Our First Raleigh Snow

Woke up this morning to thick snow falling. It was beautiful! Here's Darra checking it out:

When we went outside, she bounded in the snow like a rabbit, excited. I had to calm her down so she'd do her business instead of play!

"The Pink Dachshund"

I have an eye for All Things Dachshund, and was not expecting to find a nice story about one (albeit, a pink one) in Skirt! magazine, the Atlanta edition.

[I picked up Skirt! only because it was free; it took me a month to finally sit down and read it. I wasn't that impressed with it because (1) I'm not a big shopper, (2) I'm not rich, (3) I don't live the hip, urban/city lifestyle, (4) I'm not a feminist in the Gloria Steinem/ultra-liberal/any-kind-of-liberal sense of the word, and (5) the target audience of the magazine seems to be a combination of all of the above. Plus, easily 90% of it is ads, or ads disguised as articles. I know, I know, that's why it's free, but still. I will say that the brief profiles of women in a variety of professions - not just wedding gown designers or CEOs - were interesting as well.]

So I was hurrying through Skirt! until I found a piece called "The Pink Dachshund." All skimming screeched to a halt, and I enjoyed reading about a pink balloon dachshund that changed how the author viewed her boss.

Dachshunds are like that. They change the world for the better.

Darra's First Birthday

Darra is now one year old and weighs 13 pounds (which is one pound overweight!).

When we first got her in April 2007, we put her on the top ridge of the couch so she could see outside.
In the past few weeks, she has taken to thumbing her nose at her bed and sitting on the ridge of the couches. Apparently, we have raised her all wrong. She likes to get high.

John mentioned the big event around here, which was that it snowed twice this past week. It seemed to invigorate Darra, who enjoyed making tracks all over the back yard. The cold doesn't seem to bother her at all.

Birthday Weekend

My sister Gail and my parents came to visit last weekend for Gail's 30th birthday. I'd been looking forward to it for months and was about ready to burst by the time they came.

On Friday night, we went to Provino's, a local Italian restaurant where I could eat every day if I knew the amount of butter and pasta wouldn't kill me.

Gail opened her present from me/us: a scrapbook about growing up as sisters.
I'd thought of the idea a year ago, but of course only put the plan into action 2 months ago. Subtract being out of commission with the Lasik surgery, and the 20-page book was completed in 6 weeks. Whew!

You can see the inside pages here. Just be sure to start at the last layout at the bottom - that's actually page one, and work your way backward from there.

On Saturday, we went to the Atlanta Zoo, which I hadn't visited yet. The baby gorillas were the best part, with their entertaining antics and sibling rivalry. Here's the mama gorilla preventing one of the babies from pestering another baby. She also gave him a smack on the head for good measure.
One of the babies was obviously used to the crowds - or else had taken his cue from a toddler at some point! He hammed it up for the audience and stuck his tongue all over the glass.

On Sunday, we ate lunch at John's parents' house and finally got a decent picture of Monty and Darra together. Monty was all "ho hum, whatever" and Darra was ready to bolt. Not because she doesn't like Monty - she LOVES Monty - but because she doesn't like being posed. Yes, it's a posed picture. But who cares, it's cute!!
After Gail and my parents left for the airport, Darra was kind of down. She wouldn't even eat breakfast the next morning. She got quite spoiled with attention when they were here.
Now Darra's back to being stuck with just us. Poor thing.

Darra Goes Elizabethan

Yesterday, Darra had surgery to get spayed. John and I took advantage of her overnight stay at the vet to go on a DATE!

We went out to eat at a new Italian restaurant and even got dessert (vanilla creme custard with amaretto/raspberry sauce).

Then we went to see the new Bourne movie. Whenever I watch movies like that, I think about how I am NOT cut out to be a spy. I would just give up after one attempt to evade the villains. No guts or wits whatsoever.

The movie ended around 9:30 p.m. I said jokingly, "Why don't we see another one?" And Transformers started in 5 minutes. And we didn't have anything else to do or any reason to rush home. So we paid and went right back in.

It occurred to me that unless we have Darra spend the night at John's parents' house, we won't be able to be so spontaneous again in who knows how long.

I picked up Darra from the vet this morning. She's pretty much stuck with 3 activities: trying to eat, sleeping, and being bored. I think she's resigned herself to the "elizabethan collar" for the next 2 weeks.

Our dog can't do this

It has been a while since I looked at Cuteoverload. Surprising. Anyway, I was catching up and came across this video.

O. my. word. Hilarious.

The Rules, According to Darra

1. If it's not nailed down, I will chew on it.

2. If there's a bug crawling or flying around, I will find it and devour it.

3. If you blow on my face, I will jump you.

4. You are required to be in my line of sight at all times.

5. If you leave my line of sight, I will find you.

6. If you are in my line of sight, you are required to pet me.

7. If your epidermis is within 2 inches of my nose, I will lick you aggressively.

8. If I ring my bell, you come running.

9. Sometimes, if you're good, I may give you a present. Like a tooth that just fell out.

10. I need A LOT of sleep.

Even if it's not in my bed.

Free Stuff: It's a Good Thing

When my scrapbooking interest started months ago, I signed up to receive free e-newsletters from different magazines like Creating Keepsakes and Simple Scrapbooks. In one of the newsletters, it mentioned that you could apply to be on a survey list and get free stuff. So I applied, and they picked me! They email me when a survey is ready on their website, I take a minute of my life to answer questions, and once a month, they send me something for free. Not a bad deal.

So I got my first freebie in the mail yesterday: 101 Things You Can Do With Your Scrapbook Supplies. I haven't finished looking through it, but so far it offers a lot of good ideas for using what you already have in new, unique ways. Using what you already have - I like that.

When I first started this blog and was searching creation for what to call it, I stumbled across someone else's blog of a different color. She calls hers Very Pink. For some reason, I became a regular visitor to this blog of someone who lives in Texas and I DON'T EVEN KNOW HER. But I enjoy reading her posts because she is hilarious. You can find out a lot about someone from reading their daily entries, of course, and one thing that Very Pink does is post pictures of her 4 Basenjis (which, if you've never heard of them, are called "barkless dogs"). Every single post includes at least one picture of a dog.

Now that we have a puppy, I thought that is a great idea. Henceforth, all of my posts will include a puppy picture. Most of the pictures I've taken of Darra so far have been of her sleeping. She sleeps a lot, and in the weirdest positions. Quite immodest and unladylike at times.

Exhibit A:

Birthday Girl

Darra is now 4 months old, as of yesterday. She had a vet appointment today for her first rabies shot, and she weighed in at 6.4 pounds - at the last visit 3 weeks ago, she weighed 3.5 pounds! She IS eating better than she was 3 weeks ago (eating almost everything in her bowl instead of 1/2 to 3/4 of it).

We didn't celebrate her birthday though - no cake or carrots or conical hat. Just another day for her of the usual, followed by an evening of ruthless abrupt awakenings from sleep until a proper bedtime, determined by US. That is our gift to OURSELVES!

Existential Realization # 122

Maybe it's separation anxiety. Maybe it's because she's still a puppy. Maybe there is a telepathic bond between human and dog that we don't know about. But Darra has a psychological need to know where we are - both of us - at all times.

If John's reading on the couch with Darra, and I'm upstairs, she looks around for me when she hears me talking. In the morning, when Darra and I get up to eat breakfast and John is in the bedroom, asleep with the door closed, she finishes breakfast then takes up her post in her bed, facing the bedroom door. For an hour. Until John emerges, ready for work.

One surefire way to make her obey "Come" if she decides she doesn't feel like it: leave the room and wait. Eventually, she can't stand it - Where did they go? And around the corner she comes.

I didn't realize until today that I act the same way.

I'm putting on my makeup this morning and finally notice Darra is no longer in my line of sight, contentedly chewing on her bone. For all my talk about her ringing the bell when she needs to go out, habits die hard. I drop the mascara and rush off to see where she went. She's lying on the beach towel that we used to wipe the rain off her from last night's backyard outing.

That's when it hit me: I'm her. I do what she does, constantly checking to see where she is.

I am my dog's dog.

Good News From the Front

Fortunately for our sanity, Darra has done much better with sleeping at night.

We have to keep her from falling asleep too hard; then when WE decide it's bedtime, we stop waking her up and after about 20 minutes of letting her slip into hard sleep, we put her in her crate without a peep from her. WHEW. (If we try to put her in the crate right when she falls asleep, she wakes right up and you can forget about sleeping the rest of the night.)

I had also decided to train her to ring a bell when she needed to go outside and figured it would take several weeks for her to get it. I set it up on Sunday afternoon, and by the time we went to bed that night, SHE HAD ALREADY LEARNED IT. Naturally, she's a quick learner. She is OUR dog. Or else it's the fact that ringing the bell has two parts to learn (first, go to the door; second, ring the bell), and she'd already learned the first, harder part weeks ago.

But this means that we don't have to watch her vigilantly! We can get other work done without worrying about her! When she's upstairs with me while I work, she even "goes to the door" there - where she knows the "exit" is to leave the area I have blocked off for her. How smart!!

To top off a great few days, yesterday I guess the lack of sleep altogether caught up with me. I left the office in the afternoon and was fighting off sleep, walking through Walmart in a daze to get some needed groceries. Got home and couldn't even think about cooking the easy stir-fry I'd planned. I collapsed on the couch to take a nap first - and John made dinner!! WHAT A GREAT HUSBAND!!

We ate our stir-fry and watched Lady In the Water, which is another sign of John's love and sacrifice, since he knows the movie will end with his arms black and blue from bruises where I clutched him to death during the freaky parts.

Guess I'd better let Darra in. For the first time since the fires were reported in Georgia, we can smell the smoke in the air, and the sky is hazy with it.

Mothers and the devil

For Mother's Day, John's family came over to our house for lunch. I'd already decided the menu 2 months ago, when I found a certain pasta at Whole Foods called Mother-in-Law's Tongue. Not kidding. This is what it looks like:

(Apparently, there is also a plant with the same name. What is this fascination with the tongues of mothers-in-law?)

The meal was good, though it wasn't entirely vegan (who wants to make vegan green bean casserole when it would take 2 hours). And the dessert definitely had to be non-vegan or John's brothers wouldn't have eaten it.

Afterward, I cleaned up the kitchen and finished the dishes by 4 p.m., while the rest of the house looked like this:

(Yes, Darra is actually sleeping like that.)

The day pretty much passed in a fog for me because Darra has been regressing. She had finally accomplished sleeping solidly all night, until this week when the world came to an end:

Thursday night: Darra barks ALL NIGHT in her crate. We flee upstairs to sleep with earplugs in the guest room, reliving the first week we had her.

Friday: Take Darra to John's parents house for the evening to wear her out playing with the big dogs (2 golden retrievers, one of whom weighs 100 pounds). Darra sleeps like the dead all night.

Saturday: Go to several garage sales with Darra all morning. She sleeps in the afternoon to recover from the excitement of meeting so many new people and dogs. We play with her in the evening, but it is not enough. She barks all night again.

Sunday night: Play with Darra in the evening and take a long walk, which includes sniffing at neighbors' dogs being walked. Once home, she winds down and tries to go to sleep around 8 0r 9 p.m., too early for bedtime. Each time, I ruthlessly wake her up and make her play. She sleeps all night.

Basically, during the day, she is so cute and we love her. (This was taken the second day we had her, thus the worried look. But still very cute.)

At night, she becomes possessed, bent on a mission from satan to keep us from sleeping. Note the obvious change in facial attitude.


Other than the serious lack of sleep situation, our current training mission is to get her to ring a bell to go out. She HAS succeeded in sitting by the door to indicate that she wants to go out, which is a big relief, but that's a silent action. I heard about the bell training and want advance to that, since we can't and don't want to have to watch her constantly to see if she is at the door. I bought some miniature cow bells (in "copper") for $1.00 at Michaels and sewed them onto a length of blue ribbon to hang on the doorknob (if you're going to do it, at least it can match the living room). Plus, when she has to stay at John's parents house when we're on vacation, we can just move the bells to their door, so she knows where to go out.

A few months ago when I stumbled upon cuteoverload.com, I had jokingly told readers to Beware the Cuteness. Little did I know how prophetic that warning was!

Series On A Couch

Darra can be quite a climber. (Upstairs, she fits easily in between the rails of the railing and almost took a header one day. Eeeks!) Here, she managed to get on the top ridge of the couch.

Poor Baby!

Today, John and I went to meet some friends for the afternoon. Since the weather was so pleasant (mid-70s), we decided Darra would prefer to be in the backyard rather than stuck in her crate.

We were gone 4 hours and returned to this face:

Some other recent faces:

The Debra Winger

The White Eye

Don't my paws look freakishly big in proportion to the rest of me?

This face gets them every time

From my modeling days

The First Week

Darra is FINALLY sleeping for most of the night. Our earplugs have come in handy to help the process along.

Today she discovered that the Great Outdoors is for fun as well as for the bathroom.

See if you can find Where In the World Is Darra?

The beautiful (freakishly HUGE) tulips that she enjoys sitting near (and tries to chew).

More odd spots that Darra likes (not that JOHN is odd).

(I had to twist around to take this picture of her lying in between my shins.)

She likes to sleep A LOT (which is good, since we're unfortunately sedentary and have been on a Law & Order DVD streak the past few days). Poor Darra. We like to move her around while she's sleeping and poke fun.

The Small Great One Arrives

We finally have our puppy!

We were scheduled to pick up a black & tan longhair female mini dachshund on Wednesday, but the breeder emailed us with bad news. The puppy had a hole in her heart, which stunts growth and causes premature death. So we had to choose another one. The next black & tan wouldn't be available until the end of April, so we asked about red puppies to see if any were available immediately.

On Thursday, we returned to visit the breeder and looked at a dark red puppy and a golden/red puppy - both gorgeous. In the end, we chose the dark red one because she was smaller and more lively. Very curious and a sunny personality. (It is kind of weird to think of 2 puppies in our minds named Darra.)

She is so TINY!! Fits against your forearm. She's about the size of John's shoe. She always wants to be near us (preferably in the lap) unless she's exploring (which she's still doing). Our house feels quite BIG with her running around as a contrast. Her tail wags all the time, and when she scampers, she almost looks drunk, or like she's still learning to walk (even though she's 10 weeks old). When trying to stop running, her butt lands first but the rest of her is still moving. I guess it's her brake.

Once we got her home from the breeder, we ate supper, and Darra watched a movie with us and fell asleep. We trooped to bed, and the crying commenced. Since we are going to crate-train Darra, that means she sleeps in the crate at night. She let us know she does NOT LIKE THAT. It didn't take John and me very long to abandon the bedroom and head for higher ground in the guest room. I used earplugs.

Darra still doesn't appreciate the crate at night, but at least she doesn't see it as entirely Evil - today she took several naps in the crate (with the door open); she entered on her own and snuggled right in. HOORAY!!! Hopefully this will mean less anxiety tonight at bedtime....

We have to confess the sin of pride - we had to go to Petsmart to exchange the too-big collar we bought, and people kept stopping to pet her and exclaim over how Cute she is.

And what a snuggler!

She likes to line up in this one crack on the couch between cushions.
















As well as other cracks.

She wants to be right where we are, even to read about English history.

Announcement (not THAT kind)

John and I are getting a mini dachshund and have been thinking of appropriate names. After much discussion, we had two favorites but finally settled on Darra. It's Gaelic and means "small great one." Appropriate for a small puppy who will become a small fearless dog.

Here's a picture of her at 5 weeks old. We can't bring her home until the first week in April, which means lots of time to fix gaps in our fence, puppy-proof the house, go shopping, and finish reading Dachshunds for Dummies!

(Yes, she looks "sad" here, but that's just because of the tan coloring. And because she's not with us yet!)