Saludos desde Puerto Rico!

Greetings from Puerto Rico! On Monday we traveled to San German, the oldest city in Puerto Rico. The weather has been perfect and we have been spending a lot of time on the beach reading and relaxing, just what both of us were looking forward to all Fall. Even though I was reluctant at first, I am glad David insisted. I am lucky he would rather spend our money on an experience we can share than things that are just for himself. I will try to remember how much closer together it brought us when the mastercard bill arrives next month. We are staying at The Pineapple Inn, a little B&B here that is just our speed. The beds are comfortable and the owners are hospitable. It is small and quiet, just steps away from the beach, exactly what we wanted.

Most of the time we have been spending on the beach which is just steps away from our room. We have had our hands full watching the crabs dig their holes and watching the tides rearrange the debris on the beach. We have decided that our entertainment for one day might be counting the coconuts. On December 28th, there was a seismic event, a small earthquake, in the Puerto Rico region. Unfortunately, this caused the currents to be too strong for David to go diving. We think that gives us an excuse to come back.

David's suggestion is we move here so that he can open up a dive shop. I said, if he gets to open up a dive shop then I get to open up a used book store. We've been working on the name all week. The best we have come up with is The Reader Reef. That name is growing on us for now. We have met a lot of people who have relocated here and they say that it is no more difficult than moving state to state since it is a territory of the United States so we haven't ruled anything out.

We also traveled to Old San Juan where we stayed for New Year's Eve. David did exceptionally well booking our hotel, we had a view of Christopher Columbus square from the window which is where all of the celebration took place, kind of like Times Square. Except rather than a ball dropping, they have a fireworks display and a stage set up for a concert. We had just enough time to walk to the fort. On our way, we took in a few of the sites of the old city. The buildings are incredible. Most of them are brightly colored and have beautiful grill work. There are many sculptures around the city that commemorate its history and are also a tribute to the artists. We had dinner at a Tapas restaurant which happened to be the oldest building in the city and at one point was used as the city hall. Where we were sitting used to be the part of the building that housed the prisoners.

Below is the final slideshow updated with all of our pictures. We are sure you will see why we can't wait to go back.

Our dog the cottonball

So we had a very large snowstorm recently--two feet here in Springfield. While I was very sick, Anne was a total trooper and went out and shovelled quite a bit during the storm so that on Sunday we only had to do a bit of work to be ready to leave our neighborhood when we got the chance. Zeldie had seen snow once before, but this time was very different. She absolutely loved playing it in for a while. At about noon, when the snow was about a foot, we went out with our neighbor Julie to the tennis courts to let Zeldie play around. She was running around, digging and eating the snow while we threw snow on her to get her riled up. This picture is from the end of the playtime, where the snow was almost completely covering her.

The problem arose later after the snow ended that evening. By that time, the show was up to her head. She didn't like that quite as much, as she had to essentially plow through the snow. She sorta crowd-surfed/hopped through the snow, which took quite a bit of effort. One big issue for her was that she couldn't find a place to poop. She didn't mind peeing in the snow, but she really wanted a piece of grond to poop on, and of course with two feet of snow everywhere, she couldn't smell that the ground was down there. She was walking with her head down sniffing for a good 10 minutes. Finally, on the middle of Hunter Village Drive, which is normally a fairly busy road next to our condo, she did her business. What a relief I am sure for her...

Nurse Zeldie

So I had two and half weeks off from work, with Anne having a solid two weeks...I was pretty sick on the Thursday and Friday before Christmas, and then it snowed a South Bend/Oswego amount of snow. While sick, Zeldie did not leave my side. I think she thought it was a lot of fun that her dad was home during the day, but when I wasn't playing with her and just laying on the couch she decided to join me. I pulled the the Ottoman close to me and she slept next to me with her body on the couch and her legs on the Ottoman. She was very distressed when I got up to get something to drink--she looked at me, let out a big sigh, and then rearranged herself deeper into the warm blanket.

We have a dog that thinks she is a person for sure...

Zeldie Horak-Litter Patrol

Cesar Milan says that all dogs should have a job. This helps them to feel well adjusted and therefore they have fewer behavior problems. Although Zeldie does not have the extreme behavior problems Cesar deals with, just the regular ones, chewing, jumping up. We have been contemplating what Zeldie's job might be so that she can fulfill her potential as a canine in this world.

This past week, we bought her a harness. This was because of Erin's suggestion while were were visiting her for Thanksgiving. It has been a wonder. Had I known the benefits of walking the dog with a harness, I never would have gotten a collar. In any case, the collar is a pretty deep Raspberry pink color, which I will admit was a bit difficult for David to swallow at first. But the only other color in the size and type we wanted was a steel gray which he and I both admitted made Zeldie look like a boy dog. When he looked at it that way, he perked up a bit about the color. David is, more than anything, willing to be the person he needs to be to do what is best for his family and for that, I find him to be truly incredible.

While it was a bit of adjustment for her at first, she was biting at it, while we were walking, she was peppy and bright almost as if she was proud of her new harness. It occurred to me she looked a little bit like one of those crossing guards with the vests on. So, on that walk, when she sniffed and sniffed and sniffed until she found her piece of litter and then looked back at me like she had found the pot of gold, rather than say, no, "off", I said "Thank you, Zeldie Horak, Litter Patrol,"and took the litter from her and added it to the deposit we had already made in the poop bag. And this went on with every piece of litter we found. Thus, Zeldie has now found her purpose in life.

Bizzaro Zeldie

We went to Erin's house for Thanksgiving this year. We were very excited that Zeldie would get the chance to spend three whole days with four other dogs including one Irish Terrier that is only a week older than her. I was a bit nervous about how she would behave so we spent a couple of weeks beforehand focusing intensely on "off" (the counters). But as it turned out, the other dogs proved to be quite a distraction for her, more so than what was going on in the kitchen or with the people for most of the time.

We did come to realize though, that Zeldie has absolutely no self-regulation. On Thursday she spent the entire day playing with Sam and long after all of the other dogs had fallen asleep on the floor, she was still wandering around seemingly not sure what to do with herself until she finally fell, a full 12 hours after we had let her out of her crate that morning, over exhausted on the floor.

We were also completely amused that Zeldie seemed reluctant to do her business in the backyard. This was perhaps the part of the trip that David and I were looking forward to the most, waking up and letting her out into the big fenced in backyard in the morning. No trudging around in the cold and near dark with a poop bag in hand. However, as it turned out, Zeldie is definitely a city dog. On a leash is how she learned to potty and on a leash is how she prefers to potty. It seems to her the backyard was an extension of the house and unless we left her out there for hours on end playing with the other dogs, she wouldn't potty and she never once pooped back there.

I think the thing that was most incredible was watching Zeldie and Bailey together. It seemed as different as they were in stature and looks, they had a lot of the same habits. I noticed how they both scratched their nose the same way with their long back leg which I have never seen another dog do in my life. They both loved to give kisses the same way too. David kept saying it was "Bizzaro Zeldie" like that episode of Seinfeld. In fact they were so much alike that we had a hard time convincing PJ at one point that there were actually two of them there until we showed him the two dogs together. One thing they did do very differently lay down to take a nap. Bailey circled her spot and then laid down tucking herself into a neat little Bailey ball. Zeldie, on the other hand, fell over in her spot sprawled on her back limbs askew and snout thrown back. She's is a wonder.

Above you'll find some video of Bailey and Zeldie together so that you can see if you can tell them apart. At times, it was difficult for us too.

Seven Months of Puppy Love

Zeldie turned seven months old this week. It was a shock to realize that she was that that old and that we have now had her five months. The past three months have just flown by. We were just asking each other when the last time she even had an accident in the house was because we can't remember. She has definitely outgrown some of her puppy behaviors and has grown into some others. We are working hard on teaching her "off" and "heel". She seems to be adjusting fine to the long hours in the crate, even if she has to do six hours. We didn't think she was growing much and then we looked back at some pictures of her and realized that she had gotten a lot shaggier in the past couple of months even if she hadn't gotten much bigger. If she keeps changing in the next five months as much as she has the past five months, we can only guess what she will be up to next.

Dinner Time

Zeldie has always liked to play with her food bowl. She will often tip it over and push it around. Tonight she did something new with it. We happened to catch it on video. It amused us so we thought we would share it.

October is a busy month

We've been working very hard this month, and it's been a bit difficult to keep up for the past few weeks. We enjoyed our time time in San Francisco, but when you go away for a few days, everything from laundry to work emails to grocery shopping seem to take a long time to get back on schedule, especially when you add in parent information nights and classes and swim practices. Poor Zeldie was in her crate quite a bit this past week as we were both out of the house Monday night and Tuesday night, I was out of the house Wednesday night with practice and then met Anne at the condo association meeting after that, and then Thursday we needed to get some shopping done.

However, yesterday, on Halloween, we got up and took her to Rock Creek Park to the "Mutt Masquarade" Parade. It was a whole lot of fun to see a couple of hundred dogs dressed up in costumes. There was probably a two mile walk with all of these dogs, and also some booths set up for various dog products. We had bought a pirate costume for Zeldie at Petsmart, but it is too small and she was very much tugging on the dangly parts. So, we just put her ND jersey on her, but that might be too small now too. Shiloh came along as well, and is growing quite a bit. Those two get along well, which is great if we ever need to dogsit for one another. There was a man and woman there who had three Irish Terriers, which is the first time we've seen another Irish Terrier. They were very cute and friendly and calm, so hopefully Zeldie at some point will be as calm as them.

Zeldie is showing pretty good progress towards being a fully adult dog. First of all, she's figured out how to show she needs to go out. For a while she would just sit by the door and wait for us to realize she was there. Now, she's doing two or three very audible whines while walking near the door and then sitting with body touching the door when we see her. We haven't had an accident in the house in quite a while, so hopefully we're out of the peeing in the house stage. She also has a fun little trick where we'll have something in our hands. We tell her to sit and stay, and then walk down the hall and throw it in a room. We'll say "go find it," and she'll run and put her mouth on the object.

We're getting ready for Anne to leave for a few days to go to a conference, so it'll just be Daddy and Zeldie for Thursday through Sunday. But, I'm going to be coaching both Saturday and Sunday mornings, so we'll have a good time hanging out each afternoon and evening. Maybe we'll even have a campout on the floor in the living room...

Celebrating Two Years

This past weekend we went to San Francisco to celebrate the wedding of Mike McCarvel and Jennie Hoffman. Since it was our second anniversary, we decided to take a few extra days off of work and make a vacation of it. Because our work and school schedules don't align, we hadn't taken vacation together since last Thanksgiving when we went to Honduras. The wedding was beautiful, the weather was fantastic and the city was amazing. Take a look at the slideshow to see a few of the things that we did. We spent a lot of time walking all over the city and covered many of the neighborhoods. Another highlight of the trip was Alcatraz which neither of us had seen before. We would recommend the night tour to anyone who plans to visit the city in the future. But, be sure to buy your tickets well before you arrive in the city, they sell out fast. We enjoyed spending time with each other and couldn't believe how quickly the past two years have passed. We are so happy for Jennie and Mike and wish them much happiness in the years to come as they begin their married life together. As we head into our third year, we continue to be surprised by how much we still enjoy learning about each other and how much it means to us as we watch and help each other grow.

Young Scholars iTouch Summer Program Video

This past summer, I helped implement a program at one of our middle schools that I had designed to develop potential in students from underrepresented populations in advanced academics. The curriculum for the program centered around students being hired as consultants for the DC Board of Tourism to act as consultants to develop a virtual tour of DC. I worked with Destination DC, the official tourist organization for the city, to partner with the schools. The students' final podcasts were linked to their sites so their products were very authentic. To learn more about the project, you can view the video that aired when the program was presented to the school board on September 24, 2009 and is currently being run on Channel 21, FCPS's cable station.
To see the video click on the link below:
http://www.fcps.edu/DIT/streaming/is02_ipod.asx

To see the students' podcasts, go to:
http://www.fcps.edu/SandburgMS/YoungScholars/index.htm

Mac Daddy

We got our MacBook Pro this week. We decided earlier this year, after some doing some extensive research on the macs as a gift for our nephew, Justin, that we wanted one for us. We are really impressed. We have only had it four days, but it is amazing how as soon as it came out of the box it made an almost brand new PC look like a piece of junk to us. We initially decided on the Mac because of its capability for desktop publishing and its seamless integration of applications with web 2.0 tools, but once we started playing around with it, we were impressed with the sheer functionality of it. When you turn it on, it comes on instantly, no more waiting as the machine whirs and boots up. And it works, no freezing and shutting down. Not only all of that but the connection to the wireless is reliable. We were both a little bit worried about transitioning to the Mac system, but above you will see our first attempt at using the iPhoto program. We created a slideshow with our photos from our vacation to Roatan last November. We were both happy to find out how user-friendly the program. Our photos looked so nice in the slideshow, we might just decide we need to take another vacation!

The couch is a losing battle

David and I made a lot of decisions before Zeldie arrived in our household. We had a plan and we were confident and we were sticking to it. Part of that plan was a dog-free couch. We started losing ground when she finally got big enough to jump up onto the couch. David and I were so stunned we both just stood there in shock. Our momentary hesitation before we pulled her off might as well have been permission as far as Zeldie was concerned.

Then, one day, I was trying to take a nap on the couch and she jumped up there with me and cuddled right into the crook of my arm. She just settled herself right in. I didn't even resist or restrain her. David did, however, and he started to call me a softie. I didn't mind being a softie. Then Zeldie got smart, she started to jump up on the couch when we were sitting down to dinner. Even David didn't want to get up from dinner to pull her off the couch. Needless to say, the couch is a losing battle.

But, while perhaps we have been more lenient than we planned on this, she is coming along in other ways. Tonight, she was picked to model a skill at puppy training class. David and I were very proud. She has never been picked before and we never thought she would get picked. Terriers kind of do their own thing. They are not people pleasers like the labs and golden doodles so they can be somewhat unpredictable. Not good material for demonstrations. She also was the only puppy to charge towards her handler on the recall. David said the rest of the puppies kind of hopped or walked. But she came running in her flappy way that gives her name the meaning of happiness.

So the couch may be a losing battle, but I suppose, that may be one I am willing to let her win.

Katie Rako...um Schaffner

Two weekends ago I went out to Indianapolis for my former Biloxi roommate (Coach Rakowski)'s wedding. I apologize to Katie for not including her very wonderful husband Josh in the picture at the right. He is definitely a Miss-Ace-Ippian now. Josh--I hope you and Katie have shared lots of late nights with John Denver (Ohhhh lay me down in Forest Lawn...)



I think this is the first wedding I have been to since Anne and I got married, and it brought back a whole lot of good memories of our own wedding. We had so much fun for the whirlwind that that weekend was, and we've only heard positive comments on it the past two years. About the only disappointment from the wedding was that the cake didn't quite come out how we thought it would, although it did taste really good. For the limited amount of people that we could invite and could attend, we do love hearing about it and reminiscing.

The wedding also reminded me just why I married Anne. For among thousands of reasons, the one thing that kept coming to my mind was that Anne is special because she makes all of the things that I thought were weaknesses she actually sees as my strengths. We complement each other in so many ways that make us both better and happier. We hope and trust that Katie and Josh are like that as well and wish them a lifetime of happiness.

Chompers

Zeldie's losing her puppy teeth and replacing them with her permanent ones, as seen in the photo here. While this means she is growing up even more, it also means that she is chewing on lots and lots of things, but not quite as bad as some people tried to lead us to believe. All of the sudden we'll see some small blood spots on her bone or wherever, and we know that she has just or is just about to lose another tooth.

Adventures of a Single Mommy

Zeldie and Mommy (taken by Mommy)

David went to a wedding this weekend in Indianapolis and I was left to take care of Zeldie all by myself. This meant on Friday, I had to get myself up, get the dog up, walk her, feed her, take the garbage out, get ready for work, make my lunch and still get out of the house on time. I was doubtful all this would happen. But, well, wonders will never cease because I did indeed make it to work on time, early in fact. When I got home, I got a very nice note from the dogwalker saying they had a nice walk and Zeldie had been pleasant. I was relieved to hear this because Zeldie had not spent the whole day in the crate since the first week we had her when we had to leave her with Tiffani and go out of town. I was glad though, that Tiffani reminded me of that week otherwise I would probably have been a bit more distracted at work on Friday, if she had not.

Saturday went relatively smoothly, although she cried more than usual when I put her in the crate. When evening came, which is generally her most active time, she was even more riled than usual and I began to think she was showing her first signs of anxiety at David's absence. I was also beginning to realize that either David has taken the role of the alpha dog or I am a big softie because it began to seem like I could not get Zeldie to listen to a single command I gave. I had trouble keeping her off the counters while I was cooking. I had trouble keeping her off the table while I was eating. I had trouble keeping her off the couch while I was watching TV. I spent the entire evening standing in front of the TV trying to distract her from jumping on the couch by throwing her toy and playing tug. It was a long couple of hours.

The next morning, I woke up with a headache. Zeldie was ready to go. This is when I believe what I think was her anxiety kicked into high gear. She was nearly impossible to keep off the couch. She was nearly impossible to keep quiet. After one particularly long barking fit, I heard a pounding on the ceiling, which I am convinced was my neighbor pounding on her floor to signal me to keep the dog quiet. As the pain in my head escalated to a migraine, I felt like a failure. I felt like I had failed at taking care of Zeldie. I felt like I had failed at being a good neighbor. I felt like I had failed at taking care of myself and getting my paper done. I was worn out and it was at least 10 hours until David was going to be home. I didn't think I was going to make it. I did the only thing that seemed logical to me at the moment, I called him and cried.

David told me to take my migraine medication and put the dog in the crate so I could get some rest. I cried harder. David told me to take my migraine medication and put the dog in the crate so that I could get some rest and work on my paper. I cried and cried some more. David told me to take my migraine medication and put the dog in the crate so that I could get some rest, work on my paper and take care of the dog later. She would be fine in the crate, he assured me.

Sure enough, David was right. And now I know that when you have to take care of a little dog all by yourself, you can't be so frivolous with yourself and wait until the migraine kicks in and you are in pain to take your medicine. You have to take care of yourself and take it right away. And I think maybe, that is just a good thing to learn to do whether you have a little dog to take care of or not.

Losing Her Head

Zeldie lost her Kong (if you're looking for gifts, Kong stuffers are always good!) underneath our buffett, and I took this picture.

Today was the first day that I truly thought that she is looking like a dog, not just a puppy. Her snout is definitely fully grown, and her ears have now taken their more natural position. All of the show dogs have their ears glued forward, but we don't want that so they pretty much fall to the side. It looks like she's always in a gust of wind. We like how distinctive the ears are. She's also about to get spayed next Thursday, so our little girl's really growing up. She'll have a collar on for at least a week, and we're pretty sure that she's going to hate every second of it. The vet says we need to keep her calm for that week....I would love a suggestion of how to do that. She can almost get things off of the top of the bar in our kitchen when she jumps, and we're supposed to keep her calm? Hmmm...

Exploring Upwards

We are both so impressed at how big Zeldie is getting and how much she is able to do now. She is getting to the point where she can really start exploring our house vertically, not just horizontally. Her front paws and mouth can now definitely reach the table top (she almost brought a plate of food down on top of her head yesterday) or the countertops, which have a lot of apparently good smelling things. Of course, this increases our anxiety anytime that she is out of her crate, but she also seems to have the (not) peeing in the house down pretty good. As long as we're taking her on pretty regular walks, she seems good. She has even started to sit by the door sometimes when she needs to go outside, which is great.

12 lbs, 13 weeks and counting

We took Zeldie to the vet this week and she was 12 lbs. She has put on a third of her body weight in the month that we have had her. The vet said she was entering her teenage days, which I'm not really sure how I feel about as in my jobs I am surrounded by teenagers all the time. Just another one to add to the crazy I guess. Her new favorite game is to run into our bedroom and get behind the bed and then crawl under and hide. She will be too big for this soon, we think, but it’s very cute if not a little annoying. It is amazing how quickly she can crawl to the other side of the bed though while pretty much her whole belly touching the carpet. To get out, she essentially has to turn on her side and do a movement something of a cross between a waterbug and sidestroke. Very funny.

She also graduated from puppy kindergarten this week. The instructor said she had improved a lot from the first night when she needed remediation--which is tough for two people involved with Gifted Education. But, we are teachers and so we did what we do best, which is teach.

The best part, however, is that she has had four accident free days in the house and one almost accident free day in the house. As we go through the process of training the puppy, I have realized with even more clarity the importance of consistency and boundaries. Setting boundaries with the puppy is a lot easier than it is with other people in my life—students, swimmers, family, etc. The puppy, of course, doesn't take it personally, or blame my wife for the choices I am making. She just lives happily and our relationship is thriving within the safety of the limitations we provide for her through the consistency of the boundaries we set. In fact, she is better off because of it and our relationship will continue to progress inside of the limitations. I see it like putting lane ropes in the pool for swim practice. It may be a bit more fun and free flowing to just swim wherever in the pool, but by putting the ropes in and giving her the way to be successful, we can get a lot more accomplished.

Stand as a Lighthouse

The reason we went to New York a couple of weekends ago was for Justin's graduation from high school. We all got to go to the Egg in Albany, a performing arts center that looks exactly as it's name implies. It's quite a strange building from the outside, and according to Travis there are no right angles anywhere in the main performance venue, making for very good acoustics (Travis is a gold mind of pretty much worthless building knowledge).

Zeldie was a champ when it came to all the travelling and meeting people. She was definitely the hit of the graduation party, meeting everyone and then falling asleep for a couple of hours on the floor/my lap/Willie's lap. We stayed in an all-suites hotel, which was great for travel with a puppy. We were a bit concerned with how much she was whining the first night, but we didn't want her to run free; therefore, on our king sized bed, we put Zeldie, in her crate, on the bed with us. Very silly indeed, but we felt better about making her travel so much that day.

It was quite a quick trip, but sometimes those produce the deepest thoughts. As we congregated after the ceremony, we were taking pictures in all sorts of different combinations. I really enjoyed just how happy everyone was in that moment, and how happy (almost) everyone was to take pictures. The family that was at the ceremony was certainly a blended family, with last names of Umina, Maselli, Rafferty, Horak, and Furman were all represented. Anne's father was very insistent that Willie, me, everyone was in a variety of pictures. The wholehearted acceptence of the people that are important in everyone's lives there is truly the definition of family. We all have differences, disagreements and issues with one another, but a family supports each other and truly wants to grow with each other as our lives develop. A family is what you make of it, with whomever will cherish who you are in the present time and all that makes up who you are. Those that are supportive of who you are and what is important to you is what will make up our family.

A Man and His Dog

It's been quite a busy couple of week, so we're taking a bit of a nap. Since the last posts, Zeldie has stayed with our friend Tiffani as Anne and I attended my grandfather's funeral in Texas, and then two days later we drove with her and Willie up to Albany for Justin's graduation. Zeldie did so well for the almost 10 hour car ride up and the 9.5 hour car ride back (except for the last hour on the ride up, for which she was quite cranky). Today, the whole family (Anne included) took a nap on the floor for a well deserved rest.

She's doing very well in puppy kindergarten, and she is now one of the bigger dogs in the class. She plays very nicely with most of the dogs, and is certainly the most distinctive dog in the class. We haven't seen another terrier yet. I guess the reputation as "terrors" keeps people away from getting them. We love training Zeldie, but that's probably the teacher in both of us that loves the challenge.

She's quite a spectacle wherever we go. I was walking her a couple of days ago, and someone drove by, stopped, and walked back to us to ask about her breed, etc. Everyone that comes near her wants to pet her, and of course she loves that. For the first time today, we actually ran into someone who knew what breed she is before we said anything.

Our second vet visit is tomorrow, for more puppy shots and another checkup. Hopefully the vet will be a bit more positive than the first visit.

Week One

Today we have had Zeldie for one whole week, yet each day that passes I have more and more trouble imagining our life without her. It seems to me the house was so empty before and we didn't even know it. We can't believe how much she has grown. Already her nose looks longer and when she straightens up she looks a little taller. She is becoming a confident little puppy. When I look back at the videos from the first day I laugh watching her sniff, as I see how unfamiliar everything was to her and how curious she was about her new surroundings. Now, her home is familiar to her and she has moved on from sniffing to chewing everything in sight. She doesn't like to wander too far from it on walks and she is beginning to get a routine schedule down of activity and napping. Yesterday, we left her in the crate for 4 hours while David was at swim practice and I was at work and she did fine. I bought some of the special treats the instructor called puppy crack and we have been practicing her voluntary attention and she has been getting the hang of it. Tomorrow we leave for Texas for four days. It is harder than I thought it would be to leave her. After all, she is just a dog. But, fortunately, I know we are leaving her in very good hands and that makes it comforting. But, I try not to think about the leaving part, I try only to think about the returning part.

Puppy Kindergarten is exhausting

Last night I took Zeldie to puppy kindgergarten. She was so tired out afterwards, she feel asleep as soon as we got home. The video above is how she feel asleep in her crate. David had swim practice so our friend Tifanni met me there. Tiffani is a very experienced puppy mommy and had both Zeldie, and me, all under control. Zeldie was one of the smallest dogs there. I let her off the leash for some play time at the beginning of the class and she started making friends. with one of the three golden doodles in the class, whose name, by the way, was Paisley.

Some of you may remember, that when we first started talking about getting a dog, Paisley was my first choice for her name. I was very glad we had decided against it. There was also a black lab named Scout. Some of you may also remember that Scout was on our list too. After being in the class with another Scout, which also was a boy dog, I was glad we had decided against that as well.

During the training, Zeldie did not grasp the concept of "voluntary attention". Unlike the Golden Doodles, Golden Retrievers and Labs whose sole purpose in life is to please their owners, Zeldie was as the instructor put it diplomatically to the entire class "highly distracted in this environment". I was the only owner who had to get on the floor to work with my dog. The rest could sit politely in the plastic chairs. When the rest of the class moved on, we got some remediation in "volunatry attention". Zeldie is a smart dog, she was able to figure it out quickly. She is just a twice exceptional dog. So, she has a few special learning needs too.

And oddly enough, I now understand what David has been trying to tell me all this time. You may know that I have for a long time said that David makes me feel like my biggest flaws are my greatest strengths. What I call stubborness, he calls persistence. What I call a hot temper he calls passion. Watching Zeldie last night, as she strained at her leash trying to make friends with the Golden Doodles who were adoringly volunteering their attention to their owners, while the instructor discussed proper handling technique and I knelt futilely on the floor, I fell in even more deeply in puppy love with our little girl thinking that she was lot more interesting because of it.

Dental Health is Important

Yesterday, we brushed Zeldie's teeth for the first time. All of the books we had read talked about good dental health but I had kind of dismissed it thinking that these books were a little intense. Then, when the vet said something to me about it, I thought, well, maybe I should look into this. She loved it. Of course, I think what she loved most about it was chewing on the toothbrush, but either way, I hear the key is to get her accustomed to it early.

After five days of puppy toys all over the floor and nature's miracle hanging out on our countertop, I got the call that I had been dreading, someone wanted to come show the condo and they only gave me an hour's notice. Zeldie went into her crate and I immediately flew into a cleaning frenzy. About 20 minutes into the tempest, David came home and I couldn't have been happier to see him. He walked in and more than tell him, I gestured to him and he fell in cleaning along beside me. Shortly thereafter, we, along with Zeldie, were on our way to Petsmart. Where else can you go with a dog when it is starting to get dark? Zeldie, loved petsmart. She especially loved the treat aisle. After smelling all of the boxes, we decided the ones she already had were her favorite which we were happy with, but we did come home with something for her friend Tallulah who will be sharing her mommy this weekend.

Zeldie is a big girl!

Zeldie slept all through the night until 6am! We both felt like we really slept in. We have decided it is time for her to start learning to play in her crate while she is awake so we played for a little bit outside and then I put her in her crate for some awake play time. I put her in her crate and then I sat down by it so that she could see me. She played for a bout 10 minutes and then fell asleep! I guess she missed the point of the awake play time. We will have to try it again another time.

Last night she saw her shadow on a walk and she growled at it. She was so fierce. We stopped and really stared down the shadow puppy. Then, she slowly moved on and when we moved out of the light of the street lamp and the other puppy disappeared and she was so confused. She just swung her head from side to side not knowing where that puppy went. When she walks, and she gets a really good trot going, her ears bounce up and down and it just cracks me up to death. When she is setting a really good pace, she actually looks like she is prancing and she looks kind of prissy. At one point she saw a bird and she straightened up as tall as she could and I noticed that she looked a little taller. Then I looked at her belly and I think it looked a little fuller. I thought to myself, she's growing! Quick, get the camera before she gets any bigger! Although many people have commented on the size of her paws and how big she is so I have included a picture here which shows perspective for you so you can see that she actually is quite small right now.

I came home from work yesterday and David said, "You know how else Zeldie is like you...." I thought 'Oh no, this can't be good!' "She goes, goes, goes until she drops from exhaustion." I don't think the vet has to worry about us loving this dog if we already think she is taking after us.

A dog named Zeldie

A few people have asked how we got the name "Zeldie". David's favorite Dave Matthews Band song is titled "Rapunzel". We both thought that was too long so we were trying to come up with derivatives of that. Although we both found many dog naming websites which we spent more time on than we'd like to admit, on thinkbabynames.com we found that you could do a search by prefix or suffix.

I started looking up names that began with the last syllable of Rapunzel, "Zel". I found nine names. One of them was Zeldie. Thinkbabynames.com says Zeldie is a Yiddish word meaning "happiness". That was pretty much the deciding factor for David. The name also has sentimental value because one of the first dates we went on was a Dave Matthews Band concert in Hershey, PA. We both liked that connection as well.

Last night Zeldie got up in the early hours again. I thought those would be the hours I liked least but I am beginning to think that is the time I like the best. The rest of the world is quiet and it is just the two of us. That is usually when she shows me whatever new game she has figured out amuses her for the day. This morning, it was chasing my shoes. She also barked at a fire hydrant on her walk and discovered her reflection in the oven and the dishwasher while we were playing. She was quite disappointed the puppies staring back at her didn't want to play.

A day in the park

We had a day full of firsts. We took Zeldie to Burke Lake Park to meet our friends the Lewises. Their daughter, Jillian is 3 and she talks about getting a dog when she is 10. Zeldie and her got a long very well. Jillian ran around and Zeldie chased her. Zeldie got a lot of attention from people in the park. Now, she thinks everyone outside is there to see her. We are happy to say though that she did very well in the car. She did better with the music on. That is good news since in two weeks, she will be on her way to see the New York contingent of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Her stomach has been bothering her a little bit as we have been slowly transitioning her from the dogfood the breeder sent with her. Today she has been throwing up a little bit. After that and having been sitting in her crate on the plane for so many hours which she had eliminated in, we decided to give her, her first puppy bath. The bath she did not think was so much fun. The toweling off game, she thought was a blast along with the chasing the brush game.

Tonight, she went down and only wined in her crate for four minutes. She sleeps on top of the hot water bottle we put in there for her. We are hoping she sleeps a little later than 3am. But, if she doesn't, seeing as how Daddy has to work tomorrow, Mommy will take early shift again.

Pictures of Zeldie

We can't believe how much we love Zeldie already. We think she takes after her Grandpa Bernie because she was up at 3am this morning. Anne took first shift because David took late shift last night and let her out at midnight. She is adjusting to the crate well. She wimpers only a little bit and then settles down. She has had her share of accidents in the house, but she is starting to remember the designated waste elmination spot by the tree outside the door. And everytime she goes there we "throw a party". So far, her favorite toys are the rope toys that she can chew and tug and the green hippo that sqeaks. She likes hiding it behind the T.V. When she goes for walks, she loves to eat leaves. She also chased a bird this morning. Here are some pictures from her first day.

Zeldie's Arrival

We picked up the puppy today at National Airport. There were three other puppies on her flight. She arrived at the oversize baggage claim. Here is the video footage.

Medium Ash Blonde

Last year I gave up highlighting my hair so that we could save more money for our downpayment for the house. The last time I got my haircut in March, my stylist cut the last remaining color out of my hair. Since then, David has had to put up with me complaining about how flat the color of my hair is and how I think it looks like dishwater.
After we got invited to several weddings this summer, I decided that I just couldn't go to the weddings living with my hair looking like it did. I decided that I might need to do something drastic and color it myself. I have never colored my hair before and agonized over it for a long time. I did some research on the Loreal website and watched all of their "how-to" do-it-yourself videos. I also took the quiz and found my "perfect" color match. But, even that was not enough to convince me to take the plunge. Then, the proper incentive came along in the Sunday paper, a $3.00 coupon for Loreal Excellence to go. That, along with a Walgreens store coupon and I found myself with a $4.00 box of medium ash blonde in my hand thinking that this might be the start of a whole new era in my life. A month later, the box of hair color still sat on the shelf in the closet and that is where I thought it might sit for the rest of my life. I still couldn't convince myself that I could successfully color my hair.

Then, I went out to get some coffee with my friend Jessica and she told me I had nothing to worry about. She even knew the color I had bought and thought that it was a good color for me. That, along with the fact that I had an impending hair appointment scheduled in a week to fix any disaster I could have possibly created, settled it. I decided to take the plunge. Two nights later, David and I found ourselves in the bathroom mixing tubes of smelly creme and making 1/4th inch parts, spreading color in the roots of my hair. Whenever I think that David can not be any kinder, he always outdoes himself and that night was no different. I could not have asked for a more attentive and patient husband. In any case, we think it was a success. I have already bought my next box of color. You can decide for yourself whether or not it was a success, the "after" picture is below.

Female Puppy #844

Today we received our individual puppy pictures. It seems like we have been waiting for them forever. We thought we would have our choice of three female puppies but as it turned out, someone edged us out and put their deposit in before us between the time we initially talked to the breeder and the time we actually sent the deposit in. So, we only had our choice of two and that was hard enough. In the end, we decided on female puppy #844 because her pictures seemed to convey she was good looking, curious and laid back, just like her new puppy daddy, David. We have exhausted of buying all of the supplies we possibly can for the puppy, so we have moved on to buying accessories for her new puppy mommy, Anne. Since there has been so much rain lately, and I will have morning duty, we went to buy a rain coat. Now, there is nothing left to do but wait for her to arrive and the waiting is the hardest part. In the meantime, David will continue to coach swimming and I will try to get some work done on my independent study.

New Addition to the Horak Family

David went to Texas over Spring Break and I went to visit Erin in North Carolina. Erin knows everything there is to know about dogs so I asked her about cocker spaniels because David and I had run into one when we were walking on the running path in our neighborhood the previous weekend. She suggested that we consider the Irish Terrier instead. David was surprised when he got a phone call saying that I wanted an Irish Terrier, but as soon as he saw a picture of one he knew why. We spent a month researching them and now we have our very own little girl on the way. She will arrive June 13th from a breeder in Missouri. Here is a picture of her litter. We are busy getting ready for her. We have found a vet just down the street and we are looking for a pet sitter for the fall when David goes back to school. We are looking for some obedience training classes too. We are getting everything we need together and cleaning out and making room. We are both very excited.

Sitting Down to Dinner

David and I went to Albany for Katrina's Christening. This is the video of the whole family trying to sit down to dinner. It takes seven minutes. And it is complete chaos. It always takes this long. The irony is, we never really sit in very different seats. See if you can count how many times Tyler changes seats.

This is Carolyn

For my Policy class this semester, I had to do a PSA on a topic in education. As soon as I was given the assignment, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. As many times before, I drew inspiration from Carolyn and had a vision to do a PSA about her story. When David and I flew up for Katrina's baptism, Carolyn agreed to let me spend some time taping her and Tyler.

After hearing from Carolyn how she had been treated by her son's school, it was important that my message be versatile enough to speak both to educators and to parents to say that parents, all parents make a difference in their child's life. I hope this video shows how proud I am of her.

The video on the bottom with the blank screen is the final version. The one on the top that says "This is Carolyn" is a draft version.

Condo For Sale

On March 12, we put the condo on the market. After following the market for several years, we finally felt like we found the home that we wanted to move into on the market in our neighborhood. You can see our condo listed at the link below.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/7825-Harrowgate-Circle-Unit-141-A_Springfield_VA_22152_1107566769

Unfortunately, the house we wanted to sold this past week. But, David and I are optimistic. We have had some traffic in the condo and the feedback has been positive. There are a lot of townhomes on the market in the neighborhood and we know what we want. We are fairly certain we will be able to find something when the time comes.