The silence that was...

It's been over a week since the last blog about Teh ZepZep.  Bad blogger, I am.  Besides taking the week to try and not do much cognitive activity, which usually ended back on the saddest things, I was also busy preparing to go to Norfolk, VA for training this past week.

Last weekend I went and hung out with Teh Führer, a friend from Bahrain in DC.  I found out where all the snow that Pax River didn't get went.... DC.  They had piles of white stuff on the ground.  We went to 2 Greyhound meet and greets, where there was only 1 dog actually for adoption.  I've realized something about dog "meet and greets", its really just owned dogs usually there who are advertising for the company who they were adopted through.  Ah ha moment for me.  After the meet and greets, we decided to see a movie.  War Horse was at 6:10, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was at 6:35.  We went with the earlier one since it was only 4.  After an hour and a half in Barnes & Noble (which I don't have in Pax River), and 30 minutes in Target, it was movie time.  War Horse made me extremely sad, and I was very afraid the horse was gonna die, and with the recent Zeplen death, I was sure it would make me cry.  


Last week was filled with being in VA again, which is always fun because being in Navy, you probably know at least one person stationed in Norfolk/VA Beach.  I know several people, but 2 of my Navy peeps hit me up to hang out, which was AWESOME!  I got to have Yama twice in one week, and not having had Yama since... I'm not actually sure when, it was deeeeelightful.

Mama P (and her daughter Little Mama P and Baby P) were a delight.  Mama P and Little Mama P fixed dinner and gave Baby P a bath while we all chatted and hung out.  Totally worth the tunnel traffic to go visit my A School buddy on Tuesday!

Miss Difficult Last Name, her boyfriend, and I met at Yama for dinner on Weds. night.  We weren't the last diners to leave the restaurant, but we were there till after they closed.  It was awesome catching up and comparing oddly similar life situations with each other, fun stories about crazies (not just LT's from NAVCENT), and plans for visits/meet ups.

There is really no good excuse for not having blogged in over a week, other than the silence was more comforting than writing, and I was sure my Gentle Readers didn't want to have to read more about sadness over Teh ZepZep.  After a few pretty rough nights, I've been okay otherwise.  Moving forward with the Greyhound idea/process has definitely helped keep me from moping too much.  Although, Teh Bear still suggests that I shouldn't get a Greyhound that is white with black spots, that I'd be too soon-ing myself.  Which is a valid point.

After taking over 2 weeks to consider it, I've decided to formally start the Greyhound adoption process through Greyt Expectations.  I filled out my online application this morning and submitted it.  This afternoon, I went to their meet and greet, which of course, all of the dogs were already adopted.  Nonetheless, I got to talk with some of the people that are involved with the adoption agency and explained to them that I had submitted my application earlier that morning.  They all seemed very excited about it, which I will assume is good for me.  I hung out for an hour (which flew by).  There were Greyhounds of all colors.  They were all getting along with each other and after all the excitement started to die down, they would just lay down and chillax.  That's the kind of dog I want.  The "eh, not interested anymore but I'll be here if you need me" dog.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was a dog that was hopping around, because it only had 3 legs.  I was on the phone with Teh Sister at the time, and I cut her off from whatever she was saying, "Teh Sister, there is a dog here with 3 legs, and its too soon.  It's too soon.  It's going to make me cry.  I won't cry."  I had to start rubbing my eyes to make sure that if there were tears they would be quickly cleared.  I'm not sure if she understood what I was saying or not, and there might have been prickles of tears, but I held it together.  Zeplen hopped around for the last few weeks since he wasn't using his bad leg, and he could have been an amputee dog if Teh BFF and I hadn't decided otherwise early on.

For a small greyhound lesson, I will show you the different colors of the greyhound (because this would be a crappy blog if it didn't have pictures of something).

Easiest explanation graphic I could find.  (image) 

So far, I'm most partial to any color not white.  I really like the fawn color (2 down, 2 over) and I also like the brindles, which come in a variety of different shades.  The lady I talked to today said they had a fawn bridle that came in today that she'd never seen before as dark brindle is the more common of the bridle colors.

Today I learned that despite how low Greyhounds usually keep their tails, they do wag those suckers pretty hard and high.  That was always Teh Granny's main complaint about Zeplen was that his tail whipping (while he was wagging his tail) would hurt her legs.  To me it wasn't too painful, I did want to see what would happen if I were to grab the tail, but because all the dogs were very anxious with the crowd and all the other dogs, AND it being someone else's dog, I didn't test it.

The other thing I learned was that some Greyhounds like to come up between human's legs.  Which kept making me think of someone riding a horse, as Greyhounds aren't really small dogs.  For me, this would be an issue due to my vertical challengedness, but it is a behavior that could be discouraged and trained away.

The most interesting part of the meet and greet was when a couple brought in this MONSTER-sized dog.  His back came up to my waist and his head was probably as high as my boobs.  This dog was HUUUUGEEEEEE and cute and I wanted him.  I know he wasn't for adoption though, nor would a dog his size be accepted or comfortable in an apartment as small as mine.  He was like a mini horse.  He had the face of a Greyhound, but from my internet research I've assessed him to be a Deerhound or something similar.

Deerhound.  Oh my.  I don't really want a hairy dog, but I'd accept one that was this large massive.  (image)

I put my availablity to accept a Greyhound as Feb 17th, which means that Teh Bear will have returned to FL :(, and its a long weekend, so it can be spent acclimating the dog to living with Teh Megan.  It will be after Teh Bear leaves so that way the dog doesn't get used to Teh Bear being here and then him leaving a few days down the road.

Sadly, racing Greyhounds already have names, some of which are pretty ridiculous, so there is that.  I did see several really amusing names today while pursing through the Greyhounds available through Greyt Expectations that are in Daytona, FL.
Names like:
Frederick (who I'd call Fred),
Diablo (which Teh Bear vetoed),
Shoes,
Elvis,
Ernie (I was extremely partial to Ernie, just because his name),
Vilimous (its weird and funny),
Drew (although this would create some confusion down the road),
Mambo (even though I'd always sing Mambo #5 in my head when I had to call the dog),
Nightmare (which Teh Bear also vetoed),
Juan (which made me think of Teh Mexican),
Alf,
Wicked,
Old Yella,
Pirate,
Shiek (which just had to be added to my spell check dictionary, obviously not in Bahrain anymore),
Cujo,
Track Hoe, and
Beerfest.

What Teh Bear and I can't figure out is who comes up with these ridiculous names?  Seriously?  I know that some people only get a Greyhound for racing, but really, you'd call the animal you want to win money with "Track Hoe"?  Wtf?

The other thing Teh Bear and I discussed was establishing dominance over a dog.
tB:  I don't want to have to teach a dog to heel.
Me:  You're going to have to do it if you want the dog to listen to you.  He's gotta know you're the master.  I'm not afraid to hump a dog to show it it's my bitch.
tB:  And that goes under "things you thought you'd never hear your girlfriend say".

Teh BFF was very weird-ed out the first time she saw me hump Zeplen.  After I explained it to her, she understood, but told me I'd probably never see her hump Zeplen.  But, it was quickly noticed that he stopped being an asshole after I showed him who was boss, for a little while at least.  The only person that I ever saw Zeplen hump was Teh Sister's ex-fiance, which was hilarious!  Otherwise, he kept it to other dogs until someone noticed and told him to quit.  Zeplen, the asshole dog.  Le sigh.

In non-dog related news, Teh Bear will be arriving on the 30th, which is ridiculously exciting for me.  He will be in MD for 2 weeks, putting together my dining room chairs and living room end tables.  I saved some work for him to do while he's here and I'm at work, since I'm only taking a week of leave for the last part of his visit.  Which means that there should be more Adventures with Teh Bear posts, only more boring and less Arabic-world-ed.  We are going to Williamsburg, VA for 2 nights as my birthday present (cause I love old shit!), which we're pretty excited about because we found what looks to be a pretty decent B&B for a really great price (hopefully a good review of that to come).

Fun times = WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!