Taciturnly » Mr Paul Anka

New theme!

elle — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:56:57 +0000

Though I couldn’t find the inspiration to make a new layout, and I lack some of the tools (should I fork over $100+ for Coda?) I finally found a new layout I liked enough to hit “activate”. It’s fairly dark, actually it’s extremely dark and I’m not sure how long it will last because I’ve become used to light, and clean themes on my own site and everyone else’s.

I’ve also been playing around with a few plugins, so let me know if anything breaks. I’ve added a little button plugin under each post, it’s cute and I want everyone to vote! Also, if anyone has an plugin suggestion to highlight my replies in my comment section please let me know!

I’m off to finish this episode of One Tree Hill, which is about three minutes in and I’m already crying, this show nails the emotional scenes and getting you emotionally tied to the characters. And if I don’t get sucked into watching another episode, and I can wake up the boy, we’ll be off to the Pooch Park to party with the puppy.

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New home.

elle — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:48:41 +0000

After about three weeks of looking, and a few applications the boy and I (little one and the puppy) have somewhere to move too. It was a little more complicated than last time, before we just wanted some type of garden (we were looking to get a pet) and only needed two bedrooms. this time, we needed a place that would accept a dog, had a nice kitchen, was close to work for us and three bedrooms. Oh, and didn’t cost double what we are at the moment.
I have to say two weeks in I got panicked and stressed, what do you do when your lease ends and you haven’t been successful in finding a new place?
The boy visited a few places without me, and put some applications in, I saw some with him and handed in more applications. It gets quickly worrying when people email or call saying the house has just got rented. We started looking at two bedrooms houses, smaller houses, pricey houses, etc. The boy went and saw a house, application already filled and handed it down. The next day his boss received a phone call, for a reference. The next thing I knew, we had a house. In our price range, big backyard, brand new kitchen, three bedrooms and accepts our puppy.

The next thing I kind of remember is packing some things, and it being Saturday having a few hours to get all our big things to our new house. The boy and I moved a few large things, and the rest was moved by the boy, his brother and dad. The problem with us not packing properly and just worrying about the large stuff, is the old place is a mess. The new place has some of our stuff, but there are random things I realise I’ve forgotten (like my hairbrush… It’s slowly getting there, the lounge is nearly set up, the little one’s room is completely done.

I already miss the old place, this isn’t quite home yet. No Internet, no Foxtel, and it’s just different. It’s carpet instead of floorboards, those silly little things. Mainly it’s the fact my little Paul Anka isn’t allowed inside. We’ve spend hours outside with him, playing ball with him, cuddling with him, but there’s something missing when we sit down to watch TV and there is no Paulie cuddled up on the couch. He seems to be getting used to it, it’s the second day and he has stopped crying all the time. I don’t think I’ve quite gotten used to the fact he can’t sleep on the end of my bed. There was something calming about my little normally active dog being so tired that he can’t move his head off my legs. The heart wrenching whines did not help at all. He’ll be okay, won’t he?

It’s a great house, and it’s great for us, it’s now all about making it home, rather than someone else’s house. This has made me more positive that this will be the last time I move to another rental house, the next time I move it will be into my own house, the boy agrees completely.

Have I introduced him?

elle — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:33:05 +0000

I speak about him a lot but I thought I’d introduce him in a little more detail. I have a puppy named Paul Anka. He is a big part of my family, even though we’ve only had him for six months.

After we moved into a house with a backyard, all I could think was how much I missed having an animal around (I’ve always had a dog around while I was growing up). I also wanted a brand new puppy with my boyfriend, in “our” new house to start off our life.

We were going to see about a Cairn Terrier. However, in the back of my mind, I could not justify spending $800.00 just to have a pure breed puppy. I do not care if I have a pure breed, or a mix, or a dog with so many breeds I don’t know.

We signed our name up for some breeders, but most weren’t having any litters to mid year. In the mean time I started checking out Adopt A Pet. A fantastic site, which shows all the pets within the RSPCA from all states and shelters, with information, their behaviour report, etc.

At one stage I found one puppy, exclaimed about him, we couldn’t get there and the next time I checked he was going. Then one day, there were two puppies, one named Chocco and one named Samson. We headed up on a Saturday when we got there, I couldn’t remember what those two puppies looked like. I looked and looked for Chocco, I’m pretty sure he’d gone. Then, I saw Samson. We asked if we could play with him to see about adopting him.

We went into a caged area so we could get to know him before we decided to adopt him, he was not interested in us at all. All the puppies barking and people walking past was much more interesting. He was skinny and excitable, but calm and not too jumpy. We decided after about 30 minutes, that yeah, we’d definitely take him home.

It took us a while to decide whether we’d call him Samson, or Paul Anka, which we’d decided on before we even met him. Paul Anka (the dog) is a Gilmore Girl reference, that dog was quirky and was scared of peas and wouldn’t eat in front of people. We decided we would call him that, and when we can’t be bothered explaining the reference we just introduce him as “Paulie”. While my puppy isn’t that bad, he is a little quirky. As in, he won’t eat when he is scared, nervous or excited. Nor will he drink water when he is scared, nervous or excited, nor poo or wee. He doesn’t quite get that chewing on your hands is not licking, nor do people appreciate it. He’ll attempt to outstare you. You’ll wake up with him laying on your shoulders or head, or a paw on your forehead. And he will only be comfortable on a pillow/blanket, unless he is trying to get between the boy and myself and then he will sit anyway he can. He will eat post it notes and my left shoes.

He is classified as a “Terrier Cross”. He acts extremely like a Terrier, he is a high energy dog, who is intelligent, tenaciousness and has a fearless demeanor. (He pounces on the Border Collies at the Pooch Park.) He is a big dog in a little dog body. He can know beg, shake paws, high five, wave, sit, drop, roll over and stretch (when he wants to.)

I have a STRONG feeling Paul Anka is mainly a Jack Russel with a rough coat. I have had many people say he is one, without me mentioning it to them. To the left is NOT Paul Anka, but a pure breed Jack Russell Terrier Rough Coat. Below this paragraph, is my Paul Anka! Convinced? No? He is not quite as trimmed as many JRT Rough Coats are, but he is also nearly two now, so not really a puppy. I’m sure he has a bit of cross in him, but I’m sure he is also somewhat JRT. What ever he is, I love his is all mixed up. From a crazy background, of which we don’t know most the details. That kinda fits in with our blended family!

Anyway, thanks for meeting Paul Anka. He’d shake paws with you if you wanted. Don’t forget the Pedigree Adoption Drive!

Parents weekend

elle — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:22:18 +0000

My mum came over Saturday night to have tea with us, and to do what she could to help us out with our car/money issues, which was very lovely.
We decided to show her the local puppy park. It is basically a double fenced area, with grass, an area with bark and a huge sand pit. Throughout the whole area on the boundary is an agility course. It has a water fountain with bowl for the the dogs, as well as doggy bags. I love the unspoken rules, you shut the gates properly, if a dog is near the gate you stop them getting out, you clean up after your dog, and if your dog is being mean or aggressive you fix it quickly.

Paul loves the puppy park, he ditched us as soon as we got there and barely looked back the whole time we were there. He tends to stick with the bigger dogs who run full bolt and push each other around, rather than the little dogs who run and sniff and that is about all. Last night he hung out mostly with a Boxer, who was oddly submissive and a Border Collie who is the smartest dog I’ve ever seen. The Border Collie would fetch, bring the stick back and drop it two metres from his owner, the owner would ask him to bring it to him. The Border Collie would jump around, owner would re-ask him and he would pick it up and drop it at his owners feet. Mean while Paul couldn’t even get the idea of fetch with a tennis ball.

The two bigger dogs were easily double his size, he can keep up/out run at times with their speed, and never acts intimidated. It is amusing seeing a dog whose head is at the beginning at the others chest wrestling and giving as good as he gets. That said, he is still very submissive, which I won’t say is a bad thing because if those dogs did get nasty, well they could eat him. If the dog wins the wrestle Paulie will just drop.

I do love the atmosphere at the “Pooch Park” as it’s called. Everyone takes their dog off their lead and everyone sits back and just lets them play. People only step in if their dog is being picked on or if your dog is picking on a dog. You talk with other owners about your dogs, admire and compliment, etc. We hung there until it got too dark to see and we ended home. From the minute we got home Paul was asleep from exhaustion. We had some cheap Coles lasagna (while I had Vegetarian Shepard’s Pie) and chips, instead of planned restaurant meal to save some cash. I’m very grateful my mum could help out with cash, wasn’t a HUGE amount, but definitely enough to calm our nerves a little.

The boy’s folks spend Sunday with us, sat around talking and watching TV, and walked to the shops with Paul Anka, who showed how afraid of cars he is. The dog stole my heart and refused to eat a pig’s ear. I will pretend he also saw the visible vein and decided not to eat it! Just spend some time catching up with his folks and got to eat some donuts!

Have I introduced him?

Can’t quite get there.

elle — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:30:47 +0000

I had a quick end to the stress free time of university holidays. The lovely break down of a car. Out of action until Wednesday, and we have until then to scrape up about three grand (AUD). Yeah, that is so not what we needed. We have some debt we’re trying to get over, saving for investments, and now this. It feels every step we made, we get thrown back three. I’m annoyed. frustrated. sad. We’d probably be fine except I had a week off work for exams…

Do you ever get to the stage where you know what you want, and you want to be there, but you can’t quite get there? Yeah, that’s why I am right now. How do you make things happen when you’re doing the most you can? I guess I just have to ride it out for a while. I hope it ends up where I want it, I don’t know what to do if it doesn’t end up there.

Thanks to those twitter friends who gave financially to help out. You know who you are, thank you so much.

To make it a little more of a cheery post, another video of Paul Anka. I’m sorry I have a “I’m talking to my puppy” voice. I don’t normally sound like this!

Shake! from taciturnly on Vimeo.

making friends online

Exams were boring.

elle — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:42:32 +0000

The stress of exam time is over! Three exams in five days, and finally finished. I had nearly a week off work. The longest I’ve had off since Jan 2008. Thanks to the joys of being casual, and not having holidays (which also means I don’t get paid!)

While waiting to be let into the hall at Royal Adelaide Show Grounds for my exams, I watched a trio of students who were middle aged and professionally dressed, walk through a normal looking bunch of Uni students. One of them walked in to a young fashionably dressed girl, I watched expecting her to apologise or sheepishly grin. Except she just looked at him, he looked sheepish and she looked back to her friends, now I’d say this was an example of “kids these days” but I actually thought it was more the fact he was outnumbered. There were a bunch of uni students, and only a scattered amount of professionals. I liked that the people I’m intimidated by can be just as intimidated when they are outnumbered.

And just to make this a little more fun…

Paulie gets the shakes. from taciturnly on Vimeo.

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Welcome Paul Anka

elle — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:21:11 +0000

Adopted from the RSPCA, he is a lil charmer. He’ll not stop until you grab him and calm him down. He continually surprises me with just how clever he is, he learnt how to shake paws, high five, and beg in two days, though he won’t do it for anything less than a treat.

He might eat our shoes, and wake us up at 6am, but he is one awesome puppy.

Have I introduced him?