Mirror mirror on the wall, whose puppy is the most pathetic of them all?

So, after reading my most recent blog posting, Kiff claims that her Sadie (one of my favourite doggie friends, by the way) is actually more pathetic looking than Brock when it comes to getting baths... So I've decided to let you all vote for yourselves!

Here's a juxtaposition....

Brock, wimpering to be 'saved' from his bath.

Kiff canoodling sadie... Not sure what's more pathetic-looking: Sadie or your babushka?

FYI: That's not what you think... it's peanut butter smeared on the bathtub.

Aww, Sadie looks so sad! Must have been dirty though, or had an accident... That water doesn't look clear to me!

More puppy patheticness.... :)

Who do YOU think is the most pathetic water doggie???

Raining cats and dogs...

Hi everyone,

Not a lot to report today but I thought I'd right a quick update so those of you who have been checking this regularly aren't annoyed with me for another day of no posting. :)

Today is nice and warm in Cincinnati, however it's been raining pretty hard since yesterday evening. Our snow is all but gone and I have a feeling that we won't be seeing much more until next year *tear*. Ah well.

Brock enjoying what's likely to be his last snow this year... Poor thing is confused now - when we take him out to pee, he's not sure where to go because we had been taking him to the snow.

Brock is growing like a weed and is doing well. He is a lot of fun now as he's learning and discovering his little world at a very rapid pace. I suppose the most excited thing he's learned to do to this point is to ring his bell in order to be let out for a pee. It's actually very cute. Now that he's house trained and we're not needing to take him out every hour, it's a very handy trick. We just started by hanging a couple large 'jingle bells' that I purchased at Michael's from a chain of tie wraps (Dad, aren't you proud of me for being so handy?) as we didn't want him to chew through a string or ribbon or something. We would have him nudge the bells with his nose and then sit every time we took him out and now he's learning to do it on his own. Ah, we're such proud parents! We must give him credit though, he's been incredibly easy to train....

Michael's doing laundy...
oh wait, I knew it was too good to be true!

Tonight, we're off to our second puppy kindergarten class (last week's was canceled due to the big storm), which should be a lot of fun. Brock has made a little friend there, named Graham, who's an oatmeal-coloured poodle mix (his parents got him at a shelter and so they're not really sure what he's mixed with) who's a good match for Brock. Graham's only about five or so pounds heavier than Brock but he's full grown so he's a little less excitable, which is nice.. all the others in the class are fully grown large breed dogs - two labs and a boxer. And actually, those three are not very well behaved so we were glad that Brock and Graham became fast friends :)

Brock looking particularly pathetic and defeated by the end of his first bath a few weeks ago (this week's bath was thankfully much less eventful!). It's amazing how much he shrinks up when he doesn't have his big fluffy hair to hide inside!

So yeah, not a lot is going on here right now. I got a library card in the mail yesterday (which I ordered online) so I think I'll head over there this afternoon to activate it and see if I can find a good book to get me through the rainy weekend. Tomorrow, Michael and I are off to Ikea to pick up my knitting chair - see the last post about how I won a 100$ gift certificate there - which I'm also pretty excited about. Michael's not so much looking forward to it - he hates stores full of people - but I promised I'd get up early enough to miss the rush.

Brock's 'pounce' while playing at the tennis courts... too cute :)

Well, that's all for now. Must go as Brock's jingling his bell for me!

Take care,
Mariah

I heart IKEA

Well, I must say it's a beautiful day in our neighbourhood today :) The sun is shining, it's probably about 13 degrees and there's no sign of snow or rain... oh, and the 40 cm of snow that we got on Friday and Saturday is nearly gone. I must admit that it's much nicer to have a blizzard when you know that spring is just around the corner...

So, now for some local news: Today was the Grand Opening for the first Ikea in Ohio. Actually, it's the only one within about 7 hours of here, so it's quite new and exciting for many local people who don't really know what Ikea is all about. So anyways, they allowed people to start camping out for the Grand opening starting on Monday morning at 9am. A little crazy but I'm sure many people did it. Michael wouldn't take two days off work to wait in line with me, and having only one vehicle and not really knowing anyone else in the city crazy enough to do it, I missed out. (What gives, eh? haha).. No, just kidding. I wouldn't have anyways.

Instead of all that fuss, I decided to go this morning after dropping Michael off at work. (His parting words were 'please don't spend all our money there!') It was tough, but I managed not to. I spent 18.00$ on two laundry hampers and a large container with a flip lid for dog food... Wasn't looking for these things but they had been on my list of things I semi-need for a while and the prices were right. That's really not the most exciting part though. Although I didn't arrive until 9:20am, I was still within the first 2500 people to enter the store. I was sure I had missed out on the 'mystery envelopes' that were being given to these first visitors since, when I got there, the line-up went around three sides of the huge square building. The hype going into the building was pretty ridiculous. As we rounded the last corner to the entrance, suddenly there was music... Like a live band playing really upbeat music - like you would hear at a sports game. Then, the most shocking thing, as you walked in through the doors, I was handed a gold envelope (yay me for being one of the first 2500!) and then the line passed through a room of at least 100 Ikea employees, all dressed in yellow, clapping, hooting and banging these plastic Ikea signs together... like the ones you'd see at a hockey or football game. It was mayhem! (but oh-so-much fun :) So yeah, after walking through the throng of cheering employees, you go up an escalator and, I was finally in the store. You'd think this would be where the excitement would end, but NO! I decided to grab a quick breakfast.... 99cents for a plate of eggs, bacon and potatoes, you can't go wrong! Then, as I'm checking out, I'm given a free mug. "Sweet," I'm thinking... But it doesn't end there. It's a cup that entitles me to free coffee for life at the West Chester IKEA. (Not that I'll be stopping by there that often but, a) it's a free travel mug and b) it's a free coffee at least on the next few occasions that i'm there.)

Ok, so now you'd think the excitement would be over... but still not yet! I realized that I hadn't yet opened my little gold envelope... Inside was a 100$ gift card! I couldn't believe it! Mariah, who NEVER wins ANYTHING, won! So yes, that's the end of the big excitement of my day. I then trolled through the store, wondering what to purchase with my windfall... I had been telling Michael I would love a chair for knitting... I though I knew what I wanted but once I got there, I realized I had a couple choices... I want to make sure it's something that we'll be able to use when we move - we're hoping to buy a house once I get a job here - and that it's something he'll like as well. Plus, I wanted to think about it a little while. So I think we'll head back this weekend or next... as soon as I can drag Michael :)

Well, that's about all for now. I hope this post finds everyone well and happy.

Take care,
Mariah

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Hello everyone, from snow-covered Cincinnati!

We've just emerged from a two-day blizzard (yes, I would even say it was a fair bit of snow as a Northerner!) in the city. Although the city was basically on lockdown for the last 36 hours, we have still managed to have a lot of fun and a good weekend here.

We wanted to upload some pics for y'all (haha) but Blogger seems to be acting up tonight and won't let us add any more than that first one. Sooooo... check back tomorrow and we'll do our best to update asap!

Until then, have a great week!

Mariah, Michael and Brock

Obama-Rama

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been a while since my last post... As most of you know, Michael and I have been out of commission for quite some time due to the awful chest cold/flu that seemed to have found its way to our apartment a few weeks ago. Thankfully, Michael is now back to normal and I'm about 90% back (from the semi-dead) as well. Perhaps my sickness was lengthened somewhat by standing outside in the 0 degree Celsius weather for about five hours last week but it was all worth it :)

You're probably scratching your head wondering what the heck I'm talking about... Well, despite Michael's dismay, I met up with two ladies from my knitting group (no, they're not old grannies, they're both young women, one of whom is a student about my age - and yes, they're very cool!) and we went to the Barack Obama rally (AKA the Keeping America's Promise Rally with Barack Obama - the PR team who came up with that deserves a raise!). We arrived around 9am at the University of Cincinnati - not to be confused with Cincinnati State University, I found out! - where we got in line (about 50th, I'd say) and waited to be let into the gym. We brought our knitting, which we quickly found out would not be allowed 'because knitting needles are long and pointy and can be used as weapons' but it was really too cold to knit anyways. We had thought we would be allowed into the aigue, at least but no such luck.

Finally warm and toasty inside!

Our long wait outside was paid off with a "Golden Ticket" that was given to those of us close to the front. We got priority seating on the lower level.

I took advantage of the opportunity to walk back to the car to dump our stuff and warmed up enough for the next few hours in line to be tolerable. Note to self, Cinci weather is a lot like Niagara weather - damp and windy. It might have only been zero, but it cut through us. Unfortunately, we were not let into the building until a little after 1230pm. The wait was long, but the company was good, and the speech was great, so it was all worth it.

This first picture was taken from our spot in line (the entrance was behind me...) If you squint really hard, you can see the line off in the distance, on the other side of that fence and across a playing field. Below is the same view but magnified so you can see how far the line goes.



The view from inside the building - another LONG line-up... Apparently there were three lines all of which had thousands of people in them.

So anyways, once we got in and went through our security checkpoints, we (along with the 14,000 others in attendance) listened to a couple 'notable persons' give short talks about why they're supporting Obama. Among them was the Mayor of Cincinnati, who I learned is not only a 'VIP' but who is also a Super Delegate and who has decided to endorse Obama. Tres cool.

After the talks, they pumped up the crowd a fair bit with the token inspirational music (insert U2 here) and had fun picking out the most enthusiastic supporters on the jumbotron. Finally, Barack took the stage and, I must say, it was something I won't ever forget.



He was not only a good speaker but had a charisma about him that I've never seen in a speaker in person. Regardless of the politics, he certainly knows how to hold the attention of a stadium full of people. There are several points of his that I vehemently agree with, and on the other hand, there a couple things that I am a little skeptical about - his health care plan sounds good, but will it actually be do-able, for instance. Also, I was a little taken aback by both Obama's and Clinton's efforts to one-up each other in their condemnations of NAFTA...



As a Canadian, this obviously concerns me more than a little. (As a side note, see this story, which has certainly heightened my confusion...)



And then, there's this article.... Canada says TV Story on Obama NAFTA Deception is not true.

Bah, it is all politics, after all. But given the extreme excitement at the rally and in the media in general, I think some definite social change will inevitably follow this year's election, regardless of the election's outcome. About a year ago, I was not so sure about moving here from Canada, the land of free health care, bilingualism and cultural mosaics (I tried explaining the difference between a mosaic and melting pot to an American a few weeks ago, and that didn't really go well), mostly due to the political landscape; however, I'm now hoping this presidential race will bring out a more liberal transition and a political change of pace, regardless of how naive many republicans would say this viewpoint is.

For now, even though I can't vote and don't have a proper front lawn on which to erect a sign of support, I will wear my Obama button with hope.

PS sorry for the lack of photos and videos that I had promised some of you - turns out that I don't know how to use Michael's camera properly - should have grabbed my own, I guess - and not only is there no audio on the videos, but almost all the photos are blurry.... I had included a few though, and a few YouTube videos from others, so, enjoy!

Brock update

Hi All,

We've officially had Brock for one month now. Our lives have definitely changed since he's arrived. Here is a summary of the past 4 weeks.

Weeks 1 & 2: Brock comes home. We get the pleasure of waking up at 2-3am to take him out to pee. We take him to a vet to get his first checkup where we find out he is 8 pounds. It turns out the dog is an attention hog. Everybody who sees Brock has to stop to pet him. A woman who was driving stops her car to see Brock. We also give him his first bath which he doesn't like at all, luckily he likes peanut butter a lot. Mariah teaches him to sit and go up and down the stairs.

Weeks 3 & 4: Brock starts to teethe and enjoys chewing on everything including us. His teeth are especially sharp since they are new. Potty training progress is touch and go. He starts to learn how to let us know when he needs to go out, but if he gets excited he pees everywhere. Mariah takes him to get he second set of shots and a grooming. Again, this dog is an attention hog and I think he knows it. Brock also learns how to jump on the couch which is a pain. We figured he might be a jumping dog because his mother and father were extremely agile. Mariah teaches him to lie down and shake his paw. Finally, we took Brock to his first puppy training class. He met a lot of new friends including one poodle that was maybe 2-5 pounds heavier than Brock despite being 1-year old. Brock did very well and had a lot of fun. When we weighed him at PetSmart after our class he was 16.5 pounds. This puppy is going to be massive.

Here are some new pictures of our pup: