I Love Wearing White and Taking Naps

It always seems like I just wrote a post, and then I look at the date and see that it's been days and days. And here I thought this was going to be a long week. It went by surprisingly fast, considering today is the first day the puppies have been able to go in the backyard. Their paws get a little dirty, but you can't have everything.

When Travis got home yesterday, we loaded the puppies in the car and took them to Pet Smart and Lowe's. They needed to get out of the house. Pet Smart was good except we have further seen that Tatum has no doggie social skills. Anytime another dog is around her, the hair on her spine goes up, and she looks a bit scary. Not terrifying, mind you. She's still a baby puppy at 4.66 months (trying to be as accurate as possible), so I think there's still time for us to fix her antisocial tendencies. I sure hope so. Because one of the only things that redeems us in the eyes of so many people who don't like big dogs is that our big Sabre is a sweetheart. He loves to play with other dogs, he gets so excited when there are kids around (just ask the two kids that wanted to pet him at Pet Smart yesterday), and pretty much just loves everyone. This rather large female mastiff approached him yesterday, and he was thrilled! There's only so much you can do in a store, but he was definitely ready to play. Tatum, on the other hand, was overwhelmed and eventually bared her teeth. We gave her a correction on that one, since the sweet, albeit large, dog was doing her absolutely no harm. Tatum's also the first to bark at other dogs on our walks. Sabre wants to play, Tatum wants to "attack" but then runs away and tries to hide behind Travis or me as soon as she thinks the other dog might take her up on the offer. We're thinking of taking her to a puppy socialization/training class. There were many things I didn't like about living in a tiny one bedroom, one bathroom apartment, but one of the best things about it was the "at home dog park" right outside our door. As soon as we'd let Sabre out the door, he'd go to all his friends' doors and scratch on the door a bit. Or his friends would hear (or sense) him outside and just appear. Their owners always said, "Oh, so that's why she was whining at the door..." We'd say the same thing if it was one of the other dogs that went outside first. Sabre always sat at the window and waited for a friend to show up. And there were even times that some of the other dog owners would bring their dogs right in front of our door, knowing that we'd let Sabre outside since he'd start whining incessantly. Then they'd play for a while and get sufficiently worn out. His closest friends were a Chihuahua, a Pomeranian, a Schnauzer, a Terrier mix, a Pitbull mix, and a German Shepherd mix. Needless to say, he learned very quickly how to play with small(er) dogs. It was really the Chihuahua (Precious) that taught him. You see, she was his first friend when we brought him home. They were about the same size at first. Then, somewhere around 40 lbs or so, Precious decided they couldn't be friends. If he would approach her, she would bark viciously in his face and run away. Sabre tried for weeks and weeks and weeks to appease her. He would basically go as far down to the ground as he could and then crawl towards her. We think he was trying to make himself look smaller. Then, one day, Precious came outside while Sabre was playing with his Schnauzer friend (Bear), and when Sabre approached her, she stood there and let him lick her. And they were friends again. We think maybe Precious was trying to teach Sabre how to be a better friend to small dogs. I mean, it certainly worked. He stopped trying to paw them (since his paws are the same size as their whole bodies) and learned how not to hurt them when he nipped at them so they would chase him. It was a wonderful thing. But Tatum didn't get to play with them as long. We were only there a few weeks after Tatum came home, and the time away from other dogs has been bad for her. Sigh. The grass is always greener, huh? In this case, quite literally. We have no grass. Just dried mud. Wink, wink.

I tried to make corndogs yesterday. It didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped it would. Apparently corndogs require special cornbread batter in order to stay on the hotdog and stay yummy after frying. Hopefully I'll do better next time. Once I want corndogs again. At this point, the corndogs I had yesterday didn't endear them to me a whole lot. This is why I don't like cooking. I try something new and it fails. I have to admit, I tend to try things without a recipe or I change the recipe, so I guess it's more due to my lack of following directions (or getting directions), but I'm working on it. One of these days I'm going to follow a recipe exactly. You'll see.

I started watching Glee on Netflix this week. I couldn't say anything about it before I watched it (because it's really stupid for people to say horrible things about something they've never seen), but now, I feel I can officially comment on it. I love the show for the musical performances. They're the best part of the show. Actually, I have to be honest. They're the only good thing about the show. I have to keep reminding myself that this show is not meant to be realistic. If it were meant to be realistic, they failed miserably. I didn't go to public high school in the states, but I genuinely hope that real life teachers don't act like such idiots. I have yet to find a truly likable character, and find myself skipping over a lot of scenes. And in the end, I feel dumber for having watched it. But I love the ensemble music. I made it about halfway through the first season, and I think that's sufficient for me. I mean, teachers encouraging students to look up to Madonna and emulate her? Disgusting. After trying to explain to Travis what was happening in the show, he finally said, "If you hate the show so much, why do you keep watching it?" And so I took his very sage advice and stopped watching it. :) If I like the music as much as it seemed, I can always look at their soundtracks. No need to suffer through the show itself.

My dear husband and I have such different tastes in...everything. As I'm writing this, he's watching a documentary movie (something like that) and it sounds incredibly boring. I prefer TV shows to movies, and even then, I'm very picky. He likes to read magazines like Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, and National Geographic. I like to read nonfiction novels. He likes to work outside, I love air conditioning. (I'm much more willing to go outside when it's not 100 degrees outside. I burn. Badly.) He likes to camp and hike, I developed a strong hatred for both activities throughout my childhood. He likes broccoli, I tolerate it. He hates cheesy foods, I love them. He hates mashed potatoes, I could eat mashed potatoes as my main course. And I could really go on and on. But you know what? There are some ways that the differences are a good thing. I mean, if it weren't for Travis, I never would have tried skiing. I can't say it was my favorite thing, but I tried it. And Travis has listened to me read a couple novels to him and has actually enjoyed them. He wouldn't ever pick up a book and read it on his own, but he'll listen to one. :) And it hasn't happened yet, but someday I might go camping with him. You never know. Hiking? Not so much. It pushes both of us out of our comfort zones. For example, starting in about...upper elementary school, I hated dogs. Couldn't stand them. I had no interest in petting dogs or looking at dogs or being near dogs. Travis always had a dog growing up. He LOVES dogs. I knew when I married him that I'd have to figure out a way to tolerate dogs. And now? Now I love them! I mean, I don't necessarily love ALL dogs, but I'm much better now than I used to be. And I really truly love our dogs. A lot. Learning to adapt and grow together is a really wonderful thing.