Quick post

I'm alive, and I'm sorry I haven't posted in a couple weeks. I'm a little crazed! My main projects right now are completing a business plan (I have no clue still how to write one, and we're halfway through the class and working on a draft. I'm getting nervous...), planning a Non Profit Alliance training with amazing speakers (November 3rd and 4th, so a ways to go on that...), and doing online scavenger hunts for my computer applications class. I'm not kidding. Last night I searched many facts on google. I wasn't cheating or screwing around. I was literally doing my homework. Argh. Not cool, folks. Not cool.
Oh, and Boomer was quite the hit when we had people over on Sunday. He curled up in someone's lap and fell asleep. He's quite the snuggly guy. Ok, speaking of snuggly - I MUST SLEEP! mmmmm...5.5 hours...

I am really a Carlson...or a Weil...

Our lives revolve around food. Really. It's a big joke when Matt and I visit his parents that at the end of every meal we plan the next, and our schedule of activities revolves around where we plan to get our next meal. I come back 5 lbs heavier from each visit :-)

It's not that much different from visiting my mother's family, though. Particularly Grandma. The first time Matt met G-ma, he was quite impressed. He said he liked her a lot because she's just, "such a grandma." I'm pretty sure by this he meant that at every moment she was concerned we were going hungry. I remember that we plopped down in front of the television, thinking G-ma would join us. Instead, we were joined by an enormous tray of fruit. Grapes, apples, oranges. Ok, I figured Grandma would come join us in the eating (though she's not supposed to eat that much fruit....). No. Instead, it became a never-ending fruit platter. Truly, it was bottomless. We would eat several pieces of orange, and they would be immediately replenished by G-ma. When we finally said we could eat no more, she packed it into saran wrap and asked us what we wanted for dinner. And she sent the fruit home with us when we left.

Ok, where was I? Right. Our lives revolve around food. It's great.

Tonight we established a new tradition. It started out that we were going to make our new dish for the week (I am my mother's list-making daughter - we have a menu each week that we grocery shop for, and we make something new almost every week). That dish was, as is commonly the case, from the cookbook we got from Matt's grandma, Mavis. Fried chicken! A great Swedish tradition, apparently, since it was Mavis's grandmother's recipe! it definitely wasn't southern style - it had no buttermilk, and was seasoned with allspice, pepper, and salt. The recipe also, of course, produces gravy. So it was necessary we make mashed potatoes. And Matt is still very into making bread, and decided tonight to make two loaves of whole wheat bread (which turned out PERFECTLY!). So, we had this great *meal* not just a dish. Usually it's a dish and maybe some frozen veggies. Independently, we both decided this was a "nice" meal for us. Matt pulled out our nice dinner dishes (wedding gifts rule) and I pulled out candles.
Yes, folks, we ate fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and fresh bread by candlelight. On our "fancy dishes." And it was amazing. We decided that every weekend we will make our new dish and make a big deal out of it. By this, I think we mean we'll use our nice dishes, maybe light a candle or three, and make an effort to dirty every dish in the kitchen so we end up with a meal instead of just the main course :-)

Oh. We also had Crystal Light with our dinner. Classy. That is how I would describe Team Carlson.

In other news, perhaps more mundane to most, but exciting to me...we have once again revised our system for getting the dishes done. Once there was the division-of-labor system: I cooked, Matt did dishes. Then, BLAST! Matt discovered the cooking is fun, and I was temporarily assigned dish duty. Then we figured we'd split both duties...which resulted in wonderful meals and an increasingly messy kitchen. So....our NEW scheme....drum roll please....Every night after dinner we spend 20 more minutes together while one of us does the dishes and the other wipes down the counter, cleans up the table, etc. I know, it's the simplest system and probably what all of you clean-and-neat folk do. Well, welcome to our house. Neither of us is particularly neat, one of us is usually scatter-brained, and we're both, well, "creatively inclined." So, the fact that almost all the dishes in our kitchen are currently clean is REALLY REALLY exciting.

Oh. Must remember to post about how well the dogs are doing now. They each got a very stern talking-to over the weekend. Pepper bore the brunt of it on Thursday night, as he was barking every couple hours ALL NIGHT. At about 5:30AM I had HAD IT. I walked over to his enclosure, snapped open the door, wrestled him to the floor (as I've been told to do by trainers, when he is not responding to verbal commands, I escalated it to physical -- it wasn't rough and didn't hurt) and pretty much yelled at him. I said something like, "Pepper...if you don't shut up I swear I will give you AND Boomer away this weekend! I'm sick, I'm exhausted, and YOU'RE FREAKING OBNOXIOUS! NOW SHUT UP!" He has not barked in the middle of the night since.

Friday night was Boomer's turn. He was unhappy in his crate (eventually we want both dogs to sleep together in the enclosure, but are slowly phasing all that in). He was whining and barking. I walked in and tried to be comforting at first. Went back to bed. Five minutes later I stomped into the dark kitchen, flicked on the light, yelled a bit at him in his crate, flicked the light off, and went back to bed. For a quiet 8 hours :-) I'm glad I didn't have to "escalate" to physically telling him he'd crossed the line.

We've not had too many bodily function accidents in the house lately. One for each of them today (unfortunately breaking a week-long streak for Pep!). Boomer is still a little finnicky around strangers, but he's getting better. And they're wearing eachother out during the day. Unfortunately Boomer seems to have a little thing for my underwear and I now own at least one pair without a crotch. Other than that, they're doing well and are VERY entertaining.

Wow. Let's make sure I never go more than a week without posting. Apparently I'm quite long-winded....

The Boom goes BoomBoom....

Oh Boomer. Boomer's potty issues seem to be escalating, and Matt and I are going to have to resort to true crate training, we think. This morning, Boomer was taken out no less than three times (and did nothing....) before Brea missed the bus and Matt ended up taking her to school. This is perhaps a 30 minute round trip - at most. So, apparently, Matt came home to find Boomer going nuts in his crate, howling, barking, really upset. Matt looks in and finds that Boomer....is "sitting in a sea of his own pee and poop." Oh brother.

So, Matt took the whole crate into the bathroom (so Boom wouldn't track his you-know-what all over the carpet) and gives Boomer a bath. Boom's crate is now soaked in bleach water. We don't know what Boomer's deal is -- what dog (or person, for that matter), doesn't need to go potty when they first wake up in the morning? Why wouldn't he just go then? Ugh. Well, he has certainly marked his crate - and about a 4 square foot area of carpet around the crate - as his own!

Alrighty. I've just decided a nap is a better idea than going to the gym. Hooray illness. NOT!

A little rant and cough never killed anybody.

Ok, I must vent, just a little. Today begins my second week of classes. Last week, not so bad. This week...I pick up the following responsibilities: 1)Practicum (planning a symposium for nonprofits that should be awesome. Note that practicum is a requirement of my program - we must do three. Otherwise, yes, I might do something like this, but I would probably be more likely to do something that paid...) 2) New Venture Business Planning (I'm PSYCHED for this class, which I intend to utilize to develop a business plan for The Heart Project - hopefully to incorporate at the end of the calendar year....we'll see. However, I also know it's going to be an intense 7 week class. And at the end of it..I don't get a fall break. Lame.) 3) Voice lessons (THIS should be fun -- I need a creative outlet!!! Note, though, that this is to satisfy an elective requirement for my program. Are you noticing a pattern? That perhaps my program actually REQUIRES us to all be overachieving overcommitters who will work themselves to the bone and work for free?)

I also seem to have picked up a cold. This is what is making me irritable at the moment. I woke up this morning with that tell-tale throat tickle. I drank water. I sucked down vitamin C and zinc drops. This thing isn't budging. It's the worst to know you're about to get sick and feel completely powerless against it. Doom. It's impending doom. And I'm so EXCITED for my voice lessons! Must be mostly better by Saturday....MUST BE!

In other news, Boomer's bladder is easily twice as big as Pepper's. How can I be so sure? He exploded with urine this afternoon as I released him from his crate. It was kind of amazing. I was gone for perhaps 1.25 hours. He had a lot to drink beforehand, and I'd taken him out and he'd peed a little. So, I come home, I open the door to his crate, and the next thing I know I'm wet. And so is the floor over the span of about 4 feet. So, of course, I took him out to see if he needed to go anymore. Of course not! I came in and checked the crate -- apparently he had been leaking for a good while, as there was a SUBSTANTIAL amount of pee in the crate as well. I felt bad for him. He probably was sitting in there thinking he had to pee REALLY bad, and he had NO IDEA how long it would be until someone came home to let him out. From the look of things, I was just barely too late. Now he needs another bath. At least he doesn't hate them NEARLY as much as the Pep. He pretty much stands there and just lets us poor water over him. Actually, his first stop on his tour of the house when we first let him off his leash was the bathtub. He hopped right in and peed. Really, it was the best place in the house for him to go - drain, easily washed, etc.

In case you couldn't tell, Boomer's having some housebreaking issues. We were told he goes to the door, and we've seen this a couple times, but between him being somewhat out of sorts and unclear about our routine, and him sitting very quietly and nicely by the door while we get work done.....well, his bladder is big and makes for big messes. So, tomorrow we'll probably get to work training him to hit a bell on the door when he needs to go out -- so we'll HEAR him when he's trying to tell us he's going to cost us our deposit....Hopefully Pepper (whose bladder is pretty small, and who's acted COMPLETELY housebroken since the arrival of Boomer), will learn from The Boom. At least this means we'll be able to tell who went potty in the house!

Ok, that's my rant. Off I go to bed. MUST GET RID OF COLD!

Meet Boomer! And pick a possible new name for him!

So, today we went back to Pep's breeder to check out another dachshund! We've been contemplating getting a new dog for awhile, as we feel horrible every time we leave Pepper alone, even though it's usually for no longer than a couple hours, and rarely more than 4 hours. We also didn't feel that we have the time for a puppy right now. Dachshund puppies have to be taken out every couple hours or so, and they generally require a lot of attention, as they are VERY attached to their people and want to play play play! Then there's the fact that dachshunds seem to need other dachshunds -- they just don't play the same way with other breeds. Plus, we're used to the quirks of the weiner dog and have fallen in love with the breed, so of course, we HAD to get a dachshund!

Anyway, we called the breeder (Sue), and it turned out she had an adult, almost two-years-old. He's a full-sized dachshund. Now, we THOUGHT we'd seen big dachshunds....we THOUGHT we had probably seen a full-sized, really. No. No, we hadn't. Boomer is a big dog. He probably weighs close to twice as much as Pepper. Funny enough, they're about the same length (Pepper's just uber long). Boomer is taller and has quite the dachshund barrel chest. He's black and tan.

Anyhow, Boomer's former owners said that he had an aggression problem, specifically that he didn't like men or children. However, the breeder has not seen any evidence of this, and when we came he ran up to Matt and just started kissing him -- we're pretty sure he already prefers Matt :-) So, we're giving Boomer a shot, at least for a few weeks. We suspect it wasn't "aggression," but possibly territorialness or protectiveness of the wife (perhaps the husband didn't provide as much care for him or something?). So, if he becomes territorial and people can't come in the house or something, he'll unfortunately have to go back, but for now he's actually SUPER laid back and sweet. Pepper is not totally cool with having another dog in the house, but they're gradually warming up to eachother. Boomer hasn't given up on being dominant dog in the house, but Pepper is REALLY tenacious and, despite being very much the smaller dog, is putting up a fight and SNARLING at Boomer. Our sweet little mini pup is not just going to roll over and give up his domain!

Ok, on to the interactive portion of this entry!
We are strongly considerring changing Boomer's name. Boomer is pretty good, since he is such a big dog compared to Pep, but we think there might be some better ones. So, pick one from the list or suggest your own, but help us name our dog! We've parenthetically included nicknames.

Boomer (Boom, BoomBoom, Boomerang)
Digger
Ahnold (The Ahnold, the Dachsunator)
Gustav (Gus, Gusser, Gusto)
Dozer, as in bulldozer or sleeper (Doze, No-Doze)
Tank
Guinness, like a black-and-tan!
Bitey -- as in "I call the big one bitey" from The Simpsons.
Milo, because he's a gentle giant and according to Matt was a historical figure of Ancient Greece...

To keep with Colonel Pepper's tradition, we could also give him a military ranking (would have to be lower than Pep's in order to keep the peace!)

Send in your suggestions now!

Also, you can visit our photo bucket account for photos of the boys playing with an awesome improvised toy. Pep wanted to play tug with a rope toy, Boomer wanted to play with the rubber chicken....so I tied the chicken onto the rope and they played tug-of-war! Oh, and the chicken was very much strangled....