so do marbles, and bottle caps don't change. Then they argued about who messed up the fire and tried to find ways to dry out damp wood.



Believe it not, within three minutes of getting her bone, the dog began to dig and promptly buried it. I had never seen a dog actually do that....god only knows where she learned it. But instinct is everything, so there was a massive pit that had to be filled in at the end of the weekend from repeated bone protecting.

how to embarrass your pet 101

Heh. Adam and I were DYING laughing in pet smart when we first put them on her. Here's to my dressage dog.

first day of day camp

this morning i got up, went through the morning routine and hustled neah out to the car, bringing along some food and treats. she clearly thought i had lost my mind since she never goes anywhere this early. we walked into pet smart where neah anxiously relieved herself on the floor (yeah, great way to start the morning). she then proceeded to bark and shy away from the people at puppy day camp. finally, the nice girl there asked if she was better when i wasn't around--that they had another dog who is overprotective of its "father", but is fine as soon as dad goes away. i replied i didn't actually know, but i was more than willing to wander away.


forgive the crummy phone picture.


i headed up the aisle and the barking stopped. lo and behold, as soon as i was out of sight neah the ferocious turned into neah the love bug, kissing the pet smart people and wanting to be petted. it seems I am the problem.

i called (like all anxious pet parents) to check up on her a couple hours later. They said she was busy herding an english sheepdog, wrestling and playing and doing great.

i figure this feeling must be just the slightest akin to all those parent friends of mine who dropped their children off for the first day at school---you hope they do well, make friends and don't pee on the wrong things. Often they freak out until mom dissappears, then no worries.

anyone want to share their first day of preschool stories to make me feel less crazy?

Neighborhood watch

It's the neighborhood watch sign. We've all (at least in the US and Canada) seen it. Usually it means that the little old ladies in the hood will sit around peering from behind curtains not updated since the 1980s and call the cops when hoodlum teenagers prowl around with skateboards.

(BTW, I do think there is an illegal gambling establishment in a creepy building just past our apartment turn off...but that's beside the point. At first, i thought maybe it was an NA/AA thing, but Adam thinks its a gambling op based on some cryptic comments from a taxi driver one time.)

Anyways, in our neighborhood it means that this:


Lissa's ridiculously cute pic of Neah

has discovered that a window or door was left open and is ferociously announcing the presence of anything that moves within a 500 yd radius of our apartment. Day, night, rain, snow, sun, anytime. Seriously, ANYTHING and perhaps even somethings that aren't there. Who needs little old ladies when you can have this??
So, i'm willing to pimp her out. Who needs a watchdog?? Small fee, house trained, responds to cheese and carrots, will probably bark at you, too....