This kicks ass
Wow - so many wonderful things are happening, and I haven't got time to write about it all. Isn't that always the way? When things are going great, there's never time to write about how great they are, but when things are down there's always plenty of time to write and wallow in it. :)
So, here we go:
Biggest news first - some really good friends (the French) are having a baby! Lord willing, the new familial addition will arrive in October. We're going to have them over to stay the night in the new house once they get back from France in a couple of weeks. It's good having a concrete deadline for getting a guest bed. I really would love it if having a kid doesn't bring a total end to the dinner parties together - though I know there must be fewer of them once the wee one arrives. Le sigh. We'll just have to think of different family-friendly things to do together. Especially with....
Our dog!
We're now owners of an American Bulldog (or rather, according to my darling, a Southern White Bulldog since he has three colors instead of the breed standard of two). He is about 3 1/2 months old, and really big already - when he's all grown up he'll probably be between 100-120 pounds like his dad. We named him Tor (short for Ator- the invincible -which is an MST3K reference). We picked him up on Sunday, and things are going marvelously well so far. He was living mostly outside before but he already had a good feel for the crate when we brought him home, and after a day he appears to be already crate trained. Housetraining is going well with only one incident inside, and that was more because we couldn't recognize his signals yet than because of his lack of ability to hold it or anything. Just in the past 24 hours he's gotten the hang of the drill -- he knows right where to go in the yard, and he's starting to go toward the door on his own when he needs to go. We got him a bell to hang next to the door, and we're trying to teach him to ring it whenever he needs to go outside.
He's got a really mellow temperament, though just today he's started to come out of his shell a bit more, which we're glad to see. I think now that he's understanding his place in the pack he's more comfortable and so his personality is showing. He chased his tail for the first time this morning. Yay. And he's such a sweetheart. Though we are discovering that we're going to have to be better about cleaning, simply because he will eat anything that's not tied down. Already today I've caught him eating fireplace ashes, a twist tie, a piece of moving tape, and a wad of cat hair. Onward and upward to household cleanliness!
Dog and cat are getting along OK - no tussles yet, and they seem to be respectful of one another's space. They've had a couple of staredowns and are balancing curiosity with caution right now.
New house is BIG. We could fit ALL of our stuff in the living room (and did have most of it there for a bit on Saturday before we lugged stuff to the bedrooms). Weird house, but very cool. It was an awesome party atmosphere during move in on Saturday - we had us, my folks, two of my darling's band friends, two of our long time best friends, and a college kid family friend helping to unload. It was great having beer and pizza and hanging out on the deck and such. Looking forward to making a lot of memories here. And replacing the orange shag carpet, once the downstairs remodel is done and the puppy is for-sure housetrained.
One more photo for good measure - check out that orange shag, baby!
SO HAPPY....
So, here we go:
Biggest news first - some really good friends (the French) are having a baby! Lord willing, the new familial addition will arrive in October. We're going to have them over to stay the night in the new house once they get back from France in a couple of weeks. It's good having a concrete deadline for getting a guest bed. I really would love it if having a kid doesn't bring a total end to the dinner parties together - though I know there must be fewer of them once the wee one arrives. Le sigh. We'll just have to think of different family-friendly things to do together. Especially with....
Our dog!
We're now owners of an American Bulldog (or rather, according to my darling, a Southern White Bulldog since he has three colors instead of the breed standard of two). He is about 3 1/2 months old, and really big already - when he's all grown up he'll probably be between 100-120 pounds like his dad. We named him Tor (short for Ator- the invincible -which is an MST3K reference). We picked him up on Sunday, and things are going marvelously well so far. He was living mostly outside before but he already had a good feel for the crate when we brought him home, and after a day he appears to be already crate trained. Housetraining is going well with only one incident inside, and that was more because we couldn't recognize his signals yet than because of his lack of ability to hold it or anything. Just in the past 24 hours he's gotten the hang of the drill -- he knows right where to go in the yard, and he's starting to go toward the door on his own when he needs to go. We got him a bell to hang next to the door, and we're trying to teach him to ring it whenever he needs to go outside.
He's got a really mellow temperament, though just today he's started to come out of his shell a bit more, which we're glad to see. I think now that he's understanding his place in the pack he's more comfortable and so his personality is showing. He chased his tail for the first time this morning. Yay. And he's such a sweetheart. Though we are discovering that we're going to have to be better about cleaning, simply because he will eat anything that's not tied down. Already today I've caught him eating fireplace ashes, a twist tie, a piece of moving tape, and a wad of cat hair. Onward and upward to household cleanliness!
Dog and cat are getting along OK - no tussles yet, and they seem to be respectful of one another's space. They've had a couple of staredowns and are balancing curiosity with caution right now.
New house is BIG. We could fit ALL of our stuff in the living room (and did have most of it there for a bit on Saturday before we lugged stuff to the bedrooms). Weird house, but very cool. It was an awesome party atmosphere during move in on Saturday - we had us, my folks, two of my darling's band friends, two of our long time best friends, and a college kid family friend helping to unload. It was great having beer and pizza and hanging out on the deck and such. Looking forward to making a lot of memories here. And replacing the orange shag carpet, once the downstairs remodel is done and the puppy is for-sure housetrained.
One more photo for good measure - check out that orange shag, baby!
SO HAPPY....