Balloon

Today I brought my birthday balloon home from work. As usual, I unloaded all my stuff in the living room and went in the kitchen to check the mail. Out of the blue Pellet starts barking like a mad dog and I can't figure out why. I tell him to hush and he won't.

So I go in the living room (which is where he is at) and I find him barking frantically at the poor balloon. I took a video of it - he obviously is barking in this video, but he also makes other funny noises when I tell him to hush. I apologize to your ears in advance - enjoy!



Strange note: Originally I was having trouble uploading this video. I kept getting a message saying to contact support. After trying to figure out how to contact support I gave up and realized I had both the title of this post as well as the title of the video labeled "Balloon Harassment". I changed the title of the video to just "Balloon" and I kept getting the error message. I changed the title of the post to just "Balloon" (completely removing the word "harassment" from everything) and the video uploaded just fine... interesting...

The Effigy

Our friends Kerrie and Eric are always going on mini hikes to the Rock Hawk Effigy. Finally this afternoon Norm and I got our act together and went on a mini hike ourselves... with the pups of course!

This place is literally right around the corner from our house (no wonder Kerrie and Eric go all the time) and it's so neat! We walked all through the trail in the woods and made it to the effigy (love that word, I've been repeating it all night) and went up the lookout tower (dogs and all - Cali was unbelievable going up the stairs, she jumped them in twos).

This was Cali taking herself on a walk before we left the house. She loves the leash:


Here she is at the top of the lookout tower:


Pellet at the top of the lookout tower. Norm was reading all about the effigy [ :) ]


The EFFIGY!


Walking down the trail - this one was more like a road. I'm sorry for the blurriness - it's hard to hold Cali still on one hand while trying to take a picture of beautiful nature with a cell phone on the other hand:

Radio Ad

This afternoon I heard a radio ad for a local car dealership. I don't remember the exact words, but they went something like this:

If you have an income - we will approve you for a vehicle. Are you on unemployment? Are you a babysitter on an hourly wage? It doesn't matter - you have an income - you get approved! All you need is money coming in and you will be approved!

And then we wonder what's wrong with the economy... Unemployment = Income ?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I guess technically unemployment could be considered "income" because it's money coming in to a household. But for it to be considered "income" to go out and buy a car... come on.

Football

I never thought I would ever say this: I am learning about the game of football.

I think somewhere along the way I've mentioned that Juan Ma started high school. Well, he is now in the JV Football Team. Let's just say one more fact: I have attended (and paid attention) to more football games in the months of August and September (so far) than in all my prior years (put together).

I am so amazed how this little guy (well, not literally speaking) has naturally been able to motivate me to learn (and enjoy) a sport that for my whole life I've had absolutely no desire to learn (regardless of all the Super Bowl parties in college).

Here are some pictures - in some he is 63 and in others he is 65.

Appetizer Dinner

Saturday night we had appetizer dinner out on the patio! The weather was so perfect (and it still is). We had margaritas and relaxed!

Of course Pellet and Cali were the first to show up... notice Cali smelling the food from underneath the table.


Cheers!



Lot's of loving from Cali girl (at least that's what I want to think she was doing). In reality she just wanted to get close to the food...

Happy Birthday Opa

Today was my grandpa's birthday - we would have turned 90. Although I was only 13 when he passed away after a long and tough battle against cancer, I have many fond memories of him.

One thing I particularly remember is how he enjoyed his birthday. It seems like there was always some sort of family event taking place on his birthday - for example my brother's confirmation was on Opa's birthday. I always had wanted to get married on Opa's birthday, but due to various reasons, September 4 was not a feasible date at the moment.

There are more things I remember. I remember how he was always the life of the party, how his family was top priority regardless of the circumstances at hand, how he worked hard and fair to get to where he got and provide the best for all those around him, how much he enjoyed traveling and eating, how he ate yogurt and oatmeal and fruit at breakfast (every day), how whenever he got mad you wanted to be far far far away because things were about to get ugly, how he was big, tall, loud and intimidating (to those who didn't know him).

How I wish he would've lived longer than 73 years... Fortunato Manuel Migone - I miss you!

End of Summer

Some say this was the last week of Summer... that Summer ends this weekend, with Labor Day holiday weekend.

We all know we still have little under 3 weeks of official Summer left. Either way you look at it, it's pretty clear we are in Summer's last stretch... I will miss you dear season...

On that note, here's a video of a typical Summer afternoon in our backyard. Disclaimer: at one point Pellet does get a little bit out of control, therefore they get yelled at by yours truly. But notice how after that Cali continues to instigate.

Fooled

Please keep in mind the story I'm about to tell happened in a total of 10 seconds.

Today I walked in from work and Pellet wasn't at the door to meet me.

As soon as I didn't see him at the door, I glanced up and saw him getting off the couch. Yes. I'm going to say it again: getting off the couch.

I immediately yelled: No Pellet! Bad! No! No!

Pellet went in his cage/on his mat, whatever, and wrapped up in a little ball.

I stood with my hands on my hips, looking at him: MAD.

He looked up at and walked off his mat with his head down.


And we think he "behaves" when we're not home... on his defense, I do have to say that usually we leave the couch pillows on the seat of the couch... last night the couch pillows were not left on the seat of the couch...