Parades and sewing

We participated in this year's St. Patrick's day parade in Fredericksburg. All the dogs got dressed up. It was absolutely freezing. You can see more pictures on Gyeong's blog but here are my three dogs...they got more dressed up once Amanda showed up with some handmade coats and hats..but they are still cute.
And of course everyone else was cute too!

Here is Louisa Mae, Rita Mae, and Earl Gardner posing so perfectly...my dogs don't do that...as you can see.











We decided to make some coats for our next few events this Spring. We will be attending an Easter festival on Monument Ave in Richmond in a few weeks as well as an Environmental Fair on Earth Day weekend. Amanda is quite a skilled seamstress so she offered to help teach us how to make coats. Now for those of you who know me..you realize this is an interested proposition. I have never sewed anything beyond a few stuffies who needed emergency amputations and incisions during my stint as a vet tech. I have never operated a sewing machine and terms such as bobbin and backstitch as as foreign to me as brain surgery. This all became increasingly more clear to Amanda when she realized my scissor situation was below par since my opinion is that anything with two blades and a handle will cut anything I need..from shoestrings to hair to dead skin to paper to honestly whatever needs cutting..the possibilities are endless. How was I to know that fabric scissors are completely reserved for that purpose alone. I was clueless. ;-) But luckily Michelle has a new found interest in sewing and has practiced and become skilled. Another friend, Nancy came over and had rusty skills but skills nonetheless. The remaining task of cutting fabric went to Nancy's daughters who needed community service hours and love the greyhounds. Which left me to...well..I can't honestly say I did anything but get in everyone's way, keep a seat warm, take pictures and a few moment of comic relief. oh..and I provided the house. but enough of my rambling...here are some pictures of Amanda and Michelle skillfully making some beautiful coats (did I mention we were making 9?)


And of course the finished products..the girls get pink (modeled by Dana) and the boys get blue (modeled by Booyah). I think 'we' did a great job!














So hopefully 'we' will have them all completed soon. For some reason..my responsibilities ended when they left. They took all the pieces to complete the coats. They sized up the situation and knew I was a lost cause. But we had a lot of fun! We had 6 greyhounds here for the afternoon so I enjoyed that!
Oh and to answer a previous commenter's question..Dante will kill the balloon when he catches it. The V-day balloon survived and is still floating well in the living room. The mylar ones seem more durable. The standard rubber ones..he pops immediately and looks for more. ;-)
We are also starting construction on a new patio. Again..I use we loosely. Someone has to keep the house clean and the dogs washed while the hole is getting dug..right? I give moral support. ;-)

Dante's balloon fettish

Ok..this is my first attempt with this technology. I am taking a cue from another gh blogger (needle nose). Dante loves balloons. Alot. This is a bit old b/c you will see Hank in the background. He is so confused.

DOGS!

We don't have any fosters and the weekend has been pretty lazy...so I decided to make a blog entry all about my dogs and how cute they are! Enjoy the pics!

Shiloh resting after a run
Shiloh and Dana enjoying some sunshine

Dana strikes her pose!

Dana likes to hide behind the storage shed and bolt out...
I wish the lighting had been better...what an image of the stride!
And of course the 2nd stage of running that makes greyhounds so amazing...
Then we introduce a stuffed dog ..
And now we start the Dante hour... ;-)
"Throw the ball..throw the ball...don't you understand me...throwing the stupid ball!!!!""She threw the ball..woooooohooooooo!"

And the finale..Dante is a 'under the blanket' dog. Which is funny when something happens that leads to him shuffling out of the blanket to look around. If it is worth getting up from his cocoon, he will..but he usually sits like this and then goes back under the blanket.

Birthdays, parties and good-byes

Yesterday was my birthday..I officially became 30-something. Not sure how I feel about that at this point...but seeing as though I still like to have fun..I don't think I am old yet. ;-)

For my birthday, I travelled up to Fredericksburg for a farewell dinner...we are saying good-bye to a good friend. Aubry..if you don't know her you have seen her periodically on my blog as well as gyeong's. She is a good friend but is NOT 30something, and therefore must forge on to the next stage in her life. She is moving to Sante Fe, NM in a few weeks. We will all miss her terribly but we definitely know she is doing the best thing for her. So a few of us went to the Melting Pot for a fondue farewell. She will have fun and now we have a reason to head out and gamble with the Native Americans. ;-) But it was a nice way to spend my birthday as well. Jason is taking me to see Blue Man Group here in Richmond next Tuesday.

Good LUCK, AUBRY!!!!!!!

On the party front, the Alfano's came over for dinner on Saturday night with their 3 greyhounds, Tristan, Jo and Sara. Sara is their newest addition and she is the very beautiful and rare blue color. Tristan wears a diaper...he has the Hank disease. ;-) We had a lot of wine and great food..and then...it got interesting. I will have to let a few pictures show you the progression the evening took..

Brian wasn't passed out on the floor..although it does appear that way...he was wiggling around which lead to Dante running over to attack him. I think this was after Jason kicked him in the head (by accident) when they were wrestling around. Boys... OH..and yes for those of you who have met Brian..he did cut all his hair off. We had a lot of fun though. Other than that our weekend was lazy. On the adoption front, Amanda and Kenney have decided to adopt Blue (see blog entry a few weeks ago). So they now have Ana and Blue! I am sure there will be all sorts of pictures from them.

Hank moves on and we get new stuff!

Hanka-Stanka...he is so cute. Sadly...he had a few home possibilities that all ended with returns for various reasons. None of the reasons were his fault (or the potential adopters) but he just didn't work out. And on top of it all, we couldn't get him to stop marking our house. So..he had to be packed up and moved to doggie boot camp for a little while. Such a sweetie..if only we could have kept the pee-pee outside. He was just a man that knew what he wanted...everything...everything was his (including at Dante one day!).

Good luck, Hank! Find a forever home soon.

But in other news...we were busy this weekend. I am quick on the tax thing and since we still use the federal government as our savings account (how stupid is that when you say it out loud), we had a nice tax return burning a hole in our pocket! So first stop...BIG ASS GRILL!!!

Jason is very happy. We had been cooking on a very small hand-me-down grill for a year. So now we have a 5 burner, 60,000BTU mega-man grill! ARH ARH ARH. ;-) I am sure I will get all sorts of tasty treats as time goes on! He spent all morning in the 20 degree weather, putting it together. This will mean we will have tons of cookouts this summer with tons of dogs running around. woohoo!

We also have been dealing with the stupid rubbermaid storage shed left by the previous owners. It was a bit trashy to say the least and we BOTH HATED IT! So a very nice contractor man woke me up at 7AM this morning to start on our new storage shed. He braved the 17 degree morning to build it for us..but he was getting paid. ;-)

So now we have a place to store all of our stuff. But as a plus to this new addition, we got to tear down that nasty rubbermaid trashy thing. AND it is recyclable! So Jason got to have a therapy season with power tools!

He had fun. Now we have tons of recycling and trash..and a great new area of the yard for a patio and fire pit!

Offical Cult members

Well..it is official. If anyone had any doubts about our committment to those skinny dogs...they will be dispelled at this point. The surprise i have been alluding too is here. Kristen and I got greyhound tattoos this weekend! We had just gotten them the day before these pictures were taken, so they were still a little red.

Kristen used an image VAGA sells on a T-shirt. It turned out really well!

I went with a running image, but found one that didn't resemble a greyhound bus. I can't wait for it to heal up and for the weather to get warmer! Kristen also got an apple tattoo in memory of her mom.

It was a lot of fun! I am a weinie and got a little light headed during the process, but I made it through and am very happy with it! Other than that excitement, everyone hung around to watch the big game on Sunday. So that meant a lot of dogs hung around too! Kristen and Gyeong have a foster, Chatham Blue..who is the black male you see in this picture (check out Gyeong's blog for more pictures of him). He gets to go to his forever home in a few weeks. We made a bunch of chili and hung out with a few friends.
Of course all the dogs got to run and play. Even though it was freaking freezing! They still had fun. Even the princess Stella got in on the fun..notice her brother, Lucas, is standing guard in case anyone tries to take the stuffie.

And I still have Hank but he is now known as Zeke and will go to his forever home on Feb. 17th. We all hope it works out. He is a good boy but a handful. We are on the 2nd large bottle of Nature's Miracle since fostering him. ;-) And I got my new laptop and I am loving it! Much faster and lighter than my last one. So next weekend we are travelling to my parents' house to set them up with wireless internet and get them set on my old laptop.

Stay warm!

Meet and Greet season starts

After a few months of free weekends, VAGA's meet and Greets have started again! It is such a great opportunity to let people see the greys! Fredericksburg has a new Petsmart, so VAGA set up a monthly MG. There were about 20 greyhounds at the event on Saturday! it was really neat.
Of course, Stella had on a hat...she loves her hat! Almost as much as she loves her brother lucas . They always make a great team at MG's!

We are watching Lulu this weekend..she is ultra sweet! We fostered her a few months ago. She is very happy in her new home..she went with us to the MG this weekend.

People often ask how feeding time is with all these dogs...well..this picture pretty much sums it up! And this is pre-prepped..greyhounds don't eat dry kibble..;-) Of course, Lulu gets green beans and canned food in her food..her new parents are much cooler than we are and they only have one dog!
and of course, my blog wouldn't be complete without action shots of the kids in the yard. Hank is still here and made a spot in the house. They love to play..I liked this picture b/c they were all in the 'ready to rumble' stance.

I get my new laptop on Wednesday! Very excited..it will make all sorts of things faster and more fun. Kristen and gyeong are coming down next weekend. The Super Bowl will be on Sunday and of course, the 'surprise' I have promised will be unveiled after next weekend. ;-)