We hate puppies

So Daddy is away this week visiting my gam-gam and working so while mommy is at work we decided to fire this thing up and put in a word or two about what has been going on around here lately. Dante and I have watched this process a lot so we have it pretty figured out. Dante is telling me how to do it b/c he is the smart one...but the cord wouldn't reach to his pillow so I am stuck with the dirty work. Dana is sleeping. I will fill her in later during our run.


So the reason for this coup is that for some stupid reason mommy and daddy decided to keep a puppy for a few days. At first, we thought it was staying and Dante started planning his escape. But i knew better..mommy wouldn't do that to me...those pretty skinny dogs are bad enough.
They called him Nail (blame his mommy and daddy) and he is 11 weeks old. He sucked. I don't quite know what people see in puppies. No matter what anyone says, they aren't cute. At all. They are constantly playing and making our toys slobbery and stinky.

They are stupid..I mean Dana got a D in obedience class but even she would know not to sit down with her tail in the water. And seriously..doesn't he know WE DRINK THAT???

He was very clingy also. We couldn't get any loving from OUR OWN parents b/c of him. He was always touching one of them. Even trying to sneak a quick hug would lead to him bounding over "de de de".

We kids found it best to stick together during this horrible time. Mommy and Daddy weren't any help..they played with him and loved on him. What are we...old and ugly? NO we are cute and just hitting our prime!


We tried to stay away from him..he was too stupid to figure out how to get on the couch or recliner..but of course SOMEONE would put him up there. Puppy filth..all over our furniture. No shame. Dante is more blunt than I am and basically let the puppy know early on he is grumpy and doesn't like puppies. The puppy didn't listen well but Dante was persistent eventually hurt Nail's feelings enough that he left him alone. Dana played dead. That seemed to work for her. And if he touched her bed..the WORLD would stop and everyone would come rushing over..

"Stay off Dana's bed" they would say..."don't bother dana". "Here..lay on the couch with Shiloh"

Does ANYONE see anything wrong with this scenario???? Because I am the 'nice' one of the group..he followed me around and annoyed the crap out of me.

I mean seriously...does anyone look happy in this picture? Maybe that stupid kid..but he was too smelly and stupid to realize we all hated him.

Did I mention he smelled? Mommy and Daddy kept saying how his breath smelled good "puppy breath" or something. Gross. They get mad at me when I breath on them. I smell like roses. Dante not so much..but he loves to stink...something about increased manhood. whatever.
The bright side of the weekend was that they took us all (the puppy came too..can you believe that?) to a festival at a winery to support the local SPCA. Since Parker and I came from the SPCA it was kind of like our day.

But of course that stupid puppy got all the attention. Boy was Dante mad! He kept shouting "I AM THE CUTE ONE"..which made me laugh b/c it irritates me that everyone thinks he is so cute. He really does stink. And of course all those pretty long legged dogs were there..Dana is my buddy but they seem to keep replicating. At least they aren't stinky and know how to sleep through the night. But the bonus of this whole event was that Nail was POOPED. He left us alone for the whole evening! This pictures shows his cross-eyes..so stupid.

Luckily he is gone now. There isn't food in my water bowl (or TAIL HAIR!), water on the floor (he couldn't even drink right), my toys are dry, I can lay on my own bed, mommy and daddy play with me again AND it is quiet. whew. We hate puppies!
*Mommy came home and caught us writing. She said we had to put a disclaimer that the above comments and opinions are not necessarily those held by her or daddy and she is in no way responsible for any backlash. She thought he was cute..blech!

HOLA!!!

We have returned to the USA. Wow, what a great trip. We stayed at the Excellence Riviera in Riviera Maya, Mexico. it was AWESOME!














It was all-inclusive so we drank, ate and sunbathed for 6 days.
































The accomadations were wonderful, drinks were quite strong and the service was impecable. We went snorkeling, parasailing and scuba diving.














Scuba diving was an experience. It was thrilling, scary and hard to do but I had fun doing it. It took a lot of coaxing to get me to actually get under the water breathing through that tube, but I did it. The picture of jason and I together kind of sucked. As you see, Jason was pressing on my regulator hose making the regulator try to wiggle out of my mouth...NOT what you want to happen. I held on as long as I could (nanosecond) and grabbed the regulator thinking he had taken the picture. I was wrong. But oh well..the coral was gorgeous and we got to see moray eels and all sorts of colorful fish. This is the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world (yes, ihatetoast has the king of all barrier reefs).

I took tons of pictures. And if you want to see them all (lots of the resort, us drinking, and more scuba pictures) you can see my album at shutterfly. Now it is back to the grind and back to reality. No one pulling out my chair, bringing me a fruity drink whenever I want or having the biggest decision of the day being which lounge chair to nap in and which fine dining restaurant to dine. It was a rough life. ;-) We are going to a winery festival to support the SPCA on Saturday. That should be fun! Check out my album!

Adios!!!

First, Thanks to Gyeong for all the following pictures. We had a party on SAturday to celebrate my new degree (Master of Science in Microbiology track: Bacterial Pathogenesis), Jason's new job and our trip to Cancun in 2 days!!!!;-) We had a large group come over and we all enjoyed a cookout on the deck, watching the dogs romp and drinking a little. ;-)First..the greyhounds having fun with their friends. This is Tristan, Sara and Dana taking the lead in a large herd!











There were a lot of greyhounds in my backyard!











This is the best picture..Ana running to mommy!












Booyah running with the stuffie!!



















Now..for party pictures. Please keep in mind we started partying at 3PM...I will apologize ahead of time to Jenny and Amanda..it is impossible to control the Y chromosome sometimes..but I can't resist these classic photos.






























And we got to break in our chimnea and patio. After an afternoon of eating and enjoying friends, the remaining few stuck around for a long night of chatting and enjoying the fire.












Adios! We will be back in a week and I will be sharing hopefully wonderful pictures of sandy beaches, blue water and tropical fish!

Tastes like chocolate

So this was Jason's first week of working the 'normal man's' schedule. He has worked evenings for the past 4 years and before that worked weekends for 3 years. So having him around all the time is going to be a new adjustment for us both. ;-) But to celebrate his first week, he partied. But of course partying as a 30-something means drinking too much with your friends on your
deck. ;-) So here is Jason with his new boss (left side) and his old boss (red hat) doing Irish car bombs. They are a vile concotion of a 50:50 ratio shot of whiskey and Bailey's irish cream dropped in to a pint of Guiness stout that supposedly tastes like chocolate. Now..to me that is like saying opossum tastes like chicken. No..it tastes like opossum. Which to me..seems like it would taste like licking a bum. Like an Irish car bomb. Besides the obvious tummy trouble that has to result from such a drink, you have to be nuts to actually drink one...and oh yeah..you have to chug it to get the 'full effect'. Idiots.
And yes, they did numerous of these.
But he is still alive and loving his new position with the bank.
Today we went to another greyhound event on the southside of the city. They had games and food. Ana of course won the egg race contest..she actually beat quite a few other competitors. Dana was out early..she became focused on a morsel in the grass causing me to stop. Here is Ana in her last leg of the race becoming victorious!

The event was fun..Jason and I enjoyed the wonderful weather..and yes I got all my hair cut off recently. I go through stages..when you have the mop of angry hair like I do..you grow tired of styles easily. So now I am working with the curls instead of against them for a while. ;-)

Jenny Alfano and Sara striking a pose in the sunshine

And the dogs got to run in a nearby ball field. We let Ana, Blue, Jo, Tristan, Sara and Dana play together. They had a lot of fun.

Next week we are having a party to send us off to Cancun (15th!) for a week! Woooohooooo!

Fairs, GiGs, degrees and lots of dogs

It has been a while since I have posted. Just too much going on! I will try to start from where I left off. A few weekends ago we went to the Bank of America Environmental Fair. it was a beautiful day to dress up the dogs. Ana is looking very regal in her donation jacket and fuzzy sticky thing on her head. ;)

We did make a nice discovery..Dana is not only cat curious but snake curious as well. There were a few boas and pythons being shown next to us at the fair. She was soooo obsessed. We would let her get close when they put them away. But she was crazy over the snakes..not exactly sure what she would have done if she would have caught one. But by the end of the day, she was ok enough to let Jason hold one while holding her.

After this event, all I did was study. I had my master's thesis defense on Friday. I studied and worked on my presentation for the entire week. And I passed. I have a lot of work left to do on my final draft of my thesis. But it has to be turned in by next Friday so it is almost done!! Then everyone will be required to call me Master for a little while. ;-) j/k
Then we took off to the Greyhounds in Gettysburg event in Gettysburg, PA. We bought a bunch of greyhound stuff as well as getting Dana two new martingale collars..they make her look pretty. But I didn't get too many pictures of the actual event but here is one..
And finally, we are keeping Kristen and Gyeong's kids for a few days while they take care of some family issues. They are fostering Rose who is a sweet but young red girl. She is very busy and in to everything. She will keep her new owner on their toes that is for sure! But she is a lot of fun and loves to be loved and play! This is Jason hanging out in the yard with all 5 greyhounds (yes..we currently have 8 dogs). Rose is the one escaping with the stuffie.
But she only escaped so far before Jaime wanted some of that crab! They tugged for a long time. It was really cute. They are fun but they make my house seem very small!
and the final update is that Jason got the patio finished! And my parents gave us the bench for my graduation present. We bought the recliner and the chimnea is on the way! It makes for a nice private local to enjoy a glass of wine on a beautiful spring afternoon. ;-)

Tragedy strikes our state

Our thoughts are with everyone effected by the tragedy at Virginia Tech this week. I grew up an hour north of there, attended college an hour south of there and have numerous alumni friends..cute pictures and greyhound ramblings will resume next week...

Doggie day care and bunny ears

Well, I have to start off by saying that Dana actually graduted from her Petsmart beginner dog obedience class. We all know you can graduate with a C and the certificate still says passed! But her fellow classemates, Ana and Booyah, did much better and were the star pupils. Followed closely by Cleo, the non greyhound of the group. Maggie and Dana lagged behind, but they did well! But I will stop bragging on my brain child and move on to more important items.
We are running a very well established greyhound doggie day care these days. We love to have them and it makes their owners feel all warm and fuzzy. ;-) This week we are watching;
Jo-the very sweet, reserved and loving one
















Tristan-the hard headed, sweet boy who is nicknamed Tristan-pisstan..you figure it out. ;-)

















and the beautiful Sara who has a great personality (and I have been told has a white admirer from across the pond..OMO!)















Now these guys love to play..

So much so that we put all 6 (yeah..6 with mine) outside to play on Saturday while we tidied up the kennel. They were running around and having a big time. I went to let them back inside..and the yard had the look of a desserted graveyard. The wind had blown open the gate and all 4 greyhounds were gone. Shiloh and Dante were at the door..it was way too cold for Dante to go around visiting and Shiloh would rather loose a limb than leave my presence. So Jason and I go in to sheer panic mode. We race out of the house after grabbing some leashes and my cell phone. I am on the phone to local greyhound people while running around the neighborhood screaming. Jason find Tristan..well...doing what he likes to do. Claiming everything and he had made it about 6 houses down. I race threw yards (in my pjs I might add and it is 40F with a nice wind) screaming in terror. I find Dana about a 1/4 mile down the road..standing in the middle of the main road..in her typical greyhound freeze. She had realized she made a horrible mistake, it was scary out here and she wasn't moving. Once I broke the Eeyore stance, she came running to me wiggling with glee. Jason called saying he had found Sara. Now we were down to one. By this time, the area had formed quite a posse of greyhound searchers. Friends and neigbors had joined in and were canvasing the neighborhood. We have a lot of woods, but most worrisome would be the two interstates that surround my subdivision. And it was getting close to evening and it was cold. We drove, walked and ran for 3 hours. Dana trudged through the woods and random fields bravely by my side. I phoned Jenny (Jo's mom) and she checked her voice mail. Jo had a collar on with her home number. A man had left a message saying he had picked up her 2 subdivisions over. I would say 2 miles as the crow flies. I raced to the car and sped to retrieve our lost girl. To say Jason and I were mentally, emotionally and physically worn out is an understatment. It was horrible. I have been sore for the past two days...I don't run..ever. I ran a lot that day..my hips and back and yelling at me for my lack of physical endurance and the massive quantity of adrenaline that kept my legs going for as long as they did. But..happy endings. Now I will leave you with some photos of the event we attended on Sunday, Easter on Parade here in Richmond. You can see Kristen on TV and you can check out Gyeong's blog for more pics! We made them wear hats....and I made Dana wear bunny ears. I am one of those people now..but they are so cute!!!!!

















Blue and Ana

















And Dana-roo!