Three views from 2nd and Houston

The baby has been quite the traveler the past few days. She and I have been all over the city -- traveling up the UES to visit Kires and through street fairs and broken train tracks to Ephanie's for some rock 'n roll. Here's some pics of the baby from one of our trips:

Hi, y'all:


Say whuts?


Singin' the blues:

B.R. 8/20/08

I had an early morning call today so the baby and I awoke extra early today -- too early if you ask me. I think the baby must have been surprised that I actually got out of bed upon hearing the alarm as opposed to sleeping right through it (or trying to anyway) as I normally tend to do. Since I knew that I had to leave much earlier than usual today I built in some extra time for feeding and playing so that the baby wouldn't feel ripped off or confused or whatever's going on in that little coconut head of hers. Anyway, it all worked out -- the baby got her playtime, she got her usual fill of treats while I snuck out the door, and I got to work on time.

It had been the plan to be home a little earlier than usual since I'd left so early in the morning, but alas it was not to be so due to a late afternoon assignment. Why do bosses always wait until the end of the day to give out assignments? Anyway, thank goodness for remote desktop cuz despite the late notice I still managed to get away at a decent time.

Upon my return, the baby and I played some fetch and then she had some dinner. Then later she and I shared in some popcorn. She tried to be sly and secretly picked up a couple of the kernels that had fallen onto the floor; but luckily for me, she figured out two things w/o doing too much damage to herself: (1) they're not as tastey unpopped, and (2) they seemed to be a bit tough for her teeth. After a rest, and a little Olympics-watching the baby and I headed out for our evening stroll. Nothing too eventful occurred, though the baby did "play" (or at least the closest the baby ever comes to playing) with this largish pup that was also out for a run on Cadman Plaza. That pup must've been 60lbs or so, but I have to say that the baby held her own -- she's quick and fierce!

B.R. 8/18/08

The baby woke me up this morning. What else is new. Hmm. We had a very nice morning with lots of fetch and chasing. She had some chikum with a little kibble and shared a nectarine with me. She had two sinkles -- I think one (the bigger one) was out of necessity and the other (smaller one) was to get me to finally wake up. She also a yump party on her pad and also on the towel that I had on the b-room floor. Unfortunately the pad had all the firm yumps while the towel had the squishy yump. Bleh. Still I can't blame her that she wanted to "wipe" her butz on the towel. I'd want to do the same. Anyway, the rest of the morning was somewhat uneventful after the aforementioned party.

Later in the evening, the baby and I took our usual walk around the Heights to Cadman Plaza. Once there, we played tag and after both of us were sufficiently tired we returned home for some icy drinks. Unbeknownst to us, we had a little stowaway. While messaging the baby, I noticed a little black dot. A jumpy black dot. It was a FLEA! I tried to grab it but the sucker jumped away. I've searched the baby but it hasn't returned to her -- and I'm pretty sure it's not on me. Anyway, I'm not going to rest until I find that sucker (quite literally). B*gger!

B.R. 8/12/08 -- Watch the Baby Play!

Thank goodness for the baby. If it wasn't for her I probably wouldn't have gotten out of bed in time for work these past few days. She's usually up an hour before I am, and during that time, she bides her time waiting for me to wake up. If the door to the bedroom is open, she'll head out to play in the living room but will wander in and out of the bedroom to check if I'm awake. If the door is closed, she'll sit and watch and occasionally get up for a close up inspection. And how does the baby inspect? By sniffing and licking my face to see if I'm awake. If I react, she'll jump up and down on my torso while unleashing a torrent of licks all over my face, arms (as I try to protect my face from her tongued assault), and hands. Most of the time I'll play dead just so she'll leave me alone until the next inspection. Anyway, thank goodness for her insistence that I get up cuz my alarm and willpower aren't cutting it.

After she got me up this morning, we played a quick game of fetch and then ate our respective breakies -- chickum and kibble for her, multi-grain Cheerios for me. While she was busy sunning herself, I snuck off for a quick shower. She must've been sun-deprived from yesterday (heavy rainstorm = no sun) cuz she was sun-worshiping with the fervor of a born-again. The only time she got up was when she realized I was leaving. Not that she was that upset, but rather she knows now that my leaving meant that we were about to play "hide the treats".

Speaking of food, the baby ate all her kibbles today. That is, she finished her replenished kibble bowl just a short while ago for her (almost) midnight snack. I don't think it was our walk from tonight since we didn't go for as long as we normally do. Perhaps it was her yump party about an hour ago. The amount she put out makes it possible for one to believe that she pretty much cleaned out her system and was therefore able to take in some additional food.

In any case, a special treat for the baby's fans. Here's a video taken a little earlier this evening after the baby and I returned from our walk -- be ready to be awed by her athleticism:

Bad Memory = Hungry Baby

So I was sitting at the computer while watching the Olympics and chomping on some cheerios when the baby positions herself directly in front of me and stares with these unblinking eyes. We'd just returned from our walk and romp in the park and I'd already played another 10-15 minutes worth of fetch with her so I doubted that she was seeking attention; could've been, but probably not. Anyway, I thought that she was just begging (silently) for some food. No way was I going to feed her fruity Cheerios what with the sugar and the corn content. "Feed her", for some reason those words stuck in my head. I suppose it was then that the wheels in my head started turning and I wondered if I fed her -- that is since this morning. I thought I did, but...

It was then that I recalled how she kinda hoovered the treats that Ric the concierge had given her. Hmm. But I must've fed her, no? It was already 10:30 p.m. which was waaaay past her usual dinner-time. I thought hard, and could envision myself feeding her. Or was I just remembering this morning???

Slowly, I started to doubt myself and had a sick feeling that I'd forgotten. For a final confirmation I went to the kitchen to check on the amount of chickum I had left in the 'fridge, and sure enough everything was as I'd left it THIS MORNING. Oops. No wonder she was looking at me stuffing my face with Cheerios as if I was holding out on her, cuz I was! Yet another instance of where it'd have been really helpful if she could've just vocalized the reason for her discontent. Aiya.

Midnight Snack

It's a couple of hours after the baby and I finished our walk. I was feeling a bit peckish so I made myself some popcorn with butter, salt and sugar. Of course the baby wanted some, so I made a little ramekin-ful of unsalted and unsugared popcorn from which I fed the baby. That must've goten her stummy juices going cuz then a little while later she went around to her kibble bowl and finished off all the kibbles that were in there. This isn't too unusual since she often likes to enjoy a little midnight snack, but what I didn't expect was that a little while after she cleaned out her kibble bowl she'd go back to check to see if some kibbles magically appeared while she wasn't looking. Since she seemed hungry still (and the vet did say to me once that I should feed her as much as she wanted to eat cuz she was a bit underweight -- now, I don't know if she's still underweight but since she's always hovered around 5 lbs ever since I've gotten her I'm going to assume that if anything she's not overweight) I fished out the remnants of her chickum that she would've gotten as her breaky (along with some add'l chickum cuz there really wasn't enough left for a meal) and fed it to her.

I'm getting ready for a yump party either tomorrow morning, or more likely, while I'm at work. Better paper the bathroom.

B.R. 8/6/08 -- muchos mosquitos

Nothing too unusual this morning -- we woke up at our usual time, played fetch, ate breaky, and then I left while the baby played "find the treats".

The real news, or at least the item of note, is that there were ALOT of skeeters around tonight. Maybe they're always there but the baby and I are always moving too quickly for them to bite, cuz I've never been bitten on a walk before, but tonight's walk was a different story altogether. While the baby and I were in Cadman Plaza I got bitten three times on my right leg, one time on my left, and once on the back of my left hand. I didn't see any welts on the baby, which can only mean two things: (1) she did get bitten but doesn't have the same reaction as I do, i.e. huge azz welts, or (2) they left her completely alone while they chowed down on me. In any case, at least one of us (if not both of us) will be itching our way through tonight. Stupid bugs.

B.R. 8/5/08

A day of normality after last night's emotional turn... and sadly for the baby that meant I had to run off right after feeding her some breaky and playing some fetch. However, she didn't seem to mind as we've started a new game of "finding treats when mommy leaves for work". This game is played by me cutting up some jerky treats and hiding the cut up slices of jerky around the apartment with one hand while I hold the baby in the other (so she can't see where I'm hiding the treats). I don't make it too hard for her because if I do she won't be able to find it, but it's I don't leave things out in the open either. From a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the easiest and 10 the hardest, I'd say that most treats are hidden with a difficulty level of a 5 while some are 7 or maybe 8. Anyway, we've been doing this for about a week now, so she knows that me leaving = treat finding time.

Upon my return she greeted me as she always does, which was with lots of jumps and licks and jumps and some nuzzling and some more licks -- then run to the bone so we can play fetch. After some dinner and fetch, the baby took our evening walk. I had expected to carry her into the elevator since she seemed somewhat traumatized by it last night, but she seemed ok with getting on and off by herself. One thing of note during our walk is that we saw some cray man running after his pug up Pierrepont and then down Willow. The baby was very much interested by this cray pair (probably because she's a nosy little girl) and insisted on following the two in a brisk, but dignified manner. She's such a rubbernecker.

Near Death Experience!

We had a slight incident on the way back from our walk this evening.

We'd just entered the elevator when the baby, frightened by the closing doors, ran back out. While I was still holding onto her leash!!! It was like a bad movie. I let go of the leash and watched it slide lower and lower down the crevice of between the elevator doors as the elevator rose higher and higher.

I tried shoving the leash through the crack but it wouldn't go.

I heard a high pitched yelp and imagined the baby getting lifted up and getting her little breath squeezed out of her.

I started jamming all the buttons and pulled the elevator alarm and stop buttons, but by the time that the elevator had stopped I was already on the 5th floor. At least by then I noticed that the leash had been sucked away, though in what state I knew not. I quickly got out my cellphone and tried dialing the front desk -- though in my panic I misdialed several times before actually getting the correct number. I must've sounded like a crazy person as I blurted out "I'm in the elevator but my dog got stuck outside, could you take a look at the elevator to see if she's ok???" All the while I imagined that the baby had been the victim of either strangulation or a gruesome death of getting turned into puppy jam. I was prepared for a lifetime of regrets... but luckily the front desk replied that he had her and she was safe if a bit freaked out. She did not enjoy getting on the elevator to get back home but I hoped the hug and the treat when get got home helped.

I need a sedative now.

B.R. 8/3/07

The baby can't nelieve it's Sunday already. The weekend came and went so quickly -- Saturday was kinda of bust what with the torrential rainstorm; but today was a just gorgeous. Too bad for the baby I had a horrible headache for most of the day. Still, we managed to head back out for a vigorous run in the park and a leisurely walk in the cool summer evening. I think I did good cuz now she's passed out cold:

B.R. 8/1/08

Very briefly, here is the route to today's walk: la la (look where we went).

Now that's out of the way, I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight the baby's sometimes ridic poses. I know she likes to be comfortable, but sometimes she takes it a bit far and can be a bit precious with her poses. Here's one from today -- the leg cross is just too ridic: