Introducing Trixie :o)

Yes, the puppy has a name! You can finally stop sitting on the edge of your seat. ;o)

We started out with quite a list of possibilities, then narrowed it down the three: Trixie/Trixy, Pippi, and Kismet.

We thought of "Kismet" almost immediately, and I kept returning to it in favor of other names. I still really do like the name, but in the end, we felt that it simply didn't roll off our tongues the way we wanted.

"Pippi" would've been a nice nod to the Swedish element of our lives. (Pippi Longstocking is a classic character in Swedish literature.) However, the English and Swedish pronunciations are slightly different, and we finally decided that we favored "Trixie".

Then we went back and forth over the spelling! (g) "Trixie" or "Trixy"? I wasn't terribly thrilled by some of the slang definitions for "Trixie" that we found online, but by then we'd pretty much settled on some spelling of that name, so I'll just try to forget those mild annoyances. (Should be easy enough. I manage to forget so many things without even trying, after all!)

Anyway, as I said, there was much going back and forth about spelling, but I think we've finally decided to stick with "Trixie". It's more common than "Trixy"-- not a selling point, from our perspectives-- but we feel it just looks nicer on paper (or in pixels). So "Trixie" it is!

I think "Trixie/Trixy" and "Pippi" would both suit her equally well, as she is now. Her personality may mellow as she ages, but so far, she's been growing in the other direction, showing more spirit and spunk every day.

In fact, I think we may have our hands full with this one!



All this fuss over naming a dog! (g)

Cute Overload

Mary D drew my attention to Cute Overload, which I don't remember seeing before. Lots of fun photos and videos gathered there!

Two in particular gave us a good laugh:

*A very unusual Halloween costume for a dog (maybe not for the faint-hearted).

*A series of photos showing an adult spaniel with a pair of growing Alaskan Malamutes.

The Youngest Miss Ward

Note: This entry is nothing but rambles about the book mentioned in the title. Please don't feel obliged to read it. (g)

I actually read a "new to me" book, the last week of July. (Generally, I tend to reach for familiar friends when I read, these days.) I picked up my copy of The Youngest Miss Ward, by Joan Aiken, at the big library book sale, months ago-- and I think I'll be donating it back to next year's sale-- or Good Will, maybe. I don't think I'll ever be tempted to re-read it. (Besides, about half-way into the book, the pages started smelling of cigarettes, which wasn't exactly pleasant. Now I'll forever associate the story with stale cigarette smell! (g))

The story is described as "a Jane Austen Entertainment" because it's loosely tied to the characters of Mansfield Park. (Technically, I guess you'd call it a prequel, though the two novels don't focus on the same group of characters. It's more like a few characters from the original have guest roles in this new novel.) It didn't feel like Austen to me, and I think it would better have been written to stand on its own. I certainly wouldn't recommend reading it with the expectation of something along the lines of Austen.

I found the story readable enough, though the plot felt a bit haphazard-- just a series of odd misfortunes peopled by too many unpleasant, bossy characters for my tastes-- one dark situation after another. (I will admit, though, that the story wasn't as depressing as it could have been, given the laundry list of "bad stuff" it describes.)

A blurb on the cover touts the title character, Harriet "Hatty" (ugh, hate that name!) Ward, as having "a will of her own". Eh, well, maybe-- but she doesn't seem to exert her will often enough! Maybe young women of that period couldn't exert their wills-- but in that case, why even mention her "will" on the cover?

I'm rambling. My point is that while I like heroines to be "nice", it irritates me when they (usually) refuse to stand up for themselves. Being nice doesn't mean you have to let people walk all over you! Maybe it's because I'm just not that nice, myself. ;o) In any case, it annoyed me.

In spite of all that, I didn't dislike the character, so I was disappointed by the ending, which I thought was an unnecessary let-down. I wouldn't say that it was an unhappy ending-- but it was somewhat odd. Just another instance of an author trying to make you root for one ending, only to snatch the rug out from under your feet and present you with a different one. I think it's a pretty under-handed trick to play on a reader who's invested hundreds of pages in a story. (shrug)

In fact, I think it's time to post a. . .
::SPOILER ALERT::
::SPOILER ALERT::
::SPOILER ALERT::

(insert red flashing lights and wailing siren here) ;o)

Ok, so it's the story of a girl's coming of age-- not strictly a "love story"-- but romance is definitely a driving force. The reader hopes (if not expects) that the girl will achieve success/happiness in several areas of her life, and part of that is for her to be married, engaged, or "attached" by the end of the book.

The author gives us a variety of possible matches, but soon it's obvious that we're supposed to be focusing on this one person. Ok, I say to myself. I'll play along. I'll root for this couple to find their way toward happiness. It'll take a little imagination, because honestly, I don't sense much chemistry there-- but I'm willing to give it a try. ;o)

After a certain number of pages, I just want the couple to finally be on the same continent again! (g) (Can I just tell you how hard it is for me to think well of a man who completely needlessly leaves the girl he supposedly loves to go on a long, dangerous adventure? Wow, what a guy! ;o) He doesn't know that she knows he loves her-- or that she's returned the favor-- but still. . . ) So I keep doing my best, just waiting to see if he'll ever make it back to her. . .

And he does (just a few pages before the end of the book)! But he brings a wife back with him (an "Indian" girl he saved from starvation)! One he probably doesn't even really love-love. (Yeah, it's like "like-like", but for grown-ups. (g)) All because the idiot heard a second-hand (third-hand?) lie that the original girl was to be married. (Why not at least write to make sure before tying the knot with this new girl?) The man is obviously shocked to find the original girl still unmarried, but that's not much comfort, is it?

The original girl, angel that she is, doesn't even make a fuss. (Does she even cry? I can't recall.) Making a fuss or crying wouldn't do any good, I know, but at least it would be an understandable, human reaction. Instead, she's all too happy to agree-- that same evening-- to marry and settle down with a different guy-- one whom we've hardly been encouraged to think of in a romantic light. (A pear-shaped head with eyes that shift back and forth with amusement would be difficult to write about romantically, I'll admit. Maybe Aiken simply wasn't feeling up to the challenge.)

Couldn't she (Aiken) at least have given them. . . I don't know, a month or two to form a new attachment? Please give the poor woman a little time to recover! Must Hatty really say "oh well!" and go merrily on her way so soon after this horrible shock? No real, feeling woman could do that-- unless we're to believe that she wasn't really/still in love with Guy #1. (I guess there were instances of people talking about Guy #1 is a "saint"-- unrealistic, impractical, expecting more of people than they can give-- but nothing to make the reader would think Hatty doesn't still wish to marry him.)

Why do authors think it's acceptable to lead a reader on for chapters, only to pull the old switcheroo? Especially such a wholly unconvincing switch! I wouldn't have been quite as upset, I think, if she'd ended up with Ned-- though I suppose he'd been on the fringes of the story for too long to bring him back for a convenient stand-in husband. ;o) Besides, she was so tied to the hideous thatched cottage that it would've been awkward to tear her away. . .

Anyway. . .
I know that it's formulaic and conventional and inartistic to let a story play out the way 9 out of 10 readers want it to play out, but writing's still "business" for most authors, and you know what they say about the customer always being right. . . ;o)

Personally, I felt cheated. I had to make an effort to want those two characters together in the first place. There wasn't quite enough substance there, and I was hoping that when they were finally reunited there would be something more than a hint of mutual fondness. Instead, this. Yeah, it's great that Hatty manages to find happiness, anyway, with a different person. That's probably how life most often works out. But I still felt cheated. (g)

"Toby Snaps"

Just looking around on YouTube, I discovered several fake Office promos and such-- usually mixes of various clips of the show with music and things from other sources. Likely, I'm the last fan on earth to find them ;o) but if you haven't already seen it, you might find this one amusing (if you're familiar with the show):



(g) Well, I was amused.

That New Puppy Smell

(Finally coming back to my neglected blog. . . I have a few "saved-up" posts, starting with this one. If you aren't that interested in someone else's new puppy, it's best to skip this entry. (g))


If you follow my tweets on Twitter, you already know that we got a puppy last weekend. :o)

It was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Donald spotted the ad online. The puppies weren't quite local, as they were located all the way north of Birmingham (Jasper, to be precise), but we thought about it and decided that it was worth the drive. Eskies seem to be pretty rare around here, and there was no telling how long we'd have to wait to find a litter nearby. And even with the cost of the extra fuel, we'd still end up spending less than many people do to get the pet they want.

We went and chose her on Saturday. It was a long drive back home, but she was a good puppy and behaved very well, lying still or sleeping most of the time. We were amused to find that she (and the other little Eskies, when we were looking them over) made the same "gasping", "keh-keh-keh-keh" sound that we remembered Daisy making on our ride home with her.

She's a little 'un, still. Born on June 25th (also the birthday of one of my sisters!). We've read the pros and cons of getting such a young puppy, and the main issue seems to be that a six-week-old puppy may need more attention and "anti-bite training" than an eight-week-old would. (If they're left with the rest of the litter for another couple of weeks, they train each other to not bite so firmly.) So all this week I've been doing a lot of fake/exaggerated "ouch"-ing and squealing and "No Bite!"-ing. I think she knows not to bite too hard, now, but she still thinks it would be fun to bite more softly. (g)


She's not pedigreed and probably wouldn't be considered a "show-quality" dog, if only because her nose has a little pink in it, and her toes are mostly pink with black freckles (little teensy chocolate chip cookies! (g))-- but we were never going to be doing dog shows, anyway. Besides, our family dog when I was younger was a cockapekapoo (cocker, pekingese, and poodle/"mixed breed"), and I firmly believe that a carefully bred and registered dog is no better than a mutt-- or at least is not necessarily a better dog just by virtue of being bred and registered. Maybe it doesn't make sense, then, that I set my heart on a specific breed of dog. . . Well, people don't always make sense, I guess. . .

She has that new puppy smell-- something I'd forgotten about but instantly recognized. Ah, so sweet! Of course, some people say that this smell-- or "puppy breath" as it's also called-- is a symptom of intestinal worms. :oS Apparently, almost all puppies have worms at some point, which is why they all seem to have the same smell, regardless of breed. In any case, whether that lovely puppy breath is from worms or not (g), we already knew we ought to de-worm her, just to be on the safe side, so she's two days into a 3-day program.


As you may have guessed (given that I keep referring to her as "her" and "she" (g)), we still haven't chosen a name. We brainstormed names on the ride home and talked a little about it a couple of other times-- and I spent a little time looking around online for ideas-- but we haven't sat down and said, "Ok, no-one leaves this room until we've settled on something!" ;o) So she's still "Puppy" and "Girl", for the time being. However, I have set an ultimatum that she be officially named by the end of the weekend, so we'll just have to make a decision and be done with it. We have it narrowed down to three names-- two, actually, because the third simply doesn't seem to roll off our tongues the way we want it to. For the benefit of those two or three of you who might care, I'll share the alternates when I "unveil" the lucky winner-- Monday at the latest. ;o)


Maybe I shouldn't be, but I am surprised that we can already see her beginning to grow up since we brought her home on Saturday! We have an old rubbery dog toy shaped like a bone-- something Molly had lost all interest in. I cleaned it up and put it in the room with the puppy in hopes that she'd chew it instead of baseboard and furniture. It seemed way too big for her, that first day, but now she can carry it around (a little while). She hasn't really grown that much, but I'm convinced that she must be getting stronger. . .

She does have a few hobbies, aside from play biting. ;o) For instance, she's developed an interest in her own tail-- trying to grab it and bite it. She often manages to get hold of it, but then she tries to pull it past what's physically possible, which must be an exercise in frustration. Well, at least she doesn't bite into her own leg and then yelp in pain, like a certain cocker spaniel I know did in her puppy days. (g)

One of her chief pleasures is a sort of "pounce and fetch" game that she plays with the little stuffed puppy-size pillows/toys I made for her. If she's in the right mood, she'll play this game over and over again. We toss the toy for her-- she stalks her "prey" and pounces on it, then runs back with it so that we can get it from her and toss it again. If it's been a particularly naughty dog toy ;o) she gives it a good shaking and may even growl a bit to put it in its place.

She also likes to play tug of war, but what puppy doesn't? (g) (Most "experts" seem to think tug of war is a bad game for puppies-- or even all dogs-- but some seem to think it's ok if you make sure that the dog knows that you-- the owner-- always "win" and are in the dominant position in the pack. . . . I wonder how much these dog experts really know! Especially since some of them seem to hold such contrary views on key points!)

She's treated us to a few yaps, now and then, so there's no "worry" (as with the long-silent Molly-pup) as to whether she'll ever bark. Honestly, there never was any fear on that point! Eskies are supposed to be a fairly barky breed.

Despite her sometimes tough attitude, she occasionally displays some scaredy-cat tendencies. When she's frightened by a sudden noise (or whatever else it might be-- but it's usually a sound), she beats a hasty retreat behind her cardboard box (into the corner where she likes to sleep). And there's no denying that she likes being close to people most of the time. It's heart-warming to have a little puppy come running over to you-- bouncing right against you, or even spilling over into your lap. You have just enough time to think, "Aw, that's so sweet! She loves me!" before you feel her needly teeth prodding your tender fingertips. (g)

But like I wrote, we're working on that. So please come visit so she'll be properly socialized. She won't bite you too hard. I promise! ;o)

If you haven't already seen them, you can find more photos of our new pup on my Flickr photostream. :o)