Sadly, Yahoo is discontinuing its 360 service. So I've had to move my blog elsewhere. I've set up shop on Blogger, and this time my blog is private. I've sent invitations to just about everyone in my contact list. If you didn't get an invitation, you won't be able to view all the fascinating details of my life. If I missed you, or you didn't get yours, or you're a regular reader who is not on my contact list, please let me know. If we're friends on Facebook, then you don't have to worry about access to Blogger...my blog is automatically fed into Facebook so you can read it there.

See you on Blogger!

Oscar is home and well after his neuter/micro-chipping/skin-scrape/vaccination adventure today. We're supposed to keep him as calm as possible. And that's really difficult for this little guy, especially when Lilly is around. Those two love to play. I think they really like each other. I walked into the Great Room and found them on the couch:

Awwww! (Didn't anyone tell Oscar that he is not supposed to be jumping up on things for another 7 days?) We have to let them outside separately so that Oscar won't chase Lilly around the yard.

Well, we didn't buy the treadmill at Costco. We went out there and looked at it, but I think the logistics of getting this huge 300-lb box home and down to our basement sort of convinced to hold off. I still wouldn't mind getting it, but I've vowed to start going back to the Y over lunch. I even told my boss that I was going to do it, starting next week. She asked me how long I would be gone (I don't think she meant it in a bad or nosy way, she was just interested in how long I exercise per day because she wants to do more herself). I told her that I would probably be gone an hour and 15 minutes. She has no problem with that. She thinks that exercise makes you sharper and more energized, so she supports us doing it. So starting Monday, baby, I am starting running! WOOHOO! I never thought I would be this excited about exercising. I'm just going to do a tiny tiny bit at first. Maybe 60 seconds of running, then 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes (which is recommended by the Couch-to-5K program). My now obsolete iPod mini has an updated Running playlist:

Name	Artist
Apache	The Sugarhill Gang
Boombastic (Radio Edit)	Twenty to Two
Bye Bye Bye	*N Sync
Chariots Of Fire	Vangelis
Country Grammar (Hot...)	Nelly
Crank That (Soulja Boy)	Soulja Boy Tell 'Em
The Cup of Life (The Official Song of the World Cup)	Ricky Martin
The Devil Went Down to Georgia	Charlie Daniels
Everybody	Backstreet Boys
Extraordinary	Liz Phair
Eye of the Tiger	Survivor
Feel Good Inc. (Album Crossfade)	Gorillaz
Grillz (Dirty)	Nelly featuring Paul Wall, Ali & Gipp
Holding Out for a Hero	Bonnie Tyler
Hollaback Girl	Gwen Stefani
How Far We've Come	Matchbox Twenty
It's My Life	Bon Jovi
Keep on Running	Stevie Wonder
Laffy Taffy	D4L
A Little Less Conversation (XL-VIS Radio Edit - Rud-dee Remix)	King Junior
Lose Control (Featuring Ciara & Fat Man Scoop)	Missy Elliott & Fat Man Scoop
Makes Me Wonder	Maroon 5
Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)	Lou Bega & Pérez Prado
Paralyzer	Finger Eleven
Phenomena	Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Rehab	Amy Winehouse
Rock 'n Roll, Pt. 2	Gary Glitter & Original Soundtrack
The Rockafeller Skank	Fatboy Slim
SexyBack	Justin Timberlake
Stronger	Kanye West
Supernova	Liz Phair
Survivor	Destiny's Child
Switch	Will Smith
Take Me Out	Franz Ferdinand
This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race	Fall Out Boy
This Is How a Heart Breaks	Rob Thomas
'Till I Collapse	Eminem & Nate Dogg
Turn to Stone	Electric Light Orchestra
Wake Up Call	Maroon 5
We Will Rock You (Bonus Remix)	Queen
Without Me	Eminem
#1	Nelly

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Yahoo 360 (the blog service you're reading right now) is closing. I've flirted around with it before, but now I really must begin blogging somewhere else. I tried out Multiply, which I like because I can import all my Yahoo blog entries. But I've found it to be buggy. I could blog directly in Facebook, but I don't think it has the flexibility and features I'm looking for. I think I may go with Blogger, but I wish I could import my Yahoo entries. Whatever I do, I want to make my blog more private; you will have to somehow sign in to view my blog. If you're already friends with me on Facebook, you're all set--just check out my profile and you'll see my blog entries. If you're not on Facebook, you'll need to either a) sign up with the blog service I choose, or b)be on a list of people I allow to view my blog.

I'll continue to post here while I decide what I'm going to do, but please prepare yourself for the big move. :)

I took Oscar to the vet this morning to get him all checked out. The first thing the vet said was, "Where did you get this Rascal clone?!?" She said that he is definitely Corgi--not Bassett Hound. There are 2 types of Corgi: Cardigan and Pembroke. Rascal was Pembroke, Oscar is Cardigan. She just loved Oscar, thought he was the cutest thing. Of course, he was just pouring on the charm and loving and kissing on her. The little white marks on his face that we thought were scars are more likely a type of mange. He'll get tested tomorrow when he goes in to get neutered, but Vet thinks that it's the non-contagious, mild, doesn't-even-need-to-be-treated kind. He's also going to get chipped, which they didn't used to do at Vet's office. Now that I know they do, I'll take Lilly in, too. And he's going to get a rabies vaccination tomorrow. The shelter said they did that, but I didn't get any certificate or tag, so Vet is going to do it to be on the safe side.

Remember how the shelter told us that he is 2 to 3 years old? He's more like 9 months. So we have a puppy on our hands. We specifically excluded puppies from our search, so if the shelter had accurately posted his age, we wouldn't have considered adopting him. Call it fate, call it providence. It looks like we were just meant to have this great little guy in our lives.

He's just about completely house trained now. It's really great for him to be in a home with another dog. He learns everything from Lilly. He watches her go outside, and he does it, too. I explained to Vet how the 2 play to make sure it wasn't anything to be concerned about. She said it doesn't sound like any kind of dominance thing, just playfulness. I'm so glad for both of them that they play together like that. Lilly always wanted to play with Rascal, but he would have none of that nonsense. Oscar chases Lilly around and around the back yard. He keeps up with her pretty well, too. Well, he cheates...he cuts corners pretty generously. :)

I debated about whether or not to do a page about Eliza's first road trip. I'm glad I did. It was really an easy one, and I love the pictures. One of the advantages about having Hallmark HQ in your home town is that they make scrapbook paper with the local area on it. (And one of the advantages of having a mother-in-law who worked at Hallmark is being given said paper.) So I was able to highlight the actual route with ribbon. Neat!

I went for a while without any pages to do, now I'm behind. I need to do a page about Oscar's adoption (he's doing great by the way; even his housetraining is coming along), one for Eliza's 14 months, and one about her cute little feet. I also have everything I need for Rascal's scrapbook. That's going to be a bigger project that will take some time.

Oscar is going to get checked out at the vet on Thursday, then probably get neutered on Friday. He knows for the most part that he's supposed to pee outside, but he has no clue he's supposed to poop outside. He was peeing inside, then he watched (and smelled) Lilly going outside, and he started doing it outside, too. He's only gone once or twice inside since then. He and Lilly are still establishing dominance, and so far Lilly wins every time. They're not aggressive or hurtful; they're more playful than anything. There's something about this little guy. I can't quite put my finger on it. There's something extra special, extraordinary. I don't know, some sort of above-and-beyond spark. He's something else. He gets frustrated when Lilly jumps up on the bed in the office; he's too short and can't jump up there. In our bedroom, we have stairs up to the bed. It only took one time for me to show him, and he started using them to get up and down every time. He's a smart one.

Off to bed--back to work tomorrow. Meh.