Gone to the Dogs 3...
Adding a new dog to our household in the last couple of days has been an adventure. Mostly good. Abe is pretty mellow and well behaved excepted at six o'clock in the morning when he wants to jump in with us. You can imagine that I don't take that well since a.) it's 6:00 in the morning b.) it's spring break and I'm supposed to be able to sleep in and c.) a 77-pound Weimaraner jumping on top of me is not a pleasant experience. He'll learn quickly that this is not acceptable behavior since Nate and I both "bark" pretty loudly when we're cranky in the morning.
Other than that, Keeg and Abe seem to be coexisting pretty well. Abe is about 6 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than Keegan, but their common genetic heritage really comes through. They move in tandem most of the time...doing perimeter checks of the back yard, pointing at squirrels and cats, barking at selected people walking on the sidewalk in front of our house. They even curl up to sleep with their front paws crossed in exactly the same way. It's like a grey ghost and his little chocolate shadow.
They bring joy to our lives. Dogs love you no matter what and are always happy to see you. They take joy in their surroundings and remind us to take joy too.
Archeological Expedition
This weekend the wise and bearded one and I rented our very own dumpster. Because I crave instant gratification, I think demolition is so much fun! In two days we took our very 70s orange shag basement back to...the dark ages. We'll put some more pictures up in the next couple of days, but here I want to document my fascination with the wallpaper that you find behind the wallpaper.
The first layer of wallpaper was hard for Nate to get rid of as it is a montage of old tavern signs and ads.
The second layer of wallpaper was an innocuous 50s lavendar print.
The sweetest paper was this bucolic doe and buck scene. If only it were salvagable I think it would be great! As it is, it only exists under the stair well.
Beside taking down wallpaper, we also: cleaned the garage, tore out the orange/rust shag carpet, tore out the bar, ripped down the hideous drywall ceiling, and removed plastic tile that was under the carpet. Nasty, nasty stuff! Now instead of a "finished" basement, we have a totally unfinished cave, but I have faith in Nate and the ideas that bounce around in his head. Hopefully, the rebuilding of the space will be timely and relatively painless. And I promise: no wallpaper!
Gone to the Dogs 2...
Meet Abe
Abraham is our new fur friend. He's a 2 1/2-year-old Weimaraner puppy. He needs a home, and we want a Weimaraner so it seems like a good fit. Even Keegan appears to like him, or at least tolerate him. He's a lanky but macho 76-pound teenager--all legs and knees and floppy ears. He has two modes--high speed play and complete and utter relaxation. We love him.
He came for the whole day yesterday to visit. Keegan immediately laid down on his blanket and took his bone, and Abe let her. So she remains the undisputed queen of the realm. They did fight a bit. It sounded and looked pretty ferocious, but their ears were forward and their tails were wagging the whole time.
The wise and bearded one installed a doggy door in the basement. 
We're hoping that a companion dog will ease Keegan's separation anxiety so that we will not have to keep her crated all day long when we're at work. We want to fence off an area in the basement with access to the back yard so they can hang out all day long. We have plans to beef up the fencing all around the back yard so that they won't be able to take off after the neighborhood cats and squirrels.
If all goes as planned, Abe will move in with us at the end of the month when I am on spring break and can be home to monitor the two of them for a few days. Come by and meet Abe if you're in town.
a tale of two cities..
someone doesn't care for las vegas...and it have to say i agree with him..
this person thinks highly of our fair city.... so do we..
Coming Up for Air
Nate worked every day for the last 3 weeks. Yes, that's right. EVERY day. Sometimes 12 or more hours per day. The project that he has been working on since moving to Portland was in its final stages and he was struggling to get it finished.
And it is over. Friday was the deadline.
This weekend has been primarily R and R...and maybe a little RR (that's relationship repair). There's only room in this marriage for one stressy person. Usually that's me, and Nate is calm and collected and talks me down from the bridges and makes me laugh. When I have to be the calm one...well, I'm not so good at that.j
We really did have fun together this weekend. We met a new friend named Abe...we'll write more about him later. We watched The Constant Gardener (We highly recommend it. It has all that you want in a movie--a love story, mystery, and thriller. Rachel Wiesz was radiant in it. But possibly the biggest star was the beautiful country and people of Kenya). We did a little gardening and a little shopping and a little hiking and a little driving in the Gorge.
We're almost ready for a new week to begin--hopefully much less stressful for Nate! And for me too.
