Me and Bob with Photo Booth

as I said, HIGHLY unflattering...





 LOL! look at my greasy hair!!! LOL LOL. If these pictures don't make you giggle, you are dead inside. 

Photo Booth brings on the LOLz

Whoo boy if you want to go LOL, and you have a Mac with an iSight camera, see if you have something called "Photo Booth". Check out these very silly, highly unflattering photos Maggie and James and I were just making... Last night our friend Bob was over and he and I discovered Photo Booth. We were peeing in our pants we were laughing so hard.

LOL! LOL! LOL!! LOOK AT MY ROCKY DENNIS JAY LENO CHIN!!!

Henry and Maggie last night

Hey, my scale is broken!

I was on the way to getting dressed this morning and happened to notice a change in the general topography of my body. Certain areas seemed smoother, less pronounced than before. Could it be?! Was it possible I'd actually been losing weight from all the junk food I've been eating?

The eternal optimist hops on the scale.

Not only had I not lost, I was actually about 5 pounds OVER the last personal baseline I'd set for when it'd be time to shut down the party and get moving and eating better. I think this means I've gained enough extra weight that my whole body is actually large enough for the fat to resettle in a new arrangement that tricked my eye into thinking I actually looked thinner! When in fact, I am, overall, LARGER!

That is all.

Crowds of Oregonians

Look at this picture of some of the 75,000 people at an Obama rally in Portland. WOW!



Are you in there somewhere, serah?

Some pics from Arizona

Lanie and Nora are visiting in Arizona, here are some very cute pictures of them visiting the Zoo in Tucson with Grammi and Pap. I like the one of Nora and the Giraffe best...

I spotted these in my photo library

From when Maggie was just a few months old and we were horsing around on the screen porch. Look at those feet!

Maggie and Nora

Papa took this of his two young granddaughters while up in Maine last week..

Jeff and Lanie, then and now.

This is too funny...

James plays with the big boys

Here is James playing with Riley and Scout, the two Standard Poodles who live at the farm. And what a beautiful evening I think this was, last Tuesday.

The Empire Strikes Barack

lol...

We watched Eli this weekend!

Look at this cute little video of Eli. Notice how his little face turns into a sweet little frown after Jeff (gently! kindly!) swats his hand from touching the hot light bulb... This baby is one cute pup! He was over at our house for a few hours on Saturday and his feelings would play out on his face like weather, it was very sweet. You could see him remembering his mom or realizing he wasn't at home or whatever, and his face would start to crumble and he'd get very sad for a couple seconds, then it would pass and he would be fine. SO. CUTE.

James and Jeff play together

and also this one:

Papa shows off his early birthday gift

LOL!

Make Yourself a Home

This morning I was outside with James and saw a couple of little birds hopping around in the bushes in front of the house. One of them was carrying a tuft of soft white dog hair, and he was so thrilled, you could tell. Then he would spy another tuft over there, and a extra nice bit right here, and there! and there! It was like he was at homegoods and they had everything in his color plus it was on clearance, and he had a giftcard!

More Birthday Videos

The sweetest picture, like, ever.

Happy Birthday, YOU!

Obama! 08! Be a Part of Something Great!

These two girls know who's the man...

Some pics from this weekend

Phil and Nora are in town this weekend, and last night we went to the farm. It was a gorgeous evening, here are some pics...

Maggie is teaching herself to whistle. Tomorrow I'll post a video of her latest efforts. 

This picture best illustrates her filthy face...

The farm

Phil and Nora coming out of the barn...

Here is a really cute picture of Jeff, Maggie, Henry and Nora...

I love this one, too.
Here we have Maggie and James out on the deck, from this morning...

James

James, Wednesday

(I gave him his first haircut - not my finest work. But look at that face!)

This one has a great ear, too.

Look at that - a perfect triangle!

Jame's ears are large, but they aren't the standy-uppy kind like Kermit. Good effort, tho.

Wii Play Only One Game.

Hi y'all -

That picture below is my nephew Chris, who, along with my nephew Brandon and my sister Dian, were out here visiting from Seattle for a few days. We did a lot of actual sightseeing this trip, beings how Chris and Brandon hadn't been out here yet. We went to Boston and Cambridge, they took a day trip to Portsmouth, up to Concord and right outside our back door, too!

What a couple of wonderful young men we are talking about here, it was really terrific to have them. And Dian, too! She baked us cookies two days in a row, plus a pineapple upside down cake! And dinner! Thanks, Di! Keep up the good work!

I am the master Wii Play Shoot-Out Champion. Undefeated.




Over the weekend, my glasses broke. So Dian and I spent all day Monday at the mall getting new eyeglasses for me. And then Jeff went back to work on Tuesday to hear tales of coworkers spending $8 for eyeglasses they ordered over the internets. And of eyeglasses broken in the same spot as where mine broke, being successfully superglued back together, for pennies on the dollar. Pennies on the dollar! More like 1/12th of a penny on the dollar, given my grandtotal from Lenscrafters.

Curse you, Lenscrafters! We hate you so much!!!

Chris

Updated to the Puppy Update

The dust has finally settled on the new puppy's name, and it is.... drum roll please... wait for it, wait for it!!!!



James.

As in, "Hey, James..."

James is settling in just fine, and our adventure over to Pennsylvania went very smoothly. Henry and I didn't get home until nearly 10pm, but there was no whining or complaining by anybody (man nor beast) about the long car ride. We plopped James in between us in the front seat and he pretty much slept there non stop for the entire ride. No going #1 or even #2 the several times we stopped to let him try. He almost went into a state of suspended animation for the whole ride, not a peep or a drop out of him. When we finally got home, he ate and drank (see my earlier blog post) and then passed out.

What a cutie this guy is. Very calm and mellow so far. But inquisitive too. You can tell that the world is big and he is smart and it's just a matter of time until he soaks up enough know-how to really cause trouble. he watches and sniffs and enjoys chasing the kids as they run through the house. It's going to be interesting, because when the kids were old enough to play with dogs, rudy and kermit were too old to play with kids. now the mix is right. kids and puppies and play, well, they go together like bread and butter!

Food and Drink

FOOD


DRINK

Prince Jimmy Carter Sparkle Pony!

So this is the sweet little babyface Henry and I are traveling to pick up tomorrow morning!!!! We are flying to Philadelphia and renting a car. Then we're driving an hour and a half west of the city to Denver, PA where our newest member of the family will be waiting!

Jimmy Carter is about 12 weeks old, Bichon Frise, and one lucky pup!

After we pick him up, we are driving back to New Hampshire, dropping the rental car at the airport and finally heading home. It will be a long day, but quite an adventure, I'm sure.

And a couple pictures from Kermit's sweet start

Here are some pictures

of Kermit's burial...

Life, and how it goes on.

I haven't written all week. No real reason. It's lonely here without Kerm, and we were lucky to have his company for as long as we did. You know I loved that dog, I know you loved that dog. What more is there to say? :-( I can tell you that the pace of life slowed on Monday long enough to give him a peaceful and respectful exit -- He had more people at his funeral than a lot of people, I'm sure. And he gets to be down at the farm, near Rudy and other well loved dogs of our friends and neighbors. Henry handed him down to Jeff, who placed him in the hole, and we all said something nice about what a great dog he was.

Monday night I felt sort of giddy almost. Relieved to have it over with and to find that even though a dear dog has died, the world continues to spin. But still lonely. It was odd to have one less person(ality) to care for in the house. No one to let out, no one to carry downstairs, etc. So we went out to eat.

We went to Chilis, and I tell you, that place was conspiring against me. You know those oddball cigarette disposal unit thingies they have outside public places? Like where one can deposit their smoke before going in, and it falls down a tube and down into the bottom of the thing. One of these:



Anyways. I noticed that it was still smoking as we walked by, and I blanched. At work, we have to walk past one of these to get in the building and sometime someone won't put out their smoke before dropping it in and it'll smoke and cook up this completely repulsive smell. SO. NASTY.

They seated us near the kitchen, which was normally okay. But every once in awhile I'd get this super strong whiff of that ashtray stink. It turned out that we were in the path of the giant swirl of air that would blow in from the entrance to the restaraunt whenever the outside doors opened. So it would billow towards us every time someone came in the place. I bitched and bitched to my table mates about it and theorized on where the smell could be coming from. (I hadn't made the connection yet -- was thinking more about how maybe it was some sort of dishwasher on his break, propped up on a milk crate, making plans for the night on his cell phone, etc.)

So, as I was waiting for my burger to be re-cooked (I ordered well done, received medium rare), the dishwasher came rushing through the restaraunt carrying the still smoking ashtray! Through the restaraunt! so nasty. So, so nasty. I couldn't believe it. And I didn't even go into the fact my burger was raw and our server was dead behind the eyes.