Annie's Self-Portrait Paper Doll

My Darling Daisy

Some Small Setbacks

I woke up this morning to this sign on the bathroom door...

...another housekeeping failure spelled out in black and white.

Also, yesterday, I was given a Nokia phone. Now I like to think of myself as someone who is up on the latest technology, so I took it out of the box and decided to dive right in and learn the features. Well, it wouldn't go on, so I decided to charge the battery. After waiting all day, I unplugged it and it still wouldn't go on. So, I downloaded the user manual, and realized that I was pushing the wrong button to try to get the power to go on. Needless to say, my ego is deflated. I am just glad the kids weren't here to see it. The girls are sweet, but Morgan can be brutal.

Technorati

I saw a post about Technorati on another blog, so I decided to sign up and see what it was all about.

Well, it is all about ranking your blog. My blog is currently:

* Rank: 2,157,081

On the bright side, there's nowhere to go but up! Or down...

I also tried the bookmarking website (I think it is called deli.cio.us), but I guess I am too old to make that kind of radical change in my life, because after about 15 minutes, I started getting antsy and switched back to my usual bookmarks.

It is actually a great idea if you use different computers and want access to your favorites from wherever you are. But since I am usually home, it doesn't make much sense for me.

Knitting

My legs always get cold, so I was pricing legwarmers at danskin the other day. The ones that I wanted were $26.00! Being a total cheapskate, I decided to skip it.

Then yesterday, I came across some patterns for knitting projects on the Knifty Knitter loom:



I have had the set of round looms and have made scarves and hats, but then I realized that I could make my own legwarmers. I started knitting on the small round loom and a few minutes later, I had one legwarmer! I am still working on the second leg.

Of course, I am way too excited about this, but it opens up all new possiblities...and now I know what to get everyone I know for Christmas.

Blogging

There is only one blog that I read regularly, Fussy, mostly because her post about cutting her own hair made me laugh till I cried. So as I learn more about blogging, I am surprised by how little I know. One thing I learned is that no one reads my blog. I found this out through Google Analytics, which "tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site." I actually felt guilty signing up for it, like I was wasting their time asking them to analyze me.

I also found out what kind of candy I am:

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Very popular, one of you is not enough.

What Kind of Candy Are You?

I also learned how to remotely access a server and do interesting things that I do not understand with mysql databases. Which I think balances out the time that I spent at Quizzilla figuring out which kind of flower I am.

Can't Think of a Title

I cleaned the whole downstairs today, then we took the dogs for a long walk. Annie got to rake leaves with some neighborhood toddlers. Haley took turns running each of the dogs at the grassy field. Wow, this sounds boring, but we had a lot of fun.

Thou Shalt Not Covet

Our neighbors got a Yorkie puppy a few days ago. When I first saw it, I thought it was a stuffed animal. It was the most adorable puppy that I have ever seen. I wanted it so bad.

I came inside and, while vacuuming up dog hair, tried to convince myself that 1) I was happy with my dogs and 2) that I didn't really want their little dog anyway. Then I remembered that Yorkie's don't shed. That did it. I was coveting my neighbor's livestock.

I love having big dogs because they make me feel safe when I am walking. I can go out alone at night with Janie and know that no one would mess with me. I also like that I don't have to worry about them getting eaten by a hawk or attacked by another dog. They are scrappy dogs and can hold their own with any of the big dogs around here.

But deep down, I want a little dog with a bow in its hair and a cute little doggie jacket.

Sunny Day!

We had a fun weekend, but the dogs only got to go on one walk the whole time. Since they were so restless, we took them for an early walk to the grassy field by our house.

We are working with Janie on Sit/Stay/Come commands on and off-leash. She is doing well, in spite of the distraction of Daisy running around her in circles.

Daisy will sit (sometimes), but that's about it. I have heard beagles are difficult to obedience train, so she will be a challenge.

We saw the border collie that terrifies me run by (with its owner) and Janie just sat there shaking with her paw up.

I am going to work on getting a fenced dog park for our community where the dogs can play together off-leash. I think there are enough neighbors that would like to have one.

Cloudy Day

A picture of the first stormy day in so long! It has been at least five months since we had any rain here.

It only rained a lit bit, though. Hopefully, we will have a big storm next time!

Barking!

I woke up this morning to Janie barking, barking, barking! It is a school holiday, and there were kids skateboarding behind our house. I wish I could teach her to bark at danger, but not alert me every time a child walks by. When she barks, usually all of the other dogs in the neighborhood are barking, too, so I guess no one will get mad at me. Maybe she will grow out of it? :)

"You think it's easy barking all morning?"

Temporary Insanity

Two weeks after we brought Jane home, we agreed to foster a mother dog and her five five-week old puppies. So we went from having no dogs, to having seven dogs in our house!

The mother dog, Honey, let us hold and cuddle the puppies as much as we wanted, so we had a whole month of puppy love. After they left, I missed being able to grab a puppy any time of day or night. I still have a soft spot for one of the pups, who I named Bear. I wanted to keep her so much, but she was a chow mix, and I wasn't sure if I would be up for the challenge.

I hope we can foster again when Janie and Daisy are older.

The Search

Back in July, when I decided I wanted a dog, I started by looking at Petfinder.com. There were so many dogs to choose from, and I had no idea what kind of dog I wanted. On the weekends, I looked at all of the local pounds, trying to figure out what I was looking for.

I decided I wanted a female dog. I didn't really care what breed, as long as it was a breed that was good with children. I found a listing for a dalmatian puppy on PetHarbor.com and called my husband to see when we could go look at her. We drove out to the Los Angeles County Animal Shelter in Downey. When we arrived, we found out that the dalmatian puppy was already adopted, but they had a litter of three month old pointer mix puppies that had just come in.

The pointer puppies were so adorable. They looked like little deer, with their long legs and floppy ears. We picked a female and spent some time with her. She was not interested in us, and sat whining in the corner of the pen. I decided she was not the right dog, and we left without her.

I spent all night thinking about her and decided the next day to call and see if she was still available. My husband called and was told that she had already been adopted. I was heartbroken. They called us later and said there was another female from the same litter that someone had adopted, but then changed their mind. We said we wanted her, so after a long weekend of waiting, my husband brought her home. We named her Jane.

She had just been spayed, so she was groggy and slept the whole evening. The next morning after we took her outside, she was too afraid to come back inside, so she lived outside for her first month with us. Slowly, she learned that inside was good and now she loves being inside with us.

The Beginning

Welcome to Fun with Daisy and Jane...

This is Jane. We adopted her from the Los Angeles County Animal Shelter in Downey on July 10, 2006, when she was three months old. She was listed as a Pointer Mix, and she looks to us to be a Pointer/Lab mix. We would love to hear from the people who adopted her littermates. She is about seven months old in this picture.

This is Daisy. We adopted her on October 6, 2006, from a nice family in Yorba Linda. She was ten weeks old. She is a Beagle/Lab mix. We would love to hear from anyone who knows her parents or littermates. She is about three months old in this picture.

Here is a picture of Daisy and Jane lounging together in front of the TV. They love to sleep cuddling together when they are cold; then when they get too hot, they retreat to separate corners.