Wordless Wednesday - Scary Faces

Flat Gimli Friday - One of the guys

Peanut butter time

Merida's first taste of peanut butter and my first video with background music.

She's 4 months old here.

 

Professor Gimli

Now Students, Professor Gimli of Slytherin House would like to teach you the difference between the spells, Lumos and Nox.

Now, for your in class assignment, conjure up some food for me.  You may leave it with my assistant, the lovely Merida.

2 for 1

I missed Flat Gimli yesterday and since today is the Saturday Smiler, I felt like combining both.

Here we are in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico on the Castillo de San Cristobal fort.  This is after my top button popped open and I managed to flash all the visitors to the fort and no one, not even Mike (!!!), told me the button had come undone.

No wonder the guide was so nice to me!  hrmph.

As you can see from the photograph, the camera strap is lying between the buttons, so imagine my awkwardness when I had to fumble with my shirt to pass through the metal detectors to reboard the ship.

Yup, that's me, Queen of Awkwardness.

Wordless Wednesday - Little Shorty

Puppy Jail

Miss Merida came home Friday evening.  The vet tech I dealt with adores the Disney Princess, Merida, so naturally she adores our little corgi girl. She told us that Merida was a joy to have around and she got the VIP treatment with plenty of pillows. I guess it pays to be cute and lovable, huh?

She was still a bit groggy from the anesthesia, so it was easy to keep her quiet.  We set her up in the xpen for the night, along with her puppy blanket and some toys. Gimli didn't understand why she was there and not in the room with him, isn't he lovely? He did enjoy being the sole corgi in the house, while she stayed overnight at the vet's.

They put in internal stitches so there's nothing to tempt her to pull at them. She received an injection of pain medicine on the day of the surgery and on Friday, so she wasn't in pain. In fact, she's had no pain medication to speak of since Friday and she's not shown any signs of distress.

On Saturday morning, you could see she was starting to feel better and tried to stretch, but she stopped part way through. I imagine she felt some discomfort then and wisely stopped.

Giving us the stink eye

Don't look at me, I'm hideous!

Today, she's almost back to normal. Her scar is healing well. There's still some dried blood stuck to it, but that's starting to fall off on it's own.

She wants to run around and the poor dear is itching to go on a walk! We're to keep her quiet for 7 days, so she won't be joining Gimli and I on our walks til at least Friday morning.

Flat Gimli - EPCOT

Experimental Prototype Corgi of Tomorrow... What, that's not what EPCOT means? Well, Walt doesn't think so...

Here's what EPCOT really means: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Prototype_Community_of_Tomorrow_(concept)

Saturday Smiler - Screened out

The Last Time

It was a cold morning in January and I had a feeling that I could not shake. A weird, something isn't right, sort of feeling. I didn't tell Mike for fear of being melodramatic, so we continued on.

We got 6 month old Gimli ready and we headed to the vet. In the reception area after we handed him over and he happily went with the vet technician, the receptionist told me not to worry. I didn't believe her. I held back tears and smiled at her.

The house was quiet and we started our day.

Around lunchtime, the phone rang. I knew the caller before Mike picked up the phone. I sat across the desk from him and saw the color drain from his face. I was on the phone with a customer at the time and I don't know how I managed to complete the conversation.

Gimli started bleeding uncontrollably during the neutering surgery. He lost a great deal of blood and they had to give him an infusion. He was stable now, but they were going to watch him for the afternoon and he had to be on extreme limited rest for the next few days so as to avoid opening the stitches.

As you know, Gimli is alive and well.

Today is Merida's spay appointment. I'm nervous and a little scared because she's so little and because the vet keeps the spays overnight for monitoring. I'm trying not to think about what could go wrong, but it's colored by what happened with Gimli.

If you can spare any good thoughts, please send them our way.

Wordless Wednesday - Tired

Should have named her Pumbaa

Lately, I've looked at Merida and I feel like I should have named her Pumbaa.

For example:

• She's in the background at times. She hasn't learned to stand up for herself yet with Gimli.
• She has the same, um... "gas" problem as Pumbaa.  This girl can clear a room! I can't wait til we can change her food.
• She gobbles her food like Pumbaa. You'd swear we don't feed her. We've taken to picking up her bowl as she eats to give her time to actually swallow.  After her spay and things return to normal, we're going to investigate putting a ball into the bowl and see if that helps.
• She still has her lower baby fang teeth.  When she smiles, she looks like a warthog.  She's going in to be spayed on Thursday, so the vet will remove them at that time.

I told her she was a little piggy and she gave me this face.

Another year on the books

Happy Anniversary Mike!

Saturday Smiler - A few days late

This weekend was so busy, I missed out on the Saturday Smiler.

I hope this picture makes up for it :)

Flat Gimli - 5 years ago

5 years ago today, we drove 2 hours to pick up a ball of fluff and my foray into the world of corgis officially began.

If we hadn't chosen him, there'd be no Flat Gimli.

Happy Gotcha Day, you ornery little monkey.

A new toy

I'm not a professional photographer.  I know nothing about graphic design or editing pictures. I've never taken a photography course.  I've never even cracked the camera's owners manual.

I do know what I like. When I take a picture I aim to capture the subject and make it look like you could reach in and touch it.

I've been using a Canon point and shoot that I bought a few weeks before Gimli came to live with us.  This camera has been my baby for 5 years.  The majority of the pictures you see on this blog were taken with that camera. Some days, it's amazing what I can get. Other days, you should see the amount of useless pictures on my computer - too much flash, not enough, blurry and so on.

This year on the cruise, the ship was moving so much that my little point and shoot couldn't keep up. Rightfully so, I was stretching it beyond its limits and it couldn't.  I decided that I needed something with a bit more power, more control... plus a tripod.

About 7 or 8 years ago, Mike decided to purchase a digital SLR camera. It's an amazing camera and it has power and control, but it's big.  It's much bigger than a point and shoot and heavy too.  You'd need a neck like the Hulk to be able to carry this thing around it all day!  We took it on a few vacations and we found it was too cumbersome to lug around and by the time you brought it out of the bag, the picture opportunity was missed.

So, we put him away in the closet, in his bulky camera bag. There he sat for years. We'd wistfully think about it, but I was always too apprehensive to pick him up and play around.... Until the other day.

Here are some pictures I took:

Gimli refused to move from the spot until I took his picture. I've created a monster.

I think I need more practice, more playing.  There's a ton of settings and I don't know the location of the owner's manual.  This is going to be interesting. And fun.

Wordless Wednesday - Under the blanket

Year of Gimli - October