the princess' new clothes

while we were wondering around daylesford on saturday we came across puppy phat. they have all those completely un-nessesary but extremely cute dog accessories and clothing plus some doggy treats. they happened to have a bargin bin filled with t-shits from last summer's t-shirt line with all sorts of cute slogans and all for $10. i had to get wombi one. its for her walks in winter when its cold cuz she gets cold easily and that will help keep her warm on extra cold days.
i got her a singlet with the least cheezy slogan on it (with an original price of $49!! for a dog singlet!).


i wanted to try to get some better photos of her in it tonite but she's sick (she vomited her dinner and treats from her walk all over her blanket on her bed 30 minutes ago- so now she's cuddled up with zac on her mat on the couch).
while we were buying her shirt we got sucked into the impulse treats at the counter and had to get her one (unfortunately i didn't get a photo of it until after it got a bit melty in the hot car- she still loved it though)
i also discovered there's a puppy phat in st. kilda. that's now on my list of have-to-go-to places in st. kilda (that and the bottle shop that sells labatts and kokanee beer from home).

kookaburra sits in the old gum tree....

i love kookaburras. listening to them "laugh" makes me laugh. i got a great video of them laughing the other day at daylesford lake. you can't really see the kookaburras but they all just started laughing at once just after i started recording (so make sure your sound is up):

T minus 1

this weekend marked 1 year until we get married (our wedding weekend prequel as zac referred to it). we went up to hepburn springs for the weekend cuz zac wanted to see a band playing up there on friday nite (the hansome family). the band was playing just down the road from our house on thursday but it was it was a good excuse to go up to hepurn again.
we stayed at the continental house like we did last year when we were in hepburn springs. it was much warmer this time though (i guess it is still summer- last time it was mid-autumn).


saturday we went to daylesford lake and had a coffee at a cafe at the back of a used bookshop overlooking the lake. there was a really cool "horse-dog" that lived in the backyard next to the porch we were having the coffee on (we were feeling a bit dog-deprived with wombat spending the weekend with zac's mum). she was soooo cute (and HUGE). we went for a walk around the lake and then walked around town a for a while. by late afternoon we were ready for a nap so we we went back to the conti and just read on the porch and took a nap before our vegan banquet dinner (they do an amazing vegan banquet every saturday nite).

we also decided to take a bit of a walk before dinner. we walked down to the closest spring water taps to fill up our water bottles and i wanted to try to get some nature photos. i was taking photos of a bridge and then i sat up on one of the cement pillars while zac looked at the camera. i saw a bird land on the branch above zac. i started to say half jokingly to zac "he's gonna poop on you." before i even finished there was a little bomb heading down towards zac. he was looking up at this moment, saw it coming and tried to dodge it. he wasn't quick enough. below is the culprit, zac's shirt right after the incident and then zac's shirt 5 mintues later (we rinsed the back under mineral water and then stuck it on a post in the sun to dry for 15 min while we sat in the grass in the shade).


a cool change came in last nite. it was the first time in a couple weeks i've put anything with long sleeves on and it was the first nite that i slept with more than just a sheet over me. i even wore a thin long sleeve jumper for 1/2 of today! its sooo nice with cool temps in the low/mid 20s and having it drop below 20C overnite.
this morning we had coffee at the bookshop at the lake again (we had to go visit our doggy friend) and then slowly headed home stopping to get an evapourative cooler (next time the heat gets rediculous again we'll have a bit of relief from it) and some groceries.
we definately had a good relaxing weekend (i'm sure nhis weekend ext year will be a bit more chaotic but it will be a very fun weekend).

sleep talking

zac talks in his sleep. usually when he's stressed but sometimes just for no reason at all. its great cuz if i talk back to him he usually just keeps going, saying really weird things (until he finally wakes himself up-- then he blames me for waking him up!). the other nite we had a funny conversation and i ended up waking him up i was laughing so hard!
zac: we all need to stay out here.
me: where?
zac: right here. and the dog needs to be inside.
me: why does she have to stay inside?
zac: well she doesn't have to but it'll be a different sound experience for her.
me: what?!
at this point zac started stroking my arm in the same way he'd scratch wombat behind her ears and down her neck. after a few strokes i couldn't contain my laughter and i just cracked up. zac woke up and i tried to explain what he'd just said. he just kept saying "i thought you were wombat" (i realized that).
the next day he said he thinks in the dream we were all out in the back yard and a band was playing (he thinks possibly ben harper which is kinda weird cuz he doesn't like ben harper as much as i do and i haven't even played any ben harper around him for weeks!). i was entertained by his dream though.

trippy taco

after discovering that coco loco (our favourite coffee stall from meridith music festival) opened a shop in northcote (5 min bike ride from us) we now discovered that our favourite food stall from meridith (we pretty much lived off the 2 stalls the whole weekend) has now opened a shop on smith street!! trippy taco now has a cute little cafe style resturant at 48A smith street (near the victoria parade end). they make the best taco's in australia!!! they're just like my favourite tacos in canada (but with beetroot in them too-- everything in australia has beetroot in it). they use black beans (there's only 2 shops i know of where you can get canned black beans in melbourne and i can never be bothered so soak dried ones so i never have black beans and i LOVE them). they also use fresh salsa and they're HUGE (san diego size-- but twice the price of what we would pay in s.d.). they also do vegan soy cheese on request! we stopped there for a VERY quick dinner on the way home from ikea (we had to have the car back by 8:30). it was SOOOOOOOOO good though. we will definately be going back (as much as possible).

new furniture!!

last nite after work we headed over to ikea to spend our engagement gift vouchers 8). zac hates ikea so i told him he just had to come cuz i needed him to pick up the car (the car we needed is located on his way home from work) and to help me load things into the car. other than that he just had to nod and smile at everything i picked out (he doesn' really care what the house looks like--he's happy with the giant desk we're using as a tv stand now and the fact there's cute little simpson's characters (read: junk) all over the tv and no space to store dvds. i'd gone on-line and picked out everthing i wanted so all we had to do was take a look at it in real life (i changed my mind about the tv stand, we decided on a bigger one that we saw at the shop) and then go find it in the warehouse. i think we were out of there in just under an hour (and there was no "ikea rage" happening). we ended up getting 3 cd/dvd shelfs (one to add to the kitchen one that's already filled with cds, and 2 to put in the lounge room for dvds and simpsons characters etc...), a tv stand, a basic shelving unit for the kitchen cuz what we're using to store all our food looks HORRIBLE and is falling apart and a 5 drawer dresser for the bedroom (finally i can put clothes in a drawer--i've been hanging EVERYTHING up, except the few things i can fit in the 3 small drawers in my nite stand). after cashing in all our gift certificates it only cost us $23! so i spent 2 hours last nite assembling the shelf for the kitchen and the drawers (that also includes time i spent looking for a couple screws i managed to misplace while assembling things-- i hate that the only give you EXACTLY the bits you need cuz no matter how careful i am i ALWAYS misplace a screw or 2. it also includes the fact that i didn't think to change the battries in my cordless screwdriver until 10 screws from the end-- those last 10 screws went in SOOOOO fast!!). hopefully this morning i'll get a chance to start on 1 of the cd shelves before i go to work. i also have to pack cuz we're going away for the weekend right after work. i'll be spending sunday nite probably finishing the assembly ikea furniture.

amazing food

i ate surprisingly well yesterday (other than my 2 desserts after dinner but they were special treats). unfortunately i didn't get photos of any of it so you'll just have to picture it. for breakfast i had my usual breakfast burrito (scrambled free range egg, rice and hot sauce wrapped up in corn mountain bread-- tortillas are expensive and small here but mountain bread works almost as well and its made just down the road from us!). i bought myself one of those lunch containers with 3 compartments the other day so i would be inspired to make better lunches for my 1 day a week where i have to take lunch to work. so far its done well (this is the first week i've used it). for lunch i had a salad of chopped up mushrooms, tomato, celery and cucumber with spicy chilli, lemongrass and ginger dressing, crackers with cheese and fake salami (i don't even really like it cuz it tastes too much like real salami. for some reason zac really likes it though and he generally hates fake meat stuff-- except tofu dogs) and rice with fake bbq-ed chicken. for dinner i went all out and made fresh spinach pasta in our pasta maker (an engagment gift from our friends adam and claire) and homemade sauce with eggplant and mushrooms. for dessert i made vegan jello that i got from the cruelty free shop last week. when zac got home he had a chocolate bar thing from one of his clients (the refugee who zac has been doing a lot of the casework for, he sounds like a great guy and he's been thru horrible situations. he bought wombat--who he hasn't even met--a treat for valentine's day- how sweet is that?). the bar wasn't vegan (he knows zac is vegan but he wasn't sure if it had dairy in it or not) so zac said he'd give it to me. it was a type of chocolate bar he used to have as a child. it was REALLY good! like a coffee crisp but better. i'm gonna have to find out where he got it (zac said it was from a middle eastern place on sydney road-- there's a lot of middle eastern places on sydney road).
today isn't looking like its gonna be quite so good for eating. its almost 11 and i havent had breakfast yet (and i have to have lunch before i go to work at 12 too). i'm not sure when we're gonna fit dinner in cuz we're picking up a flexicar right from work and heading out to ikea to spend our engagment gift vouchers. at least i'm pretty sure i'll have a nice fruit platter for afternoon tea (one of my co-workers always makes us our own fruit bowl when she cuts up fruit for the kids)

humid is almost worse than hot

i've been sticky for 3 days now. melbourne rarely gets humid (and it usually is very brief if it does get humid). its been even worse at work cuz we have an evapourative cooler. it works well when the weather is dry and hot but horrible when its humid. the humidity is worse inside than it is outside. with the humidity combined with the heat the cooler doesn't do a great job. its horrible!
i looked at the forcast and found that thunderstorms are forecast for tonite and possible thunderstorms the next couple days!!! at least if its gonna be humid, it can rain. i LOVE thunderstorms and we've barely had any this year! the picture above is lightning hitting 120 collins street in the city (taken in 1994). below is the 256km radar photo for the melbourne airport (just a bit northwest-ish from us). the big blue/green blob is rain (the orange, yellow and red bits are heavy rain). our weather systems move from west to east so this blog of rain is sure to hit us (unless it somehow runs out of rain in the next 50km...). hopefully its coming with some thunder and lighning. i should probably go bring the laundry in before i forget and it gets an extra rinse.

she's getting it!!!

last nite i took wombat to the "big park" for her walk. its where all the dogs go with their people on their evening walks (most of them off lead too). we haven't been there for a couple weeks or so cuz sometimes it can be pretty stressful for wombat (and us) with all the other dogs around plus there's 4 other parks closer to us. wombat did extremely well with all the other dogs around. we sat on the edge of the oval and i just talked to her softly when other dogs came near and gave her lots of treats. as we were leaving a tiny puppy (on lead) was bouncing towards us from the centre of the oval. i figured we'd have time to get out of the way before it got to close. then an older man stopped me to ask if wombat has the muzzle cuz she bites people. while i was trying to re-assure him that wombat is a very friendly people-loving dog but she's just not sure of other animals the little puppy started getting pretty close and wombat started to pull a bit on the lead to try to get closer. the puppy's people picked him up to carry him past us. the man was looking at the tiny puppy (who was smaller than wombat's big boofy head) and then at wombat. the girl holding the puppy held him up in one hand and made a comment about him being breakfast-size for wombat. at this point wombat was sitting nicely just looking at all the people.
after we left the park i noticed some people coming out of a house on the other side of the road with some dogs (wombat couldn't see cuz the street was lined with parked cars). i saw they were kind of crossing to our side of the road (walking diagonally across the middle of the road) so i decided i'd bring wombat across to the other side so we didn't meet on the narrow footpath with parked cars blocking our escape. wombat saw them as we crossed the road (they were still in the middle of the road) but she was very good and didn't pull much on the lead. as we passed them on the opposit side of the road wombat got a look at one of the dogs between the parked cars. she just took a nice look and then listened to me when i told her to keep walking with me.
i think we're finally getting somewhere with the whole socialization thing. she's got a LONG way to go but her behaviour yesterday was a HUGE step up from the normal complete focus she gives on any dog (or cat) that comes into view. she listened to me and only turned back a couple times to make sure they weren't following her.
maybe one day we'll actually be able to pass another dog on the road without her doing anything more than just giving the dog a quick hello sniff

cool change (sort of)

we haven't really had any "cool changes" this year where the temp drops suddenly (usually from the upper 30s to the low/mid 20s within 30-60 min). they're always a great relief from the heat. i think we're getting one now..... i took that pic about 20 min ago as the dark clouds started gathering and the thunder started booming. now the rain has just started to fall (finally a storm that doesn't miss our suburb)!!!! the temp hasn't dropped too much but its plesant now (atleast outside, inside we're still trying to cool but the wind that comes with the rain is helping with that). the cool breeze coming thru the window (with the fan and the winds assistance) is nice though. yea for rain! and cool breezes!

its hot again!

it hasn't been below 20C since thursday morning (and even that was less than one degree below 20). we've decided to get one of those portable air conditioners mostly for the dog's sake but i know we'll enjoy it too. now all we need is either flexicar or a friend to take us somewhere where they actually have air conditioners in stock.
i made the mistake of trying to go to the sustainable living festival yesterday. i decided it was probably best not to ride in that heat (especially in the middle of the day) so i took a tram. it was SOOOOO hot there. i wondered around a bit but couldn't be bothered looking at any of the booths (other than the yarra valley water booth which i returned to 4 or 5 times to refill my nice big cup with cool water). there were a couple talks i wanted to go to but i think i would have suffocated inside the tents they were held in. by the time i got home i was just hot and miserable. the house was so hot i couldn't even sit on the sofa cuz the foam in the cushions was extra warm. zac got to work in a nice air conditioned building for most of the day (although him and his co-worker did come down to the sustainable living festival for a bit). by the time zac got home the sun had started to set so i convinced zac the dog would be ok in the yard (we soaked her down) and we took the train up to lea and jay's to go swim in their pool (i tried to convince zac that the dog would be ok walking up to the train but he didn't believe me so i convinced him that she'd be ok in the yard-- and she was). it was soooooooo nice to cool down in the pool. their house is slightly cooler than ours too(mostly due to the fact that they can open up most of the back wall of the house and then the front door to get air flowing thru). i'm so glad we went over there though. our house was still to warm when we got home (we just closed the security screen doors when we left so air could come in). i think i'm gonna have to go wander around some air conditioned shops today (since last nite i've been trying to think of an air conditioned restaurant close to home that we can go eat at tonite cuz i can't be bothered to eat when its hot-- just drinking lots of water and smoothies).

some horrible voices

last nite zac's work had a karaoke party as a farewell to his boss and the second-in-charge (both resigned within a week of eachother). it was on the (un-air conditioned 3rd floor of some pub in the city. friday nite is "extreme karaoke" (you know its gotta be good if its got 'extreme' in front of it). our group of about 20 or so was the only group up there for the first hour or 2. it took a while before anyone would get up and then the first 2 people to go up did an amazing job so of course no body wanted to go up after that. then a group of 3 girls got up there and one kinda took over with her amazing voice (souned like the girl from sleater-kinney) so again, it took a while before anyone else would go. after several songs zac got a group up there with him to do "love shack" (his one song he'll do karaoke to when he's not drinking). he sounds exactly like the guy in the b-52's! i knew this already cuz i've heard him do it a few times before (friday nite at the piney when we lived at camp in san diego was karaoke nite and it was all of us o.e. instructors that lived a 10 min walk from the place and a few locals). 3 different people came up to me during the song to say how amazing he sounded....its one of the only voices he can sing like (other than john k. samson from the weakerthans and propagandi)
we had to leave before 10 though (it goes til 3am) cuz as people were drinking more and more the singing was getting harder and harder on the ears (even the people who were amazing at the start of the nite were painful to listen to).
i don't do karaoke. i just watch (and laugh). fortuately since i don't know zac's co-workers too well they weren't trying very hard to get me to go up (i used to get dragged up--litrally--with a lot of resistance when we were in san diego all the time).

little bit about me.....,

1. FIRST NAME? Shawna
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? not that i know of
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? a couple weeks ago or so i think. can't really remember.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? meh
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? veggie lunch meat
6. KIDS? 1 girl (dog)
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? probably
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL ? yes but i haven't written in it in over a year (used to write quite regularly
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? too much i think
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? nope
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? if someone else was paying for it
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? honey nut cheerios (not available in oz though- i'm very sad about that)
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? only my fake all stars cuz i can't get them on and off without untieing
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? i used to be stronger (physically)
15. FAVOURITE ICE CREAM FLAVOUR? fudgy wudgy from the edaline dairy on the u.s./canadian border near lynden wa
16. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? eyes i think....
17. RED OR PINK? neither (red if i had to choose- i hate pink!!)
18. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? teeth
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? family and friends back home
20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? its a blog... if they post it on their blog i'd love if they let me know
21. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING? black pants and a bra (too hot for a top in the house- i will put on my grey "one less car" tshirt before i leave for work)
22. THE LAST THING YOU ATE? does ice coffee count for "eat"-- it had ice cream in it and i did use the spoon to take a couple mouthfuls of ice cream
23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? zac talking nonstop, and now he just hooked up his mp3 player to the speakers and i don't know what i'm listening too (some song)
24. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? shiny blue
25. FAVORITE SMELL? oceanus, or "ocean" sented candles. also the real ocean (which smells nothing like the perfume or candles)
26. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? zac- to arrange our cow appreciation day dinner and movie last nite.
DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? of course. and i'm very excited to see her at my wedding next year (approximately 374 more days!!!)
29. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? ice hockey or aussie rules football
30. HAIR COLOR? brown.
31. EYE COLOR? browny-greenish
32. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? no but i should be wearing my glasses more often
33. FAVORITE FOOD? whatever i don't have to cook
34. SCARY MOVIE OR HAPPY ENDING? depends on my mood. a little bit of both
35. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? fight club last nite
36. SUMMER OR WINTER? definately summer
38. HUGS OR KISSES? little bit of both
39. FAVORITE DESSERT? anything chocolate
40. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? its a blog
41. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? again, its a blog
42. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? you can get arrested for that (a book about a couple english guys that went to america to break stupid laws)
43. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? paragon systems slogan and phone number (no idea what they are but i'm assuming some kind of computer company)
44. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? 10 min of house (before we turned on fight club)
45. FAVORITE SOUNDS? wombat snoring (it makes me laugh). also ocean waves and thunder and rain
46. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? beatles
47. THE FURTHEST YOU BEEN FROM HOME? depends. if canada is my home then melbourne. if melbourne is my home, then alaska is the furthest
48. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? hmmmmmm...i can't think of one. zac can't think of one for me either......i must have something.......
49. WHEN WERE YOU BORN? aug 30 1978
50. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? banff

cow appreciation day

HAPPY COW APPRECIATION DAY (a.k.a. valentines' day)!

i've always been anti-valentine's day. mostly just cuz of the whole commercialism of the day. i started cow appreciation day i think 10 years ago (wow- a whole decade of cow appreciation days!). i say it's nicer if you do something romantic on a random day then on a day that card companies, flower shops and other gift shops tell you to.

fortunately, zac feels the same. we've spent every valentine’s day cow appreciation day we've been together laying on the couch watching a movie.

funny cuz zac called from work a while ago and asked if i was making dinner or if i wanted him to pick up something on the way home. i forgot to plan dinner so i said i'd be good if he picked up something. "chips?" was his next question, which i was fine with (either that or falafels but those are usually a monday nite thing cuz its cheap nite at the falafel place). he replied "ok i'll get chips and then we can watch 'fight club'". i could hear his co-worker (a guy) in the background yellilng something to him about being unromantic. he actually is being romantic in kind of a weird way though cuz 'fight club' (which we haven't watched in AGES) is the movie we watched the night we first decided maybe we were more than friends.

lazy

me and the dog are having a lazy day. the cold i've felt coming on since saturday nite finally hit me and i decided to take a sickie today (so much for all the echinacea, vitamin c and healthy foods i've been eating trying to fight it off before it got bad). the dog has been sleeping more than me (i slept about 12 hrs last night minus about 30 minutes i was awake while zac kept hitting the snooze on his alarm). i'm not sure if she's bored or if she's just content to lay around and have someone at home with her all day. its too hot for her to do much anyway.

hours of entertainment

i think i had the best gift to give in zac's work kris kringle last christmas (i know, it was 3 months ago but i finally have video of it since i didn't think of taking it before i gave it away). i actually bought it probably about 4 months beforehand, planning on giving it at the kris kringle-- it was the perfect gift and the woman at the shop talked me into it (acually she just saw me looking at it and as a i walked away she put it on the ground and turned it on for me, i started laughing and knew i HAD to buy it.

not only is the duck itself entertaining but the packaging is too!! the box was obviously translated into english by someone who spoke english as a second language and didn't have great grasp of the (extremly hard to learn) language.

this is my favourite side of the box:

i think i wanna get one of my own (i'm sure wobat would make sure it had a very short life in our house).

kid training

the first few weeks of the year are pretty tiring at work cuz we gotta train all the kids on the kinder routine. some of them are starting to get it though!!! its great cuz having up to 28 of them, even when we do have up to 5 staff at times (usually 3, possibly only 2 on tuesday and wednesday starting next week) its never enough to help every kid with everything. the lunch to rest time routine is quite time consuming and requires a lot of individual attention to children. after lunch the children come in a few at a time (although this usually ends up being about 10 at a time) and they come to the cupboards to get their beding. each of their bed sheets etc are in numbered bags with 6 on each shelf. each child has a number and has to remember and they need to remember which shelf to find that number to get their bag. a few of them have fortunately figured this out. as for the rest of them, i spend about 10 minutes listening to kids saying (usually 2 or 3 at a time) "where is my stuff? where is my stuff?" which they repeat over and over until you help them (even if you keep saying "i will help you next. i'm just going to help so and so right now." they still keep repeating it). once they get their stuff they then have to find a bed (which starting next week they will have assigned beds with name tags placed on them) and then they have to put the special fitted sheet onto the corners of the mat (another thing that a few have gotten down; others unfortunately have NO CLUE even when expained and walked thru the process step by step). once they all have their beds we get to relax with them for a while, reading and listening to stories and music. then the whole packing up and putting beds away begins. this is slightly easier then getting them out but still a lot of moving around helping kids as quick as possible to avoid repeated calls for help. i'm excited for next term when most of them will have the routine down and the few that don't get it can easily get help from those who do and we can just oversee the whole thing and deal with issues that come up like lost teddy bears or wet mattresses after rest time..... we're slowly getting there though.

getting a better sleep (most nites)

we're still working on the sleeping issue with wombat. we had 3 nites straight of her not jumping onto the bed until morning (early morning-- the first sign of light) and 2 of those nites she stayed on her own bed all nite (the first nite she went into the lounge room--probably to sleep on the couch). last nite she didn't do so well though. i heard her go into the lounge room in the middle of the nite. 5 minutes later she came in the room and was up on the bed. we managed to get her back on her own bed. a couple hours later she jumped back on the bed. i got her down again and she stayed down until zac's alarm went off (which neither of us woke up to cuz it was soft (but very loud volume) classical music).

i have a picture of a kangaroo in the same pose as her here (except the kangaroo's tail is between its legs):

she's licking her kong. it fell under the chair and instead of reaching over the footrest bar and grabbing the kong she got in this position and stayed there for a couple minutes trying to lick the peanut butter out of the kong (not always the brightest dog):

we gave in

for the last week or so we have been woken up between 3 and 4 every nite from wombat jumping onto the bed. we got to the point where the night before last we made bets on what time she would come in. zac said 3:30, i said 4am. i vaguely remember zac saying something like "i was closer, its 1:30." i woke up a while later and the dog was under the covers. i asked zac about it in the morning and why he didn't put her back on her bed if he woke up to her jumping on the bed. he said she was cold (which explains why she was under the covers when i woke up later). we've decided to give in and last nite we put her bed in our room from the start-- it still didn't work though!!! 4 am i hear her out in the lounge room shaking (her collar jingles). not sure what she was doing out there (maybe she snuck out to sleep on the couch) but a minute later she came in the room, quietly jumped onto my side of the bed and curled up next to me. i didn't want to let her get away with it. i tried several times to get her off but she wouldn't move. finally i got zac to turn on the light and give her a nudge from behind while i coaxed her onto her bed. she reluctantly went. i woke up this morning and discovered her in the bed between us, fast asleep-- don't remember her getting back up at all. wonder what time that happened....