Dog Mystery Solved

We have a dog. Her name is Maeby and we got her from a shelter. As a result, we have never known her exact breed, although we moved our guesses around from Sheltie (but she doesn't bark much) to Corgi (but she has no herding instinct) to Beagle (she always tries to track things, but she is terrible at it). We never got any closer to being sure.

Case Dog:


For Natalie's birthday, I got her a Bio Pet Vet Lab DNA Test. It was $60 and it was fun.

Before I reveal the results, they were really interesting, and we were waaaay off. A lot of her characteristics come out in the breeds given, so I don't doubt the results at all.

Here are the results sorted by percentage of ancestry:

20%-36% Saluki. Look at that Maebyface! Salukis are sighthounds (hunt by sight) and Maeby goes INSANE if she sees a squirrel. She is also very reserved and slightly aloof:


20%-36% Scottish Terrier. Short and squatty, prone to weight gain.


10%-19% Chow Chow. No desire to please their master... need a reason to do what you're asking. Maeby's reason is green beans. She likes them.


10%-19% English Springer Spaniel. Natalie is obsessed with this breed. Maeby got the freckles, nose, eyes, and white tip of her tail. Mixed with the Saluki sighthound, the stalking instinct kicks in sometimes and she'll point and stick her white-tipped tail in the air (bred so that hunters can spot the dog in the brush).


>10% Pekingese (gremlin?). These next 3 are trace amounts, so we don't see too much of them in her. Fortunately for us, these last breeds help a lot in that she doesn't shed much.


>10% Poodle. Lack of shedding + smart. :)


>10% Shih Tzu. Not sure about this one.


So there you have it. Hope you have been enlightened to some of the intricacies of dog breeds.

It's like a stinking dog hotel in here!

1. Check it out, a Doggie Bunk Bed™:

I'm considering beginning my woodworking career with something similar to this, but even better.

UPDATE: UM, HELLO!!!



2. I'm thinking about getting back on Facebook. It'd be nice to send messages back and forth. Luckily, I didn't go out in some blaze of glory, so coming back won't make me look like a quitter.

3. We've (I've) been doing some demolition to the ugly parts of our house. Enjoy:



Obviously we're still in the work-in-progress stage here, but it gives you an idea of what we're going for. This one wasn't too hard to get down, but I did put a couple of holes in the drywall. This doesn't worry me too much anymore, because there is tons of help on the internet to fix practically anything (e.g. here).


Yay! Ulgy 80's semi-useless desk is gone! I'm thinking I'll have to tear out all of the drywall along that side of the room because the top layer was peeled off with the vinyl paneling's adhesive.

At this point we're just slowly following our plans...

4. The second mortgage (initial balance $14,900) now stands at $5764.41. Natalie and I made an agreement to not spend any significant money on the house until this is paid off. We've turned in our paperwork to receive the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, so if we receive that any time soon, it immediately knocks out the second mortgage and we can get started on paint/carpet/hardwoods/drywall/outlets/lightswitches/fixtures for the bedrooms.

Also, (assuming no raises or cost of living increases) if Natalie and I were to put all of our extra income into the mortgage we could have the house paid off by January 2012. Unfortunately it will probably be more like 4 years with the improvements we want to do and other circumstances of life. Can't wait to have the option to work at McDonald's and provide for my family. What an exciting thought.

5. On a related note, I need your help. I've never done any extensive drywall texturing. What is this kind of texture called and how do I do it?

It's like the standard 50's-60's texture, but I can't find it ANYWHERE online. The closest reference I can find is stipple, which kind of makes me want to giggle like a 3rd grader, and also perlite. But it's more like a "Yeah, that's kind of similar..." feel, and it seems like there is no industry standard terminology, so I've seen everything called everything else. Surely after having millions of houses built with this texture, there would be a demand in knowing how to do it. Maybe everybody just wants ugly knockdown nowadays...