fuzzbusters

I've been a blogging slacker over here, and haven't updated in about a month. How about some fuzzy shelties to make it up?






On one of my favorite topics, Target printed out a coupon for me the other night for $1 off a "Fur Fighter Kit". I got a huge kick out of it- I've never bought dog food there, so how do they know that I'm surrounded by sheltie fuzz? I do occasionally buy stuffed dog toys for Christmas or the sheltie birthdays, so that must be it. I really wish it had a "click here to see why we recommeded this" on the coupon, do 3 dog toys a year add up enough to recommend a fuzz fighter kit? Maybe I'm buying too many de-lint rollers??

round ball of fuzz

round ball of fuzz
Originally uploaded by wck

I love this photo of Declan. He LOVES the sofa in the living room (when he can't reach the doggie bed I made him that's in the green room, behind closed doors). The living room has a huge ceiling with skylights, and the upstairs hall extends to a balcony that runs across it. Right underneath is this sofa. So... you can walk across the balcony, look down, and see a fuzzy sheltie napping. Awwwwww. He's sleeping on a fisherman's cable blanket that my grandma made for me to take to college.

We had a crazy christmas around here- just like always. Yesterday Kate & I made cookie press cookies (sandwiched with apricot and strawberry jam then dipped in chocolate!) and then panettone. Mmmmmm. This morning I made scones and then we had waffles and THEN most of the presents were opened (chaos!) and then french toast. Ana and Tom, as expected, liked the wrapping paper better than the gifts.

I'd finished a quilt for each kid, so the one picture I wanted to get was each one on the sofa with their quilts, but of course that didn't happen. Maybe next year.

declan's blog

What I've been up to in the last month since I posted here: going to the beach with Kate & Ana, starting a blog for declan, riding the PATH and the ferry to work and enjoying a mostly-Penn-Station-free month, visiting the midwest for a wedding, and watching Thomas grow even bigger. Farewell summer!

fuzzy dog

There hasn't been a fuzzy doggy photo in a few days. So here's a fix for that.

Fuzzy brain

While I was in NJ, meeting Annika and shoveling out from Saturday night's snowstorm, Declan was at my friend's home with Bandon. At some point in the weekend, my friend came back from walking the shelties, and stepped out of the elevator into his building's hallway and unleashed both boys. He walked up to his front door, opened it, and went in after Bandon, then shut the door. Leaving Declan out in the hallway. About 10 minutes later, he heard Declan barking in response to Bandon's barking.... from the hallway. He opened the door, and Declan was standing right outside the door. Only my crazy sheltie would spend 10 minutes, standing at a closed door, waiting for the person inside to remember that he was stuck out there. I heard this story on the way back to Belltown from SEA last night- I had to give Declan a big hug for being so dumb (or so super smart?) that he didn't walk off & lose himself in the building.

Also, since this is Seattle and a fairly warm January, I just bought a really gorgeous new pair of red sandals! I've liked Chacos leather sandals for a while, and I just got a pair of Chaco Maria's that was on sale. They have super cushy soles, so they'll be great for walking to work this summer. My commute is a 1.9 mile walk- down one hill and then up another, so it's a good workout both directions. I'm always searching for pretty shoes that I can walk that distance in, since I don't so much like to wear sneakers everyday. Can't wait to break these in!

France, natural selection, and sleeping dogs

This evening, I pulled out an old photo CD of my trip to a friend's wedding in Aix-en-Provence, way back in June 2002. I used to have them online at Artsy Fartsy but Alex took that website down a few months ago, so I'm uploading them to Flickr. While I was playing with the pictures and tagging them, Declan jumped up on the sofa & sat down right next to me. Then he started nodding his head... and leaning over to the side... slowly... until the side of his head bumped my ibook. He jumped up with a "how in the world am I supposed to nap with that thing on your lap?" look. I had to fold up a blanket and place next to me, so that he could nod his head slowly over onto it. He knows that I'm a sucker for how cute he is when he's sleeping, and he knows very well that I'm willing to contort myself into all sorts of crazy positions, let my arms fall asleep, put huge cricks into my neck, in order to let him fall asleep on my lap. I can't help it, he's so precious when he's fast asleep.

At work today, I got in a long discussion with two other P13Ners about how different dog breeds show how natural selection and evolution work. Of course, with dogs, it's not so much natural selection most of the time, but humans doing the trait selection. But it leads to analogous results. One of the other dogs on our floor is a little black daschund, Scooter, who's a cute little guy. The conversation started when Declan walked into an office and did a loop under the desk to look for crumbs. My friend commented that Declan didn't see - or didn't smell - a few crumbs that were down there, but Scooter would soon be by & would vacuum them up. Stephanie wanted to know why Scooter would be better at picking up crumbs than Declan, and I remarked "Oh, he's not a herding dog, so he's got way better eyesight and a better sense of smell." So we talked about how Declan is rather far-sighted but has super hearing, because those skills help you keep track of sheep, while Scooter, who was originally bred to hunt small animals, has a really good sense of smell. The we talked about Sammy's webbed retriever feet and fetch obsession. And Declan's duclaws and the rocky Shetland Islands, then how much humans knowingly selected different traits, while others just emerged. So yet another reason why it's fun having dogs at work, they lead to random discussions of Stephen Jay Gould.