Miscellaneous, non-China related

Here are two instances that made me laugh recently. I'm sure you'll be able to guess very easily which movies are being referenced/quoted. If not, I'd have to say you haven't spent much time with us. ;)

An email I got from Sam today:

What do you say to pizza and a raptor awareness training video on Friday night?

A conversation between Sam and Fin last week as Sam was leaving for work:

Sam: No, bud, you can't come to work with me. There's no such thing as take-your-dog-to-work day here.

Fin: *pleading expression*

Sam: *in a very Frodo-esque accent* I'm going to [work] alone, [Fin].

Fin: *in a voice very much like Sam's imitating Samwise* 'Course you are. And I'm coming with you!

The frog debacle

For those of you worried about how the Finners is doing here, this will not be reassuring. That's all the disclaimer you're getting.

Apparently frogs can create a certain chemical so that, if a predator picks them up in its jaws, there will be an incredibly bitter taste that will encourage the predator to drop the frog forthwith. The bitter taste can also spark certain reactions, such as foaming at the mouth, seizures, vomiting, etc.

I think you know where I'm going with this.

Our apartment complex has a pretty large courtyard, which isn't so much open green space as a cool little nature-trail sort of thing, with one or two paths and a handful of man-made ponds [which I'm sure will be an excellent breeding location for mosquitoes when it gets warmer] and some decks with tables and chairs. It's nice because it feels like we're taking Fin for a walk when we take him to the bathroom, even though we're not leaving the complex. With all the water, however, there are more lifeforms than the two-legged and canine variety walking around--or, in the case of frogs, hopping.

I've never actually seen a frog outside, but then Sam's always the one who takes Fin out when it's dark, so that's probably why. Fin, for all the intelligence he inherited from his poodle mother, is pretty oblivious a lot of the time, so even though Sam's seen a lot of frogs, two Sundays ago was the first time Fin discovered one.

I was upstairs in the bathroom, brushing my teeth, when I heard Sam rush into the apartment and then start begging Fin to drink some water. I finished what I was doing and went to the downstairs bathroom, where Sam had the detachable shower hose down and trickling invitingly to Fin [for some reason, Fin loves drinking from faucets, even though he really shouldn't here, since the water isn't particularly safe]. And there was my husband, almost in tears, and my puppy, foaming at the mouth.

This photo is from August; he's much, much fluffier now.

This was, naturally, a bit alarming. I asked what was going on, and Sam said Fin had seen a frog and he hadn't seen anything wrong with letting him go investigate. Then Fin licked the frog--a nice, warm little hello--and apparently then foam began pouring from his mouth. Like so:

What was really alarming was that Sam was trying to pry Fin's jaws apart to force his mouth open, so we could wash it out, and he couldn't. I think we were both thinking lockjaw for a minute and that our remaining time with our puppy would be short, but then Sam held Fin still and I worked on his jaws, and we got them open. Then, thoroughly soaking the dog, himself, and the bathroom, Sam spent the next length of time washing out Fin's mouth. And while Sam was rinsing Fin's mouth, I hopped on the computer and tried to find out if our dog was dying.

Turns out, no, it's pretty normal, insofar as frogs are concerned. And luckily Fin only foamed at the mouth and vomited up all his dinner. I really don't know what I would have done if he'd started seizuring. I didn't know what I was going to do if he was dying, anyway, since I don't think we'd be able to find a taxi willing to accommodate our foaming-at-the-mouth dog, or if we did that we'd understand a word the vet said.

So rather than go to bed, as had been the plan, I continued to reassure myself that our dog was most likely going to survive and Sam, since he and Fin were both wet through anyway, gave Fin a bath. We started to feel better about the whole thing once Fin got out of the bath and tried doing his rabbit run [tried because all the flooring downstairs is tile, making it almost impossible for him to gain purchase when he's not wet and makes for a pretty funny show when he is] and then instigated several sessions of steal-the-slipper-so-you-chase-me and I-have-my-rope-and-I-know-you-really-want-it. We figured if he was that eager to play, he was going to be ok. Then again, he could be on the edge of death and still be dying to play, so who knows.

Hopefully that's the end of his adventures with frogs. But, as my mom reminded me, it took my dog growing up getting sprayed twice by a skunk before she learned to avoid them, so we might not be so lucky to get away with one experience. At least next time we won't have to panic so much.

In which I tell the future and don't even know it

So I've spent the day going through my email and clearing out the messages and chats and things I don't want cluttering things up, and I came across this bit of fortune telling. It was just after Sam was offered his job last December, and we were telling friends the good news. As we are preparing right now to leave for China, my last comment struck me as particularly prophetic.

me: so . . .

Sam got an offer yesterday.

friend: OOOOH

and?

me: chances are high that we'll accept :)

we're getting pretty excited about it.

and . . . we're again thinking puppy thoughts, haha

friend: haha, perhaps moving in March AND a puppy

you are so daring

me: I know, right?

all we need is to throw a baby in the mix and we'll be nice and overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed indeed, though Fin isn't quite a puppy anymore.

And speaking of Fin, here's a cute picture of him to end things with:

Fin, the not-so-fluffy puppy

So, I wouldn't exactly say it's getting hot around here, but the humidity usually makes it feel about 20 degrees hotter than it actually is. I think you know where this post is going, if you read the title.

As Fin is a rather fluffy and fur-laden dog, we feel pretty bad for him when it gets up in both temperature and humidity. We've been meaning to get him groomed but haven't really gotten a good recommendation from anyone, so Sam decided it was a good DIY job, as we conveniently have hair clippers. [Whatever the electronic buzz thing is called. My mind went blank and Sam's on the phone, so I can't ask him.]

Sam needed to cut his own hair anyway, so he did, and then he embarked on the adventure of cutting Fin's fur. Here is Sam with his beautiful DIY haircut:

He's cute, huh? I like him a lot.

As Sam is not a professional, the job he did on Fin was not perfect, but it's pretty dang good--particularly as it was his first attempt/offense. And now you can tell what size Fin actually is, since with all his fur he looks enormous. [People are always guessing he's in the 80 to 90 lbs range when he just recently cleared 60.]

Isn't it so funny how he sits? The only time he was really interested in sitting on his haunches was just after he got neutered. I guess it hurt to sit like this in those painful days.

I'm not sure which photo shows off his cut better, so I included them both.

Isn't he so cute? We saw another Goldendoodle at the dog park yesterday with a very similar cut (except his was professionally done), and it was disconcerting how much they looked alike. The other dog was a bit bigger, but other than that they could have been twins. I kept forgetting which dog was mine.

And since we're already talking about Finners, here's a nice showing of how much he's grown since we got him:

When he was just a tiny guy

Last month sometime

 Crazy, huh? I can't believe how much he's grown.

And then this is funny. When we first got Tangled (which, let's face it, we got the day it came out even though we did not have a car at the time), we watched it and of course Fin was roaming about the living room. Well, you know the part where Maximus has caught up to Rapunzel and Flynn and she's treating him like a dog and telling him to sit? Fin totally responded! He sat when she commanded Maximus to sit and did just what she said. It was so funny! I sort of got a picture of it, which is below.

As you can see, he was absolutely glued to the TV for quite some time. It was really hilarious. I just wish we'd been able to catch it on camera.

Our apartment

And now, for the series of posts you've all been waiting for. [And I don't need any comments about how this was all promised two weeks ago--don't be haters.]

We will start with our apartment. [This is sort of the royal we--I guess I'm trying to sound grand or like a documentary narrator. Who knows. I'm tired.]

Here are the best parts of our apartment, hands down:

Yes. A dishwasher. This is the first time in our marriage that we have had one, and it's been like heaven. It makes cooking ok because I don't have to worry about hand washing all the dishes I get dirty. And speaking of cooking, I've become a regular housewife. Meals waiting for Sam when he gets home from work every day (mostly)--and from scratch, even! Who knew, right?

The window in our front room. Yes, it takes up a whole wall, practically. It leads out onto a pretty decent sized balcony, which is Fin's favorite part of the apartment. He could sit out there for hours with his head poking out through the bars, looking at all the cars passing by and the people walking through the parking lot. He is also typically content to just look out the window if it's too hot or cold outside for the door to be open.

The window in our bedroom. This may not seem like a big deal, but if you'd lived the past three or four years in a hobbit hole, however comfortable and loved, with three windows with the dimensions 1' x 1', and no window at all in the bedroom, you'd be rejoicing, too. We've been here two months and still get excited about all the natural light flooding our home.

Fin's second favorite place is the shower, as shown. While he fights to get out of it when we're giving him a bath [and by we're I mean Sam, since I'm usually in charge of the blow drying aspect of bathtime] [and it has sliding doors, so he's trapped in there once they're closed], if the bathroom door is ever open he almost always goes in to explore. He even goes to explore the shower before he goes to explore the trashcan in the corner, which I think is really saying something.

Other highlights of our apartment include Dish TV and a flatscreen TV in both the living room and bedroom. Shazam. I love our glorified hotel.

Glorfindle the Elf Dog (more commonly known as Fin)

I have heard it said that blogs become substantially less interesting once the blogger has had a baby. I don't have a baby, but I do have a dog. Hopefully that little difference won't change my blog from readability to unreadability. I'll try to keep it humorous for y'allz.

So, as you might remember, Sam and I got a puppy for Christmas. I have been remiss these last few months in not posting any pictures since the first blurry one, nor any videos. I'd like to say we have a couple hundred, but I'll own up to being an awful picture-taker, in that I never remember. Anyway. Here is how and what Fin has been doing these past two months or so:

December

Fin loves watching movies with us. For a while we very rudely had his kennel blocking his view of the TV, so he had to resort to desperate measures. It always reminded me of the puppy in 101 Dalmatians that is always in front of the TV. He usually only watches a few minutes at a time, but he was enthralled by the Planet Earth series--I think since each segment was only a few minutes long, then there were new sounds and new animals. He was a big fan.

Isn't he such a handsome puppy?

That is Fin's favorite toy, creatively named Bunny. It squeaks, which he thinks is the coolest. He actually played with it so much the first few days he had it that he wore the squeaker out. Never fear, however. Fin is a clever dog, and he's got Bunny squealing with pleasure again.

I can't believe how little he is here! It's hard to see the day-to-day differences in him, so I forget how much he's changed.

January

Sam is far and away Fin's best friend. You see them here, interrupted by the camera while enjoying Lord of the Rings. We began teaching Fin about his elfin heritage soon after adopting him. He's a big fan of Legolas but is disappointed that his namesake didn't happen to make it in the movies.

Fin loves playing with the rope toys his Aunt Michelle so kindly gave him. He's just sad he has yet to meet Michelle as well as his cousins, Choco and Sammy. One day, though. One day.

He smiled for the camera, because he's a cutie like that.

The non-fluffy Fin. This is a side of him we typically only see at bath time. It reminds us that he is, in fact, quite scrawny under all that fur. He likes bath time, but he has yet to be similarly thrilled by the subsequent brushing and blow dryer time. We're trying to teach him not to eat the blow dryer. Luckily it's too big for him to swallow.

And here he is as the fluffy, soft monster we love. His shampoo is sunflower scented, so usually when he is clean and fresh like this Sam rudely calls him Sunflower. I think Fin retaliates by laying in the dirt and reapplying his usual dog scent as quickly as possible.

Sometimes he has to be persuaded to do what we want him to do, so we pick him up. Like Jed in Night at the Museum, Fin takes offense to being "manhandled," but he usually bears it patiently. You'll notice here he's nearly as long as me. Wowzas.

Fin is a big fan of the snow. He wasn't too sure of it the first time it snowed, but he quickly determined it was a thing of great fun. His favorite thing to do in the snow is to snow plow. He gets his nose right to the ground and sniffs, pushing the snow along as he explores. This picture is typical of how he looks after a good snow plow.

We took Fin up to Bridal Veil Falls on a walk/hike on President's Day, which was great fun for all involved. He got to meet lots of people and dogs, which is always the highlight of any walk, and play in the water. You'll notice all the snow, meaning the water was more than likely ice cold, but he didn't care. Or, he didn't care until he accidentally went in a bit deep, but that might just be because he's not sure about swimming yet.

I called Fin to try to get him to look at the camera, and he decided he needed to come bounding over to me. That is why Sam is restraining him.

This is Fin, the headless dog. Sometimes his toys go under the couch, and Fin valiantly takes it upon himself to retrieve them. It's pretty funny. Sometimes we stick things under the couch just so we can see this. He used to be able to get more of himself under the couch, but he's too big now for more than his head and paws.

This is the under-the-couch view.

This is Fin running. We call it "barreling," since it's more of an all-out gallop. He looks like a little buff-colored blur.

The Many Sleeping Positions of Fin

Fin's a big fan of sleeping on his back. It's probably comfortable for him, but he looks so funny.

This is one of Fin's favorite lounging positions. It looks dang uncomfortable to me, but it's his first choice. Unfortunately, he had not been able to lay like this these last few days, due to being neutered, but he's sure to pick it up again once he's fully healed.

Again with the back. If he's sleeping in his kennel, it's almost always like this.

Here is the classic back, but with a twist. Sometimes I wonder if his spinal cord is shaped differently than mine.

And that's Fin! He's been a lot of fun--and a lot of work and time, of course. He's still very much a puppy, but he's learning the rules and shaping into a very good, well-mannered dog. I'm so glad Sam brought him into our family.

xoxo

We've been approved for adoption! Check out our incredibly awesome adoption profile at https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/24950903/ourMessage.jsf.

Fin's adventure today

This is the message Fin (our dog, in case you don't remember) would like me to send out to the world on his behalf today:

Dear manhood,

RIP. You kept getting me into trouble anyway.

Sincerely,

Fin

I'm not sure if he's as excited as Sam and I are excited for him to be neutered, but he hasn't said otherwise so I have to assume he's thrilled. Congrats, Fin, on no longer being a menace to society!