It Could Be Worse; It Could Be Raining
My house is in chaos. While we’re on vacation next week, we’re having the wood floors refinished in 5 rooms which means that everything we own is going into two carpeted rooms, the kitchen, and the attic.
And I recently found out that my presenting partner was unable to attend BlogPaws so I’m now having to rewrite, reorganize, and rework my presentation. (Want to know what my topic is? Check it out here.)
Finally, although I thought Honey was trying to kill me, it turns out it may be my husband after all. On my ride to work yesterday, I discovered that after fixing my flat bike tire (thank you, Sweetie), Mike forgot to hook up my front brakes. Yikes!
But things are good. Everyone is healthy (for now, Mr. Webster. But I’ve got my eye on you.) I’ve been dying to get the floors done ever since we moved in ten years ago. And I can’t wait for our much-needed week’s vacation.
I also have some fun things planned for Something Wagging that I wanted to share with you. And a link to a blog that will give you fresh hope for the lives of adopted dogs.
Hop Aboard the Waggin’ Train
Pet Travel Thursday
I’ll be reviewing 3 Among the Wolves: A Couple and Their Dog Live a Year with Wolves in the Wild
Three Among the Wolves tells the story of the Thayers and their wolf dog, Charlie, observing and becoming part of wolf packs in the Canadian Yukon and Arctic. It’s an amazing read and I bet it will stir a bit of debate.
Something Swagging This Way Comes – part 2
Some of you may remember I had a bit of BlogPaws swag to give away last year. I’m expecting the same this time. And I’ve come up with a fun idea for the giveaway.
A number of you have expressed a desire to “meet” more of the people you engage with on your blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Well, I’m going to play matchmaker. Or rather, you are.
To enter the first part of the contest, you must have posted a current picture of yourself somewhere on your blog, Facebook, or your Twitter profile. If so, I’ll ask you to send me a scanned picture of you as a baby or young child. And you should also send one of the earliest pictures you have of the pet who appears on your blog or social media site.
I’m going to post the pictures on the site with links to the web pages where your current pictures appear.
Visitors will visit the different sites trying to match your baby picture to the picture of your dog. We’ll choose a winner based on how many successful matches and probably a random selection in case of a tie.
What do you have to look forward to?
- Lots of link love for the folks who submit pictures.
- A fun chance to “see” who you’ve been following since many bloggers are notoriously camera shy.
- A big bag o’swag for the winner.
So start looking for pictures now. I’ll announce soon where and when to send them to me for the game.
Finding Love in All the Right Ways
I’ve been wanting to give a shout-out to one of my favorite blogs for a while. And now is the time.
Abby wanted a dog. But Abby lived in an apartment that didn’t allow dogs. So she found a place to rent in a year with a large backyard that allowed dogs. And then she started a blog, called Doggerel: Learning and Living With Our First Dog.
Over the year she waited to move into her new place, Abby read and learned everything she could bout dogs. She explored food and training and socialization. She reviewed breeds. She wrote about the process in her blog.
And Abby decided that her adopted dog would be a German Shepherd.
On May 17, Abby welcomed Pyrrha (formerly known as Lyndi) from the Southeast German Shepherd Rescue. And now Abby’s writing about their lives together. Congratulations, Abby and Pyrrha!
I think Abby is an amazing person to take her responsibilities to a dog she didn’t even know yet so seriously. I love reading her posts and I bet you will too. Stop by and see what Abby and Pyrrha are up to. And get a little encouragement about how smart a new dog person can be.
Signing Off
So if you see a bunch of typos over the next day or two, know that I’m balancing my lap top on a box while standing in a room full of furniture.
Start looking for those baby pictures. And get ready to read along with Three Among the Wolves.
[Disclaimer: The book link above goes to an Amazon Affiliate account. If you buy the book through that link, I will get a few cents to pay the bills. Thank you. Oh, and the frugal me says try to find the book at your local library.]
Thanks so much, Pamela! That means a lot, especially coming from you, one of my favorite dog bloggers! I really appreciate all of your encouragement and advice over the past year, and I look forward to continuing to learn from you and Honey.
I’ve loved reading about your process over this past year. But I’m really excited to see what you and Pyrrha do together.
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Ahh , see I suspected it might be the husband, it’s always the spouse! LOL
I think you are so wise to have the floors done while you are gone, while I so love remodeling, it gets very old very quickly for me. I hope the next time I need any major work done it will also be while I’m on vacation. 🙂
Your idea of matchmaking put a huge smile on my face! Probably the biggest reason I wanted to attend BlogPaws was to meet a lot of the bloggers I feel I already know. It should really be fun.
Your post about Abby was lovely, I think I’ll pop on over and check out her blog.
You’re right. If you can’t afford a butler, it is usually the spouse, isn’t it? 🙂
I hope we’re happy with the results of the floors. It makes me a bit nervous to have this being done while I’m out of town. But I have a good friend in construction who will serve as our proxy.
Hope you’re digging out your baby pix. I can’t wait to see if folks can pick you out in the line up.
And I know you’ll enjoy meeting Abby. She’s doing what wasn’t available to those of us who got our first dogs decades ago. 🙂
Yay for holidays! I assume you are taking Honey with you? I can’t wait to read all about it!
I’m already coming up with some serious questions in relation ro your book choice. I am going to have to see if it’s available for the Kobo so I can read it before your post. There are some things I am dying to know.
Love the baby photo idea! I am already penning an email to my parents to ask them to send me a photo. Sadly, I have none here. Thanks for the heads-up! I may have to forgo the dog picture though as the earliest pictures of Shiva look pretty much the same as she looks now. Maybe just a little skinnier. It wouldn’t be much of a challenge! 😛
Good luck with your conference preparations!
Glad to know you’re interested in the book. It’s raising all kinds of questions for me.
And I’m thrilled I have at least one person interested in my matchmaking game. But don’t forgo the picture of Shiva. We’ll post the dog picture and the person picture separately so everyone will have to match Shiva’s picture to your baby picture. Yes, she’ll be pretty recognizable because you adopted her as an adolescent/adult. But I think it will be fun for everyone to match the pictures.
I’ll explain more about how it will work. I just wanted to get the idea out there in case there was anyone who, say, needed to get a picture sent to them from Alberta or something. 🙂
Ah, that makes sense. It sounds like it’s going to be a tough challenge!
I really need to remove the brown bag so I can win swags. Are you going somewhere horribly exciting and is Honey going along?
You can definitely play and get a chance to win swag even with a bag over your head. 🙂
Besides I know how important confidentiality is when you’re a super hero like Pup Fan, an international spy like 24 Paws of Love, and a rock star fleeing the paparazzi like GLP. Oops, I wasn’t supposed to give all that away, was I? 🙂
The folks who enter baby pictures will have an advantage because they’ll at least know which picture is theirs. But I’d love for you to join in by trying to match the dog to the blogger’s baby picture. I think it will be a lot of fun. I’ll post more details next month on how it will work.
It does sound like fun and I will! x
Always creative – I have photos for both and will post the current “me” on my blog, Dog Blessed @ Silverwalk. Sounds like you have a great plan but I know, getting ready for and returning from vacation is tough. You CAN redo your speech very, very well. Oh, one request – let us know when Blogpaws is next year so I can put in my request at work ASAP :)!
So glad you’re on board with my little game. I’ll start it off after I return from BlogPaws and will tell you everything you need to do to enter.
At BlogPaws, they usually announce the date and location for the next conference while offering a big early bird discount. I’ll make sure to post about it from Salt Lake City.
Good luck with the work on the house and rewriting your presentation, and have a blast on vacation! You’re always teeming with (wonderful) ideas, aren’t you? Oh, and it’s raining here…sigh….
Thanks for the well wishes. I can hardly wait to be off to the beach. Hopefully you’re not sending us your rain. 🙂
lol…I’ll be sure to blow it in a different direction!
I love the game idea… so much fun! 🙂
Very interesting book. I will not able to make the review I am afraid, even amazon DE can first deliver after 3 weeks 🙁 But let’s hope they can surprise for the better, it is ordered !
So much for your helpful husband. Good luck with the floors.
They didn’t have cameras yet when I was a child. Could I send a cave drawing. 🙂
Oh, your contest sounds like fun! I can’t wait to see pictures of everyone 🙂
I’m very jealous that you are having your floors refinished. When we moved into this house, we were so excited to remove the carpet and expose the hardwoods (we have always wanted hardwood!). What we found was “distressed” wood with nails (big nails) that had been hammered in to stop the squeaking and a spot where someone had actually written in sharpie on the floor (measurements . .we are guessing it was the carpet guys!). Oh well, we call it rustic 🙂 The finish is horrible . . but it is still better than carpet when you have 4 animals!
I hope you have a wonderful vacation (keep an eye on that husband of yours) and you come home to gleaming hardwoods!!