We Still Live

After a while of being missing in action I return with a video. Of Bella! yay!

To make a long story short, my back is messed up big time again and I have been struggling with work and home life.Physiotherapy, acupuncture and painkillers are some of the things awaiting me. Unfortunately, my doctors are advising me not to walk, jog or bike much if I can avoid it and instead going for a swim. Unfortunate for a person with a dog? EXTREMELY!

However, after feeling very guilty and like the world's worst dog owner I decided to stop grieving and get creative with things to do with Bella. I do try to take her to a field to go frisbee-ing or ball throwing but I am also getting back into more regularly activating her in my home. Mainly with trick training.

When I was pregnant with my son I taught her to pick things up for me, something I have used from time to time. I never got around to actually getting her to drop them into a box like I was planning. Yesterday I finally got around to finding a suitable box and we got going. I took a short video and it's actually only our second training session working on this, ever. I think it's going pretty well already.

With a kid that loves spreading his toys (and the contents of my kitchen) all over the apartment, maybe Bella could still try to impress my fiancé with her tricks.

Euro 2012

The European Football Championships 2012 started 8th of June and for a couch dog like Bella, it's an ideal sport.

I've got the Carlsberg and remote, now what's missing? Slave, do your work!

 

Baby Magnus runs for NOMS.

 

Omnomnom!

 

Now we can watch the matches. Owner, get outta the way!

Bella is real serious when watching the players. Who be the fittest? Who be the fastest? Who could play frisbee with me the whole day?

Not this one...

Hmmm...

Oh, a cute one! With a prize! Did he win???

ZZzzzzz....

Racedog

Yesterday afternoon, after a busy day cleaning the apartment, me and Bella went out for a bike ride. I didn't know what hit her but she was craaaaazy, running like she was late for the last meal of her life.

We went so fast that there was no time to catch us on camera. Instead we had a small photoshoot during a pitstop.

Mr. Bike seems a little tired.

After the pit stop I thought we would relax a little but Bella took off like a rocket and my leisurely afternoon bike tour was like a thundering race down the homestretch. Bella didn't even have time to bathe in the awe people we meet have for her shoes.

When we got back home in record time Bella's victory lap was a little lacking:

Gimme a sec here!

Of all the things we conquered, the new blue shoes were the true victims of Bella's terriorism on the track:

 

From riches to rags?

Afterwards, I felt I had to get to the bottom of this transformation Bella took from a terrier to a greyhound. 

Is the furry Lady a greyhound in terrier disguise??

I soon realised that while I had been cleaning the whole weekend a certain someone had been taking advantage of the iPad. I carefully peered over the edge of the sofa to oversee what Bella was looking at inbetween her naps.

Ponies??

Then it suddenly dawned on me that this was Belmont weekend where Union Rags won with a photo finish! Bella had secretly been following the Triple Crown trail without letting me in on it. Sneaky little iPad stealing dog!

Union Rags's Photo Finish

AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Reykjavík Fashion

Me and Bella have never been afraid to stand out of the crowd, first with our backpack and as of today we have biking shoes.

Sporty for sure and they even match our bike trailer! Bella was dancing to begin with and launched herself forward over any obstacles at home like a steeplechaser.

Once outside, she made sure to look lika an old pro, the envy of other dogs. We even overheard one woman tell her son how nice shoes "the dog" is wearing. Of course blue isn't Bella's colour (which even my fiancé pointed out) but with the trailer as the main accessories, she rocks the colour anyway.

Once we got home we had to admit that we were a little tired, especially Bella, after biking to baby Magnus's daycare and back home. It has also been really super hot this past week and the owner is overdue on stripping the overcoat to sport a summier look.

Yay! Backyard agility with homemade equipment!

Bella wasn't really feeling the agility vibe after our biking but once I had completed a pair of jumps she decided to show that annoyingly silent and overly obedient border collie who was watching from above how we rock agility as well. Nevermind the owner's crouching position, I was being overly leading into the jump. It's a terrible habit! In my defence I have never let her loose in our backyard before and Bella was rather lazy so I had to lead her to almost all the way up to the jump before letting go.

Now our backyard arsenal consists of weave poles, a tunnel and four jumps. This is so much less distracting than going to agility class, I love agility but the stress level it puts Bella at is so enormous that neither of us truly enjoys going... yet.

Longer days

Summer finally arrived after this long cold winter.  We are already enjoying it, staying out on our lawn or going on the bike. I often ask myself why I still live in this cold and windy country but I really love summer in Iceland. Well, at least on those days when it's not rainy and windy.

I have been rather busy lately, a week long vacation, then my fiancé left me and Bella for two weeks. Now things are gearing up for the long summer days and at the end of this week I stop working office hours and return to working shifts again. I'm going back to the steering wheel for the summer. It's nice trade, a bit of a change while I wait to go on my vacation.

Still Alive...

It's well past midnight and before going to sleep I just wanted to do something completely trivial and finally post something on this blog.

I have spent the last 11 days or so writing over 30.000 words on top of my fulltime job. My wrist and fingers are incredibly sore but it is finished now and I am going to try and never write with such a steep deadline again.

Tomorrow, Bella and family time. Ah, I am going to enjoy that. A bottle of sparkling wine as well.

A Quiet Moment