Holidays are… Stressful?

So, a lot of things happened this 4^th of July.

It was not only America’s birthday, but my Mother’s (I won’t tell you which one for fear of death).  We got to visit our family, including two of my cousin’s and their families that we haven’t seen in a very long time.  It was overall, a very nice day and I was happy to have it off, because this summer already seems like it’s lasting forever when it’s only just begun.

I do remember the days I longed for school to be out and I was free from the academic for a short while.  Though, that was before I was an “adult” and being paid to care for other people’s children, instead of someone caring for me.  Now I’m actually looking forward to school starting again.

How times change.

Anyway, it was a good day and I was happy to see my family and enjoy good food and a relaxing day.

That is, until we got home.

The dogs had been good, despite it being a long day in the house and us forgetting to put the trashcan out of reach, which I’m sure was a temptation beyond all temptations.  We let them out to do their business for a while and when it was time for dinner, we discovered something was amiss.

Luka and Mystic were gone.

Dumb

Dumber

Apparently, someone had come into the backyard during the day and left the gate open, which of course gave the dogs the opportunity to run away.  Before I go off on a rant about inconsiderate boobs, let me tell you something that will shock you.

Luka came back.

It happens!!

Let me allow that to sink in for a moment.

……………………

Are you scraping your mouth up off the floor?  I was.  Mom wants everyone to think that he wanted to be good and came back for that, but in all honesty.  He hadn’t been fed yet.  It was, as we call it at our house, “dog o’clock” and Luka most likely realizing that with his rumbling tummy.  Regardless of his motives, I am very proud of him for coming back when he could have easily run and been in danger of being hit by a car.  He was a good boy, albeit motivated, boy.

Mystic on the other hand, didn’t seem to care it was Dog o’clock, one way or another and headed for the hills.  Although generally she’s a very good dog, she’s spent so much time going from family to family to family her training has been limited.  When the opportunity to explore arose, she took it.  It was just a horrible day for it to happen.  She had already been gone for half an hour and could be anywhere.  All of us piled into our cars and spent over an hour searching our neighborhood.  I, of course, was in tears most of that time, thinking about all the things that might happen to her.  She’s afraid of loud noises and raised voices, which—it’s the 4^th of July.  That’s pretty much all that happens.  I was afraid that she would get scared and run into traffic and that I would find her lying in the street.  I’ve also heard stories of cretins stealing people’s dogs right out of their backyards and using them in dog fighting rings.  Mystic might look and feel like a tank—but she wouldn’t hurt a fly.  I can’t even imagine her going through something like that and so the thought made me twice as worried.  I had been around our neighborhood what felt like six hundred times and frustration was beginning to set in.  I decided one more time around the elementary school and then I would just have to go home and see if I could leave a message for the animal shelter.  So I head back that way and guess who comes a derp, derping up the street?

My darling tank of a dog.

Derp.

I threw open the door and hollered at her to get in the car, to which she obliged and we finally got to go home.  And I had to fix my make-up.  She did what I figured she was going to do, head for a playground.  She loves kids and people, but I wasn’t sure of her patterns since she hasn’t been with us that long and she hasn’t run since we got her.

I just want to say, I’m used to having to track down dogs.  It’s not the first time someone has wandered away and it’s not the first time it’s made me have a meltdown.  However, someone was in our yard.  I don’t know if they were there to steal something or simply back there to find a lost golf-ball but either way—thanks for being a jerk; because of you, I spent an hour of my life looking for my dog and wondering if she was going to be ok.

I’m really just happy she’s home and I guess she was too.  She’s been very snuggly with me since then, which is unusual since she usually sticks with Dad, but she came upstairs to my room and snuggled with me while I watched a movie and has followed me around like we’re attached.  I kind of love it, I’m just afraid it won’t last now that she’s not in danger of becoming a pancake.

And yes, I purchased them all new ID tags.  they should be coming shortly.

The rest of the week was filled with work and boringness.  That’s ok.  I can’t take more than that.

Until the next crisis,

Jaina

Zzzzzzzzz

I have no idea how I’m still awake and I’m COMPLETELY not sure why I’m taking the time to write a post when I’m about two seconds from my face becoming one with my keyboard; I guess I just wanted to share my ridiculous, self-induced afternoon and the results of what I put myself through.

Let me start with why this even became a task for me:

I have fish tanks, for those of you who are still joining us for the first time and maybe haven’t had a chance to read the pet biography pages:

<—- Thattaway. 

I originally started out with a 1 gallon fish tank when I brought home several baby fish from my second job at the pet store.  Then the baby fish got too big for the 1 gallon fish tank, so I took advantage of a sale at said job and got myself 10 gallon tank for $20.  Unfortunately, my baby fish did not handle the switch very well and passed away.  This was a little heartbreaking, since I had raised them from pups, annnnd also frustrating because I had just purchased this tank and now had nothing in it.  However,  unbeknownst to me, it appears our house has old enough pipes, that when I was limited to getting water from the UPSTAIRS bathroom, I was inadvertently exposing my fish to heavy metals.  Thus, I killed them.  Again, heartbreaking, but I at least felt better that it wasn’t necessarily something I had done, just needed to become more educated about.  After discovering this and concocting a potion to fix said problem, I now have a tank that works. (Let me know if you have this problem, as I can easily suggest a quick and inexpensive fix!).  I now have fish (way more guppies than I ever wanted, thanks customer that can’t tell the difference between a male and female guppy!) and a snail and even a frog that seems to be doing pretty well.

Not my tank, but a good representation of what mine looked like after all the fish deaths.

I also have a 5 gallon tank, that houses my Green Spotted Puffer, Winston.  Winston is very special to me, in the few short months I’ve known him, he’s actually proven to be very intelligent, fierce and resilient despite my numerous attempts of unwitting homicide.  Although I had done my research on Winston’s brethren, I was and still am fairly inexperienced in their care.  I am still grasping the concept of proper salinity and the fact I need to be vigilant about water changes as he’s in a tank that will eventually be too small for him.  And he’s really good at pooping.  Combine those three not being taken care of and you have a very sick fish.  Which I found out last month, when Winston was nearly knocking on his tank sides to get my attention he wasn’t feeling good.  I have upped my game and thankfully he’s still with us.  I should have realized he’d be a fighter from the moment I met him though, as he was waiting patiently at Wal-Mart for someone to find him.  WAL-MART!  Don’t even get me started.  I might have my fish in a small tank, but at LEAST I know he’s taken care of and he looks infinitely better than he did there.  I have witnesses.

We're good folks, I promise!

Anyway, this long and very drawn out, insomnia forced story has a point–ish?

I had a desk that I had my tanks on, but it wasn’t in the most ideal of places.  The desk had just fit into a dormer in my room which had been fine for my computer and homework, but add the tanks and it became less so.  It was hard to reach the tank to siphon or do full water changes and once I added Winston, I couldn’t see parts of my tank to make sure everyone was ok and there was nothing strange going on.  So I purchased this:

This one.

It was on sale and although it did NOT match my room decor, I figured it would be easy enough to paint it and make it work.

Holy crap, how wrong was I?

This piece of **** must have had EVERY water resistant paint, lacquer and sealant known to man used on it. AND IT’S PARTICLE BOARD!  I sanded that sucker within an inch of it’s life but every paint my Dad tried on it peeled off or crackled.  I had talked him into painting some designs on it to make it go even more with my room, but it took over a month just to find a paint that STUCK to the damn thing!  It ended up accepting a spray paint, sort of, which, if you bump into it, flakes off or scratches, but whatever.  At least it’s the “heirloom” white I was hoping for.  Took three months, but hey, it’s up now.

My Dad has requested I never buy another one of these again.

Long story short (not really), once it became clear it was actually going to work and be put together, I had to figure out how I was going to get it into my room.  Although I love my room, and it’s technically the biggest in the house, space is an issue.  I have a few pieces I got for my apartment three or four years ago that I wanted to take with me when I moved back in with my parents, so that does chew up wall space.  I sat down last night and devised a potential set-up that required me to be heavy-handed with what I intended to keep.  This afternoon after we got home from lunch, I got to work and rearranged all but two pieces of furniture in my room.  By myself.  Single-handedly.  On my own.  And boy am I going to pay for it later.  I don’t think my right bicep has stopped twitching for at least an hour.  Although I doubt it’s considered Feng-Shui, I’m happy with the results.

I have to be, or, as Jack Sparrow once said, “I hope everyone saw that, because I will not be doing it, again.”

It might not be the prettiest set up to most people, but at least now it’s more conducive to my fish being cared for.  I’m less afraid of it breaking this than I was the desk as the stand is a little sturdier than the desk was.  I can also reach my window again, which is a joyous experience now that it’s getting warmer and warmer up here.

AND, this is exciting for me and hopefully will be for my pigs too; now that I’ve moved my computer/TV to the other side of the room.  The pigs have the whole wall to themselves!

Don't look too hard, ran out of energy to clean their Royal Messinesses' cage.

Excuse the clutter, I had to choose which side of the room (I almost spelled tomb, subliminal?  I think so) to finish first, so they got a quick vacuum and I’ll get to it sometime tomorrow.  This will be more exciting in the next however many weeks because I will be upgrading them (hopefully they consider it an upgrade) to a C&C cage, or my own version if I can find the right materials.

For example…

I would love to make one just like this for them, but even with the newly acquired square footage, I don’t think it’ll be possible.  I will of course make a top for it, as we have dogs in the house that don’t understand little fuzzy things are for looking at, not munching on.  It looks insanely simple, but I have to make sure if I make it myself that the grids are not too wide for them to get their heads stuck in.  Buddha may be smart enough to stay away from that, but Dharma– is a special flower.  She does what she does and doesn’t really think about it.  How do I know this?

She’s knocked their water bottle off the cage 4+ times a night, every night for the last month.  I don’t know what she’s trying to tell me, but she’s grounded.

I know there’s a lot of people out their that probably think I’m a nut for the amount of time and money I put into my animals (I think I’m related to at least two of them).  They’re right.  I am a nut, but at least I’m a happy nut.  They bring me joy and if I can give that back to them in any amount, whether by letting them stretch their legs outside for a grassy snack, chop their veggies into chewable bites or make sure they have enough space to be happy, then I’ll do it.  I may fall behind on clean-up or playtime, but I do try (I think) and it is important to me.

This is the face of a dog who doesn't get why Mom is getting emotional.

Had to get some Faith love in there, somewhere.

Ok.  I think I’ve wasted enough time on here.  I congratulate you if you actually read the post and didn’t just look at the pictures.  I don’t blame if you did, I might too, but I figured I had to have worked half my weight in sweat off this afternoon trying to get the majority of this furniture moving done.  Might as well share my accomplishments.

I’m not very good at finishing things and when I do, it’s a milestone, so why not celebrate?  Everyone pack your bags, we’re going to Disney World!

I need sleep!
Until then,

Jaina

Mystic: The Face that Makes No Sense

Mystic has been here a week and although there have been a few tense moments, so far it seems to be going fairly well.  She really is a sweet dog– Honestly, you couldn’t ask for a better personality from a newbie.  She’s desperate to please everyone and she hasn’t caused any trouble.

She makes no sense as a dog.  She’s squat, short-legged, Husky-tailed, Lab-colored and a head that’s twice as big as any I’ve seen.  And yet I think she’s one of the sweetest faces, ever.

She was hoping to get this:

ow.

She’s been here a week and most days I wonder if she ever wasn’t:

Like she’s always been here:

And she’s a loyal friend already.

She’s going to be a good dog.  I can tell.

I Haz a Happy!

For anyone following the blog– you may remember this post.  About a week ago, we discovered that Paisley’s mom, Mystic had found her way back to a shelter after being adopted, returned and lost many times in the last almost 2 years.  This last family had discovered too late that she is an energetic, intense dog and rather than returning her to the shelter (which they will ALL happily do, no questions asked), they listed her on Craigslist and gave her away.  Which explains how they “don’t remember” who they gave her to.

Because of her connection to us and the fact her life has sucked this far, I took it upon myself to convince my Dad she needed to come live with us.  He was resistant, as usual, but “Operation: Save Paisley’s Mom” was in full force.  I am perfectly comfortable stooping to begging when it comes to saving lives.  When it appeared Dad was immovable to her sad story, I stepped up my game.  This included a kidnapped phone, a quick contact edit and a personalized ringtone, concluding in a phone call that lead to Mystic finally finding her way home with us.

Today, Mom and I traveled back to PAWS & More (she had been transferred back a few days ago), where she met Faith and Luka.  We waited with bated breath, hoping that she would get along with them both enough to come home.  Luckily, she did!  It was heartwarming to see that, despite being shipped off and returned and dumped so many times, she still appears to be in good spirits and very loving.  She does look like she wasn’t treated very well and she’s trying to please everyone, even though our expectations are simply for her to listen as best she can.

It amazes me how much of Paisley I see in her.  From her tail, soft fur, to the way her tongue lolls out of her mouth.  I look in her eyes and I see Paisley.  I know she isn’t Paisley, and that was never the point of me wanting to adopt her.  I wanted to give her a home that was stable and loving, where she would never have to worry about someone kicking her out, or leaving her behind.  We at least understand what kind of personality and energy level she’s bound to have.  In fact, we discovered pretty quickly what kind of energy level she has, as she figured out how to get the front door open almost 20 minutes after she got here.  Running after someone for the first time in a very long time, definitely brought back memories.

I’m really glad she has a microchip.  I’m sure we’ll be seeing that again.

I’m happy she’s happy now :0)

I have a car!!!

I'm so glad I have a car!!!

Oddly familiar...

I took a picture of Paisley, Christmas before last that looks just like this... Clearly she's family...

She was actually a very good car rider.  She was quiet and kept to herself in the back seat.  She wagged the whole way home and stared into passing cars as though she were telling them she had her own and was going home.  She really is a sweet girl, even if she does need to work on her manners.

She handled all of this really well, even if she doesn't understand why we're doing it... AGAIN.

He likes the scratching...

And then he fell asleep against my pop bottle...

I really hope they get along.  It’ll be good if they do.

Hopefully I’ll have time to get real pictures of her soon.  I’m just happy she’s here now.

Until then!

~Jaina

Under Construction

It’s here!

NEW HUTCH-- YAY!

Actually, it’s been here for about a week, but I haven’t had the time or the energy really to work on it.  However, after the millionth time of tripping over the box and seeing their sad little faces I finally just gritted my teeth and told myself to do it.

*cough* while dragging my poor Dad downstairs to help me *cough*

I could have done it, I swear!  But power tools and I don’t necessarily mix (should have seen me two weeks ago, sanding my fish tank stand!) and Dad knows that and he knows that I obsess over my animals.  So he was the dutiful father and helped me get it all screwed together and commiserated with me when a few pieces didn’t look like they even belonged in the box.  And of course the inevitable “shipping damage”, as in a whole hinge breaking off in the box.  Sweet.

Either way, the majority of it is complete:

Yay!

Tomorrow, after work I’ll probably wander into the abyss that is Menards so I can get some new hinges and get the roof attached and hopefully get Baxter and Watson moved into their new place.  Just in time for spring and needing to buy them the OUTDOOR hutch I want for them.

Yay!

I wish they’d consider getting a paper route.

I hope to have better pictures soon, also hopefully of the two checking their new digs out.  I will say this, it’s good this isn’t a smell-o-blog, because this hutch is stinky.  I don’t know if it’s whatever they treat the wood with to keep it from rotting or being bug-eaten or if it’s supposed to emulate pine.  Whatever it is, IZ NOT PRITTEE!!

Here’s to it airing out soon.  Blegh.

Until then!

Jaina, Faith & the fuzzy kids

Everything Rolled into One

I got busy, life kept going, I didn’t update, so shoot me.

I’m here now.

So here we go:

Watson:

Is doing WONDERFULLY!  Less than a week after the surgery, the vet said she would be healed enough for me to start letting she and Baxter hang out.  I was a little surprised by that, but after looking at the surgery site, her fur was already growing back in and it was little more than a scab.  That was exciting news and to be perfectly honest, I feel like she’s mellowed out quite a lot.  I still wouldn’t stick my hand in her cage and poke her, but she doesn’t freak out as easily and she is actually quite snuggly now.

 

Baxter & Watson Meeting:

I didn’t actually get any shots of them getting together, since I was too busy chaperoning, but I did get some cute pictures of Baxter anyway.

Yes... I'm on the couch.

Still on the couch...

And now I bathe.

As for their date– It went pretty well.  Baxter’s still a little forward with Watson, but at least now we can be sure there will be no baby-making.  I think they like each other a lot, so I can only hope to get the money together quickly so they can live together.  I think it will go well.

Valentine’s Day:

Let me make it clear– I hate Valentine’s Day.  I think it’s overrated, over-advertised and I’ve had relationships that didn’t go as I had hoped start on it, so I’m always happy to see it gone.  The only enjoyable part for me, is half-priced candy afterwords.  However, my Mom seems to have caught the ‘crafty-plague’ and the last few holidays, we’ve done more in the way of crafty or baking to acknowledge them.  Apparently this included Valentine’s Day.  So she bought all these supplies and things and I showed up.  The weekend before, we sat down and made about a billion (felt like a billion) little chocolate cherries and brownies and then glitterfied some plastic heart containers for those really nasty conversation hearts– What?  They taste like chalk!– For her coworkers and the little ones I work with.  The house is still covered in glitter from that incident.  Although the glitter didn’t stick as well as we had hoped, they turned out pretty well.

 

I think everything turned out all right– Her coworkers enjoyed them and so did the kids– and I guess a few couples need to go into therapy because of the fights that ensued after tasting the chocolates.

Dad got to be involved, even though he hadn’t intended to, when we discovered one of our canister’s lids had inconveniently become stuck and wouldn’t come loose– especially when it was needed at the time:

We'll try anything around here...

Now it was a quest...

Ta da! THAT took ten minutes longer than it should have.

Ah, the spoils of battle.

It was a valiant victory.  Against powdered sugar.

Of course, while we were working hard, there were some people that were hardly working.

Sorry about the quality, at the beginning.  I was using my new camera and I still have a ways to go at being proficient, so it took me a while to get it into focus.  :0/

He was howling for a variety of reasons (not just us winding him up) but the fact that not only had he been banished from the kitchen- but that his plan of rolling ALL of his new tennis balls under the gate and into the kitchen had failed in making him unbanished. So not only was he still banished, he had also lost of all his tennis balls.  Which, let’s be fair, is a travesty.

When he finally DID become unbanished:

He found a really fun game to play!  All by himself!  He was so proud.  He does this, will just start doing something completely odd and out of the blue and act like he’s done it forever.

I don’t get him sometimes, I’m just glad he’s happy.

Well, I think that’s all I have in me for an update.  Not a whole lot has happened on the home front and I’m days away from finishing my undergraduate, so I don’t think I’ll be able to focus on anything that’s not school related until Wednesday afternoon.  That makes me overjoyed– not.

Until then!

Jaina & the fuzzy faces

Buddha’s Spa Day

You know what’s really hard?  Giving a Guinea Pig a bath…  I know I’ve commented on it before, but I think it merits repeating.

Giving a Guinea Pig a bath is very hard.

And anyone who attempts it and survives should be awarded a medal.

<.<

>.>

Thanks to school and work and just general laziness I suppose, the fuzzy upstairs pets have been a little on the neglected side in terms of cleaning out bedding and trimming nails and such.  I like to try to clean everyone’s home out every week or week and a half, but alas, as stated above, it didn’t quite happen that way.  It’s actually been more like two weeks and it’s definitely shown.  So today, since I’m still on break and wasn’t scheduled to work at either of my jobs, I took the time to clean my room and everyone else’s too.

Evie and Uno rejoiced at the opportunity to take a spin in their exercise balls around the room, Faith watching them protectively from her new orthopedic bed:

Dog Not Included

It even has that stupid little tag in the corner that I’m itching to cut off.  So stupid– Like a dog is going to look at that and exclaim excitement over the type of foam.  I digress.

She got it for Christmas and loves it, I think she’s starting to prefer sleeping on that compared to jumping on my bed.  Good and bad for me I guess, as I’m glad she’s comfortable, but sometimes miss her being on the bed with me.

So while those two puttered around in their balls, I cleaned up, cursing Uno and her aim, for so effectively getting her bedding on EVERYTHING on my cabinet.  I do not understand why she does it and how she gets it over the netting I have around her two story condo, but it never fails.  Finally got those two cleaned up and moved on to my favorite little Guinea Pig and realized what a mess she was.  I felt really bad too, thanks to me her fur was in a state and her toenails needed clipping in the worst way.  So I cleaned up her house and then bundled her into the sink for bath time:

You. Are a horrible person....

She wasn’t happy.  And I wasn’t thrilled to see how brown the water got just from setting her in it.

Is that shampoo? It better stay there.

I SAID LEAVE IT IN THE BOTTLE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!

After what seemed like ages, I finally felt she was clean and squeegeed out the rest of the water, wrapping her up in a towel.  Her hootin’ and hollerin’ all the way.

Stop taking pictures and get me OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took her downstairs wrapped up in her little “robe” where I did a bang up job of making my mom think she had died (holy cow) and then got her ridiculously long nails trimmed.

I REALLY WISH THIS WAS YOUR FACE!!!!

This was all too much for her and by the time I got back up to our room, the only way to calm her was to give her an orange.  All that work and she got orange all over her face.  Oy.

And to wrap it all up– You know what else is hard?

Giving a Guinea Pig a haircut.

It’s harder than it looks, nerve-wracking and really just reaffirms how much of a hair stylist I’m not.

You call this a cut and curl? Please. I want my money back.

At least she can see now, before she looked like a calico sheepdog.  She still has plenty of fur, don’t get me wrong.  I just trimmed her around the eyes, screamed once when she bobbed her head when I was perilously close to her ears and scolded twice when she nibbled the hand with the scissors.  She didn’t take me very seriously.  I’m sure it’ll all grow back in about two seconds, but at least I made the effort.

All I know is that I need to sleep now, because this whoooole ordeal exhausted me.  I do know for sure that one of her favorite movies is Superman, because she didn’t take her eyes off the TV the whole time I was drying her.

I understand Buddha.  Christopher Reeve was a hunk and one of the best versions of Superman ever.

Time for Superman III just for laughs?  I think soooo.

Until then!

~Jaina G.P.S. (AKA: Guinea Pig Stylist)

Luka’s First Christmas and Other Assortedness

Well, we had another Christmas come and go today.  It was also Luka’s very fist Christmas extravaganza and let me tell you– He handled it like he knew what it was all along.

We started the celebration yesterday, by making Snickerdoodles and Banana Bread, both of which turned out quite nicely.  Surprisingly enough, Luka actually acted like a little gentleman and didn’t need to be kicked out but once– simply because he has a tendency to lay down right behind you.  Good for knowing where he is, bad for not tripping on your face.

Can you... Just. Dwop whatever dat is pwease?

He was very interested in what we were doing and was also pleased with the scents that were being emitted by our oven.

 

Lemme jus check de wecipe, 2 cups sugew, 16 cups cookees...

He was very helpful.  Not.

 

Yes, I was.

He really wasn’t.

He was also helping me wrap presents.  Sort of.

 

I was on twash dutee!

He really was.  Not.

 

Faith was just waiting for anything at all...

And then the big day came–

 

All of these were our presents, but there were probably twice as many dog presents earlier.

Yeah, Faith is going in for the kill...

Faith waits for no one apparently and went immediately for the smelliest present she could find.

 

And then try to open them before anyone else can have some.

But Luka learned quickly...

 

And learned effectively...

And voila-- Happy Puppy...

Verrrrry Happy.

Faith-- Meet Faith...

You can’t really tell in the photo, but the toy does look like Faith, in a tug toy kind of way.

 

HALP! SHE HAZ DE PWESENTS!

So he got a monkey.

Sharing???

Nahhhh.

It was a good Christmas– The puppies were happy, the other assorted animals were happy and all of the presents I gave seemed to go over well.  I love Christmas and I’m always sad to see it go– but, there’s always next year to look forward to and more shopping to stress over :0)  I can listen to Christmas music for little while longer and then it’s off to whatever holiday comes next… Easter?  President’s Day?  Who knows.

Anyway, all of us here at the Doggy Bloggy wish you the best of the rest of this beautiful holiday and the happiest of New Years (I actually have plans!  Wha-whut-whut?!).  Also, whatever weather occurs, we hope it isn’t overwhelming, as winter weather often is!

Off for leftover turkey!

 

Merry Christmas!!!

~Jaina & Faith & Luka and all the rest!

 

We Wish you a Merry Christmas…

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Merry Christmas one and all.  Faith, the gang and I hope everyone has a pleasant and spirited holiday and that 2011 starts out wonderfully.

I’ll post photos later about our own celebration and what and alllll the toys the fuzzy faces got.  Because, frankly– They got way more than the rest of us.

Until then!

Jaina

New Camera, New Snow, New Post

So, today was my birthday!  I turned 23 at 6:37 pm this evening– and no, I don’t feel any older.  It was a lazy day, I got to sleep in for the first time in a long time, it was lovely.  I got to snuggle with my Faithy and do my own thing before my mother got done with work and we went to lunch at Olive Garden.  It was surprisingly good!  My parents got me some lovely presents and then we all came home and napped, because frankly, the weather has been dreary and we’ve all been working too hard.  I had a final symphony concert to play in for my college tonight, so that took a little bit of time, but it was a good day overall and we made it through the weather, since we’re also currently under a blizzard warning.

I guess we’re going to be getting around 6 inches between now and 6pm tomorrow.  I’ll believe it when I see it.

The other thing that happened this past week was I got my new camera!  I’ve been wanting a Nikon D90 since forever and my Mom was able to find a deal for me to buy the package I wanted, so now I have one!  I haven’t had a whole lot of time to play with it, since the class I’m in right now, is particularly homework heavy.  But, today was my birthday and I had my homework done, so nuhhhhh!

Thanks to that, I went outside and shot some pictures:

Very first photo I took with my new camera!! He looks thrilled.

Third picture I took... Still not happy.

Action Shot!

Butt shot

He had snow on his face.  Of course, it was only after all of these photos that I realized I have a movement setting on my camera, so I could have caught a few photos of him bounding after Faith around the yard.  Maybe some other time.  Would have been nice to see before we got a million inches of snow, but at least I’ll be able to catch his reaction to feet of snow, rather than the powdering we got a few days ago.  And maybe he’ll do more than this:

One of these days she’s just going to eat him.

Well, gotta go eat my cheesecake, I am the birthday girl after all!
Until then,

~Jaina