Thoughts From A Puppy...

I have decided that I will start a coloumn on this blog for my own personal musings. My dad took this picture and I thought it looked like the type of thing you'd see on a book jacket featuring the author or a marketing consulting website with a photo of the owner in a tan coat, maybe a black shirt, and a funny smirk. Anyhoo, I got to thinking, and I decided, why not write my own book. But then again, I'm easlily distracted, so a blog post here and there would be better. You may be wondering how I can type with these big paws of mine, but I have found an easy solution...Dad types.

For my first entry, I thought I'd write about my soon to be little sister (or brother, but boys are icky). I think it will be fun having a new play pal, even though mommy says I'll have to wait a while before we can play together. I'm so excited though!!! It's kind of like waiting to play wiffleball, I just can't wait!

Sometimes I go out to the back yard and fall asleep thinking about how much fun we'll have together...running, and wrestling, and...is somebody watching me? It feels like someone is watching me...hmmm, my super-puppy sensory perception senses someone looking at me...

Shhhhh, there's a beast in the backyard....

If you look closely, you can see the beast in the middle of the yard...yeah, the dark spot in the middle of the dead grass...(I know, I need to do something with the yard, but shhh, you'll scare her away...no not the yard, the beast.)



As we zoom in closer, you can start to make out what it is. It looks like it has four paws and some floppy ears...Oh wait, that's Sonoma!!!



Zooming in closer we can see her sleeping peacefully, unaware that we are watching her...just taking a nap in the sun.




Ah, to be a puppy...

Happy Birthday, Laura!!!!

The big three-one!!

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Lauraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,

Happy Birthday to you!!!

Movie Reviews (sort of)

...by the batch. We saw a few movies over the past week or so, some good, some not so much.

The Black Dahlia (2006)

This movie was fashioned after those old school detective movies, fedoras and all that jazz. However, I didn't follow it that well. It was like reading a Dashiell Hammett novel, but with every other chapter ripped out. Unbeknownst to me, but maybe beknownst to you, this movie was based off an actual crime, the murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947. Maybe had I beknowst that I might have kept my attention. So for those of you looking for a noir detective movie I would recommend skipping this one and checking out L.A. Confidential instead. (I am still waiting on The Maltese Falcon to come through Blockbuster online, so I might recommend that as well, but I have not seen it yet. The book is good though.)

Righteous Kill (2008) with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino

Pride and Glory (2008) with Edward Norton, Colin Farrell

Two movies, same story (though not literally). Plot: suspisious murders that seem to suggest crooked cops were involved. Maybe one of our heros is the bad guy. Maybe both are. Maybe neither. Maybe the Whiskers the cat did it. Any which way they are buddy cops that must protect their partner even if the evidence might lead them to discover a horrible truth (and other generic one liners...see the the movie poster above). Neither were fast pace action movies, not that I expected the Pacino and De Niro to be running around a lot, but can I have a little action to keep me awake? If you had to choose between these two, I'd suggest the one with the older actors, but then again you'd also be subjected to a handful of scenes with rapper 50 Cent.

He's Just Not That Into You (in theaters now)

Now I thought this one was worth the price of admission...of course that price was two free passes that we had. Even still, this was probably the best of all those listed here today and the only one I'd recommend to those playing at home. If you haven't seen the previews, this movie has a huge cast and follows the stories of 5 or 6 couples/singles (basically from the women's perspective, hence the He's in the title) on their quest to understand dating relationships. I usually like movies that follow a few story lines since if you don't like one, there's always another 2 or more to keep your interest. At times it might get a bit crude (though not like Knocked Up) but I thought it was fairly funny. If you enjoy the theater experience, by all means, check this one out in the theaters; otherwise, I'd say it is better as a rental.

Idiot Neighbors

Apparently, our neighbors think that it is completely normal to move stuff in the middle of the night.

For the last two nights, an SUV has been driven into their backyard at 1:30 a.m. (until 3 or 4 in the morning) and two guys (that may not even live there since the renter is supposed to be a single mom and her twenty kids) have been unloading boxes into their house and storage shed. And I'm not talking about cardboard, moving boxes either. For the most part it is small, rectangular plastic or metal boxes similar in shape to handheld toolboxes - about 20 of them. I don't know what takes them so long either, 2-3 hours to move an SUV full of stuff? I do know that they boxes must be heavy enough that they need a dolly to move them 20 feet though.

Any idea what may be in the boxes? Body parts? No, they'd probably bury them, especially since the ground is soft from the rain. They aren't very smart though, so it is still a possibility. Ammo and guns? Maybe, but they don't strike me as survivalists and if they were, again not smart people. Drug paraphernalia? I don't know if that would be heavy. Rocks? They are that stupid. Drugs? Again, might not be that heavy, but then again I've never held a key of coke. But if so, not sure if you want your drugs getting wet. However, they are dumb. Maybe they didn't think that far ahead. Feel free to add your guesses in the comment section.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems a bit suspicious...moving stuff in the middle of the night...no lights (despite the fact that there are floodlights in their backyard that seem to always be on, just not when they need to move stuff)...in the rain...at a house that they may not live in. And the backyard is full of trash, I would think they would want some light so they don't trip over a bunch of sh....

I probably wouldn't mind so much if it didn't wake us up. If it continues for a third night, we may have to report some suspicious activity to the police.

Bugamoo Celebration!

So I'm a bit late on this, but better than never...

A few weeks ago we had our baby shower, which Laura's sister and mom graciously hosted. There were plenty of fun games, food, and an awesome cake (pictures below).

Game one was guess our (Laura and Gary's) collective circumference with a length of yarn and we were quite shocked to see some of the huge guesses. I think a few came in under, but the majority leaned towards the larger size, including at least one that was twice the size of us. I believe the winner was my sister, Lisa, who claims to be really good at baby shower games, so look out if you see her at one.

***No pictures of this game, but how about a joke?

**ahem** So this string walks into a bar and the bartender says, "Hey, we don't serve strings in here!" And he grabs the string and throws him out on the sidewalk. So the poor little string, quite thirsty, asks an innocent bystander to tied him into a knot and mess up his ends a little bit. The string then proceeds to walk back into the bar and the bartender sees him and says, "Hey, aren't you the same string that I just threw out of here?" And the string replies, "No, I'm a frayed knot. Now give me a beer!"

Okay that was dumb, but how many string jokes do you have???

Okay, back to the shower...


The next game (these might actually be out of order, but whatever) was a baby food feeding game. Partnering up, one person was blindfolded and had to feed the other. Surprisingly, no one really got that messy.

The contestants...



(Note Allison just to the left of me)

And the winners (and again, my sister managed to win with a little help from Val)...

Aha!! That's how they did it! They spilled it all!

The final game (which was likely the second, but again, whatever) was to create a playdough baby. The catch, though, was that you were partnered up and had to hold hands while doing it. Thus each person had only one hand to use. However, this did not seem to be a huge obstacle as everyone managed to do a great job. Even our niece got into it. She was quite reluctant to stop holding hands even after the game ended.

Several opted to make their baby a boy and decided he should be well endowed - especially the ladies...what's up with that?

Okay, so I just remembered another activity. Every had a chance to guess the Bugamoo birth stats. I think Laura is charting the responses and we'll post those later. Overall, I think it was about 70-30 in favor of a boy with the weight ranging from 3lbs (Allison) to about 8.7lbs (Danielle). Danielle was also the only one to guess April Fool's Day, not sure if that was a joke or not.

Thank you to all of our friends and family for coming to celebrate out little Bugamoo. And thank you all for the wonderful and generous gifts. (FYI - The puppy below the table was not a gift.)

And the cake, which was both visually excellent and quite tasty...

Princess Puppy-Pie...

Tired puppy...