Meet Cyrus

This past Sunday, all of the other crazy on-goings in this house came to a halt. You may ask what could have caused this? A storm? A trip? Visitors from afar? Some random part of the house fell down? Nope. It was none of this.

What caused this halting of projects of all sorts was the bringing home of our new puppy, Cyrus. He is of the English Springer Spaniel variety and thus far is proving that the Springer is very accurate in his name. He likes to jump and tackle things. He is 8-weeks-old and about a foot high and a foot long. He is mostly white with brown spots. He is currently small enough to fit under the rungs of the chairs in the dining room.

He even comes with Official Papers that tell us not only his birthdate, but all about his parents and grandparents - rather like a birth certificate for a human. This means that he has a regular name and an Official Name. His Official Name is Doorcreek Cyrus. We were very lucky that we found a breeder only about 30min drive from our house. This will be good if we have any questions, and also when he is old enough to learn to retrieve. (As this breeder happens to be a Field Trial Judge, and trains dogs for hunting.) We did have to stop 2x on the way home though, once for me and once for him. All in all his first car ride went okay.

He has a puppy-sized crate and puppy-sized dishes. He has a new set of house keys to go with the new house, a semi squishy frog, and a red ball that can be made to dispense kibbles.

He has a brand new leash and collar that will let him go for walks around the block.

I knew that a puppy of this type had a lot of energy, but my goodness! I am exhausted just trying to keep him entertained, and it's only been a few days. Although, I suppose some of the tiredness comes from the fact that he does not sleep through the night. No, he cries when he goes to bed, he cries when he needs to go out, and he cries at 5am when he decides it's time to get up and play.

We do not agree with the 5am assessment. I have not seen this many sunrises in a row for a Very Long Time. We have tried ignoring him, which is hard to do, as he is very loud and very shrill. It also does not make for good sleep when one must have a pillow over one's head just to try and quiet the noise down. We went so far as to warn the neighbors of the noise, so that they do not worry.

In other activities, he is doing much better. He has learned his name, and the command 'Come'. I hope that the rest of the training goes this well. We have even signed him up for school. This Sunday is his first class in Puppy Kindergarten. I hope that they can help us to get him to sleep when we want to, not when he wants to.

Oh for a peaceful 6 or 7 hours of sleep!

Curtain dilemma

One of the random things that I am trying to do amidst all the other ongoings is to try and find some curtains for my living room window. It is of an extremely wide width (118"), and is on the west side of the house which makes the entire room 90+ if the sun is out. It is also located behind one of the couches. This means that the best curtain rod for hanging curtains to cover it is one of those types that allow for a drawstring on one side, rather than trying to close curtains whilst standing on the couch cushions.

Our current curtains are from approximately 1960 and need to go. You may have seen them in previous posts. They are of a dirty golden textured variety. The challenge in this endeavour is that the living room is bright orange (similar to the Dukes of Hazzard's General Lee). There are not many styles of curtain that can go with such a color. In addition, there are also not many choices of curtains in the style that allow for the drawstring rod.

After an adventure to the department store, where I was informed that they are properly called draperies, not curtains (??), I was given 3 choices of pattern: strange hospital texture, plain, and striped. This is the first set that I have brought home - the striped.

I don't think I am liking them, but maybe I'll leave them up a bit and see. Some times after a bit, changes don't seem so bad. Or maybe I'll go online and see if I can find something I like better.

Note: I feel rather more adult than I did previously, ordering draperies rather than curtains. I don't know why, I just do.

Note 2: I have also finished knitting a rug for the kitchen. It was an easy project, good for watching TV.

The Yucca Appears

As mentioned in a previous post, the Overwhelming Variety of Weeds had taken over my gardens. You may not have believed it, but there was indeed a Yucca plant hidden in the weeds. The weeds were so dense, that the Yucca sent up a flag, in the form of a flowering stalk, to let me know exactly where it was.

And so I was able to weed and mulch, and weed and mulch until finally, the entire Yucca plant itself appeared. I am not actually certain if I would have found the Yucca if it had not sent up that stalk. Either way, progress is being made in the Siege of the Overwhelming Variety of Weeds. I still have a ways to go, but at least now wanted plants are being unearthed, and it is starting to look more like a garden.