Author: Tanie

I’ve actually raised & trained two dogs from being baby puppies: Dougal* and Georgie. I haven’t done a very good job though, because I’m lazy and prefer giving them lots of kisses on their doggy faces to disciplining them. Anyway, according to my Wikipedia research, spitz-type dogs “respond poorly to heavy-handed or forceful training methods,” so my kissy-face method is probably the best approach.

Dougal is a muttly mutt of a dog, so I don’t know where his intelligence ranks, but according to Stanley’s Coren’s The Intelligence of Dogs, pomeranians are the 23rd-smartest breed of dog. They learn commands quickly, including things you don’t want to teach them. Some things I’ve inadvertently taught my dog:
– when I say “I have to go to the bathroom” or “I have to pee,” Georgie will get up and follow me to the bathroom. If I don’t say anything she doesn’t follow me.
– when we’re at the off-leash dog park I usually loop Georgie’s leash around my neck like a cool rainbow lanyard, and when I take the leash off my neck she knows it’s time to leave and will follow me out without needing to be called or chased.
– both dogs have learned the cat’s name. Dougal despises cats and thinks they don’t deserve any attention, if I even say “Claire” he’ll jump up and chase her out of the room, or at the very least make a bunch of weird moaning sounds. idk he’s crazy. Georgie loves the cat and wants to play with her all the time, so she’ll just look for her if I say “Claire.”

I’ve also managed to successfully teach my dogs some things that I wanted them to learn. Dougal and Kichou will both go in their crates as soon as I say “In your house!” even though Taylor didn’t think Kichou would learn from me (HA!). Georgie won’t; she hates being in her crate and I have to push her in. She also refuses to lie down on command, the little brat. HOWEVER, and this is my greatest triumph, if I hold a treat over her head and say “dance! dancey-dance!” she stands up on her hind legs and does little twirls. LITTLE PUPPY PIROUETTES omg it is so cute. Kichou does it too and sometimes I can get them both dancing together and it’s basically the best thing in the world.

*My ex was also around when Dougal was a baby but LET’S BE REAL I did all the work. All he did was teach Dougal to sit when you snap your fingers, which was very annoying since I CAN’T SNAP MY FINGERS, and after I trained Dougal to not sleep on the bed he UNTRAINED HIM argh.

Hmm. I don’t know if you noticed but I’ve recently been in a blogging slump. This is partly because I just didn’t waaaaaaanna post, and partly because it’s been so gross and grey and rainy here that I haven’t done anything worth posting about. Like, I could blog about how I laid on the couch for LITERALLY fourteen hours and watched The X-Files while eating potatoes but that doesn’t make for a compelling read.

Or does it. It’s actually been kind of interesting because the first five seasons were filmed here in Vancouver in the mid-nineties, so it’s kind of like a weird tv time capsule. One episode had scenes at the goth club I always went to when I first moved here (when I was 17, shh), another had lots of extras that I recognized from bars and raves (it was the nineties, okay!). One episode had a scene filmed at the store where Symphony’s dad works, another featured a not-yet-completed Rogers Arena (home of the Vancouver Canucks, if you didn’t know). One episode, set in Baltimore, had a shot where you can clearly see a #4 UBC bus going by (I was not aware there was a University of British Columbia in Baltimore).

ANYWAY. that isn’t what this post is about. This post is about I DYED MY HAIR.

DARK AGAIN! My hairdresser is probably going to strangle me, she spent two and a half years painstakingly highlighting my hair to get it blonde from this exact dark brown (it looks black but it’s not). This was another of my total hair whims- I had the idea one morning, picked up a box of dye and coloured it while the daycare kids were napping. It actually took me two tries to get it right- the first box only covered my five-inch grey roots and just looked like I had dark brown roots instead. A few days later I got a second box and added more brown through the midlengths and some of the ends. I left most of the ends blue/green, but they were stained by the brown and are more of a teal now. idk, I like it.

Some pictures I took of Sym and the dogs basking in a sunbeam the other weekend, these are especially nice to look at today because it’s all black clouds and pouring rain outside.

Sally Hansen Barracuda, Mint Sorbet, Lacey Lilac and Yellow Kitty; Essie Muchi Muchi; Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love topcoat

The idea behind these pastels with a matte topcoat is that they are supposed to look like Cadbury’s Mini Eggs. I’m not sure if I accomplished that, but they are spring-y and Easter-y enough I think.

While I like all these colours, the formula of these polishes was almost universally terrible. Except for the Lacey Lilac (a perennial favourite of mine) they were all really watery and required about a million coats for full coverage. Yellow Kitty and Muchi Much (the pink) were the worrrrrrrst and even with five coats they still aren’t perfect, but Mint Sorbet (which I feel I’ve complained about before) and Barracuda (the blue) are also pretty bad. I would say I’m never going to use them again but I already promised Sym I’d give her a matching manicure.

I’ve been pretty exhausted and crappy feeling this week so I don’t have a list of awesome or terrible things to share, so I’m just going to post about one thing: the best person in the world, my husband Taylor.

It was our 3rd wedding anniversary on Wednesday, although we didn’t do anything fancy to celebrate. I had given him his (top-secret) gift early (I’m bad at keeping secrets) and he brought me home flowers. He apologized that they weren’t my favourite kind, but you know what? They are. My favourite kind of flowers are the flowers he gave me (also tulips and hydrangeas, but that’s beside the point).

I could write up a huge post about all the kind things he does and how sweet and handsome and funny and handsome and tall and smart and handsome he is, but if you want to read that stuff you can just check out the Tanie + Taylor page. As for me, I’m just happy he’s mine 🙂

Just so you know, this week’s Monday falls on Tuesday.

Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Big Money*
I’d apologize for having dry skin on my thumb but I have a job where I have to wash my hands 350 million times a day and also I don’t care. Neither does Georgie.

She’s so kissy! Anyway I think this colour (pale gold & purple glitter) is the most popular colour in the Gem Crush line, based on reviews I’ve read online and the fact that it sold out in many of the stores I frequent. I was going to put it over a plain metallic gold (you know how I feel about glitter polishes over naked nails) but I forgot and besides, with three coats it actually gets really good coverage!

*I painted these nails a few days after being introduced to the wonder and the mystery that is Insane Clown Posse’s juggalo western, Big Money Rustlas, and now that’s all I can think about.

Yesterday I finally re-coloured my super faded hair. This time I started with the crown instead of the bottom layers, and since my roots are like five inches long I didn’t bother putting dye on them, and it was way easier, way faster and way less messy! I still ende dup with blue hands and a green neck though.

When I was taking a picture of it Sym wandered over and I asked her if she wanted to take a picture with me. She said yes. What she meant was she would take some crazy pictures and then switch the camera to video mode, but I got my revenge. Through TICKLING.

Kind of a small post this week since I’ve been incapacitated but illness & infirmity for the last couple days.

The Good

Oregon Tails’ Flickr Page

My friend Lindsey introduced me to this dog walking service called Oregon Tails. She used to use them for her beautiful dog Cooper (pictured above) and they have a photostream with like, THREE THOUSAND pictures of dogs playing and having fun adventures. If you are like me and love dogs more than almost anything then this is the photostream for you. I mean,

DOGS!

Zuny Animals
idk why I love these dumb things so much, but every time I go to the store that carries them I end up goofing out over them. One time they had a unicorn and I didn’t buy it and I have regretted it ever since. Last weekend I found a bunch of them on clearance for 75% off so I bought 2 sizes of deers- a bookend and a paperweight.

Not sure what I’m gonna do with them yet but that’s okay.

Summertime Sadness

Is everyone over Lana Del Rey now? Well I’m not, I love her and I don’t care who knows it. This song in particular is my f a v o u r i t e, I think I listen to it about fifty times a day.

The Bad

The Migraine I Got Last Night After My Shower
Like, really? Like the mystery food poisoning-like illness I had midweek wasn’t enough, I had to have a migraine as well? Completely NOT COOL, brain.

I don’t often take unscheduled days off work. I can’t even remember the last time I did, maybe when Sym was in the second or third grade? It’s definitely been a couple of years.

I always feel bad about inconveniencing all my clients, so I have to be REALLY sick to call off. Last night at 2am when I was sweating and crying on the bathroom floor and trying not to throw up all over myself I decided this was one of those times. I had all my clients’ numbers in my phone, so I texted them all not to come in and went back to bed. I didn’t hear back from a couple of them before opening time so I asked Sym to make the above sign for the door and spent the day with my book and my sick day bff, this little fuzzy dog who never left my side.

Sym made little crafts to cheer me up and Taylor brought me ginger ale and I’m already feeling much better.

My last nails were so much work that I decided to keep it simple this week with just a pretty, deep blue. I wish I’d done a matte topcoat on this instead though!