I've neglected the blog as I do cyclically when I get busy. But the reasons have never been better. Gianna's passing was a difficult transition. Looking back, she took a lot more time in her decline than it felt like in the moment. When we decided to put her down, the grief was heavy.
Before Gianna got in a bad place, Amanda and I toyed with the idea of getting a puppy that Gianna could help us raise. A few weeks after she died, we re-entertained the idea of a puppy. I did some Googling and on a whim I put down a refundable deposit with a Border Collie breeder nearby that had puppies born on Valentine's Day. We ended up being #10 on a list for a litter of eight puppies. By some fate, two people passed on the last puppy because they wanted a male. We found out that we were getting a female puppy just before our vacation. We ran to the bookstore for a book on how to raise a puppy and read most of it on our trip... to Scandinavia!
The 10-day, four-country trip coincidentally turned out to be convenient on a couple fronts. First, we've come back just before the time when we can pick up the puppy, which we named Greta. Unlike every other pet name we've picked we went with a Germanic name and a popular one in Scandinavia to mark that trip. We're not too far off though because Greta has also been a popular baby name in Italy the last few years. We picked her up yesterday. She's been a lot of fun and a lot of work!
The less fortunate front was a little hit-and-run car accident I got into with my brand new Outback. This was my first car accident ever. I'm lucky I guess. The Outback took the hit well, but I was so shocked to see the woman who hit us drive off. I didn't get a good look at the license plate in my rearview mirror. Like most accidents, it happened not too far from our house when we were picking up our friend/Amanda's boss Ben for a Sounders game. Needless to say, we didn't make the game. Conveniently, the car was in the shop for most of our vacation.
Also keeping me busy is my first quarter teaching virtually for Edmonds Community College. I got an offer out of the blue a few months ago and jumped on it because I've had an itch to teach for the last couple of years. I'm really pumped about it.
I also got a promotion at REI to manage content marketing, so that's a whole new world.
Somewhere in between all of this, I'm going to find time to edit and post our vacation photos here. I'll also post some Greta photos. So much going on. Such an exciting time.
