Friday, June 30, 2006

garden update

The tomatoes are a veritable forest. We had to transplant the peppers to get them out of the tomato shade. The pumpkin plants are about the biggest thing in the garden, and have claimed one of the rows of corn as their own. There is one teeny tiny artichoke (my baby!), and we've already harvested some lettuce. The blueberry bush has fruit, as do the tomatoes and peppers. There's one onion about done, the others are coming along since we thinned them. The beans (to the far right of the picture -- there's a lot more than you can see here) are Finn's favorite (probably because he can see over them). The corn is about two feet tall, and speeding up. The carrots are still smallish, but are getting there. And that's the garden update.

some finn fotos



Thursday, June 29, 2006

Random Thoughts (hey, every blog’s gotta have ‘em)

The word “crafts” has basically escaped my vocabulary ever since Finn came along. I’ve managed to cram in some quilt time (working as part of a quilting pair helps keep the fire lit), but I utterly failed to make cards for father’s day and emily’s birthday. Still haven’t managed to get an engagement card together for her, either. I have a necklace repair job that is getting completed about an inch at a time (when Finn decides it’s time to sit still for a minute). I have two other quilts on standby, and I have a baby dress I would like to make before the kid is no longer a baby. So many ideas, so much puppy energy.

But the puppy is well. He got his last set of parvovirus and distemper shots this week—meaning that we can take him to the park now! There’s supposed to be a great lakeside dog park not too far from our house: we’re planning on taking him there this weekend. Can’t wait. He gets along great with other dogs as long as he can interact with them. If they’re barking at him from behind a fence or even from inside a house, his fur stands on end and he gets skittish. Which means that even the tiniest, yappiest feeder dog will scare him, if it’s behind glass. If he can sniff the other dog and get close to him, then he’s good, even if the dog is huge and imposing.

His new shots also mean that we can enroll him in an obedience class! We have started some basic training, like Sit, Lie Down, Stay (he’s 80% on this one), Come, “Off” and I just started “Drop It”. We’re trying to teach him to sit at corners when we’re waiting to cross the street on walks, but I don’t know if he understands this or if he’s just sitting because he wants to while we’re standing there waiting. The biting continues, but the house breaking has made great strides in the last two weeks—there’s about a third of the amount of stuff in the house when we get home from work as there used to be. And incase anyone is keeping score, he weighed in at the vet at a whopping 29 pounds!

One of those days

Last Monday was one of those days where all signs point to “go back to bed and try again tomorrow”. It all started as I was planning my trip to work….

I was planning on riding my bike to work this morning, after dropping my stuff off with the vanpool (the plan being that I would grab my stuff from the van after it beat me to the office—riding with my laptop strapped to my back royally sucks). Usually I just carry whatever clothes I am going to wear at the office in my bag, but since I was dropping it off at the van, I could just throw my clothes and lunch in the van too! Catch up with all of it 90 minutes later. But wait. How am I going to get my computer bag and a big old canvas bag of clothes and lunch to the parked van all on my bike? I know! Eric can leave the house a bit early and drive me and my bike to the van. Perfect! Frantically load all of my bike/work/lunch stuff into Eric’s car. Eric drives to the parked van. Unload all my stuff onto the ground near the van. Point out the closest I-5 on-ramp for Eric and he’s on his way to work. Start loading my stuff into the van….done. Now, get on my bike and start riding to work. Hm. Something feels funny. Ack! My head is naked! My bike helmet is in Eric’s car! Nooooooooo!!!! Now I am stuck at the van, with 30 minutes before it’s time to go, with nothing to read. Oh well.

Get to the office, shower (feeling very dumb that I am showering at work after NOT having ridden my bike in). Realize that I forgot to bring socks. Nooooooooo!!!! Ended up wearing GAP khaki pants, sweater top and bright blue Keen sandals (VERY good thing that I work where I do—not terribly fashion savvy).

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

growing like a weed

We made some real progress over the weekend in terms of “settling in”. Most of the boxes are out of the house, the garage is under control, and we have pictures hanging on the walls. We’re in good shape now.

Finn continues to be an incredibly cute handful-and-a-half. Those puppy teeth sure are sharp! We built a fence for the “dog run” this weekend, as well as getting the front yard under control. We planted: Point Reyes Ceanothus, Meadow Sage, Atropupurea (Sedum), rock rose, Papaver somniferum, Helianthemum ‘Ben Nevis’ and ‘Wisley Primose’, two heathers: Erica cinera and Calluna vulgaris, a beach strawberry and a creeping chamomile. For a while, Finn had taken to pulling the hen & chick succulents out of the rock wall in the back yard and running around with them in his mouth. We saved about ten of them from his jaws and transplanted them to the front yard. He has taken to tearing through the vegetable garden, which seems to be doing fine, otherwise. I swear, he gets into the beds, turns around as if to say "Ha ha! Look where I am! Come and get me!" But he's training well. He does "sit", "lie down" and we're working on "stay" and "come". He gets "come" when he's interested, and he gets "stay" sometimes. But it's more like he understands the routine of sitting, then lying down, then waiting for us to walk away and then him joining us. He doesn't quite get the command part, just the timing. We've started to take him on regular, 'round the block walks -- he still has one round of vaccination shots to go, but we're uneasy with his being so sheltered, and besides, it tires him down right before bed. He's getting so big -- he's 16 pounds as of yesterday.