Baa Ram Ewe

This weekend was, for a change, fairly busy for Marc and I. On Saturday, I woke up at around noon, got ready, and we headed out for Bandit's first sheep herding lesson. Jan had set up a handful of sheep in a different, larger pen than the one she'd done his herding instinct tests in. There was also another dog there taking lessons as well - Jan would alternate the dogs in between sessions so that they could rest. This other dog growled and barked at Bandit when he went to say hi - the owner told the dog to stop, but it wasn't having much effect. The next time the dog did it, Jan wheeled on the dog and SCREAMED, "HEY! NONE OF THAT!" which promptly quieted the dog. Talk about authority.

Bandit started out well, but one time he lunged at the sheep, and Jan brought out this stick with a flag on it and hit the ground in front of him to show him that it wasn't acceptable behavior. Bandit stopped, but being the sensitive little butthead that he is, was pretty hesitant afterwards. Jan put down the flag, but for a few times after that, he'd circle the sheep once, and then go sit in the corner and refuse to come back to the sheep.

Finally though, he really started getting into it. He was running tight circles around the sheep (Jan would walk around the pen, and the sheep would follow her everywhere, with Bandit circling to keep them together). At one point, she let the sheep get up against the fence, and let Bandit wrangle them on his own. He did a pretty good job of picking up the stray sheep and moving them back together. She said he definitely seemed to like to mix it up with the sheep and probably wouldn't be scared to bite them (herding dogs will sometimes bite, or "grip," sheep/cows that are ornery and don't want to move). She said, "hopefully he won't kill any sheep, so you don't have to pay to replace them." We weren't sure if she was joking or not. Guess how much a sheep costs though - we figured what, a few hundred, maybe a thousand? Fifty bucks. How sad to be a sheep.

While we were there, Marc and I talked about what it must be like to be a sheep. Like, what do they think about all day? Do they even really have any kind of thought process other than their immediate sensory perceptions? When they see the dog, are they like, "Is the dog coming my way? Should I move? What's the dog going to do?" Or are they more like, "ohmigod DOG MUST MOVE AWAY." We decided on the latter.

I took more video of the lesson, so at some point I'll get off my lazy butt and get those uploaded and converted and put up on the site. Hopefully tonight, but I won't make any promises. ;)

Auto Show

After we were done with Bandit's lesson, we drove down to San Jose to go to the Auto Show with our friends Bill and Brenda. It was pretty fun as usual, I saw a few cars that I liked. I was disappointed though, that Ford only had the concept model for the 2005 Mustang there - I wanted to see the production model up close, since I really wasn't impressed by the photos I saw. I also sat in a VW Beetle, and decided it was not for me.

One funny thing we saw was at the exotic car showcase, where they had all the Ferraris, Lotuses, and Rolls Royces. Those cars you NEVER get to touch, or sit in. But we saw there were two guys sitting in a Ferrari. One was an older guy in a leather jacket sitting in the driver's seat, talking to one of the reps there. You don't get to sit in those cars unless you show the reps you've got money, so I guess that guy did. Still, it prompted much eye rolling. Some guy behind us sneered, "those guys are the 'high rollers.'" I think most were probably thinking, "geez dude, get out of the picture already."

Weekend Shopping Warriors

Sunday morning, Marc and I went to go help my cousin Henry get some things at IKEA in East Palo Alto. He was picking up a coffee table and a TV stand, and needed our Rav4 to haul them back to his place. We figured it would probably take a half hour, an hour, tops. We were there for THREE HOURS.

There was so much stuff to look at there. I'd been there once before, but at that time we were specifically looking for a futon, so we didn't look around much. This time we browsed the whole store. It was amazing. Henry ended up walking out with 5 or 6 pieces of furniture, instead of the 2 he came to buy. Marc and I ended up doing shopping of our own - buying pictures and frames for the house, as well as a bunch of hangers, candles, and stuff. We ended up spending $205.46 that day. Crazy! But so much fun.

We're picking our brains trying to think of home improvement stuff. The pictures were a nice start, we hung them up in the kitchen and along the staircase. I think our next step is going to be to figure out what colors we want to paint the different rooms. Then we might start thinking about getting some furniture. You know, so the dog can have new things to destroy.

Afternoon Conversation - (4:00 pm PST)

I just had this conversation with Deepali over AOL Instant Messenger regarding this update. We were talking about the interior decorating Marc and I did (I'm Natterjak):

Natterjak: I should take pictures of what we did
Lalaithdr: lol!
Lalaithdr: awesome!
Lalaithdr: visuals to go along with your work
Natterjak: I'll do it tonight if I'm not too lazy haha
Natterjak: I still have to put up the sheep videos
Natterjak: if only I could get paid for this, lol
Lalaithdr: It's nto even laziness though
Lalaithdr: it's hard to find time
Natterjak: no no, it's laziness
Lalaithdr: you finally get home after a long commute
Lalaithdr: then there is dinner and cleaning uop
Lalaithdr: up
Lalaithdr: spending time with marc and the animals
Lalaithdr: and then, it's almost time for bed
Natterjak: no, really, it's laziness :-)
Lalaithdr: LOL!
Natterjak: I get home, let the dog in, we go out and grab fast food, and then I sit down at the computer and play games for the rest of the night :-)
Natterjak: so trust me, it's not a matter of time ;-)
Lalaithdr: Ahahahahaha!