The One With the "Good Dog"

For Christmas, my boss gave me a book called "The Dogs of Bedlam Farm" by Jon Katz. It's about a writer and his three border collies who move out to a farm to herd sheep and all the adventures they encounter. It's a good book because Katz has a very good understanding of dogs and their relationship with humans. He doesn't really sentimentalize. He recognizes how he contributes to his dogs' poor behavior and how he gives them certain personalities to fill gaps in his own life. It's very interesting.

Yesterday, I really read a chapter that struck a chord with me. It was about Homer, his "good" dog. He originally got interested in dog behavior because of his "problem" dog, Orson, and he was talking about how the good dog gets overlooked because of the problem dog, "ironically, often the most loved, to whom his or her owners are most attached." Sound familiar? Anyway, the chapter is about how his relationship with Homer keeps deteriorating because he's so attached to Orson and his new puppy, Rose. Their personalities are more like his and they have a strong bond that he can't seem to develop with Homer. Homer continues to deteriorate and become even more unhappy until he finally placed him in another home.

As I read this chapter, I kept getting sadder and sadder seeing the similarities between Orson and Muggsy as well as Homer and Chubbs. He discussed how, try as we might, we just can't love our dogs equally, just as we don't love people equally. Every canine relationship we have will be different from the others. However, I started feeling better as I got farther along as Homer was clearly unhappy, and I might be blind, but I don't think Chubbs is. He has his own thing now with therapy work and there are things in his life that make him light up and give me that goofy, what's-coming-next-Momma? look. This morning, as he was lying next to me on the bed, using my boobs as a pillow, I realized that my relationship with Chubbs was just fine, very healthy in fact. I've worked very hard to restore that recently, even putting Muggsy to the side somewhat. That actually needs to change as I'm seeing Muggsy deteriorate a little more. I

f only there was more time in the day... But I can't think about that right now. These are my days off.

The One With the Temp

It's amazing how you have to change your way of thinking when you manage someone. I have managed many consultants at this job, but that's not the same as having someone in your office working for you. I had such an experience for the first time this week. I hired a temp to work on a database for an event we have coming up. I've been monitoring him, checking his work, telling him when he can go to lunch and all that, but what I didn't realize is how literally he would take everything I said.

I told him that he needed to call every person in the database to confirm that they were still at their office. I thought that was a good instruction until Gunther came in and told me, "Um, the temp just called and said, 'I was just calling to confirm that Arnold Swartzenegger was still the governor of California.'" Oops. I guess I should have told him that he didn't have to call EVERYONE. :)

The One Where...

"It's the most wonderful time of the year." Some contend that song is written about the time period commonly known as the holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Years. Not me. I hate that "holiday" season. I contend that the song was written in that anxious hour between the end of the last conference game and the Selection Show on the second Sunday in March. This is my holiday season. For me, it's the most wonderful time of the year.

I love it so much that I'm not sure how I will sleep tonight. I love the Selection Show when you get to see all your gifts all wrapped up: all the potential upsets, all the potential nail biters, the potential that your team has to make it to the Final Four. I could care less about all the analysis because I usually think that I know more about basketball than Billy Packer, and hearing that my team will have an early collapse always makes me mad, but I love seeing the brackets laid out for me. Then comes the best part -- the first weekend of the tournament. I always take the first two of those days off and just veg in front of my television for every exciting -- and even some less than exciting -- minute. There's nothing better than March Madness. For four days, I give myself permission to be lazy. I give myself permission not to work on something or toward some goal and I just enjoy myself. It's the only time of the year I do that.

This year, I'm pretty exciting about Kansas as well. I like our bracket. I know it's going to be tough, but being a No. 4 seed and looking at facing a No. 1 seed in the Sweet 16, you have to love the idea of playing Memphis instead of Duke, UConn or Villanova. Plus, I'm not that impressed with UCLA as the 2 seed or Gonzaga as the 3 seed. I think Pitt is a tough 5 seed for a second round game, but Kansas has looked excellent since January with the exception of the loss at Texas. This team is exciting to watch, and I think they could make a good run in the tourney.

The new leg guy at my job, who is my kindred spirit when it comes to basketball, graduated from Arizona and decided to turn in our work pool bracket with Arizona winning it all. So we made a little side bet on whose bracket would do better if I picked Kansas to go all the way. Since Arizona is going to play Villanova in the second round, put your money on me. I like my chances.

By far the greatest thing about this year is that it can't be any worse than last year. Yes, Kansas fans, the worst is behind us. I really don't think there's anything worse than watching a team laden with the senior leadership of our stars Wayne Simien, Keith Langford, Mike Lee and Aaron Miles lose in the first round while our former coach whose name shall never be uttered by me went on to win the national championship. Short of Missouri winning it all, which can't happen this year, I think it's all up from here. At least, it can't get any worse.

The One With the New Glasses

Well, I finally retired the glasses that I bought at Sears my sophomore year of college and became a little more LA. I needed to get my eyes checked because Gunther's wife is an eye doctor and thought my eyes might be contributing to my headaches. So I now have frameless glasses with purple on the parts of the frame that you can see. They're also coated so they tint when I'm outside. They're pretty cool. Really expensive, the joy of good benefits. I'm just a $125 haircut and a pair of boobs away from being a true LA girl. :)

My interview last week was weird. The guy didn't ask me any questions. He just talked about the company the whole time. It was very weird. I think I'd really like working there, but they aren't paying near what I make, so I'll probably turn it down. Oh well. I got called back for a second interview, the best interview I've ever had. Again, weird. The interviewer just took me into a room with the whole department -- five people -- and left me there. Again, they didn't have a lot of questions, so we basically sat around and talked about sports and books for 45 minutes. The best part, though, was that I got a box of cookies! They were eating girl scout cookies and I asked who was selling them because I wanted to buy a box of Thin Mints. One of the guys doing the interview said, "I have a box, just take mine." So I got a box of cookies at a job interview. How many people can say that? If nothing else, it makes for a good story.

Also, I got invited to a party! I'm sure I've told you all about the new guy I work with who actually gets me. He went to Arizona so we can talk basketball all the time. It's so great. I don't think you all understand what it's like to work with all women who don't like sports. I was so excited when this guy started because now I have someone to talk to. He had a party this weekend and invited me. It was a lot of fun, but now I have a hangover. Oops.

The One With the Fighting Landlords

There's no good way to make this phonecall:

"Hi. Do you accept pets?"
"Yes."
"Dogs?"
"Dogs, plural? How many do you have?"
"Three."
"What sizes?"
"Two 80-pound and one 30-pound."
"Are they friendly?"
"Well, one hates people."

Yes, we are a landlords dream. But funnily enough, people love us so much that landlords have been fighting over us.

Our landlords love us so much that they offered to build us a bigger backyard if we stay. For those of you who haven't been to our house, we have a huge front yard and a very small backyard. Muggsy can't be in the front yard, so that leaves him confined to the small backyard when he can't be in the house. But they are going to convert most of the frontyard into the backyard and build us a proper 6-foot fence. Our rent is going to go up a little. I'm fine with that. We were going to be paying more for another place anyway.

Yes, this place is still too small, but I've made a ton of dog friendly changes already to make Muggsy more comfortable, and I feel like it's as good as it can be. I'm going to renovate the storage area to make it into a Muggsy room where he and I can go to be alone when he's feeling stressed. I'm kind of relieved that we don't have to move.

But the funny thing is that we had some other landlords who wanted us so much that they were willing to build an addition onto their guest house to make it bigger so we would want to rent there. We told them it was too small, but we really liked it otherwise and they really wanted to rent to us, not look for someone else. People LOVE us! Fun.

We do have a change in our house though because we got our new bed and sheets this weekend. I'm not as excited as Ross because I loved my old bed, but this one is nice, and I'm sure I'll get used to it once I've slept in it a few times.


Job Search 2006: I had a job interview Thursday. It sounds like a great job, but of course, they're offering a lot less than I make and I don't want to take a paycut that big. I'd like to find something before my commute grows by an hour, but I don't want to lose $15,000 a year either. I've also been indirectly contacted for a job. A former colleague asked a mutual friend if I would be interested in a position at her company so I called her to try to set up a lunch. Apparently, she likes to interview the person she wants over lunch before the interview and then just use the interview process as a formality. This job would probably be a big pay raise and closer to my house, though still a longer commute than I currently have. But I think it would be a good transition place until I'm ready to do dog training full-time.

I also have some basketball comments, but I promised SOMEONE that I'd wait until she published her blog. When is that going to be? :)

The One with the Bad Seat

Disclaimer: This post is especially for Rachel (I know, they all are, but this one even more so). It's a lot of pressure. I hope I can do it some justice.

LAST Wednesday night Chandler, David and I went to the Colordo game. It was the first game we've taken the little guy too. When I told Rachel we were going and that we would probably end up in nosebleed, she said "that's ok, there's not a bad seat in Allen Fieldhouse." Well, she was wrong. We managed to locate the one bad seat! We were in the very last row of the crow's nest, the northwest corner of the fieldhouse. That would have been fine, except we were behind one of those big blue metal things that holds up the roof! David and I could barely see, one at a time, if I held my knees just right. Chandler couldn't see anything except the bright blue rafter.

I saved the day when I realized we could crawl under the rafter and there were a couple of seats on the other side! Once we got there, we all had a great time. David was really into the game: he put his little arms up when they shot free throws, he clapped and hooted when they made a basket, and after I explained that the Jayhawks were wearing white and the Colorado Buffalos were wearing black ... he vehemently cheered for the "white guys," declaring often, and loudly, that "we don't like the black guys." Oops, my bad. We're still correcting his "white guys" to "Jayhawks" this week. I don't want folks thinking he's a three-year-old racist!!! If only they had been wearing blue and gold!

The best part of the game was not the 21 point win over Colorado, or the whooping and hollering that occurred every time the Texas - Texas A&M score flashed on the scoreboard, or even the beautiful new additions to the fieldhouse. The best part was seeing the entire Fieldhouse sit in their seats during halftime to honor Max Falkenstien's 60-year career as a Jayhawk radio announcer. Although it's been the Bob and Max show for 20 years, Max was around way before that started. Max's long career with the Jayhawks includes never missing a single game in Allen Fieldhouse! After an opening by Bob and some heartfelt thanks by Max, they dimmed the lights and retired a jersey just for Max ... No. 60! Afterwards, he let out a "Go Hawks!" I have to admit I got a little teary-eyed (of course!), remembering all those times we've muted our TV and tuned our radio to listen to Bob and Max. No TV announcer could call a Jayhawk basketball game better than the man who's called over 1,750 games, and my college memories wouldn't be complete without him.

"We had thousands of laughs, a few tears, great victories, crushing defeats. I’ll miss Bob Davis.” ~ Max Falkenstien

We'll miss you, Max.