1 year ago tomorrow

this guy came home with me.
and what a year it's been.

Nations Dogs Dangerously Underpetted, Say Dogs

NEW YORK—At a press conference Monday, representatives of the Association of American Dogs announced that the nation's canines are dangerously underpetted. "Every night, thousands of U.S. dogs go to bed without so much as a scritch behind the ears," AAD president Banjo said. "If this sort of neglect from our masters continues, it could lead to widespread jumping on the furniture." Upon his owner's arrival in the press-conference room, Banjo abruptly ended his speech, frantically barking, leaping, and rolling over on his back in an effort to communicate his need for a vigorous belly rub.

cheery petals

a couple weeks ago james bought me some just-because flowers while he was shopping at home depot. i took a bunch of pics and thought i'd share. the beauty cheers me up from my howliday card spending incident (grr!) although i'm still bitter.
this one is my favorite. i love star-gazing lillies.

only $35 but still.....

i am so mad. i am participating in a howliday card exchange for my basset hound listserve. you make a card with your hound on it and send it to a bunch of people and then in return you receive a bunch of cards with hounds on them too. i signed up for the medium list which means I have to send about 100 cards and I should receive about the same number. (holy cow!) but anyway i finally have been trying to make our cards online. i made cute ones on shutterfly but it totaled nearly $60 for 100 of them and that was after a $22 discount.
i then found i could make em on vistaprint and pay only $22 for 100 cards (50% discount) - great deal, huh. well i made the cards and continued thru the checkout. with shipping and everything it was gonna cost $33. after i entered my credit card and everything it came to a process order screen that said something about a special deal. i figured it was just referring to the 50% off deal i was already getting. i pressed confirm and my order processed.....for $68!!!!! yep, they tricked me and added some special deal on the end for me to confirm. it added 150 cards to our order. i tried to cancel/change my order but whaduya know? they don't make changes or do refunds...to keep costs low or so they say. i think its more because this probably happens often.
so the lesson i learned - i should have trusted my longtime vendor shutterfly. instead i went with someone new to try and save a few bucks, only to spend $35 more than i intended and about $10 more than shutterfly would have charged. i know its only $35 but its Christmas and i'm broke and now i'm even broker.

grrrrr, thanks for letting me rant! if you want a holiday card i think i should have some extras. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Turkey Turkey stuffed with Stuffing.
Ham with Pineapple.
Homemade Pumpkin Pie.
Strawberry Pretzel Salad. On Thanksgiving we prepared all the food at our house with the help of James' dad and brother. We then loaded up the car and drove a few blocks over to our friend, Noah's house. He lives right on the beach so we took the dogs and enjoyed our day over there. It was complete with a mini-keg of Irish Red from our favorite local brewery.

After we'd eaten we sat out on the porch and people-watched. A bum walked past who said he hadn't eaten in 2 days and was trying to walk to Seattle by next week. We loaded up a huge plate of food with a glass of beer for him. He sat on the sand and fully enjoyed his meal. He returned the plate without a morsel of food on it.

What a good photo of Cowboy and I...note James in the window reflection holding up a turkey bone to maintain Cowboy's attention.

While the bum enjoyed his food, the boys enjoyed a turkey carcass.And here they are resting peacefully with full bellies.

Da Boys....

Sweet sleeping lovehound
Curious Dukers
Smooshy basset
Mommy & Me
Couch hogs

get aLONG little doggy

So we wanted to measure Cowboy. He was stretched out on the floor and looked amazingly long. I needed to hurry - he gets distracted easily. James continued with bellyrubs to keep the stretch underway while I searched frantically for a measuring tape. Couldn't find one so I use some ribbon.
This is his stretched out length. It's pretty dang long, takes up basically the entire lenght of our couch. When I held it up to the wall it was up to my chest, I'd say 4 feet.
It then became the new, hot yet suspicious toy. I swear this boy is skeptical of everything. Once he gives the ok though, he can be so easily entertained.
Once he knew the ribbon was harmless he went to town. Chomp chomp chomp, pulling it through his teeth. It was so funny. He wanted to bite it so bad but instead it just slid right through his teeth like dental floss. What a goofball!

The First Official Cowboy Burger

Looks delicious doesn't it? And oh so colorful! From top: bun, mayo, mustard, ketchup, bacon, cheese, beef, onion, tomato, lettuce, bun. Yum yum yum. James made dinner friday night and I could definitely get used to this. It is a cross between the Rocky burger and the Hodad Burger. The process of cooking the beef is Rocky's style and the bacon secret comes from Hodad's. Now if only we could add Grease Pits Mayo-lettuce spread...it would truly be the best of all worlds!

Check it out

So Petsmart did a costume contest online and one of the people the drool (my basset hound listserve) entered their hound as snoop doggy dog. But there are tons of other funny ones. Check it out.

Click here.