Monday, May 23, 2011

The Dog Blog - How we found our Angel (Gag)


*Warning*
This particular blog entry has nothing to do with gaming. I'll do more of a gaming blog later this week...maybe...ok probably not. I did pick up LA Noire this morning though so maybe I'll chat about that. This blog is all about our new dog :)

For the last few years I have been stalking PetSmart on the weekends because I love looking at the dogs. I've seen hundreds of dogs and never been overly tempted to take one home, until this weekend. Here was this fairly big brown dog just laying in her crate not moving, not showing emotion, just gazing off as if she was defeated and just didn't care. I tried to talk to her and was pleased with her casual indifference towards me. I can respect a good snob. Hannah got down and said "Hi" and darned if the dog didn't sit right up, sniff her nose, and then flop back down into her previous lackluster pose.

We kept walking around, looking at other dogs, the kids even took one out for a walk outside. While walking a very hyper white puppy Hannah said to me "This dog is nice, but Mommy I like Angel". Thinking she was just a normal kid who just wanted a dog I wanted to know WHY she liked her. So I asked. Her answer?

"Mommy her eyes spoke to me."

Well, who can say no to that? So we went back over to stare at this dog with her sad eyes and she was still just laying and not moving. I asked the volunteers if there was something wrong with her, and they assured me that she had a clean bill of health and was just lost in that store with all the people.

We left PetSmart and went to lunch, not wanting to make a rush decision. Bill is out of town for training so I sent him some messages giving him a chance to talk me out of it. Also, we were in Gainesville for the weekend at my parent's house, so we had to make sure they were ok with us possibly bringing a dog back for a sleepover.

None of us ate very much of our lunch, we just wanted to get back to Angel and make her part of our family. I'm proud of us for slowing down and talking first. After we paid our check we rushed right back to PetSmart.

The kids walked Angel around the store while I filled out paperwork and was interviewed to make sure I wasn't a serial dog killer. Although Angel walked around with her tail between her legs, we did find out that she is one smart dog. She sat when the kids told her to sit, and layed down, and they claim she rolled over on command too, but to me it just looked like she wanted her belly rubbed.

You're probably curious about what kind of dog she is. Angel is a 4 year old mutt :) She's a lovely mix of Retriever, Labrador, and Austrailian Cattle Dog, and she weighs in at a hefty 59 pounds. Luckily she's already full grown and I think that's a good size for us. She's calm, and lazy which I like because there's no way I could deal with a puppy in addition to everything else.

Oh, and did I mention we saved her life?

Whlie the people who rescued her from the "pound" didn't know her whole story, they did have her rap sheet which showed that she had been to the Humane Society THREE times in her life. Once as a puppy and then almsot every two years. To me it just sounds like she was a college student's dog and they tend to see pets as disposable things to play with while they're away at school and then return when they get their degree and go back home.

Her third visit was to be her last though as she was on the list to be euthanized (or so they claimed). That could have been a plot to further tug on our heartstrings, either way it worked, and she's ours.

She hopped right in the car when we took her home. She and Gracie (My parents dog) took a little while to get used to each other, but by the time we left the next day they were fast friends.

Angel did amazingly well on the long car ride home. We stopped for her to walk, eat, drink, etc four times. She refused to pee.

We made it home and walked her again, still no pee...lol. She sniffed out her new house, already looking 100 times perkier than the lost dog we found at PetSmart, and growled at me in a nice way. I'm guessing she was telling me she was happy.

She's settling in well. She lays at my feet no matter where I am. I did find this a bit unnerving when I wanted to go to the bathroom...:) She's great with the baby and so far they are ignoring each other. The cat has only tried to attack her twice, which is funny because the cat has no claws but poor Angel is still frightened of her and whimpers and hides behind me. Some tough dog she is, huh?

She helped me wake Hannah up for school this morning. She walked right in and gave her a kiss on the head and made Hannah's day. We let her ride with us to take Hannah to school, and Angel was confused when Hannah got out and kept looking for her in the car.

I don't know how fate worked out to drop her into our lives but I'm glad it happened. It seems like she's always been here already, and she is fitting right in. I can't wait for Bill to get home and meet her, and for his girls to as well...they're going to be so excited. It feels like she rounds off our family quite nicely. She's a clingy dog and needs a lot of love and attention and seems perfect for our huge family. I don't think she would do well in a house with just a couple people, but here she will have her fill of attention and love :)

Welcome home Angel!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Blah, Blah, Blah

Blah kind of sums up the way I've been feeling lately. I completely forgot just how fun it is to chase a "pre-toddler" around. I have the feeling that Hailey is completely capable of walking. She however is a diva of a baby and figures that she has people to do that for her. It's almost as if she starts walking and then decides it's just not worth the effort and she goes back to crawling.

Sounds like she has a case of the "blah's" too.

Hubbie is off for some training in Virginia, which is probably just secret military code for some guy retreat touring the strip clubs of Las Vegas or something. Who am I to question him? While he's gone I'm enjoying a couple weeks of not shaving my legs, fixing my hair, or brushing my teeth.

I'm kidding...that's nasty...I'm totally fixing my hair.

I'm making progress on my goals, but not as quickly as I had hoped. In my defense it seems like fate, or whatever it is that throws off your plans, is screwing with me. This is no big suprise as I am all to familiar with drama. Drama and I like to take long walks on the beach and hold hands and skip and stuff...we're cool like that. But sometimes it seems like drama is being a little too suffocating in our relationship.

Take this week for example. On Monday morning I tell Hannah that we're going to start taking walks each day after school. The weather is gorgeous right now and we just had to take advantage of it. No sooner had the words come out of my mouth when I noticed we had a herd of prison workers trimming trees in our neighborhood. Who wants to walk with their families when there are prisoners with tree choppers roaming around? They've been here all week.

Then, this morning I'm in the middle of watching Hailey toss the lovely breakfast I made her onto the floor one peice at a time while she says "Uh-oh" when the power goes out. I blame the tree-trimming convicts for that one. With no power and not much else planned for the day I decided to take Hailey to daycare and hit the gym for an hour. It inspired an article that I posted today to sarcasticgamer.com...you can read that here if you'd like.

Now I'm all motivated and finally getting to the gym again. My application for drop off daycare for Hailey had just been accepted yesterday, and the power outage Gods had motivated me to go, so I was going to just keep on going. After we get home I notice Hailey is acting kind of cranky, and feeling a little toasty. Seriously...did a freaking hour at daycare make her sick? I realize it doesn't work that way, but sure enough she's got a fever of 100.

So no gym for tomorrow, and most likely we'll spend all weekend sick instead of spending it with Ethan. You're killing me here drama :{

I have been gaming more though, and writing more. I'm pretty pleased with myself on that note. Classes started up this week and I have been going crazy trying to keep up with the house and the crazy baby, helping Hannah reach her reading goal at school, sort the house out (Did I mention we're moving soon?) and watering the dead grass Bill bought for the yard that isn't our own.

Articles for this week:

1.) My gym article (See up there somewhere)

2.) Ubisoft Goes Hollywood I'm not excited about the prospect of more video game movies because they all suck to me, but I was thrilled to hear about the upcomming Raving Rabbids cartoons :)

3.) I picked up Lego Pirates of the Carribean

4.) A little Fiction Friday article complete with a hilarious bathroom interview!

5.) And yet another iPhone review

If you happen to read any of those articles please leave a random comment in the comment section on THAT website.

I've been playing a ton of RIFT. There is a new "Ascend a Friend" program so if you or someone you know has been wanting to try it please let me know and I will send you a free 7 day trial. It's a great PC game and I'd be playing it right now if my damned mouse hadn't died AGAIN. I can't game with a wired mouse, it just feels wrong.

In regards to our future moving and living arrangements we did make an offer on a house last week, and it was accepted. Of course drama isn't making it a simple and pain-free process so everyone please keep their fingers crossed that things work out well for us.

I could write more, but I figure you're bored and I could be doing more important things like playing Zuma Blitz and posting an insanely high score that my husband will never beat, because it makes me happy :)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Game On!



Look! I'm blogging again, like I said I would! Amazing huh? I also wrote articles, like I said I would for the site. Here are links to the ones that went out this week if you want to see how amazing my writing skills are not:
1.) Info on Redbox expanding their $2 video game rental whatevers...

2.) Portal 2 price drop...do we blame PSN hackers?

3.) Lego Pirates of the Caribbean demo and who's the hotter Lego? Jack Sparrow or Will Turner?

I also got a PC game to review, that I'm no where close to done with, and an iphone game as well. Look for those next week.

And I guess that brings me to another topic. My cell phone has finally entered the whatever century this is. Gone is the dated old slide phone that I had been carrying around for two years that my sister lovingly refered to as "oooh so cute" and always asked me "What does it do?" To which I would always reply "nothing" and then pout.

One night last week I picked up my phone to be a proper nagging wife and ask him why he wasn't home yet as I was cleaning up the dinner I had slaved over which was now icy cold (Chinese food...tough work to drive to get it) and realized my phone didn't work. I was secretly hoping he had gotten all the hints I had dropped about what I wanted for my birthday. And by hints I mean constantly complaining for the last couple years that everyone has a cool phone and mine stinks! Then I would pout and stomp my feet. Hey, it works for the kids.

So yes, I got a brand new beautiful iphone 4. I'm still trying to figure everything out on it, but I'm loving it! Now I can play games on the computer and also on my iphone AT THE SAME TIME!!

Even more good news is that I took my final final today. My semester sucked total balls and I'm dissapointed in my grades, but I survived and am still smiling and alive so that's the important thing. I'm waiting on one final grade to come in which should be an A. I got a crappy B (and one B+) in my other three classes. Which is kind of good because I was sure I would get a C in math. So that part makes me slightly happy.

I have been gaming a bit more and having a blast doing it. Overall it's been a good week. Hubbie and I had a little forced together time this week while we watched The Green Hornet, which was pretty amusing and had us laughing out loud. Last week we watched The King's Speech which was also fairly amusing and a great (and mostly true) story. My Intro to Exceptionalities (or whatever that class was called) teacher suggested it because the King had a stutter, and I agree that it was good to watch.

Hmmm...what else? Oh my Birthday is tomorrow! Did all of you go to www.yougotbeer.com and send a beer to jaxboxchick@gmail.com ? You did get me a present right? I love that site, you can send someone a gift card for a "beer" and only spend like $6 and make someone's day. For when you can't be there to take them out for a drink, yougotbeer.com!

Since it is my birthday AND Mother's Day I booked us a room at the Hard Rock at Universal Studios Orlando. We'll go ride roller coasters and swim in the pool and chillax all weekend. Good stuffs.

Tune in next week for more blah blah blah's by me.