The Dog Park Days

Last week I discovered that there were actually two dog parks in Knoxville so I decided to try them out.

The first one was a bust. It was very dusty and there were too many big dogs. Maia does fine when there's just one or two large dogs but she just couldn't hold her own when there were so many. I had to give her a little pep talk after that outing. I said "you gotta stand up for herself Maia! Give a good bark and let those big dogs know who's boss!" I don't think she really got it. I kind of felt like it was a look into the future with my children. Although I hope I never have to give such talks or be on the other side and talk about why it's not nice push your friends. I'm sure it's inevitable though.

The second park held much more potential; we tried that one out the next day. We have since went several more times. There was still a little "incident" during the first visit but I decided it wouldn't ruin our one dog park outing place. There was a little yapper of a dog who liked to bark in Maia's ear and instead of barking back, Maia took to cowering and got bullied into the pond. That was when I knew it was time to leave. And the part that really bugged me about it was when I was trying to get Maia out of the pond, the owner of that stupid yappy little dog just stood there while his dog kept barking at Maia and scaring her further into the water. Ugh, stupid dog owner.

This was before the stupid yapper dog came; Maia was investigating the premises.

In spite of the "incident", like I said, we still decided to go back because overall, Maia loved it. There is a pond, that I have already mentioned and pictured above, which has a downhill stream that feeds a much larger "lake". There is also a ton of running space and although there is still a lot of dirt, there is also some grass which makes it a little less dusty when the dogs are all running around like crazy. We have found that Maia really likes the water; it's way fun to watch her run around in it. She still hasn't mastered swimming in the lake yet though. She's sticking to the "baby pool" for now.

You can kind of see the lake in this picture. A nice little path surrounds the lake too which is nice place to walk around for the Doggie Supervisors.

The aforementioned Doggie Supervisors.

This large space sits in the "dry part" of the park. It really is perfect. I tried to get some video of Maia running around but it didn't come out very well. So just picture a little dog that looks like she's scared spitless (only she's really not) running with her butt hunched to the ground being chased by another gleeful looking dog. It's pretty amusing.

Maia likes to play "tag". She gets the attention of another dog by provoking it somehow. Well, I don't know if provoking is the right word, since she's not actually being mean about it but she tries to get the dog's attention either by running around and around the other dog or kind of acting like she's charging the dog. So once that dog agrees to play with her, she'll run away like her tail's on fire and then after a little while, stop, turn around and hopefully see that the other dog is actually running after her. And if it is, then she'll take off again and the process repeats. It's not often that she can find another dog that likes to chase her as much as she likes to be chased though. It's usually a short-lived game, but in some cases when she feels like the other dog is gaining on her or she needs a break, she'll jump up on a rock or a table which is "Safe". (Remember the game of Tag? This is the doggie version.) And she'll take a breather before she takes off again.

It's really all quite entertaining and the Doggie Supervisors get quite a kick out of it and like the proud parents that we are, we just love when Maia has found a good friend. We're always sad for Maia when that dog's owners decide it's time to go and Maia still wants to play.

ANOTHER Maia Adventure

Yesterday I was sitting at work, focusing as much as one could two days before the Christmas vacation would begin, and I get a call from my husband.

Husband: Do we have hydrogen peroxide?
Me: Yes.
Husband: Where is it? (sounding a bit frantic I notice now)
Me: Um, uhhh (I was feeling a little pressure to recall something that I had no idea how to recall) I don't know why what's wrong? **kicking myself mentally and thinking why on earth I didn't know where the stupid hydrogen peroxide was**
Husband: (kind of babbling and not making a whole lot of sense) Maia was whimpering and I think she ate her leash and I came and looked and I need the hydrogen peroxide and where is it?

I proceeded to try and think as hard as I could without hurting myself of where I might have put that stupid brown bottle that was eluding us at the moment. Every place I suggested came up empty. Finally I said that he should call the vet because that was our only option at this point.

Once I got off the phone, I was somewhat smug at first that DJ finally "got" to experience a Maia adventure. Every other time I've had to rush her to the vet, DJ was either thousands of miles away or busy at work and didn't understand the level of hysterics that such an "adventure" can cause. Now he was getting a little taste of it himself. (moowahahaa)

Then I started getting a little tiny bit worried and the amount of worry that I heard in DJ's voice started to get to me. But I quickly squashed it deep down and told myself I was being silly and Maia would be fine. She always is.

Once DJ got Maia to the vet and knew she was being taken care of, he had calmed down a little bit and called me back. That's when he told me that Maia had eaten 3 FEET of her leash. I started getting worried again. What DOG eats her leash? What DOG eats 3 FEET of her leash? WHY Maia? WHY?? She never ceases to baffle me. I just don't understand what goes on in that little squishy wrinkly fuzzy soft head of hers.

They did a couple of x rays (and clipped her nails, took care of some other, ahem, necessities that I will spare you of the details, checked her infection-prone ears, basically gave her a little spa day) and sent DJ and Maia on their way. "The leash will pass," they said. "We injected some saline solution to make it really slick, so the leash should certainly pass." Oh, thank goodness. Once again we have evaded the dreaded "s" word....surgery.

We played with her. She was fine. Normal Maia antics, just fine. We fed her. She gobbled it up, no problem. We took her out to potty. Not a big deal. Everything was fine.

So we were a little surprised when this morning, I woke to the sound of my poor little puppy vomiting. I jumped up, yelled at DJ that Maia threw up and confusedly tried to put on my glasses and walk out into the hall where Maia was and turned on the light.

Yep, not a pretty sight.

She was sick alright...

She had thrown up all OVER her crate. One of the upchucks had produced part of the leash so I was still hopeful at that point. I thought that was probably a good sign since she was just getting rid of the nasty leash. DJ had a different perspective since the vet told him that throwing up was not a good sign. So we decided to watch her and see if she was ok after that.

No good.

She threw up two more times.

So it was back to the vet for DJ and Maia (thankfully, DJ had the day off today) and I headed off to work, quite sure that today Maia would have to endure a surgery. (Or should I say WE would have to endure the surgery BILL.) Sure enough, the vet recommended we do surgery right away since tomorrow and Christmas were holidays and the vet clinic would not be open so of course, we agreed and Maia went under the knife.

Thankfully after the surgery was over and we were debriefed, we found out that Maia is healthy as a horse. (As parents, we are always glad to hear that, of course. It's because we feed her only the BEST dog food, you know.) AND we got a two-fer-one because the vet was able to fix a hernia that Maia apparently had from where her umbilical cord had not completely healed properly so yay! The vet said it wouldn't even cost us extra. God bless you woman. They took out a LOT of leash bits. She had chewed three feet of leash into about 7 or 8 pieces and promptly swallowed them, piece. by. piece. How diligent. (I would have a picture at this point but apparently, DJ thought it was gross, even though I thought it just looked like wet pieces of leash. Whatev.)

So Maia is ok. Thank God. But I miss her to death now. She has to stay at the vet for observation for two days and because they are closed for Christmas Eve and Christmas, we can't see her before we leave for Atlanta. AND because they are also closed on New Year's Day, we can't pick her up until the day after we get back. So that's 11 WHOLE days until I see my baby again. **Tear** We did get to go visit her today but I'm pretty sure she didn't even know we were there. And if she did know it at the time, she won't remember because they had her completely drugged. She had an IV in so they didn't want her to mess with it. It was so sadly sweet. She just laid there and kind of dragged her eyes open every once in awhile to peer up at us with watery glazed over eyes. We petted her and told her we loved her very much and stroked her very soft head and then after just 5 minutes, we left. I mean, we didn't want the doctor vet lady to think we were obsessed or anything. Cause we're not.

So Maia will be kept in the recovery "room" for the next day or two and then she will be taken to the boarding area, where I will imagine them loving on her, and cuddling her and making sure that she doesn't bother her stitches. Basically taking care of her as well as I would. (No one burst my bubble here. I KNOW that they are going to do everything they can to make her feel comfortable and safe and secure and like her parents haven't abandoned her forever.) And they will give her antibiotics and essentially take on all the responsibilities that we would have otherwise had to do ourselves. I feel like I am getting a small glimpse of what Britney Spears must feel like. Just pay people to do all the dirty work for you. I could get used to this.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I'm not really a Halloween fan but I got into it a little more this year. For the kids. Right...we don't have kids... So, ok, for the dog. I know how much it means to her and all.

We bought Maia a costume (50% off at Petsmart - there was no paying full price for this thing, no way). And the intention was to answer the door for trick or treaters and have Maia greet them in her costume. However. Maia is not exactly IN to her costume. It's not really her thing I guess. If dogs can talk (and I'm somewhat convinced they CAN because I swear, sometimes Maia is telling me things with her eyes.) But if I could hear dogs talk here's how it would have sounded the night I tried Maia's costume on her....

This is SO embarrassing! Why did you have to dress me up like a cow Mooooom??

I'm taking it off.

Now if I could juuuust reach this velcro right. heere. Uh.

But sweetie, loook. It's so cute! It even has udders! Don't you think you just look so cute?! Can't I take just one picture? Just one??

Fine. One picture. See? (smile) There.

Now get it off!

I hate my life.

I'm going to my room.

Soooo, I decided that I would not force her to wear the dreaded costume tonight. I don't want my poor Maia hating her life. And thankfully for her I found out from one of my neighbors that kids don't even come trick or treating in our neighborhood. I was so disappointed! I finally thought I was going to see some cute little kids in costumes this year. Since it didn't sound hopeful, I decided to go to the football game instead and took the candy I bought to the office (but not before stashing some away for me and DJ...mmm...Reeses and Kit Kats.)

I hope the rest of you enjoy your Halloween! And don't forget to set your clocks back tonight!!

Playmates

This is one of Maia's best friends at the apartments. Her name is Nala and she lives just a couple of doors down. I'm pretty sure she loves to play with Maia too. And guess what! Her owner is an athletic trainer as well. What are the odds? Her name is Heather. Maia might go visit Nala on Halloween when she's all dressed up. (Did I mention Maia has a costume? You'll have to wait just a couple more days to see what she'll be dressed as... Trust me you will not be disappointed. So cute.)

Maia has made many new friends at the apartments. We always knew she was a sociable dog. It's great most of the time. Sometimes it gets her in trouble. But irregardless, she has DJ and I wrapped around her too-long pinky claw.

A Day in Nashville

I mentioned earlier last week that DJ would have this Sunday off and we planned on making the very most of it. Boy, did we. We woke up at 6 am Sunday morning and didn't get home till the wee hours of Monday morning. 2:09 a.m. to be exact. It was exhausting but so. much. fun. It's amazing what you can pack into one day when you really want to.

We started out the day by dropping Maia off at the vet to be boarded. This allowed us to enjoy the day that much more because we didn't have to worry about how long we were going to gone or taking her out when we got home super late. And let me tell you it was a nice break from that little rascal. She has developed a new "thing".

She picks up her bowl of water - her full bowl of water, mind you - and tries to carry it over to me. And obviously because she does not realize (or care) that her bowl is full, proceeds to dump it all over the floor. This is especially not nice because we had a scare with a broken bowl this past Saturday when a bowl was chipped and she ate a piece (we think) and had to be taken to the vet for an x-ray. Not nice.

She's claims she's sorry. Ha. Heard that one before.

But I digress, back to our Sunday adventures. We went to Mass after dropping Maia off and then we were off to Nashville. DJ found out that his buddy Hank Baskett that used to play for the Lobos and now plays for the Indianapolis Colts was going to be in Nashville since the Colts were playing the Tennessee Titans. DJ called him to see if we would be able to get some tickets for the game and sure enough, Hank was able to hook us up. So our decision was made for us and we headed off to Nashville for the day.

We got into the city a little before 11 a.m. and headed straight to the hotel to say "Hey Hank!" and get the tickets. I was excited to meet Hank since I hadn't met him before and well, he's sort of a celebrity. I mean, there's the football thing and then the fact that he married a Playboy bunny this past year and has been in the tabloids recently so, I hate to say it, but I was a little fascinated. It turns out he's very non-celebrity-ish which is a good thing and very friendly. I was surprised at how nice he was. I mean, I didn't expect him not to be but he was like, verry friendly. He hugged DJ for like 5 minutes (not really, but it wasn't just one of those half-hug, side shoulder kind of things. It was a "hey buddy! Great to see you ol' pal!" kind of hug and I thought that was nice.) and then after he hugged DJ again to tell him good bye, he hugged me and said how great it was to meet me. So yeah, very friendly and I can say it was very unexpected. (Oh, and as for the lacking picture, I had fully intended to take one and had a whole scenario planned out on how I was going to work it and then when he was so nice, I just couldn't be the obnoxious person who asks for a picture. It just felt so wrong. So, no picture of Hank but here are the tickets.)

After that, we started driving towards downtown not really having a plan and passed by Opry Land. Well of course, we had to stop there. I mean Nashville = Grand Ol' Opry.

That place was a lot cooler than I expected it to be. (I guess you could say this little day trip was turning out to be a trip of exceeding expectations.) I found out that Keith Urban will be at the Grand Ol' Opry at the end of the month. Any takers?? I reeeally want to go. DJ and I both agreed that if somehow, we had missed the fact that Carrie Underwood was, in fact, performing that night, we would have passed on the game, and went to her concert instead. We're big fans.

The grounds were beautiful outside the building. All decorated for fall.

Ahhh, fall. I love this time of year.

We continued walking and headed into Opry Mills, a shopping mall. They had all sorts of stuff to do there other than shopping but we mostly just window-shopped. Other than when we didn't. We just couldn't resist some of the stores so DJ ended up with a brand-spanking new suit. I'm going to have to plan things that require him to wear a suit now because it's one good-looking suit! Hopefully he'll get to wear it in a couple of weeks for the next away game, and I'll be able to show you pictures.

We also found this great country store called Apple Barn which I loved.

They had apples. And apple butter. And apple cider. And apple fritters. And other things not associated with apples. But I was most excited about the apple butter. Did you know, there is also such a thing as pumpkin butter, cherry butter and peach butter? I didn't, and next time I have to try some of that. For now, I stuck with good ol' traditional apple butter. Mmm. I could have spent a lot more time in that store but DJ's eyes were glazing over and not because of the caramel glazing the Red Delicious Apples.

After we made it through the mall, we were starving and were determined to seek out some traditional Tennessee BBQ. We found this.

Here.

Jack's Bar-B-Que. I know I've had me some good B-B-Q when I have found the place where pigs fly. It was amazing.

We drove around downtown a little bit, and I attempted to capture every gorgeous building with my camera. These are a few.

Pardon the obnoxious street lights and construction cones. We were taking our tour "drive-by style" and I had only seconds to capture each image. Not too bad if I may say so myself.

We ended up parking and heading to the stadium early because we thought they may have some fun tailgating activities going on. They didn't. But I do feel like I got the very most out of my free tickets. We saw all there was to see outside the stadium, including a modeling shoot.

We thought maybe it was America's Next Top Model (I've gotten DJ into that show lately) but with no tv cameras around, we decided they were just regular ol' models.

And then there was this great concert going on across the river with all sorts of big name country artists. Thank goodness, none of my most favorite artists were there otherwise I would have died since I only had a backwards view and really couldn't enjoy it that well. That would have ruined DJ's day. If I would have died. But instead we enjoyed, as much as we could, Darius Rucker, Billy Currington and Eric Church who were all warbling their tid bits across the river. And by we, I mean me. DJ hates country music. A crying shame. That's some good stuff. It was nice to have something to listen to while we waited for the gates to open. Even if it did sound like they were singing into the Grand Canyon.

When it was finally time to head into the stadium, we went in search of our seats. Little did we know that we would get to sit with the birds. Actually we watched the birds from above. We were that high. Here's a little glimpse. (Ha, the way the video freezes, DJ doesn't look too good.)

Yes, it was amusing that we were literally 6 rows from the very tip-top of the stadium. I actually, for the first time in my life, was a little scared of heights. I felt like any sudden movements, would send me catapulting across the seats in front of me. I moved very. carefully.

It was actually kind of surreal because it was hard to feel a part of the game being that far removed. We literally watched birds fly lower than us all night. Plus the surreal feeling was magnified by the fact that we were sitting amidst the minority in the stadium - Colts fans. Hank's seats were obviously with the other Colts fans and actually it was with some of the other Colts family members. We met the second string QB's parents and grandparents (who were very friendly - we talked with them for quite a bit since they got there really early too) and saw the punter's parents and a couple of the star players' parents (Saturday and Freeney). It was a different experience overall but it wasn't bad. And we were very grateful for the tickets for sure. It was our first time in a very long time to get to watch a game together since he's always on the field.

A few memorable highlights of the game for me:

It was the Sunday Night game on NBC. It didn't really do much for the game other than cause a lot of commercial break time-outs (and there were some fireworks but they were directly behind us and not quite high enough so we couldn't see them. We were higher than the fireworks.) but just the fact that I knew we were at the game that I normally see on tv was a highlight.

Trace Adkins sang the national anthem. From our birds eye view, we were able to see him arrive to the stadium with his police escort. And that's him on the screen because if I tried taking a picture of the "real" him, he'd look even less like a person. More like an ant.

We got to see Peyton Manning, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, play a great game. We also got to see Adam Vinateiri (sp?), a native Rapid Citian and Central High School graduate, play.

Again, from our birds eye view, we were able to see the bridge lit up in blue for the game.

And lastly, I can now say that, although the actual game itself was better because the skill displayed on the field is the best of the best, the game experience as a whole pales in comparison to college football. I am now a true college football fan.

Things to do, places to go...

I made a list. Anyone who knows me, you this statement does not surprise. (I'm channeling Yoda apparently this morning.) Yes, I decided we needed a clear avenue of our sightseeing adventures while we are living in the beautiful (and lately, very rainy) southeast. My goal is to focus on the local, in-town activities during football season when DJ and I only have Sunday afternoon and evening free to spend together and then advance outside the Knoxville borders as more and more time is freed up, aka post-football season. There are sunspheres, marketplaces, downtown shops and restaurants to investigate and further out we've got an amusement park, mountains, festivals and rivers to enjoy. I, for one, am all jittery and twitterpated when I think about all the new nooks and crannies that are still to be discovered. I think DJ is too but I don't think he would describe it that way. For the record, the plan tomorrow is to go walk around this ginormous park with Maia and enjoy the weather. The weather better cooperate. Must. follow. the list. (Ok it's not really that strict...not really.)

I have four boxes sitting in my living room. Those four boxes contain decorations among other things. The decorations in particular though must start doing their job. They will be clocking in today and will be working overtime since they have been on a very extended vacation. No more mister nice guy, no siree. I expect their utmost cooperation so that I can present you all with some nice educational pictures of our new home.

Also if anyone had wondered, because I know I have, why I don't have more pictures on this blog it's because my camera is one of those other "things" in the aforementioned boxes. This week, I expect the picture content to greatly increase. In case anyone had wondered.

Peace out homies. (Now I guess I'm channeling a gansta. yo.)

What's a girl to do

So I've been without my husband for over three weeks now and I'd have to say it's been quite the adventure. Besides all the moving drama, there's been...

...an anniversary.... Mine, actually. And I'll be honest, it was a bit sad. I thought I'd be able to handle being away from DJ on our anniversary but it was harder than I expected. But my sweet husband surprised me by sending me (by way of a secret messenger) the flowers above. Aren't they 'goigeous'?

...an ER visit. That would be for Maia. She ate a nylon, scared me half to death, caused an emotional breakdown (because it was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak) and learned her lesson. Wait, no she didn't, that's just what I wish I could say. She actually continues to eat inedible items and in fact, was trying to eat the directions out of my hand on the way to the ER.

...football camp...

...and new shoes.

DJ is now going to be standing on that field shown above surrounded by all those thousands of seats filled with fans. Huge huh? I will be attending my first game there on September 5, a week from this Saturday. I will definitely have a post about that. That will be great.

Heart-pounding.

Exhilarating.

Energy driven.

Hm, hope I can handle all that action.

And DJ is now wearing orange. Lots of it. I've always wanted to expand his color versatility to include orange.

Just didn't know I would have the help of Tennessee.

So lots going on. But the biggest news of all is...drumroll please!

I have a job!!

See happy dance below.

Actually to re-phrase that, I am not losing a job. KPMG is transferring me to the Knoxville office. That is a ginormous prayer answered. I no longer have to job search, resume revise, interview attend or any other craziness associated with job hunting. For me that is a perfect example of the greatness of God and His perfect timing. I will be doing the same type of work that I am currently doing but for a different client.

I will be continuing my Albuquerque break-up saga soon but those stories are taking me a little longer than originally expected so stay tuned!

Poison Proofing Maia

It's getting to the point where I realize that I talk about my dog to everyone. She really has become the center of our lives. The bad part is she knows it. We're trying to work on that, I promise. But it's just so hard when she looks like this...

So lately we've been practicing her poison proofing. We picked a word that we associate with everything we want to feed her. The word we chose is "ice cube". It goes like this, I give her a piece of hot dog and say "ice cube" at the same time. We repeat this over and over until she's pretty sure it's her lucky day, for three days. Then we start messing with her, or at least that's probably what's she thinking. I still give her a hot dog and say "ice cube" but I also start saying other words like "doorway" or "place mat" or "couch" and when she tries to eat the hot dog, I give her a jerk on the leash. Yesterday was the first time I started that part of the process. She got to the point where the hot dog that I stuck in her face made her mad. She knew that if she tried to take a taste she'd get in trouble. The problem is she reeeally wants the hot dog so she'd have to endure a big jerk on the leash to get a little taste. I think it's working. She should be completely insane by the time her poison proofing is complete.