Ian has been nominated for a People's Choice Award at Threadless for his design, "A Voyage of Discovery." If you have a minute or two, you can vote here (for him preferably - LOL). We of course would prefer you vote for his design, but you can vote for any one of the designs you like best since it is People's Choice, and you are one of The People. I am not People, so I don't get to vote.
Sorry for the week long absence everypuggy. Woman was gone most of last week, and when she got home, she wouldn't let me on the computer - something about needing to get some work done. She did not take any pictures while she was in Mobile, because she claims to have been very busy the entire time.
Woman left for Mobile on Tuesday morning, but not before the electricians got the electricity hooked up to the hot tub on Monday! It was 11pm before the temperature was warm enough to get in, but Woman stayed up so she could try out the hot tub before her trip. She says it is pretty much awesome, but I don't like it one bit. Why did no one warn me that I would be left out of this party? I am left inside the house to stare out the window from the back of the futon. Sure, I bark my little head off, but they can't hear it, so what's the point? Long story short, I hate the hot tub. I get no snuggles, I get no lovin', and it drowns out my barking. I am plotting against it, but it seems impervious to pee. We'll see how it holds up in the long run.
Woman said her trip to Mobile was a good one. She did have some trouble on Thursday though. She was refilling her rental car at 6am in the rain on her way to the airport, and she had to go into the gas station to get the receipt for the fuel. As she was turning to lock the car, she tripped on the raised concrete island-thingy and fell really hard on the dirty wet concrete. She cut up her hands and knees and bruised her knees all up. She says it hurt really badly, and she was bleeding and covered in muddy water. She was hoping the day would get better from there, but when she got into Atlanta, her flight to Asheville was canceled! She had to wait around the airport for a couple hours to get another flight. Since flights are sparse going into Asheville, she was afraid she wouldn't make it in that day, but she did end up getting on a later flight. That flight turned out to be very bumpy, and the last 10 minutes were filled with heavy turbulence and screaming. Woman says there was a pilot sitting across from her who told her it was the worst turbulence he had experienced in ten years of flying. Needless to say, Woman was really freaked out, and yes, she was the one screaming. Probably not the only one, but definitely the loudest one. She says turbulence gives you a free ticket to scream, and it feels so good to let it out like that! She's kind of crazy.
So Woman made it home safely. We snuggled on the couch on Thursday night after the People finally made their way out of the hot tub. Geesh!
On Friday night we had some house guests. One of Woman's co-workers is moving from Alabama to Maryland and stopped by here on his way up north. His wife was really afraid of me. Every time I got near her, she jumped up in the air and squealed. It was funny. They are Indian, and for whatever reason, she has not been around a lot of dogs, and the one time she was around a dog, it chased her, so now she thinks all dogs are going to try to chase her and eat her. I'm not really hungry enough to eat an entire person, so she's pretty safe with me, but I just couldn't convince her of that. Oh well. It's her loss! Here is a picture of us all together.
The guests left Saturday afternoon, and we pretty much vegged out the rest of the day and night.
On Sunday Ian and Michael (his step-dad) bottled up their home brew. It was pretty exciting. I kept getting in the way and annoying them! That's what I do best I guess. Woman and Gammy were in the hot tub for like 2 hours! Lyn came over and also soaked for a while. It was nice for her to get out of the house and have some relaxation. I'm sure she started to miss her new baby though. I barked at them while they were soaking, but it didn't seem to bother them. Bah! Lyn also told Woman that despite my history of Mast Cell tumors, I do have to have my rabies shot. Double Bah!
Ian has a new t-shirt for sale on Threadless! Check it out!
Finally! We have the power! The Electricians have been here since 9am, and they just finished up. Ian has the hot tub filled, but the water is only 51 degrees! (FYI - That's fahrenheit for all you Canadians.) It is way cold. Woman has to fly to Mobile tomorrow and won't be back until Thursday. She's going to be ticked if she can't try out the hot tub before she gets home on Thursday!
I had fun barking at the Electricians every time they came in and out of the house. I wish we had company more often! I like to bark at people!
I know all you "true" Northerners are going to laugh at our snowfall, but I am excited to show you all what we woke up to this morning. Snow! About 3 or 4 inches of it!
I do not like to step foot on the snow, because it is cold and wet and just plain gross on a puggy's foot. Here I am lolly-gagging about while being yelled at by Woman.
Finally she pushed me off the deck to do my business. I was not pleased.
I snub thee Woman! You are snubbethed!
Here's the backyard. I don't think the garden appreciates the snow either.
The "penis head man" across the street was taking photos and video of his house playing in the snow this morning. Whee! I'm sure that's an exciting video.
We do actually get snow around here once or twice a year. This is just our first "bigger" snow. The first year we moved up to Asheville we had a really big snow. Still, we are in the South, and everyone freaks out. Like all schools are closed today, and Woman's dentist appointment was cancelled. LOL!
We *might* be getting power hooked up for our hot tub on Friday. I stress *might*, because the People do not want to get their hopes up. Electricians make Woman want to pull her hair out, but then she'd be bald, and that would be weird.
We had some nice warm weather on Saturday, so the People decided to proclaim it "Burn Day" and burn all of our nasty rotten wood that has been sitting in a pile for pugness knows how long. The People made a burn pile in the garden so the ash will help nourish the soil and also soften the soil to make digging easier. They also started preparing the garden for planting in March. Woman says they got one of the beds ready for planting and have three more left. They got tired after 4 1/2 hours and had to stop. What sissies.
I was bored most of the time, but Woman got a couple laughs from me. At one point I was napping under a tree with my head resting on a root. She said it was mega-cute. I was also sitting stoically keeping guard over the garden while the People labored away. I am Management. I don't actually *do* the work. I just make sure the People do the work properly.
The People were so tired that night that we just laid around and watched tv. Score one for the puggy! I was kind of ticked to be smelling like a campfire, but at least I got some good snuggle time.
I am one to kiss and tell, and I even like to share the pictures with my blogger friends! So, if you're at my house, and I'm loving on you, watch out for that camera!!
You all know Sarah by now, because I talk about her a lot. I really like Sarah. She's so cute and just my size! I wish all People were Sarah's height. Sarah came over to our house the other day and was in the mood for a cookie. Look at that sweet face. She's saying, "Cheese" in case you couldn't tell.
I really wanted a bite of that cookie, but she was being greedy with it, and wouldn't even give me the last crumb!
After she finished her cookie, she decided she was in the mood for some Pug kisses. Who wouldn't be, right? So I decided to give her what she wanted. It helped that she had some remnants of that green icing on her face for me to lick. She would point to a place on her face for me to kiss, and I would kiss away.
She just couldn't get enough of me, and I couldn't get enough of that sweet icing!
Some kisses were not accepted as willingly as others.
When we both got tired out, we just sat quietly together and reflected on our love of cookies.
I don't want you all to get the wrong impression that I'll just lick away on the side of any one's face, because I won't. Here I am refusing Uncle Michael's request for a kiss. Denied!!
A couple months back there were some negative words posted about kitties on my blog. Some of it came from me, some from other readers, but in the end I recanted my comments and blamed it all on my bad experience with kitties. Well, I come before you today with proof of a Kitty Conspiracy against me despite my recanting!
This is Einstein. Einstein is a teenage kitty, and very docile with the humans. When you pick him up, he pretty much falls asleep in your arms. All the humans agree that he is a very nice kitty. Looks like a nice kitty, yes? See how I'm trying to introduce myself to him. "Hi Einstein! I'm Mr. Norman. I want to be friends."
BAP!!! Right in the face!!! Look at me cringe! What a mean kitty!! He kept coming at me with those baps! Bap! Bap! Bap! One right after the other.
Talk to the butt kitty, cause the face don't wanna hear it!
And that's why I don't trust kitties.
Please let me know when the kitty is gone so I can get back on the couch.
Happy Birthday to Uncle Michael! I helped him celebrate his birthday on New Year's Eve by assisting with the unwrapping of the presents. You know how helpful I am at unwrapping presents!
Happy Birthday Uncle Michael! He doesn't look 27, does he? That's because he isn't! LOL!
Wouldn't it be cool to have a New Year's Eve birthday? Every where you went everyone would be celebrating! What great fun! If you're really lucky, there would be some fireworks too. There were no fireworks that night for Uncle Michael, but he did get to join in the annual New Year's Eve fondu tradition! I bet he comes up from Florida every year now to celebrate his birthday!
I have been wanting to blog about our Secret Santa gift, but Woman wanted to wait until our hot tub was hooked up so I could show you all the gifts in use, but since it looks like that is NEVER going to happen, I am going forward with my Secret Santa post!
Thank you Kara for the awesome Secret Santa gift of hot tub supplies! What a wonderfully thoughtful gift! I know the People will enjoy them tremendously!!
She sent us some special fragrances for the hot tub and a cute whale thermometer!
Check out this guy's face. I don't know that I trust him floating around my Woman when I'm not there. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on him.
Look at all these fragrances! Woman can't wait to use them!! She says you can smell them faintly through the plastic containers, and she especially can't wait to open the Cucumber Melon and Eucalyptus Mint!
The fragrances also have moisturizer in them, which is awesome, because your skin gets all dried out in that hot spa water!
You may be wondering why the hot tub is not hooked up yet. Well, we have had trouble getting an electrician to come out and install a 240 line. There is some talk of upgrading our breaker box, and apparently it's not the most fun work in the world. We did have two different electricians come out in the past two days, but we have not heard back from them with a quote. One other electrician came out last week, but his quote seemed really high, so the People are holding out for a better deal.
So .... once it is finally in working order, this is where the People will spend most of their time.
And where will the sweet little Pug be while the People are soaking? Well, I don't know where that Pug will be, but this Pug will probably be parked on the rug ... Humpug!
In other news, our friends (Kris and Lyn) have a new baby, Claire Evelyn. The baby decided to come on New Year's Eve (4 weeks early), and due to complications, Lyn had to have a C-section instead of a natural birth as planned. After she delivered, she had even more complications. I will spare you all the details and just say that we are glad she is here with us today! We would have missed her and her beautiful smile. Also, she's my favorite Vet!
Here is a picture of Kris, Lyn and Paige.
And here is the new baby, Claire Evelyn.
And finally, Mr. Ian has a new t-shirt up for voting at Threadless.
It's got only two days left for voting, so if you like this shirt, make sure you vote now!
Weird title, yes? Now it's time for a rant! I don't rant often, so I thought I would start the week off with some spice! I know how many bloggers out there love their daily Starbucks fix, so I thought I would share this story I read. Apparently, McDonald's is installing coffee bars in their stores that will serve beverages "comparable" to popular Starbucks drinks. Well, at least they consider the beverages to be comparable.
This is funny to me on so many levels. First, how many people who eat at McDonald's also frequent Starbucks? I think they are going to have trouble "stealing" business from Starbucks, because most Starbucks fans don't really go for the Big Mac, do they? I would bet very few, but I hate McDonald's and can't imagine why anyone would want to eat there (sorry AM - I know you love your McD's biscuit and sweet tea). Second, will each latte come with a layer of grease floating on top, because everything in that place gets covered in grease eventually. And finally, the smell of McDonald's really kills the ambiance of a specialty coffee shop.
Please McDonald's, stick to what you do best - forcing parents to choke down your crappy food because their children want your shoddy toys that come in your Fatty Meals, I mean Happy Meals.
Most Christmases Woman makes a baby sweater for a friend. It used to be for the Peoples' god-daughter Elena, but since they left her in Mobile, she doesn't get sweaters any more. Now, Baby Sarah gets the sweaters. Sorry Elena. You've been replaced.
This year's baby sweater probably took the longest of all the baby sweaters ever. Woman estimates over 100 hours in work. It took 10 hours just to weave in all the loose ends, whatever that means. So, here it is, the 2007 Christmas Sweater.
It's from a pattern in the Debbie Bliss Easy Knits book. Woman really resents the name of this book, because this project was by no means easy. She feels particular angst toward the collar. The directions for the collar were very poorly worded, and there was no picture of the collar in the book. Bah!
This is the description of the book, "Would you like to knit something gorgeous for a new baby, but don’t have weeks to spend on it? Or are you relatively new to knitting and looking for a simple, foolproof design that will give you great results? Easy Knits is a fantastic collection of over 25 simple designs for babies, children and adults."
This is the finished product.
I think there is a disjoint somewhere in between the description and the finished product. Anyway, Woman did have fun making it, but she was really down to the wire in the end to get it finished by Christmas Eve.
Last year Woman made Sarah another sweater out of this same book. This one was MUCH easier to knit and does belong in the Easy Knits book.
Hasn't Baby Sarah grown a lot in a year? She's so cute. I like to give her kisses.
Woman got the Debbie Bliss Celtic Knits book for Christmas and is pretty excited about next year's baby sweater. Hint - it's going to be celtic.
Location: Asheville, North Carolina, United States
I live in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, and I am an ornery little pugger. Although I am only awake about 3 hours each day, I work a whole lot of mischief into each and every minute.
