Hops and Her Smart Friends

Hops and I went hiking with a bunch of Canine Companion dogs this morning.  There was 4 of them:

A current breeder dog - Nicole
A released dog - Darcy
A pup in training - Jordan
A dog currently a service dog - Ohana

Ann, the gal who had the breeder dog, Nicole, and was the puppy raiser for Ohana, the current service dog, loves to take pics.  So this is a pic of them getting the dogs all sitting and staying!  Hops held her own with all the well trained dogs.  In fact, Ann was impressed when Hops found a big juicy bone and I called her back and told her to leave it and she listened!  Good girlie!

Therapy Dog

Hops is now a certified therapy dog!  This means she can do visits at sites that are signed up to have pet therapy dogs visit with their patients or clients.  Sites include Alzheimer facilities, hospitals, juvenile hall and children's centers.

This is what Hops looked like during most of the 2 hour class:

It was funny - at one point she was chewing on her belly and I looked down and had to pull a tick off her belly!

All the other dogs were pretty mellow too.  Above is a Golden Retriever named Martha.  And below is a Corgi named Stretch!

Succulents

My succulents are loving the rain and the sunshine!

Family Vacay

My bro and family are on a SoCal vacay and I am loving following along their fun with texts!

Jack was in a Pokemon tournament one day and they went to Disneyland the next day!  It is awesome that I get the magic of Disneyland without having to be there myself.

Happy 79th Birthday

Happy 79th birthday to Grandma Anna!  We celebrated with a nice dinner at Mandarin Gourmet and followed up with gifts and bundtinis!

Hot and Sour Soup

I had insomnia last nite so I was looking up recipes.  I found one for the crockpot for Hot and Sour Soup which is one of Grace's favorites.  I don't think I have ever eaten hot and sour soup because it is never vegetarian -- so I made it with veggie broth so I could have it too!

You just throw the ingredients in the crockpot and let it cook for 8 hours.  It has great spices - chili paste, ginger, sesame oil and soy sauce.  I hope it is good.

This is my cooking crew.  They stand or lay right where I work.  Which means I spend a lot of time walking around or over dogs.  Not in the pic but certainly right close is Ahi who tends to pace back and forth!

Bear

Jim and Grace went up to Bear today because they got over a foot of snow and because a buddy of Grace's from school was there and they wanted to ski together.  So I am at work and decide to check Bear's webcam to see what the weather is like.  Imagine my surprise when I see them on the lift on the webcam!  I am 100% sure its them and Drew confirmed it!

50th Super Bowl!

Denver vs Carolina in Santa Clara CA

Viewing stations inside and outside - mid -70 degree day

Kyle the Denver fan! 

All the betting pools

Hops was sad that she wasn't the star of the Super Bowl this year!

New Mini!?

I purchased my little red mini from work about 5 years ago and now I might have an opportunity to purchase this little beauty - a 1963 mini!  I have expressed interest and the folks in charge are deciding if they want to sell and how much they want for it.  Stay tuned.

Valentines Day 2016

Walk to Bridalveil

We took a trip into Yosemite on Valentines Day with Anna and Roy.  It was super fun because we did the tourist routine which we never did.  First, we took a little walk to Bridalveil Falls.

Bridalveil Falls - the water is landing on a big patch of snow

Next we headed over to the Yosemite Store, the Museum and Ansel Adams Gallery.  We wandered all around and checked it all out.  We ended the day with a picnic lunch behind the store.

Yosemite Falls

On our way out of the valley we saw a bobcat sitting about 30 feet off the road.  Ahi was looking for more wildlife!

Home from the Hospital

Ahi came home from the hospital last nite and seems like she in on the path to recovery.  She was exhausted when she came home and slept all night long.  She is eating small meals, drinking water and taking her meds.

Later today she will get a bath so that we get the sick smell off of her!

Ahi the Patient

Ahi ended up in the hospital after the Superbowl because she had vomiting and diarrhea.   I spent the second half of the game following her around counting the number of times she was barfing.  Once it got to 10 and she couldn't keep water down, it was time to go to the doggie ER.

They kept her overnite on IV's and anti nausea meds and she was doing better --  but she was still having diarrhea issues so they kept her all day today.  Then later today they had trouble getting her to eat.  So I went down this afternoon with rice, cottage cheese and some cooked ground turkey.  She ate turkey immediately and even ate some rice and cottage cheese.  We hung out and had a little picnic!  Then she had some water.  The food stayed in her the whole time I was there.

Weener and mama selfie

I decided to leave her til 7pm tonite and then will go get her and bring her home! I wanted to make sure the food stays reasonably within her system!

My poor sweet wiener.

TNDC Awards 2015

Chach of the Year

The 2015 TNDC awards nite is a big event!  This year did not disappoint!  Without further ado....here are the results:


CHACH OF THE YEAR:  It was a unique year in that we didn't vote for Chach of the Year because Marty won it hands down due to his year long ridiculous behavior!  So instead, we voted for which specific event was the one event that was the chachiest!  The chachiest event was a tie...

• For peeing on his suitcase and phone

• For eating a giant plate of bacon the next morning and not realizing he was a chach the nite before  

BEST EVENT OF THE YEAR:  Bass Pro Shop grand opening

Grandma Bug!

TNDC QUOTE OF THE YEAR:  Grandma Bug - "I like dem titties."  (The best part is she doesn't even remember saying it!)

FRENCH FRIES SHOULD BE DIPPED IN:  ketchup  (52%, with ranch in second place with 37%)

WHO IS MOST IN NEED OF AN INTERVENTION AND WHY:  The whole Screwtop family for their constant need of medical care (and true to form, in the next week Mrs Screwtop came down with vertigo and Little Screwy came into town to get a cast removed)

IF YOU COULD HAVE DINNER WITH ONE TNDC MEMBER AND ONE FAMOUS PERSON LIVING OR DEAD - WHO WOULD THEY BOTH BE:

• Drew, Jim and a Captain from the Deadliest Catch
• Lots of folks wanted to have dinner with Tina, Marty and Walk Disney
• Marty and Dr Evil
• Cindy wants to take Ahi to meet Mother Teresa because maybe Mother Teresa could fix her attitude!
• Mr C and Jed York
• Mr Screwtop and Kevin Bacon
• Jim and John Muir
• Someone just wants to have dinner with Big Dan?!?!

WHO AT TNDC HAS THE BEST LAUGH AND WHY:  Auntie Debbie/Bebbie

Some of the notable mentions include:

• Marty - he sounds like a dying goat
• Auntie Deb -because even if it's not funny she makes it sound funny
• William - because he is so sweet
• Mari - it's a jolly bellow
• Debbie - because it's so random and high pitched
• Mr C - because its devious
• Can't choose because it all blends together like a perfect chorus
• Mr C - because when he laughs hard enough his stache bounces up and down like a dancing caterpillar
• Debbie - because it sounds like a howler monkey being squeezed

WHICH TNDC MAN WOULD BE MOST LIKELY TO POSE NUDE IN A MAGAZINE:  Marty

Some notable comments include:

• Marty while wearing a knit beanie
• Mr C - does the carpet match the stache?
• I wouldn't want to see any of them!
• Mr Screwtop in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition
• Marty because he wouldn't remember it anyway
• Uh...Duh...Marty!

Congrats to this year's winners....you are now an member of an elite group of Chaches!

Cabin - early Feb 2016

These are pics from the cabin from the first weekend in February.  The lake is full and spilling over the spillway!  It is so beautiful when it is full.

On my walk down to the lake with the dogs, I found this sword!?!?  How random is that?  I am just hoping it wasn't used in a murder because my fingerprints are all over it!

So fun to eat snow off the deck!

Hops had to snuggle up with her sister after a long day out at Cherry with Jim.  She swam and played in the snow while he fished.

Avery Baby Pool

We finally had the mathematician of the group (Mikey) available to score the baby pool:

The big winner was.....Mr C with 375 points!

Second place was Renee with 295 points.

The biggest loser was Auntie Bebbie with 30 points.

Kongs

My dogs get kongs filled with jerkey everyday when we leave for work/school.  I had the same kongs for Ahi and Daisy for years.  They would work to get the jerkey out and then leave the empty kong behind.

Hops has a different strategy with kongs - she uses brute strength and destroys the kongs as fast as I can buy them.  She chews the ends off the kongs so that the jerkey falls out -- so I use a bread "stopper" to hold it in.  The big kong is suppose to be indestructible...it was for about a month.  Then we came home one nite and it was destroyed!  That is why it has duct tape holding it together.  When we got home from work the I gave it to her, she had pieces of tape stuck to her chest!

The other dogs must think she is a real jerk for ruining their toys!

Blogging break

Here is the reason I have not been blogging much!   It has been 2 weeks since I got bit by Hops and it is healing well but it has slowed down my typing.  I am just starting to use it again to type today.  But now its a whole new learning process since I have been avoiding it for so long.  And it has some weird sensations in the tip of the finger so its not working quite right yet.