Odie the Roadie

A Dialogue Between Me & the Dog

2010-11-24T15:52:00.000-08:00

Me: Hey Odie, how's the blog coming along? I have had a couple of people asking about it and was wondering how you are doing with it. I've been pretty busy so I haven't had much of a chance to go on line and read all of your updates.

Odie: (quiet - picks up tennis ball and absent-mindedly tosses it in the air - wanders off to sniff crumbs on the floor) Throw the ball?

Me: So, what was your latest fun story?

Odie: (look of innocence and surprise) Blog? What are you talking about?? Throw the ball?

Me: C'mon, you know - the Odietheroadie blog that you have been publishing with all your great adventures, pictures and great stories. You know - the blog that has two (maybe only one) avid followers...

Odie: So do we get to scooter to the dog park today? Throw the ball??

Me: (fumbling with new computer, trying to pull up blog on internet) Oh my gosh - are you serious? You haven't posted a new blog entry since...what...last winter?? No - no on playing ball and no on a scooter ride to the dog park. This is serious - what on earth have you been doing? Why haven't you posted any blog updates? What is wrong with you? You have ONE JOB to do - that is it - one job and you can't even do that? Are you kidding me? The last entry has pictures of us venturing into a winter wasteland and blizzard on Snoqualmie Pass...for all your readers know we could have fallen to an icy demise. We could have driven into the ocean. We could have been put in the witness protection program, never to be heard from again. We could have driven into the wilderness of the midwest and never emerged. Seriously - since your last post we have covered about 9,000 miles, completed contracts in Florida, Manhattan and now in Phoenix, had multiple visits with friends and family and taken about 2800 photos. And you didn't write about ANY of it? What were you thinking???

Odie: Whoa - calm down human. Honestly I thought YOU were supposed to be doing the blog updates. I didn't know that it was entirely my responsibility to share my canine writing ability with the world. I thought I was just the figurehead of this operation and you were the ghost writer. I thought you were the one who had just ONE JOB to do and I simply let you use my name - surely there is a contract somewhere? Something? And furthermore, you got a new computer that I don't understand and am too old and stubborn to learn. And I was busy. I am a busy dog you know. Very busy. Throw the ball??

Me: Oh no you don't - you cannot blame me for your lack of initiative, your lack of follow through and your complete and utter insensitivity to your readership (ok, so it is only two people, but still...).

Odie: I don't even have opposable thumbs so how am I supposed to sit at the keyboard and type for hours and hours? You are so overreacting. Besides, I'm sure that nobody even noticed, but if someone did notice the obvious lack of blog entries during the past nine months I'm sure we can come up with a good excuse.

Me: Such as...?

Odie: I always like the 'abducted by aliens' angle on a story. Yea, that's it...as we slowly drove through the fog and sleet, the blinking lights of an unidentified hovering craft appeared and came closer and closer... Or perhaps 'forever lost in a corn maze in Nebraska'?

Me: You would not even bother to tell your two readers about all of your great adventures crossing the entire continental U.S. (again), your three months of blissful sunshine at the sparkling beaches in Florida and your boogie board lessons? About your long and rewarding days working at the hospital as a volunteer? Your brief stops back home in Tennessee? Your roadtrip up to the northeast? You wouldn't share your amazing stories of New York City in the summer, endless days wandering Central Park, the crazy city noises and smells and sights and millions upon millions of people and dogs? You wouldn't share the details of the family and friends you visited on our (long) drive across the continental U.S. (again) on our way to Arizona? No pictures? No commentary? No stories? What's it going to take to get you to focus and do your job? There could be consequences little dog...no scooter rides, no hiking, no 'Camp Bow-Wow', no dog park...you could wind up grounded to your kennel... no more beggin' strips or frosty paws.

Odie: Harsh words. OK, I will try to do better. I will. Really I will. Really, really, really I will try. I will try to learn the new computer and try to publish a 'new & improved' blog soon. I promise. Maybe I'll learn to make movies, star in my own calendar, publish a whole book of pictures. I could be a star!!! They love me, they really love me! Throw the ball?? Throw the ball??

3644.8 People Notes

2010-04-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

Day One: Early morning start, heading east out of Seattle, light drizzle. Then came the rain. Then the sleet. Then the slushy 'winter mix'. Then the interstate was closed due to an accident many miles ahead of us and we were at a dead stop watching the snowflakes begin. Then the snowflakes became inches of snow right before our eyes. Then more inches. Then we were told that Snoqualmie Pass was not passable at all unless you had chains or four wheel drive. We had neither of those. We eventually got turned around.

Day One (still): Mid-morning, heading west into Seattle, light drizzle. Approximately four hours into the trip we were roughly six miles from where we had started. Newsflash: this might be a long trip.

Day One (umm, yup - still first day): Late morning, heading south toward Portland, pouring rain. Early afternoon - same. Mid-afternoon - same. Late afternoon - same. Sometime late that day we made it to La Grande, Oregon and the rain finally let up. That was a long day.

Day Two, Three, Four...

This was a sunset in the rearview mirror (Wyoming, I think) and the sunrise the next morning from the same location...

Day five, six, seven...amazing how little entertainment is needed after a week on the road!

Happy Trails!

3644.8

2010-04-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

When my people told me that we were leaving the Left Coast and heading to the other Left Coast I had no idea what they were talking about. When they explained that we were leaving Seattle and heading to the southern Gulf Coast of Florida I was okay with that. When they said that I wouldn't be able to go to the dog ranch anymore I was devastated for a full 3 or 8 seconds until they explained that I would get to go to the 'real' beaches again - then I was dog-wiggle, butt-waggin' happy! Then when they said 'let's pack up and go on a road trip again' I was dog-slobbery, paw-prancin' good to go!

They might have left out a couple of teeny-tiny little details about the trip...like the part about passing through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. And the part about the road trip taking FOREVER - in dog time I think this road trip lasted about two months.

All I can say is that the beaches had better be worth it!! Ughhh. Happy Trails!

Cowtown - Not for Dogs! People Notes

2010-04-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, in a moment of weakness (or stupidity), we decided to sign up for the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, TX. We could have registered for the kids 5k, the 5k, the 10k or even the half marathon...but we registered for the full 26.2 mile marathon. What were we thinking? What were we thinking? What were we thinking? What were we thinking? (Let it be known that with age does NOT come wisdom.) So we flew to Texas the last week of February in the hopes of getting that pesky little marathon item checked of our 'to-do' list.

The more the merrier, right? And so the Cowtown blossomed into a family and friends event which boasted participants as young as 4 (granddaughter, Kayla), runners in the 5k, 10k, half and full marathon, invaluable support on the sidelines and at the finish lines, travelers from Seattle to Alabama, fantastic coordination of lodging, homemade meals, poker party, birthday party, bowling and an absolutely fantastic week spent in Cowtown at the Cowtown!

I have to give a special shout-out to Marie for the best homemade spaghetti dinner EVER!! Thank you, thank you and thank you! What time is dinner next year?

Yes, we did cross the finish line of the marathon. Yes, we were still standing. Yes, we were extremely tired and sore for several days afterward. Yes, we accomplished our goal of FINISHING! Although we never set a specific goal of a set time to run 26.2 miles let me just say for the record that my personal goal was to finish in LESS time than it took me to go through labor and childbirth. And let me just say that I did NOT make that goal! Thanks, Erik. Thanks a lot.

See ya'all next year at the Cowtown!!! Happy trails.

Cowtown - Not for Dogs!

2010-04-04T14:54:00.000-07:00

They did it again. Yup, my people packed my coat and a whole bunch of little baggies of my food and before I knew it I was at the dog ranch for a week. AND I LOVED IT!!!! I rolled in the mud, barked, dug holes, ran, jumped, sniffed, played and had a blast for the entire week. They could have left me there forever. Really. I mean that.

(Not) Sleepless in Seattle People Notes

2010-02-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

The Pacific Northwest has turned out to be a good place to hunker down for the winter months given the fact that most of the rest of the country has struggled with cold, snow, ice, mudslides, more snow, more cold, etc. All in all the weather here has been moderate, a bit gray and rainy but nothing extreme, and we have learned new meteorological terms specific to this area such as 'sun-breaks' and 'sucker-holes' and 'frozen fog'. And our apartment complex is home to year-round moss, frogs and slugs. Who knew?!

The most attractive feature of this area has to be the breweries, brew pubs and ale houses - oh, oops...I mean the mountains and the Puget Sound (which certainly could explain why this blog has not been updated since our arrival here and the discovery of 'Sledgehammer IPA' at the brew pub across the street). Then we found the Red Hook Brewery at mile marker 4 on our jogging trail... We might have tried a few others as well such as the Hilltop Ale House, the downtown Tap Room, McMenamins Pub, Hales Ales Brewery, Pike Brewing Company, George & Dragon Pub, Toby's Tavern, the Dubliner, Fremont Brewery... ahhhh - such good memories (oh wait, I don't really remember all that much!).

Of course we ventured into downtown Seattle a number of times and visited some of the popular sites including Pike Place Market, the Seattle waterfront, Pioneer Square and the original Starbucks! We spent several hours wandering through the flagship REI store (it was amazing), and stumbled into the most fantastic bookstore, the Elliott Bay Book Co. We wandered around the quirky Fremont District, the inspirational Queen Anne District and discovered Top Pot Donuts in the University District (and ate an entire dozen!). At the Fisherman's Terminal we bought the best smoked salmon I have ever had. We gorged ourselves on fresh clam chowder and smoked salmon chowder at Pike Place Chowder, then sampled the selections at Beechers Handmade Cheese. And we can't forget that we stopped at every bakery within a 30 mile radius to try assorted breads, giant cinnamon rolls, Russian pastries, French pastries, cupcakes, donuts and, of course, great coffee! This is the birthplace of the coffee culture, after all.

(*After reading the above, it should be obvious why we also spend several days a week jogging miles and miles and miles on the beautiful Samamish River Trail. It has nothing to do with getting outdoors, enjoying the view, training for a marathon...it is likely due to the fact that we do nothing else but eat and drink on the other days of the week! And the beer here is awesome!)

We were amazed at the engineering of the Chittenden Locks, originally built in the early 1900's and still operating much the same. And eventually our wanderings landed us at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union. Paul took some sailing lessons there and had many, many hours of fantastic instruction and sailing out on the lake with cooperating weather.

We ventured north into British Columbia and discovered Brackendale and Squamish, an area between Vancouver and Whislter. During the winter months this area has the largest concentration of bald eagles in North America as they follow the salmon along the waterways. We were hoping to see a handful of eagles that day, and we were not disappointed. We spotted a few at first, but the more we looked and watched and wandered and waited we spotted well over a hundred eagles in a few hours. It was breathtaking and fascinating to watch them and to be watched by them!

We also took a ferry out of Mukilteo over to Whidbey Island and spent the day poking around the towns, shops, farms, beaches, and parks. During the occasional 'sun-breaks' we could see the brilliant San Juan Islands and the rugged snowy peaks of their mountains. We watched for (but never saw) orca's as this area is a common path for them to travel through the Puget Sound. Not feeling brave enough to try the Penn Cove mussels, we settled on some great chowder, hand-crafted beer and homemade pie!

A beautiful clear day and dry weather allowed us to take a drive up to Steven's Pass ski area and across the Cascade Mountains. The views were nothing short of spectacular. While most of the hiking trails are closed in the upper elevations, we did find a moderate hiking trail that took us to Wallace Falls, a beautiful three-part waterfall.

We did not see any evidence of Bigfoot even though it is widely believed that this is where he lives...I can personally attest to the fact that Bigfoot does NOT live in Cascades...he most defnitely lives in the apartment directly above us. Guaranteed. (I hear him. All the time.)

With just a couple more weeks left to explore the Seattle area we might get down to Mt. Ranier, we might hop on a seaplane, we might take a ferry up to Vancouver Island, and I'm sure there are a few brew pubs we haven't tried yet! And if we don't get it done this time, there is always a next time! Happy Trails.

(Not) Sleepless in Seattle

2010-02-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

Oh my...where has the time gone? Mid-February already? In dog years that would mean that almost a year-and-a-half has flown by since I last sent out a post. My bad. I blame it on two things: 1.) The rain. It rains a lot and that causes me to want to sleep a lot. And when it isn't raining it is drizzling and that causes me to nap a lot. And when it isn't raining or drizzling it is cold and wet outside and that causes me to lay around and dream of sunshine and beaches. And when I am busy sleeping and napping and daydreaming it is difficult to find time to sit at the computer. 2.) The latitude. Seattle is right on the 48 degree latitude line which means it is really, really far north - farther north than Maine even and parts of Canada. At that latitude there is limited daylight and what is the point of getting out and about in the dark? Seriously, the 'daylight' starts mid-morning and is gone by mid-afternoon. What kind of place is this? The limited daylight causes me to have severe writer's block, so I can't really blog when it is dark all the time. Those are my excuses and I'm sticking with them.
As a dog, there are some great things here in the greater Seattle area. First, the 'Bone-a-Fide Dog Ranch'. Yup...it is a five acre paradise, a doggie disneyland, a dream come true and my people take pity on my at least once a week and take me for a playday at the ranch. Sometimes they even let me stay for a sleepover! There is mud and shrubs and trees and creeks and dozens and dozens of dogs and stuff to dig and places to run and endless opportunities for trouble! I love the ranch!

Second, there is the Redmond Dog Park right down the street from Microsoft. It is a 40-acre dog heaven. Absolute heaven. Third, the Samamish River Trail is just about the best place in the world to go running with my people when they let me tag along. It is a trail that goes for miles and miles and miles and there are geese and salmon and eagles and so much to sniff...

Those three places nearly make up for the fact that it rains so much and I have to wear a stupid raincoat when I go out. How humiliating.

I did get to ride on a ferry, but I wasn't even allowed to go up on the deck, so it was pretty much like riding in the car.

And I got to go on a road trip to Canada...brrrr!

And I got to go hiking in the Cascades.

And the beaches here are NOTHING like the beaches in Florida and California

All in all it has been a fun place. I'm exhausted now so I think I'll go take a little nap...happy trails!

The Left Coast People Notes

2009-12-12T16:40:00.000-08:00

A long, leisurely drive up the left coast is exactly the correct way to get from point A (Los Angeles) to point B (Seattle) so long as you don't have to get there in a hurry. We witnessed some of the most spectacular scenery this great country has to offer. Much like the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains...you simply have to experience the grandeur with all of your senses to truly appreciate what is before you.

We watched elephant seals fighting and pelicans fishing, felt the waves crashing through arched rocks and saw rainbows in the spray of waves. We were humbled by the magnificence of the giant redwoods and marveled at the golden gate bridge. We witnessed surfers challenging 30' waves and were spellbound by the vibrant colors in the sunsets.

On Thanksgiving day we ate cold turkey sandwiches in the car at a rainy roadside stop overlooking the stormy Pacific Ocean and we were so very thankful for that moment and for all of the amazing adventures we have had in our travels. We took our time, enjoyed every moment, caught breathtaking glimpses of a Pacific Coastline and would do it all over again. And if you ever get the chance - make the trip, take the drive. You will not ever regret or forget it. Happy Trails!

The Left Coast

2009-12-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

After my people finally returned from their little Mexican fiesta (you know, the one without me...but I'm not bitter) they picked me up from the Canine Cabana and we settled in for a long and scenic drive up the left coast. Specifically, we were heading up the Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles all the way to Seattle, Washington. Wherever that is.

I was quite fatigued from my week at the Cabana, so I generally settled somewhere on a soft pillow or blanket in the car and gazed out the windows and had fantastic doggie-dreams.

Occasionally I would summon the energy to get out of the car and look out over the ocean, feel the salt spray on my face, drain my bladder and settle back in for a few more hours. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Is this road trip supposed to take FIVE DAYS?? Really people...could you drive a little faster next time?

So we landed in Seattle, Washington. It is cold. It is wet. And did I mention wet & cold? But there are trees and parks and lakes and more trees and geese and ducks and wild animals and more trees and lots of places to run and play! Hooray for Seattle!! Damn tho...it is cold! And I have to wear a coat sometimes when I go out - how humiliating.

Leaving LA - Part One People Notes

2009-12-12T16:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, we ditched the dog and boarded the Mariner of the Seas cruise ship and headed south! Our ports included Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. While Odie lounged at the Canine Cabana, we lounged at the Cabo Wabo Cantina. And all we are going to say about that is "What happens down in Mexico, stays in Mexico!".
Salud!

Leaving LA - Part One

2009-12-12T15:52:00.000-08:00

I was totally right about all the boxes, suitcases, etc... everything was packed up, loaded into the car and/or trailer and we were done with LA. I was eagerly anticipating another great road trip to another fabulous destination, except I was driven exactly 8 blocks and dropped off at the Canine Cabana...seriously? Don't get me wrong - I LOVE the Canine Cabana, but I don't understand why we didn't get to start the road trip. No worries - I spent a glorious week lounging about with all my favorite Cabana friends...Olivia, Sasha, Vivian, Bella...the list goes on and on.

When my people returned a week later I found out that they ditched me and went on a week long cruise to Mexico without me!

All I am going to say about my week is "What happens at the Cabana, stays at the Cabana!".
Heehee!

Brian & Jill's Excellent (mis)Adventure

2009-10-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what it would really be like to be stuck in an elevator...a very small (4' X 6'), not air conditioned, in the heat, in the middle of the day, with seven people elevator? Have you ever wondered if all those 'emergency call' and 'emergency bell' and 'emergency alarm' buttons really do anything (They don't. Except the emergency call button did go to a voice mail box that was full so no message could be left.)? Have you ever wondered how we survived before cell phones - literally? Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be stuck between floors of a building and be told that the elevator would have to be 'lowered manually'? Have you ever wondered how you would react when the firemen can only get the stuck elevator door open six inches (Push yourself nearest the crack and suck in all the available fresh air for yourself.)? Have you ever wondered what you would do when the power has to be shut down because the elevator 'reset' doesn't work? Have you ever wondered how many minutes it takes for basic survival instincts to kick in (Exactly 4 minutes for me - the half bottle of water, the power bar and three sticks of gum were mine no matter what.)? Have you ever wondered how sweet the sounds of sirens coming toward you could be?

Besides myself, Paul, Brian & Jill, the other three people in the very, very small elevator were the new *hot* chicks from down the hall - (according to Paul who had already met them (really?), and according to Brian who didn't seem to mind at all offering support & comfort. Whatever.).

I'm just saying...those firemen were also *hot*!!!

I had never, ever wondered about any of those things. And now I don't have to because now I know. And knowledge is power.

Brian & Jill's Excellent Adventure

2009-10-27T11:53:00.001-07:00

Brian & Jill came to Los Angeles to visit for a few days. Their visit began with good food, we ate a lot of good food throughout their visit, and we ended with good food. In between all of the eating, we did manage to squeeze in some fun adventures as well!

Howards Hamburgers

Venice Beach

La Brea Tar Pits

Trader Joes

Farmers Market

Bobs Donuts

Pollo a la Brasa

Santa Monica Pier

Cirque du Soleil

Hollywood

Kodak Theatre

In-N-Out

Jay Leno Show

Baby Blues BB-Q

Pinks Hot Dogs

Warner Bros. Studio Tour

Thththtaaat's all, folks!!

It Never Rains in California People Notes

2009-10-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

Rain? What rain?! Not here.

Hard to believe our four months in Los Angeles is coming to an end. And it really doesn't ever rain here. Ever. We have been taking advantage of the cool mornings, low altitude and flat streets to get in plenty of runs. We bravely participated in the Long Beach half marathon (no, not brave enough for the full marathon!) and we both survived.

Paul absolutely had a phenomenal performance coming in at 2:02 (yes, that is two HOURS!!) and I was only mildly deflated to see the first, second and third place marathon finishers cross the finish line right in front of me. For a moment I thought all those people were cheering for me! Not too bad at 2:17, but how on earth did those marathoners run 26.2 miles in the time it took me to go 13.1 miles?

It was a great course along the beach, the waterfront villages, the Queen Mary and the Long Beach harbor areas. There were over 20,000 participants and it was incredibly crowded. Best part (other than finishing alive) was the free cupcakes and beer after the race. Sounds disgusting now, but trust me - it was the best beer & cupcake I have ever had!

Of course, we have also taken advantage of the nice weather to enjoy the beautiful beaches here as well. Manhattan Beach is spectacular, Venice Beach is crazy, Long Beach is exciting, Santa Monica Beach is fun, and the Malibu beaches along the Pacific Coast Highway are gorgeous. Odie is not fond of the big waves here on the Pacific Ocean, but he does love chasing the seagulls and playing in the sand. His most recent beach adventure was at Leo Carrillo State Beach north of Malibu.

Ahhhhh...love these beaches!

It Never Rains in California...

2009-10-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

...at least it hasn't rained in all the months we have been here. One day it drizzled and it made the whole city smell like a wet dog. I liked that.

I have been busy walking the city streets and going on training runs with my people. Always plenty of new streets and smells and sights and sounds to explore. I still don't like the big city busses or the street-sweepers or the trash trucks or the utility trucks or the fed-ex truck or the motorcycles or the trailers or the moving trucks or the UPS truck...other than that, I think I have adapted just fine to city living.

Uncle Brian and Aunt Jill came for a visit all the way from Texas. I like them a lot, but I don't like their cats Simba and Nala and I was glad the cats didn't come with them. I remember those cats from when we visited them before and the cats locked me in the backyard and wouldn't let me inside. Stupid cats. Simba weighs 24 pounds - that is exactly twice as much as me! Yikes!

We went to the dog beach in Malibu for a day of fun in the surf, sand & sun. It was great, but I don't understand why I always have to take a bath after spending the whole day rolling in the saltwater and sand and seaweed. Don't these people understand that it is hard work to smell like a dog?!

I have been noticing boxes and suitcases appearing again...does this mean there is another road trip in our future? Hooray! I love road trips!! I will keep you posted (haha - get it...'posted'? Like 'posting' on a blog? Like a blog 'post'! haha - I crack me up).

The Dog Days of Summer People Notes

2009-09-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

The summer winds down - here is the past few weeks in review:

* We were told that Venice Beach was a fun place to check out. Yes indeed - it was! And I plan on going back and checking it out some more! Truly a California experience.

* Hollywood is only a couple of miles from our apartment. Apparently it is someplace that we are supposed to check out so we did a quick 'drive by' one afternoon. Then Paul jogged to Hollywood Blvd and the 'walk of fame' on one of his morning runs. What a strange thing to do - run all over those stars.

*There were fires. Big fires. You probably heard about them because it was all over the news for days and days and days. They are still burning, but thankfully heading away from the city. This is what the fires looked like from our apartment on days 2 and 4:

* Labor Day weekend provided a great opportunity for a road trip out of the city. It took a really long time to get 'out of the city', and even longer to get to another city. LA to Sacramento is looked as as a 'weekend trip' in California - anywhere else it would be a multi-state adventure. Thankfully we have the nicest, most accommodating, welcoming and gracious people to visit - thanks Bill & Tricia! So much fun - worth every mile and then some

* We took the scenic route back to LA including both Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, as well as San Andreas (we were hoping for an earthquake!) and Selma - the raisin capital of the world (I guess that is important?). It was fun, and at times disturbingly quiet after being in the city for a while. The air smelled good and the open spaces were much appreciated.

* The new Jay Leno Show began this week and we were in the audience for the taping of the second show. Hilarious. Loved it.

* Erik (the son who lives in Manhattan) was in California on business and was able to swing a stop in LA! Interesting that two of our four boys have had business dealings in LA since we have been here. We had an awesome evening and feasted on the world's best tamales and some tasty mojitos. Booyah - can't get that in New York!

That is our California update. The weather is still spectacular, the So Cal Taco Tour '09 is still on, there is so much more to explore and we will keep you posted. Happy Trails!

The Dog Days of Summer

2009-09-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Some days it's hard being a dog. I have patiently been waiting for casting calls for short, blonde, brown-eyed, cuddly, adorable, 4-legged, tail-wagging actors but so far there hasn't been a single one. It can get depressing. I walk past studios and talent agencies and casting calls frequently and I have been ignored every time - even though I look in the door and give my cutest 'tilted-head-pathetically-irresistable-pet-me' look. So I decided that networking would be a good idea and I joined a dog playgroup at Canine Cabana. I hear that Paris Hilton recently had a birthday party there for her little purse puppy, or chihuahua, or whatever those little yappy things are. Honestly, I don't really care if I meet any famous people, or directors, or film-makers there or not because as it turns out it is a lot of fun and many of my neighborhood friends hang out there also. We run and play and play and run and wrestle and run. Whew - after my first day I came home so tired that I couldn't even make it to the bed and I collapsed in the hallway and slept for 14 hours!

I went on another road trip with my people to Sacramento and spent a few days with some relatives I had never met before. Great news...there were little people there!!! I LOVE little people! Danny and Morgan threw the ball, petted me and took me for walks. I even took a dip in their swimming pool. I'm not exactly sure how or why I ended up in the playpen with James - not funny - but he tasted pretty good and dropped a lot of food when he was in his highchair. I had a lot of fun there and really wanted to stay, but my people scooped me up and put me back in the car again.

We continued our road trip into Yosemite National Park. It smelled good. I went rock-hopping in the streams and wandered around the mountain trails.

I was wading in a particularly nice stream when a few ducks entered the picture. Now, I know I wasn't bred for swimming or duck hunting, but let me tell you - I went after those ducks! They were quite persistent in claiming what they believed to be their territory, and after a few chases from me, those ducks turned back and flew after me. And I ran away. How humiliating.

A short time later we came upon this crow and I wasn't about to give chase. Worried that he might have seen the failed duck hunt, I just dropped my tail and slunk past him.

Off we went to Sequioa National Park, and I gotta' say that it smelled really, really, really good!

There were no streams for swimming, but that place had the BIGGEST trees I have ever seen in my whole life. If there had been a stream I would have tried to drink as much water as I could and then see if I could possibly pee all the way around one of those tree trunks!! Geez, they were big!

That's what I have been up to recently. Oh and there is big news...I have a new girlfriend (sorry Ginny). Her name is Vivien, she is a terrier mix who lives one street over and oh, she is so much fun! But I think she has been flirting with the poodle, Charlie - seriously - who flirts with poodles?! Damn.

Surf's up, Dude!! People Notes

2009-08-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles is very interesting, diverse, high energy, busy, fascinating and BIG! And crowded! And did I mention big and crowded? Who knew we would end up here for a few months with our 18 million new friends? I think there are more people living on our square block than in all of Sevier County in Tennessee.

The weather is beyond fantastic. The restaurant choices are abundant. The activities are limitless. Arts, entertainment, dining, shopping, hiking, beaches, nightlife, history...it's all here. That being said, we will never have enough time to explore and experience even a fraction of Los Angeles. Therefore, we have have narrowed our search options to the following categories: Best Tacos (aka the SoCal Taco Tour '09); Best Dog-friendly Places; Best Farmer's Markets; Best People Watching Places; Best Scooter Ride; and Best Neighborhood. We might add a category for Best Vintage Clothing Store - not because we have any clue about vintage couture, but I think we might have some stuff we could sell them! That should keep us plenty busy.

Our apartment is nestled somewhere between downtown, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I can honestly say that I have been utterly and totally lost since our arrival. There are mountains to the north, and coming from Colorado everybody knows that is just wrong. Mountains are always to the west! The beach is west, and south - which makes no sense either. Downtown is east, but you have to go north to get there. Give thanks for GPS. I know that if I exit our building and turn left I will run into El Toro Cantina, the restaurant responsible for starting the 'Taco Tour'. They offer dozens of different types of tacos (mushroom - the best!) and have $1 Taco Tuesdays! If I turn right, I will run into Trader Joe's - $2 bottles of wine - and it's good!! What else do I need to know?

We spent a day at the Santa Monica Pier and beach. It is the absolute end of the legendary and historic Route 66 (obviously, because you fall off the pier and into the ocean). The wooden carousel build in 1916 is breathtaking, and the pier itself is charming. The 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica is a shopper's paradise and became the first and second stop in our 'Taco Tour'. We highly recommend La Salsa as well as the famous Wahoo Fish Tacos. And beer.

Less than a mile from our apartment is the famous Farmers Market and The Grove. During the great depression the local farmers would hang out in the dirt parking lot and sell their produce. Hard to imagine it was ever a dirt parking lot in the middle of miles of farmland. Now there is nothing but concrete, streets, buildings and people with a tiny parking spot coming at a premium! Today it is less of a farmers market and more a maze of over a hundred stalls with some of the city's best butcher shops, bakeries, and ethnic restaurants. Bobs Donuts and Coffee, homemade ice cream, french cheese shop, gumbo, NY corned beef...yea, it's all there and we are committed to sampling everything! And for the 'Taco Tour' we have to give points to Loteria. And beer. And live music.

We decided to try the LA version of public transportation and rode the bus into downtown, the subway to Koreatown, and a bus back home. Let's just say that the public transportation system here is a bit lacking - but interesting. While downtown we stumbled upon the Grand Central Market. It is a huge, chaotic, open-air market offering cheap and outstanding produce, empanadas, Hawaiian BB-Q, Cuban sandwiches, coffee, spices...and of course - tacos! Don't know the name of the place where we ate - just look for the whole roasted pigs and don't ask a lot of questions! Definitely number one on the 'Taco Tour' for now - two giant carnitas tacos for a whopping $2. We walked through the downtown Civic Center district, Bunker Hill and edged into Chinatown, but alas, the smell of street vendors in the El Pueblo market drew us in for more tacos! Fresh fried tortillas, perfectly seasoned shredded beef, amazing salsas and a mariachi serenade earned this a solid #2 ranking - would have been #1, but no beer ;-(

A scenic drive up the Pacific Coast Highway landed us north of Malibu at Leo Carillo beach for a glorious day of beach exploring and relaxation. Odie loved the freedom and fresh air, but was less impressed with the size of the waves chasing him. He didn't do much swimming but was content to play fetch, roll in the sand and snooze in the afternoon sun. There was a music video being filmed right next to us on the beach - quite an impressive and complicated production.

Realizing that we have been here over a month it would seem that we haven't explored nearly as much as we would like. However, it is worth noting that I flew to Colorado for two weeks during that first month and Paul worked a lot. David happened to be in Los Angeles for business and was able to spend a couple of days visiting (while I was in Colorado). He and Paul had some nice meals out, scootered to Santa Monica, and had an all-around 'guys weekend'! I, on the other hand, participated in the 'Tri-for-the-Cure' (triathlon for breast cancer) with my nieces and friends in Colorado (don't be too impressed - I was only the runner on a relay team - my two teammates, Ashley and Jackie, did the hard part - bike & swim and they were awesome!!). Afterward, it was off to Grand Lake for a festive week with friends & family (the Grand Lake Brewery will always win 'best beer'!).

Yes, it is Deb & Hunter!! Realizing that they actually live in Alaska it is a bit strange that I have pictures of them in Florida and now Colorado!!

Hoping the next months are as exciting as the first has been...happy trails to all!

Surf's up, Dude!!

2009-08-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

Here I am in Los Angeles, waiting for my big break...hoping to be discovered...yea, I'm gonna' be on the big screen someday. Yup! Can't believe we have been here a month already and not a single producer, director, casting agent or fellow dog/actor has even noticed me. C'mon...I am CUTE!!

Things are a bit different here, that is for sure. For example, the apartment that we live in has an ELEVATOR!!! Can you believe that? I had never even been in an elevator before, but now I know all about pushing the right buttons, turning around & waiting, not getting in the down when you want the up and vice-versa, not wrapping my leash around people's ankles, holding my bladder in the morning until we are out of the elevator and out of the building...yea, it is definitely different here than in the mountains!

Here's another thing that is crazy - we have a swimming pool on our roof!! That's right - if you push the right elevator buttons you can get all the way to the top and end up at a swimming pool. There is a pretty good view up there too - on one side I can see the buildings of downtown LA (that is were Paul works) and on the other side I can see the Hollywood sign and Runyon Canyon. Runyon Canyon is a big off-leash dog park in Hollywood that has hiking trails and hundreds of other dogs and famous people. I love going there!

And another thing - there are a LOT of people here. And cars. And dogs. And busses. And more dogs. And helicopters. And more dogs. And trucks. And more busses. And more dogs. And more cars. And trash trucks. And more dogs. And more cars. And cats. And more dogs. It takes me forever to walk just one block because I have to stop and smell everything and there is just so much to smell...

We got to spend a day at the beach...I love the beach!! We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to a place called Malibu and Leo Carillo State Park. This is a lot different than the beaches in Florida - the water is a bit colder, there are big rocks, the sand is different, and the waves are a LOT bigger. But the Pacific Ocean still tasted exactly the same as the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Bleeeechh!! Acccchhhhkkk!! How much fun it was to run and swim and chase the ball and roll in the sand and sleep in the sun!

In the afternoon we got to watch the filming of a music video. I was ready just in case they decided that they needed a dog as an extra...but they never even asked me. Damn.

We have a lot more exploring to do here in Los Angeles. If any of you want to come out an explore with me I would be happy to show you around the neighborhood! I know how to cross streets now and I can push the elevator buttons. So come on out!! Happy Trails!

California or Bust People Notes

2009-07-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

We were excited to learn on a Monday that the next (travel nurse) contract was going to be in Los Angeles, CA - somewhat less excited to learn that we needed to be in Los Angeles by the end of that week. After several attempts at programming the Garmin GPS and comparing it to google maps and the atlas and the wall map...indeed, the fastest route from Sevierville to Los Angeles was going to involve driving 2,250 miles. Over 2,000 of those miles would be spent heading west on I-40. Yay.

Following is a complete list of all of the fascinating people, places, things we saw on our trek across the U.S. Yes...I said 'complete'.

Tennessee:

Apparently the secret to building the great pyramids has been unlocked by the friendly folks in Memphis. Who knew?! And the Mississippi River is always cool. OK, that's it for Tennessee.

Arkansas:

Hmmm - looks like we are about to become 'those people' who stop and take pictures of every state sign like we have never been out of our neighborhood before. The (only) other interesting thing in Arkansas was a place called Toad Suck Park...I thought about that for many, many miles and can't come up with any good reason for naming a park 'Toad Suck'.

Oklahoma:

Wins the award for the two worst signs on the entire trip - found hundreds of miles apart from each other. #1) Restrooms closed for remodeling. #2) Women's restroom closed. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I may have to circumvent Oklahoma on all future trips across the country.

Texas:

Now, those are just friendly folks there in Texas!

New Mexico:

I pondered the spelling and pronunciation of Albuquerque for most of this passage. That was about it for NM.

Arizona:

This was the first signage for Los Angeles - comforting to know we were headed in the right direction after all.

California:

This is where the trip got bad. Our nine year old Xterra was feeling the strain of pulling a loaded cargo trailer across the entire country - through the Smoky Mountains, across the great plains, through the panhandle, across the Rocky Mountains, through the desert...but when we arrived in California (literally - at the state line) the trusted Xterra needed a break. At least that is how we interpreted that little gauge that was reading H - assuming that meant HOT!!! Indeed, it was hot. Flip-flop-melting-on-the-asphalt hot. One-hundred-twenty-two-degrees-in-the-shade hot. Twelve miles to the next town, middle of the afternoon, looking at crossing the Mojave Desert...not going to happen. We limped into Needles, CA, and holed up in an air conditioned hotel room while waiting for the sun to go down and the air to cool. At 2:00am we headed across the Mojave and it was STILL hot! But at least the sun was gone.

And now we are here! Arrived in LA around 7:30am on Saturday, drove to our 'hood, found our apartment building...parked the car & trailer, got keys, apartment looked fantastic, returned to car & trailer to unload and yes, we had our first parking tickets! Not ticket - tickets - plural! Same thing happened last summer in Colorado - is it something about Tennessee license tags? Maybe the 'Clampet' look and rocking chair strapped on the roof attracts attention? I don't get it. Guess California really does need the revenue!

We are in Central LA and it appears that we have a lot of exploring ahead of us. We are due west of downtown with Hollywood and Beverly Hills on the other sides of our 'hood! The hospital - USC University Hospital - is on the opposite side of downtown, so the commute will be interesting for Paul. He has already learned to refer to highways as 'the...101, the...10' etc. and we are both starting to use 'dude' in our daily vocabulary. Yea - we are definitely NOT going to be the cool kids on the block. We are decidedly the oldest people in our neighborhood, and likely the straightest. Odie is the only dog in the area that uses a 'flexi-leash' and harness as opposed to a designer leash/collar combo with rhinestones. And he doesn't wear clothes. And he has bad hair - always. However, that has not deterred his ambition to take advantage of this great opportunity to be discovered and become the next Rin-Tin-Tin or a stunt double for Toto. Dream big little dog, dream big.

Looking forward to some grand adventures here! There will certainly be plenty of places to go, things to do and people to see. Hope many of you can come visit us while we are here. Happy Trails!

California or Bust!

2009-07-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

So there we were - happily playing ball, rock-hopping, swimming and chasing critters in Smoky Mountain National Park (which is my backyard) and the next thing I know the phone rings and my people start rushing around like crazy for a day and a half, and then we are in the car and on the road. And on the road. And on the road.

We drove across Tennessee....

...and across Arkansas...

...and across Oklahoma...

...and across Texas...

...and across New Mexico...

...and across Arizona...

...and across California...

...and as soon as me and my people get some rest, we will post an update! From what I hear Los Angeles is supposed to be a fun city so I am sure we will have some crazy adventures over the next few months! Happy trails to all!

Happy Birthday to Meee...Look Who Turned Three...

2009-06-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEE!!

Hooray! Hooray!
It's my birthday and my people remembered it this year!!
I'm three - in dog years that is 21 and therefore I am old enough to vote, drive AND go clubbing!

What a great party! David and Jennifer and Ryan and Matthew and Paul and Jeannie and a whole bunch of my stuffed friends came to my party. There were THREE cakes, cupcakes, scooby snacks, milkbones and ice cream! There were balloons and presents and toys and 'doggie bags'! I'm not sure about the pink 'Hello Kitty' tablecloth - but I'm not complaining.

We even sang happy birthday (I howled along) and they let me blow out the candle. I tried to grab a cupcake at the same time...

The ice cream was my favorite! What a great birthday - this party was so much fun it almost made up for the fact that my people totally forgot my birthday last year.

Thanks everybody!

T-Ball and Dominos People Notes

2009-06-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

Our stop in Huntsville on the way back to the cabin was fun, as always. Those boys are growing up so fast. Yes, we did manage to arrive in time for several t-ball games. Matthew is quite a good hitter, an excellent runner (as evidenced by the occasion where he ran ALL the bases even after being tagged out, or when he ran past his own teammate rounding second) but the outfield presents a bit of a challenge keeping his attention!

Ryan is more grown up each time we see him. He had just finished his last day of 3rd grade and had a fantastic report card to show for the year. It seems that their summer is going to be filled with travel, boy scout camp, biking, scootering and swim lessons.

David treated us all to a movie at his theatre (Monaco Pictures) and we got the full 3-D experience watching 'UP'. Very fun outing - very impressive theatre and yes, we are all goofballs!

Thanks for the enjoyable weekend! And no, the 'boys' are NOT going to beat the 'girls' at dominos next time...

T-Ball and Dominos

2009-06-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

We stopped in Huntsville, AL to visit some of my favorite 'little people', Ryan and Matthew. They are fun to spend time with because they eat good food (and drop a lot for me), they have a huge play area inside and out, and they love to take me for long walks!

We went to see several of Matthew's t-ball games. Personally, I found the games to be quite boring (as I think Matthew also did because he spent a lot of time in the outfield filling his glove and hat with rocks) but there were a lot of 'little people' there.

I had my own little fan club by the end of the first game, and by the end of the second and third games I was getting belly rubs, ear rubs, back scratches....ahhh - life is good at the t-ball park.

Maybe I like t-ball after all.

Late in the evenings after the 'little people' were asleep I was allowed to stay up and play with the big people. They taught me how to play '42' which is some crazy domino game.

I got to play on the boys team with David and Paul (because I am a boy) and after a few quick lessons, I was playing like a pro.

Of course the boys won...Friday night, Saturday night AND Sunday night!! Boys rock!!

Done in the Sun and Heading North!

2009-06-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...I am a couple of weeks late on getting this post up, but I am a busy dog - bad dog - I will try to do better. The last few weeks in Florida were....ummm....oh yea, I remember now! Hot. Hotter. Steamy. Humid. Tropical. Torrential rain. Stormy. Flooded. Buggy. Too miserable to even go to the beach if you can believe that. Almost got struck by lightning. Almost got eaten by a shark. Done with Florida. Nice in the winter, nice in the spring...not so nice in May. 'Go north little doggie, go north' is what all my instincts were telling me.

We had our last* visitors to Florida, Christine & John, who arrived for Memorial Day Weekend. They are FUN people, that's for sure! Here are some pictures of them: (they are crazy!)
(*They were almost our second to last visitors. Erik came to Florida exactly one day after we left. Hmmmm...I think he waited until we were safely across the state line before he boarded his plane and headed to Orlando!)

So then it was the old drill - pack up all our stuff, load the trailer & car, and off we went for another grand adventure! Goodbye Florida, goodbye fun in the sun...this little doggie is done in the sun for now. Happy trails!

See Spot Run...People Notes

2009-05-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know why we run. Nobody is chasing us. We are not running away from or toward anything. But Odie is a good little trooper and is also a good 'pace dog' so I guess we will keep running until it doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

The past weeks have been busy as always. Jeannie flew to Huntsville, Alabama to spend a week with two of the grandsons while David worked crazy hours and Jennifer took the opportunity to spend some time with her parents in Texas. Odie was mad that he didn't get to go on the airplane and didn't get to visit his favorite 'little people', but he will see them soon enough. We made pizza and enchiladas, baked cupcakes and cookies, played games and watched movies! All in all it was a fantastic week and I swear I don't know anything about cupcakes for breakfast...

Chris came out to spend a couple of weeks with us and to explore Florida. We managed to spend several days at the beach, went canoeing and snorkeling at Rainbow Springs (in spite of the alligator warning signs!), scootered around town, rode every rollercoaster at Busch Gardens (more than once), and ate and ate and ate! Seafood and Greek food and BBQ and gulf shrimp and conch fritters and smoked salmon and beach lemonade and hot fudge brownie sundaes...and then we ate some more. What a fun time - it's always nice to have a Chris visit.

Then Jeannie was treated to a weekend in New York City thanks to Erik & Katy who brought her to the Big Apple for mother's day weekend. We ate and ate and ate - JG Melons, Agave, Alice's and Graces. And then we ate some more. And played frisbee. And walked around and then ate and ate some more. And of course went to the Banshee Pub. What a fantastic weekend - thanks so much!!

The eating seems to be a recurring theme...perhaps that explains the running thing!!

See Spot Run, Run Spot Run!

2009-05-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

I am a dog who loves long walks. I even love short walks. Or any walk. I am also a dog with very, very short legs so any walk with my people is more like a run for me. Then my people decided that they wanted to run...do you have any idea how fast my little legs have to go to keep up with that?! I figure that I average about 6 steps to each one of their steps, so when we go for our morning run/walk covering an average of 4 miles at about a 10 minute/mile pace I am actually using roughly 36,870 steps!! Are you kidding me? No wonder my little paw pads are in need of a pedicure.

Anyhow, my people did some 5k race and left me in the car (of course) even though I went on about a hundred 'training' runs with them and easily could have beat every person there. But afterward they shared their medals with me and gave me some banana bread so it was all good.

I am thankful for all the exercise I get because I have discoverd that there is an endless supply of lizards here that are all just waiting to be chased...they are fast little buggers and I have no idea what I am going to do with the first one I catch!

While I enjoy walks/runs, I do not particularly care for swimming. I'll do it if I have to, but it is not my favorite thing. I have found that if I wait patiently in the shallow water, or if I bark loud enough, that I will get the toy/ball or whatever the fetching object is one way or another. Rarely do I have to go in and swim after it tho!

Swimming in the pool was okay - at least the water tasted better than at the beach. But the beach is still my favorite place to play. When Uncle Chris came to visit we went to the beach a lot! There were a lot of dolphins playing, but they were too far away for me to swim out to them, but my lab friend tried to. I was never sure which was a dolphin or a shark...

Aaahhhh - I LOVE the beach!!! I am going to miss this place.

Catching up People Notes

2009-04-11T13:29:00.001-07:00

We showed up at Cape Canaveral along with a few thousand of our closest friends to watch the night launch of the space shuttle. Here is Paul & Odie on the west bank of the Indian River, which is directly across from the launch pad. Check out all the sailboats that were jockeying for position to watch the launch in just a few short hours...

...ummm... well that didn't happen! The launch was scrubbed, but we got to see a most impressive moon rise over the launch pad!

This is what we saw...

This is (not) what we saw. Compliments of the Associated Press.

So as not to waste a good trip to the east coast of the state, we spent the next day at the Dunes Beach on the Atlantic. It was an incredible, beautiful, and nearly vacant beach north of Cape Canaveral. The sand dunes in some places were 10' - 15', clear water, dolphins - gorgeous!

A week later the launch actually did take place, and we watched it from about 150 miles away (rather than 10) from the street behind our condo! Honestly, it was most impressive and we felt fortunate to have witnessed a magnificent sunset launch. We could clearly see the launch - it looked like a giant roman candle shooting into the atmosphere. Due to the absolute perfect reflection of the sun, we could also see the booster rockets as they separated from the shuttle. We watched it arc into space - very impressive indeed! These are two pictures taken several minutes after the launch...well, not my best work...but take my word for it - it was cool!

The pink is from the shuttle, and the white is where the booster rockets separated.

We ventured into Tampa Bay for a day and poked around Ybor City. It is known as Tampa's Latin Quarter and is a National Historic Landmark District. It was originally settled by Cuban immigrants and became the cigar capital of the country.

Of course, Paul was especially excited to purchase some fabulous Cuban cigars...yes, it is legal to buy them in the US as long as they are rolled/made in the US. Or something like that.

I was happy to eat at Mema's Alaskan Tacos (we first stumbled upon that little place when Deb & Hunter were in town...yummmmy...how can you go wrong with a FRIED taco?!).

And don't ask me what this random NYC statue of liberty, t-shirt, pizza place was doing in Ybor City...weird.

We further ventured inland to explore the natural springs of Florida. Apparently there are hundreds of them. Rainbow Springs started as an attraction in the 1920's and grew as a tourist attraction with glass bottom boat tours, zoo, rodeo, gondolas, waterfalls, gift shops, etc.

When the large amusement parks (aka Disneyworld!) arrived on the scene, this park was closed and fell into disrepair for several decades.

It reopened in the mid 90's as an eco-friendly state park and National Natural Landmark and aquatic preserve. Long gone is the tourism aspect, replaced now with magnificent serene beauty, wildlife, fish, 'cooters', eagles, and yes, alligators!

We are planning a return visit to spend a day kayaking/canoeing, and snorkeling.

Maybe! (that is NOT a good sign!)

Happy Trails.

Catching up...

2009-04-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

My people said that I couldn't go to the beach this week unless I caught up on my blogging. Doesn't anybody realize that I am a busy dog - I have a lot of things to do down here in the sunshine state and that doesn't include sitting inside at a computer terminal. I dragged my paws long enough and I think they are serious about the 'no beach' thing, so here goes...

Amazing what can be found on a simple walk down the neighborhood street. TIMMY!! (you know, the turtle that everyone has as a kid and names it Timmy.)

Hell0000000 in there...

That thing was BIG. And I am told that they are not called 'turtles' here - it is either a Florida Cooter or a River Cooter...cooter, hooter, tooter - who cares?! I just wanted to play. And let me tell you that when he decided to take off, that cooter was FAST...look at the picture and the (relative) blur of his legs...

We found a new dog park one afternoon. I ran, and I ran, and I ran, and I ran...then I ran, and ran...well, you get the picture! Whew...I was exhausted. Couldn't even hold my head up to drink my water. Guess it's true what they say about the humidity here - really sucks the energy out of you!

Afterward we went to a 'dog-friendly' restaurant called the Tarpon Turtle and sad outside on the patio overlooking Tarpon Lake...guess who/what decided to join us for dinner...!? Now that reptile was FAST! Every time something fell into the water... *splash*chomp*gone*... yikes!

We also went on an adventure to the other side of the state where we were going to watch a space shuttle launch (whatever that is), but we ended up going to a park and a couple of beaches instead. Fine by me. There was this big, friendly thing swimming around the Indian River on the Space Coast - actually, there were about a dozen manatees hanging out, including a little baby! They were so ugly that they were cute. This one was a big male, about 12' long, and he kept snorting water at me. If they weren't so big, I would have gone swimming with them.

We spent a day at a beach just north of Cape Canaveral. Yippee! I love the beach. But nobody told me the Atlantic Ocean was a different beach experience than the Gulf of Mexico. Tasted the same....aackkk!

Wait...what are these waves?? Oh my gosh - look out! They just keep coming and coming...whoaaaa...here comes another one - and another - and another...look out little doggie!!

Run! Turn and run. Run away. Run fast.

Run, run little dog. The waves are going to eat you!

Aughhhh....

Bbbrrrrrr....

bbbblllllaaaa...

Nothing cures a salty dog like a good roll in the warm sand! Ahhhhh!

Yea, I love the beach!

I have no idea why I am forced to endure the humiliation of baths, haircuts and the ridiculous plaid scarf. I hate plaid.

Damn!

OK - there. I'm done. Can I go to the beach now??

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words *(people notes)

2009-03-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

There are times when it just isn't possible to accurately convey the whole story using words. There are times when you just 'had to be there' to undersand the humor. There are times when it is advanageous to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. There are times when it is best to let the pictures tell the story and let the viewer fill in the blanks. There are times when 'what happens in Florida stays in Florida'. There are times when you realize a blog might need to be password protected. There are memorable times spent with friends that you wouldn't trade for anything. The week Deb & Hunter came to visit us from Alaska was all of those things!

And now, in the words of the late, great Paul Harvey "Here's the rest of the story..."

Plane Trip * Road Trip * Odie the Roadie * Renaissance Festival * Beer * Men in Kilts * Men in Hats * Hard Cider * Men in Kilts Competition * Real Men Wear Kilts * I 'Kilt' the Last Person Who Called it a Skirt * Beer * International Bier Garten * 'da Bier's * Bagpipes * Bag Clips *Duke Basketball * Chicago Bulls Basketball * Fresh Shrimp * Fresh Scallops * Fried Shrimp * Fried Tacos * Fried Green Beans * Fried Pickles * Pictionary * Perfect Margaritas * Women's Basketball * Men in Kilts Playing Basketball (wrong) * More Margaritas * Bellybutton Lint * Jupiter * Mema's Alaskan Tacos * It's a Small World After All...

It's a Small World After All... * Flea Market * Cuban Coffee* Ybor City * Little Havana * More Cuban Coffee * Need More Coffee * Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Starbucks * Road Trip * Dora, Dora, Dora * Tampa Bay Brewing Company * Beer * Cigar City * Arturo Fuente * Beer * Pretzels & Mustard * Pretzels & Cheese Dip * Pretzels & Beer * Prune Yogurt (oops!) * Pit Stop * Port-a-Potty (hooray!) * Dunedin Brewery * Mardi Gras * No Beads * Beads?!? * Beads!!! * Beer * Flannigan's Irish Pub * Irish Jig * Hand Jive * Chicken Dance * Beer * Band * Beads * Dora * Designated Driver * It's a Small World After All...

It's a Small World After All * Time to Get Up * New York Times * Coffee * Road Trip * Dora * Disneyworld * Epcott * Teacup Ride * Pirates of the Caribbean * Space Mountain * Kennedy Space Center * Saturn, Jupiter, Venus? * Space Shuttle * Beer * Beer 'n Brats * Brats & Sauerkraut * Fish Reubens * Fish Tacos * Salmon Tacos * Smoked Salmon * Beer * Road Trip * Dora * Tarpon Springs * Sponge Diving * Seafood * Beer * Baklava * Greek Food * Gyros * Grape Leaves * Oopa! * Ouzo! * It's a Small World After All...

It's a Small World After All... * Road Trip * Dora * Dive, Dive, Dive * Beach Lemonade * Bocce Ball * Santa at Beach * Beach Punch * Beer * Beer Nuts * Peanuts * PeliCAN * Yes We Can * Paint Can * Paint Ball Alley * Painter's Pants * Pink Car * Pink Shrimp * Sam's Bayside Bar * Hurricanes * Hurricane Hanks * It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere * Time to Go * Road Trip * Plane Trip * It's A Small, Small World!!!!!!

I LOVE VISITORS!!!

2009-03-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

I love having people come to visit!! I especially love people who play with me, scratch my back, carry me when I am too tired to walk, take me to the beach and feed me treats. But I gotta tell you - these people who came all the way from Alaska to visit me brought the best treat ever...SMOKED SALMON!! And they shared it with me! Ahhhhh - I love being a dog. Thanks Deb & Hunter - you can come back to visit anytime (just don't forget the salmon!).

More Florida Learnings...

2009-02-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

#1. Kumquats. What deserves to be named 'kumquat'? Well, I figured if the locals get so excited about a kumquat that they have a huge, annual festival to celebrate the kumquat then it must be something fantastic, right? Let me just say that as a dog I will eat pretty much anything...yes, even really disgusting things (and you all know what I am talking about). I ate my first and last kumquat on that fateful day. Blech. Aaauuuggghhhh. Bbbbllllaaaach. Those cute little fruits that look like miniature oranges are not good eating - unless they are mixed with lots of sugar and whipped stuff and poured into a chocolate pie crust! And I am pretty sure that Paul would agree with me 100%.

#2. Sunglasses. For dogs. Really? If dogs were made to wear sunglasses then we would have been given opposable thumbs and better ear cartilage so we could at least put them on and keep them on without little elastic straps under our chins. We were not meant to wear sunglasses. Ever. I don't care if this is the 'sunshine state'.

#3. Swimwear. The important thing here is to have comfortable swimwear that doesn't rub or cause chafing because the combination of sand and salt can be very abrasive. When strolling the beautiful Florida beaches it is important to look good. And you don't want bad tan lines either. Do you think this swimsuit makes my butt look big??

#4. The grass is not greener...and the sand is not whiter. We did a 3-beaches-in-3-days tour looking for the perfect beach and discovered that the beach we had been going to all along was absolutely the best. I'll admit that I had high hopes for the pet nude beach (ok, in dog terms that is the leash-free beach), but it just didn't measure up. It was pretty funny watching Paul and Jeannie try to play bocce ball there - random dogs would trot over and take the balls every time Jeannie threw a fantastic point! Tee-hee!

#5. Nature meets technology... I already told you about the bald eagle that has been scoping me out and trying to chase me down in the hood. Well, I found out where he lives! With his wife and soon to be hatched babies. They are nesting in the cell phone tower a couple of blocks away. Unfortunately, that gives him a distinct advantage in watching my every move. He went after a vulture the other day - don't mess with that eagle - he means business! Maybe that also explains why my text messages get garbled (or maybe that is the opposable thumb issue again).

#6. Jeannie can still move pretty fast when she has to. How did I learn this?? First was the armadillo attack while walking in the dark. I, of course, went after something lurking in the bushes and when I got within a few inches - it turned and started to charge at me. I thought this looked to be a fun game, but Jeannie yanked my leash, reeled me in and pulled me backward down the street - she was moving!! But so was that armadillo!! Those little buggers are FAST when they are mad. The next day there was a gargantuan spider that jumped off the vacuum onto the tile floor and started running across the dining room. That woman had that vacuum plugged in, turned on and went from 0 -60 in a millisecond chasing that ginormous spider around the house. Score 1 for Jeannie - 0 for spider.

#7. Going for car rides is still my favorite pastime. Good thing because we have definitely put some miles on! Wheeeeee....happy trails!

P.S. No, Jeannie was not speeding down the toll road while taking pictures while driving...honest!

Hi-ho...hi-ho...it's off to work I go...

2009-01-30T14:11:00.000-08:00

When Jeannie said 'Odie, do you want to go to WORK today?' I might have misunderstood and what I heard was 'Odie, do you want to go for a WALK today?'. Work - walk - they are both four letter words that start with 'W' and sound a lot alike. I was so excited...I love walks! But I was very confused about why I had to get brushed and wear a ridiculous green scarf. Then I found out that work and walk are two very, very different words.

So, we walk up to the front doors of this huge building, and I'm thinking that this is the biggest Petsmart I have ever seen. Only after we get inside do I realize that this is nothing like a Petsmart. There are no other dogs, no rawhides, no birds in cages, no hamsters, no squeaky toys. Bummer.

But then what happens is magical!! I get to ride in elevators, sit in laps, lay in beds, get brushed, get petted, prance around the hallways, get carried around, get back scratches, get my picture taken, get hugs & kisses, and then get petted some more. Who needs kibble when you get pampered all day. All that is required of me is to let people pet me and tell me how cute I am. Are you kidding?! I LOVE WORK!!!!

After a few hours of strenuous, stressful sitting on beds and getting petted I get to go home and take a long, leisurely nap. What an awesome job!

On the days I am not working I get to enjoy my time in Florida. I have learned a few things in the past couple of weeks:

1. Do not, I repeat, do not drink the water at the beach no matter how thirsty you are or how much sand is coating your tongue. It is bad.

2. The bald eagle that lives in our neighborhood is big. And scary. If it begins circling above while on a walk - go home as fast as possible - just get to safety. I have seen that bald eagle and it looks at me like I am just a little tater-tot with a tail, or a fuzzy McNugget trotting down the sidewalk. Run & hide.

3. Manatees deserve the nickname 'sea cows'. They are really, really big. And fat. But cute in an 'only-your-mother-could-love-you' kind of way. Do not attempt to jump in the water to swim with them because you will get in all kinds of trouble.

4. The Monkey Bar does not allow dogs. But there really are monkeys on the island behind the bar. So why can't I hang out at the bar if the stupid monkeys can??? My people went to the Monkey Bar and all I got was this stupid picture...

Damn!

A New Year - A New You! People Notes

2009-01-11T13:30:00.001-08:00

Jimmy Buffett had it right all this time. The New Yorkers have it figured out. Now I am seriously wondering why EVERYBODY doesn't spend winter in Florida!!! Wow! It is nice here! Really nice. So sorry for all of you who are freezing in the cold, sleet, snow, ice, blizzards and sub-zero January weather north of the Mason-Dixon line. Oh well, there is a cold front coming this week so it will only be in the high 60's as opposed to the high 70's...bummer! Might need a t-shirt on the beach!!

Yea - we made it. Probably a month or two later that we would have preferred, but we are here now and loving it. For those of you who haven't been in the communication loop, we are in Florida. Specifically in Hudson, FL. It is a small town (far north suburb, really) about 45 miles north of the Tampa/St. Pete area on the Gulf side (west side) of the state, west of Orlando and Mickey Mouse, south of the panhandle, west of the Atlantic Ocean, north of Miami and waaaaay north of Key West which is where I would prefer to be but know I would never, ever return. Never. Ever. If you still can't picture it, imagine if your thumb is Florida (right thumb - pointed down)...then we are about at the middle joint near the freckle on the inside crease. From our condo it is a 5 minute scooter ride to the gulf and to Hurricane Hanks, Sam's and Sully's - all unique beachside (bar and grill) dining establishments. All with very cold beer, fresh grouper sandwiches, live entertainment and conch fritters. How much better could this get??? Seriously?!

Oh yea, and Paul is working! Full time. That means three day a week so we only have four days a week to hang at the beach. The hospital is too close for a scooter ride so it is about a 7 minute walk to the front door of Regional Medical Center/Bayonet Point where he works on the telemetry unit. Odie and I will be doing volunteer work there as soon as we pass though all the red-tape to become established as their first pet therapy team. Hopefully we can start in a week or two or five.

Our back yard is pretty cool - but I am not sure if alligators live there or not. Oh, and when I mentioned that we live in a 'condo', well it is. But in a 55+ community. ONE of us had to be 55 or over to qualify....Odie???!!! It is a very, very quiet complex! Except for the occasional squeaky-squeak of walker wheels. Our neighbors all seem to be very nice - and while they love Odie, they are a bit confounded at the "motorcycles" (aka - scooters) parked out front! (That is our condo in the picture - really!)

We are happy to be here, thawing out, enjoying the sunshine and will keep you all posted as we get out exploring the area. Happy Trails!

A New Year - A New You!

2009-01-11T12:28:00.000-08:00

Time to be movin' on once again. I packed all my squeaky balls, my bacon treats, my chew rope, my day bed and my collection of plush toys, hopped in the car and headed down the mountain. Goodbye Tennessee, goodbye English Mountain, goodbye cold and rain. Next thing I know, there is nothing but flat land, sand, sunshine and the worst tasting water I have ever drank from the biggest bathtub I have ever seen. Welcome to Florida!

We found a dog park on the first day. I definitely needed to get out and stretch my little 3 inch legs after that long car ride. I ran and I ran and I ran and I ran some more until I was just plain out of gas. This stuff called humidity is going to take some getting used to - especially after last winter in Arizona where it was warm and dry. Every time I go outside my hair gets all curly and frizzy and fluffy - I think I am scheduled to go to the groomer for a haircut this week which is a good thing because these little girl dogs just aren't impressed with my Odie-afro!

The next day we discovered a dog beach! Woohoo! Wait - what is a beach??

I sniffed and snorted and scratched and stomped and ran and swam and chased a ball and got chased by waves and barked at fish and barked a boats and chased seagulls and got chased by pelicans and rolled and sunned and splashed and dug and repeated it all over and over...then I collapsed on my beach towel! I think I like the beach. But the water tastes terrible. Who put all that salt in it?

I think I am going to like this new place. My people tell me that we will be here for a few months, so if any of you want to come play ball with me at the beach, come on down - I'll share my beach towel with you!!

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas...little people, twinkling lights, festive music, gingerbread cookies, real bacon, and toys galore! And...there is a TREE IN THE HOUSE!!! Can you believe it??!! Do you know how easy that makes my life? (At least until I get caught - tee hee!)

I heard the little people talking about Santa, reindeer, sleighs on the roof...I have no idea what any of that means, but I will be sure to stay alert tonight and be a good guard dog and if anyone even thinks about coming in this house...well, I'll be sure to bark, bite, scratch, growl and scare them off. Good dog!!

Merry Christmas all.

Ohhh the weather outside is frighful...people notes

2008-12-17T17:37:00.000-08:00

We are weathering the storm, so to speak, and getting our 'to-do' lists done so we can get out of town in a couple of weeks and get to the warmer weather in Florida. And you know when you have a long 'to-do' list it is human nature to constantly pass over the least desireable 'to-do' items, and instead 'to-doing' the more interesting things like: bake cookies, re-stock the wine rack, read last Sunday's New York Times, organize photos of grandkids, watch old movies stored on DVR, etc... Well, the list had dwindled down to the last few remaining items which really need to be done before we leave town, leaving us with things like: clean out rain gutters (honestly, with all this rain you would think they would flush themselves out!), license tag for cargo trailer, motorcycle licenses* for scooters...ummm...yea, that was about it. This was the big one we had been putting off since, hmmm, well... September?! We set our goal on getting our Tennessee "M-Class Drivers License" - both the written test and the road test completed before Christmas.

(*I know some of you are wondering why on earth we need a motorcycle endorsement on our drivers license since we are going to be driving SCOOTERS, which are, let's face it, about one step above the hot-wheels our kids had at the age of 4 and about on an even par with the 18 gear mountain bike I used to have but gave up because all the gear shifting was way too complicated, and it is only because our scooters are 150cc, which legally requires a motorcycle endorsement and we are rule followers, after all.)

Drive to the DMV to pick up Motorcycle Handbook Study Guide. Read the study guide. Easy enough. Ooops...says that you also need to study chapter 6 of the regular motor vehicle handbook to learn about Tennessee alcohol,drug & DUI laws. Back to the DMV to pick up the motor vehicle handbook study guide. Read chapter 6. (OK - I have 2 issues here. First, it is NOT that easy to just drive to the DMV, or anywhere here really because we live about 40 minutes away from anything and the roads are windy, curvy, scary mountain roads and they are wet, icy and hazardous to travel so why weren't we informed that we needed BOTH books to begin with? Second, what is all the fuss about alcohol and DUI's...we can't even BUY alcohol in Sevier county!! Seriously.) OK. Study chapter 6. Good to go. Only problem is that the written test has to be taken (and passed) prior to scheduling the driving portion. Really? Take written test Monday, then take driving test Tuesday as that is the only day this month that rain is not forecast. Oh, no - the DMV is closed on Monday this week because they are moving to a new location. And Thursday. And Friday. And Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week because of the holiday. Really? OK. Take written test Tuesday, schedule driving test for Wednesday in spite of the 90% chance of flooding rain that is forecast.

After about the eleventh phone call to the DMV for clarification of scheduling, documents needed, etc., Paul called with one last question. "Since Tennessee does not have a learner's permit available for motorcycles, how do I get my scooter to the DMV for the driving portion of the exam? Do I have to trailer it (down the freakin' mountain) or can I ride it down for the driving test?" Response, "Well sir, ya'all can drive it if ya'all want to an' ah won' say nuthin', but if thar happens to be uh officer standin' behind me when ya'all pull up, well he's likely gonna write ya'all a ticket but it's up to ya'all to decide." We spent the next couple of hours unloading the crap we had stored in the trailer, hitching the trailer, and loading the scooter. In the rain.

Tuesday: We drive down the mountian to the DMV for the written exam, arriving at 11:30ish. The first sign we notice upon entering: "Wait times between 11am and 2pm may be longer." Really? When we make it to the front of the line fifteen minutes later, we explain that we need to take the motorcycle written exam. Yes, we have a valid Tennessee Driver's License. What? Why do we need to fill out the 3-part form titled: Application for Tennessee Driver's License. We just told you that we already have one. Just do it. And take a number...C-147 and C-148. And sit down and wait. Ten minutes later the sweet, automated voice on the speaker says "Now serving number A033 at counter 5". And, about every 10 or 15 minutes that sweet voice would call another random number. Sometimes it was an A number, sometimes a B number...never a C number because those were reserved for written test taking and there was no action happening in that department. Sometimes a person would make their way to the counter, sometimes not. It didn't matter because it was always at least 10 minutes between numbers. Sometimes it would call the same number three times in a row - over a 30 minute period. With no other numbers inbetween. Sometimes it would go backward and call numbers that had already been called an hour ago. Just because.

The fun part for the first 2-1/2 hours was watching how many people came in, waited in line only to be told that they didn't have the correct documentation for whatever they needed. Need to change your address... don't have a birth certificate, current license, bank statement, rental agreement, and phone bill in original envelope it was mailed in? Sorry. Need to surrender your Louisiana license for a Tennessee license... don't have a passport, signed lease, current vehicle registration, social securty card, and current payroll stub? Sorry. Need to replace a lost ID... don't have a current ID or license and birth certificate, payroll stub, passport and cable bill in proper envelope? Sorry. We were fortunate because we called first and determined that it would be best to bring our current license, passport, birth certificate, water bill**, electric bill, phone bill, direct TV bill, Christmas cards, high school yearbook, IRA statement...actually we just loaded the whole fire safe into the back of the car.

(**OK, don't even get me started on the water bill. When we bought this cabin we were assured that ESCUD, East Sevier County Utility District, was a solid public utility department. And after all, English Mountain has its very own 'bottled spring water' so the supply is good, right? We were told that our water bill would be $53.62 per month. No matter if we used a gallon or five million gallons of water - the bill was $53.62 per month. Really? Whatever. For the few weeks we actually lived here off and on the first year the 'random' and 'sporadic' water outages were no big deal. An hour here or there...a few hours here or there. We chalked it up to construction, or...really, we had no clue but the neighbors all seemed to just go with the flow (haha - get it?! I crack me up!). Then we were notified sometime last year that actual working meters were being installed and our monthly bill would reflect the amount of water used. This was great news for us since we were seldom there and it seemed silly to pay for water when we weren't even using any. Several months ago, our first 'new' water bill arrived... $53.62 PLUS $38.40 for actual water used. What? Really? So we still have to pay the $53.62 PLUS what we use? What kind of deal is that? OK, that wouldn't have been all that bad, but the 'random' and 'sporadic' water outages have become more and more 'frequent' and 'annoying' and 'predictable' and 'lengthy'. As in, if there are a lot of dirty dishes, there will not be any water. If it is time to take a bath, there will not be any water. If it is time to do laundry, there will not be any water. We have actually resorted to collecting rain water and boiling it... ok - enough of the water issue - back to the DMV!)

Still Tuesday: The clock ticked, the numbers were called and finally a breakthrough! That sweet, automated voice on the speaker said "Now serving number C-143 at counter 4". Hooray! We were only four test-takers away from finally getting to take our written tests. Finally Paul's number was called and he went up to the counter, exchanged documents...then was told to take a seat and wait. Are you kidding me? That is exactly like the 'switch & bait' routine used at doctor's offices - you get ushered out of the waiting room into an exam room and...wait some more. Then my number was called and I went up to the counter, exchanged documents... then was told to take a seat and wait. REALLY?! This is the point at which I noticed another printed sign tacked on the wall 'Failed exams cannot be re-taken for 7 days'. So if I don't pass the written test today, I cannot retake it until next Tuesday which is the only day next week that this office is open, then I cannot schedule the driving portion until after that if there are any time slots left open and that leaves me the option of about 30 minutes on the last day we are in Tennessee before leaving the state. Suddenly the urgency of the situation settled heavy on my shoulders. Perhaps I should have actually studied the motorcycle book instead of poking fun at the silly illustrations and idiotic sample questions...

Paul was summoned to computer terminal #2. Let the testing begin. Several minutes later I was summoned to terminal #3. I settle in, begin my exam. First question: In the above diagram, the vehicle colored red is a a) truck b) car c) bus d) boat. OK, maybe the studying wasn't all that necessary. After about 4 more questions I was beginning to wonder if I was taking the correct test since every question was referring to carrying passengers, busses, etc. I lean over to Paul and whisper 'Is your test asking motorcycle questions?' to which he replies in a hushed an nervous voice 'Yea, and they are really hard.'. So I get up and return to the lady at counter #3 and explain that I don't think I have the correct test. After a bit of confusion and questions between a couple of the DMV employees one of the ladies says 'Oh yes ma'am when ah intered yur test for tha motorcyacle taest it jus' bumped it out an I guess it went on down to tha naxt wun which is ahright if ya wanned to drive a taxi. haha'. Not really that funny to me, but I take pride in the fact that I had gotten every answer correct to that point! Then she says 'Well ya'all jus go on back an sit down there at the computer an ah'l reboot the thang so jus sit for a few more minutes.'. Allrighty. Finally, the correct test pops onto the screen and the fun really begins. 30 questions, must get 24 correct to pass. After the first fifteen questions correct I am feeling good about this...then a question about the motorcycle clutch/shift control combination...wait? What? I have a SCOOTER - there is no clutch. Crap - INCORRECT blinks on the screen. Next question: Tailgater following - what do you do? a) use obscene gestures b) honk your horn c) slow down d) move to the far right of your lane OK - I rest my case. I also picked D...INCORRECT. Seriously - the correct answer is C? Only if you have a death wish. Next question...INCORRECT. Are you kidding me? Three in a row? I started sweating after that. Out of the corner of my eye I see Paul approach the counter...I hear the DMV lady say 'Ahright Mr. Baieer, ya'all passed yer exam an that'll be thraee dollers.'. Paul passed and I just missed another one...are you kidding me?? Sweat is running down the back of my neck, I have lost count, the questions just keep coming at me, this test is lasting forever...INCORRECT! Crap - that is five! I can't miss another one. When will these questions stop coming... finally, TEST OVER. Thank the Lord! 'Ahright Maiss Baieer, ya'all passed yer exam an that'll be thraee dollers.'. Hooray! Then she fills out some more forms, fills in some blanks, and gives us each back the goldenrod copy of the Tennessee Driver's License Application with explicit instructions to bring that back with us when we take the driving portion of the test. Yes ma'am. Thank you ma'am.

Wednesday: We drive down the mountain (in the rain) back to the DMV for the driving portion of the motorcycle license exam. We actually got lucky and were able to find two open slots back-to-back at 11 and 11:30. All the way there we check and re-check our list - helmets? check; goggles? check; registration? check; insurance? check; rain gear? check; goldenrod copies from yesterday? check; gloves? check; passports? check; test confirmation printout? check; current licenses? check...on and on. Arrive early enough to unload the scooter from the trailer and start it up just to make sure the battery isn't dead! Check! We go inside the DMV and wait in line for a while. When we get to the front of the line we tell the DMV employee that we need to take the driving portion of the motorcycle test. She hands us each a clipboard with a blank Tennessee Driver's License Application form - but we just filled that out yesterday - here is the goldenrod copy we were told to bring back - what? We still need to fill out the exact same form again? Really? Why? Paul is telling me to be quiet and just do it. But why? Oh, and we also get two more numbers, D027 and D028 and we are told to sit and wait until our number is called. But we have a scheduled appointment...sit down and wait. But...

I was overjoyed when that sweet, automated voice came over the speaker and called D027 to counter 5! I was so excited, in fact, that I went with Paul with my number (D028) which would be called next anyhow, and we were kind of a 'two-for-one' package deal what with only one scooter, one credit card...you know! The DMV lady took Paul's information, asked several questions, filled out his form, told him that the examiner would be right with him, then she stood up, put her coat on and said that she was going to lunch but if I wanted to have a seat and wait until my number was called someone else would take care of me. Really? Eventually, someone else did and we both ended up walking outside with the examiner ready for the big driving test.

The DMV examiner did a check of all the basic operating systems (horn, lights, blinkers...yea, that's about all there is on a scooter) then she says to Paul 'Ya'all go on out of here, turn raight, turn raight agin, raight, raight and come on back here, jus' go 'round the block an' if ya don't lay 'er down or make me call 911 then ya'all pass'. Are you joking? So he goes around the block. Done. Then the skies open up and the torrential rains begin and it is my turn. Same deal - around the block without killing myself or anyone else. Easier said than done in the blinding rain! At the first stop sign I can't see out of my goggles between the fog and rain, and a city dump truck races past on the street centering on the biggest pot-hole possible, drenching me and my little blue scooter in filthy, muddy rainwater. Turn onto the 6 lane highway from hell realizing that I have never actually driven on wet roads before...please...just let me get through the next 120 yards...turn again...the parking lot is in sight...and there is Paul and the DMV lady chatting up a storm, not even looking at me?!? I guess I passed!

Back inside, more paperwork, more money, take pictures for new "M-Class" license. DMV lady says 'Now it'll take just a few more minutes so if ya'all wanna have a seat an fill out this customer service survey while ya'all are waitin' for yer new license, well, we sure would appreciate it'. Really? Paul filled his out with all 'excellent' marks because he feared he wouldn't have his new license handed over if he didn't. I left mine blank!

Ohhh the weather outside is frightful, na na na na na na na na

2008-12-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

It is cold. It is raining. It is snowing. It is icing. It is sleeting. It is windy. It is freezing. It has been like this for 4 weeks now.

My people used to take me to the park, take me hiking, take me on long walks in the woods, take me to the dog park, take me on scooter rides...not anymore. At least not for the last 4 weeks. My five mile a day walks have been discontinued and replaced with a fitness center membership...oh wait...that is only for PEOPLE - not dogs. I get several extra hours in my kennel. Yay.

Every day my people put on soft Christmas music, put me in my kennel with a milk-bone and get in the car and leave me for hours. They come back all energized from a long work-out and I get a five minute walk in the rain. I don't even like Christmas music. And yes, the weather outside is frightful! Florida is still two weeks away. Damn.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2008-11-25T16:30:00.000-08:00

Autumn '08 in the Smoky Mountains People Notes

2008-11-15T09:54:00.000-08:00

The hiking is fantastic in Smoky Mountain National Park any time of the year, but our favorite time to hit the trails is definitely in the fall when the weather is spectacular and the colors are vibrant. A couple of trails that we hiked recently did not disappoint as evidenced by these pictures (which don't even begin to do justice to the magnificence of the Smokies!).

Trillium Falls Trail - hiking behind a waterfall was cool - a bit creepy, but very cool!

Lower Mount Camerer Trail

Happy Trails!

Autumn '08 in the Smoky Mountains

2008-11-15T08:57:00.000-08:00

I hear that the hiking is great in Smoky Mountain National Park - especially in the fall. I wouldn't know because of this:

Clearly I know when I am not wanted!

However, my people do take me for long walks in our neighborhood which is just outside of Smoky Mountain National Park and I think it is quite nice.

Except when it rains...I hate when it rains. Bad for my hair.

Damn!

Fall Break People Notes

2008-11-13T13:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, it was a wonderful week...the grandkids, papa, mema, the cabin in the woods, nature, activities, lemonade on the porch, bonding time, swinging in the hammock, roasting marshmallows, walks in the woods, sweet memories.....ahhhhh! A storybook adventure.

After night one. Which brings us to the next blog entry:

"GOING GREEN"

It had been a long day beginning with making pancakes, playing outdoors, collecting leaves, swinging, baking cookies, climbing hills, sitting around the campfire, and all that mushy grandparenty stuff one's mind conjures with the much anticipated 'time-spent-with-the-grandkids-don't-screw-it-up-let's-make-nice-memories' week at the cabin with a 5 and 9 year old. Granted, we are a bit out of practice, but having semi-successfully raised 4 boys between us and giving advice to numerous other 'drop-ins' (and drop-outs) through the years with no major battlescars or other obvious trauma we figured we had this one in the bag for sure. The day had been successful at every level including a relatively healthy diet (ok, not so much the pancakes, but we did serve them with turkey bacon which has much less fat than the typical Tennessee pork salt variety), no injuries requiring first aid or the assistance of 'nurse papa', and a bubble bath complete with the tub jets to spray off the majority of the caked on grit, grime and any residual ticks or other bugs. A quick albeit somewhat tearful call home to mommy and daddy to tell them goodnight and the day was coming to a close which was good at this point because although the 5 and 9 year old kids could have probably continued on their energizer batteries for another several hours, well, we old'er' people were tired as all get out not being used to getting up and moving much before mid-morning and missing our mid-day naps and all...well, we were just plain tuckered - exhausted actually - couldn't get those kids up the ladder and tucked into bed fast enough. Thinking ahead and being the proactive grandparents that we are, we had filled the loft with toys, books, favorite stuffed animals and pillows from home to ward off any potential homesickness, as well as a flashlight at the top of the ladder and a couple of activated glowsticks to illuminate the loft just enough in the event of a midnight trip down the ladder for the bathroom or any other late night roaming around which necessitated a safe exit from the bed. Kiss, kiss, hug, hug, goodnight all....holy crap we were sooooo tired that we barely made it down the ladder and stumbled into our bed...smiling softly we were proud of surviving day one and we were especially looking forward to falling off into a wonderful, well-deserved, restful sleep...boys were quiet...crickets chirping...dog barking in the distance...burrowing deeper and deeper into the down pillow with the warm quilt wrapped around my tired bones...a soft whisper from the loft "Ryan, are you asleep?" and with no answer the night is upon us...the pitter-patter of little feet shuffling...probably looking for a favorite toy to slip under his pillow..."Ryan, wake up."

Groggy and in a dream-like state, I mumble "Matthew, go to sleep."

Whispers.

Pitter-patters.

"Ryan, I really need you to wake up."

"Matthew, don't you dare wake up your brother. Go to sleep."

Snoring...oh wait, that is Paul.

Then there is whimpering..."But, but, but...I can't get it off...and, and, and..."

I lazily roll over and push Paul out of bed. "Go check on him." And I snuggle back into my dream-like state. Soooo tired. Soooo comfortable. Sooooo warm...beginning to have sweet dreams suddenly I hear Paul say in a well-controlled voice "Matthew - DON'T MOVE - HOLD STILL - STAY RIGHT THERE!"

Well, this can't be good.

So I roll out of bed, stumble over to the ladder and start climbing, only to run into Paul who is perched half in the loft and half on the ladder and I rub my eyes...yes, there is a curious green glow coming from the loft...climb another step up...and for a moment in time we all were frozen in our tracks in a vibrant, neon, luminescent, chartreuse, day-glo, surreal green world.

I know that in the next nanosecond my brain processed at a speed faster than my laptop computer - 'Holy crap, why is everything green, not just green, but radioactive green, there are splatters of green on the ceiling, green hand prints on the floor, the ladder, the bookcase, why is Matthew standing in the middle of the room glowing, what has caused his hands to look like little kryptonite mittens, holy crap, his face is glowing, no - this can't be projectile vomiting (well, maybe the turkey bacon?!), he has green speckles (freckles?) covering his entire body, giant green welts on his spiderman pajamas that look like the green goblin is winning the war, should we call the 'haz-mat' guys or should we just gown up ourselves, all the little action figures look like they exploded on a bio-luminescent battleground, glow worms gone wild...holy crap, the glow-sticks, what went wrong, did they explode up here, what was on that stupid warning label, are these chemicals bad, did I bother to read the warning label, am I still going to get 'grandparent-of-the-year', probably not now, does this stuff burn, rule number one is to stay calm, this looks like fireflies gone very, very bad....'

In the softest, sweetest voice I can muster I ask "Matthew, honey, are you ok? What happened?" And I proceed up the ladder and put my arm around him (slightly wondering if I am going to get burned, scarred and disfigured for life if I actually touch him) and he proceeds to tell me his story:

"Um, um, um...well, I wanted to make the, um, um, I wanted the glo-stick to glow more and um, um, so, um, I shook it hard like this, um, like you did it, and um it didn't get any brighter so, and, um then I held it really tight like this, like you did and um, I um bent it really hard like I saw you do it, um, um, and then um shaked it some more, then I shaked it harder, and then um, um then it started to um get on my hands...' and we can finish this sentence from here: and my pajamas and my bunny and the ceiling and the pillow and the floor and the toys and the ladder and the rug and the quilt and my brother and the walls and the books and the dog... So we (calmly, very calmly) get towels and washcloths to begin cleaning the radioactive room, but you know, as soon as you turn on the lights the glowing green world disappears and all appears normal, lights off - glowing green: lights on - normal world: lights off - glowing green: lights on - normal world. And you know what else? That crap doesn't wipe off, doesn't clean off, doesn't come off, doesn't glow any less with any given amount of effort. It simply has to wear off with time. Armed with a stack of clean towels and a clean pair of pajamas to put on Matthew I sit on the edge of the futon...bam...tipped the thing on its end, flipped Ryan out of bed onto the floor (who had been sleeping soundly through this entire green indiglo affair) and then started giggling to the point where I couldn't even breathe anymore. Oh well...maybe if I swore them to secrecy and bribed them with cookies and go-carts, maybe they wouldn't tell their parents about the horrible, terrible, middle-of-the-night, g(l)owing green adventure at mema and papa's cabin.

After the best possible clean-up efforts we all settled back to the wonderful, tired, ready to fall asleep any second dream-like state that we had been in mere hours earlier...ahhhh...boys are quiet...crickets chirping...burrowing deeper into the down pillow...

Whimpers..."Mema...my fingers are still lighted up..."

"I know honey. It will be gone in the morning. I love you. Go to sleep."

Snoring...oh wait...that is Paul.

Fall Break

2008-11-13T12:56:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! The little people (Ryan & Matthew) came to the cabin for their fall break!! I love sharing my cabin with little people...or any people, really, since we are kind of in the middle of nowhere and visitors aren't commonplace. We did some fun stuff that week. We hiked around the hills and played in the dirt - it was great to have little people who like dirt as much as I do. We got to stay up late and tell scary stories. We gathered firewood and learned about building fires and then, of course, we lit marshmallows on fire like little torches. Cool. We spent almost all of our time outside playing and painting and running and getting messy.

One day all the people went to the Nascar go-cart track in town, but no dogs allowed so I stayed home and napped. That was ok because I was pretty worn out and tired by then.

We had so much fun - I hope we get more visitors to our cabin.

Happy (NOT MY) Birthday People Notes

2008-11-07T11:35:00.001-08:00

Happy 6th birthday, Matthew!!! 'Jump Zone' was awesome! Now move over all you little kids because the big people want to play!

Jeannie, David and Paul take the plunge! (**reference blog posting dated 09/01/08 at http://www.katyanderik.blogspot.com/ )

As previously noted from the alpine slide adventure a couple of months ago, the biggest plunge of all was taken by Paul. In fact, Paul took two plunges. That afternoon, the eighteen 5 and 6 year olds and the three of us 'older folks' (David, Jeannie and Paul) thought it would be fun to try Jump Zone's inflatable slides. For you flatlanders that don't know what an inflatable slide is, it derives from everyone's favorite playground structure: the metal slide. Instead of metal and wood, though, the slide is made of plastic and filled with air.

Jump Zone sliding is not meant to be difficult. Unlike playground sliding, there is no hot metal, no ladder to climb, no hard surfaces, no rock-throwing, no mud puddles, and no hard landings at the bottom. I don't even think there is an age limit. The only thing you control is where you place your bottom, legs, feet, arms and hands on the slide. To operate; sit, slide, stand up. Somehow, Paul missed these instructions.

For our first run, Paul and Jeannie started together for a friendly race down the fire engine side-by-side slide. As we began our descent, I thought to myself, "Hey, Paul's never driven a car faster than 27 miles an hour, so I'll just take it easy and wait for him at the bottom." Wrong. Before I finished that thought, a Paul-shaped blur was 2 feet* ahead of me (*the slide is approximately 9 feet in length!), disappearing into the air. I didn't see him again until halfway down the fire-engine slide, when I passed him trying to get back on his rear end. I thought to myself, "Paul must have stopped to take a potty break." Wrong. When we met up at the bottom, I could see from the missing skin (knees, hands, elbow) and melted polyester t-shirt (seriously) that Paul had taken a fall. If you were paying attention above, you know that this should not be possible.

He took the challenge to race David for a second run. Not wanting to lose any more skin, Paul noted his intent to "take it easy this time," which he did. Three feet into the race, David was comfortably in the lead, and I thought to myself, "Well, good, he's really taking it easy, so he won't fall this time." Wrong. David got to the bottom and we waited. And waited. And waited. And finally, he finished the last 2 feet - going 0 miles per hour - and made it to the bottom. He had done the impossible. He had fallen on the inflatable Jump Zone fire-engine slide. Twice.

Lucky we had plenty of bandages and ointment left from his alpine slide adventure.

Happy (NOT MY) Birthday

2008-11-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

We have celebrated so many birthdays in recent months that I have lost count. Except mine. No, we did NOT celebrate Odie's birthday because some people forgot. But I'm not bitter. Really.

Matthew was turning 6 and this party sounded like a lot of fun...we loaded into the car, drove down to Alabama the night before and spent a whole day baking & decorating a giant birthday cake that looked like Batman's Bat Cave, stuffing goodie bags, wrapping presents, buying ice cream (I LOVE ice cream) and making the final birthday party plans. It was going to be at a place called "Jump Zone" with dozens of little people and giant, inflatable things that you can jump on, crawl on, climb on, slide down, etc... I was soooo excited.

Then they all loaded into the cars and left me at the house. Are you kidding??

So I snuck out of my kennel, turned on the TV, watched movies and played games all afternoon. I don't care if I am still grounded from the video games. Sighhh...

They didn't even bring me any ice cream. Damn.

Trick-or-Treat

2008-10-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

I can do tricks. I can sit, stay, roll over, lay down, shake, high five, jump, dance, catch a frisbee, sit up, swim...I can even do obstacle courses...

I like treats. Bacon, bones, pupperoni, snausages, jerky, cheese, peanut butter, apples...NOT carrots, cookies, ice cream, pizza...

So I thought 'trick-or-treating' would be awesome!!! I don't mind doing the tricks just so long as I get a treat when I'm done. I had no idea that Halloween and 'trick-or-treating' involved dressing up.

Are you kidding me?? Absolutely not. No way. Forget it. Not going to happen. Never, ever in a million dog years (which is like seven million people years).

This has been the most humiliating experience of my life. I hate Halloween. My people said that I don't get any treats unless I wear a costume. Damn.

There's No Place Like Home People Notes

2008-10-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

Hooray! Made it back to the cabin just in time for the gorgeous fall colors and fantastic weather. We were not planning to be gone for such a long time, but the cabin survived just fine without us. With the exception of the jungle overgrowth covering the entire driveway and some impressive cobwebs, all was well.

Paul 'Bunyan' spent a few days tackling the forest, overgrowth and taking out some dead trees that were endagering the cabin roof and power lines, then he planted some blue spruce and hemlock to eventually fill in the gaps. In a single afternoon he built a most impressive picnic table from scrap wood. And on the seventh day he rested...I'm pretty sure he is still resting!

I couldn't get to the barn and hit the trails fast enough. Good friends, good trails, good horses... Climbing back into the saddle on the gentle giant Ben was a bit intimidating at first - was he this big and tall last year? Sure is nice to be back out riding with my 2-legged friends (Sandy & Darlene) and my 4-legged friends (Ben, Penny, Sheba, and Stella).

Ahhh...there's no place like home! Here is the view from the top of English Mountain overlooking Smoky Mountain National Park. We live 'jus down tha road uh piece frum hare' as they say in Appalachia!

There's No Place Like Home...there's no place like home...

2008-10-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

FINALLY!!! We made it back home to the cabin in Tennessee. That was one long road trip! I am not exactly sure why my people refer to this as home because I (Odie) only spent a couple of weeks here last fall when my people rescued me. Then they told me we were going for a ride in the car. That was some kind of long car ride! We have been gone for 10 months, logged thousands of miles in the car, crossed deserts and mountains, lived in several different cities & states, visited people, dogs, little people and even cats ...but now we are back here and I gotta tell you - this place is pretty cool.

I assume this is my bed...what? It isn't? Well my memory failed me on that one!

Love the porch swing...just 'hanging around' (ha ha - get it? 'hanging around'! Ha! I crack me up!) watching the leaves turn colors! 'Yawn'...sooooo tired.

Play ball? Anybody? Hello?? People? Throw the ball. Throw the ball. Throw the ball. Hello?

This thing I found behind the cabin looked promising at first, but as it turned out - not so much fun. Wouldn't play, wouldn't bark, wouldn't play ball, wouldn't do anything...BORING! Stupid turtle.

'Yawn...' hmmm, looks like I have to take another nap out here in the autumn sun. Damn!

Sweet Home Alabama

2008-10-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

Our visit in Dallas was a lot of fun even tho there was a hurricane, more birthday parties (not mine!), and CATS!! I especially enjoyed seeing my cousins Ginny and Eddie, and meeting my new cousin Sir Wallee. I always like hanging out with little people - they are fun. I am sad that I didn't get a chance to play with my cousin Berklee...my people did because I smelled her all over them when they came home one night. They told me that they were going to dinner with the Cartwrights, but they didn't tell me that Berklee lives there now since Erik & Katy moved to New York. I pouted for several hours over that. I think Berklee is almost as cute as Ginny. My people also snuck out one other night and had dinner with Terri and didn't include me. Terri is the best dog-loving person in the whole world - she always has toys and treats and gets down on the floor to play. Maybe next time!

Pack, load, and back on the road again. For the record, the scenery in East Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama is beyond boring but still better than Kansas! We landed in Madison, Alabama where David, Jennifer, Ryan and Matthew live. Woohoo! I remember this place - the little people here have more toys than anyplace I have ever been (even tho most of the toys taste like plastic...blech), and they run and jump and play and take me on tons of walks.

We went to soccer practice. We went to soccer games. We played at the playgrounds. We played sword fights. We went to more soccer games. (*The little people are WAY better at soccer than the big people!) We played on the monkey bars. We played at the park. We played in the yard. We played, and played, and played...and played some more.

I discoverd teeter-totters...learned how to do that! It was FUN!

After a few days I was exhausted and ready to make the final leg of our journey home. I missed home. Wait, what? We don't live in Alabama? But I named this post 'sweet home Alabama'. Seriously - we live in Tennessee?? Oops! Damn.

Duck, duck...goose! Birdie, birdie...eagle!

2008-10-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

At some point during the conversation (most likely after a couple of beers) this motley group decided that playing 18 holes of golf would be fun. Sounded like a fantastic idea at the time. (This is where I must interject the fact that 2 of us had never played golf in our entire lives, 1 of us played a couple of horrible tournaments in his corporate life about 20 years ago, 1 of us recently played twice but has cool golf shoes so feels compelled to get his money's worth from the footwear, none of us owns golf clubs, one of us scored under 100 once...on 9 holes of miniature golf, one of us can drive a golf cart like Jimmy Johnson, none of us has a clue what the difference is between a putter, 9 iron, 7 wood, 3,6,8...whatever all those thingies were, and we opted to play in the morning - well before happy hour.) This was going to be interesting!!

"So, Brian...looks like you might have lost your 4th ball there." (this is hole #2)

"What do you mean I have to play...can't I just drive the cart and look cute? How do you hold this thing?"

"Chris, are you sure you have never played before? How do you hit it so straight? Are we bothering you when we keep talking while you are hitting? What club are you using?"

Paul insisted that a baseball swing would work with a golf club. He tried it every time.

"One more try, c'mon guys...let me try to hit it one more time...there's no 'three strikes and you're out' rule in golf...just one more..."

Finally, we resorted to the 'scramble' approach after several groups asked to 'play through'...whatever that means!

(tee-hee...he missed that putt from like 2 inches...must have been the shoes!!)

Who's idea was this??

Sometimes it isn't how you play the game...it's who you know!!!

"Wait...what?? Are you positive that the highest score is NOT the winner? But the guys told me the highest score wins. Seriously? Damn."

Putting a new spin on frisbee...Odie rebuttal

2008-10-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

DAMN!! DAMN!! DAMN!!

Putting a new spin on frisbee... People Notes

2008-10-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

As I was drinking my coffee this morning and casually surfing the internet, I realized there were dog paw prints on the keyboard. Apparently Odie snuck out of his kennel sometime late last night while his people were sleeping and decided to post a blog entry. I apologize to Katy & Erik (http://www.katyanderik.blogspot.com/) for the obvious plagiarism of text and photos from a recent blog of their own. Obviously, I do not condone this type of behavior, and rest assured that I have taken appropriate action under the circumstances. Odie has been grounded from the internet for the remainder of the week and he has also had his video game privileges revoked.

Bad Dog.

Putting a new spin on frisbee...

2008-10-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

In the long history of flying disc sports, there's never been an athlete quite like Jeannie. She combines the grace of a gymnast, the facial expressions of Jim Carrey, and the hops of Michael Jordan to create a sport that is at once beautiful and comical.

For reference, here's what normal Frisbee-playing looks like...

Now, here are some moves Jeannie has invented. First the "no-catch roundoff".

Next, the "split-leap, kiss-my-own-arm, two handed grab".

Now, the "self-tail-kicking, afraid-of-the-disc, two-handed grab".

Next, the "straddle-jump, eyes-closed(open), two-handed snag".

Next, the "tongue-in-cheek, waving-at-my-fans, Flying Flamingo catch".

Next, the "what-does-the-bottom-of-my-shoe-say?, whoops-there's-a-tree move".

Next, the "where's the trampoline Hurkey, two-finger grab".

Next, the "split-leap, jump-three-feet-over-the-disc, smiling non-catch".

Here, Paul's showing off the "look how casual I am reading the newspaper while leaning up against a tree" move, while I demonstrate how to catch a flying disc without making faces or pulling one's groin.

For the record, Jeannie can actually throw a Frisbee, though it's far less comical.

First the 'Big A' now the 'Big D' People Notes

2008-10-07T14:18:00.001-07:00

Our first stop in Texas landed us at Kim and Allan's house, and we couldn't get to the Tex-Mex frestaurants fast enough!! That is something that is hard to find in certain areas of the country and we gorged ourselves on guacamole and fantastic food! Yay!

Then we tried to beat the hurricane rains & winds and headed south to see the grandkids. They are so much fun to visit, and wow, do they ever grow fast! Cannot believe Michael and Kayla are almost a year older than our last trip through Texas. Kayla celebrated her 3rd birthday while we were in Dallas, and Michael got a visit from the tooth fairy! Brian & Jill have settled into a wonderful, fun life...including two very cool cats (even if Odie doesn't think so!).

We played with grandkids, had some good home cookin' (wait...I cooked!), hunkered down for a 'hurricane party' while Ike blew through, had a hilarious day of golf (more on that later), birthday parties for Kayla, Jeannie and Brian...and glorious Blue Bell Ice Cream!! That is the best ice cream in the world, and is not readily available in states outside of Texas. So, if you live in an area that has Blue Bell, consider yourself lucky because we have searched the freezer section in many states only to be disappointed.

Kayla entertained us in the evenings with her country charm and amazing vocals...I'm just saying that Hannah Montana had better be warned!

Thank you 'Big D'...happy trails!

First the 'Big A', now the 'Big D'

2008-10-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Our first stop in the 'Big D' was at my cousin's house. Ginny is one hot boxer! I especially love that mole on her cheek! Too bad she is my cousin or I would seriously consider marrying her. I tried to act all cool, growled a lot, showed my teeth, barked really loud, but my tail was definitely wagging the whole time! We played tug-o-war, chase, fetch...and she had a HUGE basket of toys - more than I ever dreamed of.

Our next stop in the 'Big D' looked promising at first...more little people to hang with! I love those little people. Kayla was fun, but she kept trying to make me play with dolls. Ughh!

This was going to be fun! Wait.....what?? Are you kidding?? Seriously?
OH MY GOD!!!!
In the same house? This is a joke, right? This is a bad dream, right?
This is going to be very, very bad. This is 'Odie and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day'.

Simba and Nala...great. I dare you stupid cat...come down from there. I don't care if you do have claws...you are still smaller than me.

"Knock Knock...."

"Who's there?"

"Cat-nip-gram..."

(They didn't fall for it no matter how many times I knocked!)

Then I got to meet another new cousin, Sir Walter Wallee. He's cute, but gets all the attention because he is still a baby. No worries, I simply stole his rawhide!!

I was having a lot of fun in the 'Big D', playing with the little people Michael & Kayla, and my cousins, and I was really enjoying tormenting the cats. Then there was another birthday party, then another and another. Seems that we have birthday parties everywhere we go and for everyone but me. Jeannie had something like 3 or 4 birthday parties. They better remember me next year. Damn.

Happy Trails Little Mountain People!

2008-10-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

My people went to the 'Big Apple' and they didn't even bring me a lousy t-shirt. Sure, everybody else got a t-shirt, but not the dog. Hmmph.

I had a pretty good time staying here with Marcus and Miles, but we had a few issues. For example:

* I do like chewing on stuffed animals, but I am NOT a stuffed animal

* I do not like having my tail, ears or hair pulled

* I will escape through an open front door

* I do like sharing your people food, but I do NOT like when you try to eat my dog food

* I do like sleeping in your bed, but I do NOT like when you try to sleep in MY bed

* I do like chasing things, but I do not like being chased

* I am grumy when I don't get my full morning nap

* I will pick up a baby pacifier and run away with it every time it falls to the ground

(*People Note* Thanks a million Sam, Jess, Marcus & Miles...we appreciate you puttiing up with Odie while we were gone!)

It wasn't bad enough that my people went to NY and didn't take me, didn't call me once, didn't bring me back a single present...then they had the nerve to have a birthday party for Jeannie. Nobody remembered my birthday back in June, but both of my people had great birthday parties this summer. This one included homemade lasagne, homemade carrot cake (world's best) and ICE CREAM!!! I love ice cream. Thankfully the little people had to eat their ice cream outside on the porch right where I was waiting.....

Drop it....drop it....

Drop it....drop it....c'mon

Drop it....

Oh yea...he dropped it!!! That's all it took - one half eaten ice cream cone and all was forgiven!

The next morning we loaded up and headed eastsoutheast...somewhere in a general direction of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas... I sure am going to miss Colorado and all the little people and the mountains and the hiking and the backyard and the squirrels. Back in the car, endless hours listening to the Jeannie sing-a-long. Damn.

New York City?! People Notes

2008-10-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

New York City is a 'wicked cool' place to visit (as they say in the northeast), so off we went for a big city adventure, oh yea, and to celebrate our 15th anniversary! Of course, it was an immense help to have Erik & Katy there to act as our tour guides and generally to keep us out of trouble. This worked for the most part, with a few minor exceptions when left to our own devices... especially when it came to subway navigation. We only ended up in Queens once and Harlem once...OK, twice - but miraculously we always found our way back! Finding our hotel was relatively easy, as it was across the street from the Empire State Building!

First, let me just say that the food choices in NY are overwhelming, unlike the culinary wasteland we have here in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee. Coal fired pizza, 'street meat', Chinatown Chinese, Koreatown Korean, Little Italy Italian, gourmet everything...restaurants dedicated to one specialty i.e., Rice to Riches (nothing but rice pudding!), Empanada Mama (yup, all empanadas) and cupcake stores galore! It was pure heaven. We ate our way from the financial district all the way to the Upper East Side - more than once. Burp. Top honors go to the K&E Steakhouse on 71st Street with their melt-in-your mouth filets followed by Brooklyn Blackout fudge cake...fantastic!

There is simply too much to do in New York - and we did a lot! I cannot possibly begin to tell you all of the ground that we covered, so here are a few of our favorites from this trip:

* Museum of Natural History - incredible exhibits, huge, overwhelming...we could have spent weeks here but had to settle for a few hours of appreciation. Then our brains were full. Paul finally found the elusive moose he had spent the summer searching for in Colorado.

* Central Park - picnics with a few hundred thousand close friends, NFL kickoff concert with Kieth Urban, Duke softball tournament, and K&E frisbee freestyle olympics!

* NY Public Library - this should be one of the seven wonders of the world! My favorite place in all of New York, hands down.

* Brooklyn Bridge - the South Street Seaport on one side, Bodies exhibit (gross), a brisk walk across the bridge, and Grimaldi's Pizza on the other side. How can life get any better?

* Staten Island Ferry - mesmerizing views which encompass the Manhattan skyline, Brooklyn, Ellis Island and the powerful Statue of Liberty. Pictures don't do it justice.

* Hudson Boat Basin & Riverside Park - a uniquely designed area where we spent many hours walking, and walking, and walking... we sure were thirsty when we got to the restaurant!

* Financial District, Wall Street, NY Stock Exchange - who knew that this would become the center for world news for the past couple of weeks?! "We were there!" is what we say everyday when the news begins.

* Washington Square Park & Greenwich Village - or, if you live here, it is just 'the Village'. Very eclectic, cool, unique, trendy...just like us! (stop laughing)

* Chinatown & Little Italy - unique, fun neighborhoods to wander the streets. And eat. And eat some more. Burp. And wander the streets. And eat.

* Times Square & ABC Studios - Good Morning America - this was probably worth dragging my lazy self out of bed before dawn to stand in line to get in the studio audience to watch the early morning news to get a photo op with famous people ...probably.

* World Trade Center / Ground Zero - we visited this exact location three months after 9/11. Although the construction has begun and the area is undergoing development and rebirth, the feelings of sadness, loss and heartache are as strong now as they were 7 years ago.

*Erik's office building!! Somewhere waaaay up there is where he works. We don't know what he does. We don't have a clue. He has patiently explained it to us a dozen different ways...we still don't know what he does. But he met us for lunch several times, introduced us to 'street meat', Bryant Park, Margon (Cuban lunch counter) and Juniors! I think that is his job - finding great places for lunch. And something to do with investors.

Thank you New York!! Happy Trails.

NEW YORK CITY?!

2008-10-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

My people went to New York City and did not take me. Therefore, I am once again protesting this unfair action by launching yet another dog writers strike. So there.

Farewell summer of '08 People notes

2008-09-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

We managed to sneak in one last trip to the Simpson cabin with Grandma Simpson and spent a couple of days before our summer tour came to an end. The weather was spectacular and unusually warm. As it turned out, this was a good thing because the hot water heater decided that hot water was not going to be happening...Paul, a plumber, a lot of patience, sponge baths, some boiling water, spare parts, some long distance phone calls to Rich...it all worked out in the end!

We checked out the Grand Lake Golf Course, and it has been ravaged by the pine beetles as much of Grand County has been. Poked our heads into most of the little shops along the main street of Grand Lake and gorged ourselves on homemade ice cream cones. We ate a fantastic dinner in town (I have no idea what the name of the restaurant was, but it was good!) and sat at the bar and watched the olymic women's gymnastics with a beer and peach cobbler! It seemed appropriate at the time! Nice choice.

Grandma checked on the little pine tree that Erik planted some 20 years ago...seems either the tree has grown tremendously, or Grandma has shrunk!! Again, it was so wonderful to have access to the cabin all summer...thank you, thank you , thank you!

Seems we all get older...so when we attended a surprise 50th birthday party for a friend from high school...well, let's just say we may be older, but we look damn good!!! Seriously, has it been that long? Seriously? Holy crap! Anyhow, happy birthday Brian, and thanks to Cindy for pulling off a fantastic surprise party! So much fun - so many great memories! (Yes, I will continue to pay you to NOT repeat some of those stories from Douglas County High School class of ?! Seriousy?!) Happy Trails!

Farewell summer of '08

2008-09-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I guess this is it. The end of a fun summer in Colorado. I spent a lot of time watching the olympics and now I cannot decide if I want to pursue a career in basketball, soccer or tennis. Any input from my loyal readers? I loved the Rocky Mountains and all the miles of hiking trails. I loved hanging out at the Simpson cabin in Grand Lake and hunting mice, prairie dogs and rabbits. I will definitely miss the gorgeous weather, blue sky, dry air and brilliant sunlight...my fur has never looked so straight and sun-bleached! I am saddened to leave my first and only backyard - in spite of the peach-catapulting squirrels. My people tell me that I will be staying here for a couple more weeks with Marcus (my favorite little person) while they head to New York City. I don't get to go to New York with them even tho I promised to be really quiet on the airplane. Damn.

Thar's gold in them thar hills!

2008-09-26T14:42:00.001-07:00

As a dog, and a very cute dog I might add, I have no idea what this blog is about. My people went somewhere with some other people and left me in the backyard all day and into the evening. Holy crap! That is a very long time to dodge the peach-throwing squirrels that have descended upon my little piece of paradise. That's right, folks...peach-throwing squirrels. You see, there are a couple of enormous peach trees in the front yard of our little 100+ year old house which have produced enough peaches to feed the entire state of Colorado. Not being a big peach eater myself, most of the fruit is just hanging around (ha ha, get it??!! 'hanging around'!) waiting for someone or something to pick it. The squirrels that live in the neighborhood seem to like peaches for a bite or two, then they get bored with them. So here's the deal...the squirrels have a little peach party in the front yard, pick a bunch of peaches, take a bite or two out of each one, throw a few around the front yard for the rabbits (who really, really like the peaches), and carry the rest of them across the tree branches, jump on the roof of the house, scamper up and across the roof into the backyard, jump on another tree branch and then, yes... no kidding.. then, ...yes ...ready...aim...and fire!! Those little furry rodents throw the peaches at me! I could not make this up. I bark like a lunatic, but they just giggle and throw some more.

How embarassing. How humiliating. How can I ever explain to my people how all of these peaches ended up in the backyard? I tried to bury them, but just couldn't dig fast enough. To make matters even worse, there is a grape arbor (is that what they really call this thing?) in the backyard. It has tons of purple grapes on it, and don't you know the squirrels don't eat those either, no...they just throw them. At me. Then they run and get more peaches. Damn.

Thar's gold in them thar hills!! People notes

2008-09-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

My sister Kathy and her husband Martin invited Paul and me to join them for a day of fun, food, beer and gambling. Who, in their right mind, can refuse and offer like that?!
(Christine refused our offer...her loss!!! But that's another story that I will let her tell someday!!)
We headed up the road toward Central City and Blackhawk. Now, if you grew up in Colorado as I did, Central City and Blackhawk were nothing more that little gold mining ghost towns somewhere near Denver. There was no reason to go there...if you have seen one mining ghost town, you've seen more than enough. Boring. However, things changed after I left the great state of Colorado many years ago.

Central City and Blackhawk (in 2ooo had a combined population of about 600) were former gold mining camps in the front range of the Rocky Mountains. They were instrumental in the Pike's Peak Gold Rush in 1859 and because of the rich veins of gold found there, the area became known as the 'richest square mile on earth' producing unheard of amounts of gold. Central City was the most populated city in the territory of Colorado at one time, but eventually lost out to Denver as the capital. Now they comprise a National Historic District...(yeah, yeah..whatever - get to the point) and in 1991 casino gambling was introduced. That's the point. We went gambling!

This was our second adventure to the casinos in Blackhawk and Central City - the first being nearly a year ago for my birthday. We discovered then that there was a tiny casino tucked away where the nickel slot machines seemed to have a higher than average payout. So that is where we (big spenders) headed with our rolls of nickels in hand. The Doc Holliday Casino. It wasn't more than five minutes into our gaming that my sister, Kathy sat staring at her nickel slot machine and, knowing even less about gambling that I do, she asked what the blinking lights meant! We're rich!!! Seven hundred and twenty nickels later...she was ready to play on!!!

Honestly, it couldn't have been more than a minute after that when my machine froze up...literally. Paul took notice and told me to hold on...wait...what?? Yes...my machine was showing EXACTLY the same pay line as Kathy's had just done. But there were no flashing lights, no bells, no whistles. Just a malfunctioning machine. We called for help and sure enough...yep! Seven hundred and twenty nickles later (which I politely asked for paper money as a payout) we were really rich!!!

Who says that lighning doesn't strike twice in the same spot?! Well, they were probably right. But after Paul walked away from a certain machine where he lost ALL of his nickels, I immediately walked up to it, plopped in my three nickels and WHAMMO! Bells, whistles and blinking lights!!! Hooray!!! This is a FUN game!

Paul eventually got in on the action, and we were all getting nickels like crazy!

Even Nurse Bob had a lucky streak going!

Woohoo!!
Kathy hit a couple more wins, I hit a couple small ones. Paul was at least staying even. Martin was not doing so great...but we gave him a few nickel loans just to keep him occupied.

We had a fantastic day - good food, good fun, good friends! I believe my grand winnings ended up somewhere around 2,600 (nickels!). Whenever I even thought about the quarter poker machines or (heaven forbid) the dollar slots...the earnings starting slipping quickly. We seriously considered staying over for beer and pancakes...but remembered Odie was stuck in the backyard!!

Martin was excited when our winnings paid for dinner!!

Happy trails!

Toto...we're not in Kansas anymore!!

2008-09-12T16:20:00.000-07:00

(Yes, I realize that I am missing about 4 weeks of blog entries, and they will be coming soon. But because my life is rather chaotic and this particular blog entry did not require photos to be uploaded, you get this one early. Or on time. Or late.)

Toto...we're not in Kansas anymore!

I am not really Toto, but I do look a lot like Toto - except that I am a strawberry blond, not a brunette, and Toto lived like fify or seventy years ago and might have been a girl. I don't know. I'm just saying that we spent two days in the car driving from Denver to Dallas and it seemed like 95% of that time was spent in Kansas. Why would anybody want to go back there? And why did Dorothy keep saying 'There's no place like home...there's no place like home..." in reference to Kansas? Seriously?! The land of Oz was a whole lot more interesting that anything in Kansas. In an effort to be open minded about the whole Kansas thing I tried to humor myself as we slowly passed the miles. (I say slowly because we were in the car behind Paul & the trailer, and we all know that Paul is a very slow driver - reference Erik's blog regarding alpine slide)

After 2 days of exhaustive research I have learned that this is what Kansas has to offer - which is likely the reason Dorothy and Toto were so anxious to get 'home':

1. Home of a 5-legged steer
2. Home of the world's largest prairie dog
3. Home of a 2 headed quail
4. Home of the world's largest corn husk collection
5. Home of the Sorghum Museum (is that what is growing in all those tens of thousands of acres of cropland across the state? What the heck is sorghum? And who uses it? Maybe we should have stopped at the museum.)
6. Home of Bunker Hill - with actual bunkers. When did Kansas come under attack? And what were they defending? Sorghum?
7. Home of the Salinia Lighthouse. A huge lighthouse at the Salina exit...there is no water for about 1300 miles so it is important to have a lighthouse to warn all those ships of the pending danger of running aground in the sorghum fields.
8. Home of the "2nd Friendliest Yarn Store in the Universe". Would you advertise that?

Toto...we're not in Kansas anymore. Music to my ears - thank goodness!

As our roadtrip continued...

Holy crap - Oklahoma??? There is a Dairy Queen every 14 miles which is great news for those of you who are not lactose intolerant. I believe Oklahoma is also home to every known BB-Q restaurant with a logo that includes a pig caricature. Porky's, Bubba's, Piggy's, Oinker's, Fatsy's.... thankfully that leg of the drive went by rather quickly.

Now we are in Dallas bracing for hurricane Ike. Guess I will have to take my walks in the rain for the next couple of days. I hate rain. Damn. (but the good news is that we are NOT in Kansas anymore!!)

Wedding Week People Notes

2008-08-16T06:27:00.001-07:00

Andrea (my niece) and Steve had the wedding event of the year! They got married in Steamboat Springs on top of a mountain in the most beautiful setting imagineable. The week was fun and filled with plenty of laughter, friends and family. There are stories from the hot springs in the dark (which we won't share here!), world famous margaritas at the Rio and at Mama P's condo, inner-tubing on the Yampa River (or body-surfing for a few of us christine ), alpine sliding down the mountain (or body surfing again for one of us paul ), gondola rides and never ending fun! Fortunately, we all survived the pre-wedding activities and events with no major injuries or mishaps.

The weather tried to hamper our plans at times, but persistence and planning prevailed! The wedding was officiated by Erik (aka 'Reverend' Louis Bimpson), all of the nephews had very important roles, the bride was stunning, the groom was appropriately nervous, the bridesmaids were beautiful and the wedding was perfect in every way. Congratulations Steve & Andrea!!!

Odie the Roadie

A Dialogue Between Me & the Dog

3644.8 *People Notes*

3644.8

Cowtown - Not for Dogs! *People Notes*

Cowtown - Not for Dogs!

(Not) Sleepless in Seattle *People Notes*

(Not) Sleepless in Seattle

The Left Coast *People Notes*

The Left Coast

Leaving LA - Part One *People Notes*

Leaving LA - Part One

Brian & Jill's Excellent (mis)Adventure

Brian & Jill's Excellent Adventure

It Never Rains in California *People Notes*

It Never Rains in California...

The Dog Days of Summer *People Notes*

The Dog Days of Summer

Surf's up, Dude!! *People Notes*

Surf's up, Dude!!

California or Bust *People Notes*

California or Bust!

Happy Birthday to Meee...Look Who Turned Three...

T-Ball and Dominos *People Notes*

T-Ball and Dominos

Done in the Sun and Heading North!

See Spot Run...*People Notes*

See Spot Run, Run Spot Run!

Catching up *People Notes*

Catching up...

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words *(people notes)

I LOVE VISITORS!!!

More Florida Learnings...

Hi-ho...hi-ho...it's off to work I go...

A New Year - A New You! *People Notes*

A New Year - A New You!

Merry Christmas!!

Ohhh the weather outside is frighful...*people notes*

Ohhh the weather outside is frightful, na na na na na na na na

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Autumn '08 in the Smoky Mountains *People Notes*

Autumn '08 in the Smoky Mountains

Fall Break *People Notes*

Fall Break

Happy (NOT MY) Birthday *People Notes*

Happy (NOT MY) Birthday

Trick-or-Treat

There's No Place Like Home *People Notes*

There's No Place Like Home...there's no place like home...

Sweet Home Alabama

Duck, duck...goose! Birdie, birdie...eagle!

Putting a new spin on frisbee...Odie rebuttal

Putting a new spin on frisbee... *People Notes*

Putting a new spin on frisbee...

First the 'Big A' now the 'Big D' *People Notes*

First the 'Big A', now the 'Big D'

Happy Trails Little Mountain People!

New York City?! *People Notes*

NEW YORK CITY?!

Farewell summer of '08 *People notes*

Farewell summer of '08

Thar's gold in them thar hills!

Thar's gold in them thar hills!! *People notes*

Toto...we're not in Kansas anymore!!

Wedding Week *People Notes*

3644.8 People Notes

Cowtown - Not for Dogs! People Notes

(Not) Sleepless in Seattle People Notes

The Left Coast People Notes

Leaving LA - Part One People Notes

It Never Rains in California People Notes

The Dog Days of Summer People Notes

Surf's up, Dude!! People Notes

California or Bust People Notes

T-Ball and Dominos People Notes

See Spot Run...People Notes

Catching up People Notes

A New Year - A New You! People Notes

Ohhh the weather outside is frighful...people notes

Autumn '08 in the Smoky Mountains People Notes

Fall Break People Notes

Happy (NOT MY) Birthday People Notes

There's No Place Like Home People Notes

Putting a new spin on frisbee... People Notes

First the 'Big A' now the 'Big D' People Notes

New York City?! People Notes

Farewell summer of '08 People notes

Thar's gold in them thar hills!! People notes

Wedding Week People Notes