more Ro'isin pictures for Jane

This one is of Ro'isin & her littermates. The little pup at the back is the male in this litter. His sisters are all crowded at the front, looking at the funny human taking pictures of them. They would much rather get out of there & run around & make mischief than have their pictures taken. Ro'isin is the puppy on the far right (your right) and you can see why her breeder called her Big Red.

Thanksgiving recipes

Busy day today. I have it off from work, so am spending the time working on recipes & on various other chores. First thing I made was John Garland's fruit salad, which is a jello salad. John doesn't like cranberry sauce, so this replaces it. It includes pecans, apples, mandarin oranges, pineapple, cranberry sauce from cans, and jello. Then I made real cranberry sauce. Read all the recipes on the 'net and they're pretty uniform. One package of fresh cranberries, one cup of sugar, and one cup of water. Some people add variants on a theme, so I decided to add the orange zest, lemon zest, pieces of orange, cinnamon to the mixture. Then at the last minute, I put in raspberries, and I think it turned out pretty well. Nice & tangy, but not too tart and not too sweet.

Next up, the famous broccoli salad (yes, even with red onion in it), green bean casserole (cooked from scratch, but includes French's fried onion), and artichokes gratinata. If I have time, I may make Kate's red pepper dip and also pumpkin bread.

Ro'isin is doing well. She's very naughty, but that is part of being a puppy. I have discovered that it is best to cut her nails while she is upside down. What you do is put a big piece of doggie bone or dog food between her teeth and then cut her nails really fast. She loves food, so when you do it this way, she doesn't chew on your fingers, the cutting implement, and various parts of your body. She's a rowdy girl. I don't think I've posted this one yet, so here is the picture of her in her crate, the first DAY I got her (sorry about the random caps, she's "helping" me type) and on the trip home.

Wriggly Ro'isin a week or two after I got her

Can anyone say wriggly puppy five times fast? This picture, with Charley, a friend, is one of about fifteen pictures I took. Charley's having fun, and Ro'isin is all over the place. I think she was about nine or ten weeks old here. And yes, this is probably the best picture of the two of them together, because I kept cutting someone's head off or else Ro'isin would look headless, because she moved each time the camera snapped. Too funny for words!

Ro'isin with expression

Thought you might like this picture of Ro'isin, with a very silly look on her face. You can tell from the expression in her eyes that she's plotting something. Probably biting the camera or the camera strap.

Ro'isin & her litter pictures

Thought you all might enjoy the Most Recent picture. Right now I am busy teaching Ro'isin not to chew shoes, shoelaces, nip clothing or my face, tear up picture, tease the cat, you know, all the normal puppy things. ;) She's a darling & we go for walks nearly every day. I have to say, after watching her tear around the backyard after one of our walks that I think she exercises herself better than I exercise her. Wish I had even a tenth of her energy! Am working on it. I do push-ups daily and am thinking I should do them three times a day, so I am prepared when she is full grown....

In this picture, you can see the white tip on her tail. Also, she is wearing a half-way collar, which has been expanded twice in the last week. It is a Lupine collar. I really prefer the martingales, but she is a little young for it, so she currently is walked on a Premier harness, which has made her much easier to walk with. She may be young, but she pulls hard. She's growing fast and is now lean, long-legged, and just as beautiful as ever. Very intelligent too! She figures out most things very fast. I am hoping she does not learn to jump the puppy gates, but I have a feeling (remembering Bridie) that she may. She is still teasing Annie, but sometimes I think Annie doesn't really mind too much & is entertained by this. Not sure though. Ro'isin is fascinated by Annie's long fluffy tail, and Annie is very protective of this beautiful tail. I hope Ro'isin doesn't get a hold of it one day, or she may get a very big surprise.

You should see Ro'isin's head tilt when I talk to her. She looks like the RCA Victor dog. Just now, I sang to her, and she thought this was fascinating, at least for a while. She was born August 15, so this makes her, what, nearly three months old? Wow! Nearly one month that she has lived with me and it feels like she's been here forever.

roisin, election day, busy

Busy week, busy weekend, and lots going on. Managed to vote, and no, I didn't take Ro'isin in with me, as I once took Bridie. I thought standing in line for a long time was not a great idea with a puppy as active as Ro'isin. Although she might have passed the time away more happily and cheered up some of the grouchy people in line with me. Met a neighbor, who I think will be great to be friends with, so that was an added bonus & then we went walking in the neighborhood and Ro'isin got into someone's garden & chewed up a marker and tried to chew up their string fence. Fortunately the people were very understanding & really enjoyed Ro'isin's wild Puppyness.

This weekend, we had a visit from sis & her black lab. Fiona is wonderfully patient with Ro'isin, but did do some attitude adjustment, most notably when Ro'isin decided to help herself to Fiona's food or to Fiona's rawhide. And then there was the ear nipping incident. You could see Ro'isin taking notes mentally, "this is how big dogs behave." But when Fiona left, Ro'isin celebrated by chewing up a paperback book at my feet. It is amazing how quickly she gets into & tears up stuff.

I think I need to buy a house with no furniture or books on the first floor. ;) She's growing like a weed & has these long skinny legs. She knows sit well, down less well, and stand quite well. We're also working on the recall command, which I think will be very important in our futures. Good times ahead, and good times now.... but busy.

Naming & nicknames

Thought this might be fun to record in the blog. All puppies have a litter name, and then when they go to their homes they get their forever names. So Bridie was Stripe (for the little blaze up her face and down the back of her neck), Ricky was Bobby (which I changed because I didn't really want to call a dog by my Dad's name), and Ro'isin was Big Red. Which I find funny, because Bridie's littermate brother, also a very active dog, was Big Red. He was a little over the standard, from what I understand, and easily double Bridie's size.

Here's another picture of Ro'isin with her Great-Grandma, Kinsey.

Can't stop posting pictures of puppy

And I have more on my camera, of the whole litter in fact, so I need to get them off the card & on to a CD, so I can upload them more easily. THis one is of Ro'isin & Goose playing together. Goose is a 7 month old puppy, can you imagine? She's bigger than Bridie at that age. Little Bridie was 29 pounds, 15 inches at the shoulder at this age, and by the time she was a year & half or so, she was up to 39 pounds, 18 inches at the shoulder.


Guess I know what I have to look forward to, a really big puppy! Goose is a lot of fun and really enjoyed playing with Ro'isin.

Another good picture of Ro'isin

This one is with her Great-Grandma, Kinsey. I think it is cute, although I also think that Kinsey is thinking, "Lemme alone, I want to sleep!" Or, "Why do you have to put that puppy so close to me?" And Ro'isin is thinking, "Let me down, I want to run around & bite things!"

Animal antics

I don't think I'm going to be able to post once per day this month, but at least I can use the pets in the household for an excuse. It has been busy, and I'm still figuring stuff out & still recovering from the long trip to Kansas.

Here's some information about Róisín (and that's how it is spelled... not sure how to make the mark over the o! so am cutting & pasting) : her name pronounced at this link. She's had her first tracking lesson (this is where dogs are taught to follow people & find what they've dropped), she's had a vet visit (probably the third or fourth or fifth visit in her life, but this is the first one with me) and charmed everyone. She'll be at work tomorrow (outside, not in the building) and will meet people there too.

So we've been busy this week. Next week I go back to work full-time, and I'm sorry about that. The half days have helped a lot in making adjustments. I don't think Róisín thinks my being gone at ALL is a good idea. I don't either, but it sure is a joy to have her in my life.

Animal antics abound around here. Annie-the-cat has really come a long way, and I think it is due to feeding her Wildside Salmon when Róisín is around. She still does the ugly face & yargles when Róisín insists on being too close & getting too inquisitive. The yargle is a YRRRR-GRRR-L! sound that only Annie makes. She's pretty impressive when she's getting mad. She REALLY loves it when Róisín is in the crate.

Annie decided that she wanted my plain yogurt and managed to stick her foot in it before I could dodge her. (Man, what a bunch of food grabbers around here! Róisín was very insistent on sharing my lunch one day. That's why she's in the crate when I eat, I don't have enough arms or feet to keep her off of me). Just before that, Róisín decided to tear up newspaper, attack my face, and to run madly around the house. I put her in her crate and she's sleeping quite peacefully, thank goodness! Crates are a blessing, used the right way. I'll try to get more pics up of Róisín & Annie soon.

Puppy yet to be named (but already much loved)

Newest Sweetie, and she's a charmer : photo is by Sandy Holmes. Her AKC reg name will likely be Trystyn's Butterfly Kiss. Her call name? Yet to be determined. I think the top runners so far are Natalie, Roi'sin (Roe-sheen, Gaelic for Rose), Natalie, and Myrtle.

She's fun, naughty, outgoing, sociable, and very independent. Very cute, as you can tell. And yes, I'm holding her in the picture. Probably about the only way we can get a picture of her at the moment. She's fast, sort of like a pingpong ball. And loud when she's unhappy (like when I'm out of her sight). I'm investing in ear plugs... Annie the cat is avoiding whatever room the puppy is in, and who can blame her? But she's being pretty nice about it all.

The New Gold Standard by Joseph A. Micelli

Joseph Michelli's note on my blog reminded me that I have yet to fulfill my promise to do a full length review of The New Gold Standard : 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The book was published by McGraw-Hill in 2008, ISBN : 9780071548335.

Throughout my career, I've been through various rethinks & reorganizations as part of the different places & management cultures I've worked. So I was interested in this book, to see whether it had anything new, something that could be used in my current workplace, or even to refresh my thinking & management skills. I was delighted by this book. It is refreshing, honest, well-written, and has a nice blend of both theory & story to illustrate the theory. I finished the book wanting to go work for Ritz-Carlton.

I think many of us have had the experience of being told that we needed to fully invest in the company culture, or learn the company culture. But in this case, Ritz-Carlton has shown both how they want people to invest in their company and how they invest in the people who work for them.

Loved the five leadership principles, which are positively stated. It is not that the negative aspects or mistakes aren't mentioned in this book, because they are. But the positives are what are most focused on & the fact that the Ritz-Carlton is willing to make mistakes & let their people make mistakes, without undue punishment. I do think that in many businesses making a mistake is so horrible that it becomes hard to have new ideas because the fear of failure is too great. We hobble ourselves by this sort of thinking. I found the mention of empowering through trust helpful and have been able to do that at work already. It may not be the way I would do it, but it is quite possibly just as legitimate and possibly just as efficient a way to do it. Since I don't want to be a micromanager (but am in a job which lends itself to micromanagement) this was a very useful reminder.

I really do recommend this book highly, not just for business people but for others who may be starting a new business, may be starting a new career, or possibly even a new relationship. I think it works on all sorts of levels. I plan to give the book to the local library, in hopes that it will reach more people. Well worth reading.

Busy Friday with a little books in there

And I have already missed a day of blogging! Will try to do better for the rest of October. Today I did a lot of yard work & used weed killer on the stray weed trees, poison ivy, trumpet vines in my backyard. I got tagged with the poison ivy when my family's dogs were over & apparently they brushed into the poison ivy & then leaned on me, which was sufficient to make my legs look yucky. I've had worse poison ivy, but I really want to use the weedkiller before puppy comes, so that I can lessen its exposure to the weedkiller. Believe me, if I had a choice, I wouldn't use the weedkiller, but my last several exposures to this stuff have proven to me I can't handle the poison ivy in any way, shape & form without paying for it with several rounds of prednisone. Who wants to take steroids? Not I.

Grass seed is down too. And I think the Deadly Nightshade is mostly pulled up also, plus the mushrooms seem to be gone. Read recently about a local 11 week old Golden Retriever puppy who died after simply carrying around a mushroom in its mouth. Poor baby. Gives me more things to look at & and watch out for in that oh-so-dangerous backyard. I don't want that to happen to the new pup.

Have read several books, Macomber, Debbie / Twenty wishes , Harris, Charlaine / From dead to worse and Child, Lee / Nothing to lose : a Jack Reacher novel. All are gems. I like Macomber's Blossom Street novels very much. They read a little more like regular novels. She also writes romances, but I prefer the knitting novels & the Blossom Street novels. I think I like these for the same reason I like Maeve Binchy's books. They are not grief-free novels, but the characters in them seem like people I would know. They have issues, they're not always 100% loveable, but they are realistic & at the end, there's usually some improvement.

Charlaine Harris writes several series & so far I've liked them all. This particular one is the vampire series & the vampire side of it doesn't interest me too much, but the main character, Sookie Stackhouse does interest me a lot. Harris writes about the problems of telepathy in a way that is unlike the way anyone else has written about it. Very nice job & great fantasy/SF novel. Out of the various characters in the books, I think I'd like to be a shapeshifter.

Lee Child's books all have Jack Reacher in them. For some reason, I really like the man-against-the-world novels. The moral man, with flaws, but also the man who stands up for good & for making things right. What's also appealing about Jack Reacher is that the guy has literally nothing. He has independent means, but doesn't have a house, possessions, etc. and doesn't want them. He's not a man entirely without ties, however.

Next time I need to write about a new book we just got, Alone: The Journey of the Boy Sims, From the original blog "a historical novel for children and young adults, author Alan K. Garinger imaginatively retells the story of the boy known in the survey crew's official journal only as "the boy Sims."" I really liked this book. So well written, set out (in its historical times), and well portrayed. I haven't read all of it yet, but a fair amount of it. I think it looks like something that could be read aloud to 4th graders, but probably very much a middle-school novel.

Write More Blog Entries Month

Apparently this is write more blogs month, as in write a blog entry a day. Good goal, so here goes. This is also National Vegetarian Month, so a good time to try out some new vegetables you've never had before or some new dishes, right? I will freely confess that I don't think I will ever try making eggplant dishes at home. So far, none of mine have turned out & I think I'd just rather have a restaurant do it for me. Much more fun that way.

Also wanted to mention Mayapple Press. For those of you interested in poetry or in supporting regional writing efforts, Mayapple Press is well worth checking out. Judith Kerman is the editor & owner of the press, I believe. The books are beautifully produced and edited, a real work of art. Check it out.

naming the puppy game

puppy names are HARD! Here are the ones I've thought up so far. And yes, you may vote in the comments if you so wish. ;) Puppy comes home weekend of October 10th. and I wanted to share this post from Cute Overload with y'all. Cutest kitten ever!

Natalie,
Wendy,
Jory,
Kara or Cara, Calla, Callie
Keeley
Louie
Honey
Ivory
Lark
Leaf
Sachi (means bliss child, joy in Japanese)
Leonie (Lay-oh-nee)
Arcadie ((ar-KAY-dee)
Lyall
Flavie (FLAH-vee)
Roi'sin (Roe-sheen, means Rose in Gaelic)
Tory
Jenny
Jenna
Olivia
Hebe
Honesty
Hero
Isla (eye-la)
Ivy
Lexy
Izzy
Kizzy (Kezia)
Taffy (old Welsh, means beloved)
Ciara (kee-ara)
Posy
Clarrie/Clara
Daisy
Nell
Darby
Delwyn (pretty, blessed)
Evie
Nora
Parry (pear cider!)
Bailey
Betsy
Charlotte (Lotty, Charley)
Cherry,
Dori
Jessie

sharing

Liked this quote & wanted to share it:
Quote of the Day
"Just don't give up on trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."
– Ella Fitzgerald

Pretty cool, eh? It is raining, so who knows if I will get to paint today! But since I have no love or inspiration for painting the garage, well... (hm, maybe I should try painting a mural on the sides of the garage, my dream garden! Wouldn't that be nice?)

reading and various things

Life has taken a sad turn, recently, since my youngest uncle has brain cancer, and despite valiant efforts by the doctors, surgeries, etc. he is expected to pass away this coming Sunday. I am very glad that he has a wonderful wife and that his four children will be able to be with him as he passes, but very sad for my mother.

On a slightly cheerier note & getting back to the books side of things, these are the books I'm reading right now:

Time Travelers (book one in the Gideon trilogy) by Linda Buckley-Archer. (YA) Fun, engaging, great time period to set a series like this, and Gideon is a pretty darn intriguing character.

Waterwalk : A passage of Ghosts by Faulkner (non-fiction, journey book of father & son on a canoe trip, really terrific book).

The New Gold Standard by Joseph A. Michelli (nonfiction, really good book about customer service & the Ritz-Carlton experience, and chock-full of interesting things to think about, in regards to how you conduct your work and think about your work experiences).

and last but not least, The Waters of Michigan by Lubbers & Dempsey. Terrific environmental/photographic book.

Driving & book reviews

This link is about how to drive safely. Well worth reading & applying to oneself, as I am right now....

I also want to look up the article writer's book : Tom Vanderbilt is the author of "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)."

And a reaction in the Chicago Tribune about what features (including Book Reviews) would readers like to keep. I always liked reading the Chicago Tribune's books section. Not sure if the link still works, but I thought what people said was interesting. Sure hope they keep the book reviewers around.

Gotta look this one up , because I always love the China books : The Last Days of Old Beijing by Michael Meyer (Walker, $25.99, 9780802716521/0802716520, June 24, 2008)

A New Puppy and updates

Hi all,

Busy summer so far, and it doesn't look like letting up yet. I have just picked over twenty tomatoes (some are the small cherry/grape tomatoes, so it sounds like more than it really is. Good thing I have some friends to help me eat them though!). Those yellow pear tomatoes are really lovely & good too & I'm having a blast eating these & using them in recipes.

Got back from Madison, WI just fine, and had a nice family oriented vacation. We did get to see some of the downtown capitol & a tiny bit of the University of Wisconsin campus. Easily the highlight of the trip was the trip over on the Lake Express Ferry. It does cost money, but it is worth it in terms of cutting out the Chicago detour (and that horrendous expressway traffic. I used to live in Chicago & expressway traffic is not my favorite thing at all). And the staff are wonderful, gracious, kind, and the seating is terrific. You meet a lot of interesting people too. Lots of families, which makes sense, since handling a young toddler & a baby is probably a lot more fun on a ferry boat than while driving through Chicago.

We met a couple & his friend who were driving classic cars to a competition. Turns out they have 100 classic cars. Wow. Where can you keep a 100 cars? They must own a parking garage.

New puppy coming soon, I hope, if all works out, probably around October 10 or 16. Parents are a pair of Welsh Springer Spaniels; dam is Kate & the sire is Walker. The two of them are lovely dogs. There are 7 females & 1 boy, so right now I don't know which I'll be getting, but I already have puppy names.

More suggestions are welcome.... I'll share the names I've thought of so far in a separate post. It would be utterly lovely if, like Bonnie (sis's dog) and Annie (my very own kitty) the puppy would suggest its own name. I love it when that happens.

Summer is flying by

Sorry to be so dilatory about posting here. I've had company, I've had to work longer hours (we're approaching fiscal year end close for my workplace) and... its just been busy. We also went to Williams & Sonoma for their big end-of-summer sale and got some nice things, including Tartine for 9.99. Not bad! Also visited a local yarn shop which just reopened and they had some nice things for reduced sale there.

Met up with a long-time friend at Travelers Club, which is in East Lansing, Michigan. She'd heard it was a Tuba museum, and we'd both wanted to go see it. Very nice eccentric place, food was plentiful, and full of wonderful fresh vegetables from the garden. We had a good time. Her oldest daughter was also along, and it was great to get reacquainted.

Sis & I are going to Madison, Wisconsin weekend after this coming one, and taking along one of our aunts. Ferry boat ride in our future, which should be fun.

But you can see why I have been busy. This coming weekend is the Fiber festival, which is fabulous.

And here's quote for y'all, taken from sparkpeople :

Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul - Simone Weil

What we can learn about patience from a diamond

Trying (but failing) to see your goals realized can be frustrating. Margaret Thatcher once said "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it," and she was absolutely right. You've got to believe that you will succeed! Never admit defeat as long as time and effort remain. Our greatest asset is patience; our greatest weakness is throwing in the towel. Banish discouragement and feelings of impossibility by working hard, doing more, and not giving in! A diamond was only made beautiful after millions of years as a lump of coal.