Thoughts for Thursday - This is Tucker and other news

Everyone has been asking to see a picture of Tucker and here he is! As you can see, he probably needs to go to the groomer's. I'm not sure he's ever been, so we might do that tomorrow or sometime next week. Right now we're working on potty training, sleeping through the night without whining and what he's allowed to chew.

Potty training is actually going very well. Sunday evening and Monday he had a few issues with peeing and pooping on the carpet or bathroom floor. Fortunately, Weyrd got some good suggestions and Tucker had no indoor incidents on Tuesday or Wednesday!

Tucker is also learning to sleep through the night without whining. Sunday night he whined all night and Weyrd got very little sleep. Having a new puppy and not sleeping much the first night, in combination with Weyrd's new multivitamins led to a few days of feeling queasy and wondering if a puppy was a good idea (this leads to loss of appetite and weight loss on Weyrd's part which isn't so bad). However, the multivitamins have been discontinued (yesterday) and Tucker hardly made a peep last night, so Weyrd is feeling much better about puppy ownership today.

By the way, things that work are using the dog crate (it's cozy and ultimately calming) and wearing an old t-shirt and then putting it in the crate with him. We're now working on leaving him in the crate for a few hours during the day to build up to 9 hours or so by day. I'll probably get a kennel at some point in the next week. A neighbor has two dogs that are a bit bigger than Tucker and they are very good with being in their kennels while she's at work. She says dogs sleep alot more than people think (until they own one) and with a kennel there's room to get up and move around and play with small toys. With a portable kennel, I can put him in the living room where he can look outside and also watch Animal Planet (another friend does that with her dogs).

Chewing is another issue. The vet's dog trainer said to keep him on his leash during times outside of the crate so I can control where he goes and what he does. Unfortunately he likes to chew the leash, so I may get a lightweight chain for that purpose. He's also more comfortable with me, so he thinks I might be a giant chew toy...um...No Tucker! Right now he has a nubby ball, a rope with two knots, a chicken liver flavored rubber bone and for the crate he has a buddy to lay on that has a tail for chewing. He also has two towels (one in the living room and one in the crate) and my old t-shirt. So that's the news about Tucker for now.

In other news, I finally got a reasonable explanation regarding the job situation. The gal in charge of the whole department is dealing with several new people and attempting to NOT tell them how to do their jobs. First she has a new HR director (and last year the district got a new Finance Officer) so they didn't know what to do regarding paying me hourly and had to meet and draw up proposals. Now all of this would be moot, if the gal she hired to be our department coordinator would just hire me on a regular salary contract. That's the gal who is working on "forming a team" and she feels uncomfortable pulling the trigger until she has a pool of applicants to match up together by areas of expertise. Unfortunately for her, no one is applying for the other position, so the gal I've been talking with said at some point she thinks they'll convert me from hourly to salary but she wants her new coordinator to come to that conclusion on her own (so as to empower her).

And actually as I have mentioned before, I prefer the hourly independent contractor pay (a 1099 contract), if the pay is the same as what I got last year. Because, the annual amount for full time is slightly more pay than I would get with the value of salary and benefits combined. The only issue with being on an hourly contract is that it's less certain long term and I'm not sure what they would do regarding raises if they kept me on a 1099. If they decide to keep me on a 1099 contract, I will set up an additional retirement plan for the self-employed to sock away more money than I can with just my Roth IRA. That's the news for now. When I have a signed contract of some sort, I'll provide an update!

Wednesday's Wine - Rosemont Shiraz, 2005 Diamond Label

So while I was in Texas, I visited with my mom and tried 3 different white wines (and a sparkling white wine that was served at a "Champagne" Brunch on the last day of my visit there). While at my brother's house, I picked up a bottle of Rosemont Shiraz, 2005 from Rosemont Estate's Diamond Label. In Texas, groceries stores have wine departments and the local H.E.B. (or Heeeeb as I call it) has quite a collection of low cost tasty wines. This one was on sale for $9.50. It took me 4 dinners to drink this wine (I was nephew sitting, ya know). So I had it with pizza, mac-n-cheese, burrito's, and turkey hamburgers.

Based in South Eastern Australia, I used to consider Rosemont the standard bearer for Shiraz. In fact, the first bottle I had a few years ago seemed awesome and I finally understood what the phrase "big fruit" meant. Several Shiraz's later and years later, this Shiraz was good, but not the experience I remembered. The bottle is different too, so it's possible that this Shiraz is not from the same vines as the first one. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. I found it smooth at first with a nice fruit flavor that was slightly berry like. On the finish there was a slight burn of alcohol. I found it to be bold, but without the "big fruit" sensation of berries popping in my mouth that I recalled from my first bottle of Rosemont Shiraz.

Here's what Rosemont Estates said about their Diamond Label Shiraz:

Richly textured with well defined, ripe blackberry fruit flavours, soft generous tannins on the mid-palate and a long rich finish. Try with lamb, pasta, antipasto, osso bucco.

Enjoy!

Tuesday's Time Waster - Housebreaking a Puppy

Make My Monday was to be about my puppy adoption. However, I spent the day monitoring my puppy for potty break signs. We were not completely successful in avoiding the "pee and poop on the carpet" situation, but I managed to get him to poop on the pee pad the last poop of the day. And this morning he peed and pooped outside...yay! I adopted my Bichon/Maltese mix puppy on Sunday afternoon and am still deciding on a name (I'll show the list at the end). He's very cute and quite affectionate. He does whine when I put him in the bathroom to hopefully use the pee pad. He also spent most of Sunday night whining from the crate, so Monday I was very very tired and not up to squeezing in a blog post between potty breaks. He still whined last night, but not as much, so I got a bit more sleep. No wonder it's best to have two parents when raising babies. Of course, I don't care what the genders are of the parents, but two has got to be better than one...lol.

Anyway, he mostly plays for a little while and then sleeps for awhile. Then we go for a walk to hopefully pee and poop outside. He ate pretty good yesterday morning, but seemed uninterested this morning. I hope he's not catching on to my own lack of appetite, that would not be good. He does stay pretty hydrated and now goes to the water dish on his own. I'm hoping to get him potty trained before I have to work regular hours again later in August. I have a rather large bathroom given the size of my condo, so that will be his play area when I'm away from home. I'm going to start leaving for an hour or two at a time so he can get used to being alone for part of the day. I put a radio in the bathroom for company. I also plan to go for dog training lessons with him when the next class starts, so hopefully I will be able to litter box train him. Once he's completely potty trained I'll experiment with letting him have access to the rest of the condo (well probably not my bedroom or the utility room).

So here are the names I'm considering:

Tucker (it goes well with my last name and he kinda looks like a Tucker)
Buck (short for Buckeye, since I'm an Ohio State grad and a couple friends like it)
Toro (he was born in May and is a Taurus)

These were the other names I considered but not really fitting him:

Spike (cause one of the guys at the office thought it would be funny to name a fluff ball that)
Ziggy (short for Sigmund, as in Freud, since I'm a psychologist and Freud was also Taurus)
Rashi (saw this name mentioned in some stuff on alternate astrology stuff)
Heath (as in Ledger who was Taurus as is The Joker...go figure)
Malty (he's half Maltese)
Morty (saw the name Mort mentioned in relation to bulls...the Taurus sign)
Jack (cause it sounded short and sweet...but actually pretty common for dogs)

At this point, I'm probably going to go with Tucker. Since I have to schedule a well puppy check for this week, I think I'll have to pick a name pretty quick...like today. In the meantime, he's been napping for over an hour so I think it's time for a walk and potty break. Of course, he's going in the bathroom while I change out of my jammies (6am walk with a jacket on did not require changing). I'll have a picture up as soon as I deal with everything else.

UPDATE: Turned out the vet had a cancellation, so I took Tucker in for his first exam. He possibly may have a minor bacteria, so he sent us home with an antibiotic. He also sent us home with a heartworm medication which is taken once a month during mosquito season (May through October). I also chatted with the dog trainer they have on site and he gave me some potty training suggestions. One being that I should get him trained on just one way to use the potty...box or outside. Given that I live in a condo and don't have a patio that would be safe for a dog this size, I ended up buying a doggie litter box. The other suggestion was to keep him in the crate for 20 mintues and then on a leash for 20 minutes. That seems like a pretty frequent change and he's able to handle the crate longer after the intial whining, so I may go an hour on leash and an 30 minutes in the crate. We'll see how that goes and I'll call the trainer back to see when he's doing classes also.

Saturday Surf - Melanie Susuras Band CD Release Party Tonight

Here's where I'll be tonight:























If you're in the Denver area you can get discounted tickets HERE. Click on the Melanie Susuras Band link on the right of this page, in the "Links I Like" section, to hear some of her great music. Hope to see you at the show!

Thoughts for Thursday - Time in Texas and Other Things

Tomorrow I head home to Denver after 8.5 days in Texas. I had a good time with my mother and a very good time with my nephews (except when they were sneaking around). I did end up with a case of swimmer's ear I think, so I may have to invest in swimming earplugs when I get home. My brother and his wife look rested and happy too! They had a good time in Cabo. Mission accomplished.

An update on the job front: I spoke with the school district again and they have to put in a request regarding hourly pay since there is no policy at this time. I did ask why they couldn't just offer me the salaried position for which I applied and once again I was given the vague answer of "Well, we're forming a team, but no one else has applied for the positions." Of course this time I pressed them and asked how this would prevent them from hiring me anyway. They really don't have a reason other than they want to make sure that whoever they choose would work well together. I think they're beginning to realize how ridiculous that sounds. In any case, we agreed to discuss it further on Monday as they do have work they want me to do and hopefully will have some sort of answer regarding pay. And they did ask me for pay suggestions. Of course I suggested that they pay me what I had been getting per hour or if they are planning to hire me on salary they can use that to determine the hourly rate for the meantime, if I'm going to be W-2'd. The gal doing the hiring did thank me for being so gracious. That's gotta count for something right!?! More next week...

Wednesday's Wine - Two Chardonnays and a Riesling

As y'all know, I've been down in Texas for the past week enjoying the company of my family. Okay actually, I'm mostly enjoying the company of my nephews (I'll have more on that tomorrow). Anyway, while visiting with my mother, since she knows I'm doing a wine post every week, she had me try some different inexpensive wines that she happened to have in the frig.

The first one she had me try was Beaulieu Vineyard Coastal Estates Chardonnay, 2006. I found it to be crisper than a typical Chardonnay and not so buttery. It was also a bit on the floral side in both taste and aroma. According to my mother it was about $8.00. My mother had this one with her chicken salad and fruit. Here's what Beaulieu Vineyards said about their wine:

Yellow-gold color. Strong, fresh apple-citrus aromas with a hint of vanilla. Medium full- bodied, with creamy texture and round, succulent, juicy flavors, this vintage reveals ripe apple fruit combined with hints of green almond and pear in the finish. Moderate acidity heightens the wine's approachable softness. Ideal with fresh Dungeness crab, soft cheeses like Camembert and roast halibut steaks.

In comparison, my mother had me try Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Chardonnay, 2006. I found it to have more of a noticeable oak taste than the previous Chardonnay. It was also more tart, yet buttery. But other than that, it was on the boring side for me. I will say it did complement the chicken salad and the sweeter fruits we had on the side. It was not bad, just not very exciting. On the other hand, the less exciting wines tend to be better with food. My mother said it could be had for under $10.00. Here's what Chateau Ste. Michelle said about their wine:

“My goal vintage after vintage is to make the Columbia Valley Chardonnay a pleasurable, food-friendly Chardonnay. This 2006 bottling is a fresh, soft Chardonnay with appealing sweet citrus fruit character with subtle oak nuances. I work with vineyard lots from all over the Columbia Valley to make this a complex, interesting wine. This is a versatile food wine that can work with many foods including chicken, pork and white sauce pastas.”
-Bob Bertheau, Head Winemaker

Just so you know, I take my notes first and later look the wine up on the internet to find a suitable picture of the label and to find some commentary on the wine. It's a good way to learn about wine and frankly, it's kind of fun to find out if what I said about the wine is accurate or at least was intended reaction by the winemakers.

The last wine I tasted was 50th Latitude Reisling, 2007 from the Mosel region of Germany (I believe) and also under $10.00. I generally avoid Reisling wines as I'm not a big fan of the sweet ones. But since my mother had one in the frig, I was obligated to try that one too. For research purposes of course. Fortunately, I found this wine to be sweet, but not cloyingly sweet on the front end and it had a tart finish. I couldn't find anything about the vineyard. Although, being a German wine, anything I might have been able to find out would have likely been in the German language anyway. On corkd.com I did find a very short description from boneygirl (please don't ask me, I really don't know):

This is a balanced, lightly sweet Riesling with a lemony taste. Great contrast between acidity and sweetness.

Okay, that's it for white wine for awhile I think. I've had more than my fill lately. Enjoy!

Tuesday's Time Waster - Shopping for a Bichon Frise

I'm not a big fan of pets, but only because I have allergies. However, I have discovered that some breeds of dog cause less of a reaction than others. I also took allergy shots for a variety of things like weeds and trees, as well as for dogs (but not for cats as I was broke at the time 20 some years ago and I really don't like cats enough to pay for an extra shot). So I figured that I'd look into what it would take to adopt a dog.

I did some research awhile back and found that my best bet for a dog was a Bichon Frise. They are small, intelligent, lovable and generally quiet. They do require brushing out a few times a week and, while they're a good dog for condo's and apartments, you still have to take them on walks. Considering I need to start taking me on a daily walk, this could work out well. They occasionally have health issues, but not generally and the cost to adopt varies from around $500 to $1000, depending on where you go.

And that's what took all morning! I looked on the internet to find where in Colorado I could go and at first, I kept finding the same two breeders. Eventually, through creative googling, I was able to find several breeders. I called a few to see if they had any expected litters. One location is expecting a litter to be ready for adoption right around my birthday (late August to early September)! So I'm thinking that maybe that's the day to do it...or rather the day after. Many of the websites suggested spending some time with the dogs first to make sure the allergy stuff doesn't flare up. So depending on the school district stuff (check back on Thursday for an update) I might be adopting a doggie!