A bit of joy

It's always fun to have a new puppy in the house. They bring laughter and excitement as you get to know there different quirks. This is especially true when the puppy is a breed you've never owned before. Suddenly, you have a whole new set of tendencies to discover.

Sienna was a Lab through and through. She was friendly, tirelessly energetic, and always kid-like. Gus is a herder in every way. He pushes people around when there is somewhere better he thinks they should be, and he refuses to let them move when he likes where they are. He's surprisingly graceful when he runs in the yard, and when he is given a job, he does it with a sense of purpose and tenacity that I can only hope to emulate in my own life. For example, the other day I told him to herd Zoe back to the house. He did. He would stand solid in front of her until I said, "Okay, Gus". He would then let her run a few feet, stop her again, and wait for me to give him the go-ahead. We did this for the entire length of are very big yard.

Zoe is a whole other dog who we are figuring her out slowly. When we first got Gus, I did a post about everything I loved about him. I've decided to do the same for Zoe, so here it goes:

1. If you've never read the comic strip Marmaduke, I would recommend you read it. Zoe is the female version of the lovable but ornery Great Dane. She is full of moments that make us laugh out loud right after we yell, "No, Zoe!"


2. While God gave Gus a nice heavy built-in sweater for our Kentucky winters, he gave Zoe a t-shirt. This means that for the first time ever, I get to buy doggie sweaters. So cute!


3. Like Marmaduke, Zoe is a hoarder. She stacks all of her toys and raw-hides into piles and than lays on them. It is not unsually to see Zoe laying on her stuffed monkey with a rawhide under each paw. She always steals Gus's rawhide and then takes turns chewing them. Maybe that is why he doesn't really like her.
   
4. Great Danes love to sit on people. Zoe isn't aloud on any furniture, but she is aloud to sit on our laps when we are in our arcade chair. She literally plops unto our laps the second we hit the chair. Here is a picture of her waiting for one of us to come hold her. Did I mention she's subtle?


5. When Gus or Tony refuse to play with her, she just sits down a few feet away from them and barks incessantly at them. She is very vocal about her disappointment.


6. She's scared of her own gas. Tonight, she tooted a little, and after staring at her own hind end for a minute or so, she proceeded to chase her tail for about ten minutes. I think she thought the sound/smell had come from there. Great Danes aren't known for their intelligence.


7. Her ears are floppy. I don't feel I need to elaborate on that one.
8. She's lazy. She does have energy spurts, but they are for the most part mild. Most of the time she just wants to be laying around, especially if she can have someone to lay on.

I'm sure there will be many blog post to come on the antics of Zoe, but for now, suffice it to say that she has brought a lot of joy into our house. I know she is just a dog, but she is no less a blessing from God.

The Necklace

I love the clothing and jewelry by Anthropologie. Unfortunately, I'm a secretary, so I can't afford anything they sell. This is why I (strongly) hinted to my mother that I would like anything whatsoever from their website. Being the awesome mother she is, I opened up a necklace (a.k.a. The Necklace) on Christmas Eve night. Here is a picture of The Necklace:

Unfortunately, my husband taste in jewelry is not as (what's the word?) eclectic as mine. So he basically hates the necklace.

Being the differentiated woman I am, however, I have resolved to wear my new favorite necklace to my heart's content, so yesterday morning, I came downstairs dressed like this:

My charming husband's 'good morning' to me was, "That necklace actually doesn't look horrible with that outfit." You know what? Maybe charming wasn't the word I was looking for there.

Christmas '09

It's been a while since my last post, but I promise I have a good reason. You see, I was spending a wonderful week with my family. Then, BJ and I tackled a 14 hour road trip in one day with an 80 lb. dog and a puppy (we rock!). After that, I got sick with flu-like symptoms for a few day, but now I'm all better. Of course, in the midst of that, we've been trying to house train a puppy who is scared of cold weather in Kentucky.

With a new puppy in tow, it didn't take long for Christmas '09 to become the Christmas of our dogs. Here is a photographic journey through our time in Texas.

My parents have very high ceilings in their house, so we always get really, really big trees.

A lot of the week revolved around Zoe (big surprise, right?). For example, in this pictures she is being held by my Aunt Paulette. We have spent this week at home trying to teach Zoe that puppies who are going to grow into 130 lb. dogs can't lay on people in chairs. She prefers the rules at Grandma's house.

My family opens presents on Christmas Eve night.


I got a necklace from Anthopologie that I've been wanting for a very long time. I got it with a puppy in my lap.


Gus doesn't really care for the chaos of Christmas Eve night.


In fact, overall, it was a pretty rough week for Gus. Although I'm conviced he is going to love Zoe, I'm having a hard time convincing him of that fact. I remember this happening when we got him. It took a while for Sienna to warm up to him. Unfortunately, I'm not very differentiated from my dogs, so by Christmas Day, I'd decided I'd make Gus like his new little sister. So I made them cuddle. For about an hour.


He looks like he's reach new depths of emotional depression.


Fortunately, there were a lot of people sitting around who like to pet Gus. So he went and hid in between the guys while they looked at cars on the computer. Daddy petted him for a very long time.


Unlike Gus, Zoe was pretty much happy the whole week. Why? Because she's a puppy, so life's pretty good.


By our last day in Texas, Gus was learning to just hide from Zoe. You know the saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"? I think he decided it was best he kept his distance. In this picture, he is taking refuge behind Bro's feet under the breakfast table.


Other than Gus, the rest of us had a wonderful week. He's going to be okay, though. The Monday after we got back, he herded Zoe to the back door from the very back of the yard. He seemed to have a good time, but she was pretty much freaked out by it. Oh well, we are all learning as we go.

Meet Zoe

Well, BJ won. He found the biggest puppy. And he got her.


Her name is Zoe, and she is a pure-bred, blue-merle Great Dane. As you can see from this next picture, she's a big girl. And she is just going to get bigger.


And guess what?

We are totally in love. I'm pretty sure she is one of the three best puppies ever. Of course, that is just my humble opinion.

Getting Pretty for Christmas

I just dropped Gus off for his first ever professional grooming appointment. We wanted to get him groomed before the onslaught of burrs awaiting us in Texas.

A grooming appointment at this particular groomer consists of several things. First, he will get his hair cut with strict instructions to leave the hair over his eyes so that he isn't completely traumatized. Next, he gets a bath in which he will soak in a medicated oatmeal shampoo for ten minutes to help with the dry skin he gets every winter. After that, his toenails will be clipped and his ears cleaned. For the rest of the afternoon, he will get to play with the other dogs and go for a walk.

When I was telling my brother about Gus's spa day, he said, "That's going to be the worst day of his life, isn't it?"

Yeah, probably.

The search is on

We don't like having only one dog in the house. We are a two-dog kind of family. So the search is on. We are looking for the next puppy. Since I won't be workin for two weeks due to the holidays, we are hoping to get a puppy in Texas as it will give us more time to train. Also, all of our dogs have been Texans so far, so why not keep up that little tradition?

My dad, who happens to be a Classifieds-junky (meaning he reads them everyday whether or not he is looking for anything), has been busy looking for us a puppy. He is also good at networking. He has got friends and friends of friends asking about puppies.

My brother, who happens to have an opinion on everything, has decided we need either a basset hound or a catahoula leopard dog. He is in a search for one of these dogs. I don't think you could pick two more different breeds.

Mom is staying out of all of this. As far out as she can possibly be.

BJ is just set on getting the biggest dog he can find.

As for me, well, you know I'm going to love any puppy that is plopped in my lap. In fact, while I've been looking at puppies on-line, me heart has broken at least a thousand times due to the overwhelming cuteness that causes me to fall immediately in love. Puppies are so cute it seriously hurts me a little bit.

Of course, whatever puppy we get will in all reality be Gus's puppy. He needs another dog more than me or BJ. He's lonely, and he has whined more in the past week than I have ever heard him whine in the previous almost 3 years we have had him. Hopefully, in about a week or so, I will be posting a picture of our new puppy. I have no idea what it we be, but I have a funny feeling we will all love it.

I haven't lost a pet since I was a kid, so I wasn't sure what to expect. So far, it's just hard. Life feels uncomfortable right now. When we go home, everything is off kilter.

Gus seems lost. He keeps doing that thing he does to let us know he needs out, but when we let him out he just sits on the patio and stares off into the distance. In fact, we've had to go outside and walk around with him the past few days just to get him to do his 'business'. He's restless because he has no one to play with. We would play with him, but we don't know how. He isn't the kind of dog you play fetch with. He's the kind of dog who wrestles with another dogs. He's never been without another dog.

Everywhere I go in our house, I am reminded of her. She's left her mark everywhere, and I can't bring myself to clean it up yet. Her kennel is still out with her pillow. Her hair is still everywhere (Labs shed more than just about any dog). She snuck a tennis ball into the house Saturday morning that I almost tripped over. And, of course, every picture I have hanging in our house of me and BJ has Sienna somewhere in it, usually intentionally but sometimes just because she wandered into it.

Tony is even lost. He did something he never does yesterday: he cuddled with Gus. He always cuddled with Sienna, but never with Gus. I guess he figured if he can't have his favorite dog, he'd settle for the big-black-panting-dumb one. I'm pretty sure that's what he calls Gus.

And BJ...well, BJ just misses his dog, and there isn't a thing we can do about that. I think we are all going to have a few weeks of feeling out of sorts ahead of us, because, despite her whining and horrendous gas and bad breath and all those other weird dog things, we all really loved her.

A Sad Day

This morning, Sienna passed away. She had been in a lot of pain due to sever hip displacia, so we decided that the most loving option we had was to have her put down.

All I'm going to say is that she left us with a lot of happy memories (many of which sprinkle this blog), and our home is feeling not quite right this morning. We miss her very much.

Ta Da

We have the tree. And it is really magnificent. Or at least it is as magnificent as a small, 5 foot tree can be.

We decided to take a picture in front of the tree. Unfortunately, we are taller than the tree, and I set the camera too low, so you can't see the tree and it looks like a star is coming out of BJ's head.

For our second try, we set the camera higher. I decided this should be a romantic shot. Instead, the camera timer took longer than we were expecting and we ended up in this rather uncomfortable pose for several more seconds than was convenient or romantic.

In the third shot, the star is growing out of my head. At this point, I decided to leave well enough alone.

As is tradition in the Pierce family, I wrapped the first present as soon as the tree was completed.


Guess who it is to?

I just love buying that guy presents.

Holiday Season

I'm back after a week and a half of not blogging (that's a long time for me). We had a great Thanksgiving with BJ's family. A few weeks ago, BJ's mom bought the family a Wii, so we were pretty well entertained the whole holiday. I scored a 233 in bowling, so I consider it a very successful holiday.

Tonight, BJ and I are putting up the Christmas tree, so hopefully I'll have pics in the next few days. All I can think about this morning is how three weeks from today I'll be pulling into Menard! It has been nine months since I've seen my home, so I can't help being horribly homesick. I'm so ready to sleep in this bed...

and stay up late talking to this guy...

and give this guy a big hug...

and cook all day with this lady...

I know those are really old pictures, but they're all I've got right now. And you get the point. I miss my family and my old house, and I can't wait to get to Texas.

A tired little man

Ever had one of those mornings?


You know. One of those mornings after a long night of sleeplessness when you just don't want to face another long day. When your eyes are fluttering shut, and you can barely keep the sleep away. And to make it even worse, your mother thinks it's cute and keeps taking pictures of you.


Yeah, one of those mornings.

Gus's new thing

Gus is a friendly dog. In fact, I am convinced that if humans would be even half as friendly as Gus, the world would be a remarkably better place.

Gus is also a sociable dog. If you come to our house, he will be excited to meet you. That is, after he has barked so loud he has scared you half to death. But it is only because he loves you. Even if he has never met you before, he loves you. I think Jesus would like that about Gus.

We are blessed not only with a very nice dog, but also with a very nice neighbor named Tom. Tom and Gus are friends. I don't know when it happened, but Gus managed to sneak over to Tom's yard enough times in the past year to establish a bond.

So this is Gus's new thing. Gus never runs off, but he does occasionally disappear for about thirty minutes when I let him out for his morning business. And I recently discovered where he disappears to. He goes on walks with Tom. They go on morning walks in the corn fields behind our yard. Why? Because Gus is the kind of dog you take on walks without a leash, and he just quietly keeps you company. He may nudge you around a little bit, but that is only to herd you in a better direction. Don't ask what makes it a better direction; it just is.

Dr. Beck (the chair of Psychology at ACU) did a blog post a few weeks ago about how the relationship between man and pets (especially dogs) is a reflection of the way things were meant to be in Eden. I entirely agree. There is something deeply good about Gus. He is loyal, kind, obedient, and unconditionally loving. All of these things make for a very good dog and a very good friend. So if you are feeling blue or people are being mean to you, come over to our house. BJ and I may not help very much, but Gus will make it all better.

A little stupid

Yesterday, BJ and I overheard a conversation between some church members in which they talked about a long-deceased woman named Sunshine. Her real, on-the-birth-certificate name was Sunshine. Here is the conversation that followed in the car as BJ and I drove home later that night.

Me: Sunshine is a cool name. But I think I would rather be called moonlight (said in my mock sexy voice).
BJ (in his effeminate voice that he and his friend Josh reserve for their most politically-incorrect moments): I want to be called Starspunk.

I have no idea where he comes up with these things, but please, the next time you see BJ, call him Starspunk. Really, he likes that name.

Just so everyone know, the world is not that bad of a place after all. I have seen the sun four days in a row. After the month that was October, that is nothing short of a miracle.

Apparently, KY usually gets 3 inches of rain in October, and we got something like 15 inches this year. 15 inches in one month! So all you people in Texas, be grateful for the abundance of sun and the longer days. It is truly a blessing.

An Eeyore Moment

I am feeling generally blah. It has nothing to do with anything going on in my life. Instead, it is due to the weather. I have seen the sun about once in every five days for the past month (or two). It is getting really old. So I'd love to write a nice blog post, but I'm too hum drum to think of anything. I'm a Texan, and Texans should probably not live in places where the sun only exist about twenty percent of the time. It is just wrong.

Supposedly, the sun is going to come out on Monday. I'll believe it when I see. Excuse the pessimism, but I've been disappointed more than once by unfulfilled promises from Yahoo Weather. But if it is sunny on Monday, I'll write a really cheery blogpost, one that will make your day bright and wonderful. If it isn't sunny, I'll probably write a blogpost on decay, depression, the fallenness of the world. Either way, it would probably be best to skip reading that blogpost all together.

The car that never dies, but comes awfully close

BJ has been driving the same car for a very long time, much longer than I have actually known him. This car has, to put it mildly, seen better days. Here is a quick list of everything that is broken/damaged/decayed on this little Acura Integra:

1- tree damage: smashed in side panel, broke plastic around side view mirror, cracked windshield, dented top of car (this happened when a tree fell on the car during the ice storm in January).
2- paint worn away to steal on top of car
3- no door handle on driver's side
4- can't put license plate on front of car because the bolts are rusted solid
5- car won't idle right and the throttle bounces up and down (this makes me feel really cool when he comes to pick me up at work)
6- heater doesn't work
7- AC doesn't work
8- rear-view mirror is held on by electrical tape
9- hole in driver seat and enough padding missing that the steal frame shows through
10- dash lights only work part of the time
11- automatic seat belt on the driver's side doesn't work so it is unplugged in the right place
12- rear windshield washer doesn't spray
13- rear windshield defroster doesn't work
14-sometimes the turn signal indicator light on the dash doesn't work. It still makes the clicky sound, though.
15- board over the spare tire in trunk has fallen apart, so everything you put in the trunk falls down by the spare tire
16- when you turn the car on during a rain storm, water rushes onto the passenger-side floor.

All of this, though inconvenient, has been bearable. Unfortunately, something else broke last night. When we got in the car to head home from church, the seat belt light start blinking red and a loud beep started going off. I have never seen/heard either of these things happen in my five years of riding around in this car. We both started to fiddle with our seat belts trying to make the really annoying beeping and flashing stop. Suddenly, awareness dawned on BJ. Due to problem number 11, the sensor that says the seat belt is locked has been bumped. Which means there is nothing he can do short of killing his car to stop it. The light and beeping are yet another quirk he is going to have to learn to live with. As BJ realized the constant irritation that is going to accompany every drive he takes in that car from now on, BJ started yelling "No" and hitting his head on the steering wheel in frustration. It was kind of sad. Except that I was laughing too hard to appreciate the sadness of it at the time.

For the record, I really love that old beat up car. I fell in love in that car. I told BJ I loved him for the first time in that car. We took our first long road trips in that car. It has a certain smell that immediately shoots me back five years to when I would get butterflies every time I got in the car of the boy I really, really liked. My heart will break (and no, I am not being over-dramatic when I say 'break') when we sell that car. I will weep sentimental tears of anguish and woe. It will be a monumental heartbreak. But until then, BJ has to drive around in a decaying car that beeps at him constantly. And that, well, that's just funny.

My fashion-forward soap box

I have been following The Sartorialist for over a year. It is a fabulous blog that chronicles street fashion. The photographer behind the blog, Scott Schuman, is rather mysterious. There isn't a lot of biographical information out there. However, today he did a post that shed a little light on him.

Due to stereotypes that are hard to ignore, I've always assumed that most of the men who frequent high fashion or who care at all about fashion must be homosexual. I know it is wrong to stereotype, but it is also really hard to separate the images we see in media from reality. So anyways, Schuman is an impeccable dresser who has an eye for both the beautiful and the avant garde in fashion. So I had thought he was probably...well, you know. But today, he posted a picture his girlfriend took of him. Which means the guy is straight. Which mean something else really, really important.

You are probably wondering at this point why I care, so here it is: if Scott Schuman can put that much care and thought into his appearance, so can other straight men. In fact, heterosexuality can't be an excuse for wearing nothing but cargo shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops. So BJ doesn't really have an excuse for wearing that ratty, torn mustard-yellow t-shirt on our first date (not that I'm holding a grudge or anything). So the cover of straight men everywhere is blown: they aren't fashionally annept due to their straightness, but instead, it is due to laziness and generally not caring. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, careless dressing became a badge of masculinity.

So that is my rant for the day. It is probably totally inappropriate, but I do enjoy a nicely planned outfit. I really do.

Predestination and Deontolgy: Just Another Date with BJ Gensic

BJ budgets every facet of our lives. Each penny has a purpose and a plan. (Since I'm married to a theologian, it is very tempting to insert a joke about predestination here. I'll refrain.)

Each week, we have exactly $20 set aside for 'date money.' This leaves us with few options. We either go out to eat, go to the movies and get a latte on the way, or rent movies and get ice cream. That's it. I don't like wasting this money on non-date activities. This week, we have been planning on a lunch date for today (Thursday) because we will be in St. Louis for part of the weekend and busy with church-related activities the rest of the weekend.

Unfortunately, I did a stupid thing yesterday that is jeopardizing my date life. Yesterday afternoon as I was leaving work, I forgot to grab BJ's sermon that I had proofed. This sermon, though good, has more than a few foibles that need addressing. Normally, forgetting such a thing on Wednesday is no big deal because we can easily go over it Thursday night, and he can fix it Friday, but this week we have been frantically trying to take care of business so that we can both leave work early Friday and hit the road. Which means he needs to fix the sermon today. Which means our lunch date has turned into a business meeting in which we will go over his sermon. Which means our $20 dollars of 'date money' is going toward us dissecting the theological implications of deontology. Which means life isn't fair, kiddos. It just isn't fair, so if you were expecting it to be fair, you are in for a world of disappointment and despair.

(I don't know how I just worked my way into bemoaning the unfairness of the world, but it probably has something to do with me being a depressing, pessimistic, and, quite possibly, bad person. But that's a whole other blog post for another day.)

For the first time in my life, I maintained a flower bed this year. I wasn't good at it, but things lived for the most part. I have resisted cutting flowers and bringing them inside all summer because I liked the way they looked in the bed, but the lows in the coming week are in the thirties, so I figured I might as well cut away.

Being me, I didn't want normal flowers. Basically, I went through the seed packets at Lowes and picked the wierdest looking flowers. Here below is a cockscomb. It is a fuzzy, HUGE flower. this one is about five to six inches lengthwise.


Here's a close-up of the freak-a-zoid flower:


I've always loved zinnias, so I was really excited when I came across the seeds for candy cane zinnias. It's one of my favorite flowers with a twist! Here are some photos of the candy cane zinnias.

Hopefully, these photos will serve as reminders next spring that outdoor work is not the worst thing ever, and that it does in fact yield good results. I'm one of those people who could be perfectly content never leaving my kitchen and/or artroom. But these flowers are pretty, so I'll consider that incentive.

These are a few of my favorite things

I was thinking this morning about how many wonderful things in my life brighten my day. I'm a person who tends to feel very passionately about anything I happen to like. I thought sharing some of these favorite things might introduce whoever reads this blog to something that will brighten their own days, so here are a few of the things I'm currently adoring.

1. NPR: BJ and I don't have any sort of TV plan. We just do without. I use to miss TV, but now I hardly think of it. This is mainly because NPR provides all the entertainment/news/education of TV but with better quality and depth. If you've never paid much attention to this radio gem, go to their website and listen to a pod cast of The Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, anything Frank Deford does, or my favorite, Story Corp, a five-minute segment done every Friday morning at 7:30. I could list more, but these are a sampling of my favorites.

2. The Office and 30 Rock: On Friday evenings, BJ and I take our dinners into the computer room and watch the new episodes of these two shows. It is the perfect way to relax after a long week.

3. Anthropologie: I can't actually afford anything on this website, but I love to go look at it for the inspiration in provides. I especially love, love, love their jewelry. In fact, if you really loved me, you would go buy me this or this or this.

4. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: This is the book I am currently reading. It is so engrossing. In fact, it is preventing me from doing a lot of things that are more important and/or urgent.

5. High heels and scarves: If I had to choose an outfit to wear everyday for the rest of my life, it would include my tan linen scarf with a teal flower and my navy blue, peep-toe heels. I don't care if it is impractical.

6. The Pioneer Woman: I never knew a blog could be as addictive or engaging as a book or sitcom until I began following this blog. I have gone back in the archives and read almost everything she's written. My favorite is Black Heels, a blog book she wrote about how she met and fell in love with her husband. She also has fabulous recipes (I've made a ton of them, so I should know), and she recently started the website Tasty Kitchen where other foodies can post their favorite recipes. I found one of the best desserts ever on this website, You Rock My World Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake.

7. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: The best cook book. Just the best. And after learning only a few recipes, I've been able to do impromptu cooking with whatever ingredients I have that turn into lovely Italian dishes. This book really teaches you a foundation on which you can significantly expand your cooking repertoire.

8. The Sartorialist: This is a blog that chronicles street fashion in America and Europe. Although I don't wear all of these trends, I love following them. And the photography is beautiful.

9. Historic Properties: I love looking at real estate websites. When I'm bored or restless, real estate websites offer page after page of potential. Historic Properties is my favorite real estate website for obvious reasons, it is only old houses. One day, I want to buy a real junker and fix it up. This is one of my favorite daydreams.

10. Gus, Gus, and Gus: But you knew that already.