Changing title soon

Well, all, it has been forever.
Most of us have moved on to Facebook to keep up with what people are doing.
I thought it was time to post something on here as in 2013, we will be moving.

So, I will be changing the name of the blog, as it has been 4 summers with Cody.
Speaking of whom is still alive and pretty well for a Boxer over the age of 10.
(At least we think he is older than that.)

Brando has gotten crankier in his old age.  He's 6 now we believe and does not like trucks going down the road and sometimes thinks that he should kill who ever comes to the door. Good for getting rid of sales people or Fundies wanting to talk.  I just let him bark and they kind of get nervous and realize that the sign on the door is not a joke.
It says, "Protected by Bulldog."
Brando makes sure you notice him.  :~)

There has been a flurry of activity around here lately that they are finally getting used to.
Cleaning, throwing stuff away, and some painting too.  It looks pretty good.  I seem to be getting a little more exercise this way.


I also wanted to write in the hours before the Hurricane Sandy strikes the East coast of the U.S.
This storm is soooo big it covers almost 8 states and we can feel the wind all the way out here in Michigan.  The wind might be bad enough that trees will come down and power could go out.  I don't really see it getting that bad here, but I found the predictions a little nerve racking.
People have been asked to leave the East coast from Virginia north to Maine almost.  New Yorkers don't want to go and many are not moving.  I would hope most on the lower floors will get out. You can sort of argue against no power, but fighting storm surge is a whole other level of weird.

So, in this time before the eye hits land fall, I hope people really have prepared as much as you could for this situation.  I hope the Zoo's have done what they could to prepare for the water and the weather.  Ugh, the thoughts of all those animals.

Sad, Sad News

It still brings a tear to my eye.

I am so very sad to say that we let Winslow cross the Rainbow bridge on Wednesday, June 2nd.

He was just too far gone this time.

For the last 4 1/2 years we have done so much to keep him healthy, and it finally got to him.

I knew this time would come eventually and I think I'm still in denial mode.

The girls seem to be ok, but I figure they may start really looking when I clean the cage tomorrow.

Thanks for all your excitement over the years to my pictures, stories and videos of him.

I'm just thankful he had a good life.

Its 2010

I can hardly believe that it is 2010.

At First the year doesn't seem like that big of deal, then everyone starts posting that they turned 40.

Then all of a sudden the year seems very important.

I remember in High School when 2010 seemed like SOOO far away.

One of the kids said - "So do you plan on retiring by 2020?"

I can't even think of that. I wish I could retire then. When you look at the new Social Security stuff, I can't retire until I am 68. That will be like 2038. Oh now that looks scary written down.

Plus I won't have enough years in as a teacher come 2020.

Ah well, life continues- on we go...

Pictures, ok, just pictures

Some summer pictures. Brando, Cody, My new outfit and hat. Then the group of us who went to the Ren fest in Battle creek called Silver leaf.

THE FENCE

Finally, we did it.

After a year of talking about it, we put a fence up for the dogs.

Now, we only had Brando last year, so it wasn't that big of a deal. He did very well on the cable run out for part of the yard, but that does not work with two dogs.

Especially since Cody does not do well with a collar on. He scratches and scratches until he gets his neck all infected.

The good news is that it didn't cost as much as we feared. Although we had to get a building permit from the city, then we had to get dog licenses for the county. BTW - Oakland county people have to license their dogs. I don't remember us having to do that in Monroe?? Anyone else???

So, we have a big gate on the side by the garage and a little gate on the other side, just to get the lawn mower between the house, the old fence and the tree.

Yeah, the blue spruce out back is soooo big that you cant get around it anymore. I don't know if we should trim the branches on the side by the fence. I never tried trimming anything that big.

Anyway, the dogs are pretty happy, we now leave the door to the neighbors open. Maggie comes flying over here and Cody goes flying over there. More room to run and chase things.

Just want to get a big twisty or fake lock thing to put on the big fence. Don't want any of the neighborhood kids to just walk through the yard any more. I feel bad, between us and Risners we have throughly blocked the fast pass from one side of the sub to the school.

Off to cut the grass.

Start your summer off right.

What better way to start your summer off than to go camping and bring home a new dog?

The camp ground and the rescue center share space.  The dogs kept the woodland friends you would rather not meet off the property.  No skunks in our world.

Cody is a Fawn Boxer who I think is too thin.  He ran with at least 50 loose dogs and had to probably fight for his food.  I should fatten him up in a couple weeks. 

We are off to the vet today to make sure we got all the bugs out of his ears.  I have a feeling we didn't.

I know, I have to take pictures with Brando.  Yes, they get along very well.  Cody is soooo very laid back that Brando really can't find anything to complain about, except for Cody sitting on me.

It took us two days to get home from Missouri, in the middle of no where.  He seems comfortable here and happy.  He has not met the pigs yet.  I already know he chases squirrels.

Come meet him soon.  He may be going to work with me this week.  I need to check for permission first.  I have some editing to do at school.

Have a great day,  my first real day of vacation at home begins today...

End of the school year

As you would guess I have a gazillion things to do in the next week & a 1/2.

Graduation, and a Musical  plus giving finals - editing programs and making copies for parents.

I have become the stopping ground for a large group of students.

My hour off is not even for me anymore.

oh well,

Announcement

If you can believe it -  I am in a Play.

I am really in only one short scene.  We are doing it on Friday April 24, 2009.

Probably between 6 and 7 pm at the Barnes and Noble in Ann Arbor.

3235 Washtenaw Ave

Ann Arbor, MI  48104

I'll post again when I get the time.

Just thought I would remind people.

It is some different pieces of Shakespeare.  I'm Emilia in Othello.

Come down and watch me embarrass myself.

What Spring Break???

So, life was weird this spring break..

It was very productive, but a little overwhelming.  I was losing it by Saturday when I realized I had NOTHING done for school.  I owe a lot of stuff to the main office and still nothing is done.

AAAAAHHHHH

But my Bedroom and my Bathroom look AWESOME.  

Thanks Mom,  and thanks Aunt Shirley.

PHOTOS

CLick to take a look.

Fiona issuses

It Seems that Fiona has a bit of a problem.
Someone bit her. I would guess it happned in the last week. I don't remember anything last week, when I weighed her last.
I felt the bump today when I picked her up to torment her. ;)

So, I have started treatment like we did for Lenny.
I found Antibiotics, and some metacam for the fact that I was squeezing stuff out of it. This one is still a little juicy - unlike Lenny when it was a big hard mass.

I will be calling Dr. G in the morning. Need to get the right amounts for meds. She is still a big girl. 1200 grams.

It figures.. I also need some meds for Winslow. The last doxy was really weird and I stopped giving it to him. The consistency was way off. I did some nose drops today and he is a bit better.
Have to get him again in the morning.
Ah the morning medicating again. ahhhhhhh now plus Hot compress on Fiona. She was really good for me today. I think she was happy that I found it.
Ok,
good night and here to hoping the Spartans win!!!

Rough day

Worst St. Patrick's day ever.

Nothing to do with Beer.

Tuck Guinea Pig died this morning at the vet office.
I found her with very goobery eyes at 5am and called as soon as they were open.
Tom stayed home and took 3 guineas to the vet's.
She made it to the office and got a look over and the vet said she was in bad shape.
He then looked at Winslow and Sammie - as I was worried they might also be sick. As everyone lives in the same cage.
When they went to get Tuck back out of her carrier, they found her dead.


Dr. G is going to see if he can figure out anything. We want to make sure it wasn't horrible contagious. If I need to I'll get antibiotics for everyone tomorrow. I feel terrible. We have only had her for a little over 2 months.
I am worried for my other piggies.

Hope you had a better holiday. Maybe I'll go look for a beer.

VEGAS

Howdy.......

We return and work is kicking my butt.
Tom reminded me that I haven't put up any vegas pictures yet.
So, here is the link to the batch.

Firemen for Hillary.
Shots from the Eifell tower, very cool view.
The contruction tunnel we had to walk through too much.
Our favorite casino's and the Spice Buffet, still one of the best on the strip and only $28.
We took a trip to the old part of town and took pictures and gambled. I found my favorite game Flip-Flop at the Fiztgerald casino and saw a piece of the Blarney stone. They claim it is real, I'm not so certain.
Yeah, I should have taken a picture of that.

Yes, I did take a bunch of pictures from the bus. The double decker that takes you from the strip to downtown and to the shopping mall. Must remember to get the 3 day pass next time we are in town. Totally worth it. IF you get tired, just hop the bus.

Enjoy
http://picasaweb.google.com/Tamloongirl/Vegas#

Tuck meeting the others.

Here is the link to the many pictures that were taken during the introductions down today.
I think it went well.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Tamloongirl/TuckIntrosToOthers#

Tuck Pig intro to everyone else.

Introducing Tuck to the rest of the pigs. They seemed to do ok. As far as we know Tuck has lived alone for years, so this is so very new to her. I just checked on them and everyone has basically gone for a nap.

New Tuck photos and a Movie

Hopefully I'll get the stuff up before the Blogger outage today.

I took a few pictures of Tuck.

I also took a short video. Hope you can see it.

Busy January

Oh yes.

Here is the New (to us) snowblower.  The guy used it once, got hurt and his wife told him to get rid of it.

Needless to say it is plenty big for us and sure is good in the TON of snow we got.  So far it is great.

Here is the New Guinea pig...   Her name is Tuck.

She'll be in Quarantine for a few weeks.

She is sooo cute, and a little cuddly.  She even knows how to get hay out of the wheel thing.  I'll put more in a little later and try to get her to use her foot.  It is so very cute.

Ugly Ornament Contest

The official ugly ornament contest.
Once again - Barb wins the contest, by giving Kathy the --- well --- Sperm shaped ornament.

Here you see the victory cheer.
Enjoy this years grouping. Linn gave out the strangly colored people ornaments. Barb found not only the sperm shaped snowman, but all so the porncicle. Fuzzy purple feathers all around.
Kathy brought home a troll man from Germany.
Unfortunetly the crowd called her disqualified - as he did not have a hook sticking out of his head to make him a true ornament.
Hope you enjoyed this years coverage of the Ugly Ornament Contest.

Merry Christmas

Brando got some Reindeer ears for Christmas.

Family photos in front of mom's tree.
We had a really great time.
Christmas eve was spent traveling lower southeaster Michigan.

We started at Mom's house and then moved on to Aunt Pat in Lincoln park where we see family once a year usually. Make sure we know who is alive.
Then we drove to Monroe to see all our friends that we made during all those 4-H years.
Kathy hosts the party and we all had a great time.
Between the ugly (or as this year under protest says- funniest) Ornament contest between Kathy, Mom and Linn and the jello shots and shrimp. We all had a great time. Ice on the driveway, but what did you expect.

Christmas day was spent with Tom's family. So MUCH FOOD. Started with crepes about noon, dinner was around 3 or so and TOO many presents to open.
We had a lovely time. Friday, we sat around and did nothing.
Ok, I lie - I hooked up the blue ray player and we watched Batman. WOW

Christmas is Tiring

They were right.

You do start to look like your owner...

Brando, the smooshed face dog.

Mom and I went to the show at Fox Theater.

It looks awesome for the holidays.  The whole theater is all decorated and they had little kids out front singing carols while people were waiting to get in to sit down for the show.

The show White Christmas was wonderful.  The outfits were amazing, the singing was awesome and David Ogden Stiers plays an officer in the army.  It was cool.  Worth every penny.  
I know he looks a bit funny but he would not sit up for me.

He looks all smooshed.  But he put up with the hat and everything.
Sorry, no good shot of Tom and I this year.

Redid the cages

2 cages become one Fortress as Tom likes to say.

Cages