My Tornado

After a relaxing six days in Michigan, my life has become a bit of a whirlwind over the last four.


First, the relaxing part. As usual, Michigan with my family was great. We brought Zelda along like we did last year, so the car ride was a little cramped (11 hours now, since we're an extra hour north after the move). She likes meeting new people, or remeeting old ones as the case may be, so it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.


We celebrated Christmas three times in total. Despite my earlier naysaying, the last of them ended up being white after all as we passed over the rain/snow line on our way up to Midland Christmas afternoon. Being one of those families that still celebrates with presents, I got a few things worth mentioning: a new microwave (Thanks Mom & Dad); an assortment of music, TV, and movies to add to our sensory entertainment choices; a D&D mega-adventure (anyone up for a little Elemental Evil?); and enough food to last me until June. In a bit of a surprise, no one hooked me up with any comics or video games (staples of the last few years). That's probably all right as I have a bit of a backlog in both categories right now.


When we weren't hanging out with extended family doing Christmas related things, we spent a lot of time relaxing. It was nice to not be sitting in front of a computer for most of my waking hours. I worked on the Hitchhiker's Guide omnibus I brought with me and we finished watching "The War" which we had started back at Thanksgiving. It's a lot to take in over such a short period of time, but to those with a DVD rental service and a passing interest in the last great World War, I would highly recommend it.


Anyway, the tornado took over starting with Thursday's trip back home. On the way into Chicago, our windshield got struck by a large piece of debris from the truck in front of us. Nothing too serious, but bigger and way more annoying than a little pebble impact, especially since it's right in the driver's eyeline. Incidentally, let me know if anyone knows a reputable auto glass place in Minneapolis. When we got home, we found ourselves locked out of the house because our catsitters had inadvertantly locked the part of the door that we only have one key for (and they currently had it). So we had to make a 45-minute side trip over there to pick it up, meaning we got home around 8:00, but didn't get into the house until 9:00.


The next day we had plans to drive down to Iowa to visit with some of Meaghan's high school/college friends. The weather was pretty lousy on the way down, but after skating by numerous ditched cars for 4+ hours we made it safe and sound. Among others, we got to see Mike & Andrea (our Jersey friends) which is always a good time, and as a special bonus got to see Meaghan's friend Austin. He won some kind of lottery to come home for the holidays from where he's currently stationed in Kuwait. We got back from all of that sometime around 3:00 AM. 20 hours of driving in two days is officially a lot.


Sunday was our own private Christmas. Meaghan and I typically wait until some date when we're not around all the rest of the family to exchange gifts. This meant that Saturday had to be used for putting the finishing touches on those gifts (wrapping, shopping for stockings, even some construction). We were also invited to a wedding reception at the Germanic-American Institute in St. Paul. Two of our local friends, Kate and Nolan, tied the knot after 3+ years of dating, so we popped over there for a couple hours of merriment. After finishing my Christmas preparations, I crashed and burned around 9:00.


Yesterday was fantastic: we opened presents, watched more episodes of the Gilmore Girls (now on season 5) than I'd care to admit, listened to music, watched Pan's Labyrinth. We basically just had a completely lazy day. I won't share all of the presents that we got for each other, but I will introduce you to the newest member of our family.



This is our new gerbil, Sylar. He spends his time digging, eating, and serving as eye candy for the cats and dog. Despite the name, he's a very friendly guy.


The tornado started up again today. I ran out of vacation so I have to work, and we have two New Year's Eve parties to go to tonight (one of them down in Rochester). To top it all off, I was woken up not once, not twice, but three times this morning by the sound of horking pets. (Seriously, who wants to be fed at 6:45?) Ain't life grand?


I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, too.

Fickle Dog

Anybody have any ideas on how to feed a dog that doesn't like to eat? Mealtime with Zelda has been either really easy or like pulling teeth lately. Most of the time after you dish up a meal for her she'll sniff it once, look up at you, and start wagging her tail as if she doesn't understand what you want her to do.

We've tried occasionally mixing in new sauces or treats to try to entice her. That'll work the first couple of times we try it, but the novelty soon wears off. Other times, if we can get Scully (one of our cats) to show some interest in Zelda's food, Zelda will be protective enough to eat her meal.

The classic way to solve this problem is to show your dog that food is only available for a limited time by removing it after 10-15 minutes. This would be a good strategy except for the fact that Zelda has this awesome tendency to hork up disgusting digestive fluids if she hasn't eaten in awhile. Believe me when I say I've been woken up too many times in the morning by the sound of her stomach pumping juices out into our life.

Help!

The New Place

We stayed our first night in the new place last night. After trying out our keys and taking a quick look around the place, we unloaded what little stuff we brought up with us and our dog, Zelda. It had to happen some time, but I'd forgotten how rough it was when she moved in with us after staying her first summer with the Harrises. Everything was a strange new smell or a weird new sound, and she often spent the majority of the night growling at all of the newness around her.

Last night was a lot like that. We had the windows open to cool the place down, and she could hear the kids who were playing out in the street until at least 1:00 AM. Every ten minutes or so, she would walk over to the window and give a growl or a concerned bark at what was going on. She was never really excessive; it just happened a lot. Eventually it either got quiet enough out there or she just got too tired, so she passed out around 2:30 or 3:00. At least, that's the last time I remember seeing on the clock.

This morning was a lot better though. Some friendly people and their 3 dogs (a golden retriever, Chelsea, and two little terriers, mother Emmy and son Rogan) happened to be walking by when I was taking Zelda out for her morning pee in our new fenced-in yard. Everyone seemed to be hitting it off through the fence, so we decided to let them get together for an impromptu play date. After they established some quick boundaries, everyone had a great time fetching a tennis ball for 20 minutes or so. I got Ashley's (the dog owner) number so we'll hopefully be setting up more play dates with them in the future. I hear it costs $50 to get a dog park pass in Minneapolis, so it's a good thing our yard is so nice.

We took some quick measurements around the place, and found that we'll likely have to take some doors off of hinges when we move in. Even then, everything we bring will have to pass through a 28-in wide chokepoint right near our entrance. You gotta love older houses. Sounds like we'll have to spend some time either deconstructing some furniture beforehand or trading in some of our stuff for a newer, sleeker model. Suggestions?

I'm getting anxious to just get the move over with, even though I know we're far from having everything ready to go yet.