Maple approves of spring.

Adam blogs about baseball- I blog about……

Maple the wood and Maple the dog…

I seem to walk into garage sales and antique stores and find the little project that needs the most work. Last spring I found this nice wood side table for the living room that needed some TLC. It was outside at the antique store and had a bit of water damage. After several mornings of sanding over the last few weeks and help from Adam, the project is done. The funny thing is the finished project is markedly similar to the kitchen table I re finished. Here are some before and after photos:

Before water damage all over the top = lots of sandingI sand in the back yard while Maple chases squirrels

After sanding and a coat of polyurethane = finished

Bye bye water damage look how pretty the wood is now!

Learning how to stay while I walk around the house. By the way she is getting fat. She was 39 pounds but I think that she is over 40 now for sure (which translates to paying more next week when she gets spayed).

I think the floppy ear will be a permanent trait. But I like it because it will always make her look like a puppy.

We are going to a double birthday BBQ this afternoon. Here are my gifts for the birthday girls, do you think they will mind that the flowers are in Corona bottles?

About 2 weeks ago we took a day trip to Niantic a cute seaside town near Rhode Island. We went and got a seafood lunch and then went to the used book barn, this neat piece of property where they have all these little barns and buildings with different themes of used books. We spent hours there and came home with a lot of summer reading. We then got ice cream on the way home. It was a fun day.

Post-honeymoon surprise…

Well, we didn’t think it would happen this quickly. We knew we wanted this to happen eventually, but this admittedly is a little sooner than expected. Our new family has grown – a little bundle of joy and poop.

We got a dog.

Her name is Maple, or if you prefer, as does Rosie, our two-year-old upstairs neighbor, Poopy.

We were planning on getting a dog sometime in a couple months once we were settled down a little, but when the neighbors offered us the stray they found tied to a tree in a nearby park and we got to know her we had to take her. She’s a little bigger than we were expecting, and will grow a little more, but she’ll work in our tiny little place since the backyard is accessible. Probably 35-40 pounds. She’s a mutt, probably with some German Shepherd, but what else we’re not sure. She’s about 7 months old says the shelter, and energetic. As soon as we get inside though, she mellows out, lays down and sleeps, or relaxes. She’s great with the neighbor’s kids (2 and 5), but she doesn’t care much for being alone, which is difficult since we’re going to crate train her. She’s taken to our training very well, she’s really smart.

I don’t know how it’s comfortable but she lays down with both hind legs sprawled out one way, while she twists around on her stomach so that both front legs and head are facing the opposite direction.