thotlady.com » Family

Puppies

thotlady — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:10:59 +0000

pup·py

[puhp-ee]

noun, plural -pies.

1. a young dog, especially one less than a year old.

2. Fox Hunting . a foxhound that has hunted regularly for less than one season.

3. pup ( def. 2 ) .

4. a presuming, conceited, or empty-headed young man.

I much prefer the first definition of puppy.

Jerry

Whitey

-thotlady

Back from Indianapolis

thotlady — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:18:10 +0000

I spent last week in Indianapolis at a parking conference. You heard me…a parking conference. It sounds boring doesn’t it, well you are right it was BORING. The only thing that got me through the boredom was knowing I was traveling up to Wisconsin on Friday to celebrate my mom’s 80th birthday with my family.

Everyone had a good time. Too much alcohol was had by many, not me, but many others. I did have my share, but I was pretty good at moderation. I did eat too much however, so I gained three pounds in a week. How does that happen? I hate middle age.

Thanksgiving is coming, do you see it right around the bend. I have yet to make any plans. Although it is Thanksgiving after all and what do you need to plan really? Turkey – check, green beans – check, pumpkin pie – check, sweet potatoes – check, stuffing – check and of course, mashed potatoes – check. I think it will just be Bogie and me this year. I will invite our host students, but they usually travel around the US during Thanksgiving week.

So, what is everyone else doing for Thanksgiving? The usual or something new and different? Gobble, Gobble.

-thotlady

Keeping up with the Joneses

thotlady — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:52:55 +0000

I have to start by saying…growing up our family would be considered poor. At the time, I didn’t think we were poor, I just heard over and over again…we can’t afford it in response to my requests for this and that. I thot that phrase was fairly normal in most households.

We had clothes (some hand me downs), food (no prepackaged stuff), and shelter (rental houses). My parents have never owned their own home. I think this statement is very important here…so I am going to repeat it, MY PARENTS HAVE NEVER OWNED THEIR OWN HOME.

So if you can answer yes to any of the items listed below, you are not poor.

Own your own home (My parents have never owned their own home)
Gone to a professional concert
Ever bought a brand new car (My parents did not buy a new car until my father was in his late 70′s)
Have an iPod, iPhone, iPad…
Buy name brand instead of generic
Buy soda instead of cool-aid
Give away your children’s clothes instead of handing them down
Take annual vacations (We didn’t go on any type of vacation until I was 16 years old)
Buy your children Halloween costumes (we had to rummage in our closet to find costumes)
Own a piece of leather clothing
I believe, if either parent is able to stay at home to raise their children, you are not poor. (My mom HAD TO work, it wasn’t a choice and she had 4 children)
There are many, many, more, but I have run out of time.

People need to live within their means. I don’t care what the neighbor has or doesn’t have. At the end of the day we all need to pay our own way. Cut up the credit cards…they are a danger to you, your family and your well-being.

The only rights you have are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Everything else is a privilege you earn with hard work, yes, even health insurance.

-thotlady

Cool header

thotlady — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:28:12 +0000

Seriously how cool is my header this month. I found this new feature in Photoshop, liquify. Very cool.

As always, I love this time of year. Finally our weather has cooled off here in Virginia. It has been so humid up until a week ago. Now, it is wonderful. Even last weekend when we went to Virginia Beach it was nice, cloud covered but dry, not humid and even a little chilly. Heavenly. We thought the place would be deserted since it was the beginning of October, unfortunately it was packed. It was the last big weekend of the season so they had vendors up and down the boardwalk. I was hoping for a nice deserted beach to run or walk on. Our new dog Cody’s first experience with sand and beaches. He seemed to love it. A little leery of the water, but eventually he stepped his front feet into the surf. It startled him a little. He is so sweet.

Bogie with his back to the camera, his brother and family, oh and my shoes.

After frollicking on the beach in the afernoon, this little guy conked out on us. Isn't he sweet.

It was nice not having a football game this past weekend at the university where I work. I worked the first three games in a row, so to have a complete weekend off was nice. This coming weekend and week is Fall break here at school. The students come back for classes on Wednesday. Strange that their Fall break is only from Saturday to Tuesday.

Other than that nothing much going on. Oh, I played a game of two on two basketball with my neighbor and his two daughters last night. It was fun. His daughter is trying out for the freshman team at school so she has been practicing. I used to play in high school and for a league after high school a little while in Milwaukee. That was back in the late 70′s, so my game is a little rusty. I missed the basket a few times but I am going to blame that on the setting sun. It’s hard to do well playing basketball when it’s getting dark. Hopefully they will ask me to play again, it was fun.

Have a good weekend everyone. All three of you.

-thotlady

Escape artist on the premises

thotlady — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:34:35 +0000

Since adopting our new puppy Cody, I have been going home for lunch again, everyday. He is only used to being in a crate 2-3 hours at a time, so I thought 8 hours was stretching it. I do miss having my lunch hour entirely to myself, doing whatever I want with it, but the trade off is worth it. Cody is getting more each day with us and his new home.

We have a large metal crate that we used with our first dog, Bronte and also our male dog, Bramwell. We are using the same crate for Cody. We set it up in the middle of our living room as a temporary location. I wanted to hear him during the night and the living room is within hearing distance of our bedroom. The family room where we usually kept the crates is in the basement too far from our bedroom. The first few nights Cody slept in the crate and we didn’t hear a peep out of him. Then on the 3r or 4th night I heard a loud moaning after I went to bed. I ran down to the living room and Cody was standing in his crate staring at me. So, I decided to try to get him upstairs into our bedroom. At this stage he was still afraid of the stairs. (Did I mention that?) Well he was afraid of stairs, so I coaxed him upstairs and tried to get him settled into our room. He was having none of it, so Bogie volunteered to sleep in the living room on the sofa and put Cody back into his crate.

The next night I thot…the heck with that, we are not sleeping in the living room to accommodate Cody, so again I coaxed him upstairs and closed our bedroom door. I figured he would eventually settle down on one of the dog pillows on the floor, and or course, he did. Ever since that night he sleeps in our room and his fear of stairs is no more. Thank goodness.

We still however, crate Cody during the day while we are at work. This past Monday, I brought a friend home with me at lunch and when I opened the front door and looked into the living room, the crate was empty, one side of the crate was laying on the crate floor and Cody was no where to be seen. I panicked of course, and yelled Cody’s name. He came running down the stairs from the bedrooms. He seemed fine. How he was able to pull the end of the crate that houses the crate door down inside the crate and then jump out of the crate I will never know. This crate is very strong and well put together. I wasn’t sure what to do when I had to go back to the office after lunch. I didn’t want to put him back in the crate and have him work his way out again, maybe get caught or hurt himself. So, since nothing was out of place from his morning freedom, I decided to let him have the run of the middle floors and the upstairs for the afternoon. When I came back from work the only items Cody had disturbed were the living room curtains, which were pulled a little from the curtain rods, but not damaged, and in the guest bedroom he had clawed at the shade which resulted in two small tears. Otherwise everything was find.

So, to crate him or not crate him. He was so frantic in the crate. He destroyed the dog bed, was able to reach two pairs of my shoes near his crate and chewed them up, he destroyed his leash that was lying near the crate, which he reached through with his paws and snagged. He destroyed a library book of Bogie’s that was left laying on top of the crate. So we I decided to give him his freedom, until he abuses it. Two days and all is good. I did however, close off the guest bedroom, the library and the bathroom upstairs, so he only has access to our bedroom. Downstairs he has access to the living room, foyer and dining room. He seems happier when we leave, no barking and whining.

I would never have imagined he would behave so well outside the crate, since his behavior in the crate was so anxiety ridden. A wonderful surprise.

Bogie and Cody out for a walk

-thotlady

A visit

thotlady — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:38:11 +0000

I work at a University in Virginia. We have a special visitor on campus today. I can’t say who…pssst (but you will know him as the man for hope and change). How is that working out for you?

On another matter entirely, our new puppy, Cody is fitting into our little family very nicely. He is terrified of storms, so lately he has been scared a lot of the time with Hurricane Irene and all the rain and thunderstorms we have been experiencing lately. He is the sweetest thing. Very different then our other three, but that is just fine.

Our first home football game is tomorrow and I will be working it. Pretty much the entire police department works the home games, so my next few weeks will be very busy. I do love football, so it is not a hardship. Speaking of football, my Green Bay Packers pulled a win out last night. I couldn’t stay up for the entire game, but they managed to win even without my cheering during the 2nd half.

-thotlady

New addition to our family

thotlady — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:12:36 +0000

His name is Cody

-thotlady

Another puppy

thotlady — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:34:46 +0000

I don’t know if I will ever be ready for another dog. How is that possible? So much sadness. I thot I would be ready by now to start looking. That is not exactly right, I have started looking, but just don’t have my heart in it. I think I need to see the puppies in person to see if I feel a pull to adopt another dog.

Some people just can’t understand that a new dog can never replace a previous dog in your life. Never.

Part of my adjustment is…no one needs me anymore. I am not looking for sympathy, it is just a cold, hard, fact. I am actually a little afraid to get another dog. I worry that I have some kind of curse when it comes to being a dog owner. It does make for a lot of guilt on my part.

-thotlady

Back from vacation…guess where we went

thotlady — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:28:12 +0000

You guessed correctly, we spent the past week in Seattle with Bogie’s family. His grandfather celebrated his 90th birthday with a party. His two daughters organized the party and it was a lot of fun. I hadn’t seen Bogie’s grandfather in a few years, so it was great to visit with him.

Although, I am not going to travel by air for a long, long, time. I hate flying. HATE.IT.

Not getting a seat assignment until reaching my gate, going through security, having a 3-hour layover in Minneapolis all added to my hatred of flying. I am not exaggerating. Sandwiched in between two people for three and a half hours with no leg room. Not good.

Now I am going to settle into a long winter’s nap. Oh, right it is still summer. I don’t know how you can tell, oh, maybe the 100+ degree days of heat, heat, heat.

Wow, I am such a complainer.

Positive things:

We visited with many of my husband’s relatives
Visited Pike Place Market on a beautiful sunny day
At at Iver’s…twice for me three times for Bogie
Visited Glass baby’s…beautiful glasses, but a tad too expensive for my pocketbook
Took the light rail into downtown Seattle
We even went out to the local pub for some beer, pizza and darts..lots of darts. A good time was had by all

Well that’s about it. Back to the salt mines. Photos coming later…I hope.

-thotlady

Not ready yet…

thotlady — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:54:39 +0000

…but I have been looking around at puppies. I read this blog and the owner has the sweetest Border Collie I have ever seen. I have been looking at border collie rescues in the area as well as looking at photos of puppies on our local SPCA site. All the puppies are so very sweet. They make me smile but also make me a little sad. So many dogs needing homes. If you are thinking about getting a dog, please consider shelters and rescues. There are already so many that need a good home. And be sure to spay and neuter your dogs. Let the experts breed dogs, and never get a dog as a gift, unless it was in your family plan and you have researched well.

I have filled out two applications for rescue border collie organizations. I am not ready, but they will not answer an inquiry unless they have an application from you. So I bit the bullet and filled two out.

I was talking to a good friend on the phone last night and crying uncontrollably…still. My heart aches for Brammy and my sweet Charlotte, I know it always will. And Bronte too.

-thotlady