It's December in Austin, which means...

A high today of 87 degrees! It was 55 when I woke up this morning. After four years (end of this month) in Austin, I don't think I'll ever get used to the temperature fluctuations. My windshield keeps cracking. It's something about the laws of physics and sciencey things that happen when hot things get cold and vice versa.

Anyhoochie. I'm not going to apologize for taking a break from posting because it makes me hate myself (the apologizing, not the taking of the break), but I wanted to tell you about the weather. I went for a walk outside this afternoon in the boots I wore to work because it was 55 degrees this morning and now I feel sweaty. When winter comes to Austin though, it doesn't f*ck around. This weekend? Highs of 39 degrees, lows 29-31 degrees, plus 50-60 % chance of rain. Happy we had a cold snap a few weeks ago that motivated me to dig out my winter gear because I'm going to need it.

Speaking of winter gear, here is a photo of my dog in a Snuggie™. She has one. I don't. Because I figured out how to use a remote control and a telephone while being warm and simultaneously covered by a blanket a long time ago. (Snuggie lovers, I do not judge...unless I see you in one at the grocery store because my mother raised me right.)

The cutest EVER, right?

Stay warm wherever you are!

Me and my shadow...

A few months ago, on the phone to my mom, I said "we slept in today." My mom said, "WE??" (As in, who is this other person that is a "we" that you've neglected to mention until just this very minute?) The we I referred to was me and my Lulu dog. I don't let men spend the whole night because I don't like to cook breakfast or make morning small talk. And if I did, I probably wouldn't drop it on my mother so casually.

Last week, a friend pointed out that I am "we" with my dog in a way that I've never been with a person, a love, a guy. Then I stumbled across this article on Salon, which puts the woman/dog relationship in such beautiful perspective it made me feel like I knew the person who wrote it because she could be me:

"Tova and I became a "we": We’re moving in the spring; we sleep late on Sundays; we favor cafés with outdoor patios. I’d never been a "we" with anyone else: There had been me and there had been him, and there had always been more him than me. Love meant indulgence. But all those times I made Tova sit for her supper, all those tussles in the dog park that I broke up, all those moments I pulled her to my heel and let the squirrels go by—that was love."
(from "My best relationship is with my dog" by Laura Bogart, Salon.com) 

Like Bogart, I have considered that I might be using my dog as armor, as another reason not to get too attached to another person in my life. An excuse not to make room for someone else. Considered, then dismissed. This is what I want from my life right now. I love the simplicity. I'm rarely lonely, and if I am, it's only for a fleeting second. I listen to friends talk about their relationships and, rather than making me wistful and wonder why I avoid intimacy, it makes me grateful for the every day that I have right now. It's easy to live in the moment when you don't have to work to maintain a marriage or long-term relationship. My dog is not a "stepping stone" to a "real" relationship. In fact, I have made real and lasting connections with other people because of my dog; being out and about with her makes it easy to talk to strangers. She makes it easy for my introvert self to put on the extrovert cloak for a while, gives me a reason to smile at people I pass on the street, and she's a hell of a social dog, which makes it harder for me to be antisocial.

I never thought I would be a dog person. And now I can't imagine not having mine in my life. And this, this one line from Bogart's piece after meeting her dog, brought me back to the cold November night in 2008 when I met my little one for the first time and she buried her tiny face in my neck and I was a goner: "I have no idea what I’m in for, but I’ve never been more certain of anything."

Have you come to sing pumpkin carols?

Linus: "Tonight the Great Pumpkin will rise out of the pumpkin patch. He flies through the air and brings toys to all the children of the world."

Sally: "That's a good story."

I will dress my dog in her bee costume, hand out the cute little boxes of temporary tattoos (CVS!) for the kidlets, watch a marathon of American Horror Story on FX and wait for the Great Pumpkin to arrive.

Happy Halloween!

Today I share two favorite things...

Remember that post from August where I mentioned being happy on Dec. 31, 2010 (and then had a happiness dry spell until July)? It's okay if you don't. You can read it here. Or not.

I really just wanted to share what I look forward to every single day: Being in my bedroom, an hour or so before sleep, snuggled in my super comfy bed with my other favorite (not sure if she qualifies as "thing"), the Prettiest Puppy in the World, a.k.a. Sweet Girl, a.k.a. Lulu Tiny Dancer. She knows my routine at night (outside in yard one last time, inside to fill my nightstand water pitcher, turn off living room and dining room lights, plug in my iPod to sync podcasts, grab a "night-night" bone) and runs upstairs about 5 minutes before I do.


This is what that looks like. This is where I keep my (paper) notebook. This is where I've had some of my best ideas. This is what gives me peace no matter what's going on in my life. The thread count matters. I have special Texas Lavender linen spray that I get at the Farmer's Market. At least once a day, it's the most soothing place in the world. And right now I'm happy just thinking about it.

Happy now.

Now.

Today I believe in happiness...

After a marvelous weekend that began with a Saturday morning trip to another farmer's market (there are many in Austin) as I kept my eye on the cloudy skies, hoping the weather wasn't being a tease again.

It wasn't. I spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the sound of rain outside, reading some new pages of a friend's book in progress, catching up on more "Doctor Who" (the first David Tennant season), napping and being a bit lazy. I steamed lovely tamales from the Farmer's Market for dinner (chicken mole and spinach/caramelized onion).


I happily spent Saturday evening watching television and drowsing off to the sound of rain on the roof. Sunday morning felt like Christmas morning, waking up before dawn to thunder, lightning and more (!) rain. For those of you outside of Texas, I am not usually obsessed with rain. I am currently obsessed with rain because we haven't had any significant rainfall in Austin since MARCH. March, people, and if you've never seen what a drought looks like I'll sum it up: depressing as shit. Brown lawns, brown leaves, brown trees, yards turned to dust and dirt, highways lined with brown grass. Oh, and there's the fires that happen spontaneously because everything turned to kindling over the dry summer.

On this wonderful Sunday morning there were puddles everywhere and it was raining so hard the puppy wouldn't go outside (but the front porch was just fiiine...). I trekked to Starbuck (happily in the rain), got my usual gigantic (trenta) iced coffee and settled in to work on some copy and line editing. The rain let up long enough for me to walk the dog and it was wonderfully cool and breezy. I wore a hoodie.

My point...if you're expecting me to lead you to one...I had several in-the-moment-I'm-happy-right-now pauses throughout the weekend. Just for the little things. Like tamales. And rain. And my dog's third birthday (my sweet Lulu went from this to this in such a short time!). I'm happy right now.

And now.

Now.

Adventures in frugality...

It's official: This month, I have spent more on my dog and cat than I spent on myself.

Besides regular food and chew bones for the dog (yes, they're a necessity if I want to keep shoes and other items intact while I'm at work), the cat requires "special" food because she's 11 years old and has feline lower urinary tract disease, so her dry food runs about $20 a month, wet food slightly more.

Last weekend, the retractable leash I've been using to walk Lulu since she was a puppy stopped retracting. If you've ever used one of these leashes and had this problem, you know it's not something you can fix. So I had to buy her a new retractable leash (at one of my favorite stores in Austin, Bark & Purr). For $27, including tax. Twenty-seven dollars. For a leash.

It's not entirely a bad thing. Her old leash was a cord, like this one:
See the cord? I still have whiplash burn scars on my legs from her wrapping that thing around me when we ran into dog friends and she got excited. So my new retractable leash is all belt, like this one:
No more whiplash burns, and this one should last me for a while, but let's just say that Lulu got her birthday present early (she'll be two years old on October 10, and I was wondering what to get her).

When you're on a tight budget, surprises suck. Things break, animals get sick, you get sick (I'm still recovering from paying three co-pays and for two medications from a surprise kidney infection a couple of weeks ago...as a diabetic, I don't mess around with kidney infections and even though I'm lucky enough as an uninsured person to be covered by a local health clinic that's just as good as having insurance, I still have to pay the co-pays and for medication).

I learned a lot about being frugal after spending 2009 partially on unemployment and freelancing. I know how to grocery shop on a budget, I no longer use $45 night cream, and I can't remember the last time I bought new clothes. I buy books at the used book store. And there are lots of free things to do with your free time in Austin.

But that doesn't mean I miss being able to walk into Banana Republic and dropping $400 on new clothes (the last time I did that was in 2008). I miss my Kiehl's and Philosophy and DDF skin products. I miss salon shampoo. I miss new shoes that aren't flip flops. I miss my Source of Life vitamins (I take the One-a-Days now). I've only gotten my hair cut and colored twice in the past six months, and I go to a salon north of downtown because it's about half the cost of the downtown salons.

This month, I spent $8.99 on hairspray and $17 on Olay face cream. Add it up, and I spent more on my little animal twosome.

I hope Lulu appreciates her new leash. I can't tell, other than she seems to enjoy walks more without having a cord dragging behind her and getting tangled up with her legs. She's a dog. She doesn't even know when her birthday is. It's hard enough being a dog parent; I just can't imagine trying to make it work with "real" children.

And it could be worse. Last year, around this time, it was. Now I'm getting a regular paycheck, love my job, and know I have enough to cover my bills as long as nothing catastrophic happens. (Universe, in case you're listening, that's a plea, not an invite).

I have a tight budget, but something screws it up every month. How do people with kids do it? I can substitute the cheap cat food for a week or so and my cat won't die. I can use a broken leash for a few days and it's just an inconvenience. I can cut costs and use store brand products, eat pasta for dinner for a week, and do without a new wardrobe. But kids grow out of their clothes. They need to eat green things instead of taking a multi-vitamin. They need lunch money. They get sick and you have to miss work.

Here's too all the moms out there on a budget, including my own when she was a single parent raising four of us while working two jobs and putting herself through college. You perform miracles.

Lulu has a twin/friend...

We met Sarah and her furbaby, Foxy Lady, not too long after we moved to Austin in January. They look so much alike that sometimes people stop me on the street to ask me why I'm walking Sarah's dog and they call Lulu "Fox." I finally snapped a photo of the two of them together...Lulu adores Foxy and tries to run across the street - traffic or not - whenever she sees her. Can you tell which one is Lulu?

My furbaby is one year old today...

I can't believe she's been with me since she was 8 weeks old. And that there was a dog person hidden inside my cat lady. Or that I could love a little ball of fur whose poop I have to pick up in a bag WITH MY HAND so much. She got me off the couch in December. She gets me out of bed every day. She's been better for me emotionally than any shrink I've ever seen (after all these years it's nice to discover that all I needed was a furry animal to tell my secrets to who would simply respond with a worried expression and a cock of the head...could have saved a some $$ on therapy if I'd figured that out 10 years ago).

Baby Lulu at 8 weeks:


Lulu today:


She's a very happy girl and we bought a dozen "birthday bones" from the dog bakery to hand out to her neighborhood fur-buddies. Happy birthday to my little furball!

Skip this one if you're not a dog owner and/or are easily grossed out...

Because dogs are gross. As many of you know, after being a cat person for most of my life (with the exception of briefly living with my former roommate's rambunctious beagle-hound mix that I never liked), I became a dog-mom to a Pom in December of last year. My Miss Kitty is still the love of my life and gets lots of attention, though you wouldn't know it by looking at my Flickr photos (more than 100 photos of Lulu the Pom and only 16 photos of the cat). But I LOVE this dog. I mean, I really love her. I never thought I could love an animal this much. And here's proof:

I have never changed my nieces' or nephew's diaper because I have a strong gag reflex, but I have cut more dingleberries out of my dog's butt fur than I can count. I pick up poop with a bag over my hand. I let her lick my face, fully aware of where that mouth has been. And more than once I've had to do a bathtub butt-wash on an angry puppy who clearly ate something that didn't agree with her (because sometimes the poop scissors just won't cut it, no pun intended).

The first time Lou threw up, I completely freaked out when she snapped at me when I tried to clean it up because SHE WANTED TO EAT IT. I have since learned how to play keep-away with the dog vomit, dog in one hand and paper towels in the other.

My adorable, sweet-faced puppy took a chunk out of my arm when I tried to move her off of my mother's living room rug while she had a t-bone in her mouth. She made me bleed and I blamed myself, not the dog.

She won't eat dog poop, but her affection for cat sh*t is much like a gourmand's for rare and expensive truffles. We have many outdoor cats in my neighborhood and when Lou takes a dive under a bush while we're on a walk, I know exactly what she's after. Most of the time, I am able to pull her away, but I have had to use a poop bag on my hand to extract cat sh*t from her mouth. Also, if I am not on litter box patrol 15 times a day, I am likely to find Lou somewhere in the house by the trail of clumping cat litter. And since Miss Kitty is purebred Himalayan (i.e. not that bright and very change-resistant), she refuses to use a covered cat box. I also have to keep an eye/ear out for Kitty hacking up a hairball, because Lou likes to eat those too.

Speaking of where Lou's mouth has been, we love to walk in Hampton Park, but I have to be hypervigilant because Lou also adores duck poop. I think if I had a steak in one hand and duck poop in the other (ew), she'd pick the hand with duck poop.

She licks my ankles when I get out of the shower or when I put lotion on. And I let her. I don't know why, because it grosses me out to be clean and then immediately covered in dog spit, but she likes doing it so much I feel bad about telling her no.

I do not want to admit how many times I've played "what's that smell?"

I've taken Lou shopping at SuperPetz and Petsmart and let her pick out her own toys, even if it's a toy like her fleece-covered squeaky man that she loves, but I know he's going to be covered in spit and will no longer be white within five minutes of returning home. And she'll want me to touch the spitty thing and play with her.

I think it's adorable when she farts while sleeping and wakes herself up, even if it smells really bad. I still laugh.

Cats are easy. When I brought Miss Kitty home, she weighed about one pound and was so teeny I initially followed her all over the house. I also thought I'd have to train her to use a cat box. Within 24 hours I realized she already knew how to do everything herself, that one does not train a cat, and that she was the boss of me anyway.

Dogs are a completely different story. Lulu was 8 weeks old when I brought her home and was the neediest creature I've ever met. I spent all of December and a good part of January cleaning up after her, as she peed joyously wherever she stood. I got up three times a night to take her outside in 30 and 40-degree weather. "Crate training" lasted for two days and she has been sleeping on a pillow next to my head at night ever since. There was even a two-week period during which I cried at least once a day because I thought I chose a mentally-challenged dog that would never stop biting me, eating anything she found on the sidewalk, and peeing everywhere except on her puppy pads.

Then the training kicked in and she no longer bites me (except for the t-bone incident), she only potties outside or on her puppy pads, and she's just big enough now so I no longer have to pick her up and put her on my bed when it's time to go night-night. I beam with pride when people tell me she doesn't act like a "yippy little Pomeranian." I say thank you when they tell me how adorable she is, as if I am somehow responsible for her cuteness. I can have the worst day and come home to a wildly spinning little furball who is overjoyed to see me, even if I've only been gone for an hour.

So yes, dogs can be gross. But they're worth it. And now I completely understand all my friends over the years who let their dogs slobber all over them. I get it, and I hope I wasn't too judgmental about it. I feel bad about the times I've visited friends and they've had to patrol their dogs so they wouldn't jump all over me (as I stood frozen with my arms in the air in a "no touchy" position). I welcome it now, really. Jump and slobber away.

Also, if any of my sisters or nieces want to have more babies, I promise to give diaper-changing a shot.

New baby in the family...

Miss Kitty has a little sister and I am a dog mom! I picked up my little Pomeranian last night (so hard to choose from the litter of four - they were all so stinking cute I could have taken all four home). She's 7 weeks old, is teeny-tiny (the little one of the litter), and is the neediest animal I have ever met in my life, excluding my sister's Yorkie. Miss Kitty hasn't really taken to her yet (she has been in her hidey box since last night), but she will eventually.

The new puppy has no name yet, but she does have the sweetest little face and is quite the spaz. She also has no discretion about where she makes peeps and poops, refuses to go potty outside, and woke me up 14 times last night chewing on my hair and my face, and another four or five times whimpering (potty? No. Food? No. Love? Yes. Just wanted to play at 4am).



I need help with a name! Her bio parents called her Apollonia because her daddy's name is Robin Masters Apollo. I'm not in love with the name Apollonia and don't want to call her Apple because Gwyneth already came up with that one. This is what I know about her so far: She enjoys running around in circles, chewing on the leg of my sweatpants when I stand up, will suddenly pass out for a nap in the middle of playing with her stuffed dog, whimpers if I leave the room and she can't see me, has the tiniest little white feet, and weighs about 2 lbs. I've come up with the following list with the help of family and friends (my mom and Michael have already met her):

Lulu Belle (Lou for short)
Tuffie
Mimi
Tiny Dancer (Tiny for short)
Little Lily

I don't want her to be three months old and nameless, so I have to come up with something soon. Ideas are welcome! Right now, I'm leaning toward Tiny. Tiny Dancer. Too weird?

More pics here.

Also, any training advice is welcome. She is wearing her collar now after some struggling last night, but I took her out this morning on a leash and she did not like it AT ALL. She has a box with newspaper where she is supposed to potty, but pretty much goes wherever she likes, even after I've put her in her potty box or taken her outside every single time she makes wee indoors. I know she's a baby and training is a lot of work. I can handle it, I just need to figure out what to do!

Despite the behavioral stuff, I adore her already. I love her baby growls when she fights with her stuffed dog. She barks at the television. She climbs me like a tree when I'm sitting on the couch. And right now, she's licking my laptop (don't think my Dell warranty covers dog spit, but she's only licking the outside). She smells like puppy, but in a good way. And I fell in love with her sweet little face in a pic the owner sent me before I even met her. Her cuteness makes me weak.

New family member?

Now that I'm working from home again, this might be the perfect time to get a puppy. I've checked with all the local shelters, and while some of them have puppies, none have small breeds (puppy or otherwise) and I really can't handle a dog larger than 10lbs.

I had considering getting a kitten, which would be cat #2 (and I wrote about getting a kitty as a pet for Miss Kitty a while back), but after a couple of vet visits (I go to Cats Only in Mt P) this summer, I realized that she hates other cats. However, she loves dogs. My former roommate had a beagle when I got Nina as a baby and she liked him. I had an upstairs neighbor last year who had a Maltese named Barkley or Barker or something like that and she LOVED him. She used to hear him in the entryway and I let her out to greet him a few times. After neighbor and dog went back upstairs, Nina would sit at the front door and cry for hours.

So my new family member might be a dog. I've been researching breeds, and would love a flat-faced dog to match my flat-faced kitty. I don't think I could deal with a Pekinese (yippy and nasal issues), Yorkie (neurotic as hell...my sister has one), or a French bulldog (gorgeous, but expensive). So I've narrowed it down to Pomeranian (you have to get them when they're babies because they are spoiled easily, according to the dog whisperer); Maltese (just so stinking cute), or Brussels Griffon (the dog from As Good As It Gets). Pure bred Brussels run upwards of $2,000 and I'm not spending that on a dog. I'd much rather adopt, but am also open to paying a small fee for a non-registered mix.

I have calls in to some breeders, trying to weed out the puppy farms (will not buy from puppy farm) and have found a few. One is selling a Pom Maltese mix for $500, which I think is a little pricey for a dog that isn't pure bred. In fact, I've found pure bred Pomeranians for less than that, papers included. But if you know anyone with Maltese, Pomeranian, Brussels Griffon, or any mix of these in puppy form that might be selling or putting up for adoption, put me in touch!