Three Days and Counting...

The tree is still up! Sophie doesn't seem to even notice it. In fact, I'll confess that I stuffed her kong (best dog toy ever) with treats and stuck it under the tree just so she'd get close enough for me to snap this picture.

With the holidays here we sure do wish we were a lot closer to the referral than we thought we'd be at this time last year... and it all feels too far away to not feel odd buying anything for June. (I know lots of other prospective parents are cool with it, just a personal thing for us.) But, we'll spoil the dog rotten and hope that Christmas 2007 will bring either a trip to China or at the very least, a referral. By THEN the shopping bonanza will be in full swing!

I believe you have my stapler...

Love Office Space? I did. Watch it a million times on cable just because it was on and it got funnier every time? No? Oh. I did. We all have our guilty pleasures. (I also find The Notebook strangely alluring whenever it's on Encore but quickly change channels when Mike is coming downstairs... but I digress)

So this remix has probably been around for a long time but it just made its way to my inbox (thanks Trish). Lots of Office Space mash-ups online, I discovered, but they pale in comparison to this hilarious psycho thriller trailer...

I swear one of these days we'll get back to blogging about the adoption (as soon as something, anything happens!)

It Finally Clicked For Us

We started obedience school last night. By all accounts, Sophie is a good little pup, but set on pleasing herself, not her masters. And she's started a nasty little habit of barking when she doesn't feel like doing what's asked. Before things careen out of control, we decided to call a trainer, because what I've tried so far isn't doing diddly. The trainer uses clicker training (fancy pants name: operant conditioning), similar to what they use with dolphins. Doggie does something right, you click the clicker, then give a treat. Doggie soon learns that whatever action she just did is marked by the clicker, and yummy stuff is on the way.

The trainer warned me that the first night, it would be horrible. She was right. Sophie's interest was mostly in what the other dogs were up to (one of whom occasionally pooped on the gymnasium floor). But after a good night's sleep, a fresh bag of treats, and no distractions, she caught on extremely quickly. My girl sat on command 15 times in a row tonight, ended her barking after only 3 tries, and did lots more right than wrong. Off to a great start.

I wonder, with a little extra work, could I use this thing to get Mike to take out the trash?