Playing Catch-Up

It’s been a while since I updated my blog and there has been a good bit that has happened.  We’ll start with the sad, and end on some good notes. 

Royce, my father-in-law lost his battle with cancer on the 16^th of July.  The cancer was so fast acting/spreading that this was a good thing, though.  He is no longer suffering, and if he had lived longer, suffering would have been the only thing he would have reasonably have been doing.  The funeral was nice (though MIL tried her best to make it all about her instead of all about him). 

Since he wore gaudy Hawaiian print and fish print shirts all the time, we had everyone show up in those instead of funeral clothes, so there wasn’t the usual feeling of dread associated with most funerals.  There was still sadness, but there was also a sense of lightness, too.  We held the reception afterwards at our house for relatives and a few friends.  So much better doing it there rather than at an unknown venue like the funeral home, because we could relax more.

We skipped our annual vacation to South Carolina this year to spend time with him, and it was good that we did, because he died on what would have been our first night in South Carolina.  We didn’t get the extra time with him, but we do have plans to do some things in his memory, and we still have a trip in October for Candice and Donna to be in Candice’s sister’s wedding near Chicago, and we will resume the South Carolina vacations next summer.

The 15^th was our wedding anniversary, and on that day we went and rescued a puppy from the animal shelter (actually from an animal shelter outlet collocated at a PetSmart).  Her name was originally Frankie, but she looks more the color of a ginger root, and wasn’t very familiar with her name when we tried to call her by it, so we changed it to Ginger, which she now responds to.  She is a Great Dane/Terrier mix (not a tiny Yorkshire type, but more of a Plummer or Staffordshire type), and she is a great dog (most of the time).  She had already had some training, so she knows sit and stay.  She walks well on a leash (unless there is a rabbit nearby, then she HAS to check it out.  I don’t have a clue, nor think she does either, what she’d do with it if she caught one.  We’ve since taught her to sit while we wait to cross any street (without needing to say “sit”).

There were a few accidents on the carpet when we first brought her home despite her being housebroken already, but she’s only 4 months old, and the situation was new.  For the past week or so, there haven’t been any accidents (knock on wood).  At night, she sleeps in the kitchen for now.  When we know we can trust her (and the cats) better, we’ll think about letting her sleep elsewhere in the house if she wants.  We also have to “break” her of the basement.  We kept the not-housebroken Chihuahuas down there during cold months before we found them new homes and, well, she thinks since their smells are all around that it is ok to “go” down there.  We have a doggie door to the basement from the back yard, and she was going inside to do her business until we closed it off.  That’s another big part of allowing her out of the kitchen at night.  If we can train her to go through the basement to go outside if she needs to go, then we’re golden.

She’s been good for us in other ways too.  She’s helped comfort Candice after the loss of Royce.  She’s forced us to be more active, since we have to take her for walks at least twice a day to get her exercise, etc.

Donna and Megi were not too thrilled about her initially, though.  Donna got frightened at the shelter when all the dogs started barking at once, and she initially associated that terror with Ginger, but since has gotten used to Ginger (who incidentally doesn’t bark much, but when she does it’s a low pitched, deep bark you’d associate with a large dog) and talks about her a lot and plays with her too.  Megi was more like “WTF is this large thing trying to lick me all the time?”  Ginger has since learned to mostly leave her alone so she won’t scream, and Megi now will go up to her and pet her (hoping she doesn’t get in her face).

Gabe loves to play with her, but can get carried away and start rolling around and getting her riled up, in which case, she “play nips” at him.  We’re trying to discourage this behavior from both of them, because it can lead to an accidental nip that is too strong, or she might still be too playful when one of the girls are around who aren’t able to play with her as fiercely as Gabe can.

Ginger loves to play “fetch and keep away.”  Which is fun and gives us extra exercise, but we’d often rather it just be “fetch and bring back to us.”

We’re not sure how big she’ll get to be since she is part Dane, but the vet thinks she may have reached her full height since her adult teeth are in (though she’s still teething with them some), but she is only 4 months old, so who knows?  When we got her, you could see her ribs through the skin, but now that she’s fed and exercise regularly, most of that is becoming muscle definition.

As promised, I’m posting a picture of the plaque I made for Candice for our anniversary and to (hopefully) motivate her to do more of her artwork.  Here it is.  It came out much better than I hoped before I started it, but the spiral scroll saw blades make it tremendously easier to use the scroll saws.  I think I need to buy a bunch more, so if you’re looking for gift ideas, there’s one for you!

And speaking of the motivating Candice to do art stuff, I’m pretty sure the plaque had nothing to do with it, but she IS starting to do artwork again.  Hopefully we’ll have the parts in the next couple of months to set up her new torch and she can stop (or drastically cut down on) using her hot head torch.

We also bought a pool.  Not a “cement pond” type, but an above-ground 15 foot round pool.  We went to fill it up (and did) and found that our yard is not level enough to support it, so from now through around Memorial Day of next year, my primary outdoor project is leveling out a twenty foot square area to put it for next year and to run a power outlet over to that side of the yard where we plan to put the pool (and eventually a gazebo).

I’m sure I missed a crap-load of stuff that happened, but this was hopefully enough to quench your thirst for a while.  Thanks for reading!