Introduction

So this is it. The beginning of my very own blog. I thought an indroduction might be the best way to start.

So here goes....

My husband (Bob) and I moved into our very first home in Feb. of 2005. We were renting a condo in good old suburbia when our landlord decided he wanted to sell our unit. So us, not wanting to buy the condo, went off on our house search. Bob had two requirements for our house:

1. At least an acre of land
2. A garage

Alright maybe three requirements : get out of the hustle and bustle of the suburbs, which was probably the number one requirement for both of us.

So we found this Cape Cod (in need of some TLC), which is nestled at the foot of a mountain in the woods, on over an acre of land and has a two car detached gararage. It's also in a County park that has a huge resevoir and another lake. Both within a 2 or 3 minute drive. We'll get into the TLC in some later posts. Way too much to go into right now.

Bob being an avid hunter and fisherman was jonesin for a puppy. A hunting dog. A bird dog. So in May of 2005, we got her. She is a German Wirehaird Pointer and is cute as a button. See below if you don't believe me.

Penny is her name and hunting is her game, seriously. Why just the other day, I'm calling for her to come to go inside and she ain't comin. So I have a look see to see where she was or what she was doin and there she was locked on full point down at the rocks in front of my house. "Hmpfh....wonder what it is?" So I make my way down and sure enough there it is a turtle stuck in the rocks. I safely put the turtle by the creek across the street from my house.

Anyway, just look at how cute that face is. Now I ask you, how can you get mad at that face after she chews up two comforters, the heel off your favorite pair of shoes, Bob's hats, so many other things I can't even remember and a $50 pair of pants. That's right a $50 pair of brand spanking new, never-been-worn, tags-still on em pants. Now, I never spend that much money on clothes. You did read the part that our house is in need of TLC, didn't you? So I try to be as frugal as I can but this very day whilst out shopping I decided to splurge. I bought other things too that day but stuff that was on sale. Everything was still all folded nice and new with tags still on in The Gap bag that was on top of her cage/crate. Running around trying to get down to suburbia for my dentist appointment I noticed the bag on the cage, looked at the then 2 month old Penny already safely nestled away in her crate and thought hmm.. maybe I should move The Gap Bag. Then I thought there is no way in hell she could do anything to that. Besides the holes in this crate are seriously like 4"x4". What could she possibly do?

Let me tell ya...I get home like three hours later open the front door to the house and see literally thousands of the tiniest little pieces of the blue The Gap bag all over the floor and in her cage. There was nothing left of this bag. Nothing. All the other clothes were still folded nice and neat on top of the cage except, you guessed it, the $50 pair of pants. These pants somehow ended up in her cage with her with chew holes in the cuff of the pants and one about the size of a quarter in the front, right on the thigh area. Yes, I was extremely pissed off about the whole thing but she was just a pup. Now I look back and think man, I wish I would have had a video camera set up just to see her tugging and tugging and tugging on this bag and ripping it to shreads. At least I can look back on this and laugh now. As for the pants, the one terrific woman I worked with at the time fixed the pants as best as she could. You can hardly tell there was a hole there.

So there is one of many stories I have about her.

Moving on in this introduction...

April of 2006 I get laid-off. Can you believe it? I never thought the day would come. After 15+ years of consistently being employed, I get laid off for the summer. And I have a job to go back to in September. How cool is that? I may go into this story in further detail in an upcoming blog. Seriously though being laid off in the summer, at least this summer, is nothing to be jealous of. There were beautiful spring days in May when I got my garden planted but then it went to terrential dowpours for two straight weeks and then scorching hot for like two weeks. So I've been in the house for like a month with the two dogs. Two dogs you ask? I only remember you mentioning Penny.

Two days before my sabatical began for the summer we got him. Him being Travis, which is Penny's brother, as in litter-mate. How were we so lucky to get her brother? In a nutshell, the breeder had him to use as a stud dog. Then the breeder fell ill and wanted to get rid of him so lo and behold we took him. Meet Travis:

He was basically a one year old puppy when we took him in. He only knew one command at that point but after some direction from his pack leaders he is doing wonderfully and has made himself right at home. He is truly a really good dog.

He only had the opportunity to chew up one comforter. One BRAND NEW COMFORTER. The week prior Penny had just got done ripping apart comforter number two.

So two dogs, one cat, and four comforters later here I am collecting un-employment and writing a blog about stuff that I feel is blog-worthy.

Well, that's it for this blog entry. Not much of an introduction. It's more of just to bring you up to date. So now you have some background for future entries into this blog o' mine.