The Short List

Wow. Dudes. Who knew you people were so passionate about your beer? I don’t think I’ve gotten that many comments on a post … well ….. EVER. So, thank you so much for chiming in with your suggestions. Many were good, a few were goofy (Fat Boy!?) and a few are being taken under serious consideration.

It would probably be easier for me to tell you which names are definitely OUT of the running, and why.

If we were going by sheer popular vote, the winner, hands down, would be Stella. But …. No. It’s too Tennessee Williams, and I don’t want to be a caricature of Marlin Brando every time I stand outside and yell her name. Of course, we could name the pound puppy “Yo Adrianne!” and have a matching set, couldn’t we?

Other names ruled out for one reason or another:

Killian. LOVE this, but like several of you mentioned, it’s too similar to Kellen.

Honey. This was my mother’s dog’s name, may she rest in peace, sweet little weenier dog.

Pauli. Am I the only one who thinks of that stupid kids movie about a parrot?

Corona. Also a popular choice, but it’s a little too Mexican-Hat-Dance for me.

And although I like LOTS of these names, we know people with the same names, and they therefore feel odd: Sierra, Shandie, Riley, Kira, Abby, Quin, and Beck. So all of these possibilities are ruled out as well. And I'm amazed at how many people we know are named after beer! (Even if their parents totally say they are not.)

I can tell you Blaine is leaning strongly towards Amber. STRONGLY. I’m not crazy in love with it. No offense to anyone named Amber out there, but doesn’t it sound a little porn-star-stripper-ish? Brayden doesn’t like Amber because the villain in several girls’ shows (think Hannah Montana, and Hairspray) are named Amber. But if Blaine gets to choose, this is probably what it will be.

Personally, I like Molson, Barley, Brew, and Miller.

And I’m embarrassed to admit, I’m reconsidering our original choice of Sam Adams.

We get to visit her tomorrow night and I’m hopeful we’ll have a made a choice by then. Or maybe she’ll be like those poor babies that go home from the hospital with no name, just an ankle bracelet with “Baby Girl Escoe” printed on the side with Blaine and I protesting feebly that "we just need to see her, and learn her personality, and then her name will come to us!"

Regardless, thank you guys for all your suggestions, and I’ll let you know when the decision is made!

Need Advice ....

Ok, so, we bought a dog. A puppy actually, that will be coming home with us in two weeks' time. Two of the longest, most slow-moving, most dreadfully-drawn-out weeks in the history of mankind, according to my anxious, impatient, beleaguered children.

She is adorable and cute and licked me right in the face the first time I picked her up .....

Here's the deal ... we don't know what to name her.

You *know* we name our dogs after beer, right? We named our first dog, a beautiful female golden retriever we got in 1989, "Fosters", after Blaine's favorite beer. Then it only made sense to name our second dog, a male English Setter we got in 1992, "Lager". (Although we pronounced it "Lagger" ... which is still better than "Clyde", the name he had before we got him.)

So in continuing with our glorious and highbrow tradition of naming our dogs after beer (even though neither of us even DRINKS beer anymore) we had already selected the name of our next dog to be "Sam Adams" .... and the pound pup would be named "Miller". (Try not to be jealous of how much class we have.)

The puppy we just bought is a squeezable, precious, cute-as-a-button golden retriever who I think will be a great addition to our family. Blaine is excited to train her to hunt with him, the kids are ecstatic to play with her, and once I get past the mental images of housetraining, and dog hair all over my house, the chewed up furniture and shoes, and the overall and general freaking MESS they make .... well, once I get past that, I am excited as well.

But here's the problem --- she's a girl. And we're just not sure "Sam Adams" is the name for her. I want to call the dog the full name ... "Sam Adams", although I acknowledge it will probably get shortened to "Sam". Blaine says we could name her "Samantha Adams" and simply *call* her Sam, but I'm afraid it will get feminized to "Sammie", which I don't like. And I can't STAND the full-name Samantha. (Goes back to a girl I knew as a teenager named Samantha ... negative connotations and what-not.)

So then Blaine said, "Why not just name her Miller?" but again, I don't think it's particularly feminine. Not that "Fosters" was feminine, either .... so maybe I'm deliberating for nothing. And yeah, I know in the big picture nobody gives two hoots what we name our dog ... as long as we pick up it's poop on walks, everyone will be happy.

But still .... barring any health issues or complications, we'll have this dog for at least ten years, and I want the name to be right and good and perfect.

"Amaretto", my favorite drink, would be way too cumbersome .... I suggested "Cosmo", for "Cosmopolitan", but we both feel pretty strongly that we want to stick to beer.

I've googled beer lists (dear Lord, do I really have nothing better to do with my time???) and haven't seen anything I love. I can tell you right now we're not doing "Bud" (too obvious) or "Coors" (feels wonky to say firmly, as in "Coors, you drop that underwear right now!") We'd like it to be fairly identifiable ... no "Old Speckled Hen" or "Dogfish Head Snowblower Ale" or anything like that.

And for the love of Pete, don't suggest naming her "Heineken" and calling her "Heinie" .... we might be white trash, but our children wear shoes and we DO visit the dentist and I draw the line at calling my dog "Heinie".

So, any suggestions out there?

PS. You know, my life is pretty blessed. This time four years ago, my four-year old was fighting cancer. Today, my biggest problem is deciding what kind of beer to name my new dog after. So overall, I'd say life is good.

The Ecstasy and the Agony

So, as I alluded to briefly, Blaine and I are in the initial stages of getting a new dog for our family. Actually, we're in the initial stages of getting our backyard fenced, which was criteria number one before getting a new pet. At least I *think* we're getting our backyard fenced. The fence guy showed up last week and put in a bunch of steel posts, then disappeared. I know the posts have to "set up" in the concrete, or some other such technical term, but it's been six days now and we've not seen hide nor hair of the fence guy since that first day. I'd almost worry we've been victimized by some sort of insidious fence scam, but guess what? We haven't paid them anything yet! So ha-ha, free steel fence posts for us if they never come back!

Ok, back to the topic at hand.

With the general belief that we would be getting a fence soon, Blaine started looking for dogs in the paper a few weeks ago. Remember, the plan originally was one hunting dog, and one pound pup. And with duck season only a few short months away, the hunting dog comes first. He found an local AKC litter of golden retrievers that sounded promising and called the dog's owner to set up an appointment for later this week to look at them.

Fast forward to this morning. The house phone rings and I hear Kendrie answer it. Then I hear her tentatively say, "Yes ... really???" Then she comes running to give me the phone, screaming at the top of her lungs ... "Mom! Mom!!! It's the dog lady --- IT'S THE DOG LADY! She says we get our new dog tomorrow morning --- WE'RE GETTING OUR NEW DOG FROM THE DOG LADY TOMORROW MORNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!" and then she pretty much falls on the floor and starts rolling around in her excitement, squealing and hyperventilating with happiness.

I take the phone from Kendrie ..... "Um, hello?", I ask, thinking perhaps she needs to change our time to meet the dog, or ... well ... something.

And I hear a lady on the other end of the phone, obviously bemused, obviously taken aback by Kendrie's pure-joy-hysterical-ness on the other end of the phone. "Yeah, I'm not the dog lady. I'm calling from the hospital, and need to confirm a pet scan for Blaine in the morning ...." and her voice sort of trails off, like she's not quite sure what *my* reaction might be.

Poor Kendrie. Some misunderstandings are more disappointing than others.