I’m launching a sister site to theimmortalwars.com, which will serve as my ‘official site’ while theimmortalwars.com will be the ‘book site.’ It will mostly be about my non-exciting life and the projects I’m doing at the time, but I think it will be fun. Ideally, the URL will be caitlinelyse.com, and my hosting site seems to think I can use it, though I was pretty sure that URL was already owned by someone else. Otherwise, it’ll be caitlinyount.com, which will be a bummer, but oh well. Any ideas on a better URL that incorporates my real name somehow?
Anyway, the website has a cooler theme and I can customize it more, and it’s only like $10 more a month to add it to my current hosting, so why the heck not? This blog will (eventually) forward there, so some of my posts may or may not be missing lol. It’s still WordPress based, I just have more free reign on my customization and don’t have to pay through the nose to get it.
On another note, here’s my latest wineglass creation:
The colors were kinda hard to see so I had to use the flash to give you an idea.
Also, check out this totally awesome lunch I had today! Grapefruit, caesar salad, and a turkey/cheddar half sandwich. 🙂 SUPER yummy!
Office party tonight, I’m so excited. Most of these gifts you’re seeing are for my coworkers and boss and stuff, so I can’t wait to give them. 🙂 I might post pictures later, if I feel like it.
Also, I’ve become inspired for the prequel to Heaven Bound, Hell Hunted (which is not, unfortunately, Heaven Prays, Hell Preys–my current project), which is the story of Kitty and Storm’s respective parents, and what caused them to choose the lives that they did. I have determined that I’m having a hard time finishing HP,HP because the ending is so tragic (spoiler!). 🙂 The TIW prequel is tragic too, but we already know that three of the four parents die before Kitty or Storm end up in the IIC. Maybe if I switch projects for a while, I’ll have an easier time with it. I haven’t decided which I’m going to release first: the prequel to TIW, or the third novel (Between Heaven and Hell).
I need a nicotine/caffeine ‘white night’ where I stay up all night and am so delirious that I don’t even remember what I’m writing. That’s when my creativity flows the best, and I’m usually thrilled with the results in the morning. 🙂
“Oh, I’ll just make Christmas presents for everyone, it’s so much cheaper than buying presents, and it means more too!”
While the latter might be true, the former is NOT, as I learned this week. Heh.
However, despite the groaning of my wallet at the end of my shopping this weekend, I was very pleased with the results of my labor. Also, for those of you who are Pinterest addicted, I’ll post the steps I took to make these things too.
First were the wine glasses.
The color is kinda hard to see, but it is gold all the way around. Let me tell you, I’ve never known how to draw maple leaves before now. I used a yellow sharpie to sketch the concept on the glass on the first one, but I couldn’t completely cover it, and I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out when I bake these (to make sure they’re safe to drink out of).
I use enamel paint to paint my glasses normally, but I also bought some Martha Stewart “glass paint” to try, just to see what I thought. I prefer the enamel. It’s easier to use, and you have a little more control over where the paint goes. Martha’s paint was a little gloopy, so I just used it to add a little texture to my leaves (over the enamel).
Then I did these coasters:
Fear not, dear Pinteresters, they’re very easy to make, they just tend to be a bit time consuming. They’d make great gifts for the men in your life that you’re just not quite sure what to get.
Here’s what you need:
– A set of coasters, any kind will do (I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and picked up a leather set for about $15, though I’m told that cork or even tile coasters will work just fine)
– Mod Podge, and a sponge applicator to apply it
– The pictures you want to use on your coasters (magazines, photos, print them out yourself, etc).
– Clear nail polish (optional)
– Scissors
– Compass (or, a thicker paper like a manilla folder to make a template to trace)
– A pencil
NOTE: If you want to print your own images, I would recommend not using a paper with less than a 24lb weight. I had a little trouble with mine even with the 24lb, as I will explain. 20lb copy paper probably won’t look as nice.
Because my coasters had a lovely edge-stitch, I didn’t want to cover that up with my paper, so I used the compass to measure how wide my circular images would be. You can also trace your coasters onto your manilla paper and cut that out to make a template to use.
Get your pictures together and apply your template or trace with the compass and cut them out.
If you’re using pictures that you printed out yourself (especially on 24lb paper), apply one coat of the clear nail polish to the top of your image. You’ll be able to tell if you missed a spot because it will show a nice gloss if you hold it up to the light.
Once that is completely dry (don’t freak out if there’s some discoloration at first, it will go away once the polish dries), apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the top of your coaster and apply your picture. Starting from the middle, work your way out to get all the air bubbles out. If you missed some, fear not! Take a needle or a safety pin and poke a little hole in the bubble. It’s almost invisible and takes care of the problem. 🙂 Make sure the edges of your pictures are completely glued down.
Once you’re certain your Mod Podge is dry (I left mine overnight just to be sure), apply another coat of Mod Podge over the entire top of the coaster. Try to make it as even as possible, but even if you can’t, it leaves a nifty texture over the top, so I wouldn’t fret too much.
Let the coasters dry, and voila! Awesome coasters for the men who are impossible to shop for.
All in all, mine took about two hours, just because I was doing some trial and error with the color of my images (I printed mine), and that’s not including letting it sit overnight. I don’t think that overnight is mandatory, but you want to stress the paper you’re using as little as possible to avoid discoloration.
The nail polish serves as a shield against the Mod Podge, actually, because the Mod Podge IS waterbased, and that can make your pictures’ colors do funny things (trust me). You could probably use a clear paint or another kind of sealant to do the same thing, but I decided to use what I had on hand and not go spend another $3-10 on something that I could substitute.
Sorry for all the picture updates, I keep trying to find an effect variation that matches the nifty scheme of this site, and am failing miserably, it seems. But the picture currently on the right is my latest attempt, so it will stay there. Also, anyone who is a photoshop geek like me will understand the pun in the title (Pictures to Burn), otherwise, I’ll just laugh awkwardly by myself because I find it funny lol.
Yesterday was Day 2 of healthy eating, and basically it was a variation of what I ate on Monday, yippee! My smoothie had granola in it, and in my salad I added some cheese. I have a feeling I will get very tired of this diet very quickly, which means I need to find some other healthy variations of food I feel I can legitimately eat.
And that segues nicely into the other half of my title “Not-A-Diet.”
I feel like the word “diet” is not a word I should be using when it comes to what I’m eating. I’m not overweight, I don’t want to be one of those girls that all the other girls hate because they’re skinny and are constantly telling people they need to go on a diet or “stop eating so much” etc.
That’s not what I am doing.
I am being more conscientious about the foods I am eating to prevent health issues in the future, or even the present. I had so much energy last night, and I honestly think it was from eating that salad yesterday. That was probably more B12 in my system than I’ve had in YEARS.
I’m also thinking about trying yoga. It’s just a matter of making the time to go, and I really don’t like getting up in the morning. 😛
I didn’t have any breakfast this morning, and I’ve broken my “no-soda” rule twice this week, but I really needed the caffeine because of my work load at the office. Today, I think I’m going to get a salad from the cafe next door, instead of one of my own.
Here it is:
Caesar salad and baked ruffles, yummy!
Now it’s time to play a game, called “You Know Who You Are.” Basically I’m doing this instead of posting vague statuses on Facebook and annoying my friends, so here I go:
YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE
1. As much as I want to trust you again, there’s always going to be those things you said and did between us. I want to overcome that, but you’re going to have to make it as easy for me as possible.
2. I broke your trust and I’m sorry that I did, even if technically it didn’t matter. It did matter. I don’t regret it, but I won’t ever do it again either.
3. You’re confusing me. You’ve been there for me, but I don’t think you’ve ever reached out to me quite like that before. Well, you have, but under much different circumstances. Did I disappoint you? I’d love to know what you were thinking.
4. Don’t think that’s ever going to happen again. You could have reached out, but you didn’t. Things could have been different, but now they’re not, and I don’t regret my decision. So thanks for letting me get that out of my system.
5. Why did you do that? I think you’ve totally messed up our dynamic, if we had one, and now it’s just going to be weird. Geez.
Lol yeah so anyway, now that that’s out of my system…I think I’ll definitely play that game more often! Relieves some stress and provides interesting puzzle to people who might be genuinely curious without being obnoxious to anyone else. 🙂
I’m finally trying to jump back on the bandwagon as far as healthy eating goes.
I’m attempting to be accountable not only to my coworker who’s helping me stay on track this time, but also to myself by blogging about it.
I figure if I can take nifty pictures of what I’m eating, and “journal” it, like so many others do, I’ll be more inclined to stick with it. But only Monday-Saturday. Sunday is gonna be my “freebie” day. 🙂
I should first mention that I’ve been on a ‘limited soda kick’ for about a month now. I’ve already seen drastic improvement; mostly in my middle section, which has been a problem area for me. When I say ‘limited’ I mean maybe one or at most two during the weekend, and none whatsoever during the week. I’ve avoided the caffeine migraines by drinking a combination of lemonade and sweet tea. My kidneys also seem to be much happier now. 🙂
So for starters, I made a banana-strawberry smoothie today, using a recipe from Jamba Juice (I knew my three month stint there would come in handy!). It’s somewhere between 8-12oz of soy milk, two scoops of frozen yogurt (fat free), two scoops of strawberries, and one scoop of bananas. Oh, and ice (note to self: pick up a bag of Sonic ice tonight!). I put more bananas in the smoothie than the recipe calls for, mostly because the strawberries are frozen and will last awhile, but they didn’t have frozen bananas at the store (sounds like yuck, I know), so I didn’t have much choice but to use the fresh ones.
Verdict: It was okay, a little sloshy, but considering that’s the first time I’ve made the Jamba Juice recipe in about four years, that’s pretty darn good for doing it from memory, I think. It just needed more ice (see ‘note to self!’) Drank the whole thing. I might have to invest in some granola and regular plain yogurt to make it a little more filling (besides, granola is yum!), because by noon I was starving.
And next came this creation for lunch:
;
Taken with the oh-so-handy instagram, this colorful concoction is composed of romaine lettuce, mandarin oranges, roma tomatoes, grilled chicken, and off-camera, a small bowl of ranch dressing (I’ve been told that ‘dipping’ as opposed to ‘smothering’ is acceptable).
Sound tasty? I didn’t think so. I was told today that “mandarins and ranch” sounds like a “pickles and ice cream” combination.
But I like it just fine. I developed the mandarin/ranch combo some years ago. For some reason, it just sounded yummy, and I’ve been eating it ever since.
Verdict: Grilled chicken definitely tastes better hot, and not soggy. I should have patted down the washed lettuce with a paper towel to get the excess water off of it, because by the time I was about halfway done, I had about an inch of water in the bottom of the bowl, and my previously “hot” chicken was not so hot anymore. Besides that, it was pretty good. I feel like a rabbit when I eat lettuce lol. Hopefully I’ll start liking it more as this dieting thing goes on.
No ideas what to make for dinner tonight, especially since my kitchen sink is full of dirty dishes…but I might go back to the store and get some frozen veggies (which I meant to do yesterday) and make some combination of a meat and vegetable platter. I can’t decide if I want to throw in any potatoes or mac-and-cheese…I think I should definitely do some Pinterest research and see if I can find some healthy, yet tasty recipes for dinner.
I’ll update later with my decision.
In other news, Jake and Bear are both doing just fine. Jake was neutered a few weeks ago (hallelujah!) and while he’s not ‘mellow’ per se, he’s definitely calmed down some. Bear, surprisingly, has been behaving more poorly than the puppy. I’m worried about what his deal is, and considering that I might have to spend some more one-on-one time with him.
More later…
UDATE:
Well, my dinner meal wasn’t as healthy as it could have been: fajitas on wheat tortillas, but I definitely got my protein for the day! 🙂
I’ve been hesitant to give my opinion on this presidential race because I so often get slammed by my liberal acquaintances. Everyone who knows me knows I’m a die-hard conservative, something I’m proud of, something I have no problem admitting.
I was thinking about the debate last night, and about Obama. Something I have a hard time wrapping my brain around is how certain people still want to vote for him. Oh, I understand the people on welfare, dependent on government. I understand those people. Hard work to many people is a loathsome option. People, by nature, would understandably prefer to be lazy. I would love it if someone came up to me and said “Hey, Caitlin, listen. You’ve worked really hard till now, and I think you deserve for all your bills to be paid by [insert 3rd party here]. On top of that, we’re going to give you free health care since you’re not earning your own money and can’t pay for health insurance. Sure, we understand that any money you do earn would be better spent on purses or cars or iPhones. Don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of everything.”
Sure, I would love that. Except it would be a mortal blow to my ego and my pride. I don’t know how to explain it better than that. I am proud of myself for being able to hold a job. I’m proud that every job I have offers me the ability to learn new programs and better myself in the professional world. I’m proud that people want to hire me because of these things! So to strip all of that away, in return for somewhere between $20K-30K in welfare benefits a year…that does not make sense to me personally. I can’t see myself sitting at home watching TV or doing my own thing and not producing anything in return…the thought makes me cringe. Not because I’m a workaholic, but because I personally have to feel like I’m being productive. That’s just me though.
So here’s my analogy. It’s probably influenced a bit by my new obsession Once Upon a Time, but I did a little more research into the myth itself.
This is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
“Once, as Ovid relates in Metamorphoses XI Dionysus found his old schoolmaster and foster father, the satyr Silenus, missing.
The old satyr Silenus had been drinking wine and had wandered away drunk, later to be found by some Phrygian peasants, who carried him to their king, Midas. Midas recognized him and treated him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights with politeness, while Silenus delighted Midas and his friends with stories and songs.
On the eleventh day, he brought Silenus back to Dionysus in Lydia. Dionysus offered Midas his choice of whatever reward he wished for. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into gold.
Midas rejoiced in his new power, which he hastened to put to the test. He touched an oak twig and a stone; both turned to gold. Overjoyed, as soon as he got home, he ordered the servants to set a feast on the table. “So Midas, king of Lydia, swelled at first with pride when he found he could transform everything he touched to gold; but when he beheld his food grow rigid and his drink harden into golden ice then he understood that this gift was a bane and in his loathing for gold, cursed his prayer.” In a version told by Nathaniel Hawthorne in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, Midas found that when he touched his daughter, she turned to gold as well.”
In another version, Midas starves to death because he can’t eat anything.
I’m wondering if anyone else will make the leap that I did in this analogy. It does seem a little far-fetched. Let’s consider, for a moment, that this story relates back to Obama directly. While many of the things he wants to put into law, the socialist tendencies he displays, all of that looks really good on paper (as does the Midas Touch, you might agree), in reality, what it causes is very different. The idea of free health insurance, for example, is a great one, I’ll admit. But at what cost? Who pays for it? Maybe not us, in this generation, but what about the next? Will we continue to borrow money to pay for the growing costs of healthcare? Doctor’s visits, as most of you know, are nowhere near free. Thousands of dollars can be spent on just one visit, even if you aren’t the one paying for the majority of the cost. Who does pay for it? I’m sure it has something to do with the premiums and deductibles insurance companies charge. So for every one sick person who has a hospital visit, ten more healthy ones are still paying their premiums without needing to visit the doctor.
So, with Obamacare, who will be paying those premiums? Not the people on welfare, they don’t have any money to put toward those costs. This concept isn’t a reality for them because they don’t see the FICA and Withholding coming out of their paychecks. But for those of us who do work, will we not see an additional tax snuck in somewhere that adds to the Obamacare fund? Sorry, I really don’t like putting my money toward people who won’t go out and get a job. Some of them make better money than I do! Did you know the average welfare income in Hawaii is $36K a year? That’s just in one tiny state! Add in all the additional states (look up their welfare averages sometime), and then add to that the Obamacare overhaul that’s coming, and we’ll see our middle class families that Obama cares about so much thrown under the bus. Like Romney said last night, the wealthier citizens are doing well in this economy whether Romney’s president or Obama is president. It really doesn’t hurt them much. But the middle class? I don’t know if I can honestly say I’m middle class myself, but trust me, it hurts.
Back to my analogy, my point is, Midas asked for the Golden Touch out of laziness and greed. Why fight the other countries around my borders for their gold, when I can just touch something and make it gold? Why make sure my people are working and producing when I can make them prosper with just a touch? Even if that touch means I can’t eat? Are we going to trade “food” for “gold”? I’m sure his people were really happy with the results for awhile, until others came to collect. While the Midas touch made the king wealthy for awhile, it was never said he was immortal. Even if he did figure out a way to eat, what happens when he dies? And his people have become so used to not producing and not working that another country just comes in to sweep up the uncoordinated mess that’s left? The endings of the Midas story varies: in one, he starves to death because everything he touches turns to gold. In another, he accidentally turns his daughter to gold. In the Once Upon a Time version, he turns his daughter’s lover and fiancee to gold. In some versions, after he’s lost everything near and dear to him, he washes his hands in a river which rids him of the curse. In others, he dies. Regardless of the telling, obviously the “Midas Touch” wasn’t everything it was made out to be. In all except the mildest versions of King Midas, Midas himself ends up miserable and alone, or in some cases, a hermit.
So I suppose my conclusion is this. Obama himself is referred to almost reverently by people still. People who perhaps haven’t seen the severe consequences of his “Golden Touch.” But what happens when they do? Will it be too late at that point? Will America have been “turned to gold” at that point, just waiting for another country to invade and snatch us up? I really hope a good portion of these people who are starstruck by the Midas Touch foresee the consequences of this “gift” before it’s too late.
No one ever said it was, granted, but geez. These past few weeks have really made me rethink ever saying the words “it can’t get much worse” out loud ever again.
Forgive me in advance for this being one of those pathetic posts where I ramble on and on about how awful my life is. I’m not a teenage girl anymore, but man, the way things have been going, it’s almost comical how bad things got for awhile.
I’ll start with the first reason–the reason that several other things went to sh*t: my job.
My job has been incredibly difficult lately.
I know I should be thankful in this economy for even having a job, as distasteful as it is. I know that. And sometimes, I am thankful. But my job has been incredibly stressful lately, and coupled with the fact that I can’t seem to get a call back from any of the numerous resumes I’ve sent out in my search for new employment, it’s very disheartening. I don’t want to add any more details here, but rest assured, this is not just a restlessness for “something better” or lack of a decent work ethic. I’ve been looking for a new job for months now, and with every day that passes and I don’t get a phone call for an interview, or an email telling me what my next step is in the application process…it’s very disheartening, and I’ve found myself shrinking into a haze of despondency with a feeling like I’m trapped. Not a good combination.
That’s been the most lengthy issue so far, which sent another thing spiraling into oblivion.
My relationship.
Andy and I broke up a few weeks ago. It was a bad breakup, things were said (or weren’t said) that made us both bitter and upset. Andy wasn’t making enough money to pay his half of the bills in our apartment, and I’d been supporting the both of us for about eight months. With the stress of my job and my finances, along with a boyfriend who just couldn’t seem to scrape up $375 for his half of the rent, I snapped. There were other issues there too, but our financial status was the worst one. It broke my heart to leave him, but I couldn’t stay with someone who couldn’t seem to get his own finances in order, and I couldn’t justify staying in a relationship where I had to be the financial, emotional, and psychological supporter. I told him to have his things moved out of the apartment by the time I got back, and I fled, minutes after our breakup, to spend a few days with my family. I called in to work, stating a family emergency (I couldn’t even imagine trying to be at the office with this on my mind) and spent the next four days in an alcohol/nicotine/depression fueled haze. I might have stayed longer, except at that point it hurt me worse to be away from my own city and my things, not to mention I couldn’t abandon my job for that long (I’m a faithful employee even when I hate to be), so I headed back home on Tuesday afternoon. Not only did I get caught in big city five o’clock traffic, a torrential thunderstorm hit the city right as five o’clock traffic hit, and I was stuck in traffic about forty-five minutes away from my family. I was sitting for two hours, while thunder and lightning crashed around me, in an unfamiliar city, with two terrified dogs in the backseat. I did finally make it home, shaken, but alive, and walked in to an empty apartment. Just like I wanted.
It was probably seeing all of his things gone that undid me. Being together for nearly two years and living together for almost a year of that will do that to a person. Really, he was the only source of human contact I had, considering the atmosphere at my job, and now even that was gone.
He and I are on speaking terms again now, which is good, we’ve had dinner a few times, and have tried to puzzle out why our relationship didn’t work, and if maybe in the future it could work again. We just don’t know at this point. I do know that every time I go home and he’s not there, it makes my whole body ache in a way that makes me understand that heartbreak is not entirely a metaphorical term. I miss him.
The day after I got home, I got sick. I was planning on going back to work, and I managed to get there on Thursday, but by the time noon hit, I was running a 101 degree fever and had to go to the doctor. I stayed in bed for two more days. We think I might have had a touch of West Nile virus. Amazing, right? Either that or my immune system was so battered from the stress of the last weeks that it finally went into overdrive and I went down, hard.
The weekend passed in a kind of haze (I know I’m using that word a lot, but I can’t think of another good way to describe it). Jake and Bear, to their credit, were fairly well-behaved, but considering the stupor I was in, they could have been messing in the house, ransacking the pantry, and taking my car for joy rides for all I know.
I made it back to work on Monday, exhausted but feeling better (healthwise). That day at work was hellish. Because of the week that I’d missed, all of my work had piled up and I wasn’t even sure where to start. Somehow I made it through the day and made it home, still exhausted.
I woke up the next morning, a little late, and hurried down the stairs of my apartment to go to work and try to make it there somewhat on time. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs. I was sure I had parked my car four spaces from the stairs, right under the window of my apartment. I figuratively scratched my head, wondering if maybe during the “haze,” I had parked it somewhere else, on the opposite side of the stairs, perhaps. I traversed the parking lot with no luck and realized, finally, that the only other reason it wasn’t where I’d parked it was because it had been stolen.
Yes, on top of a bad breakup, bad job, and bad health, the one thing that I could rely on with some certainty had now mysteriously vanished. I could only stand there in stunned silence, because it wasn’t possible that life could be this bad. It wasn’t possible that some random act of crime had happened to me, right when the rest of my life was falling apart.
But it had. I was later described as “nearly hysterical” when I called first my parents, and then Andy to tell them what had happened. Andy got to me first. My parents live thirty minutes away, and my dad had just gotten to work. I couldn’t resist calling Andy, he had rescued me from car situations before, and despite our current status, he came to be there with me while the cops were called, and I tried to field my insurance company’s questions with answers like “it’s just gone!” He drove me to the rental place after the police left and my insurance had arranged for a car for me, and reassured me that if I needed anything I could call him.
It seems like that was the run of bad luck I was experiencing, and I laughed (hysterically) later to my mom that unless I found out I was terminally ill or my apartment burned down around me, it really couldn’t get much worse.
It’s been over a week, still no sign of my car. So here’s my dilemma now.
My insurance company is forwarding the claim to the total loss department, so I should be hearing from them later this week about what needs to be done to get me a settlement check. I’m really concerned though, because the car wasn’t worth a whole lot as it was, and I’ve heard horror stories about claims taking months to get settled, and even then, the settlement check doesn’t cover the loan on the car etc and so forth. Since my car, from a dealer, would be worth about $4600, but from a private party could be as low as $2600, that’s a large margin for a settlement check. My loan is still about $3100, plus my deductible, so I need to get a check around $4000 so I can pay off my loan, my deductible, and still have a little bit of money to put towards a down payment on a new car. My insurance company valued the car originally around $4600, so I’m hoping they’ll give me at least $4000 since I’ve only had it for a year and a half (and according to my dad, older cars depreciate slower than new cars). They told me that after I get the check I’ll only have a few days to give the rental back, so that’s more stress because I have to wait and see what my settlement check is before I can even start seriously looking at cars. That gives me just days to get another car lined up, and bought. My dad said he thought that was fair, and I said “Yeah, it’ll be fair if they give me enough to cover my loan and the deductible! Otherwise, they’re leaving me without a vehicle!”
I’ve been told to just wait and see, I should be hearing from my insurance company within 24 hours, all that stuff. I’m still job hunting, driving a borrowed car, and going home to an empty apartment every night.
I guess that’s my sob story for today. Jake and Bear are doing well, Jake is 99% potty trained now, and has learned that he’s big enough to jump up on the couch now, which is frustrating because I’m trying to teach him that’s not okay. He tends to pee a little when he gets really excited (whether he’s been outside or not), but I can’t exactly fault him for that, because Bear used to do the same thing. He’ll probably do it for at least another six months, if not longer. I’m planning on getting him neutered next month (if I’m not bankrupt from my car loan first), and that will hopefully help a little bit with his stubborn willfulness, though I know that’s just a typical Corgi trait. 🙂
Hopefully my next post will be a little more uplifting and optimistic than this one has been.
My original post today was going to be about how great Jake has been doing with potty training, and how he’s started to go down the stairs by himself (which is awesome because he’s already ten pounds, and carrying him while handling a 60 pound dog on another leash in the other hand is REALLY hard) and he’s started to jump into the car by himself…
Not anymore.
I bring my dogs to work because I don’t want Jake at home by himself for 8 hours, and naturally Bear gets to come too because I can’t leave HIM by himself while the other dog gets to go with me.
So…today, I was driving to work. I had the windows down and the music up. I kept an eye on the dogs in the rearview mirror. Jake used to sit up front with me so I could keep a better eye on him until he got used to being in the car (which he now is), so now he sits in the back with the other dog. He likes to get down on the floor and try to eat whatever might have fallen down there, which is annoying because I’m constantly having to reach back behind me and try to “swat” him back up onto the seat.
Well today, I noticed that Jake climbed up the back seat into the back window (I have a Honda Civic). I didn’t think too much of it, just figured he was curious about what was up there, and yelled at him to get down, which he immediately did, to sit down by the other dog, who was sitting on the opposite side of the car from where Jake had been.
I didn’t realize why he did that until about ten minutes ago.
I got to work, got the dogs out of the car, and took them into the office (around 8:45).
About ten minutes ago (10:30) I had to go get something out of my car. I opened the car door and was accosted by the WORST smell. It’s 90 degrees at 10am here in Texas, so whatever it was had been baking for about two hours already. I thought maybe I’d left some food in a bag or something and it had gotten hot and started to smell up the car.
Nope.
The reason Jake had crawled up the seat and over to the other side was because he had pooped in the car. On the seat. And he didn’t want to step in it so he climbed up and over the seat to get to the other side.
I couldn’t do anything but stare in exasperation for a few minutes at the four or five Jake-sized droppings that were stinking up my car. I had walked him (and he had pooped) not fifteen minutes before we got in the car.
I can only assume since it technically wasn’t “inside” a building, he came to the puppy-like conclusion that this was not a “no” space to poop in.
Bear has never eliminated in the car. I hate using the bathroom on planes or buses, so why would a dog want to do so in a car that’s going over bumps and constantly stopping at traffic lights?
Jake is definitely developing the characteristic Corgi brattiness.
So now, I have to go to the pet store and buy a harness for him to sit in while he’s in the car, which is going to damage my ear drums because I know he’s going to hate it. And when he hates something, he screams and cries and howls.
Bear was sitting across the car as close to the window as he could get because Jake had pooped in the car. I only wish I could teach Bear that when Jake does something like that, he has my permission to correct him. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Jake has not pooped in the house for probably a week now. If he really needs to go and I’m not seeing the normal signs, he will at least wait until I go out on the patio with the other dog or something and immediately go out there, which I always praise him for (even though technically it’s not grass) because I’d rather he go on the patio than go in the house.
So why did he suddenly decide to go in the car? It’s only a ten minute ride to the office from my place, it’s not like he was in the car for 30-45 minutes.
My only guess (and I know this is a little unreasonable, because most dogs don’t do things out of spite, but I’m beginning to wonder about this one), is that earlier in the morning, when I took the dogs for their walk, I interrupted some of Jake’s “fun.”
When Jake, being a corgi, sees anything on the ground that might even slightly resemble something edible, he snaps it up and tries to chew and swallow it before I see him. Being (most of the time) a fairly attentive mama, I always catch him, grab him by the scruff of his neck, and make him spit it out (sometimes this means sticking my fingers all the way down his throat to retrieve the latest acorn or rock or other miscellaneous object he’s picked up off the ground).
But this morning, Jake seemed to be absolutely determined to eat something he wasn’t supposed to. So on the twenty foot walk to the car, I had to stop and pull something out of his mouth three times. Then, I wouldn’t let him jump up into the front seat (a place he likes because it puts him in front of the other dog–dominance issues, obviously), and let the other dog get in first before I’d let Jake jump into the backseat. I do this intentionally, I’m constantly having to establish the pecking order in our house with Jake, and until he gets it and lays off the constant pushing for dominance, it will remain that way.
So, my conclusion is, that in the ten minute ride from house to office, Jake decided I wasn’t letting him do anything fun that he wanted to do, and decided to poop in the car as “vengeance.”
Is that a little unreasonable? Probably. I’m sure the actual reason is that he didn’t finish going potty the first time, but was distracted by the other dog or wanted to go back upstairs for a toy or something like that, and then realized while being in the car that he still needed to poop.
I think I’m just frustrated because it seems like every time we start to make some progress, Jake does something like this that totally sets us back. I know he’s still a baby (14 weeks today!) so he’s still learning, but I also know how smart he is and sometimes I think he plays dumb just because he knows he can get away with it. 😉
In other news, I’ve started making Jake wait outside the door (patio, front door, office door) until I invite him to come inside. Maybe that’s a little much, but I want to establish very early on that these places are MY places, and he’s only allowed to be there because I say so lol. He’s starting to understand it, and most of the time will sit down until I open the door (especially if it’s only the two of us) but when the big dog and Andy get to go in first, sometimes he throws a puppy fit and cries or tries to throw himself against his leash or wriggle out of his collar because HE wants to go in first! I always hold his leash up and away from the door so he can’t forcefully enter the house, but I’m really hoping he starts to understand this before he gets so big that if he threw his weight against the leash it might hurt my arm. Ah, puppies.
I knew what I was getting into when I got this latest addition to our family, but man I hope this phase passes quickly! Because I definitely think he’s in the puppy version of the “terrible twos.”
UPDATE: I am confirming my suspicion that Jake has reached the terrible twos, because he seems to be determined to test my patience today. He, unfortunately, had his first run-in with “aggressive mama,” not meaning that I beat him into submission (obviously, lol), but that I took a much more firm hand with him than I have been for the past few weeks. He thankfully has learned that every time he gets in trouble he is not, in fact, being murdered so he doesn’t scream like a whiny baby, but I had him in a successfully submissive belly-up position by the time he was done getting in trouble. I will explain a little: I mentioned earlier that I’ve been training him to wait outside the front door until I invite him to come inside, well he was absolutely DETERMINED to get in before I did, and the other dog did.
I was not having it today.
I let the other dog in first, as per usual, and made Jake wait till I got in. He whined, he pulled backwards on his leash, trying to get away from it, he tried to walk backwards into the house, you name it, he tried it.
I threw my purse on the floor inside, got down right in his face (I mean full on eye contact obviously aggressive posture), and said “SIT. WAIT.”
As soon as I was back upright, he was trying to fight his way inside again. I finally grabbed him by the collar, forced him onto his hindquarters and got right in his face until his ears went back and he looked away.
Just so you animal lovers out there don’t think I’m being too harsh, here’s something to think about. When a dog gets into another dog’s territory without permission, that dog will act with the same reaction I did: aggression. Jake cannot under any circumstances think it is okay to just march into my territory without permission, that’s not the canine way. By establishing from the very entrance of the house that he is entering MY territory, and that he is allowed there only because I said so, we might avoid some of the worse aspects of dominance issues, as pertaining to the house, anyway.
Also, I figured out how to rig his leash to the seatbelt in the car so it acts like a harness, but he has to sit in the same spot in the car. He can’t jump off the seat and accidentally hang himself, he has just enough length to sit quietly or lie down in that spot. I was very proud lol.
I’ve been pretty quiet this week because there really hasn’t been much to report (or too much, depending on the way you look at it). I definitely lucked out in the puppy draw, because Jake is already almost completely potty trained. The only times he’s had accidents are when it’s Andy’s turn to watch him (go figure). We had a 4 day no-accident streak, but due to the reason I stated earlier, it didn’t go for a full 5 days. Luckily we have all laminate floors (except in the bedroom) so cleanup is pretty easy.
You remember I talked about how I was using the patio to help potty train Jake? It’s not even necessary anymore. It’s like he knows that, yes, it’s acceptable to potty out there, but he’d rather go in the grass. Every time I/we get the dogs’ leashes, Jake knows it’s time to go outside, and he almost immediately goes once we get down there. It’s awesome. He also knows the words for going on command.
He even let me sleep in on Saturday and Sunday. Seriously! I got to sleep in till 9am. It was marvelous.
Work has been hell lately. I was reduced to tears almost every day at the office last week. I’m working a job that is so stressful that it’s keeping me in a constant state of illness (which is SO fun, since I have a new puppy…), and even though I’ve submitted multiple applications (think several dozen) to many places that are hiring, I haven’t gotten a single callback. From the few people I have managed to talk to, I’m either overqualified or underqualified. Fun, right? I wish companies would decide upon a general standard.
Moving on, I recently changed my dogs’ food over from Pedigree to Taste of the Wild. I had heard good things about TotW before, from my family and from people online, but I never realized how much of a difference it would make in my dog’s appetite (Bear, specifically). He was always a light/picky eater (I’d had him on Pedigree for three years), and I just chalked that up to not needing a bunch of food. I also assumed his constant upset stomach was due to being fed something he wasn’t supposed to be fed (sensitive stomach). Man, was I ignorant the first few years of his life!
Turns out that foamy yellow vomit is generally a sign that a dog is hungry, and the acid buildup in its stomach has become too much for the dog’s stomach to handle, so they expel it. I never knew that until just last week.
The reason I found this out was because I just bought a new bag of Pedigree in early-mid July. It wasn’t until last week that I heard about the huge June recall of the Pedigree dog food.
I’d been considering switching his food over for some time, but this really sealed the deal when I did some research on the Pedigree dog food brand.
I have been feeding my dogs CRAP.
Food unfit for human consumption is crammed into those tiny little pellets, along with corn and grain and all sorts of chemicals that dogs technically can’t digest. The food is then sprayed with fat to make it seem edible and more alluring to a dog’s nose.
I read a few reviews after the recall. Some dogs DIED from eating this food. And not old dogs either; young 2-year-old dogs, puppies, middle-aged dogs…look it up! It’s scary!
You know when you switch over a dog’s food that you’re supposed to mix the new food with the old food gradually for about five days? On the second day, Bear was eating around the old stuff (Pedigree) but chowing down on the new stuff (TotW). Smart dog.
The reason his stomach has been upset for the past three years is because he’s been practically starving himself because the Pedigree dog food is so gross. I’m a bad dog owner for not noticing this. He used to do a “dinner dance” where he’d prance around his food, nose at it, take out one or two pieces and eat them across the room, move his dog bowl across the bottom of his crate…
He doesn’t do that anymore. I’ve never seen him so excited at meal times.
Suffice to say, I will no longer be feeding my dogs Pedigree. Jake’s breeder sent a bag of Pedigree over with him, so he’d been eating it too, but he’s since been switched to TotW as well.
Change of subject: In other news, it’s getting harder for me to take Bear anywhere. Naturally, because Jake is only 13 weeks old, he’s cooed over by every female passerby. He’s a baby, what can you expect? The problem is, Bear is usually with me too. I’m doing my best to make sure he doesn’t feel left out or replaced–he gets just as much playtime, and he goes outside every time I take Jake outside. It’s a chore, but I don’t want him to become jealous.
Apparently, this isn’t enough. Every time someone comes near the puppy, Bear starts growling or snapping. This is a new behavior, and obviously undesirable. Protectiveness is one thing, and I usually laugh it off to whoever attempted to pet the puppy as “oh, he’s just protecting the puppy, isn’t it cute?” But at home, or with my family, it becomes something much more serious. The last thing I need is for Bear to turn into an ill-tempered dog. Oftentimes, if the puppy is laying under my feet (which he usually does), Bear will take up residence somewhere else. If Bear is lying next to me and Jake tries to come lay down next to him, he will get up and find somewhere else across the room to lie down. He’s been spending as much time as possible in his crate.
Yesterday, I had both dogs over at my parents’ house. They were both in their separate pens. My mom, being a female, naturally would walk by Jake’s crate and put her fingers through the bars of his crate to let him lick them and fawn over her hand. Bear, seeing this, nearly rocketed through the bars of his pen, snapping and barking. Of course he doesn’t realize that this kind of behavior makes it less likely that a human being (besides me) will want to pay any attention to him.
When I was a kid, we had a golden retriever named Teddy. We’d had him for maybe a year or two (he was an adult when we got him), when my parents got Austin a puppy (that we later figured out was a Corgi mix lol). Teddy took to Hank like a duck to water. I never saw them fight, or growl, I never saw Teddy get vicious when the puppy got attention. It could be because they didn’t really have anybody but each other (they were outside dogs) so they naturally bonded. I’ve done this with Bear and Jake too. We have supervised playtime, where me or Andy will get down in the middle and play with both dogs, or we have supervised playtime where we watch the dogs play together. During these times, Bear always seems thrilled to have a playmate. The rest of the time though…I don’t know if it’s jealousy or just the transitionary period an older dog has to go through when a new dog is introduced to the family mix.
When we’re at the dog park, Bear has started humping other dogs. He NEVER used to do this. I know it’s a dominance thing, but he’s humping literally every dog he can wrap his paws around (male or female, neutered or intact). Humping is one of the few behaviors I don’t use positive reinforcement on. It is absolutely NOT okay for my dogs to hump anything or anybody. If my dog is humping another dog, he gets a sharp smack on the behind. Jake has already learned that it is not acceptable.
So until he gets used to it, what do I do? I can’t risk him actually biting somebody, that would be bad. I can’t leave him at home because that will probably just make it worse. It might get better once we get Jake neutered (at 6 months) or it might not. But the problem is, Bear is developing very negative behaviors (snarling, humping, moping, etc) that I don’t know how to curb. I tell him ‘NO’ very sharply when we catch him doing it, but two minutes later he’s doing it again. Next thing I know, he’ll be using the bathroom in the house. Is he acting out? Is he jealous? What do I do?
And mommy got 8 hours of sleep!!! (well, almost :))
This blog is going to save my sanity, because I can go back and reread my posts and see the things I missed, and apply what I learned to the next day.
The Best Friend brought Mommy and The Boyfriend tortilla soup (thank you best friend!) so I didn’t have to cook, though it was really so she could meet Jake.
After eating, we proceeded to work on some crate training, and then tiring out the puppy so he’d sleep through the night (it was probably about 6 when she came over).
We managed to get Jake to go into his crate willingly, for about two seconds, then he’d hop back out again.
Unfortunately, he used it as a potty place when he hopped in there the last time.
Dang it, foiled again.
After we hauled him outside, cleaned up the mess, and bemoaned the fact that he liked peeing in his crate, we instigated the first real puppy play time between the two dogs since Jake arrived.
When Jake first met Bear, he was terrified. I don’t blame the little guy, Bear is easily three or four times his size, and about six times his weight! Bear of course wanted to play immediately. Jake didn’t think that was such a fun idea, and hid behind me.
We didn’t push it.
Now, Bear loves tug-o-war. He has since I got him as a young dog. He has a massive rope toy the size of his head that he and Andy often play with.
Jake has watched several tugging matches between Bear and Andy (and even myself, because I’m being extra careful to not leave Bear out in any way) and at one point, jumped up to grab the massive rope toy. The threads are basically like yarn, they’re so thick, so he really couldn’t get a good mouthful.
Luckily, I had bought a Jake-sized rope toy, so he got his own.
Which Bear noticed, and immediately wanted to play with.
I would play fetch with Jake with the rope toy, and if Bear wasn’t sufficiently occupied elsewhere, he’d jump over the puppy and grab it first.
Bear has torn apart lesser rope toys within minutes so I made sure to get it away from him every time.
But now we had some common ground. Bear would try to play fetch with the little rope toy, Jake wanted to play tug-o-war with the big rope toy. We could work with that.
The results of our efforts went something like this:
You have to understand, this dog is capable of hauling me across the floor if I’m playing tug-o-war with him. Andy is a lot stronger than I am and usually doesn’t stir off the couch when he plays with the rope toy, so he’s not as easily moved. We have laminate floors so Bear can’t get any traction, but if we’re sitting on the floor too, it’s fair game.
So for Bear to be playing so gently with Jake (or just rough enough that Jake didn’t ever quite get the upper hand lol) was so awesome.
Once Jake realized Bear wasn’t going to eat him, the rope toy lost his interest and it became more fun to chase Bear around the couch until they were both dizzy. This was also hilarious but I didn’t get a good video of it.
We made them play together until about 9pm (three hours!). They both slumped to the floor, tongues hanging out, panting. Jake pottied outside again (yes!), and I put him in his crate as the Best Friend started getting ready to leave. He settled down with minimal fussing and went to sleep. We took the sheets out of his crate, hoping maybe this would keep him from using the crate as his toilet again.
We also decided to leave him in the living room for the night so Andy could sleep in the bedroom again. Bear stayed out there to keep him company (something that didn’t make him too happy, as usually he sleeps on the carpeted floor at the foot of the bed), and we hoped it would be enough of a “pack atmosphere” that Jake wouldn’t cry too much.
Oh man was THAT a mistaken idea.
He cried. He screamed. He started howling. I could hear Bear shifting his weight in his crate in frustration (I’m sure Jake’s sharp barking hurts his ears more than mine).
I heard Andy grumble at me “You need to do something about your dog.”
I replied with basic puppy owner knowledge. “If I go in there it will only get worse.”
After about half an hour with no relief, I made an appearance to let Bear out of his kennel. I felt bad that he was being subjected to that noise, but I left him in the living room.
Jake quieted for about five minutes then started howling louder than ever.
An hour and a half passed, with no relief. It was nearing ten-thirty, and I began to worry that Jake’s shrieks would incite the neighbors to come to our door and beg us to please make him stop (I’m still planning on baking a batch of cookies and take some to each neighbor that has to share a wall with us with an apology note lol). I knew that if I brought him into the room, it would quiet him enough to keep the neighbors from hearing, but it would still keep us up.
Somehow, Andy had managed to fall asleep during the cacophony coming from the other room, so I made a decision as the clock hit ten-thirty.
I hauled the puppy, crate and all, into my room, next to the bed. The noise stopped as soon as I came into the living room. Bear followed me gratefully and set up camp on the other side of the bed, next to Andy. I mentally resigned myself to another uncomfortable night with my fingers stuck in Jake’s crate. But, lo and behold! Jake circled once, twice, three times, and settled down in the bottom of his crate with a sigh and went right to sleep. Without my fingers in his cage.
I experimented for a few minutes, waiting for the whine I knew was coming, asking for mommy to please reassure him that she was right there.
Not a peep.
I stuck my hand in his crate (I’m a glutton for punishment, I know).
Nothing.
I couldn’t quite believe it.
My poor baby just wanted to be near us. I’m glad I made the decision to bring him into the room.
Even better? He slept all night. I even got up about fifteen minutes before Andy’s alarm went off to use the bathroom. He didn’t move.
Andy’s alarm went off once, twice, three times (obnoxious, I know).
He lifted his head at the noise (I watched him), but then settled right back down and went to sleep.
It wasn’t until Andy actually got up and he and I started talking softly that Jake stood up in his crate. He didn’t whine or fuss though, he waited until I put on my clothes.
I pulled him out of the cage (no peeing!), took him out, and thank God hallelujah he peed and pooped outside.
Progress has been made.
He still had an accident in the house later in the morning (he loves the carpeted areas, apparently), but the way I see it is crate training might not be the best method for this particular puppy. So the only way I’m going to be able to housebreak him is watch him like a hawk (he came to work with me today) and catch him while he’s doing it. My guess is he’ll soon learn that mom will interrupt him every time he tries in the house, along with my “Ah ah ah!” noise (he’s picked that up pretty quick), and I’ve been told dogs really don’t like being lifted up off the ground when they’re using the facilities. I don’t think they like being scolded either. Oh well, thank goodness for laminate flooring. I have to be three times as careful at the office though, every room is carpeted.
Other good news:
He already knows his name.
He already knows the “sit” command (isn’t that amazing?). He picked it up from the big dog though, which was really funny.
If I make the “ah ah ah!” noise when he’s doing something he’s not supposed to, he leaves off what he was doing. Sometimes he might try again, but he gets the same result. Usually I only have to correct him two or three times for him to understand not to chew on something and he leaves it alone after that.
Yay progress! Now I just have to make sure he and Bear have a similar play session most nights so he’s too pooped to care that he’s in a crate. But I think, for the time being, we’re only going to use the crate at night since he’s already proven he can go all night without having to go out. I think this little bit of crate training (he can’t pee in there anymore without having to sit in it) along with the combination of being pretty much leash-tied to me all day and interrupted whenever he decides to eliminate somewhere he’s not supposed to will have him housebroken in no time.
Puppies, Politics, and Paperbacks 
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