End of Week Round Up

Pickle meets her Auntie Penelope

A great big wrap up post, with a bit of this and a LOT of that, including new puppy photos, the pay differences between good and evil, and why Naboo Tatooine is freaking me out.

It’s been a long week. Sean just found out he got the new job he’d applied for – as well he should, after three interviews. Is it just me, or are hiring practices becoming more and more ridiculous? I swear that at one point I was thinking they’d ask him for a DNA sample. The irony of this is that now we BOTH work for companies that make pet food. I, of course, work for the small yet honorable company, while he works for the evil empire who shall remain nameless.

Guess which one of gets paid more? Yeah, it isn’t me, that’s for sure. Apparently being an evil empire is lucrative.

In between all of this, I’ve had to go out and try to find a new car, which I haven’t yet accomplished. I love my Element, but the gas mileage! Ack! I decided to downscale to a wagon, but the question is, which wagon? I’m thinking Ford Escort FOCUS (ok, Sean informed me there’s a BIG difference between these two. Oops!), and there are some nice used ones out there loaded with tons of features. Unfortunately, most of them seem to be in Quebec, which I found rather baffling, until Sean explained to me that the French apparently love two things – Jerry Lewis and station wagons. Go figure.

Jacques and Vela LEAP off the stairs

With all this running around, I haven’t had a chance to check my email since Tuesday. This doesn’t sound so bad, until you realize that this means I have, as of this morning, 106 unchecked general emails – and 847 unread list emails. I think I need to cut back on the mailing lists I belong to.. especially considering most of the same people are on all of them. I have plans to try to figure out a more coherent and organized way to answer emails, but the plan seems to keep coming back to “Hire assistant”, which isn’t going to happen any time soon. Back to the drawing board…

Speaking of drawing boards, Sean and I are seriously gearing up to open a pet supply store. Small, boutique-y and with an emphasis on great quality pet foods. I’ve heard conflicting things about having a groomer in your store – on the one hand, it’s great for driving business. On the other hand, barking wet dogs coming and going all day long. We’ll have to think this one over. Next week, we’re scouting out store locations. I’ve already found some local Mennonite ladies who’ll custom bake home made cookies for us, and hand knit gorgeous dog sweaters, hats and scarves. Yay!

Po and Jacques new parents came up for a ‘meet the puppy’ visit, which is always fun. I love seeing new parents fall in love with their puppies, and it gives me a chance to meet them and talk them before the final ‘pick up’ visit. Po’s mom and dad have apparently decided that his awesomeness is just too awesome to not share, and so I proudly introduce Po’s new blog – the Life of Po! How great is that? I wonder if I can make mandatory blogging a condition of sale for all future puppies?

Pammy and Leah

I definitely decided to name Tula’s litter after ‘Star Wars’ themes. Luke, Andrea’s boy, is “Bullmarket New Hope at SpiritDragon”. Leah (and yes, I know that Luke’s sister is named Leia, not LE-ah, but I prefer Leah, so that’s that). The question is, what to name Leah.

I thought it would be fun to name her after Princess Leia’s home planet, but look what I found when I searched for info on just what her home planet is:

Her father (Anakin Skywalker) was born on Tatooine, her mother (Padme Nabree Amidala Skywalker) was born on Naboo. But Leia was concieved on Couruscant. Padme’s labor started on Mustafar. She was born on the MedStar in the Outer Rim Teritories. But, shortly after her birth, Leia was adopted by Bail Organa and his wife- they lived on Alderaan.

So, in my opinion, Leia is Tatooine-Naboo by birth, and was raised in Alderaan, So she would be Alderaanian because that’s where she was raised. It is similar to if you were born in China, but adopted in America- you would not be Chinese but American.

Well, umm, that clears it up. Or not. Definitely not, actually.

So.. do I go with:

Bullmarket Tatooine
Bullmarket Couruscant
Bullmarket Mustafar
Bullmarket Tatooine Naboo

Or the boring yet most accurate ‘Bullmarket Alderaan’

Decisions, decisions…hey, how about you guys decide? After all, this is the sort of stuff polls are just meant for.

Beautiful Vela in the sun

Now that the weather is finally warming up, the puppies have all been getting tons of outdoor time. Our daily routine is –

Breakfast, outside for an hour.
Lunch, outside for two or so hours
Dinner, outside for an hour or more

This lets me get a chance to do lots of outside photos – well, when it isn’t raining. Delilah’s pups can go outside with Bunny’s – but Tula’s pups aren’t big enough yet for combined playtime, because SOMEONE (cough:Po:cough) keeps grabbing them by the ears.

Here are the rest — http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157621971878114/show/

More shots of Tula’s kids soon.