Happy and healthy boy!

Guinness had his stitches removed yesterday!!  Now he is such a happy boy again.  I think by the time we got him home, he'd already forgotten that he'd ever had a cone on... He's very resilient like that.

I was thinking the stitch removal would be complicated, because he's such a high-energy and crazy kind of dog... The vet and her assistant tried to lay Guinness down on the floor and he started to really freak out, but then Kevin got down on the floor with him right in his face (in the cone of shame), and then Guinness calmed right down.  I got down on the floor too and started to feed him a few treats to try to distract him, but then it was SO weird because Guinness started to look really mellow and sleepy!  It looked like he might just fall asleep while they were removing his stitches.  

We got him home and let him nap (he seemed exhausted), and then we went for a nice long walk before it got dark out.  Today he is back to his crazy self!!  He's REALLY enjoying not having the cone on...

 Just ignore our million shoes in the background... They tend to accumulate on that wall... I should have picked them up before  I took pictures!  Guinness is really good about leaving our shoes alone though.  You can see my awesome new running shoes though (or one of them anyhow...).  They're grey and orange and turquoise, and I love them.

 

 Here's one of the duclaw scars!  It's a little rough looking.  They really were taking a beating while he had the stitches in... He was not gentle with them, and was constantly banging them into things!  We'd cringe for him when he did that, but he never seemed bothered by it.  I'm so glad we don't have to worry about him injuring or ripping his duclaws now though!

The Cone of Shame

Our dear Guinness is healing up nicely now.  The stitches from being neutered are healing so quickly and looking great, but the stitches on his back legs are taking more of a beating so they aren't healing quite as quickly (I was going to take pictures of where his duclaws were, but I wasn't sure everyone would want to see that!  Maybe after his stitches are out).  The incisions still look really clean and everything (not infected), but they definitely receive more abuse from Guinness so sometimes they look a little irritated.  And because Guinness is soooo hyper and soooo crazy, the veterinarian gave us some mild sedatives to give him, because we're supposed to keep him calm and mellow and inactive for 10 days (we're half-way there!) which is IMPOSSIBLE.  He usually isn't even calm or mellow after we're able to thoroughly exercise him... Let alone when we aren't even supposed to take him for a walk. So the sedatives keep him pretty doped up most of the time... When his pills start to wear off  he acts like his crazy self and is jumping all over everything, so then we worry about his stitches pulling or ripping... All 3 of us will be so happy when he gets his stitches out on Thursday so we can take the cone off and let him run around a bit!  

 

Not much else is going on... I've still been going to my weekly yoga class, and it's going well.  I'm still not flexible at all, but I think my balance is already improving a bit.  I bought my own yoga mat now, so I don't have to use the gym's mats anymore.  My class was yesterday, and today my abs are soooo sore.  We did a lot of core work.  Kevin started going to a CrossFit class too, so we're both quite sore on a regular basis.

Oh, and this week Kevin and I made probably one of the best dinners we've ever made... I recently purchased a cast iron pan, and I'd seen (on Pinterest of course!) directions for making an amazing steak in a cast iron pan.  We tried it the first time a few weeks ago, and the results were very "eh".... But those steaks were pretty thin and we made a few other mistakes, so they just didn't turn out great.  But this week... WOW.  It was amazing.  We were aiming for a medium rare cook on the steaks, and it definitely turned out more rare... but neither of us cared.  It was delicious.  I've tried making steaks many, many times on my own (everyone knows how much I love steak!), but they always turned out terrible.  It turns out the secret is a cast iron pan!!

Work has been NUTS, and I've been working a lot of really long hours on a really difficult and stressful project.  And this week my whole work group had to travel to Frederick, MD to meet with the HR department.  My work group is scattered all over the U.S., so it concerned me that they were flying us all in... I was thinking maybe we were getting laid-off or there was some other bad news!  It turns out that they were just really concerned about our survey results.  The whole company had to fill-out surveys on our job satisfaction, stress level, etc and the results from our group were SOOOO much worse than the rest of the company.  The rest of the company ranked most categories at about a 70-80% positive rating, and our group ranked most categories at 20-30%... so... that's quite a difference.  They had our whole group in a room, and at first none of us were saying anything because we were worried about repercussions (the surveys were anonymous, except that they knew what group we were with), but then we all started venting about everything and the HR people were SHOCKED at everything we have to deal with and everything we go through.  They even stopped being professional after awhile and just kept saying, "Oh my gosh, I feel so bad for you guys!" and "Wow, this is terrible".  So we'll see if anything comes of it.

I think that's about all that's going on here!!  I'll post again soon, after Guinness gets his stitches removed!

It's a bad day for Guinness...

This morning we dropped off dear Guinness at the vet for the big appointment... Our little guy is getting neutered.  He's also having his rear duclaws removed, because they're barely attached and they are risky for the pup at that point.  It's easy for them to snag that claw on something (Guinness has actually snagged one on his crate, but luckily it didn't bleed or anything and just made him yelp) and the toe can rip and cause very painful problems.  His front duclaws are quite attached and pretty streamlined though, and they shouldn't cause any problems.  The appointment was supposed to be this Friday but the vet had to cancel the appointment, so then we just figured the sooner the better.  We're also starting to notice a lot of behavioral issues from him being at that fun hormonal adolescent stage, so neutering him should help ease some of that stuff hopefully.

Dropping off Guinness really broke my heart though... The poor goober was SO happy and excited to be there (he loooooves the vet's office, but I predict he won't love it after this appointment...), and it just made me so sad that he was SO happy and had no idea what was coming.  We watched the receptionist take Guinness into the back room, and he was looking up at her so happy (and doing his smiling, of course) and practically skipping along because he was so excited... It broke my heart, really.  I guess it would have been way more difficult for us if he was scared or whimpering or anything, but I just felt terrible because he thinks something awesome and exciting is about to happen.  So I gave myself a little pep-talk in the parking lot, because this is going to be really good for him and help prevent future problems.... Right?  Right...

Here's a picture of Kevin taking Guinness for a walk...

And here's Kevin trying to get Guinness up to a jogging pace... 

And here's what happens every time we try to get Guinness above a fast walk.  He always thinks we're playing a game with him once we start to jog or run, so he jumps up at us (notice that his feet are not on the ground?) and tries to get in front of us.  It's funny and obnoxious at the same time... 

Let's see... What else has been going on... Umm... I went to my 2nd yoga class!  I was just as non-balanced and non-flexible as the first one, so no improvement so far.  Even though I'm sure I look ridiculous during class, I've gotta say that yoga feels great.  I felt so refreshed and calm and happy afterwards.

Another exciting thing is that it's almost football season!!  I'm so excited.  My family just had our annual fantasy football draft, and it was super fun as always.  I wish I could've been there in person for it though!!  I made one really stupid mistake during the draft that I was mad at myself about for a minute (or like an hour...), but overall I'm really happy with my team and I think/hope it'll do well this season!!  And I'm predicting that my Chargers might have a tough season, but I'm still very hopeful for them.  Kevin and I have tickets to go to the Eagles-Chargers game on Sept. 15th, and I'm sooo excited.  I'm trying to decide if I'm brave/bold/stupid enough to wear my Chargers gear to the Eagles stadium... I'm thinking I have 3 options:

#1: Wear my Chargers gear loud and proud.
#2: Wear my Chargers gear in a stealthy or subtle way... Like under a jacket or something.
#3: Wear non-football apparel, and maybe just wear the color blue or something to support the Chargers in a non-confrontational way.

Eagles fans are often CRAZY and sometimes scary (sorry Kevin!!), so I'm not sure how brave/bold/stupid I should be...

Guinness is 6 months old!

Not much has been going on lately, so I haven't thought of anything exciting to write about.  One thing that was kinda interesting for me is that I went to a yoga class last weekend.  It was my first yoga class ever, and I thought it was very interesting.  The studio was really nice and so was the teacher, and I plan on going at least 8 more times (I bought a Living Social deal... 8 classes for $40!).  I already knew that I have very poor flexibility, so I was expecting to notice that during the class... But the thing that surprised me is how poor my balance is too!!  I was so wobbly on just about every pose.  I'm hoping that'll improve.

Not much new going on with Guinness... He's 6 months old now, and we learned that 6 months is officially the start of dog adolescence.  I'd heard from many people that the adolescent stage is terrible in dogs (just like with humans!), but I was kinda relieved to hear that we've started it (so that it'll be over sooner).  We've scheduled his appointment to have him neutered, so that'll happen on the 23rd.  I've heard that can help calm dogs down quite a bit, so we're hoping that's the case with Guinness.  He is soooo hyper and crazy.  We actually just got our first noise complaint about Guinness two nights ago, which totally shocked me because I didn't think that was a bad night for him!  I can't even recall him barking at all.  There have been plenty of nights when I would have understood a noise complaint, but not for that night.  If we get another complaint, then we're considered in violation of our lease, and the apartment management can terminate our lease.  If it's a penalty-free termination then I'm kinda stoked because maybe we can find a house with a yard to rent, but I'm guessing it's not that simple...  Nothing with this apartment complex is easy.

One funny thing we discovered today is that Guinness goes nuts for laser pointers!  I've seen many cats go nuts for them, but I wasn't sure how a puppy would respond.  He was chasing it all over the place for about 20 minutes, and it was hilarious.  I got some video (which I don't think I can upload here), and a few pictures.  It was soooo adorable to watch.

Here's a picture of Guinness waiting at the bedroom door for Kevin to come out (even though Kevin was already at work for the day...).  He was confused.

The laser pointer dot is hard to see in this picture, but it's right by his paw and ear

We were worried he'd figured out where the red dot was coming from (Kevin), and that he wouldn't chase it like crazy anymore... 

But luckily he still thought it was amazing and chased it everywhere for another 15 minutes!  

My poor, poor teeth... And the happy teeth of Guinness

Well, I had a not-so-fun experience today.  I had my first cavities filled at the dentist.  I've never had cavities before, and my dentist found TWO at my last cleaning.  The appointment to have them taken care of had to be postponed (for boring reasons which I will not get into), and so the dread/fear of having my cavities filled lingered for about 2 months.  They are finally all fixed, and I am vowing here and now to take great care of my teeth from now on.  I have really been slacking with the flossing and fluoride (I never slack with brushing my teeth though!).  I was feeling so sad (and terrified) when they were drilling my teeth... My poor, poor teeth.  My lips are still a bit numb, but other than that I feel ok now... Just bummed that I had to have parts of my teeth drilled away.  I can also feel quite a texture difference when I touch the teeth with my tongue... so I hope that's normal.  I haven't been brave enough to look at the damage yet... Maybe tomorrow.

So, to make sure that I had a happy note to end this on (and so I didn't bore you with a post just about my self-pity-party about my cavities...), I thought I'd tell you guys something we love and find hilarious about Guinness.  I've been hoping to be able to take a picture of it for you, which is why I haven't mentioned it yet... but... Guinness smiles!!  Whenever he gets super excited and happy, he bares his front teeth a bit while he wags his whole body.  It's VERY clear that he's extremely happy when he's doing this, so it's definitely not anything aggressive or snarly.  The first time we saw him do this was a few months back, when he was seeing Kevin's dad again after a long time apart (he loooooooooves Kevin's dad).  He also does it whenever we've been away from him for awhile and he's super excited to see us, and he was doing it at the last appointment that he had with his favorite veterinarian.  The veterinarian loved it, and said he'd seen one other dog do that when he was in vet school, and while he was petting Guinness he said, "It's like he's smiling!".  When we were leaving the vet's office on this last visit (the Giardia visit, which was with a new veterinarian), the receptionist started talking to Guinness in a super happy tone, and then Guinness started smiling at her too!  I tried to find a good picture online of what the smile looks like (it's called a "submissive grin" I guess...), and a lot of the pictures looked scary!  Guinness doesn't look scary at all when he's smiling though... Probably because he looks way too excited and happy to have any confusion about why he's showing his teeth.  Here's the best picture I could find online:

And an update on the Giardia situation:  All of the antibiotics are finished now, and I don't think he's back to 100% yet... He definitely hasn't been his usual energetic self.  We'll have to have him tested (I won't give details on that, don't worry!) to see if he still has Giardia.  I'm thinking he might need another round of medicine, unfortunately...

We need a yard...

This past weekend was definitely exhausting for poor Guinness and myself.  It was a whole lot of trips up and down the 5 flights of stairs to the garage to get him out to the bathroom/grass (Have I mentioned recently how much I hate our apartment complex and wish we were renting a house with a yard?).  Giardia is no joke... And poor Guinness was quite tired all weekend, and he even fell asleep on my lap twice when I was sitting on the floor with him, and he never does that - He's always wayyyyy too hyper and active.  I'm hoping he starts feeling better soon.

With all of those trips up and down the stairs throughout the day every day and all of the walks I take with Guinness, I don't understand why I'm not getting in better shape!  It could possible have something to do with my very poor diet (I did consume a lot of Oreos this weekend...), but who knows.  My family's trip to Hawaii is coming up soon though (just over 3 months), so it's time to get serious about getting in shape.  I'm thinking about doing one of those 30-day Challenge things for sit-ups and squats!  I know there's one of those for push-ups too, but I've always hated push-ups... It takes me back to the days in high school when we'd have to do push-up tests in P.E. in front of the whole class (anybody else remember that stupid football that the teacher would hold?).  I really need to start eating better too... Which will probably mean I'll have to start cooking more, since eating takeout is almost always unhealthy :(  And I should probably stop eating Oreos.

Here's more pictures of Guinness (because I know you all can't be sick of them yet, right? haha :) ).

Guinness looking sad because he doesn't feel good...

But then he cheered up when I said his name!  It's not too hard to cheer him up.

 He seriously zens out sometimes when he starts chewing on towels.  He'll close his eyes or sometimes his eyes roll back (he's doing that in the picture... kinda creepy!), and he just chews and chews.  He's in the zone!

And you can kinda sorta see in the 2nd towel picture how cool the coloring in his fur is getting.  It's way better in person though, trust me.  Every bit of black in his fur is now also another color.  On the top of his back, there's dark brown mixed in with the black, and on his sides there's a lot of white and lighter brown mixed in with the black.  I'm excited to see what he ends up looking like!  It's so funny to compare to the coloring he had when he was a puppy:

Oh, and one thing to add about that picture of him as a puppy:  the size of a puppy's paws determining how big they'll get as adults does NOT always work.  Look at how tiny his paws were!  Everyone (his veterinarian and puppy class trainer included) thought he'd stay pretty medium-sized because he did not have big paws... They thought he'd max out around 40 or 45 pounds.  Well... Our dear boy is not even 6 months yet (almost!), and he's about 45 pounds already.  My new guess for his full-size is 60-65 pounds.  I've always loved big dogs, so I definitely don't mind... But we're just definitely going to need a yard for him!

Busy, busy!

Things have been quite busy lately!  I feel exhausted, honestly.  I'm happy to report, though, that my headaches are finally pretty much gone from my stupid head injury.  I have not been sleeping well this week though, thanks to a new stupid train that goes by our apartment twice during the night now, blowing its ridiculously loud horn the ENTIRE time it's passing by... It goes by at about 1am and 4am, and it scares the shit out of me every time.

Last Friday we had a really fun and fancy wedding to attend.  The reception was held at the same place that the dance competition takes place in Silver Linings Playbook (Ballroom at the Ben).  It was soooo fancy and soooo beautiful.  McGee and I got all dressed up, and had a blast dancing all night!  The reception was really extravagant, and an example of this was the dessert room.  Most weddings have a wedding cake for dessert, but this one had a whole dessert room!  When you walked in the room, you were hit with the AMAZING smell of chocolate (I was in heaven).  There was an ice cream sundae station, a million mini pies and tarts, a chocolate fountain, a station where they'd put your chocolate liquor of choice in a chocolate shot glass (quite a few people were camped out at that station), cookies and candies and cannolis, and of course wedding cake!  It was dessert heaven.  I sucked at taking pictures that night (I was way too busy having fun and dancing!), but I did get a picture of the very cool ice sculpture of the Philly Love Statue!

And we went from the joy and fun of that event on Friday, to the heartbreaking funeral on Tuesday of a good friend of Kevin and Timmy.  Their friend Vince (who was part of the small group that I attended the Solid Sound Festival with last month) passed away, and we found out after the wedding reception on Friday.  I had only met Vince at Solid Sound, but it was completely obvious during those 3 days at the festival (and, honestly, within about 5 minutes of meeting him) what an extremely nice and good guy he was, and how in love him and his wife were.  Here's a picture of our group from the Solid Sound Festival, with McGee on the end (I think you all know him...), Timmy next to me (for those of you that haven't met him), and then their friends Ben and Sarah, and Vince and his wife Kate are on the end.

This weekend McGee and his family are heading down the shore (that's the lingo over here for going to the Jersey Shore... But the part of the Jersey Shore they're going to is NOT like the terrible TV show, don't worry).  We were debating if I should go too and we would board Guinness for the weekend (I felt bad about doing that since I've been away from Guinness for 4 of the past 5 weekends...), but it turns out that Guinness kinda decided it for us.  It turns out that the little goober has picked up a case of Giardia, and we're quite sure that he got it from the dog park.  He's always drinking the nasty water out of the nasty dog bowls that they have there (even though we bring him fresh water... He'd much rather drink the nasty water), and he's also always trying to eat the mud out of the massive mud puddles there.  Yes, our "special" boy likes to try to eat mud.  We try to stop him every time and dig the mud out of his mouth (having a puppy is oh-so-glamorous...), but we know he's swallowed atleast a bit... And who knows what's growing in that nasty mud (I'm guessing probably some Giardia...).  So our little guy is on a few meds for about a week, and then he'll get tested again to make sure it's gone.  There's definitely no boarding places that would take him with Giardia though (he could easily infect other dogs), and I'd kinda like to keep an eye on him with the new meds too.  Here's some new pictures of Guinness, with his awesome new orange collar!  We've had to get bigger sizes for his collar and his harness (he's growing so much!), and he's 42 pounds as of last week.

So, it looks like I have a weekend to myself, plus Guinness of course.  I'm trying to decide what I should do!  I'm thinking I'll get some good food to make for myself (maybe some stuff McGee doesn't like??!!), and have a relaxing girly weekend.  I'm hoping my friend Colleen will be able to come hang out!