Christmas in Dogtown

Having dogs at Christmas is very much like having kids at Christmas. Sure, they don't stay up all night waiting for Santa's arrival, but they are just as impatient opening gifts in the morning as any five year old.

Of course, since I've grown up, we haven't had to start Christmas at the crack of dawn. We can relax, eat breakfast first if we wanted to, watch the Disney Christmas parade. Except, we have Savvy. Surprisingly the oldest dog, and argueably the most well behaved of the pack, was the one to start Christmas by opening one of Dad's presents before I even woke up.

She ripped off the side of the package so that he knew what it was, and since it wasn't really destructable, let all of them finish opening it for him. (Except for Remy, she knew that it was inherently wrong to shred paper and therefore refused to participate in any of their reindeer games.)

This used to be the bow on that present.

After opening a present that was not theirs, Dad gave all the dogs thier gifts right away. Even with paper and toys and ropes and squeakers, they still came back to help open the rest of the presents. Apparently it's their only joy all year long, and the most stressful day, ever, for the Remster. She did not open her own gift, but Rudy had no problem opening his own and helping her out.

Here is Savvy opening her gift. It's a pink gorilla from clearance after Valentine's Day last year. We only give them the very best.

It was a pretty quiet Christmas beyond the dog's antics, but they were so entertaining. We are definitely dog people. After the Christmas fun, we had a nice dinner and then went out and saw Marley & Me. I had gotten the book for Mom a few Christmases ago. It was pretty great, although I have to say, bring tissues to this movie if you go see it. It wasn't a surprise ending, I knew exactly what was going to happen after reading the book, but being a dog owner makes it that much worse.

Besides all that, I read a bunch and found a House marathon on TV. A TV marathon! My kryptonite!


End Blog.

PS, Here are some more dog pictures because they make me happy... and you can't stop me.

Doesn't Qulia always look like she's up to no good?

Sleeping Savvy. She was the last of my parent's dogs that I would blame anything on. She fooled me with the early present opening. I blamed Rudy and Quila for it.

Remy stole Savvy's present from Quila. This was her victory photo. At least they are sharing.

Poor Savvy. Who could ever blame that face for anything? Not me.

End Blog two.

Texas Car Inspection Road Trip

Every May I find myself driving to Texas to get my car inspected. As you know, it's an eight and a half hour drive which kinda drives me a little stir crazy after awhile. Like, oh, five or six hours in when I want to remove the state of Oklahoma from the United States and sink it in the ocean.

I thought I'd give you a quick recap of the trip, according to landmarks... because it's more fun that way.

Start from Kansas City.

There's the wee little city off in the distance of this picture. Bye Kansas City! See you in two days!

Here is the Paseo Bridge. Off to the left, you can see some cranes working on building the new bridge.

This is somewhere in southern Missouri. Missouri has roads that are named simply by letters. This town is the home of my initials. I imagine it is a magical place with unicorns.

Here is a McDonald's that is built over the turnpike. Seems like a completely normal place to put a McDonald's, don't you think?

This is a giant feathered Native American who greets you as you enter Big Cabin, Oklahoma. He is saying, "Thank you for paying that toll, sucker. If you'd like to lose more money for no good reason, I have built a casino for you right down the road."

This is also in Big Cabin, which, you can see is a very popular tourist location where all the NASCAR drivers go for vacation. There are more cops per capita than race cars. Although, that's probably true everywhere. At any rate, someone is really irate about receiving speeding tickets in Big Cabin. There are three of these trailers along the roadside. I took this picture as a representative sample of all three.

Then I pass a big giant lake in Eufaula. It is cleverly named Lake Eufaula. By this time in the journey, I have managed to kill one million bugs, just by moving my windshield through the air at high rates of speed. Some of them leave me with parting gifts that are yellow or red and gooey. At the gas station, I will scrub my little window clean again.

And then there's the Indian Nation Turnpike. I'm on this road for nearly 70 miles. In 70 miles, I saw 11 cars on my side of the road, and I passed every single one of them, just trying to get the hell out of Oklahoma.

This is where Jesus is buried. In Oklahoma. On the top of a hill. Don't drive into smoke.

This is a giant heifer. In a fence. I like to pretend he's made of paper mâché.

Here is a decapitated pilgrim. I think the feathered dude in Big Cabin may have done this, but I have no proof... yet.

This orchard in Texas is showing off its oranges and strawberries on the roadside. It's true that everything is bigger in Texas. Look at their produce!

Some time after this, I arrive at my parent's house which pulls me out of my delirium. Hooray! And, the car even passed its inspection and everything. Hooray times two!

Then, I drove home and saw all this stuff in the reverse order. Fascinating, I know.


End Blog.