So much for braggin...

Yep, just when I brag about how great Cooper is, he goes and messes it all up with a VERY BAD DOG moment! I allowed him up on the couch with me Friday night (spoiling our good boy), he was laying behind me on the top of the cushions. As I sat there almost motionless watching some TV, he sat up and growled.. I thought "hmm, must be hearing something I dont hear" which happens all the time with the dogs :)


So I reached over and pet him, he then growled again and barked, looking off in the distance of who knows where.. So I pet him again, and he once again growled and barked but then he lunged a little at my hand.. basically telling me to leave him the hell alone!! I immediately realized he was barking and growling at me.. OH HELL NO! I grabbed his neck and drug his ass immediately to the ground yelling NO.. BAD DOG.. NO GROWLING.. etc. and then proceeded to attempt to annoy the hell out of him by pulling his legs, ears and forcing him to stay in the lay down position. Once he was on the ground, he softened his eyes and turned into "cute puppy mode" and was not showing any signs of aggression or annoyance at all that I was putting him through.


We were told due to his age and growing hormones, that he's going to start testing his boundaries so we have decided he is no longer allowed to be anything but a dog! :) He lost any priveledges of being on the couches or chairs with or without us. He is a floor dog, end of story and he can sit and be sad that Ellie & Russell are sleeping in luxury on the couch cushions.. lol


It was nice to hear from other dog folk that he is just testing us and that it's not necessarily a trait of his that will turn into anything serious. Mr Couch Diva will learn his roll in the pecking order of our house. He tries hard to be good but the past few days he's been sneaking around the couches and chairs, lurking and waiting for that moment we wont notice him quietly jump up on them and fall asleep. For the most part, when we see it coming, he listens to us tell him no and he stays off and once he's up, 80% of the time he'll get off when we tell him to, the other times we have to drag him off.. so far no further growling instances. I bought him a cushion for the floor (yep still attemping to spoil him) because he seems SOO dis-satisfied with the carpet, but he's not even the one using it!


Did I mention before that our washing machine had a fight with the wall cabinet a week ago? Well the cabinet won and busted the knob on our machine, I believe also breaking the timer which is a $100+ part. Found a 2yr front load washer on CL (not one of the super fancy ones but a decent one), got it hooked up and running last night.. seems to do a fine job although Cooper thinks we've added an alien to the laundry room, he was quite upset with the new washer and sure that it did not belong! maybe because he could see the clothes moving all around.

I spent this past Friday baking rolls for our annual Cinnamon Roll Ride with the horse club. Well I killed my yeast with the first batch of dough and around noon realized I needed to make another trip to the store to buy more supplies to start a second batch.. My yeast was more cooperative the 2nd time around, but then some rolls over-rised, I over-carmelized, I over-baked.. grrr Not a great roll making day for me. I need more practice, maybe I should cut the recipe in 1/4 and make just a couple batches until I really get this thing down pact. But I have to learn how to do this on my own and perfect it.. as much as I know my mom probably wanted to be there with me to help out.. I will never learn if I dont just bear down and do it alone. Of course noone complained, they all thought I was silly for being so paranoid, but they were pretty darn hard when eaten cold! lol and when you cant pick off a nut because there is too much caramel type stuff and its baked into hardness.... reheated, they were pretty nummy.

I decided not to take my embarassing rolls to the dog club potluck dinner, we wanted to impress our potential new circle of friends so I smoked up some delicious ribs and we had a great time. It felt a little awkward going to a potluck of 20 or so, knowing only 1 person.. but they all were inviting and we had a really good time. I can be so shy and reserved in situations like that, but because the lodge we were in was all open, you had nowhere to hide away. It was in Monroe, and although the outside of the building looks nothing like a hunting lodge, it actually is very nice inside, almost like a big apartment with a bunch of rooms and beds for guests, decorated with the lodge decor. It was nice getting to know some of the people and we also talked about other interests besides our dogs, one lady has probably been to our horse club prize rides in the past.

Sunday was Derek's only day off again, not that he had time to relax as he started to build a custom cabinet.. this thing is huge, I cant wait to take pics of it, he is doing a really great job. It is for work so he has a place to store all his tools and paint guns, books, supplies etc.

Long gone are the days of coming home and plopping in front of the TV for hours and hours. Most nights we only get an hour of TV time, which is nice to take some time away.. makes you realize you are not missing out on as much as you think you are when you dont get to watch your shows.. we still have them recording, I'm not ready to give up entirely on watching TV, but have found we are now selectively weeding some out as our DVR fills up and we have to make room for the shows we really think we cant live without, even if it takes months to get to them! A month ago our DVR was empty, now it is 80% full.. I'm not sure what we'll do when we have no shows left to weed out, I guess we'll just have to come to grips with the fact that life has to come before TV.