Lazy dog and the $6 dog bed

By request, here are more pictures of the world’s laziest dog. He takes after his owner (see picture of Barley and Jason taking mid-day naps).

Barley

We’ve had a busy couple of days. Friday, Dustin brought over his dog, Denver, and Barley and Denver wrestled and played in the yard for hours. We walked the dogs over to the arboretum, where we met Josh, Kim, Reese, and Pixie (the dog), and then walked around for a bit. Josh, Pixie, Dustin, and Denver hung out at the house for a while and had a little doggy play date. It was pretty fun, and amazing to see our lazy dog run around like a puppy.

Saturday, Jason, Bill, and I went to Keeneland, the local horse track. J and I each placed a bet, and we each won $1.20, and Bill won $3 (or at least, Jason would have won, but he accidentally bet on the wrong track, and therefore engaged in a little off-track betting – oops). Horse races are serious matters in Kentucky. Everyone was dressed to the nines – suits, dresses, the whole shabang. We were in t-shirts and shorts. In any case, I would certainly be willing to go back – races are in April and October, if anyone wants to come down and join us.

Keeneland

We also did a bit of gardening on Saturday, and I made Barley a dog bed using some old corduroy fabric leftover from curtains I made a few years ago. We just bought 2 cheap pillows from Target to stuff inside the cover (cost = $6), and actually, Barley likes to dig the pillows out of the cover or hide his bone in between the pillows, so it sort of serves as a toy also. And, it was way more economical than the $50 dog beds at the pet store, so I’m officially thrifty.

Sunday, we did more gardening, and made ourselves an outdoor table using a tree trunk and some scraps of old wood that were laying around. I’ll have to take some pictures to post later. We also gave Barley a bath. And he HATED it. As in, Jason had to wrestle with 60 lbs of wet dog while I tried to rinse the soap off. I think we may be taking him to a dog wash at the local pet shop next time.

And yesterday was Barley’s first vet visit. You’ll be happy to know that he is in excellent health and the vet was impressed by how good he is – she poked and prodded and he didn’t even whine or whimper. He does, however, continue to whine/whimper/bark whenever we put him in his crate, and that is a major bummer. Fortunately, he only whines for a few minutes each time, but we don’t want to yell at him or punish him (because we do want him to bark if there is an intruder in the house), so we are letting the behavior slowly extinguish.

In other news, there is a mouse on the loose in the section of cubicles where I sit. I opened my files drawer the other day to find all sorts of little droppings, and I was not too impressed by it. Some of the ladies that sit near me have also found droppings, so they called someone in to take care of it. “Taking care of it” = today a guy showed up with a bag of mouse traps and put a few around our cubicles. I am supposed to check the trap daily, and it’s up to me to dispose of the mouse, should I find it. Yuck. Pick up a smooshed mouse!?! No thanks. And I even deal with rodents daily.

Chewy Mints

Today, on the way home from work, I got a free roll of Mentos! Yes! It’s almost ridiculous how pleased I was.

Also, today Jason adopted a new roomate. He’s a little hairy, but seems just as laid back and lazy as the rest of us.

Those of you that are thinking, “I didn’t know Jen was a dog person” are absolutely correct. I am not a dog person. Or a pet person, really, but all of us have our weak moments now and then. So from now on, I will just have to be a pet person.

Also, part of the deal is that Jason is in charge of cleaning up any feces, urine, or vomit that ends up in the house, and he’s got to clean the dog and train it. Actually, I am happy to help train it, since I think I’m the next Caesar Millan (dog whisperer). We’ve got big plans to make it the best dog ever, if it’s not already.

Barley (the other part of the deal is that Jason got to name him) did just about NOTHING all day today, he doesn’t bark, doesn’t fuss, doesn’t jump up on you, and we’ve already got him partially trained as to what “sit” and “stay” mean. When we took him for a walk, one of the neighbor’s dogs was running loose (with the neighbor chasing it), and Barley barked 3 times. That was the first we had heard him bark, and I’m pretty sure it would be enough to deter anyone who might decide to break in, or the ferile cats that roam the neighborhood. That’s good news, as far as I’m concerned.

Our only conflict seems to be that he doesn’t want to go near his crate, and he’s going to need to sleep in it tonight, and hang out there while we’re at work tomorrow. So far, both Jason and I have sat in the crate trying to talk him into it, but it hasn’t worked. Maybe WE’RE the ones getting crate trained here…

Breckenridge, Part 2

Well, we (barely) made it home safely. More on our travel incidents later. First, a recap of the week:

Friday: Flew to Denver, with a 3 hour stop in Minneapolis. Jeff and Andrea picked us up and took us to the Herkimer, where we met Mike. Pretzels, Nachos, Mini-Burgers, and Beers were consumed by all. And they were delicious. We need a Herkimer in Lexington.

Saturday: Mom, Dad, Robby, and Trev picked up Jason, Ash, and I at the hotel we stayed at Friday night. A smooshed hour-long ride to Breckenridge followed, but we did see buffalo and big-horned sheep. We walked around and went to Breckenridge brewery while we waited to check into our Condo. The condo my parents rented was great – only a 1/2 block from the chairlift, and had enough bedrooms, bathrooms, and TVs for all 7 of us.

Sunday: Skiing!

Monday: Skiing! (J hung out in the condo and downtown with my mom and Ash, so I did some “extreme” skiing with my dad, Robby, and Trevor). Trevor even rode the Imperial Express Chairlift to the top of the mountain to ski the powder on the double black diamonds! Despite lots of “are you crazy for bringing a kid up here” looks, Trevor actually skied much better than most of the adults up there.

Tuesday: Skiing! It snowed pretty much all day Tuesday, and it was windy and cold, and a little miserable, but we perservered. Jason ended up skiing a blue square/black diamond run, and even though he wasn’t very happy about it, I think he did a great job.

Wednesday: Jason, my mom, and I hung out in the condo for a bit and then went shopping while Dad, Trev, and Robby went skiing. When the boys came back from skiing, my dad, Jason, and I walked around Main Street.

Thursday: More skiing!

Friday: Skiing! I think Friday was the best day of skiing all week – sunny, and it snowed Thursday night, so the snow was great.

Saturday: We drove back to Denver over the continental divide (because Jason has never seen the continental divide, and that is a MUST see). Then, we had the craziest airport experience – thanks, Northworst! First, we got yelled at for packing 2 pairs of skis in a 2-ski bag (note that on nwa.com, they say you can pack 2 pairs/bag). Then, we end up re-packing our bags so that we didn’t go over the weight limit (because I was NOT going to pay $25 extra after the lady got snippy with me). Then, the lady starts explaining to us how the scale works – I think because I mentioned that we packed the exact same things in the bag and the bag weighed 20 lbs less on the way to Denver. After we finally got everything re-packed, they checked our bags without even checking our IDs!

Fortunately, the rest of the flights went relatively smoothly. We almost got to stay in Minneapolis Saturday night, but JT had to get home to finish his taxes, so we came back to KY.

More Pics:

Breckenridge, Part 2

Breckenridge, Part 1

So far, so good. Jason skied his first black diamond run today, and he didn’t even break anything! (he’s actually much better than I envisioned, although he still wasn’t too thrilled about the black diamond).

Trevor wins the most enthusiastic award for the trip – he’s been up at about 7am everyday, and wakes everyone up asking if they’re going skiing (PS lifts don’t open until 9). Yesterday, my dad, Robby, Trevor and I went up to the top of the mountain (double black diamond run!) and skied in powder… it’s been snowing a bunch here. The only problem is that Trevor isn’t quite heavy enough to power through the powder, so you just see him stop and tip over. It’s hillarious.

Today, everyone but Robby and Ashley went out (Ash left today) and boy, it was cold. Check out the pictures of us covered in frost and snow – the wind was howling. We didn’t ski for too long, even though Trevor kept saying, “two more runs.” Jason’s getting better on every run, and soon, maybe he’ll be ready for the double black diamonds at the top. (we’ve promised him a black diamond t-shirt for today’s performance).

Here are some pictures to keep you busy until I get home and have regular internet access again. (the first bunch of pics are from our 3-hour layover in Minneapolis, and the rest are from CO).

Breckenridge April 2007

Smart Rats

Keep clicking on my blog! Boycott Breakpoint Brewery!

Like the complete nerds that we are, Jason and I have been comparing the number of visits we’ve gotten. I won yesterday. Today, not so much. Raise your hand if you need something new to talk about <raises hand>. Maybe it’s not a good idea for us to work and live together?

So now I will dazzle you with my humor. Or actually, someone else’s humor. The Clark-Kent-lookalike undergraduate student that’s been working with me this semester – we’ll call him Clark for short – has been especially hillarious this week. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s a really hard worker, which means that he’s spent way more than his allotted 9 hours in the lab with me this week, which also means that I’ve gotten to hear way more goofy comments than should be allowed in any given week. Basically, Monday was 8 solid hours of grossness and benchwork, and started off with Clark suggesting that, “some of these rats have Ph.D.’s, and its up to us to figure out which ones they are.” After several minutes of giggles from myself and another undergrad, Clark smartly exclaimed, “Hey! This one’s doing calculus! He’s got a little chalkboard in here and everything.”

A few hours later, Clark suggested that perhaps some of the rats were subpoenaed, and needed to attend an important trial, and, therefore, could not be used in Monday’s procedure.

Then, today, in the midst of a different procedure (yes! I learned 2 new things this week), Clark wondered aloud what would happen if all of the undergrads dresssed up for their end of semester lab presentations. He suggested that it might be appropriate to dress up as a rat, or maybe a brain.

He wants to be a doctor. We suspect that he could also be a successful writer.

In other news, they opened a Maggie Moos here, and I had ice cream for dinner. I think I might already be on vacation. (we leave tomorrow! yes!). Time to go pack!

PS:  The next book I want to read.  Because, pirates + scientists = good reading.  (I just have to get through The Fountainhead first…).