6 Months

Yesterday, Friday the 22nd, was our 6 month anniversary. Sometimes I get taken by suprise that I'm married. I spent a lot of time with the word single attached to my identity. When we got married it seemed like things meshed naturally for us for the most part. We've never had problems with toothpaste squeezing, drinking from the milk jug, or toilet paper orientation. But, sometimes I suddenly see my thought processes and realize that I don't have to think that way anymore because I'm married and the conditions and assumptions I previously used to form attitudes and make decisions don't always apply. But it's a habit. Habits are there so we can conserve mental energy for more important things--new problems, new circumstances--that way you don't have to use all that energy every time you brush your teeth or take out the trash. I'm not really sure of the point of all this. I realize that time and experience will most likely take care of these things, but it's just something I've been thinking about.
Happy (6 Month) Anniversary Patrick!

Shave and a haircut...

Somehow the responsibility to relate this latest tale has fallen to me. I must protest that the event that follows was not my idea. I will claim partial guilt for the outcome as I was fully involved in the process.

Now to the story: Saturday night last week. Just finished watching a movie together. 11:30ish. I vent my frustrations at the mound of cat hair on the pillow and blanket on my side of the bed. (Smokey is Patrick's 13-year-old cat. Ever since we got the puppy he's been shedding double time and my pillow is his favorite place to sleep during the day.) Patrick mirrors my irritation regarding the ever present coating of cat hair on our furniture. He has a brilliant idea. Let's shave the cat! I did not immediately realize that he meant right then, but as he brought out the electric clippers I got the idea pretty quickly.

That brings us to things I've learned: It takes at least 2 people to shave a cat. It also takes at least an hour or 2. Needless to say, we went to bed that night with only a few square inches shaved off Smokey's back. The job was finished the next day after church. Suprisingly, no one was hurt in this adventure and the cat has not been any more grumpy than he already is. I think he's so old he just didn't notice the change in his fur.

However, he does look a little worse for the wear...

Koda, Spud Fest, and Water Dog

So it has been a while since we took that other picture of Koda, so here is one from the 26th of July. He really likes to bite his own tail, one thing that we will gladly let him do.

Today he is 17 weeks old and he is still a handful. He has been very good at listening and coming when called, but lately he has chosen to ignore us. When there are more interesting things going on (like kids playing across the street, the neighbor's black lab, etc.) he will just plain ignore us. With a little work he may just come around :-).

Spud Fest
Yesterday we went to Victor for Spud Fest! We took Koda with us and stayed the night at Fox Creek Inn, which is a bed and breakfast. It was fun to get away and be around the Tetons. That night we went to the Teton Reserve for a potato bar. The Teton Reserve is a golf course and the spud bar was at the pro shop. When we pulled up the place looked really fancy and we had Koda with us. He had to stay in the car while we were there, but he behaved himself really well. Upon walking up to the pro shop, we were greeted by Dawn Wells (Marrianne on Gilligan's Island). She saw that we had the VIP passes and asked us where we were from. She said a few other things to us while we were there, but I will leave those out. We then had our potatoes with 21 toppings to choose from. They were really good. The whole time there we got to listen to a Kenny Rogers impersonator. He was good, but I thought he did not sound like Kenny.

After the spud bar we drove down to the Spud drive-in theater close to Driggs (the one with a giant potato on a truck). Koda was able to get out and spend a little time on the grass while we waited for the movie to start. He was extremely excited and wanted to go see everyone that was there. Luckily we had him on a leash and kept him in one area as most of the kids had to come over and pet him. The movie we watched was The Mummy: Dragon Emperor. It was a good movie, but I was disappointed since it was not the caliber of the last two movies.

The bed and breakfast: Koda was insanely excited while we were there. We just had the leash hooked to his collar and he was pulling as hard as he could going through the place. He was put in his place buy he owners dog who is very territorial. But he had a good time. The owner took him for a walk this morning while Jamie and I ate breakfast. He was introduced to the horses and found their poo was tasty (ugh). Koda was able to retrieve the ball that was laying in the backyard so we were able to burn some of that energy.

Water Dog
After arriving home and a short nap we decided to take Koda up to Blacktail and properly introduce him to water. I was thinking that he might not be sure about going into water over his head for the first time, but Jamie was confident that he would go right in. So in went his tennis ball followed closely by Koda. He took right to the water without any issues. He did have a hard time getting the tennis ball so we switched to the stick like tennis ball. He loved that. He would run into the water grab it and swim back as quickly as he could. After a couple of throws I was in the water making sure that he would be okay and Jamie was throwing the stick. He would swim out grab the stick and bring it back to Jamie. Then he would shake all the water off him on to Jamie and let her throw it back in the water. While out of the water he would stare at the stick anticipating when and where it would go into the water. So all around he is a great swimmer and had a very good time today.