3 weeks with violet

well, we've been with violet for 3 weeks now, and it's been a crazy 3 weeks. i never really, truly realized how much my life would have to change for a puppy.

• i now get up between 2 and 4am every day to take her out for a leak.
• she gets walks at 6:15am, 12:30pm, 5pm and 9pm every day
• she gets fed at 6am, noon and 6pm--these times are not always convenient for me...
• her crate is very ritualized so that she can learn to become comfortable with it and might go into it someday on her own
• we have to watch her like a hawk to prevent messes and potty training is mixed--some days are good, some not

anyway, we've also had some fights: violet and me, not lee and me. she somehow told herself that lee was the alpha and that she didn't have to listen to me. i was to love, but not to respect. we've been working on that, and she's seeing me as more of an authority these days.

all in all, i'm beginning to enjoy it. no--i did not always enjoy her company at first. but we're getting there! and here's 3 weeks of photos to prove it :)

she learned to fetch by the end of day 1. unfortunately, she chewed the hell out of this little ducky (and yes, it was a teething toy of sorts) and so it was thrown out at the end of week 1. she has also completely chewed through 2 nylabones.


wrestling with lee on the floor. she won!


she has claimed our kitchen mat as her own bed... i then bought her a bed and she has been way to excited by it to actually use it--she scratches it, chews it, throws it around, but she does not lay on it. so for now, the kitchen mat is hers. we'll try the bed again in a few weeks...


and this shows what she'll look like if she gets german shepherd ears...


look at those jowls! i think her face looks like a muppet's :)


the first time she voluntarily got into her crate was when we gave her a puppy kong filled with peanut butter. she drooled and immediately ran to her crate to keep it from us. that has not happened again, but tonight she got into her crate on her own when she smelled that our dinner was done! we always put her in the crate during dinner and it worked! don't know if she'll do it again, but yay for conditioning!


when we got her, she was 11 lbs. in three weeks, she has gained 6 lbs. we think she'll be bigger than we originally thought. who knows what went on with her at the rescue--there were a lot of dogs there, so maybe she didn't get enough food or something. but look how much she's grown!

successful food freak dinner club :)

i have no excuse, but i forgot to take pictures. and that's a shame, because we had delicious food! so just a textual teaser today:

glutino crackers, almond thins and a variety of cheeses opened the meal
mulled and spiked cider

for the main course: lobster newburg
served with: pumpkin dumplings over sauteed bok choy and oven roasted asparagus

dessert: pear and cranberry crumble with pumpkin ice cream

all homemade, and all delicious! thanks to beth for sending me a link to a new york times blog with gluten free/vegetarian thanksgiving recipes. that's where the pumpkin dumplings came from--though they were served over sauteed radicchio. i couldn't find radicchio or even endive, so went for baby bok choy and it seemed to do the trick. mmm, mmm... they were a hit, as was everything else. we all licked our plates clean and had NOTHING left except lee's pumpkin ice cream. because, well, homemade ice cream makes a lot, and i don't like it and the other folks just weren't the champs they were supposed to be...

anyway, looking forward to many more meals with these folks :)

some food and holiday misanthropy

lee and i used to be in this fantastic vegetarian dinner club. we met with beth, trinity, paul, sylvie and miriam about once a month. whoever was hosting cooked an entire vegetarian meal--sometimes themed for an upcoming holiday, sometimes a celebration of an event in one of our lives, sometimes just simple food. one meal i'll always remember is when beth had just moved into a new apartment we had veggie burgers and root beer floats. these were great times!

so i've tried to recreate something of this with other friends. my friend, ashley, is allergic to wheat. i thought: maybe we can do a little dinner club and some of my more adventurous friends won't mind cooking restrictions? we'll even make it a pot luck to lessen the burden of cooking gluten free. well, i've pulled it together, but not without difficulty. i have a great pal at work who loves a cooking challenge and we've gotten together for dinners before with our husbands/boyfriends. but other friends have turned the invitation down :( i had hoped people would just like to have a meal with friends once a month! it has made me little sad.

katie and ashley both asked for a list of what i could not eat. here's what i sent them--i've never enumerated it in this way before! it astounded even me a bit:

in the gluten category:
wheat
semolina
barley (this includes malt flavoring or syrup)
rye
spelt
durum
triticale (whatever this is...)
kamut
oats--unless they specifically say GLUTEN FREE
texturized vegetable, soy or any kind of "fake" protein
soy sauce or other asian sauces unless it specifically says GLUTEN/WHEAT FREE
couscous
"normal" pasta and breads
tabbouleh
wheat berries
beer
whiskey, scotch, cognac (all other liquor is okay)
anything with caramel coloring
check packaged broths--many are NOT GLUTEN FREE

in the non-gluten category, i have other problems:
walnuts and pecans--this is where i should also say that nuts make me panic so i stick to cashews, almonds, pinenuts, and peanuts...
quinoa--i am apparently allergic to this magical gluten free food :(
soy and other bean flours--no problems with other soy products or beans, just if something (usually a baked good) is made with soy or other bean flour

we were also invited over to share thanksgiving dinner with friends of ours. they didn't think that i couldn't eat ANYTHING at a traditional thanksgiving table. of course i don't eat turkey, but now--no stuffing, biscuits, cornbread, gravy, not even green bean casserole. just the mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. they're super easy to work with, but i basically will be cooking an entire thanksgiving dinner and then have to cart it all the way out to the suburbs to reheat. it made me sad to think it's just easier to eat by ourselves at home!

so i'm sorry for the rant. tomorrow night is the first gathering with the new dinner club, that we have affectionately dubbed "food freak dinner club." we are a cozy group of 5, and i just hope it works out. i'll post some pictures and some recipes i hope. i'm just wishing for some quality dinner time with some great friends again and i really hope this works!

welcome home, violet

lee and i just got a new puppy. her name is violet. most of you have seen her pictures on facebook, but here's she is again:

violet is doing pretty well on her crate training. although i've got to say that people keep telling us that she'll eventually love her crate and see it as her special place. i feel like they're lying. she goes into it, but only if we make her. and she lays down and goes to sleep, but only after a resigned sigh. if she actually uses this on her own ever, i'll be surprised.

housebreaking is a different challenge. she's just not speaking to us. we know when she has to go do a number 2 because she gets fidgety and barks or groans. but peeing is a different story. we'll be playing or something, and she just drops the toy and pees. we've tried to get her to ring a bell when she needs to go outside but it's not working yet. so this will take some patience.

walking on a leash is going fantastically though! she's great at this and loves to walk--which is good because she gets about 3 or 4 walks per day. she has so much energy and loves to walk, so we do this and she's sleeping like a baby at night. she gets up between 2 and 3am for a leak, but otherwise sleeps well without even a whine in the crate. also, once she gets settled down in the house (after walks or playing) she also goes right to sleep in one of our laps. this is helping us keep our sanity. because otherwise she barks a lot. and i hate barking. she barks so loudly that lee and i had to buy earplugs. we're hoping this is just separation anxiety and will go away. if not, we'll be remedying the situation with anti-barking methods...

anyway, violet is a puppy and also chews a lot. i'm waiting for this to end as well. but all in all, she's a sweet animal and we can't wait for her to settle down a bit and be the kind of dog we can take for hikes and more. she has a great disposition and is super friendly, so she won't make a good watch dog :) but that's ok!

i'm so glad we found violet.