And I did it all by myself

Usually, when we have something that needs to be screwed in, nailed up, sawed in half or otherwise involves the use of power tools, I let Duff do it. Not that I can't do it...I just feel like he enjoys the use of power tools so much that I shouldn't waste the opportunity to use them on myself.

But last week, the roman shades that I have been waiting for three months for (that's right, they were back-ordered from JcPenneys for three months!) finally arrived. So I wanted them up as soon as possible (patience is not one of my virtues). Unfortunately, however, Duff had to work all weekend, and with the new extended store hours, that didn't leave much time for him to do projects.

So I took this project on by myself. Luckily it was fairly easy and only involved one power tool, several puppy toys, chasing after the puppy when she stole things she shouldn't have, finally surrendering and putting the puppy in her crate, some final pseudo-cursing when I couldn't get the brackets to snap into place, and then vwa-la! Roman shades. Lovely, light filtering roman shades that allow light in the room but block images from going out (if you catch my drift--this bedroom is Duff's walk-in closet after all).


So here's how they turned out. This is the one behind the bed that will probably always stay down for the sake of modesty (and to protect our neighbors' eyes).


The shades actually let in a lot of light, but unfortunately it is a rainy fall day here in PA, so that wonderful quality is not showing in the picture.


When the shade is all the way up, you can barely see it, which I appreciate.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with my $25 dollar purchase. Totally worth the 3 month wait (even for someone as impatient as me!).

Trouble

So, Riley has learned how to jump onto the kitchen table. And by learned, I mean she just tried it last night to get to her frisbee, which we set up there specifically for the purpose of keeping it away from her, and suddenly all four little black paws were on the table. This was followed by a lot of yelling by Duff and I and the puppy being grabbed and placed back on the floor where she belongs. Then Duff and I exchanged very shocked looks...Hopefully, she doesn't try this with the dining room table, where we actually eat our food!

In another, much more disturbing note, Riley was attached by the dog across the street this morning. This is the dog that we don't like because its owner lets it run around its fenced in yard all day barking at everyone and everything. But this morning, the dog slipped through the fence just as Riley and I were halfway up their yard and came running towards us. The dogs name is Cola, by the way (we only know this because once Cola ran away and its owner was asking everyone in the neighborhood if they'd seen her--Cola eventually returned about 10 days later, inexplicably). So anyway, Cola comes running at us, barking. Riley is at first a little startled and then as Cola continues to stand in front of us barking, Riley decides she doesn't like this dog and tries to hide behind my legs. Cola zips around and nips Riley in her upper rear thigh. Riley yelps (poor girl!). I turn to try to keep myself between Cola and Riley and keep saying "Cola, no. Cola, stop." Cola keeps running in circles around us, ducking in to nip Riley (followed by a pitiful puppy yelp) every few seconds.

Riley, at this point, is so scared that she jumps up on my leg, trying to get me to pick her up (which only resulted in her getting bitten again, poor dear). I, however, know better than to do this. First, all the experts tell you not to do this (I'm not sure why but I know they do). Second, when Riley was much younger, maybe three months old, Cola got out, similar to this morning, and charged Riley. Since Riley was only about 10 pounds then, I swiped her up off the ground. This resulted in my holding the dog up as high as I could and turning in circles while Cola tried to jump up and nip her. This was dangerous for both me and the puppy and only further excited Cola. Also, since Riley is almost exactly Cola's size now, I thought Riley would probably be better off on the ground where she could fight back if necessary (and I can't lift her that high now that she's 25 pounds or so). It also gave me two free hands to use while trying to get control of Cola (I tried to grab her collar but she was too fast).

Finally, after 30 seconds, maybe a minute (I can't tell you exactly how long it lasted but it was at least about 5 puppy yelps, *tear*), I get my wits about me, look firmly at Cola and say "Sit." Magically, Cola immediately calms down, stops barking and sits. I am in shock. I stand there...what do I do? Luckily, I hear Cola's owner start to yell for her dog (finally!). I yell back that I've got her. Cola continues to sit nicely in front of me, while Riley continues to hide behind my legs, tail down.

When Cola's owner is about 15 feet away, its like my magic shield disintegrates. Cola once again starts going crazy, barking and nipping at Riley. Her owner says something like, "Oh, Cola, you don't have to be territorial just because I'm here." Me, in my head, "right, cuz your dog wasn't doing this like the whole time when you weren't here, too." Anyway, Cola's owner finally grabs her dog and makes some lame excuse about how her landscapers left the fence open (me, in my head: "this is at least the third time you've used that excuse for when your dog gets out, so maybe you should try something new like fixing your bleapety-bleap fence or controlling your **** dog"). I take Riley a few steps away where she again jumps on my leg, wanting to be picked up. I comfort her and pet her for a few seconds, just feet from Cola, until Riley seems to calm down and her tail isn't quite to tightly down against her bum. I didn't want her to be scared of going out, just because of what happened. Then we walk across the street toward home.

Poor Riley stalked me around the house after that. Usually, after our walks, I put her in her crate, get ready for work and leave. Today, I let her stay out and she just laid on our bed while I did my hair and got changed for work. By the time I put her in her crate, she was almost normal. She did have a few slobber marks on her fur, though, from where Cola had nipped her. We will check her tonight to make sure there isn't any bruising or cuts that I might have missed.

Duff is upset and thinks we should report the incident to the police (he also thought I should have yelled at the owner, but honestly, the thought didn't even occur to me at the time--I just wanted to get my puppy home safe and sound). I think making a police report is a little drastic. I want to say that next time we will do something about it--maybe say something to the owner or talk to the police. But this is the second time its happened and that's just to me. It must happen to other people in the neighborhood, too. Anyone have any opinions on what we should do?

Mostly non-Labor Day Weekend

So, we had such a great time over the Labor Day weekend with my fam visiting that I've only just recovered enough to post some pictures. And, of course, all the pictures are of the puppies because with three puppies at the house, you can't really resist. So here are some great pictures of the puppies out having fun.

The puppies enjoyed some nice hikes through the local parks.

And then they went swimming. Riley decided it was her new favorite thing to jump into the water head first.


Here she is, swimming for her stick.


Another head-first dive.


All of the puppies with their own sticks.


A puppy kiss between Riley and her boyfriend.


And Riley, once she got home. She takes up a lot of room for a tiny dog...

Putting Riley to bed

The super big, OMG, house-changing project

I told you I was on it (everyone should thank Betsy for guilting me into finishing this post before the coming of the next millennium). It just took us a while to put all our furniture back in their original places. Anyway, as many of you already know, our super big, OMG, house-changing project consisted of getting new windows for the whole house. This may not seem that exciting but the difference to the house is significant.

First, the amount of light that comes in the house has significantly increased. Now, I thought the house got a lot of light before with all of its big windows but I never realized how much the old screens and windows blocked the light. Now, we get beautiful rays of sunshine pouring into the house in all directions.

Second, the house has become a lot quieter. The old saying "if these walls could talk" did not apply to our house. Because our walls did talk. Or rather, we would talk and anyone within a 30 foot radius of the house could hear us. And we could hear them. The neighbors talking across the street? Yep, we could hear you. The dogs parking across the way? Yep, it was like they were standing in the room with us. The sounds never really bothered us. Both Duff and I sleep like the dead. But now, an eerie calm has descended upon the house. No more cricket chirps and bird songs. Its like we actually live in a house now and not a tent.

Third, we have discovered that our air conditioner actually works. Before we thought that our 25 year old behomoth was just puttering on its last legs. But now we have discovered that it works just fine. In fact, we've actually had a few days where we felt the house was too cold! This never happened before! We were constantly turning the thermostat down to keep from sweating. Now, we keep the thermostat at a reasonable temperature and the air conditioner almost never runs. Its craziness!

Fourth, the new windows make opening windows and airing the house possible. Before, we had 4 windows in the house that we could not open (9 if you count the basement windows) and the rest of the windows we could open (with effort) and sometimes close (sometimes, with a lot of effort and banging and occassionaly tools were involved). Now, they slide up and down with the work of one little finger. They also flip in for easy cleaning (not that that will happen any time soon).

(former un-open-able window)

Fifth, our basement is less scary now. The previous basement windows were gross. There is no other word for them (sorry, I have no before pictures). They had metal frames on them that had rusted severely over the past 50 years. Most had rusted through and had small holes where you could see straight through them (kind of like metal lace). One in particular had broken and was stuffed closed by the previous owner with a plastic bag (note to other homeowners, do not try this as home--plastic bags are not intended to seal windows). The glass was also so old and ill-used that you couldn't really see through it. Which overall gave the basement a dark, haunted feel. Now we have lovely white casement windows that open (*gasp) with the flip of a lever and let in copious amounts of light.

There are about eight or nine other things I could add here to espouse the wonder that is our new windows. But I'm trying not to bore you to death...just maybe to sleep. So I'll leave off for now. But oh, new windows, how we love you.

Suprise Saturday Project

So, Duff and I did a surprise Saturday project today. We didn't really decide that we wanted to do this project until half-way through the week. Although it was last minute, we couldn't be happier with the results. Let's see if you can notice the difference...

Before:
After:

Before:
After:
That's right! We replaced our kitchen floor. I've been wanting to replace it since we first moved in (something about imitation terra cotta tiles just rubbed me the wrong way). But it wasn't until recently, though, that Duff finally came around. And now that he's seen what the new floor looks like, he agrees that we should have changed them much earlier. Plus, the process was super easy and only took us about 5 hours (note to other homeowners: dry ice is the BEST way to remove vinyl tiles. no ifs, ands or buts about it.). Most importantly, though, aren't the new floors pretty?

We had a visitor this morning

Look who came to have breakfast at the O'Current's house...

Sorry about the quality and angle of these pictures, but I was taking them through the windows so as not to scare away the deer.