Dirty Dog

This morning after my walk with Wheatie, I had forgotten to bring some treats along with me, so I ran up the stairs not thinking he'd run into the dirt under my stairs. It had rained hard last night, so as he ran up the stairs, his paws and underside were totally caked with mud. He was super excited, so he ran into the house and then tracked mud all over the living room carpet. Since my carpet is off-white, the dirt stains really shown through, especially near the front by the entrance. I was super upset with him and had to give him a bath because he was so filthy. After giving him a bath, I had to work on trying to get the stains out of the carpet. I have to remember to buy a better carpet cleaner formula tomorrow.

Then, during puppy class today, we worked on some agility exercises and games to help the puppy practice some of the skills they had learned earlier. Of all the classes, I felt that this was the one I could have missed because we didn't really learn anything new. BFC wasn't able to come with me either, it was hard trying to carry everything by myself. I'm hoping next class will be better and then Wheatie has graduation the following week. I'm looking forward to seeing what that will be about.

Steps

A few weeks ago my neighbor downstairs had his apartment cleaned. I didn't really think anything of it until the following day when Wheatie didn't want to go up the stairs back to the place. I thought it was kind of weird, but decided to just carry him back up the stairs. This went on for a few days and even happened with BFC a few times. One afternoon, I decided to let Wheatie smell around below the steps to see if he'd dig up anything. All he did was get dirty.

BFC decided to try something the other day to see if Wheatie would come up the stairs. While he held the dog downstairs, I ran up to get to get his food bowl. I filled his food bowl and then put it outside the door. It worked! Then I tried it again today and he came up by himself again. Hopefully he'll be able to come up the stairs independently from now on.

Six Months

Wheatie makes six months today! It's hard to believe that I've had the dog for nearly two months now. As a birthday present, BFC and I are taking him to the groomer today. He'll have a short cut again. I'm just looking forward to him having a bath. I can't even remember the last time we bathed him.

He's been getting better overall, but I'm still having a difficult time walking him in the mornings. He's so interested in pulling and eating crap on the ground, it's hard to really have a hold on him. I'm hoping that the more we continue going out and practicing, the better he'll be.

Viva Las Vegas 2010

I took a break from Wheatie Watch for a week when my mom and I traveled to Lost Wages this past week. We left on Sunday and returned on Friday. I've never been so happy to come back home than this trip. It turns out that VH added one more day to their normal packages "forcing" people to stay one more day. I guess there are pros and cons to staying longer, but I don't like the idea of losing more money with the extra day. So here's a blow-by-blow report of how my trip went.

Day 1: Sunday
Mom and I reached Vegas safely that evening and caught the bus to the CH. We then made our way to the ABC store on Fremont Street to buy our bottled water. That first night was something else because the line for the CH cafe was so long that it was near the Redwood Grille door! I'd never seen it that long before. Mom and I decided to go to the 777 Bar in the MS instead, but it was evident that many others had that idea as well since we ended up having to wait for a while there too. We finally got to eat at 2:30 a.m. Vegas time. I think we ended up gambling for a little while before returning to our hotel room and falling asleep.

Day 2: Monday (Memorial Day)
We had heard from the waitress the night before that there were going to be some huge sales because of the Memorial Day holiday. Mom and I decided to go to the Premium Outlets located near downtown. We were expecting to simply catch the City Ride shuttle and get to the outlets quickly, but soon found out that the City Ride had been canned due to lack of funds. We were both disappointed and decided to catch a bus to the mall and a cab back. By the time we left the casino, it was nearly noon, so I knew that the mall would be crowded and hot. I was right, but going was worth it because of the sales. I spent a lot of money at the Ann Taylor Factory store and the LeSportSac outlet. We spent quite a while at the mall and returned to the hotel a few hours later. Tried to go to the Cal cafe again, but the line was long AGAIN, so went to the 777 AGAIN, but this time there were no tables, so we were forced to sit at the bar next to this Hispanic couple and an old man with a young wife. The pizza is really good there though, but sadly, the spinach and artichoke dip has gone down the tubes.

Day 3: Tuesday
I wanted to go to Bath and Body works to pick up more waterless anti-bacterial soap, so Mom and I went to the Strip to Caesar's Palace. I also wanted to eat at the new Serendipity 3 restaurant. I had heard good things about their frozen hot chocolate and wanted to try one. We caught the complimentary shuttle to Sam's Town, which eventually took us to Harrah's, which is across the street from the Forum Shops. We walked through the Forum Shops and ate a cup of gelato from the Trevi restaurant in the middle of the mall. We then made our way to the B&B Works near the Cheesecake Factory. I bought quite a bit of stuff and happily, most of it was on sale! We asked the cashier where Serendipity was and found out that it was located on the OTHER side of the casino. I thought it'd be a pretty far walk because the B&B Works was on the far end of the mall. We trekked off in the other direction and eventually found the restaurant after walking through the casino and lobby area. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long for a table. There were lots of overpriced items on the menu, but I knew I wanted the frozen hot chocolate. Decided to get a chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries (which were somewhat better than the Counter's) and the frozen hot chocolate for dessert. After eating, we went into the Mirage casino and played there for a little bit and made our way back to Harrah's to catch the shuttle back to Sam's Town and downtown.

Day 4: Wednesday
Mom wanted to go back to the Premium Outlets today because we weren't able to make it to the Quiksilver store on Memorial Day. We walked to the bus depot and made our way to the mall. When we got to the mall, we noticed this weird-looking bus stop across the street and decided to investigate. We found out that stop was for the ACE bus line. The ACE bus was a faster route through downtown (vs. the Deuce) and would end up at the Las Vegas Outlet Center. I wanted to be adventurous and convinced Mom that we should get all-day passes to ride around on the ACE. It took us an hour to get to the mall from the Premium Outlets and we had seats all the way down. The LV Outlet Center was basically the same as the Premium Outlets except that it was indoors. I didn't really buy too much, but it was nice to get out of the sun for a while. We went back to the Premium Outlets to eat at Makino's for dinner. It was a great day!

Day 5: Thursday
On the last full day, Mom and I went to the Strip to eat lunch at the Wynn. I had been on Yelp and found that the Wynn buffet got good reviews. I was happy with the decision to eat there. There was so much different kinds of food to eat! I was in heaven. For dessert, I had a little candy apple with some dessert cups. Afterward, we went back to the hotel to pack and settle down for a bit. Mom wanted to go to the casino to play more, but I was hesitant since I was so down from my original amount. I decided to go down with Mom since it was our last night in Vegas. I actually ended up getting quite a bit of my money back on a couple of the machines.

Day 6: Friday
I didn't really do much on this day except eat breadsticks at the Vegas airport. I was happy to return back home. My skin was starting to get too dry.

I'm not really looking forward to going on another trip....but I wouldn't mind going to Japan.