This week

We have been busy this past week, packing up our stuff in preparation to move everything out by Tuesday. Here are a few pictures from the evenings.

A package arrived from D&R (well Rachel actually sent it), and we all really enjoyed opening it. The ferrets love wrapped presents, since unwrapping them is a large part of the fun. I never thought of giving the ferrets baby toys to play with, but it is a great idea. Thanks guys! (And thank you as well for the other items in the package too.)

We are continuing to spend time with the dogs every day as well, which makes my days a little busier (since the ferrets and dogs do not play together). Here I am after a tiring day, lounging around with Bowie and Tilda.

The dogs

We've been here for a week now, and it is high time we introduced the dogs we are watching. First, we have Tilda (aka Tilly). She is the older of the two dogs. She is whitish and has a shaggy coat. She is the more social of the two dogs--will follow me around when I am home and will hand out with guests. Tilly is the dominant dog in this house.


The other dog is Boaz (Bo for short). He is a younger dog with lots of energy. Tilda does not want to run at the end of a walk, but Bo is always up for anything. He has a really silky-soft black coat and a funny tail that looks like a drum major hat (more pictures to follow--watch for the tail). He is a little less people-dependent. He likes to sit in his chair in the living room, but when we had some friends visit over the weekend, he mostly stayed out of the way and hung out in the doggy bedroom. His interests include squirrels.

Both dogs like to sleep in bed with us, which is what they are used to doing when their owner is around. Tilda always wants to sleep where I want to put my feet, which can be frustrating. Here she is at the foot of the bed.

Bo will join us in bed sometimes, but he also has a seperate dig bed in the bedroom that he uses as well. When he is in bed, he likes to get in your face in a friendly way. Brian likes it, as you can see below.

Overdue Update

Well, it's been almost a month since we last updated so it seems one is due. I kept meaning to post pictures and update but I guess I'll do that in two separate steps.

We have begun to move out of our place into the home we are watching until we leave for NY or NJ. The home comes with two great dogs, Bowie and Tilda who we call Bo and Tillie for short. Bow is a longer-haired black dog and Tillie is a big fuzzy white dog. I don't know breeds, but we'll get pictures up soon. The home we are watching is also nice and the ferrets are taking to it well.

In other news, we've had two weeks of garage sales and sold much of what we owned. Almost all the large furniture that we wanted to sell is gone, and we sold many smaller things too. Of course, we still have too much stuff from the perspective of having to box and move it all. Hanneke has been single-handedly leading the charge on boxing and preparing for our move, which is very helpful since I have spent a lot of time working to prepare for NYU stuff. Our old place looks strange now and, aside from going there to pack or meet people to sell items/furniture, we are never there. The fish tanks are empty and shut down, almost everything valuable has been moved out (e.g. computers, etc.), and there is little to no furniture to sit on.

In other news, I am apparently allergic to dogs. This has lead to a lot of Zyrtec, Claritin, and Benadryl, which makes me tired all the time. But the dogs are fun and I'm getting used to the tiredness. Neither Hanneke nor I are used to the dogs piling into bed when we try and sleep, though. Last night, both dogs beat me to bed, which meant I had basically no place to sleep. They eventually gave up some space and I fell asleep. Hanneke has very mixed feelings about the dogs sleeping in with us, but the dogs seem to value it (they slept with their owner too).

We are still moving things out of the old place, but it is getting more and more empty each day. We hope to be entirely out of it soon. This is a time of more and more change each day, and that will only continue into July and August. We'll keep you updated as it occurs. Pictures to follow "soon."