We have a few small problems with the Trufflet, and I am looking for suggestions from dog owners.

1. Daylight Saving Time. Okay, the switch was a few weeks ago now and the dog has still not moved onto our schedule.  Before, she normally got up at 7:20 for her walk… but could make it until 8 in a pinch without peeing in her crate.  (Yes, she is crated at night until she’s reliably housebroken).  Now, at exactly 7 am every morning she wakes up and starts whining incessantly.  Sometimes she has already peed, sometimes peeing is imminent.  Either way, there is absolutely no way for me to sleep any later than 7 am, even on weekends.  How can I get the dog onto our schedule?  I was thinking that we could just try extending by five minutes every day… but going five minutes longer this morning was an impossibility, as she was whining and barking after about 30 seconds and had completely hosed her crate by the time I came out two minutes later.

2. It’s very cold outside. Rather than the dog going “It’s really cold, I should go fast so I can go inside,”  she clenches her little body and flatly refuses to go.   I spent 20 minutes outside this morning and all she did was fight on her leash to go back inside.

3. Barking. The dog seems to have just discovered that she can bark over the last few days.  She barks when she wants attention or is pissed off, she barks at cars when we go outside.  The suggestions from experts (spraybottle, firm “No,” time outs, ignoring her, etc.) have no effect.  Actually, the suggestions people give us really have no effect at all - she is a very stubborn dog and is very intent on doing what she wants, regardless of what firm behavior we take with her.

We are moving her on to a fixed feeding schedule, finally.  Pom puppies are supposed to have access to food at all times, from what we’ve been told, because they are high-risk for hypoglycemia… but she’s old enough now that we can put her on a schedule.  Hoepfully that will help, but it hasn’t so far.  Bit of a quandary over water - some sites and books say that you should always have water available (even if food is not), some suggest limiting water intake by only having it available part of the time.  The suggested time to take away water to help them get through the night without peeing is 7pm… and expecting the dog to go 12 hours without water seems inhumade to me.

We are having some success with getting her to stop chewing on us, at least… a combination of time outs, making pained “yips” when she bites and then ignoring her for a few seconds, and/or little taps under her chin when she is being particularly bad seem to be having some effect.

She has a very bright and perky personality, but we need her to start behaving a little better.  So I’m looking for a bit of advice from people who have experience.  Please don’t preface your response with “She’s just a puppy.”  I am also a believer in gently raising human children with rules from a young age, rather than just picking an arbitrary age when they suddenly have to start behaving.

Meme yoinked from Twotone:

If you saw me in the back of a police car, what would you think I was there for?

Answer me, then post this in your own journal (or, you know, don’t) to see how many different crimes you get accused of committing.

Five Things I was Doing 10 Years Ago
1.  Working evenings at my first job at a seasonal toy shop called All Wound Up
2.  Going through a rapid profusion of short-term boyfriends
3.  Dissecting oversized, imported Mexican cats in AP Bio
4.  Meeting one of my best friends
5.  Spending most of my free time drawing.

Five Things on My To Do List Today:
1. Work
2. Try to get the dog on a set feeding schedule
3. Try to actually get a few faceups done, in spite of dog
4. Order pizza with Roommate and Graham
5. Do an entry for the Shirt Woot! Derby

Five Snacks I Enjoy:
1. Chocolate
2. Wheat Thing
3. Frosted Mini-Wheats
4. Brownies
5. Cinnamon Rolls

Five Things I Would Do If I Were a Millionaire, in no particular order:
1. Buy a house
2. Pay off any of my loans and those of my family and closest friends
3. Buy a Tsukasa.
4. Go to Japan again.
5. Quit my job and exclusively do charity work benefiting women and children.

Five Places I Have Lived:
1. My family’s house
2. My college’s dorm
3. My apartment in Japan
4. My last apartment
5. My current apartment

Five Jobs I Have Had:
1. Sales Associate
2. Call Center Representative
3. Nova Sensei
4. Receptionist
5. Executive Assistant

Wheeee.

I was fortunate enough to get into a split for the outfit, eyes, wig, and boots from the white version of the recent Feeple Breakaway LE.  It was a very, very good price - almost half what other people were charging just for the outfit alone!  It arrived yesterday and the quality and fit are wonderful. (In contrast to his HZ uniform, which has nice lines but is falling apart).  It is also just REALLY NICE to have clothing for Vanilla that was actually made for Feeple.  It makes him look less lanky when he wears clothes that fit.

The wig is also really gorgeous.  It is made of very soft fibers in a mix of shades of ash blond.  The whole thing has a slightly pinkish metallic sheen, too.  It’s one of the nicest

wigs I’ve seen.

Anyway, pictures.  Vanilla himself is a general of the Narhwel army, one of the men who was personally involved in their recent political revolution and re-establishment.  He is the most even-tempered and introspective of the officers and tends to bring a more moderate, thoughtful perspective to their group.  He has lived a long time, though… and perhaps wasn’t always so mellow, and not as usual as his name suggests.

I LOL’d.

DoA’s been hit hard by hardcore porn and prescription drug spammers for about a month now.  Fortunately, our moderated registration had caught the bulk of these… and the two that did squeak through were caught and banned before they were able to post on a public area of the forum.  Most people don’t realize it, but DoA’s been on moderated registration for over a year now.  It’s time consuming because it means that a moderator must approve each new account after checking the IP, email address, and a few other things… but it’s been great for deleting the 20-30 spambots that have been registering daily, great for catching banned members trying to rejoin.  Unfortunately, a few “real” registrations do get deleted occasionally by accident.

Most times, people just reply to the rejection email and say that they’re real people and would like to join… then we work together to get them re-registered.  We’ve only ever gotten two rude responses.  One was several months ago; the individual spat a bunch of unimportant credentials at us, then flounced off and told us that we would sorely miss her participation.  We got the other yesterday, and it was much the same.

My first instinct is to shoot back a quick “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out” email.  But I don’t… I don’t actually respond at all.  I just laugh a little.  Seriously, if moderated registration keeps out spammers, scammers, AND self-important weenies… we are never going off of it! ;)

I had another laugh the other night.  Roommate and I had heard about and read about the Pomeranian “puppy uglies” for months before we had adopted Truffle.  Basically, adult poms have a thick, two-layer coat.  They don’t transition well between their puppy coats and adult coats and spend about 6 months looking patchwork and shabby.  We had read about it, but hadn’t actually seen pictures.  Roommate found a picture the other night and I was laughing so hard that I was literally lying on the floor crying.  Of course, I also have laughing fits in response to long-term stress… and I think that was also at play.  Either way, though, it was funny.  Our dog is going to look like an alien for six months, just in time for Christmas!  Expect a lot of pictures of our freaky-looking adolescent dog. XD

I just got back from the dentist.  Happily, just an uneventful cleaning… but it was still rather traumatic just because of my paralyzing fear of dentists.  In general, I don’t like any kind of doctor all too much… but dentists are just terrifying.  This was the year, though, that I decided to be a grown-up and get my dental health completely in check… and I am proud of myself for having done so.  I have a clean bill of health.  I will be rewarding myself by going and buying a few pastels tonight after work, maybe taking some pics of Vanilla in his new uniform. :)

Next year I will actually get a physical and go to the girly-doctor.  I haven’t been to either in about 4 years and don’t actually have a physician or an OB/GYN.

I am still struggling with certain aspects of adulthood, but I think I’m doing okay right now. :)

Unrelated, if you’ve never gone, I recommend checking out the political macros at Pundit’s Kitchen.  I haven’t checked since before the election, but they were enjoyable.

This week’s Derby, they are re-running some of the honorable mentions from the past couple Derbies.  Two of mine are up again:

and

If you voted before, please consider voting again. :)

Wow, several days of posting in a row!

I now own a bright yellow 2009 Toyota Yaris.  Payments start December 20th, Merry Christmas! ;)  I enjoy looking at it because it is so small and bright… and the little snub-nose hood is really adorable.  It drives really nicely and doesn’t feel so much like a sub-compact; the cabin is rather tall inside and feels very open.  In the reviews I’d read, it said that the main cons were that the accelleration was sluggish and the engine noise was high.  I haven’t really found that to be the case, so I have no complaints.  The heating is nice for these chilly mornings, the wipers are great, and the stereo is really nice for a fairly basic model.  I like that it has an auxillary jack so I can plug in my MP3 player.

Life here is busy… the pupkin got the first half of her Kennel Cough vaccine on Monday night and has been under the weather since.  She’ll seem normal, but then she’ll get sneezy or start her poor little honking cough.  She also seems to be unable to hold her urine all night, so we’ve had to clean out her crate every morning when we first get up….  but then, people have to pee more often when they get sick too.  Hopefully she’ll feel better soon.

Commissions are chugging along… I’m hoping that next week is a good week for getting a lot done.  I can’t take many more weeks like this last one!

I’ve already decided that I’m going to try to sculpt a doll in December.  I posted about it on the Joint this morning, but I want to try to get a couple of people in on making next month the doll-sculpting equivalent of NaNoWriMo…. NaDoScuMo!  Artists need a motivational month too, dangit.  Anyway, if you are on The Joint and want to join in, please do!

I have to admit, I am discouraged that a state that would vote to elect the first minority president by an overwhelming majority would also vote the same day to limit the rights of another minority.

A lot of people have blogged really sensitively and thoroughly on the topic… but I just wanted to toss in my disappointment with the state of California.  I also wonder what it means for the people who were married under California state law…. and the adoptive children of any of these couples.

I’ve never heard a good, political/economic reason why same-sex couples can’t get married.  It all seems to come down to homophobia and “because it violates the sanctity of marriage.” “Sanctity?”  That sounds an awful lot like you’re bringing religion into it, and last I checked the United States was boasting a separation of church and state.

This is something that affects a couple’s quality of living.  What actually goes with the word “spouse?”  Couples can’t list a same-sex partner as a “spouse” on insurance with most companies, meaning that they can’t get a family rate and need two individual policies.  Investment accounts often have issues with a same-sex partner being listed as a beneficiary… and as a result, if one person dies, their account may go to the estate…. or be taxed at a very high rate if it does actually go to the partner (where that is not the case for a spouse).  Some investment companies, such as Genworth, allow a same-sex partner to be listed… but I think that these are few and far between.

(I’m striking this paragraph for now because I am still uncertain as to the accuracy.) Interestingly, the per the US EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)’s website, they do not prohibit discrimination or harassment based on sexual orientation.  Many states pick up the slack and include sexual orientation as a protected group, though not all.  Technically, a person being harassed by coworkers on the grounds of having a same-sex partner may not have a legal recourse if their employer does not include sexual orientation in their equal employment opportunity statement.  Meaning that not only are these people losing the economic benefits of marriage, but they may not even be able to openly state that they have a same sex partner.

That’s dehumanizing.

There are people dancing around and saying it was a triumph for the institution of marriage.  But all I see is that California (and two other states) have put an “institution” above individual people.  I am disgusted that people are delighted when they have devastated thousands of couples.  Thousands of individual people.  Really fundamentally, to the core, hurt them.

I’m not a California resident, so it was never my choice.  All the same, I’m sorry.  When it comes my time to vote on the issue (I know it will eventually come to NY), I will do my part to take a stand for human rights.

It’s interesting to read my friend’s list.  One thing that I will give Obama is that it seems that people feel a real commonality of purpose with him - lots of “we” did it, “thank you, America.”  I feel that as a president, he will be good for morale.

For what it’s worth, I’m rather indifferent on the outcome of the presidency.  There are a few things, though, that I am extremely uncomfortable with.

First, I have felt through the whole thing that the media has made the choice for us.  They selected McCain and Obama as our candidates, then really pushed Obama as the candidate.  Popular sitcoms and dramas have pushed Obama in very transparent ways… treatment of the candidates was not even-handed.  In prior elections, I felt that there was a fairly even balance of mocking both top candidates.  This election, everything was dumping on McCain and the Republicans in general.  I guess what I take exception to is that the campaign coverage felt like a rehash of the PC vs. Mac commercials.  And somehow, Palin’s “Gosh darn gee I like hunting!” comments and her expensive wardrobe (which would have never been discussed about a male candidate) took center stage while Biden blithely made unsettlingly offensive, moronic statements.  Part of this was definitely due to having an extremely unpopular incumbent…. but I feel that this was irresponsible of the popular media because I feel as though this made it so that McCain supporters couldn’t even say that they were McCain supporters for fear of people thinking that they were stupid rednecks.  Having choice taken away by peer pressure is not a good thing.

I am extremely uncomfortable with Democrat control of the House, Senate, and presidency… especially under such a liberal president.  I don’t believe in “income redistribution,” or many of the more socially-minded economic movements that the Democrats tend to support.  I work very hard for everything I have…. and I don’t need anyone else’s money.  SImilarly, because I work so hard, I don’t want to give up more of my income to taxes so that some unemployed shmuck can continue to feed off the city. I do think that we are going to see higher taxes and less control of our own money, and the national debt will grow exponentially.  Hurrah for our one-party system!

It’s odd because socially I am more of a democrat in terms of what I support, but economically I am definitely Republican.

I also think that we need to get rid of the fucking electoral college already!  CRIPES.  Why do we still have that?  Having nothing to do with who won or lost, I think it’s absolutely disgusting that they could announce the new president before votes from several states had even been tallied.  What about those people’s votes?  Considering how much technology has changed since the creation of the electoral college, I think we could use some upgrades… and a switch to the popular vote.  As I recall, we wouldn’t have ended up with W a second term if we’d gone on the popular vote.

Along those same lines… I’d love to see them dispense with having such a long stretch of time beween the election and the inaugeration. What a worthless stretch of political time!

I am having a rough day.

It’s hard to quantify.  I started out by waking up and freezing my ass off while I walked the puppy (who, bless her black little heart, attempted to eat ever frost-covered object in her path), came inside to get dressed and pack up some thing to mail, took away dog toy so I could mend it after work, looked over to see the dog eating her own waste (wondered when she had even time or materials left in her system to compose that), was too slow to prevent her… tossed her a breath mint, brushed my own teeth again in sympathy, put her in her crate, and zipped off to work in Dad’s car.  Pulled all my crap out of my car (which is still located at my office), went in to work.  Worked.  Dreaded returning home in case the dog had vomited her dubious breakfast in her crate.  Called vet to confirm vet appointment this evening.  Realized that I’d grabbed the brown shoes this morning instead of black, resulting in non-matching.  Took phonecalls for departments I don’t work for.  Felt sick to my stomach thinking about how I’m going to get my car with its dead alternator and 9/10ths dead battery to the dealership for trade in… felt sick thinking about trying to get everything switched over to new car (registration, insurance, etc).  Received mohair in the mail that may not coordinate with the outfit I sewed this weekend.  Considered possibility of remaking outfit in appropriate colors, mentally budgeted evening. Got an email from my mother and felt like an asshole for forgetting to thank her for the check for my birthday.  Headed home and walked dog, who had happily digested her dubious breakfast without incident.  Returned to work, had peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Attended a meeting that didn’t really involve anything I do.  Listened to gossip about another local broker-dealer firm.  Got frustrated with DoA.  Got frustrated with my computer at work.  Thought about how I’m spending Christmas without my family this year, thanks to my eldest sibling.  Hated Daylight Savings Time, again. Realized it was almost 4 and I hadn’t accomplished much of anything.  Reconciled last week’s commission amounts.  Fretted over small spread.  Started writing this post.

I guess I’m just still feeling stressed over the car… and over everything.  Everything feel so uncertain and I feel like my life is just a big blur lately.  I feel like I sleep, eat a little, and work.  And play with the puppy, which isn’t a bad thing.  But I have no idea even WHAT I’ve been actually doing at work, WHAT I’ve been eating, and where the hell the almost 8 hours between work and sleep go.

I just feel very vulnerable today.