Busy Weekend!

Friday night, Jasper did very well at obedience class. We worked a lot on moving attention and loose-leash walking, and definitely caught on to some techniques that we can use to train him! It will just take a lot of practice now.

Then we headed off to poker night...it was a huge table this time, so things got pretty crazy. We both lost out pretty quickly and headed home.

Saturday, I had to get up early and go into the hospital to enroll patients into my research project. (Not that I'm bitter or anything, but I had to BRUSH SNOW OFF OF MY CAR before I could drive.) Three patients had had the defibrillator implantations on Friday, so it took me most of the morning to get around to each of them, but it was worth it since all 3 consented and did the initial intake questionnaires! Alex went off to the farmers' market while I was at the hospital.

In the afternoon, I volunteered to man the humane society's "Adoption Day" booth at Petco. Once a month, we take dogs up there for some PR, which often leads to an adoption connection. This time, we had 3 puppies, who were adorable and very popular! All was well until I put one of the puppies in the back of the car to bring him back to the shelter. Warned that he had gotten sick on the way up, I laid down a thick layer of blankets and towels before clipping him into Jasper's restraint tie. We cruised on down the highway, puppy as happy as could be, until we got within about a mile of the shelter, when there was suddenly a tremendous stink from the backseat. I glanced back to see a giant pile of poop, sitting (luckily) in the middle of the towel. Then came the gushing noise...puppy had decided to pee all over the backseat as well (and not just on the towel). I rushed the rest of the way to the shelter and yanked the pup out of the backseat before he could make any more of a mess, swearing that I would never again have a non-crated puppy in my car. Lots of Clorox wipes, and removal of the soiled towels (which belonged to the shelter and thus could be laundered there) resulted in a basically presentable backseat, though I left the windows open (despite the drifting snow) for the rest of the day. All seems to be back to normal today.

Alex had a much cleaner and nicer-smelling Saturday afternoon, heading to the bike shop for clip-in shoes and pedals (part of his birthday present). Now he's just waiting for the weather to improve so he can try them out! These shoes will fit the spinning bikes at the gym, too, so he'll probably get to use them there first.

In the evening, we headed up to our favorite coffee shop for a "money date." The general gist of this was that 1) we aren't broke, and 2) it will cost a million bazillion dollars to send the crumpet to college.

Before bed, we also inscribed all the crumpet's books, so we can remember where they came from! Here I am working on that:


Today, we had a relaxing morning after banishing the dog to the backyard when he bugged us at 6:45 (it was warmer today, in our defense!). Waffles, paper-reading, and other couch-bound pursuits eventually gave way to the main tasks of the day. #1 on the agenda was a trip to Home Depot to pick out new fixtures for the bathroom. When the real estate agent visited a few months ago, she recommended painting it and replacing the vanity and mirror. Since dust and paint fumes are not good for the crumpet, Alex is going to do this while I'm in Arizona. In record time today (less than 45 minutes), we picked a new vanity base, top, mirror, and a few faucet options.

Since it was a beautiful sunny day in the 40s (much nicer than the muck of the last few days), we also took Jasper for a long walk at a local park. At the end, we did some more of his moving attention/loose-leash walking practice.

Getting a treat for keeping his attention on Alex:


Look at that nice loose leash!


Getting a treat for walking along next to me:


Tonight, we finally booked Alex's flights to visit me in Arizona and worked on our advance directives so that we can have them scanned in at our next OB appointment, thereby crossing two items off my to-do list that have been hovering over my head for far too long. In fact, my to-do list is such a mess of scribbles, highlighting and cross-outs that I think I may print out a new copy tomorrow!