Breaking Him In

Well it's been a whole week with Cooper running around the house. OK, that may be a stretch for what a greyhound does around the house. Maybe I should re-phrase . . . It's been a whole week with Cooper sleeping around the house and I'm happy to report he's working out just fine. Every day he learns new things and is becoming a more polite house guest. It sure is amazing to watch him develop and evolve from a track dog, used to living in a cage, to a loving pet. I'm really enjoying this experience and I often can't wait to get home just to hug him.

I particularly love the weekends because it gives us more time with the hounds. It's getting harder and harder to take our after-work hikes with the sun falling out of the sky earlier and earlier. This weekend we took the dogs to one of our favorite hiking trails nearby. So far Cooper has only hiked the short trails on our property so this was a big outing. We only took him half the distance we normally take Peanut and that was quite enough for him. It's amazing how such a buff animal can be so out of shape. Actually, I can sort of relate to that myself. Anytime I complain about being out of shape I always get the hairy eyeball. The similarities between me and greyhounds never cease to amaze me. We both can 'look' in shape even when we are not. So we're going to have to break Cooper in slowly and let him work up his endurance for some real hikes this winter. But first we need to teach him what snow is. I'm pretty sure this will be his first experience in the white stuff.

Here are the happy hounds during the hike:

And here they are 2 minutes after getting home:

This is Not Going to Work

In an attempt to solve one problem I created another. The problem I was trying to solve was our confusing driveway situation. I always try to make a point to explain our driveway(s) to first-time visitors because being presented with three different options on the road can be somewhat confusing. And in the event that I forget to explain the situation it usually results in our guests having to hike up the hill that separates our backyard from our front door. I’ll never forgot the one couple that had to scale up the slippery rock in nearly a foot of snow because I forgot to warn them about our driveways. After that incident one of us usually tries to ‘stand guard’ watching the back driveway through the windows. At least if we knew somebody was coming to the back of the house we could rescue them.

So how brilliant of an idea was it to buy a gadget that sounds an alarm in the house when a car drives down the back driveway? Not only would this solve the problem of visitors arriving without our knowledge and not being able to access a door from the basement level of the house, but it would definitely come in handy for the gallery. I could sit in the warm toasty house and only run out to the gallery when visitors arrive. I loved this solution!

Karlo set it up yesterday and it worked like a charm. He drove back and fourth while I danced around the house to the sound of the alarm chimes.

But then nighttime came and little did we know that every deer that walks by would set if off. That darn alarm chime went off about 4 times last night. I got so conditioned by alarms going off and falling back to sleep that I didn’t distinguish between the driveway alarm and our real alarm this morning. I just rolled over and went back to sleep. Good grief. Looks like we will have to get into the habit of turning it on and off every day.

Getting Ready For Opening Day

This was the last weekend before the gallery's big opening and we sure were busy getting ready. Luckily I had some help from a friend who did a great job with the displays. I swear that was my biggest challenge. I find it easy to make the jewelry, yet impossible to show it off. The only idea that was mine was making little "jewelry trees" and I was quite proud of them. Everybody (including the hounds) pitched in to lend a hand and I was very grateful for the help.




I think I'm in good shape now and won't need to do too much more for opening day. That should leave me some time to do some Christmas shopping on the dreaded Black Friday. After opening my calendar I realized that after the two upcoming weekends which are 100% dedicated to the gallery, the following weekend is 100% dedicated to work. We have to go away to Florida for work again and by the time we come home I have exactly one weekend before Christmas. Holy shopping problem Batman. If I don't get my act together on Black Friday there will be no Christmas.

Snapshots from Chicago

Ok so I'm a week late. I just got off the phone with Karlo, who is sitting in the airport in Charlotte and it flashed me back to just a week ago when I was in his shoes. Only my shoes were in Chicago. I was thinking back at how unpleasant it is to be stuck traveling alone, wandering around an airport and wishing you could push the clock ahead. It's funny that I was wishing I could push the clock ahead last night and now I realize that I wouldn't want to switch places with Karlo. I thought I had it so hard taking care of the hounds by myself, but as it turns out the job has been quite easy. OK, there was one accident in the crate today, but the bedding has already been washed (along with the guilty dog) and come to find out, it was really Karlo's fault for failing to give me one important piece of dog care information. That's OK. Karlo can make it up to me when he gets up at 5 am tomorrow to let Cooper out.

I think I got a little side tracked. All I really wanted to say was, "Here are some snapshots I took from my hotel room in Chicago last week." One was taken at sunset, one at night, and one just before day break.

A Quiet Night at Home

Boy it sure is quiet around here. Karlo is on the road for a short trip and I'm home alone, out numbered by hounds two to one. I've been stressing about these two days and handling the new little monster all by myself. I was complaining to Lisa that I should be doing everything possible to relieve some of my stress and instead I'm adding to it. But I got myself all worked up and worried over nothing (so far). Cooper has been on his best behavior tonight. Both dogs are snoozing on their beds and I feel like I have a sleeping infant in the house. I don't dare move from the kitchen counter for fear that they will stir. It's so nice and stress-free when they are both laying down. I can rest easy. As long as Cooper is laying down I know he's not going to have an accident in the house. Of course, this is really my only worry and concern. And it's really unfounded because he hasn't had an accident yet. But still, I will be anxious for the first month until I really know I can trust him. So here I sit, as still as can be, watching the clock and wishing time would move faster. How ironic seeing as I haven't been able to catch up on my To Do list for months. I have mountains of work to do and yet I'm happy to be here doing none of it. Maybe this is an ironic twist of fate and I was meant to bring Cooper into my life to make me slow down. Funny how things work out . . .

What Have We Done?

Because one stinky, hairy troublemaker wasn't enough . . . . We brought home this little guy today.


Actually, he's not little at all. He's about 75 pounds and bigger than Bentley was. So far Peanut does not know what to make of the situation. At fist she seemed to like him.

And I even caught her kissing him.

But she has since turned up her nose at him. What's a girl to do? He is a handsome devil. His kennel name was Riff Raff, but I think he looks more like a Cooper, no? Then all we have to do is change Peanut's name to Mini. LOL

We haven't officially adopted him yet. We are just fostering him for 3 weeks. That should give us enough time to figure out what Peanut really wants. Does she want a live in buddy or does she prefer being the only princess of the palace? Hopefully 3 weeks will be enough time to figure all this out.

One Happy Customer

I had such a pleasant customer service experience yesterday that I just have to share. First, let me say that Apple impresses me in so many ways. Granted there are some things about the company and their products that tick me off, but as a whole most of their business sense is pure genius. Take for instance their commercials. It was this one that made me make the decision to buy a Mac in the first place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeOEmrW1cTs

But it's this commercial that really rings true with me now. There is a reason that Apple is ranked #1 in customer satisfaction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMnBzUC1aTM

So here's my story . . . Two days ago I finally broke down and made a sizable investment in a new kick a$$ iMac for home. I was so excited that I had to share the good news with my cousin, who also just happened to buy an iMac. When he asked me if I made sure to use my National Association of Photoshop Professionals discount on the purchase my heart sank because I did not. After his report of an over $300 savings I thought it was worth a phone call to Apple. And that phone call was the most pleasant and easy customer service call I think I ever had. I had a complicated situation, but it was handled smoothly with lots of apologizing for putting me on hold as the rep consulted with managers. In the end I got the free financing that I scored on my original order, plus they issued me a credit for $125. I just couldn't believe how pleasant and helpful the customer service person was. It makes me think back to a service call I placed with Dell that lasted over one hour with a bad connection (to India, no doubt) with a person that I could not possibly understand speaking some sort of Indian-English. And after all that, my problem was still not resolved. I haven't even gotten my new Mac yet, but I'm as happy as can be. I know I made the right choice. I always shied away from Apples because of the cost. They are far more expensive than PCs, but there's a reason for that . . . They are worth every penny.