Meet Caroline!!!

...or maybe Meggie... or Roxie... or Madison... or Paprika she hasn't told us totally for sure yet, but she is completely adorable. She is a 7 week old pure bred miniature schnauzer, and weighs about a pound and a half.

I felt a little guilty about not getting a shelter dog, but my allergies would not be too good with just any dog, and schnauzers are hypoallergenic! Also, we didn't want to have to break the shelter habits of barking like crazy all day long, and going to the bathroom in their kennel.

As for our choices in names: Caroline is after our favorite piano bar in NYC, Sweet Caroline's. Roxie is from the first show we saw on Broadway, Chicago. Madison- Madison Avenue. Molly, Luna or Lily from Harry Potter. Paprika because she's salt-n-pepper colored. The list goes on... any thoughts?

we're really not callus...

We have decided to get a puppy. I hope it doesn't seem heartless of us, but something about losing Aspen made us want another dog. Maybe it's because we need another furry thing to project love for her towards, or to help us in grieving for her... (sorry if it sounds silly "grieving" for a dog, but... well... there you are.) Maybe I feel like I need another chance to be a better pup-parent... Aspen was always James' dog. I've never really had one... my family has had a couple over the years, but never for more than a few months (since I was old enough to remember).

Also, I have a confession... I seem to have Baby Fever lately... I know I'm not ready for a baby just yet, but I want one anyway. Now, I know most of you are saying... "Lindsey?!?! but she doesn't want kids!!" Well... I've changed my mind. We've only been married for 7 months (today!), and we aren't ready for them yet, so we've decided to sort of use this new puppy as a baby pacifier/ training program. I've only ever been totally responsible for Max, and he is about as low maintenance as a living thing can get. Puppies are a handful, but not nearly the handful a baby would be. Sounds like a logical stepping stone to me...

So tomorrow morning, we are headed to meet a prospective new little sister for Max. Will let you know & post pics soon. Wish us luck!

update (warning: slightly graphic... not much, but slightly)

Thanks for all the mental hugs, guys. We really appreciate them.

Let me just say, the state of after-life care for pets in Austin is appalling. The only way (that we could find) deceased pets can be picked up is IF YOU PUT THEM IN A BAG ON YOUR CURB AND THEY WILL TRY TO PICK THEM UP WITHIN TWO BUSINESS DAYS. Sorry for all the yelling, but... well... that made me yell a lot...

Anyway, we took her for her last ride in the back of the pickup to the vet for cremation today. The vet said that she had heartworms (we already knew that part), and that they must have spread into her lungs & caused an embolism, which would have been painless & instant.

We are still sad, but things have been much better since we got some whys & hows.

Thanks again for all the hugs.

A sad, sad night

I took this picture of Aspen today, on the way home from Pleasanton (incidentally, Max was sitting in my lap at the time). When we got back to town, I took her to the vet for some routine vaccine updates. We got home, and since she had to wait a couple of days before being groomed, we put her in the back yard. James took her some water, which she drank. Pretty soon, she laid down. It had been a pretty exciting day, so we figured she was tired. I went to the store, came home and brought her some food and some more water (with ice- it's hot out nowadays!), but she didn't seem interested. A few more times during the evening, I went out to check on her, and once her collar seemed a bit tight, so i loosened it. She still seemed ok... tired and hot, but ok. JR & Kat came over to fix our fence, & I went back out to check on her, and she had passed away. We just don't understand... she was happy & energetic just a few hours ago. I'm so sad for James... he's had her for all of her 8 years, and he just lost Denver (a 13 year old dalmation) a few weeks before we got married. We are sad tonight.

Late Night Wizarding

Last night, James and I went to see Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince. At midnight. HOLY moly was it ever packed. We arrived about 30 minutes ahead of time, and after cruising the parking lot for EVER looking for a space, decided to put Lexi's 4wheel drive to use & park on the grass. The theatre had all 10 screens showing the movie at midnight, and all ten were sold out (we bought our tickets online last week).

No, I did not dress up (James said no), but I did wear my jammies... it was midnight, after all. There were a few people there wearing pointy hats & graduation robes with stripey scarves, but the biggest crowd were the teenagers that had evidently had parties with all their BFFs to make matching puffpaint t-shirts saying things like "HP6 '09" and "I *heart* Ron". They all had smudgy eyeliner "scars" on their foreheads, too.

The movie was great, but I will give the same bits of advice I gave for Dark Knight and 007:

1) Whatever money saving magical combos they tempt you with, do not, I repeat, DO NOT give in and purchase the large drink... the movie is nearly 3 hours long.

2) Show up early enough to not have to sit in the front row, three inches from Ron's freckles. Luckily, this one didn't give me a migraine like the last one did (it was all the 3-D in the IMAX crazy that did me in last time), but it was still neck cricking, and difficult to fully appreciate all the incredible special effects.

Don't get me wrong, I really appreciated my sweet James' willingness to take me to a 3 hour long movie at midnight, but sometimes, he will do or say something that simply makes me fall in love all over again. During one part, some romantical stuff was going on, and instead of hooting like the rest of the audience, he leaned over and whispered, "aww... he's her lobster!"

He, most certainly, is my lobster :)

By the way, the theatre was not only running the movie on all 10 screens at midnight, they did it all over again at 3:20am. Now THAT'S crazy.

Sticky and Patriotic.

Boy do I have poor spatial awareness. This morning, I noticed a hummingbird hovering around our month-old feeder, so I decided to make him some fresh juice. Not much, only a half feeder full or so.... if even that. We don't want the juice spoiling in this heat before they can drink it. I made some up, and was pouring it into a jar to put into the freezer (I always do this so they don't burn their little tongues on hot juice). I realized too late that I had made about twice as much as would fit into the jar. There was a sticky red mess alllllll over me and the kitchen. *sighhh*

As of right now, the new juice is still cooling, and the hummer is getting bombed on the old and probably fermented juice outside.

As promised, I'm including a completely unrelated story from Ruidoso here.

Last year, a local casino/resort hosted a massive firework show/ cookout/ live music fandango on the Fourth of July. The place is simply not built for that large a volume of people, and they had HUGE problems with traffic. This year, they decided to hold it on the 2nd, in hopes of avoiding the additional holiday weekend crowds. James and I had heard horror stories of people having to park up to 2 miles away the previous year, so we were pretty worried. Turned out, we shouldn't have! We arrived at about 5, pulled straight into the parking garage & parked about where we usually did, walked down to the lakeside. There were lots of people there, but we picked a spot, laid out our beach towels, and went into the casino to play some cards. About 9:00, we headed outside, found our towels, and plopped down just in time for a spectacular show. It was perfect!!! Great fireworks, a light breeze blowing away from us, so I didn't have any trouble smelling the sulfur... Did I mention that it was about 60°??? Absolutely amazing. We didn't get any pics of the fireworks (too hard to enjoy the full scene through a two inch view finder), but this was the sunset at the same place a few nights later. I'm sure you can imagine the fireworks reflecting off the water and the explosions echoing through the mountains.

I've enjoyed about all the nature I can stand...

Not that I'm complaining... it's truly been amazing. I am on my way back to reality from spending 3 weeks in Ruidoso. We set out to spend about 10 days to two weeks, but after hearing all about the 110° weather at home, we just couldn't bear to leave our 70° haven.

During our first week, Mom & Dad came up to visit, and instantly fell in love with the peace & nature of the cabin & quaint little town (not to mention the lures of the nearby casino for Dad).



One night, on the way back to the cabin from town, we found a mama bear digging for some dinner for her cubbies! We didn't have the camera with us, so we hurried to pick it up & drop off mom. When we got back to the same dumpster, she was nowhere in sight. I rolled down my window, made a noise like we'd heard her make earlier, and she answered! In a few seconds, here she came! She was making a pretty big racket, and we think she was telling her out-of-sight cubs to not come out while she was posing for the weirdos in the big car taking her picture. Unfortunately, the only shots we got were pretty dark, and lightening them on the computer just kills the photo quality.


We had lots of other flora & fauna to entertain us, including deer, raccoons, a pair of orioles, some unidentified yellow birds, and woodpeckers, but the hummingbirds were the stars!!! Tons of them zoomed and flirted everywhere! They drank 3 large feeders full every day, and probably would have had twice that much if we had been obliging. A couple of times, one actually came inside, looking for another feeder. In the mornings, if we were lazy in getting up and getting their breakfast (who, us???), they would come up to the windows tell us all about it, and sometimes, they'd get so vehement about it, they'd get their beaks stuck in the screen for a minute!

James monkeyed with the camera, and figured out how to get some incredible shots. Once, one landed on his hand while he was snapping pics. In the first picture, a mama hummer came inside and got her beak stuck trying to get out, poor thing. James eventually put the feeder in the doorway to lead her out.










We are so blessed- we got to spend our six monthaversary such a peaceful place. I learned that my hubby can make a killer omelet! Sometime around the end of the second week, I sort of had a nervy ditherspaz breakdown about the spiders, so James was a darling & set off a couple of bug bombs, and things were much better after that. Even though he told me he thinks I need therapy about the spiders.



To say that Max had fun would be the understatement of the century. (In this picture, he was hanging out about 15 feet up the tree.) His favorite thing to do outside is to roll in dirt, so when it came time to leave today, he was beyond filthy. We decided to give him a quick bath before we got in the car. He has been pouting ever since. As soon as we got in the car, he crawled under and between the suitcases, and hasn't shown his face in hours.



In the intrest of keeping this blog readable, I'll post a few other more detailed blogs about things like Smokey the Bear, the 4th of July, & hiking in high heels.