Carol of the Dogs

I've finally gone off of the deep end. I'm just forewarning you before you actually click the video below...

This started as Brenda's joke since she spent the weekend in Kansas City with me and she's really to blame for originally giving a voice to Remy. Clearly things have gotten out of hand since then. She made River sing the first line of Carol of the Bells about 600 times... with new words, of course. It got stuck in my head. I sang it 600 more times.

Occasionally we would add more words or different lines. Most of the time it was just "ham egg and cheese" over and over again. Tonight, as I should be packing, I made the video that we joked about doing all weekend. There were many different ideas and versions floating around, but this is what I settled upon. (For ease = one camera shooting without any editing.)

True, it would have been funnier to have the dogs more animated as they sang, but they were trying to nap as I... er, they... put on this performance for you.

Congrats, Nikki. You're not even 30 yet and you are already the crazy dog lady. This is why I shouldn't be left alone very often.

Aren't you glad to know me? If you think this is crazy, remember, I have to drive to Texas tomorrow... with only these dogs for company. Thank goodness they are so talkative.

To sing along, here are the words: (Forgive me, Mykola Leontovych, I know you never intended for the song to end up like this.)

River:
Ham, egg and cheese
Give me some peas
Corn dogs and beers
Dill pickle spears
Turkey and rice
Gravy's so nice
Fire grilled steak
A piece of cake

What's on your dish?
How about fish?
Hand me the bread
Oh, what a spread

Remy:
I would like some crispy bacon!
I would like some crispy bacon!

River:
To my dearest friend,
I highly recommend
That you have some wine
The last bite is mine

Remy:
Bacon! Bacon!



PS, River doesn't even like all the foods she's singing about!

Merry Christmas, everyone!


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Puppy Picture Spam

Took some pictures with my phone of the dogs playing in the yard after work today and thought I'd share. It might have taken two years, but I think that Remy actually really does like River. I know the opposite is true.







Love them!


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Puppy Picture Spam

These were all taken during a time when we were puppy sitting for Tanya and Scout and Buster were here. Four dogs is slightly too many in a house this size. But it was fun!

Scout, River's sister, being calm. She got all of the calm and none of the hyper genes, unlike River.

Remy and Scout ganging up on River in the snow.

You wants to take a photo of me, Mom? Here's my toy.

Remy sleeping. Tuckered out from all the activity going on behind her.

EXCUSE ME! WHERE AM I GOING TO SIT??

Sisters. They were attached at the shoulder for a week.

That's the happiest looking yawn, ever.

River really likes the camera. A lot.

Yay.

Puppy picture spam complete.


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Zombie Jesus Weekend

Carolyn went home this weekend to NJ to spend the holiday with her family. Seeing as how I don't really believe there is a giant man in the sky watching out for all of human kind who sent his son to die for our sins, I thought I'd spend the weekend at home, alone, doing absolutely nothing. Maybe sleeping, watching a ton of TV, that sort of thing. Indulging mostly in the sloth sin, I wager. With some gluttony thrown in for good measure.

Turns out, I didn't really do that much. Saturday I went to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls. I was pleasantly surprised at some of my drives. True, they still don't go very far, but I actually hit some nice shots with my three wood, the most horrible club I own. I hate it and never use it because I do so poorly with it. But surprisingly I got a few good shots with it. Then I went to lunch with Troy, played some video games with him and two other friends on Xbox Live, and did some online shopping for a ball marker/hat clip combo. (I found a Mustang one, which I bought.) Then I watched some TV, ate some Taco Bueno, and decided that I would try to fix my lawnmower.

Last year the self propel stopped working, and wouldn't you know, that dang lawnmower is really hard to push around without it. And because I'm a fat ass and don't enjoy exercise, it was probably harder than it should be. Anyway, I found out that a belt had slipped off of a pulley and I put it back together. My lawnmower is now working properly! Seeing as how I completed this task at 12:30am, I promptly went to bed.

Sunday morning I went golfing at 9:45am with Troy and Adam. I like golfing with them because they are only slightly better than me and I don't feel like I'm holding anyone up. Anyway, that was super fun. It was a really nice day after the sun came out and I got a bit sunburnt. I have a really awesome watch/glove line on my left hand.

We then ate at Five Guys, which was one of the only places we could find open on Easter. Turns out a lot of people take the whole thing pretty seriously. When we got there, we were starving, and there were three police cars in the parking lot. There seemed to be some sort of domestic dispute. I really wanted to know what was going on, but I never found out. It was nice to have a show with dinner though.

I came home and did a ton of laundry. Including all the sheets from the bed. Remy had a little anal leakage problem and stunk up the whole room with her stupid anal gland. I wish that she would give me some sort of warning so I could take her to the vet or something before this disgusting explosion happens in my house, but she doesn't. She just surprises me all the time with really unpleasant smells and then doesn't even bother to help clean it up. This happened Saturday night while I was sleeping. The smell was so bad it woke me up from dead slumber.

It's a good thing I really like that dog. Maybe they smell proportional to how much you love them. That's saying a lot, then.

I was going to mow the lawn, but it conveniently rained and I didn't have to.

Monday I went to work, came home, and mowed my front lawn for the first time in 2010. Who's excited that lawnmowing season had begun??? (I'm not. Although really early spring and really late fall are the times I actually enjoy it because I'm not dehydrating with every step.)

Before

After

Before

After

So, anyway, I guess the point here is that I was way more productive than originally planned. I'm I'm quite proud (Ah, another sin!) of my mechanical repair.



Side note: It POURED this morning. Like, only rain that Missouri can produce, rain. There was hail, just not here or at work. So, I get to work and I don't want to get out of the car because although I don't have far to go, I know I'll be SOAKED by the time I get to the door. So, I climb into the backseat of my car from the driver's seat, and found an umbrella in the back. I get out, open it up, and find that it had been booby-trapped. The thing fell apart into four pieces! I couldn't even figure out exactly what happened and threw the thing away. It wasn't an umbrella! It was just pieces!

So, that was pretty hilarious. If you are the person that booby-trapped my umbrella, KUDOS TO YOU. I'm sure the whole thing was pretty hilarious to anyone other than me.


That was pretty much my weekend. I will try to blog more better in the future...


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Up Halloween

I promise I'll put up more pictures later, but here is the crew from Pixar's Up at the Halloween party. I even made Carl's house and have it hanging from the balloons in this picture. Remy went as Dug, even though she didn't quite make the picture. We had a lot going on...

If you can't tell (because my costume is SO good), I'm the old man, Carl Fredricksen. Carolyn is Russell, the Wilderness explorer (I made a couple parts of her costume) and Brenda is the bird, Kevin.

(click picture to enlarge)

I'm very proud. I walked out of this movie when I watched it in June and said, "I'm going to be that old man for Halloween!" I'm glad that I have friends who supported me. And that I was able to sneak Remy into a 'no dogs allowed' house because she was vitally important to the costume. She had a great time and was probably more social than I was!

Sadly, not many of the people at this party had actually seen the movie. Which was just sad. It's Pixar! You'll love it! So, if you haven't seen it, go BUY it on November 10th when it comes to DVD and watch it. Then, retroactively love our costumes.

As always, another great Halloween party.

I wish my digital camera was working. I have to get pictures from others. I'm going to have to get a new one, I suppose.

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Too Long Since I've Tortured Remy

Hey, look! Brenda found a ridiculous hat. And what do we do in the Blackwell household when we find a ridiculous hat? That's right, we put it on Remy!



Yay!


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Pictures of My Children

Here is some more puppy picture spam. They get along much better than they used to, but Remy still gets a bit upset with River sometimes. And when she's not running away or digging holes in the yard, River is a pretty good puppy, if not a little hyper. Forgive the grainyness of some of these. I took them with my phone because my camera is in the car and I am too lazy to go retrieve it.

Are you really surprised?






Adorable!!


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How Can They Be Cuter in Their Sleep?

I love it when they sleep. And get along. Right next to each other.


Those are some good dogs. Wouldn't it be nice if I trusted River enough to just go to bed right now?


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Thankfully, She Loves Me Anyway

Remember when Remy got dressed up in Royals gear? Or when she was put in a hat? (I know, you're asking, "Which time?" right now.) It seems that many of the times the shenanigans of torturing Remy occur, Brenda is around. This past weekend was no exception. This time we decided that Remy should join in on the mustache fun.

She was not pleased... can you imagine? But she did get a lot of treats for her trouble. Here are the fruits of our labor! (You can see Dany in the background of some of these photos. As you can tell, she had nothing to do with this.)



















I can't tell you how much I love this dog. I'm sure Caesar Milan would totally disapprove.


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Golden Child

I'd be a horrible mother. I totally play favorites. You wouldn't know it from the blog postings, but Remy is the golden child. Having River around just makes me appreciate how well behaved Remy is even more.

I wish I knew who trained her. I'd give River away for a few months to teach her some manners.

So, because the blog has been awfully River-centric the past month (I've only had her a month... it seems so much longer), here a a few pictures of Remy.




I have to say, she's not quite as exciting to photograph, but I still love her oodles.


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PS, River just fell off the couch. It was hilarious.

Bobbing For Turtles

It's not always a turtle, but almost every day River dunks something in her water dish. She is super messy, but hilarious. For instance, look at this photo essay:

Remy: "What are you doing in my water?"

River: "Oh! Nothing. I mean, I'm totally drinking. Duh. What else would you do in a water bowl?"

River: "Oh! Shiny!"

Turtle: "Thanks for putting me back in my natural habitat!"

Nikki: "You're making a mess!!"

River: "I just wanted to take care of my pet turtle."

This is pretty much a normal day in the Blackwell household...


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Lest We Forget

Remy's still really cute in case anyone's forgotten!


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Frenemies?

More of this, please!

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Remy and River

When the pups are inside, Remy goes out of her way to ignore River. When they are outside, they look like best friends, playing all the time. I don't know what happens when they cross the threshold to cause them to become mortal enemies, but I wish they would get over it.

For one, Remy's doing weird things like crawling under my desk and laying where my legs are supposed to go. It isn't so bad that she's extra clingy (she's also sleeping on top of me in bed) but she gets all tangled in my keyboard cable and pulls my keyboard from its home, which is annoying. Secondly, she's not doing any of her normal stuff. She doesn't even lay on the couch like normal. It's like she's put out in her own home and really upset about it. And finally, when they are outside playing - or vying for dominance, I'm not sure - they refuse to come in for anything. I really need to complete my yard fence so that I can just leave them out there without standing at the door to watch the whole time.

River, on the other hand, desperately wants to be Remy's friend indoors and out. She keeps trying to edge closer and closer to her... all the time. You know, that is when she's not distracted by something shiny, or moving, or fluffy, or chewy...

Doot doo... just lying on the couch like you...

Nothing to see, I'm not doing anything...

I touched your tail! Look how close I am!!!

I'm not sure if they finally overcame their issues or what, but they started playing together tonight inside the house! The pictures look much more vicious than it really was. Remy is such a good dog. She's so nice about the biting, even though I know River's teeth are sharp. She can put River's whole head in her mouth and not hurt the baby. I can only hope that she rubs off on the newbie and I get two great dogs out of this... though I can't imagine having a dog better behaved than Remy.

So, whatever is going on, I'm hoping Remy wins.

I'm trying to play them hard tonight so I don't have to wake up a million times in the middle of the night like I did last night. I think it's working... look who's tuckered out. This is about how tired I felt this morning.



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