Post 100

It's post 100! I am like 300 posts behind my brother, but I thought I'd mention it anyway! :) The house is moving along at a steady pace. The roof is completely done, the siding totally finished, bathtubs are in and filled with water to ensure that the floor can hold them (so far so good), plumbing has been started, air ducts are in, back door is installed and the floor is labeled everywhere for color, flooring, phone jacks, cable hook-ups, etc. We were a little disappointed when we saw the color of the roof, "heather blend", which is a type of brown. We were darn sure that the color scheme we chose for the exterior of the house was a very light gray with black and white trim and a black roof. However, when we looked at the paperwork, we did indeed choose a color scheme with beige siding, white and dark navy blue (almost black) accents and a brown roof. We called the studio to get a couple addresses of other people who had the same color scheme and looked at them before we really started freaking out! It turns out they look really nice, so we're ok with it now. We don't necessarily think they made a mistake, we just looked at soooo many color schemes (they have 24 very similar choices) that we couldn't accurately remember what we decided on. And anyway, the brown roof will soak up less of the horribly hot Texas sun!
So, I had to also include pictures of our adorable Fenway!!! He has gotten so big from when we first got him! We think he is pretty much full grown at this point...a respectable 15 pounds! Everyday he crawls deeper into our hearts! He is absolutely part of the family! He is a very well behaved dog (except when people come over...he jumps on them for awhile before he calms down). We are working him off the leash outside and he is doing so good! He is great at recall! We can't wait until he can run around our backyard!


So, today is my first day at the Lake Jackson store. I will be working the 3-10 closing shift (yeah...welcome back to retail)! :( Apparently, there are some employees who applied for the position and did not get it, so I'm told they may have issues with me right off the bat. I'm interested to see how that goes and excited to finally get into the store I will be working at once I finish training. My training is half done. I have 2 more weeks (mon-thurs). So far, I've passed all my tests with flying colors...100% on the reptile test...99% on small animal test...and 96% on Pet Authority test! I have 2 more tests to go...avian and aquatics. Well, I will let everyone know how today goes!

Another Update

Well, things are moving along quite nicely! Yesterday they were almost done with the siding and today we went by and they had the siding completely done, the roof started and the windows all installed (last picture)! It's such a cool surprise everyday to see how far they've gotten! The picture with no house in it is the back yard. I'm standing at the far corner of the yard while Dave takes the picture from the back door. I also included a picture of the great view of downtown from our bedroom window! Hopefully the port 'o' potty won't be there when we move in! :)

Starting to look like a house

The framing of our house started yesterday!!! We were amazed that when Dave drove by after work and they hadn't started yet and when I drove by 50 minutes later they were almost done with the first floor and starting on the second. We went back later that night for a more thorough look!



















Today when I stopped by after work they had gotten quite far on the second floor! It's so cool to see how it's starting to really look like a house! It's easier to see now how big our backyard really is and where our driveway will be, etc. It's just such an exciting process to go through! Hopefully, most of the stressful part is over Nd we can just enjoy watching our house grow into exactly what we wanted!

Concrete!

We have concrete! Yah! Things are moving slowly, but surely! We have a current closing date of July 28th. Hopefully, it'll be sooner...or at least on time! :)

Sedation

The DeBrazza's sedation I told you about yesterday went very well! Both monkeys did the trained behaviors we asked them to, which in turn, allowed us to inject them with ketamine. The female, Amelia, went down very quickly. The male, Albert, fought the drug and was wobbly at best. He was "my" monkey, so of course I was starting to worry that maybe I didn't get all the drug in him, but we later found out that the vet miscalculated the amount of drug he would need (he grew a lot bigger from the weight they had on file). It took more dugs and 3 more injections before he went down! And even then, he was only sedated lightly. I hand restrained him for the entire procedure as an extra precaution. I was so proud of my little monkey! I can't believe he came back to me to receive more injections! Most primates hold a grudge for weeks after being injected only once!!! Anyway, Diane and I were very pleased with the results!!!

Last Week

My last week at the zoo is certainly going by fast! It's been filled with tying up loose ends, saying good-bye to animals (and people) and letting my creativity flow. I'll explain...several months ago I decided to paint the walls of the animals cages for enrichment. Apparently, my boss thought that I had some amazing talent at painting trees and wanted me to paint our brand new cart. Although I wasn't sure how much talent I really had, I took her up on the challenge and just finished the cart today. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself! :) It's just one of the many things I had to finish before I leave.
I also went to Natural Encounters today and said good-bye to some of my old animals. I may not have worked with them for a year now, but I built a stronger history and relationship with them than the ones I work with now. It was sad to say good-bye, but fun to see that many of them still recognize me!
Tomorrow is a long awaited sedation on our 2 DeBrazza's Guenons. Diane and I have been working on training them to accept an injection and I believe they are finally ready. Ready or not, it had to be scheduled before I left! I'm fairly confidant, but still slightly nervous, because if they don't cooperate then they have to be netted or darted which is highly stressful on them. They can only be as good as their trainers, so hopefully I'll be on the ball tomorrow. This is what they look like:The staff is throwing me a luncheon tomorrow afternoon and we're all going out for drinks and fun after work on friday! I can't believe it's almost my last day! Well, I'm sure they'll be way more to come about the end (at least for now) of my zookeeping career and the beginning of management at Petco. As for now, I am just thankful that I've made so many great friends at the zoo! Life-long friends.

Wii's first road trip

This weekend we packed up our Wii and drove to a friend's house for some drinks and video games! We are quickly realizing that the Wii was definitely a good purchase! All our friends created their characters, which are stored on our system. Anytime they play, they can pick their character and it will keep track of all their scores, fitness level and more! We played well into the night and had a blast. I can't wait until we can get some old school games like Mario and Duck Hunt!!! So far, I have found that that I am better at bowling than I thought I was and enjoy virtual bowling, much more than real bowling! Last night, while Dave and I were playing, I beat my personal best at one particular bowling game! I hold the highest score among Dave and our friends in a game where you bowl ten times and the amount of pins double each time! In the end, there are 91 pins on the alley! Out of 500 pins, my score was 461! Anyway, it's one of the many fun "training" games on the Wii! I'm sure we will play more tonight!

Wii Would Like To Play

Yes, we are playing a new game in our household. Today I was lucky enough to find 1 of about 7 Wii's in the entire country. We had a friend come over this weekend, and he brought his system. It was the first time Laura and I had a chance to play. It was the most fun we've had in a long time, and it was something that we could have fun together doing. Sure we have fun playing things like Guitar Hero, but we only have one guitar, so the other person is sitting and watching. Star Wars Lego's works, but you can only shoot each other so many times. So we decided to get active and get something that actually makes us move around. It is everything we remembered playing the other night, and then some. It'll be interesting once we get some more games. It did come with Wii Sports, which has boxing, baseball, tennis, golf and bowling. What a fun system this is. Only had it one night, and it has already paid for itself!