the new guy

We adopted a dog today. This morning I was all set to go see a miniature poodle at the Boulder Valley Humane Society. He had a real sad story and I wasn't sure I'd be up to the challenges he might present. Then I thought, oh wait. I haven't checked the Larimer County Humane Society's website in a few days, I'll look there. And lo and behold, they had a Bichon Frisee/Poodle mix who looked like this. Before they groomed him, that is.


So I got dressed tout de suite, and as soon as Mr. Man was back from his run, I made my run to Fort Collins. I met the guy (called Marley-eeeww) and we hit it off. I placed him on hold and drove to Boulder to make sure I really wouldn't rather have the smaller, younger but more traumatized poodle waiting there. I saw him and immediately thought "Sugarbear will damage this dog". I mean, not intentionally, but with too much overbearing love and affection. That little dog needs a quiet home where a very patient and loving person can help him live up to his potential. Our home may be loving but it is rarely quiet. Also I worried about such a small dog in Sugarbear's hands. We needed someone sturdier. Marley fit the bill.

I called Mr. Man and we arranged for all of us to meet the little guy. And wouldn't you know that dog could sense who to suck up to the most: the cat person.


He immediately jumped into the man's lap and didn't want to leave. He has been there quite a bit since he came home with us this afternoon. The girls are ecstatic. We all are. He fits right in.

Yes, he has some weepy eye stains. Being at an animal shelter can make anyone cry.




We are still trying to agree on a new name. For now, we are calling him Turnip. Those in the know will get a little laugh from the joke.

About that trip to Nymph Lake

Remember that? Not really, huh. Me either. But here's the gist. We piled into the car and drove to RMNP. We parked at Bear Lake because that's where the parking lot is. Bear Lake isn't very impressive, so we skipped it completely. We started our hike up the snow-packed but mostly sunny trail to Nymph Lake. This hike isn't long (I think it is less than 1 mile) but it is winding, and you gain altitude fast. Fast enough for us to feel it, anyway. This time, though, the hike wasn't nearly as hard as last time. I guess this is due to our comfort level with the altitude combined with a better attitude from the kids. Junebug was actually running ahead far enough that we had to tell her to slow down. We didn't want to lose her up there. There was one time when I got pretty sharp with Sugarbear over her grouchiness, but after that she turned it around and we all thoroughly enjoyed our hike. Some things we saw: a snowshoe hair, lots of birds (gray jays, Steller's jays, magpies), chipmunks, black squirrels.

After we'd spent some time at Nymph Lake with the girls climbing giant boulders, we decided to hike up to Dream Lake. This was a first, and really made us feel like Coloradoans. Someone on the trail asked if we were continuing up and we were all "What, there's another lake? Hell yeah! Andiamo!". Of course, after we'd spent some time at Dream Lake, and the girls and I had taken a nature pee, we heard there was a third lake higher up! But by that time we were pretty tired and we were losing daylight. We decided to head back down and go for barbeque in Estes Park. Once we got back to the car, we were so proud of ourselves that we did a really loud family cheer just to let everyone else know how awesome we are. Obnoxious, right?

Click on the slideshow to see it bigger.

What is wrong with me? I need safety goggles to cut bread! Seriously, tonight? I took some super-crispy french bread out of the toaster oven and placed it on the cutting board. I started slicing through it with a bread knife and WHAMMO! Huge bread crumb lodged in my eyeball. Owie!

This incident reminds me of way back when I worked at the coop marketing company where I met the man. My boss came in to work one day looking like ASS. She was wearing her glasses ( I didn't even know she had glasses!) and one eye was huge and bloodshot and nasty-looking. Turned out she had somehow managed to get a hair from a strawberry lodged into her eyeball. A HAIR FROM A STRAWBERRY.
Double-you tee eff, dude?

True story.

My friend Megan shared this on Facebook. My favorite part of the video is when the dog declines a treat offered by the orangutan, and the ape just shoves it in the dog's mouth.

post

Hi. Is anyone still there? I'm still here, just not so much HERE.

I will get around to the Nymph Lake post super-soon, I hope. I'm waiting on that until Mr. Man puts the desktop computer back together. For now I'm on the annoying laptop, so I'll keep it brief.

I'm currently:

41% full of Tibetan Noodles with Lamb from Sherpa's, where one of the sherpas paid so much attention to Sugarbear she didn't know WHAT to do. It would have been creepy if it hadn't been so sweet. It is clear that Nepalese people really, really dote on their kids.

27% new haircut. Why did it take me 3 months to decide maybe the hair wasn't working. Symptoms: "Hm...should I go for the ponytails or the hat today?". Repeat 90 times.

18% Wow, we stayed out WAY too late last night. I wonder if the Johnsons will ever invite us back ever again??

12% It's that time of year when I really start to get the itch for a dog. I've been surfing the net looking at homeless doggies. There are so many who need a good home, but I'm also pretty happy with the being-able-to-leave-food-out-all-night situation. Plus, it would be nice to get some bills paid down first, before we take on more responsibilities.

If this doesn't equal 100%, I blame the 18%.

In other news, we had a super-foggy morning last week. Here's how my iphone saw it.