Photodump #6

Football season makes a Happy Simon!

As you can see, his quarterback rating is pretty high. ;)

I also pointed out that this ball was the size of his head; and of course, Simon Did. Not. Care. If it can be thrown to be caught and fetched, Simon will catch and fetch it, no problem. Now he's got it down to a science- he picks it up by the laces and carries it back.

Blustery days and Rainbows...

Went to the beach the other day with Simon, Tempe, Nancy and Nugget. Nugget needed some baby free time, being as he's been a great dad to his merry crew. ;) Wind was blowing like crazy, it was just so hard it was stinging your eyes... but we dodged the pouring rain and found a gorgeous rainbow.

Tempe, posing on the park bench. Almost six months old in this shot... purdy girl!

 Of course, no trip to the beach doesn't involve rolling in stinky dead crabs and then washing yourself off in the ocean. Simon jumped right in. Nugget (who did NOT roll in stinky carcasses, because he's a good boy...) helped Tempe realize that water was pretty fun... ;)

 Simon is always a photo opportunist!

Awww... see, little friend? The water's fine. Come on in!

Five months

Is she really five months already? ;) Yep! She is, and prettier by the day, if I do say so myself. ;)

PS: Fun fact of the day. Her favorite bait is dried strawberries and fruit leather. She will give up any sort of meat for fruit leather. ;)

Photodump #5 (And an adorable puppy!) ;)

Random summer fun -- well, fall fun! ;) Hahah, Tempe is growing like a weed... she also has her official name now - Samhain Silver Lining at Stonelight.

Also, I am totally thrilled to announce that we've got half of a new addition to the family. ;)

I am so delighted -- I absolutely adore these wonderful dogs and I absolutely adore their owner.

Meet - Galena's Golden Rule -- "Ginger" who I am totally head over heels with -- and will co-own with her fantastic breeder (and awesome friend) Nancy, of Galena Cardigans. She's a Nugget daughter (and he's one of my favorite guys ever, handsome and sweet) out of her girl Kate (who I also adore!) Ginger's going to live at Nancy's house -- which is just a short hop from mine, haha.

I get to socialize her and help show her ...  bonus points is that she gets to tire out Tempe (if anything CAN tire out Tempe) and then go home. ;) Awesome. More bonus points that I can photograph her. ;) I'm working on my Tri-color skills. ;)

To me... it's amazing, I had all these years in Shepherds, and I'm only in my third year of Cardigans. And I can say that I have learned more, laughed more, delighted more, and made some of the best friends I ever, ever have had, showing dogs or not.

I sure can't thank Nancy enough for this opportunity. Also for having that darn song stuck in my head again. ;) Darn you, Burl Ives.

True facts:  I totally watched the heck out of Rudolph as a kid!  (I also  wore a set of cardboard antlers and taped a red paper nose on my nose for nearly all of December until I had a raw nose, hahah. There is photo evidence of this, but you'll just have to take my word for it, because it's sure not going up here, hee!  ;) )

Makeshift hurdles... ;)

It's not a park bench! It's obviously a cool Simon game. ;)

Remodeling woes...

So... we decided to remodel our kitchen. I'm going to now call it the world's most expensive sink - because seriously, this all started when our ancient sink finally rusted out in the bottom and leaked all over the floor and Tempe was darting through the puddles as if she was Debbie Reynolds and Caleb was right behind her swinging like Gene Kelly. 

It was one of those things that was supposed to be straightforward. By straightforward is that everything was supposed to be done within a few days... and that it would all go as smooth as glass, right? Simple as pie. Cabinets out, electrical in, etc... Wrong. Oh, so so wrong.

We had these awesome soffits around our ceiling that we wanted to get rid of. They were holding up some very ugly (as you can all see) cabinets. Like gee we're stuck in the late 70's, and I'm listening to Disco Star Wars in my really cool roller skates and there's a glitterball overhead. I'm going to say for the record that I hate the color Harvest Gold. It's not really a color, it's a state of mind. This state of mind affected everything from our previous linoleum floor to the cabinets to the countertops. I have been staring at these Harvest Gold counters for 15 plus years since I bought this house, and I did get the joy of humming the tune from The Office and hitting it with a sledghammer, which yeah... it was a high point of the remodel so far.

However, the soffits should have keyed me in, right? Simon says, see the hole in our ceiling?

You do see the hole in the ceiling, ta da! This is where our soffit was. This is also where the builders of this house gave us our first clue that they were a bunch of quickly trained monkeys. No, that's not fair to the monkeys. They would have said, "Hey, you know, we should probably nail this support into the beams before we actually put up these soffits." Which the humans didn't do -- in fact the soffits were being held in by NO support work, they simply slapped up two strips of metal and mudded over that. Which I suppose was better than the cabinets... which were supported by two nails driven into drywall of said soffits, and uh, the 30 year old paint they painted the room. Now, I stored all my dishes, cups and glasswear in these cabinets. How we did not die is beyond me. Hooray for fools and homeowners, I suppose.

Simon says: "Inspection is key, ahem. Dogs don't build like this. We dig a hole, we support the walls, thanks!"

As you can see, Simon is  very concerned about inspecting everything. My dog could be a better house inspector than these men. Each step we dig into this "easy" remodel? We find one thing after another. Huge holes ripped in the walls and hidden by cabinets when the electrician previous came in and they mudded over the wall and couldn't find the cords so just punched a ton of holes and ripped it through when they did. Drywall (like sixty pounds of it) stuffed in between my drywall and the outside walls, we had to clean that all out first, and I have a bad feeling it's in every single wall within - that was a lazy, cheap way of getting rid of scraps and not having to pay to dump them or cart them out of here. Our plumbing was incorrect. Our measurements for the electrical we had done - also incorrect and scarily incorrect. It has turned from a three day breakdown and done to a solid week.

Oh, and we are redoing our dog run fence. See, years ago, I had put in a dog run on the left side of our property. Over the years, the gravel has shifted and the run has sagged and it was looking a bit ghetto - safe, but rather ugly and I felt awful.  The person next door bought a house that had been unoccupied for like 5 years and redid it. I was embarrassed, and I wanted to clean it up and make it so gravel didn't go into this man's new yard, etc... now, mind you, the house is empty. It's been on the MLS for 450 days now - and no takers. The yard is ah... rather in bad shape. No curb appeal, nothing. I wouldn't look twice at it, to be honest.

So, I start to redo this fence, the people are on MY property line, and the guy comes over and screams his head off at the employees doing this fence. We're putting in a retaining wall, leveling, and then we're going to put on artificial grass. It will be neat, clean, and no longer have any odor issues, period. He throws a fit over the damage to his grass (mind you, what grass? They haven't watered this lawn all summer and it looks horrible, with big bare spots, etc...) Then he says he lives there, and ... uh, he doesn't. He lied several times to the workers, he threatened them, he screamed at them, and he was flat out rude. Then he parked a car across the driveway so no one could get in or out. Charming little rotter. 

 How do I know?

Because my mother wants to move to our area and she had looked at this home as one to purchase, but it's overpriced and under-done. I told her I couldn't recommend it - and I live next door to it. Then he screams at my poor fence guys and gets in their face and shakes his finger at the fellows... but he won't come over and talk to me about any of this, says he doesn't f-ing care. Sigh. You know, I've lived here 15 years, we don't have any issues, we're quiet, we're clean, our yard is nice, etc, and I was doing this because I felt bad about HIS property line and my dogs and was trying to be a good neighbor. He even has the nice side of the fence and the wall. :(

Oh well. Teaches me to be a concerned neighbor about the dogs and the property line, doesn't it? :(

On a high note? I rode my horse tonight for the first time in a year since I hurt my back so bad. :) And she was awesome and I felt good and she felt good, and I missed riding so much. Hahha, and I haven't lost my leg or my seat, I keep my heels down, yay! ;) It's the little things that make you happy, even when everything else is just a mess, eh?

Cardibou!

This creature is a rare and elusive beast, apparently only found in the Pacific Northwest. There are some that think it may be related to the Jackalope, but this is mere speculation and needs further study.

The natural habitat of the Cardibou seems odd; it can be found as a downtown city dweller, begging for ice cream and pretzels  to swimming in the great wide ocean. It has a strange, haunting call that sounds like "woooo woo wooooo" and tends to do this when it sees something it really likes.

( One thing about the species; it seems to know unerringly when you have a Wubba or a Tennis Ball and will teleport out of nowhere. Seriously, it can be sound asleep in the back hall and you're picking up toys and the darn beast roars out of nowhere in an effort to get you to toss it. ;)  )

It has a fondness for puppies, kittens, and sleeping on pillows upside down. ;)

Little Tempe, Big City

Tempe took a trip today to Pike Place Market in Seattle! A little socialization... well, not that miss social butterfly nose needs it. ;) She's entirely social, everyone's obviously put here to see her!

On the ferry... mmm, bench rainwater! ;)

Oh, you wanted me to look cute  and get the city in the view? Oh, okay!

At Pike Place Market -- nothing phases this girl. It's amazing that she takes every single thing I can throw at her with utter unflappability. She does not panic or hide, she doesn't duck, or flatten. She'll stop, freeze,  look at it, figure it out, and move on with just a quick cluck of encouragement on my end. She'd never been through Seattle at all, or busy sidewalks, a thousand people walking, or over grates (and I will tell you, most dogs balk at grates in concrete. I can't blame them, they look like yawning, dog swallowing holes to me!)

                                             
On the wall at the Harbor Steps. Hello over there, can I share your water bottle? :D

Oh right, sit pretty again. ;)

And at the end of the trip, a very happy puppy with her dad. ;) I love how they're in step here, I admit it!  Her tail didn't stop wagging the whole time we were walking, hilarious. Like a little metronome. Every person she passed that said, "oh, look at that puppy!" got wagged at. She's gotten so bad that her keyword is "Oh--" and then she immediately starts heading towards the person, wagging away. Clever girl!

A Photo Day at Fort Warden

Simon, Temperance, and Caleb on the wall at Fort Warden State Park...

On the way up we found this coin operated horse, hahaha... I haven't seen one in years. Simon had a blast with this.

Again, all at Fort Warden...

Tempe is really picking up fast on keeping a pose while I shoot! She's an amazingly smart puppy, wow. She's also asking to go out on her own -- hmmm, I have to say, I like that even better! ;) So does my living room rug. ;)

Tempe had to try out the horse too, but she was kind of tired by this point and wanted to just nap in the sadddle. ;)

Simon, of course, started showing off and playing to the crowd. He totally stepped up there on his own and balanced himself; I just was like "sit back down" and he smiled at me like "but everyone ELSE likes this pose!"

Temperance was a bit overwhelmed by the ocean. She would put her feet in it though, after a few minutes. She's pretty darn brave, all things considered this was the first time she'd seen something like this... the boys were up to their necks in fourteen seconds, and covered in stinky sand. ;)

And Caleb, being Caleb and watching... no, not a bird! A kite, this time. He was fascinated with it, the people were dipping it around us when they realized he was staring at it and wagging.

Fly, Simon! Fly!

Boat dog! Hold that pose, Tempe!

Working like -- yeah, I've used this before. ;)

Like a dog, lately. Actually, the dogs have been working less. They get to lie there at work for the most part and eat things. ;) I want their job! Tempe is getting bigger, and she just amazes me, day in and day out. She's got incredible focus and concentration for an 11 week old. And she now has EARS... hahaha. Those came up. Funny how much she changes with her ears. ;) She's a mover too, a mover and a shaker, she can gait, gait gait... but what I love most about her is her willingness and bravery. You ask, she tries. No fear. Except for when the cats come barreling at her, and heck, I get out of the way if it's Sophie the terrorist. ;)

As you can see by the photos... Natural Balance was having a retailer contest for their promotion/giveaway.

So, hey... we figured we'd sort of take it the one step beyond and have fun. Simon was totally up for skateboarding -- I think I could totally teach him to use it. He'd probably love it. ;) Go fast!

What surprised us was Tempe -- she totally was in these shots, happy as could be. Total concentration, even with other dogs, a lot of people, and all sorts of things going on. Look at her be a show off and balance on the skateboard!! ;) I can't do that! Clever girl! Yeah, I think she came with an automatic "sit up" feature. She tries using it for everything, including when I say "no." (Sit up! Yeah, I'll try that, it works!)

She's a heck of a puppy, that's for sure. Adore her! ;) I will say all the "random scary noises" CD that Kim and Mark play for their puppies really works. Loud noises and scary things don't phase her. I uh, half wish they did at times. No fear! ;)

(Also, a Riley photo, because he's been feeling left out and crotchety.)