New Family Member

"We could call him Titan like his previous owner did. No wait, let's call him Sam. Nah, I know, let's name him Bart."

(Pretend there is a photo of Bart the puppy here) I know, I suck at pictures.

We adopted him on October 4th. He had his ten week shot and nose drops this past Wednesday. He's a black and tan German Shepherd, the runt of his litter and seems to be wicked smart, or maybe it's just that I haven't had a puppy in eight years. He's only had three peeing accidents inside. I managed to catch him in the act every time and hustle him outside (once while he continued to pee down my leg as I carried him - oh joy) It's been over a week since he's had an accident and this morning I caught him pawing at the door to go out. He has mega-esophagus, just like our older dog, so had been returned to the breeder by his first buyer. He doesn't have it nearly as severely and the only time it seems to bother him is if we feed him dry food - no more puppy milk bones - or if he drinks too much water too fast. He does get spectacularly carsick, however, as the passenger seat in my truck can attest. Hopefully he will outgrow that.

Had an amazing lesson on Monday. It started out kind of crappy as I was super stiff and could barely lift my leg to the stirrup (from the mounting block!) It gradually got better as we warmed up. Late in the lesson my trainer kept having to remind me to keep my right shoulder back. I held the reins in my left hand and placed my right arm in the center of my back. Magic! The mare and I were totally in sync. She had a nice, extended trot and I was on the correct diagonal for once. The trainer was going to keep us going until we messed up but she finally conceded that it seemed like we could go on like that forever. She had us stop in the middle of the arena - nice square halt - where we talked for a while. Then she gave me the option of stopping on that high note or seeing if we could do it again. I decided to quit while I was ahead.

I came across this site while dinking around on the computer this morning. It's the journey of some guy who has always been super healthy and fit deliberately not exercising and eating junk food for six months. After that time he will share how he gets back into shape. It is helping him to identify with those of us who may not make the best lifestyle choices. I've only read a few entries but I like what I've seen so far.

A breeze kicked up last night and knocked the remaining leaves off the tree. This, of course, was after I raked yesterday. Just when I thought I was done with yard work.

I will see if I can't get a puppy picture to post. My husband's taken a few with his iPod but they are very poor quality. I know we have a camera around here somewhere...