Worlds are colliding.

Some days (a lot of days actually), I think I have too many worlds colliding.  I think I need to try to stop having that happen so much.

April has pretty much flown by...

It feels like the month just started and now all of the sudden it's the 30th. Yeah, my age went up by a year at the start of the month and that hasn't even registered with me. I'm trying to think what even happened this month.

We did have plenty of visitors this month and got plenty of baseball in as well, I suppose. My parents were here at the beginning of the month. We saw an exhibition game at the Nationals Stadium with them. Last weekend, Maria and Rexx came to stay with us. We took a drive up to Baltimore with them to see an Orioles game at Camden Yards.

We got to a few things out in the yard and garden. We bought a push mower thinking that we'd use that for our yard, but that turned out to be a lot of work. So, we wound up getting the riding lawnmower left behind by our house's previous residents repaired so that we could cut our grass. Jake spent a ton of time planting arborvitaes along one of our fence lines one weekend. Maria told me that arborvitae means "tree of life", which she thinks comes from some stranded explorers needing to subsist on eating tree bark at one point in time.

We got a patio set for outside. We grilled twice this month. Once on our own and once with Maria and Rexx. Yeah, I'm ready to get some use out of the outdoor area at our house.

I think the dog put on four pounds in the last month. Should that concern me? I'm pretty sure she was a healthy weight when we got her, so I'm afraid I've been overfeeding/underexercising her. We have a vet appointment for her on Monday, so I suppose that is one thing I can ask about when we go in. We never did get her medical records from the animal rescue league, even though we've been bothering them to send them. I hope she's not going to have to get a whole bunch of shots or something when we take her in.

Huh. I guess when I sit down to think about it, a lot has actually happened this April. Well, I got my blog entry in for the month! I guess I need to make my May Day plans for tomorrow now!

We have a new member of our family!

Here's our new dog! She's a hound/beagle mix we've named Lainey:





Also, I started a new blog. It's called Dose of Cute. You all should send me things to include on it.

How much is that doggie in the window?

It's been a struggle to adopt a dog. It's starting to feel like we're in some sort of competition where judges are looking to eliminate us.

One of first steps we took toward our dog search was showing up at an adoption event at Petco about a month ago. It was totally chaotic. There were people and dogs everywhere. It was not clear who was a volunteer and who wasn't. We did finally track down a volunteer who told us that if we were interested in a dog at the event, we needed to fill out an application and a vet check, sit down for separate interviews, set up a home visit, sign a contract in blood, etc., etc. At that point, we decided that we weren't ready to do all the paperwork or anything, especially since we didn't have a particular dog in mind.

So, we've followed up by looking online for dogs that look interesting. Jake has sent out several emails and has also filled out a couple of applications. He hasn't even had a response to some of his emails. One place in Maryland rejected our application. They didn't even tell Jake why at first. Jake just got a response that basically just said, "Nope, you are rejected." So, Jake followed up and asked about it and they responded that it was because Jake said on the application that our backyard fence is four feet high. They said that it needed to be at least five feet high or the dog might be able to get out.

Then, we saw this dog, named "Joey":


Jake filled out an application, and we got a response to come to the next adoption event to meet him. We showed up, and the volunteers there told us we needed to wander around to try to find him ourselves. When we did find the dog, a couple and their teenage son were also there looking at the dog. We walked up and said that we had filled out the paperwork for Joey online. The family that was there said that they had also filled out the forms. They then launched into a story about how their terrier had recently passed away. The son was kneeling down on the ground with his camera phone, flashing Joey a picture of their previous dog. The volunteer standing around told us that Joey was very hesitant, has a lot of separation anxiety, and would do best in a house with another dog. Well, Jake and I did say that we both work and couldn't be at home with the dog all day long. The other family brought up that the husband had a home office and Joey could just curl up by his feet all day long. It seemed as though the volunteer was trying to steer us away from going through with the rest of the application process. It did feel pretty hopeless with this other family standing right there trying to sound like a better fit the whole time. Joey does have a brother, who had just received medical attention the same week we went in. We didn't go through the whole interview process for Joey, because it seemed pretty futile to us. We said we'd wait to see when Joey's brother becomes available, which the volunteers seemed to think would be in a week or two. It's been two weeks, we've sent follow-up emails, and haven't heard anything back from the animal rescue team. So, yeah, I think we've been rejected from the dog adoption process...so an email saying "You have been rejected" pretty much does sum it up. I think if we get another one of those emails, our next step is just to drive to West Virginia or Kentucky and pick up a dog from the side of the road somewhere.

So, this does pretty much sum it up...

I took a "Career Advancement Test" online just now. Here are my results. Sorry they aren't pretty looking or in a chart, but I didn't have a way to link to the results page:


Snapshot Report
Stimulation
83
Your answers showed that you are ready to take on more stimulating tasks than you presently have at work. You may even find yourself feeling bored and would welcome some more difficult or demanding duties. Either you feel you have reached a high level of competency in your current position or it was never sufficiently challenging for you to begin with.

HA!

Can blogging make you happier?

Check this out. Thanks kids, for creating more social connections through blogging. :)

I went to a garden party/ To reminisce with my old friends

I'm getting antsy to start trying to do gardening. We got this hydrangea at our housewarming party, and I want to find a place for it outside:



It was doing fine for a while, then some of its leaves got a bit crunchy. I hope I can get it to survive until I'm able to get it outside.

Jake and I went to Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria on Valentine's Day. I've started some flower seeds in little pots. I chose penstemon digitalis, because the description I read said that the plants attract bees and hummingbirds. The seeds are super small. I could barely even see them as I put them in the pots. I'm afraid nothing is going to come up. Jake chose a plant called liatris spicata. I really need to learn the common names of these things. Go Google! Okay, the common name of mine is "beard tongue" and Jake's is "blazing star".

I also have a bunch of seed packets of vegetables, but haven't tried to start any of them yet. I have 2 kinds of tomatoes, 2 kinds of peppers, lettuce, mesclun, and cucumber. I'm not sure how much I should try to start. On the one hand, I don't want to start trying to grow too many things at once and become overwhelmed. On the other, I want to make sure that I'm successful at growing something (even if it is just one thing) and the more things I try, the more likely it is that something will work out.

Oh, and I got flowers from Jake on V-day. I just told one of my coworkers that I can't remember the last time I got flowers, so this was cool. He also bought the vase for me on etsy. Here are pictures: