D E S I G N /// ck

Alice, the dogs, and I went hiking on part of the Fiery Gizzard Trail near Monteagle, TN on Saturday. We didn't see any gizzards, but we saw some lovely waterfalls. You can see a gallery of pics here.

Bonus Question: Can anyone else see the creepy face in the rocks above?

I took a break from this crazy thing called blogging, maybe because the timeline (see below) made me step back and want to just live. That, and Colleen and Cevin were visiting this weekend and we were busy doing fun stuff. Here's a few pictures of a good weekend:

Cameron somehow convinced us to go on a daytrip to Charleston on Saturday to keep him company. We went down by the river and this happened:
The dogs saw some geese swimming, which got their undivided attention real quick. I called, "Get'em!" to Bob (half joking) and sure enough, he leapt in for the hunt.
Let me tell you, that dog can swim. The geese quickly realized this.
He got so close to one goose that it dove down into the water. And stayed down there for over a minute. I've never seen a goose do that. I guess this was life-or-death for him at this point. Bob started roving, looking for secondary targets. Right about then, Alice realized that there was a goose nearby with a trail of goslings (aka dog snacks) and shrieked. We started yelling and coercing Bob back towards shore in an attempt to keep him away from the young morsels.
As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, on his way back to us the same goose surfaced in front of him. The hunt was on again. After a second dive, the goose had managed to survive and the unsuccessful hunter came back dry land for some petting and cooing from his masters. Which is what he really wanted in the first place.

Well, Ellie has been shooting hershey squirts all over the place the last few days. Poor dog. I can't imagine being cooped up in a bathroom all day trying to hold it. She did the best she could- she went in the bathtub. That's been three times in as many days. And Bob had it last week and was crapping all over the place. The best is when they have to go at night and they sneak off to the entry hallway. Then you find all that poop in the morning when you're going out the front door and late for work. Thanks, dogs.

In related news: the cats have figured out that the fern pot is a good secondary litter box, and have consequently killed it with all their digging. Thanks, cats.

Alice called me yesterday and asked me to take them all to the pound. She was that mad. Lesson in all this: we need a house for all these crazy pets, and we need it soon. A one-bedroom apartment was not designed for six mammals.

We got the siding installed on the chimney side of the house on Thursday evening and this weekend on Saturday:
I had a good crew helping me out. Siding is the kind of work that's impossible to do by yourself, so thanks to Ryan, Lucas, and Jason (and Cullin, who showed up for moral support and to feel cool).

Today we went to a "Introducing Redeemer" seminar at Chris Talley's house. Chris is one of Redeemer's pastors, and his family will be our nearby neighbors when we move to Mechanicsville. The seminar is a prerequisite for joining the church, something Alice and I are getting stoked about. Otherwise, we've tried to relax and rest today so we can gear up for another week of work. Alice "defurred" the dogs this afternoon and this is what came off Ellie:
There's enough fur there to make a sweater. Bob is getting his turn now while I'm writing this, but Ellie reigns as Queen of Fluffiness in this house. To any dog owners reading this, here's an unofficial commercial- get a "furminator." This thing gets loose fur off of a dog like nothing else. Seeing how much fur would have been otherwise plastered all over everything you own will make you want to barf.

I'll try to keep this blog updated regularly, but posts may be further apart as work on the house gets more intense.

It's not that I have been neglecting the blog, it's just that there's not much in our lives worthy of putting on the internet. It's all been covered already: house, thesis, church, jobs, blah blah blah. But in the interest of regularity, here's a tidbit of my life, something I'm lucky enough to get to see every day:
I don't know why I took a picture of this. We call this position "The Wallaby." But I do hope that if someone image searches "pooping dingo" that Bob is the first to come up. That's about the extent of my contribution to society right now.

It was four years ago today that I spent my first full day with Bob.

I had found him late the evening before on a job site, enticing him into my VW bus and taking him home to the Fight Club house and giving him his first flea bath (during which he tried to escape into an attic space).

The reason I remember today is that I left him in my bus at the the company offices and then had to rush out to a job site emergency in another truck. While I was away my "co-workers" (this was a construction company) kidnapped Bob and then called me and told me that the Humane society had seen him and taken him, leaving a fine ticket on my bus. I rushed back to the offices and got a slip of paper out from my windshield wiper. On the back it said, "April Fools!"

And that was only the beginning of the roller coaster ride that has been owning Bob.

Alice and I went hiking up at House Mountain on Sunday afternoon. It was beautiful day to be outside. I love this time of year! I feel like I'm really awake for the first time in months.
Mr. P made it all the way to the top on his own. We had some tired dogs when we got home.
Click on "photos" to the left to see all the pictures.

Alice got back home from a long visit in Franklin yesterday, brought her Gramma's dog back with her. We call him Mr. Patinkins.



For those of you who aren't up to date, Alice's Gramma fell and broke her arm and leg and is in a nursing home doing physical therapy right now. She'll be home in a few weeks, but until then we'll be taking care of her dog. As you can see, out pointy-ear dog obsession continues.

Beginning a food theme for the blog: today's lunch-



Harby's Pizza, voted best in Knoxville. It's only a block up from our place! This is the bacon cheeseburger pizza. Mmmm MMMM!

Just got the soundtrack to "Into the Wild" by Eddie Vedder. It looks like it's going to be a great movie, I read a big article about it in Outside magazine. Vedder seems to be having a little rennaissance. He had a great song on Jack Johnson's Brokedown Melody this year and now this. He's picking up the banjo and mandolin these days, which I think is a good thing. I can't wait to see how the movie stands up to the book.
I also got Radiohead's new album "In Rainbows." Seems like they're going back al little to OK Computer and Kid A, which is fine by me. Hail to the Thief was cool, but I don't actually end up listening to it that much.

I finished East of Eden last night. I think it's one of the best books I've ever read. I'll write more later, I'm still thinking it through right now.