Some Dog!

Recently, I have come across a few pretty adorable doggie videos.  This one I heard about on the news, but essentially it is a boxer who became just a little bit irritated when her owner went shopping for a tad too long and left her all alone in the car.

This boxer, 18-month-old, Fern, is a resident of Scotland, and she blasted on that horn for a straight 15 minutes -- unbelievable!  It is actually a really cute story:  "Bark and Ride." 

My Milton has never even attempted a stunt like Fern's, but every time I do leave him in the car, he ultimately vacates the back seat, and upon return, I find him curled up in the front.  Personally, I think Milt does have big dreams of one day driving Momma's Corolla...!  

Happy Weekend, everyone!!!

Terrible Twos

On April 7th, our beloved Milton turned TWO!  Yes, two.  It is incredibly difficult to fathom that this little man has been such a major part of our lives for so long.  Did we celebrate with a massive party just like last year -- 24 humans and 13 dogs?  Sadly, no.  Things were kept much more low-key.  We didn't want Milton to expect "spectacular!" for each and every event in his life although our little man does deserve it.

Milton's birthday celebratory night began with a few silly photos of him in his special hat.

Up close - We turned the hat backwards, so you can no longer see the big number "1."

Milton and Daddy

I don't know if you can tell this from the pictures, but Milton hates his special hat.  After Jeff and Milt allotted me my quota of hat photos, we got to the good stuff -- Milt's birthday dessert!

Blue on blue for our boy.

If you read last year's birthday blog post, I know what you are thinking -- What a dinky little cookie -- Obviously, their love for the Milt Dog has waned just a little bit...  Well, this year, we actually did not have quite enough freezer room to support a triple-layer pumpkin, yogurt, peanut butter cake.  Jeff likes to have copious amounts of meat on hand, ready to defrost at his fingertips, and I have a bad habit of freezing every last morsel of food, even if it is one stray chickpea, before it spoils.  Milton might not have disliked the hat, but he certainly liked that cookie.

Eager anticipation...

Wait for it.

A little lick.

Mouthing it.

Milton taking his treat to his secret lair -- the...

living room, where Milton likes to take all his treats, so Momma and Daddy can't get their grimy hands on them!

Milton liked the cookie, but he really liked his present.

Investigating.

Sneaking off to the secret lair once again.

Not one but TWO KONG squeaky balls!

Even Daddy is impressed.

With the gift of two brand new balls to squeak, chase, and chew to Milton's heart's content, immediately following devouring a giant cookie, he upset his tender tummy just a little.

He threw up not once, but

twice, AND the second time was directly on Momma's rug conveniently under the coffee table.

Milt Dog was rather polite, however, and did offer to help (or rather watch...) Daddy Dog clean up.

As you can see, Milt is, indeed, another year older, but we are still just plum wild about that guy!  I often remark to Jeff that I don't know how we ever got along without this big white rat of a roommate.  Here's to many, many, many more years shared with our special dood!

Just Right...?

One of Jeff's absolute favorite things to do, especially when I am out of town, is to make a little trip to his preferential store, Costco.  Really, Costco, you might ask?  Yes, Jeff positively adores this mega bulk food store, and I, personally, think it has a tad bit to do with all the free food samples.  It's just a guess, but I think I may be spot-on with that one.

Although Jeff is usually not quite as attune to the needs of Milton as I am, recently he was rather adamant that Milton was in dire need of a new dog bed.  The current one that we had at the foot of our bed was merely a lambs' wool kennel liner with old fleece blankets piled on top.

A trifle sloppy

Judging from Milton's reluctance to lie on it during the day, instead choosing one of his other beds, Jeff concluded that Milt deserved something a little more luxurious.  Hence, the trip to Jeff's favorite store -- Costco.

Well, Jeff returned home with this beauty, and I found the circular shape to be rather unusual and reminiscent of a heart-shaped bed at some cheap Las Vegas dive.  It does, however, make Milton appear somewhat regal as he lies atop it.

Regal -- this guy?!  Just joking...

Though the problem remains that Milton is just too darn big for this round oddity.  I mean if round beds are supposed to be that appealingly comfortable, humans would have them rather than boxy mattresses, and we don't.  Our common joke is that Jeff just did not ask Milton's opinion before he purchased the bed, and even more importantly, Jeff did not measure Milton tail to snout before embarking on his buying spree.  I mean, how silly can you be?

Bottom hanging off

The tail just doesn't quite fit, and we all know how important the tail is.

That darn tail is still causing trouble...

I hate to make this reference yet again, but I simply must -- "Dads are for fun, and moms get it done."  If I had been the one to purchase Milton's new dog bed, you better believe it would have fit him, but then again, it might have been... pink!

Puppy Photo of the Week

Despite the cold, hard fact that our little boy is no longer a puppy (Note the Happy Birthday bandanna -- official birthday post is coming up soon!), Jeff still enjoys hauling Milt Dog up onto his lap for some quality male bonding.

My boys!

Seeing the two of these together does my heart good.  Happy Monday, everyone!

The Cadillac of all Rides

Milton loves, let me put a little emphasis on loves, my Toyota Corolla, which until just recently had duct tape holding on the bumper.  My boy, however, thinks his Momma's ride is just as nice as, well, let's say a Maserati Ducati...  It is a proud moment for Milt Dog when Momma drives down the street with his big head, hair slicked back, ears whipping in the wind, poking out the window.  Don't worry -- Milt only gets to act like a hood ornament on local trips; I drive very, very cautiously, of course -- no potholes.  Milton sure is one pleased pup when he is in my ride, but check this lucky dood out:

Daredevil Dood

Goggles to hold his curls back

Our good friend recently snapped this priceless shot while paused at a stoplight if you can't tell.  It is actually a light very close to our house, which is rather exciting because that means Milt Dog has the potential of meeting this gutsy guy someday.  Actually, I better hope that Milt never, ever meets him because if he does, my little Toyota Corolla will plummet from cool to lame in a hot second.  As fun as I think a sidecar is and as much as I love my boy, I just don't think that's how we roll... 

Happy Holidays!

As today is New Year's Eve, I figured it was not too late to showcase our 2013 Christmas card before the year comes to a close! 

It was a Charlie Brown Christmas at our house this year with our little potted tree that was just about the same height as Milton.  We like to keep it simple, and we do!  Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy, Happy New Year to you all!

The Few, the Proud, the Stupidly Cold

Do you all recall the Summer 2013 Air Conditioning Catastrophe, which left us trapped in our house for one entire weekend in 100+ degree heat?  Well, we recently topped that with the Winter 2013 Heating Disaster, which occurred when a vicious ice storm descended upon Dallas this past weekend confining us to a 45 degree house in the dark.  I assert that this frigid cold was much, much worse than the brutal heat, but Jeff claims that I have just blocked out all pain from my memory...  He could be right, but my fingers and toes still feel slightly numb even after heat was finally restored!

It all began on Thursday evening at 7P.M., as I was driving to collect Milt from daycare, when I received the phone call that school was canceled for Friday due to impending rainy sleet and snow.  Of course, I was absolutely thrilled...!  I grabbed the Milt Dog and zoomed over to WalMart to quickly pick up a few provisions before returning to our home.  As we stayed up late watching Elf and drinking hot chocolate that evening, I was all prepared for a nice, long weekend baking cookies and watching movies in our toasty warm house.  That, unfortunately, was not to occur...

The next morning we awoke at 5:30A.M. to the harsh sound of heavy snow sliding and ice-covered branches breaking.  Pulling the curtains aside, we saw the ground frosted with white, and, of course, we had to push Milton outside to go play.  He was quite happy to lick, jump, and romp around while hunting for squirrels, his favorite pastime.  At precisely 7A.M., Jeff and I were still nestled warm in bed, when a tremendous crash was heard across the neighborhood, and we both simultaneously thought, Uh oh...  My charging cell phone clicked off, and I knew the power had completely fizzled out.  What a bummer...!  My dreams of luxuriating in a cozy house over a long weekend dissipated in mere seconds.

Milton enjoying this Dallas oddity -- snow.

Backyard romping

Ice skating on the driveway!

Sliding about

The offending downed power line; surprisingly, it was actually not one of our massive trees that caused the outage.

The hours to follow, a full 58 to be exact, were just pure misery.  Throughout the course of Friday, the heat in our house dropped from a comfortable 72 degrees to somewhere in the 50s.  Any sane person would have beat it out of there to go stay with friends or family; however, Jeff and I were resolute that the heat would quickly return, and we adamantly refused to leave our little house in this odd predicament.  In hindsight, I liken us to those strong souls who refuse to evacuate their homes when a hurricane is about to hit, or the sole survivors of a nuclear war.  We are a bit loopy in our decision making...  However did we survive?

Over the full course of the weekend, the temperature did eventually sit at 42 degrees...!

A weak attempt to slightly heat our house.

I shelled lots and lots of pecan!  The monotony of it all gave me great focus.

Milton bundled up. 

He curled up too -- note our new slip covers or rather sheets.

Daddy Dog and Milton even read together in bed.  When you have six blankets piled up on top of you, and it is still not enough, you need to haul up the Milt Dog too for added warmth.

The ice really was quite beautiful despite breaking so many tree limbs.

Geraniums frozen in time.

By Sunday morning, we were a bit nervous about our stockpile of deer meat in the freezer.

Over this very long weekend, we bonded with neighbors by newly exchanging cell phone numbers, walking to go eat dinner, and sharing candles.  Surprisingly, Jeff and I bickered very little, compared to the A/C blow-out; this was probably due to actually needing each other... for warmth!  Also, I think we were both gloriously rested since it makes for a very short day when it is only light from 7A.M. -- 5P.M.  Time was spent outside the house sitting with Milton at a local book store, very, very carefully driving to CostCo to procure our Christmas cards, and slip sliding around outside to survey the state of things.  By Sunday afternoon, it was all beginning to get a bit mind-numbing, bone-chilling, and just plain depressing.  Pop and Momeaux even graciously offered to drive six hours from Louisiana to bring us a generator, but we were in pretty darn deep by then, and we agreed to power through it.  Oncor had estimated a 12:30P.M. Sunday afternoon fix, but with 250,000 people in the area without electricity, and we, only three houses without power on the block, we were not really a high priority on anyone's list.  I did, however, manage to accomplish all of this:

My thumbs are super sore.

By 5P.M. that evening, I was beginning to go a bit batty, especially at the thought of spending another night in the bitter cold, when I, thankfully, glimpsed this out our back windows.

Rescue!

 I asked our hero if I could take his picture, and 30 minutes later our lights flickered back on!  I have never, ever been so happy in my entire life to be so toasty warm.  In the midst of this entire debacle, Jeff said to me, "Well, at least we are having an experience."  My reply was, "I don't need to have every single experience in my lifetime!"  We might have been too proud or stupid to ask the favor of a friend or family member to spend the night, but Jeff, Milt, and I certainly grew closer stuck in this chilly quagmire.  Next time our heating company asks if we want to donate a few dollars for all those who cannot afford to pay their heating bill this winter season, I am going to check, Yes!