The Great Escape (Attempt)

Derrick's other dog, Lucca, moved in with us recently. It's kind of a weird situation, but she's been living with Derrick's friends (and our neighbors) since he got her (since that was where he spent most of his time anyway). Recently some things have happened to disrupt our living situations and Lucca ended up moving to our apartment.

Lucca is a cute little pup. She's about 6 or 7 months old and very loving and friendly. She's got a lot of energy and loves to play "chase the kitty" (much to Esther's chagrin). She loves to lick faces and will lay contently on any lap that is accompanied by a belly rub. She's like a hyperactive teddy bear.

It's taking some adjustment on all our parts. Jade and Esther had worked out an understanding which Lucca refuses to adhere to, Jade isn't used to sharing me with Lucca, and Lucca isn't used to obeying me. I'm used to a quieter house with a calm dog and a declawed cat, so Lucca makes me feel a little exhausted. And Jade has grown out of the chewing stage, so I don't have to worry about kicking off my shoes and returning to find a pile of pretty leather in their place. But Lucca cannot be trusted with my pretties.

The hardest adjustment for all of us has been what to do with the girls during those few short hours that neither of us are home. Neither girl has spent much time without human company and like I said, Lucca has a chewing problem. We decided that the best bet would be to make the back room doggie proof and utilize the baby gates I got when Jade was still a puppy.

The first day, Derrick put the girls in the back with some toys, their water, and a doggie bed and set the little wooden gate up in the hall and left for work.

I arrived home a little over three hours later. I walked in and was greeted at the door by a very happy Lucca and the very unhappy whines of a still locked up Jade. I also found a pile of wood shavings next to the gate, which had been severely chewed on. I sent Derrick a text telling him that we would have to rethink this for some reason.

The next day, Derrick took the girls back to the back room and pulled out the other baby gate. Both girls sat and watched him set it up, Lucca looking rather cheerful and "innocent" with her tail wagging. Then Derrick picked up the wooden gate and started to set it up on top of the other gate. Lucca's tail suddenly stopped wagging and a fleeting look of panic crossed her puppy eyes as Jade gave a sideways smirk in her direction. Derrick had a suspicion of how Lucca might have gotten out the day before.

When I opened the door that evening, there was no dog to greet me as I walked in. They were both safely confined in the back where they belong. Jade seemed a little more satisfied with the arrangement, but Lucca was so anxious to get out that the second I took the wooden gate down, she hurdled the other gate (confirming Derrick's guess of her means of escape).

It seemed that we had found a satisfactory way of keeping the dogs confined while we are gone.

The third day, Derrick stuck them in the back, set up both gates and left feeling perfectly confident that I would have no problems when I got home.

I got home to find . . . .

Lucca was so insistent to get out of her confinement that she dug her way through my wall. In three and half hours time, she made a bigger mess than I had ever worried that she would do by running free.

So now Lucca has to be put in a kennel while we're gone. That's what the brat gets for being a bad doggie!

A Lunchtime Surprise

I was sitting at my desk thinking about lunch. I do that a lot between the hours of 8:00 am and 12:30 pm. Then after lunch I start thinking about dinner. Sometimes those thoughts are along the lines of wondering where I should go to eat, or what I should do during my free hour. Sometimes it's simply "why isn't it lunchtime yet???" But generally speaking, if you walk into my office during the morning hours, those are probably all you'd be interrupting.

Like I said, today I was sitting at my desk thinking of lunch. I had heard a commercial for Subway's "Five, five dollar foot-longs. . ." and I was imagining what I should put on mine when I go down to the one at the bottom of the hill. I had settled on a chicken, bacon and ranch (which has also been my recent Domino's usual lately). I was trying to decide what I would do after I got my sandwich, since I no longer have homework to do and I forgot both my book and my cell phone (with a fun bejeweled game on it) at home today, when a tall man in a hat walked in.

What a surprise to see Derrick! He had the day off and had some business to take care of on this side of town, so he thought he'd stop in and say hi. So I asked if he'd like to join me for lunch.

On our way down to Subway, Derrick called Grandma to see if she'd be interested in having a couple of grandkids over for lunch. Of course she was delighted to have us visit her. So we stopped and picked up sandwiches for me, Derrick, and Grandma, during which time Derrick and I had this conversation with the sandwich maker:

Derrick: You don't have Swiss cheese by any chance, do you?
Sandwhich Guy: No. But this stuff here is very similar.
Derrick: Nah. It's got to have the holes in it. It's not the same without the holes.
Me: Yeah, the holes are the best part.

It's alway funny to make a joke during a lunchtime rush because it takes them a second to register what was just said. Then they laugh and then the rest of the lunch rush seems a little less stressful to them.

Anyway, the rest of lunch was nice because I got to spend it visiting with my brother whom I rarely see (despite the fact that we share an apartment) and my grandma (who sees my brother even less than I do).

A very nice surprise indeed.

Another Day at the Park

Today was such a nice day that we decided to take the kids and the dogs to the park again. I won't bore you with yet ANOTHER post of pictures of the kids on swings and slides and the dogs carrying sticks. Well, at least not ONLY of the kids and dogs.

Today I decided to wander a little more around the park and check out the skate park area. It was pretty cool watching the kids doing their tricks and stuff.

Oh, and something I've never seen before: an iguana in a pink tutu.

By the time I got the pic, they were removing the humiliation from the poor creature. But it was there (and it was pretty funny!)

Ballet, Pez, and Toto, Too

Grandma and I decided to take in a show.

The Vancouver Dance Theater was putting on a ballet version of The Wizard of Oz. We thought it sounded interesting, especially since it's a program you don't really think of as a "ballet". The direector said it was challenging because the dance and music all had to be created from scratch. Most of the music was the soundtrack from the movie, but with some surprising, creative, and fun additions (for example, imagine Dorothy, Glenda the good witch, and the munchkins of Munchkinland sending the Wicked Witch of the West out of the city with a little taste of "Hit the Road, Jack")

The play was very fun and entertaining. Grandma and I really enjoyed it. Especially the cute seven-year-old who played the part of Toto She was just SO cute!

During the intermission of the ballet, Grandma and I decided that we wanted to be sure to do our part to support the Theater, so we bought raffle tickets, two for each of us. The raffle would be drawn at the end of the performance and the winner would receive some kind of Wizard of Oz item.

Imagine my surprise when the end of the performance arrived and they drew the ticket and called out my name. I was so shocked that I was completely speechless. Seriously. As in, complete silence. They were expecting to hear some kind of "Woo-hoo" or something, but instead crickets chirped as they began to wonder if they pronounced the drawn name incorrectly. Just to make sure, they started spelling it out. My brain kicked my legs into action and I stood up (naturally, I was sitting in the back balcony area, so I was about as far away as I could get) and made my way up to the stage where I accepted my prize: a Wizard of Oz Collector's Set of Pez. Pretty cool.

.

Oh, Oh, It's Magic

I mentioned not too long ago the new Do Life groups at my chruch. I posted about the first meeting of our photography group. Tonight was our first meeting for the scrapbooking and paper crafts group. It was a lot of fun. There were several women there and together made Easter cards and a candy bag. It never ceases to amaze me how we can take a few scraps of paper, some stamps and ink, and a little ribbon and end up with Hallmark-worthy creations. Simply magical.

Card 1:

 

Card 2:

 

Card 3:

 

Candy Bag: