The Samuelses' Mantras

For those of you who don't know, my family has a long-standing tradition of putting the cart before the horse.

We do it pretty routinely and it usually works out pretty well for us. For example, last year when I was applying for my editorial job, I spent a lot of time on my now-company's Web site, reading about all of the employee benefits. As I read more and more about them, I kept getting more and more excited. Brian (being the nice husband that he is) was concerned that I was going to get my hopes up and then get disappointed. So, my dad, being the sage that he is, quickly pointed out to Brian that I was merely putting the cart before the horse and that all would be well. (Of course, it was.)

This is pretty much how most of us Samuelses live our lives. Mom and Callison are a bit more conservative, but Dad and I pretty much exemplify the saying. Basically, the bigger the risk, the greater the reward. Sure, you can have a great reward without too much risk, but you'll maximize your reward if you have a bigger risk.

So, during the 2007 football season, we pretty much started talking about going back to Chattanooga for the FCS National Championship game after we beat Michigan. So, we had made our hotel reservations in about late September. So, you might be saying to yourself, "Wow, that's really putting the cart before the horse!" But, truthfully, it just maximized the win (and trip) when App. pulled out the threepeat.

It should, therefore, be no surprise to you that we made our hotel reservations for this year's championship game in February. (Yes, February--we wanted to stay in a good hotel downtown!)

Of course, hotel rooms can always be cancelled, so perhaps we didn't go full-force.

Until this morning.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have now purchased 5 tickets for the game in Chattanooga. (Keep in mind, that App. still has 1 regular season game left and three playoff games to win before they make it to 'Nooga!)

Will it pay off? There's no telling right now, but if the Apps pull it out and go for the fourpeat, our victory will be just a little bit more sweeter than everyone else's. :-)

App. beat Elon on Saturday (in the rain, snow, and crazy whirlwinds) and we had a fantastic time! They've now clinched their autobid for the playoffs and at least a share of their 4th (in a row) Southern Conference championship. If they beat Western Carolina on Saturday, they'll have the title outright and a No. 2 seed in the playoffs (guaranteed homefield advantage until Chattanooga).

Also, for those of you who aren't routinely blessed with his presence, here are some more Jay-isms to get you through life:

"All you have to say is 'no thank you.' No other explanation is needed."
"You don't have to floss all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep."
"Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee."
"Prior planning prevents piss-poor-performance."
"Why wait at home when you can wait in the stadium?"
"CHEATERS!"
"Oh no! How will I ever get out of this parking lot with all these other cars?"
"Hell no, you're not cutting in front of me."

Oh, and how can I forget my mom's primary Ellen-ism:
"Well, I wanted to go to ___, but Jay decided that we need to go to ___ instead."

Change is coming

For those of you who don't know yet, I'm changing jobs...

...but not companies!

On Tuesday, I found out that I was given a promotion that I applied for. I'll be moving from content editor to content manager (managing content, not people).

I will be on the same team with the same supervisor, but my job function will be a lot different from what I'm doing now, but it will still use my editorial knowledge.

Simply put, I'll be processing changes in content in our content management system so that it's available for our online subscribers and I'll be managing various products (i.e. publications) to get them set properly for the printer by the book bound date. A few of our products have a tight timeline and don't have editorial review prior to publication, so, for those, I'll still be editing them as they're processed into the CMS.

I'm very, very excited. It's a lot more responsibility and it will be a challenge. I also will get to pull in a lot of my project management skills as there are a lot of processes that I'll be managing prior to print.

I will have to move cubes, but my new one will be by a window!! :-)

I start Monday!

Gatsby provides commentary on the election

At approximately 11 p.m. EST on November 4, 2008, Brit Hume on Fox News called the state of California for Barack Obama and confirmed that Obama was the winner of the election.

Simultaneously, in a single family home in a suburban neighborhood in Knightdale, N.C., Gatsby LeBlanc, 11 months, peed directly in front of the television.

After further review, we have determined that LeBlanc has a red collar and, therefore, is, indeed, a Republican.

***

On a related note, why is Obama considered president-elect right now? Technically, he can't be president-elect until the Electoral College votes in December. It's weird to me that the media has no problem using president-elect now, but only used presumptive nominee between the end of the primaries and the conventions. Why the difference?

I have to say, I always feel revived and refreshed around election time. We are very fortunate to live in a republic and have the option to pick our leaders and it's fascinating to me that this system has worked for hundreds of years. Our forefathers were pretty darn smart. I think it's also pretty awesome that the turnout was so good, especially for young voters. I hope that it continues into future elections.

Even though my team was red and didn't win (in, like, any race--feel free to e-mail me about how I feel about straight-party voting, I won't rant here!), I was very surprised about how I felt after the election was over. I don't particularly like his policies, but I do like Obama's personality and he's definitely a skilled rhetorician. I'm hopeful that he will do a good job and make our country a better place and I hope the media holds him accountable for his campaign promises.

Regardless of what happens, it will certainly be an adventure for the next four years!

Puppy Pics Added

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby

A few cute pictures from last weekend of Gatsby at the window as he watched Brian talk to some people interested in the for-sale house across the street.

And a short video from tonight of Gatsby playing his his new four-pegged, rubber, squeaky toy.

If you paid attention in Organic Chemistry, it looks kinda like methane:

Are you ready for some football??

HELL YES WE ARE!!!

Because it's the best sport in the world.

Appalachian State University is having another dominating season en route to their fourth Southern Conference and National Championships.

After starting out 1-2 with losses to LSU and James Madison University, the Apps have roared to 7-2 (5-0 in the SoCon) and they are ranked second in the nation (JMU is first). Most recently they delivered a solid ass kicking on ESPN2 Halloween night when they walloped conference foe Wofford College 70-24. Wofford was ranked #3 in the FCS (probably not anymore!).

Additionally, Armanti Edwards had a highlight reel night and now leads the SoCon with the most career yards (passing former App. quarterback Richie Williams). Armanti is only halfway through his JUNIOR season, although he has played eight extra games during the past two years because of playoff appearances.

If the Apps defeat Chattanooga, Elon (also highly ranked nationally), and Western Carolina, they will be undefeated in the Southern Conference and be guaranteed (at least) a #2 seed in the FCS playoffs. If JMU were to lose, then the Apps would be ranked 1st. Either way, a #1 or #2 ranking would secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs, which is very, very important for Appalachian who has an insane home field advantage (all playoff games in the past 3 years have been played in Boone or Chattanooga).

Last night's game was electrifying and so much fun. We all took Friday off and drove to Boone Friday morning. We went to the book store and then ate lunch at Pepper's Restaurant (an awesome sandwich, soup, salad place). We checked into our hotel and then headed over to the stadium to chill at the Yosef Club Room where we dined on hotdogs, potato chips, sugar cookies, and rum and Cokes!

As always, we were in the stadium more than 80 minutes before kickoff where we enjoyed the sites, sounds, and smells (and all the awesome Halloween costumes!). Everything was rocking and it seemed like it was going to be a shootout when App and Wofford swapped touchdowns for the first four drives of the game. App scored on its third drive and it was 21-14 when we intercepted a Wofford pass and then drove to go up 28-14. It was all downhill from there for Wofford and all App State football for the rest of the night!!!!!

We're all definitely pumped for the rest of the season and we're dying to go back to 'Nooga for fourth National Championship (in fact, I've already taken off December 19th from work and we have our hotel rooms reserved...we haven't bought tickets yet, but we may just do that as things move along...). My mom and sister are already salivating about the fish tacos at Big River Grille in downtown Chattanooga.

Also, the band totally rocked at halftime, playing spooky, Halloween-themed songs! Their last song was "Thriller" and at the end of the piece the ENTIRE band (sans drumline) did the dance. It was one of the greatest things ever and it's available on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBDB7Ero0kI

(For best quality, click on "watch in high quality," which is at the bottom right of the video.)

You should watch it because the App. band is awesome and it's so much fun!

GO APPS!!!

A few pictures from the game that my dad took:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/AppVsWofford

(BTW, Clayton wasn't at the game because he was with the West Carteret Cross Country team, which was in Winston-Salem for the State Championship.)

But, if you're curious, Callie and Clay set a date for their wedding--Sunday, May 24, 2009 at the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores!

Gatsby Update

We really do still exist.

We've been super busy with Gatsby, work, hockey, and football!!

Things are going well. We are working with him on some basic training stuff (sit, down, leave it, stay, and walking on a loose leash.) He's a pretty quick learner, but he's not great at applying it all the time. In the mornings, he'll walk with me for about 20 steps right beside me without pulling and then when I stop, he'll sit so that I can get him a treat. It's very, very cute. He can do that about 10 times and then he's brain gets fried and he's just like, "Give me the treat, woman!" He's either thinking that or, "It's 5:30 in the damn morning, I'm cold, hungry, and want to go back to sleep." Interestingly, I'm usually thinking the same thing. :-)

Our typical schedule is that Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, we're up at 5:30 and we go on a 45-60 minute walk and then he comes back and eats breakfast. After breakfast, I'm back upstairs to get ready to work and Gatsby takes a nap. He's usually asleep when I come back down to leave and he usually just lifts his head when I say, "Bye Gatsby, have a good day, I love you." Brian leaves for work a little before 9 a.m. and Gatsby goes out with him for a quick potty break and then he gets the day to himself. I'm usually back home around 4:45 and we go out, he eats dinner at 5 and then we play until Brian comes home. He then goes outside a few times during the evening.

On work-from-home days and weekends, we sleep until 7 and then he goes out for a quick potty break and breakfast. And then he goes out at various times throughout the day.

He rarely has any in-house accidents when we get up at 5:30 and for the past two nights he's made it until 7 a.m. He's also good during the day, unless I'm not home by 4:45...he's basically at max capacity by then, so if I'm a few minutes late, then it's all over :-) On Tuesdays when I tutor after work, Brian comes home at lunch to take him out.

We have a "puppy" gate at the bottom of the stairs and he stays downstairs. He's always fine with Brian and I going up at bedtime and he's fine during the day if just one of us goes upstairs, but he is not pleased if both of us are upstairs during "wakey" time :-)

He loves, loves, loves any type of bone or chewy thing and he can chew on a bone for (literally) 2 or 3 hours at a time. He also loves his red "plush" squeaky bone and a rope "ball and loop" toy that he loves for tug-of-war or to "wrestle" with. He also seems to love his fleece bed, but only because he likes to tear holes in it and pull out all the cotton stuffing. He loves to either wrestle or run around with the bed, or spend time "dominating" (i.e. humping) it. It's pretty funny...we're just glad that's the only thing he humps!

He's good for the most part when my family comes to visit, but he doesn't really know how to deal with me not giving him 100% attention when he wants it. He's getting better, but it's still something to work on. He loves to climb up on my lap to be petted or to lick my face! (Evidently he likes my chap stick.) He's also (slowly) improving at his bite inhibition and "mouthing." But I've figured out that if I can convince him to just lick my hand, then he doesn't want to mouth it. He's also FASCINATED by anything electronic. He loves cell phones and wireless mouses, which makes me wonder if they emit some type of high frequency that he can hear.

He's also beginning to become braver when faced with new things, but if he's not sure about something, he'll stretch back from it as far as possible and if he's too skittish, then he'll just bark at it (he tends to do this when a toy gets tossed near something weird [fridge, dishwasher, etc.]). From the way he reacts to stuff, it seems likely that he had a pretty rough life before he came to live with us, but I think we're slowly getting him shipped into shape, but I think it will be a long process.

All-in-all, it's unbelievably rewarding and it's amazing to me how much we can love him so much in such a short time. He's absolutely adorable :-)

Oh yeah, and he's very proficient at being on his hind legs. He's just tall enough that he can look over the counter and even more so when he does a vertical jump, but he hasn't gotten anything off any counters....

...yet.

He's had two vet appointments and the only main concern so far is that he's too skinny, so we've been working hard at helping him to gain weight, but it's definitely hard to get him to gain weight. The first time we went he was 21 lbs and then the next time (2 weeks later) he was at 19 lbs. Although, we're not sure if the first time he stayed completely still on the scale. The vet first had us giving him 1/2 cup of food twice a day and then when we went for the second appointment we upped it to 3/4 cup of food twice a day. We're hopeful when we go back to the vet this Wednesday that he'll have gained weight. He definitely looks bigger to us and he's a great eater. He must have the world's most insane metabolism. The doctor said that really he should be somewhere around 24-25 lbs, so he has a way to go!!

It's obvious that he's beagle in the face, but we also think that he has some "big, strong" dog blood in him, like greyhound or something because of his skinny build, his unreal strength, and quickness. It is absolutely unreal to see how fast he can run when he's off leash. I'm hoping to get some video of it soon because it's CRAZY. :-)

When we went in early October, the vet told us that he was between 10-11 months old; initially, we thought he was a year old, but when we found that out, we switched him to puppy food to help him get more and more nutrients to gain weight.

Overall, all is well!