Snow White

She's here! She is also very precious.

When we (I dragged a friend along) picked her up, she didn't want water or a treat. She didn't sniff anything, just stood and shook. :( Poor baby was scared. My friend held her all the way home, and she finally started to respond to things like gentle sounds and sniffed our hands.

When we got her home, we still couldn't get her to drink any water or eat anything. I took her out on the patio in hopes that she would go potty on the puppy training pads out there. She didn't go. She didn't go in the crate overnight, either (which is good). She cried a little bit when I first put her in the crate and a few times during the night, but overall put up with it well.

This morning she still didn't want water or food, so I tried giving her some canned puppy food, and she ate a little bit of that. She followed me around everywhere this morning and didn't ever want to be more than a few feet away. I was actually really happy to see her walk away from me for a minute to explore the apartment a bit.

She ate the rest of her small portion of the canned food and drank water when Richelle was home before I got home from work, and she finally decided to go potty - on the couch, of course. Mommy was prepared, however, and took the following steps:
1. Get as much up with paper towels.
2. Place wet paper towel outside on the puppy pads to help her learn where that stuff belongs.
3. Spray spot liberally with pet odor removal spray and let that sit.
4. Spray again.
5. Shampoo the cushion extremely thoroughly.
6. Spray again.

I tried to take her outside behind one of the buildings here, but she first didn't want to walk at all, then sniffed a bit, walked a little bit, then decided that she really didn't want to be outdoors anymore. Looks like she won't be much of a running threat, at least for a while.

She likes to be constantly on laps or chests (which I'm not going to let her do - nothing but fuzz in the face) or behind shoulders on the top of the couch or right next to someone. She really is the picture of a small companion dog!

She needs a bath and a good brushing, since she's matted and generally looks like a bath might do her some good. Even still, she's adorable. I think I may take her to the groomer for a bath and brushing, since they do offer such things especially for puppies.

California and more fish

Getting to California turned out to be a greater hurdle than I imagined. I had to try twice, as my initial plans were cancelled, compliments of weather in Washington D.C. I arrived in California on Monday night and spent an uneventful day or two with the dog and with my parents.

Beau decided he needed to get an old dog back injury, so I took him to the vet on Thursday afternoon. He really hates that place, but I think it helped him get better more quickly.

Erin and Talia flew in on Thursday night, so we left the drugged dog at home alone for a few hours while the rest of us went to the airport.

On Friday I went up to Santa Clarita with my mom, Erin and Talia. We went to The Master's College and met two of my college friends with their baby boys.

Here are Erin and Talia, Joanna and Vijay, Sarah and Luke, and some random chick standing behind them. ;)

Saturday's big event was dinner for my parents at Benihana with Nikki, Daniel, Erin and Talia all present as well. Aunt Nikki is feeding Talia a pea with chopsticks. Talia caught on pretty quickly!

After dinner we went to Downtown Disney where the main event was making a bear for Talia at Build-A-Bear. Being the doting aunts and grandma, we made sure Talia's bear was stuffed perfectly and has a variety of clothing to wear.

I flew home on Sunday (yesterday). Nothing exciting there.

The interesting activity for the day was stopping by the pet store to get some dog food and some additional fish tank cleaning supplies. I decided it was time to replace the fish that died with three new fish. I got one of the same variety that died and two additional fish of a new kind. I took a video of the tank after I put the new fish in. The existing fish were curious, but only one of them actually seeks the new ones out to harass them. He's been a bully all along, so no real surprise there. There is intentional sound on this video to tell you a little bit about the various fish you see. Image quality isn't the best, but it will have to do!

Coming soon: Snow White! I pick her up tonight :)

It's a girl!

Well, it's official. I'm expecting a baby girl. She's due in about two weeks, just after I get back from California.

Here is the ultrasound picture:

Her name is Snow White, and she'll be my little princess! She is a cuddler and will get to be around 7-9 pounds, so she's a little thing.

It's rather sudden, I know, but I think everyone knows how I feel about her Uncle Beau, so really is it any surprise?

She's going to be carried inside the cabin of a great stork from Iowa to Syracuse sometime on 4/28 or shortly thereafter, depending on flight availability. There will be lots of pictures and everyone is going to have to come see her!

Another tagging thing

1. Write about the Strangest Job I Ever Had and tell what I learned from it.
2. Link to other "Lessons from Odd Jobs" posts.
3. Tag my post "Lessons from Odd Jobs".
4. Tag other bloggers.
5. Link back to the Lessons from Odd Jobs page and and email this month’s host at that site.

I'll do number one and just pretend I did 2-5.

Like so many of the rest of us, I have never had any particularly odd jobs, but may have had odd jobs in the sense of a variety of jobs that lasted various lengths. My resume, I admit, omits some of them because they don't really mean much in the grand scheme of things.

I will choose the job(s) that seemed the most odd to me, not in the sense of unusual, but more of an ironic, yet not uncommon, way.

In high school I did a lot of tutoring. I tutored math, which was probably the easiest to tutor and I think I liked those students best. I tutored one student in multiple subjects and I think that was my biggest challenge tutoring. I remember one day trying to help in biology and using pennies and breath mints to explain how molecules are composed of atoms. That was an experience in thinking on the fly, and I think she got the concept.

The most odd tutoring, however, was tutoring Spanish. I tutored one girl whose Spanish one might call "Valley Gringa". Her accent was not even remotely close and she made very little progress, even with tutoring, seeming to forget one week what we went over the previous week. The other two students I tutored in Spanish were hispanic. They both had people living in their homes who only spoke Spanish. Their parents spoke both English and Spanish. Here I was, the white girl, helping them with a language they grew up hearing. In both cases, they were raised to speak English. Because of that, they were not corrected when they made errors, so they did not learn to speak proper Spanish. I learned in the classroom and understood the formal rules of the language better than they did, although they definitely both knew more than they thought they did!

Introducing Fishies!

I got my fish a few days ago. I got seven of them - three yellow cichlids, three blue striped cichlids and an algae eater.

I tried to photograph the fish, but that didn't work very well. The only one that was still long enough to take a clear picture of could be found on its side on the bottom of the tank about 24 hours after I brought them home, so I chose to instead take a video of the 2 blues, 3 yellows and 1 algae eater (that's the long, skinny one in the background) still in the tank.

I admit that I can watch these guys for a long time and not get bored!

I think one of my blues is turning yellow. That's actually okay. All it means is that it's a boy. Apparently this variety is vibrant blue when young then either fades to a lighter blue or turns vibrant yellow. Based on that knowledge, from the looks of things I have a boy and a girl remaining. I think with my yellows that I might have 2 boys and one girl, but they are harder to tell apart. Boys have more black on their fins. For those of you wondering, yes, these fish are known to spawn in an aquarium, so it is possible that I may end up with babies, but I won't count on that ;).

I've been testing the water pretty much daily. It's something that eventually I will only have to do weekly, but I'm testing often now to make sure that the water stays where it needs to be. So far it's been right where it should be, so that's great. I don't look forward to changing the water in the tank, but I'm sure it is something that I will get accustomed to. Having fish like this means I have to take good care of them!

Also, for those of you wondering, I have not named my fish and don't know if I ever will!

Mom, I measured the tank. 12-15 inches deep, 24 inches wide, 18 inches high. The fish are about 1.5-2 inches long and can get to be 4-6 inches long or so. The algae eater can get to be up 8 inches long.

This is a fact for Dad's interest - tilapia is a kind of cichlid.

Just for good measure - another video!

Aquascaping

Today I tried my hand at aquascaping. This is what I did:


No fish yet, as the water needs a few days to be conditioned properly, but I had fun with this project today and really like the way it turned out!

I've learned in my recent investment that fish like privacy and are territorial, so I tried to design the tank with that in mind - a small flowerpot on its side, partially buried, with plants on either side, plants around the sunken ship, all laid out in an attempt to provide an aesthetically pleasing and comfortable environment for the fish. The fish will move things around to make things more homey for themselves, so I am looking forward to seeing what they do with the place.

Something's fishy about this

Last night I went to a pet shop, just wanting to look at puppies.  I personally don't believe in buying dogs from pet stores, so it was really just to look!  (Although I am considering finding a good bichon frise breeder and finding out what kind of wait time there is on getting a puppy, cost, etc., because I think I can actually afford to take care of a dog like that now...)  Looking, however, turned into something more...expensive.  I didn't buy a puppy.  I didn't buy a cat.  I actually didn't buy an animal.

I purchased a fish tank.  And a stand.  And the pump, filter, water treatment stuff, etc. that one needs to start up a good tank.  I got a 28 gallon tank, so it's a good size without being huge.  I am now looking at fish - I'd like some that would grow to 4-6 inches or so and have nice color.  The tank has to be properly prepared for the fish, so I may not have anything in there for a bit.  I may buy some really cheap very small fish to throw in there to help get the water ready - it needs a certain amount of bacteria in it for most fish to thrive.

It's a long way from raising a fish in a bowl, but I am excited about this scale-raising opportunity!

(For those who care to look them up, I'm looking primarily at cichlids, but haven't settled on any particular kind yet.)