Day 151 - Tuesday (Down by the docks):
This morning we took our usual loop walk. Being about 80 this morning I thought the bug would be horrible but they weren't bad at all. I'm continuing to wear my long pants long pants and long sleeve shirt to stave off the bugs.

For lunch we went to the canal at the boat dock for a puppy swim. Finster and Oscar took turns fetching the stick (Finster fetched) and the ball (Oscar fetched) in the canal. Finster even jumped off the dock a few times into the canal to retrieve his stick. So that's the one thing that he is better than Oscar in, woot! After Oscar left Finster and I walked around a bit and fetched a bit more. He got tired by the end and wouldn't jump off the dock anymore, instead he stood at the edge and barked at the stick as it passed under the dock, ridiculous. Then, right before we left a kayaker floated into the boat launch which entirely puzzled Finster, he stared at him until he got out of the boat.

After work we chilled at home. It was too hot to do anything so Finster and I read on the deck until the game came on and then Finster chilled in the basement, it's so nice and cool down there.

Day 150 - Monday (Memorial Day Party):
Today was even hotter than yesterday, blah. We just lounged around in the heat again until around 2ish. Again I sprayed Finster with the hose every 30 minutes which again he thoroughly enjoyed :) We had a memorial day party to attend at the Soudan's so we left Finster at home. He was home from 230 to 730 so we just let him run in the basement. I was a bit nervous when we got home, last time we left him in the basement he pooped 3 times and peed twice. This time he knocked over 1 empty cardboard box! That's it!!!! I was so happy :) As a reward we went over to visit his girlfriend Sedona. They played for about 20 minutes. At one point they were so tired they were both laying down and Finster was just chewing on her cheek, so funny. The also had quite a problem. Finster brought over his bone to show Sedona. They ripped it in half quite quickly and at one point Finster found one of Sedona's bones. Therefore, they had 3 bones between the two of them and they were never content. They swapped bones about 10 times, it was quite retarded.

The rest of the evening was spent on our deck relaxing in the heat. Please, make it stop.

Day 149 - Sunday (R+R):
Sunday was wonderful, full of rest and relaxation. Finster woke me up barking at 730am, which worked out perfectly actually. I've been wanting to fertilize the yard and when I opened the door to let meat head out I noticed a nice layer of dew on the grass, perfect! Finster followed me around faithfully and I spread the fertilizer over the yard. We stayed home all day and it was great. The weather was hot so we tried staying cool all day. We kept Finster cool by spraying him with the hose, his new favorite thing to do :) We also did some yard work and dug some sod around our trees, joy. I spent a good portion of the day playing with my iriver h10 trying to get all our mp3s into it properly, nothing is easy, ever; I guess that's what I get for pirating music. Finster again didn't sleep all day so he was exhausted by night fall. Which worked out perfect because the Sabres game was on while he took a nice nap from 7-10ish.

Day 147-148 - Friday-Saturday (Quick bloggin water loggin):
Ahh the long weekend. I'm a bit behind so I'll summarize a bit. Friday was work as usual and after work we watched the Sabres get destroyed.

On Saturday (my birthday) we went to baseball practice at 10. I let Finster run free again at the GCC field. I love that field, it's all fenced in (the field that is) so Finster gets locked out. While I was taking batting practice in the cage I had to tie him up though. He kept trying to run through the mesh and he got stuck a few times. I had to spray him with the squirt gun I brought a few times to get him to stop barking at us. This was pretty effective. After spraying him twice he completely stopped barking :)

After practice we went to the store until around 3. Finster got to chill in his fenced in area, joy.

When we got home I mowed the lawn and Finster followed me for about 90% of the time. He kept trying to bite the grass as it came out of the mower (from a safe distance). He got bored with it after about 45 minutes. I had to get off the mower to get him from the neighbors yard once or twice, someday we will get an invisible fence.

After mowing Finster rolled around in the ditch and got all mud and sea weed slime. It was time for a bath anyways so I gathered up the bath gear and went at it. At first I tried bathing him with the hose off the leash. This didn't work very well so I put him on the leash and tied him to the deck so he couldn't get away. I sprayed him down and lathered him up. He absolutely hated this. He kept trying to get away pulling on the leash and whining, poor guy. When I got him lathered and rinsed well enough I let him off. He ran around and rolled on the ground. I realized that he still had soap on him. Then I got the hose again and just started spraying and yelling in the air. He came over willingly and started biting at the water, weird. So I soaked him well and rinsed him off good, he loved it! Silly puppy. Must be he didn't like being restrained.

At around 7 the family came by for a birthday party. Finster was mildly annoying. He jumped on Hiroko and harassed Sparky. He inadvertently knocked over my nephew Andrew once walking by him, the big lug. I had to leash him a few times because he kept barking at Sparky who was also on a leash and couldn't get away. I got some sweet loot at the partay! By the end of the night Finster was spent, he didn't sleep all day!

Day 146 - Thursday (Tree swallows vs. House Sparrows):
I'm actually surprised I've made it this far, 146 flippin posts! That's insane. The interest in waning though, this is becoming tedious. It tends to document how boring my life is :) Oh well, I guess it's better than working so here we go.

For lunch we went to the henrietta park and just walked around a bit. Nothing at all really happened. Finster didn't even poop :( I tried to coax it out of him but he wasn't having it.

After work I made dinner, which is only the 2nd time that's happened, the 1st being about 2 weeks ago actually. Finster went outside and bugged Erica while she planted some flowers.

While they were outside I went out to check the birdbox. There were two dead tree swallows in there, undoubtedly killed by the idiot house sparrows (someone please buy me a bb gun). So finster and I pulled them out. I didn't want Finster to follow me when I went back to bury them so I had him sit/stay in the middle of the yard. He actually listened and waited until I was done. I was shocked.

Day 145 - Wednesday (Swimmin):
Today Finster had a blast for lunch. It was a nice 70s day and we went to the park. We got there about 30 minutes before Oscar so we went and played around the pond. I threw in a stick into the pond and Finster fetched it. He swam and swam, he is really starting to enjoy the water. He was like a kid in a pool. A couple times when I threw in the stick shallow he would put the stick under the water and then put his head under and get it. When Oscar showed up the two of them played in the pond and chased the ball and each other.

After work we went to the store and Finster got to chill in his fenced in area. Then we went home at around 8 and watched the Sabres game, woot, we won.

Day 144 - Tuesday (The long awaited reunion):
Today for lunch we went back to the park after a two week vacation from it. We've waited two weeks because the vet said that he's to stay out of the water for 2 weeks after his snipping. When we pulled into the park Oscar was getting out of his van. Finster saw him and got really excited, he apparently didn't forget him. They played just like before, Finster sniffing around and Oscar chasing the ball.

After work I went to Target to get some dog stuff. I got some dog food, a plush toy and some bones. Finster de-plushed the toy in about 2 minutes, so I think that's the last one he will be getting. The bone took him about an hour and a half to eat 1/2 of, so that was a little bit more bang for da buck.

I finally finished Local Wonders by Ted Kooser last night, (as Erica watched the Oilers/Ducks game) woot, now what to read next? Something is seriously wrong with this picture.

Day 143 - Monday (Home):
Today Finster got to stay home with Erica. Here are some quotes from the day:
e: he just kept trying to put his nasty bone on my leg
e: why does finster feel the need to chew on me???
(10:19:27) e: its SO GROSS
(10:20:59) buffyblice: bc he is cute
(10:27:12) e: right now he's hiking his bowl
(10:27:19) e: under his blanket
(10:27:28) e: and eating his runner
(10:28:10) buffyblice: lol
(10:28:17) e: now he's barking at it
(10:28:54) e: hes barking his head off
(10:28:59) e: hes so mad at it
(10:29:04) buffyblice: he did that yesterday too
(10:29:13) e: LOl he just growled at it
...
e: i went upstairs to fold clothes
(11:38:44) buffyblice: ok
(11:38:47) e: and i left my laptop on the chair
(11:38:52) buffyblice: ok
(11:39:00) e: and when i came down he had left his bone on the keyboard
(11:40:09) e: omg i cracked up when i saw that bone laying on the keyboard
(11:40:12) e: hes something else

Good stuff. When I got home Finster was excited to see me as usual. I had to crate him though as we went to another Dire Elegies reading in Rochester. When we got home we watched the sabres game (they lost game 2) and Finster chewed a bone in the basement. Not very fun puppy-wise.

Day 142 - Sunday (New garden):
Today we went up with the inlaws to see E2's new apartment. Finster got to stay home in his crate from about130 to 5. He was quite excited to get out :) The inlaws were impressed with his ability to stay on the basement stairs. After they left E asked if I wanted to dig a 6x15 plot of sod. I actually said yes as my options were to do that, which allows Finster to play outside and have fun with E and I; or sit in the basement with Finster, which is quite boring. It was nasty out, about 50, windy and slightly precipitous.
Finster had a blast and was very good. He wandered out front like twice between 6 and 8 and just came right back. He attacked every piece of sod I dug up and helped dig himself. He did get in the way a few times and did attack the plastic wheel barrow with every load of sod we took out back; which was funny the first two times but then got annoying, so I stopped him. We got done around 8 and Finster was exhausted, he slept until around 1030 and then I put him in his crate. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff outside this summer :)

Day 141 - Saturday (Moving again):
This morning I had practice at 11. I took Finster with me again to the GCC field. This field is cool because it is all fenced in. I just let Finster run around. He still barked his head off though. During batting practice he stood behind the backstop and barked. He mainly was going nuts trying to get the baseballs that hit the backstop and sat 2 inches from him. He tried to dig and bite through the fence, which failed. So he was a bit annoying, hopefully he will be ok during a game with E sitting with him. At least he didn't wander off, he stayed as close to the fence as he could get.

After practice I went to my parents to help them out with some moving. Finster got to play with my parents dogs which together weigh about as much as Finster's head. They are still a bit leery of him, likely because of his size and stupidity.

Sabres won!

In the evening we did some yard work which Finster helped out immensely. We dug up the sod around our trees and Finster attacked the sod throwing dirt everywhere, thanks a lot! For dinner we did some more sit/stay practicing, he is still pretty bad at it outside.

Day 140 - Friday (Call from the Vet):
This morning as I was getting ready I got a call from our Vet. The results came back from the "expert" and he didn't offer anything extra, so that was a big waste of 80 bucks. A few theories are 1.) maybe an organ didn't develop as well as it should have and so the spleen has taken over and is now enlarged. 2.) there is a fetus puppy, his brother/sister, that got in Finster as he was developing. He said 2 is rare but it is possible and has happened. Both option are the suck. So our options now are to take him to Cornell or Orchard Park for an ultrasound, or do exploratory surgery. I think we will go the cheap route first with the ultrasound.

For lunch Bill and I took Finster around the town. When we got back I put Finster in his crate and ate lunch. After I ate I went to Bill's office to check something out when I heard Finster barking. Apparently he didn't like the idea of not getting a walk for lunch. In my defense I was planning on walking him after I ate. So I took Finster for a little 20 minute walk, which seemed to have satisfied him.

After work we went to the inlaws to pick up some plants at the park. Finster had fun running around the park, sniffing the plants, and chewing on some plastic. At the inlaws I've been leaving Finster in the garage while we eat (another place when he isn't allowed in the house). This works out well, he generally stays out of the stuff in the garage and just lays in front of the door. He did get a plant bucket though, his favorite and chewed on it a little.

Day 139 - Thursday (Baching it):
This morning after our walk I put Finster on his runner as usual. When I came down to leave he had my boot and some shreds of it were laying on the floor. This didn't go over too well. At first I thought it was Erica's boot which would have been worse, I was relieved when I saw it was mine. I gave him a good scolding (beat the tar out of him jk, I can't hit that puppy).

For lunch it was raining so we went for the comfort of the woods. After work we were home alone and just hung out. I took Finster over to Sedona's for a romp and then left him over there. I went back and watched from my porch as I surfed the net on my laptop, now this could work out!

They played for a while and then Don and his son came home so I went over and got Finster. I went to the basement after that because it was getting cold. Finster kept ringing the bell like he had to go pee/poo but I think he was just bored; so I sat on the deck instead. On the deck he was bored too and kept going out front to check on Sedona, all he wants to do is play with her.

Finally some Sedona pictures...











And no, they aren't doing it you pre-verts!

Day 138 - Wednesday (Panter):
You can't really beat Tuesday for excitement. This morning I got up at the normal time even though I needed to leave 30 minutes early so that I could carpool with Ed. Therefore, Finster's morning walk got skipped. In the end I was 5 minutes late and missed the carpool because I didn't have my cell phone either :( I took Finster for a walk when we got to work to make up for it and he seemed fine with it.

For lunch we went to the canal park (route), almost 2 miles round trip. Finster was all over the place for the first half mile, but as he got more tired he started to follow better. One technique that I like to employ while on a paved path is to cut him off. He tends to prefer walking on the pavement so I just corner him into following him. This works pretty well in that I don't have to tug him to get him back. His pulling isn't a constant thing, it's more like a jerking pull to the side, back and sometimes front, tiring either way. He was beat when we got back to the office, panting like a dog; hey wait.

After work we went home and hung out. I took him over to his girlfriend Sedona's house for a bit and they had a gay ole time as usual. We worked on his sit/stay a bit more and he still pulled up when I went around the corner.

Day 137 - Tuesday (Finster's favorite vegetable? Lattice):
This morning on our walk Finster rolled in something dreadful. I'm not sure when he did it, I never noticed him rolling. After breakfast I smelled it though and then noticed a clump of something brown on his shoulder. I'm not sure what it was, likely some fecal matter of some poor smelling animal. I cleaned it off and then shampoo'd it off neither of which touched the stench. I decided that today would be the day that Finster became a man (again) and stayed home alone. Our deck out back stands about 4 feet off the ground and is enclosed underneath, perfect for a dog house. When I left I put Finster under and gave him plenty of water and food for the day and wished him the best of luck. At around 1030 I got a call from Erica. The neighbor called her at the store and said that Finster chewed through the lattice and was running around. He put him back under the deck and tied a plastic table in front of the hole. So I got in my car and drove home to check it out. Apparently, the table didn't dissuade him from chewing a bigger hole around the table to get out again. At first I couldn't find him but then I heard him and Sedona playing as usual so I went and gathered the meat head up. So now there is a big hole in the side of our deck, oh the joy of dumb dog ownership. I re-sniffed Finster and he didn't smell too bad anymore so I took him to work and had a pretty normal rest of the day.

In the evening I've been working with him with his "tricks" again. His sit/stay has sucked lately so I figured I should go back to some training again. My goal is to have him sit/stay as I walk around the house. Now he jumps up as soon as I make it around the 1st corner, so I have my work cut out for me.

Day 136 - Monday (Home):
Today Finster stayed home with E. I got up a bit late so he didn't get a morning walk. He spent the morning outside with E anyways so it's all good. He did get into a bit of trouble though, he kept eating the grass, which puts holes in the grass and makes E mad. He also went into the neighbors yard while they were out there. This landed him in the basement on the runner for an hour. While he was out he did attack the mulch bag, rake and numerous buckets while E tried to tell him No but couldn't get the words out due to laughter.

In the evening we went to see Bill Kauffman who is a local (to Batavia) author. He just published a new book Come Home, America which he discussed and signed.

When we got home I did some homework in the basement with Finster until around 930 and then went upstairs to read. Finster had to stay in the basement for the night because E just cleaned the upstairs. :(

Day 135 - Sunday (Mother's Day):
In the morning I took Finster over to see his girlfriend Sedona. They played for about 30 minutes, until they were both pretty dead. Finster enjoys chewing on her cheek and jowls, mm tasty. When Finster could barely walk anymore we went home and got ready to go to our rents.

We went to the inlaws first for lunch. When we got there I just left Finster outside loose to see what he would do. I didn't see him walking anywhere so I went and checked on him after about 5 minutes. He was just curled up in the garage in front of the door I went in. He stayed there until we started eating lunch when he showed up on the back deck. Then he saw the pond and started heading towards it. This would have normally been fine but he still had the "no water" rule in effect. So I took off to get to him before he reached the pond. When I got to him he just started getting in. I think he made it up to his knees for a drink, danger averted. I put him back in the garage and he stayed there this time.

Then Erin and Sparky showed up and he greeted them with a nice sloppy kiss. Erin tied Sparky up in the back and I tied Finster up in the front, so they didn't bark at each other. Again, Finster barked like 2 times and then lounged in the front the rest of the time.

At around 330 we went to E's grandparents house, dogs in tow. We tied the two dogs up to the swing set. They did bark at each other from about 5 feet away, dumb dogs. Finster ended up entertaining himself by chewing on the swing rope, and the wooden swing seat; and Sparky chewed on his bone. After about an hour of chatting we went outside for a tour of the gardens. Finster was pulling all over the place, pulling to be with Sparky, pulling to get petted by so and so... annoying.

Then down to my parents for a little dinner. When we got there there were 4 new born kittens at the side of the house. I took Finster over to check them out. He got within 3 feet of them when they started hissing. This scared the 75lbs. brut away. Quite the funny sight seeing a ~1 lbs kitten scaring away a 75lbs. beast.

Finster went inside and terrorized my parents dogs for a while. Actually Fred, the 10 lbs. Terrier terrorized Finster. Finster is such a big baby. Finster kept going out and coming in the house. He was a little bit rowdy while in the house. He managed to jump up on the couch and up on a few people, a habit he has recently picked up. He did pretty good with the kids, he got a little excited, but not too bad. One time Em was playing with him and Fred and Finster let out a loud bark at Fred and it scared Em pretty bad, his bark is so loud.

After we left my parents we went back to the in-laws to drop off a sweatshirt. We got suckered into walking around the yard with them. Finster and Sparky joined us. The two of them did well together. Finster tried to play with Sparky (read jumping and barking at him) everytime I let him run free. Sparky would be fine with Finster if Finster would just ignore him (not jump and bark around him). Finster ate some grass and dandelions and rolled around a bit while Sparky sniffed and peed on everything, isn't dog ownership grand?

At around 830 we made it home finally. I brought Finster up to sit with us as we read and watched some hockey, what a busy day.

Day 134 - Saturday (Game 5):
Today was action packed. We woke up and did some homework and took the trash to the dump. Then at 11 Finster and I went to baseball practice. I tied Finster up to the backstop and he watched us practice. Now my tie up method is 2 leashes and an extendo leash all tied together; this gives him about 20 feet of leash to run in, all without me having to spend extra loot. Finster barked whenever I was within 20 feet of him, which was real pleasant. A couple people at the practice petted him while I was out in the field. About 1/2 way through the neighbor came out with her puppy. It was a 9 week old beagle! So cute, it was shorter than the dandelions in her yard, and a little wiggly mass of ears and fuzz. I didn't let Finster play with it, Finster's nose was about as big as the whole puppy.

Also, while we were practicing some large lady brought a ~3 year old over to play with Finster while I was in the outfield. At one point I saw the lady standing, and the child laying on the ground right next to Finster, and Finster licking the child. How dumb are some people? I don't even trust Finster around small children and he's my dog!

At around 1 we left practice and went to the store. We have a fenced-in-area in back of the store now for Finster. I put him in there from 1-4 and he was cool with it. He slept a portion of the time. He only barked once, and it was at either a cat or another dog.

In the evening Kyle (my cuz) came over to watch game 5 with us, and Finster watched from the entry way. Such a good game, Finster got woken up on every goal (3), he didn't seem to mind though.

Day 133 - Friday (Thank Gosh it's Friday):
For lunch today we walked the canal park walk, about 2.5 miles (route). Finster did ok, he pulled a bit more than I'd like. I've been taking him for a walk lately because he can't go in the water until his stitches heal, which is 2-3 weeks.

After work we had a deck fire and hung out with the dog, real exciting stuff.

Day 132 - Thursday (Near death experience):
Not really but today for lunch Finster and I went for a walk in the woods behind my office park. It was a nasty windy day and around the 3rd lap around the path I heard a big crashing sound. About 30 yards behind me I saw a big tree falling down. The wind cracked the tree in half about 3 feet from the trunk. Pretty scary stuff.

After work Finster got tossed into his crate until around 8ish then he came out and watched the Sabres game with us, joy.

At around 1am I felt Finster licking my face and whining. I was like WTC how did you get out!! Then I noticed that there was smoke in the room. I jumped up and went down stairs with the fire extinguisher, Finster followed me. He stopped in the bathroom to get a drink from the toilet, or so I thought. As I was fighting the blaze with my extinguisher Finster ran up from behind me and pee'd all that he drank onto the fire and smothered it!! What an amazing dog!! He saved our house and our lives!! This sure beats reading about how many times Finster pooped doesn't it?

Day 131 - Wednesday (Sucks to be a dog, cool to be a Sabres fan):
I took a 1/2 day today so we went home at 1230 :) woot. I cleaned out under the deck so that Finster had some room to chill out down there when the space is needed. E2 and I got tickets to see Game 3 of the Sabres vs. Ottawa so Finster had to stay home from like 445 - 12ish, which is far too long to stay in the crate. We really didn't do too much after we got home. Finster enjoyed me being under the deck with him though. He attacked every piece of lumber that I moved like it offended his mother. In the end my vote to put finster under the deck got vetoed by a higher power, as did the 2nd vote to tie him up on the runner in the basement, and I didn't want to put him in his crate for 8ish hours. Therefore Finster got free reign of the basement for 8+ hours! I was quite scared of the results.

The game was FANTASTIC!! The Sabres won in overtime and we all had throat problems after the game.

When I got home I went straight to the basement to survey the damage. It stunk down there like Finster got a manure spreader and played with that the whole time (3 nice piles of dung). He also pee'd once, but that's to be expected. He emptied the trash can and chewed up a few papers and an empty chew-eez plastic container, and that's pretty much it. I realized when I got back that we left about 5 tasty pairs of shoes down there that he thankfully ignored :)

I cleaned up his crap and then put him to bed.

I just wanted to post this crazy picture.

Day 130 - Tuesday (Finster loses his manhood):
Today I had to take Finster in to the vet at 8am. We got up early and just walked a bit around the yard. No breakfast for Finster either, and he was quite disappointed about that. When we got to the vet's office he went around and greeted everyone. They love him there. He weighed in at 73 lbs. Then we went into the other room and Finster sniffed around. Then the vet came in and Finster wiggled until he smelled him. I think he remembered the last visit (shots), and he cowered behind me. So, he isn't a fan of the vet :(. The vet drew some blood for more tests to try to figure out what his dripping problem is. Finster did fine during this, he just looked away and sat there as I held his head. Then they took him in the other room and I left.

Finster made it through the surgery fine. When I went to pick him up at 6 I had a little talk with the vet. He showed me the results of the blood test and he was still baffled by the numbers. Some numbers were good, some were bad but nothing led to anything conclusively, so he took some X-Rays. He said he was entirely baffled by what he saw :( There was a big round lump thing under his stomach that he had no idea what it was, but he knew it wasn't something Finster swallowed. There were also so weird lines that he was also confused by. He recommended sending the xrays on to another doctor, that's pretty scary. Our other options are an ultra-sound, or exploratory surgery :( Man, neither of these options sound good.

So I took Finster home and walked around the yard a bit with him and hung out on the deck and basement with him. He was a little sore and tired, but other than that he was fine.

Day 129 - Monday (Day with mom):
Today Finster spent his day with Erica. They did well together. Erica enjoys his company so much that she willingly took him to her parents house when she didn't have to :) She said that he was great all day. While they were at her parents house outside, Finster took off across the road :( He did this to go poop, I'm not sure why he couldn't do it on the side of the road he was on, I guess the grass is always greener.

When I got home he was quite excited to see me. He wiggled like crazy, it was quite touching. We brought him up to watch the sabres game with us again, what a game. He only put his paws on the carpet like twice today!

Day 128 - Sunday (Exhausted):
Today was a typical busy day. We didn't do the morning walk which turned out fine. At 11 Finster and I went to Baseball practice, my first of the year. I tied Finster to his screw in pole when I got there. He barked his head off while I was playing catch about 50 yards from him. After I warmed up I went out into the outfield. This shut him up completely :) must be out of sight out of mind. After about 45 minutes I came in and took BP. While I was warming up (within his sight) he barked his head off. Then when I finished up and went back out in the outfield he stopped :) Towards the end of practice he started barking again while I was in the outfield, maybe he had to go pooh or something. Eventually, I came in and let him off before we left. He went around and sniffed everyone, which didn't really amuse anyone.

After practice we went to the inlaws. When we got there I took Finster to go to the bathroom, he didn't go. I ate some lunch on the deck and put Finster's skills to use. I took finster off the deck and told him to "stay off" so that he doesn't come back on the deck. He didn't listen the first time but after I did it again he stayed off the deck while I ate :) He ended up playing with a coolwhip bowl after he drank all the water from it.

After lunch we went for a walk around the yard with the inlaws. Finster stayed with us as we wandered through the trees. About 1/2 way through he took off across the yard. I called for him to no avail. Then it hit me, he's off to go poop :) I ran after him calling him, trying to persuade him back to the deep weeds. He couldn't make it, and ended up dropping it off mid yard. After that he stayed with us the rest of the time attacking dandelions and random sticks. Finster had a blast in the pond. He ran in splashing and bouncing around. It was hilarious watching him play in it. Before we left a stay old beagle came into the yard. Finster kept trying to play with him but he got ignored. That beagle was quite tolerant, or deaf.

We went down to my sisters house later on to get my hair cut. Finster just wandered around the house and played with Cocoa (who was tied up) here and there.

Then to my parents house. By this time Finster was running low on gas. He didn't really play too much with their dogs. By the time we were ready to leave he was napping in the livingroom. When we got up to leave he got up and followed us to the kitchen. Apparently we took too long with our goodbyes so he tried to fall asleep in the kitchen too :)

He slept the whole ride home, and then when we got home around 8 he slept the rest of the night. No naps does a puppy in :)

Day 127 - Saturday (Photog gig):
This morning Finster and I went for the normal walk. After the walk we just kind of hung out. It was a bit cold outside so we chilled in the basement. I did my homework and Finster kept going outside and then coming back in. For lunch we did some training, I haven't done much of this in a while. We worked on sit/stays (he was a bit rusty) and the on/off with the deck, which was also rusty. He wouldn't stay past the point where he couldn't see me. I guess we should be working on this some more.

In the afternoon I went to the store and left Finster in his crate. When we got back we took Finster over to Bill and Denises for some photography of the family. I put Finster in there basement and at first he just ran up the stairs and into the kitchen. In the past we have always let Finster run around their house. So I took Finster back down and this time when he came up I pushed him back down the stairs. This scared the poop out of him (going backwards down the stairs). Then he realized that he wasn't allowed up the stairs and stayed at the top just like at home. It was nice, I did all of my photography with him just watching at the stairs; so handy. The photography abruptly ended when my battery died :( I suck. Finster got to sniff the baby a bit. He got excited a little too much and tried to pull off her socks :) he was being so gentle when he was doing it though, he must know.

Day 126 - Friday (The big one):
This morning we got a pleasant surprise. Erica went with us on our morning walk. To show off Finster found the biggest stick he could find, I think it would be proper to call it a branch. This sucker was about 5 feet long, and about 3 inches in diameter at the base. That bonehead carried it the whole time, probably about a mile. He whined the whole way too, probably because it hurt his neck and mouth/jaw. It was quite funny watching he carry it through the woods. He had to walk sideways for a portion of the walk.

Finster again slept straight through until lunch. For lunch we went to the Pittsford library for a book sale. Come to find out the book sale wasn't open until 5pm :( I went to a church sale instead. They were practically giving things away. I got a bag of books and a 19" dell computer monitor for $1 a piece :) good deals.

After work Finster got to play with Sedona until the sabres game (1 vs. Senators) was on. What a game! Finster got to come up and sit in the entryway again. I had to push his paws off the carpet a few times, but he didn't try to walk across the carpet this time :)

Day 125 - Thursday (Sleepy dog):
This morning we did the usual walk and then went to work. At work Finster slept from 830 to 12pm :) For lunch we went to play at the park. Finster went swimming, a little cautiously though, but he did do a little swimming. He is still a little nervous about "going in the deep end".

After work was pretty mild. I played outside with Finster for a while with a tennis ball. He is pretty much not interested though ;( After dinner I stayed inside and worked on some store stuff. I got to get a picture of Finster on the top step of the basement. He looks like littl' brodder from homestarrunner with his legs tucked up, it looks like he has no front legs :)

Finster spent most of the night chewing on his bone in the basement, real exciting.

Day 124 - Wednesday (To work with Ma):
Today we had a visitor at work so Finster got to go to the store for the day. By the way, if any of you are interested I created a Present Tense calendar for anyone who wants to see the present tense events (I love google calendar). I took Finster out for a loop walk this morning. To change it up a bit we walked in reverse, which was nice to change it up a bit.

The report from the store was that Finster did pretty well, he barked about 3 times and whined a bit but not bad. E tied him up to the post out back with 3 leashes looped together. When E went out there he would get so excited and wiggle his whole body :) his tail just isn't enough.

When I got there he was quite excited to see me too :) I took him with me to get pizza at Main St. Pizza, our new favorite fast food joint in Batavia. When I went in to get the pizza I tied Finster to a tree right outside the door and asked a couple of kids who were sitting on the bench next to the tree to watch him while I went in and got the grub. They got up and were playing with him :) he loved the attention. For some reason I gave one of the kids a buck for a tip, I think he was weirded out a little bit, but oh well. I never know when to tip. Do you tip the guy at the Full Service pump? What if all the pumps all full service (kwik fill)?

Day 123 - Tuesday (Typical day):
Today was a very typical day, for events see... well, pretty much any other day.

For lunch we went to the park to play with Oscar.

After work we went to PetSmart to price an invisible fence for Mr. Finster. They rang in at 150$ plus any extra wire that we would need, and we would need extra. I took Finster in with me and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. He loved sniffing stuff. Again there were a bunch of puppies taking lessons which Finster was trying to play with. One of the came out of the ring and Finster got to sniffed up on the bitch (I love being able to say that without being offensive:)).

After Petsmart we went home and watched the Sabres/Philly game 6. I brought Finster up and he sat at the entryway for the whole game. I took him outside for the first intermission for a little 14 minute walk. For the 2nd intermission Finster was sleeping so he stayed in. Such a good dog! He did however put his paws on the carpet a bunch, so that's not bad all-in-all.

Day 122 - Monday (home with mom):
Today we went for our loop walk and Finster didn't find any trash along the way. Instead he picked up a stick and carried that. He got to stay home with E today and help her garden. He did pretty well, attacking each weed that got tossed out of the garden. He did go into the garden a few times, and got beat for it by his mean mother. I also got reports of Erica spraying Finster with the hose, which he apparently loved, and continually tried to eat the water.

When I got home E left for Rochester. Finster and I hung out on the deck while I read. Later on I took him over to his girlfriend, Sedona's house. They bit each other and played tug for about 30 minutes and then we went home.

I read some more and then fell asleep while E watch some hockey; aren't the rolls kind of reversed here?

I forgot to post, last week we weighed Finster in at 75lbs. at about 5.5 months of age!

Day 121 - Sunday (Chillin at the crib):
For the morning we went for a nice little loop walk and then hung out around the house. For breakfast I ate on the upper deck and had Finster lay/stay on the lower deck. He got up only once during the whole breakfast :)

In the afternoon E and I went to liftbridge, the bookstore in brockport as Erica had another reading for the Dire Elegies. When we got home E did some gardening. Whenever she threw out a dandelion Finster would attack it violently. He's quite the gardener. He stayed out of the garden most of the time and just waited for a new weed to come flying out.

In the evening I took Finster over to play with Sedona. They went nuts. For the 20 minutes I was there they played tug-o-war with Finster's leash. I should really buy an appropriate tug rope for them. Finster loves playing tug and Sedona just loves playing. I think they would have tugged until they died from it if I didn't stop them.

Finster has an annoying habit of walking around the house while we are on the deck. He just walks around the house, but I don't trust him to stay in our yard yet. I've followed him on many occasions and he just wanders around the house, or in the garage.

As the night went on E and I had a nice fire on the deck and Finster check on a stick and his bone (the one that Oscar bought him). At around 930 we went in and watched a movie, and Finster lounged in the basement.

Woot, Finster is 6 months old today!

Day 120 - Saturday (We succumb to modern technology):
This morning we didn't go for a walk due to the fact that the cable guy was coming to install cable for us. Our plan is to get cable to save the environment. This is due to the Sabres having a good chance to make it far in the playoffs. By getting cable we don't have to drive to downtown Rochester (30 miles one way) to watch each game. They were so anxious to get us to sign up for cable they are giving it to us for 22.95 for a year for around 100 channels :) Our plan is to cancel cable when the playoffs are over, it should be interesting to see how easy/hard this will be for us. Finster and I got a lot accomplished this morning. The most interesting thing (Finster wise) was my introduction of Finster to his new home. I want to get Finster to get used to being under the deck. Our deck is a 12x12 and 15x15 foot deck (really 2 decks attached at differing heights), both of which are tall enough for Finster to walk around in. So in the afternoon I spent over an hour sitting under the deck, doing my homework, with Finster. Finster got bored and whined a little, but not bad. The boredom also drove him to chew on some of the left over deck wood, and dig a bit. I don't really care if he digs under the deck, but I don't want him to get used to being able to dig anywhere.

Around 4ish I went to the store and put up another used bookshelf. I left Finster in his crate for this. As I was working on the bookshelf E came home and mowed the lawn. She said Finster followed her around a bit, but the 3rd time she had to get off the mower to find Finster she put him under the deck for safe keeping; sweet, it's coming in handy already. When I got home the 3 of us went for a loop walk. I think it's fun going with Erica because she names all the plants while we walk. I think Finster finds this annoying because he has to continually stop as we smell the flowers :)

For the evening we tested out the cable. We didn't really find much to watch though. We ended up watching some random playoff hockey, some show about camels, and another show about dragons, pretty much all at the same time. I think Finster is getting used to us retreating to the livingroom at around 930-10, while he lays in the basement on his rug/blanket.

Day 119 - Friday (Bla):
I'm running out of titles, and things to talk about. Now I see why people stop writing in their blogs :)

Morning - we went for a walk.
Lunch - we went to play with Oscar.
Evening - Finster sat in his crate as E and I went to Erin's to watch the sabres lose.
Got back and played with an excited Finster for a bit. He didn't seem to care that the Sabres lost, that's what's so great about dogs, they are ALWAYS happy to see you.