Kittens!

I want to apologize to any folks that follow this blog for any cool Antarctica content-- not much lately. I'll continue to document the cool new stuff that is happening in my life, and I'll weave Antarctica content into it when I can.

I've had cats for much of my life, but have adopted out my favorite recent cats to friends in order to pursue ice jobs over the last few years. Now that I'm settled down, I have been thinking a lot about expanding the Lee/Conan household to include a cat... I've decided to lay low for Thanksgiving weekend, which gave me enough leisure time to browse some cat rescues and 'pounds' today. At the Dumb Friends League Buddy Center in Castle Rock today, I found my newest roommates. A couple of mutt cats. 'Buddy' was listed as a two-month-old black domestic shorthair, but he's actually a black tabby. I've had quite a few black cats in my life, and I've noticed with several of them that their hair actually has a tabby pattern to it, if viewed in the right light. Buddy is really about three tones of black in a stripy pattern-- very cool. Betty is the same size and age, though the paperwork didn't show that they were littermates. Just dropped off at the same time.

One of the reasons I've been thinking of getting a cat again is that Conan spends all nine or ten hours a weekday here in the house, just waiting for me to get home again. That usually means a trip to the dog park, and making amends for those hours of solitude. I thought if he had a cat (or two) bopping around the house all day, that might make the waiting more tolerable. He gets nearly no mental stimulation for the whole time I'm at work, and I can really see it in his behavior when I get home.

I picked up the kittens today, and they've been bouncing around the house with Conan all evening. He grew up with cats, so he's very respectful of them. I think there are memories of claws to nose that are keeping him in line. It's interesting-- cats are such incredibly smart and adaptive predators, but their 'smarts' are so different from dogs. This transition from thirty years of being a cat guy, to a dog guy, to a dog-and-cat-guy are showing me some interesting variations in the way we all think. Conan is a very bright dog, and he surprises me every day with his facility for language and memorization. That being said, I've got to witness today that a cat a tenth of his size (probably way less...) could figure out how to get where they wanted to go in the house in seconds, where he may have never worked it out. Math, though.... dogs are much better at math.

I hope to post some more pictures of the new house and expanded family soon. I've been having some technical difficulties recently, which have prevented me from posting great pics...

New Wheels!

Sorry Antarcticans-- no Antarctica content in this one. I'm getting more settled into my wee Englewood bungalow, and getting more used to the sub-urban (not quite suburban) lifestyle. Englewood feels a lot more like a small town than a suburb. I'm really liking it here. I still have about a half-hour commute to the office and back every day, and I've been doing it in my trusty old 2000 Tundra. Burning up a lot of gas, just commuting, and tons more when I visit friends in Montana and Arizona, and other road trips.

I've been thinking about getting a small car that gets good mileage, to take the heat off the ol' pickup, and to save bucks on gas. I've shopped the hell out of cars for the last couple of weeks, and found my ride. It's an '03 VW Jetta TDI (turbo diesel). It has nearly 100k on it, but it just got about three grand worth of engine work (new turbo/ manifold and new oil pan). These cars get about 50MPG in the city, and around 55MPG on the highway. I've had turbocharged cars before, so I know how to keep the car in its powerband and happy, so it's actually a pretty perky ride. It's not screaming fast, but I have a motorcycle for that. I can't wait to experience my first 600 mile tank! It's the GLS model, so it has the power sunroof, heated seats, heated mirrors, etc. Of all the options I would ever want on a car, heated seats are near the top. It's great to get in a cold car on a winter morning, and have a warm butt before my tires hit the street.

I've always been skeptical of VWs, having had a couple that were really crap. I'm willing to give them another chance here-- it could be that I've just driven them like a rented mule before, and broke them often. I'll try to be civilized with this one...

Corgi Halloween

Well, I successfully closed the deal on the wee bungalow yesterday. The whole process has been so smooth, it's definitely like the Universe wants me to live in that house. I have the keys, and get to start moving in this evening. I can't wait. I'll get to be in my new digs for Halloween, which should be fun. I carved a special pumpkin just for the occasion (I'll post pictures of that later). I'm not planning on dressing up, and Conan certainly isn't, but here are some pictures of corgis dressed up for Halloween, sent to me from Conan's Godmother in Montana (the breeder where I got him, and where he spent over 24 months while I was on the ice and travelling.

Close!

I close on my wee bungalow in Englewood tomorrow! Everything about the transaction has gone eerily smoothly so far, and I have no issues with the house at all. It's in almost perfect shape. There is one hitch, though-- I gave away most of my furniture when I went to the ice in '08, and was stressing about furnishing the house with no money. The sellers are self-moving to Portland, and really didn't want to schlep all their furniture out there, so I approached them (through two realtors...) about selling me some. They agreed to sell me pretty much everything except the homemade dining room butcher-block table and chairs. I'm getting the couch with two matching chairs, two leather bar stools for the breakfast bar, an end table, a side table, a 32" TV with matching stand, the really cool living room area rug, the overhead pot rack, a warehouse-grade 8'x4'x12' shelving unit in the basement, plus shelving units in the garage and shed. I asked them what they would ask for all that stuff, and they came back with a price of $540! For all of it! I doubt if I could have replaced just the bar stools for that. I am so stoked. I take possession on the Friday of my three-day weekend, so I'll have plenty of time to move in. Conan will be in heaven, too. He's been spending workdays confined to the kitchen of my temporary digs while the house has been painted. He's been wound up like a cheap watch from sheer lack of stimulation every day when I get home from work. Having a whole house to himself will make it much easier. I plan to get a cat very soon, too. My living arrangements (and global gypsy lifestyle) have kept me from having a cat for years. Conan grew up with my cats Chuck and Squishy, so he's a big cat lover, and will love the extra company. Woo Hoo!

Bought a House!

Sorry there hasn't been any cool Antarctic content lately. I've been supporting the USAP from my little cubicle, and not too much sexy has been going on there. I was scheduled to deploy to McMurdo in November, to do some hardware and software testing at Black Island. Unfortunately, Mac Town is so totally overbooked that I got bumped. Projections are that the population will be about 175 over maximum all summer. Yuck-- in a way I'm glad not to participate in that. Though going to Australia and Hawaii for free...

The big news is that I'm buying a house! I'm making a commitment to settle down, at least for now. Still single, and really haven't done much dating out here in the 'burbs. Hopefully that'll change when I'm closer to the action, geographically.

It's a really cool little house. There is some confusion on the square footage, but it looks like it's about 800 sq ft on the ground floor, with one bedroom. In the basement, there are two nice little bedrooms, and a brand-new 3/4 bath. The couple I'm buyign it from totally remodeled the house six years ago, with a new kitchen, etc. The great thing is that they have very similar tastes, so it's exactly how I would have done it myself. It's in the middle of Englewood, west of Broadway, north of Belleview. VERY quiet neighborhood-- nary a crack house or meth lab on my street. I've gone through the inspection, and the inspector only found a few small things. Still in a little negotiations over the small things, but I'm set to close in 18 days. Can't wait! (Note: I never took the time to take good pictures when I've been there-- snipped these from the realtor's website.

Dog Pool

I've been working with Conan, trying to teach him to swim. He loves the water, but just can't get past the sensation that there is no bottom under his feet. I've eased him into deeper water a couple of times, but he doesn't go there voluntarily. I saw a woman with a corgi at the Louisville dog park a few weeks ago. Her dog had a life jacket, and was a swimming fool. I got Conan a similar vest, and it does seem to give him a little more confidence in deep water. This weekend Scott Carpenter pool in Boulder is letting dogs swim free. I went there yesterday with my dad and Conan, and made a little more progress on the swimming lessons. Unfortunately, there really wasn't anywhere in this pool to ease him into deeper water. The shallow end is four feet deep, and the diving part is ten feet. Way over Conan's head. He was sniffing around the deep end, and accidentally fell in. He scrambled back to the edge and I fished him out. He didn't seem too freaked out, but I don't see him doing that sort of thing on purpose any time soon. 

Bike Trailer for Conan (No Antarctica Content)

Been just pluggin' away working in my cubicle lately, so not a lot of cool Antarctic news to post. I'll be deploying to Mac Town for a couple of weeks around Turkey Day, which will be right during the absolute population maximum. I might be sleeping in a broom closet.

In the meantime, I've been hanging around with Conan a lot while not at work. We go for about a half-mile walk every morning so he can water the fire hydrants and fence posts. Every evening, we go to the dog park after work. The good dog parks are about a twenty minutes drive from the house, so it takes a chunk out of the day, but it's worth it. I try to take him with me everywhere I go on my private time, within reason. I figure he sits in a 10'x20' dog run all day with no stimulation (outside of the occasional deer or squirrel encounter), so I owe him some quality time after work. I'm actually starting to get to know some of the dog park regulars, which makes me feel more at home.  I've been an avid mountain biker for a long time, and just have barely touched my bikes since Conan came along. Hard to mix biking and dogging.

Well, I've found a solution. I found a bike trailer that is specially designed for hauling dogs around! I can load Conan up in the trailer, and ride to the dog park. I thought it might be a little scary for him, so I eased him into the idea. I put together the trailer in the middle of the living room where he could become familiar with it. I offered him a "cookie" (milk bone) inside the new contraption, and let him sniff around. I took it outside and hooked it up to the mountain bike. I unzipped the doors, and drew Conan into it with treats. I zipped him up inside, and agreed with him that this was definitely going to be a fun adventure. The trailer is a little small for Conan, but I think it'll be just right when he learns to poke his head out through the sunroof. Today I just pushed the bike with trailer and Conan in tow around the cart paths in the neighborhood for a half a mile or so. With him in it, it's going to be a load going up hills. The subdivision where I live is close to the Cherry Creek Trail, which runs from near Castle Rock clear down to the middle of downtown Denver. This fall I plan to spend a lot of time out on the bike paths with my little buddy in tow.