New Dog on the Street

Our family got a little bigger last night.

The new pup is Gordie. He's 5 years old and just a plain ol' mutt. They said he was "cattledog" but I'm not seeing it. Toby is very happy to have a new older brother and we're happy to have another dog around.

Toby doesn't know how to just "hang out" with another dog. When he sees another dog he immediately thinks: A NEW FRIEND! LET'S PLAY! PLAY! PLAY! PLAY! So, the first thing he did when they met was take every toy out of his basket and shake it in Gordie's face. He tried to tackle him. Nipped at his ears. Everything he could think of to get Gordie to play, but Gordie just isn't very playful yet.

Still, Toby isn't giving up:



Welcome to the family Gordie.

What Happens In Vegas . . .

Gets posted on this blog.

1. We arrived at 10:30 pm PST on Friday and I went to bed at 8am on Saturday.


2. Before going to bed, Andy ate this:


3. That's bacon waffles with fried chicken.


4. In Vegas, they serve bacon waffles with fried chicken for breakfast.


5. I continued my streak of randomly running into good friends in random cities. Molly was up from Phoenix for Friday night only so we shared $2 burgers at midnight.


6. I woke up on Saturday morning . . . errr, Saturday afternoon to Troy drinking a wine cooler.
   


7. Apparently the dress code for men in Vegas is a douchey graphic t-shirt and sunglasses indoors. Andy and his flaming stallion t-shirt did not get that memo.


8. This slot machine was calling my name:
   


9. The Wild Wild West was described as a truck stop where men wear overalls without shirts underneath. I will agree with this description, and also tell you that this was one of my favorite places on Earth.


10. Always split aces and eights. Unless you're at the Las Vegas Club and want your money to last you more than 2 hands.


11. O'Shea's is the official World Series of Beer Pong location:
    


12. Team Jandy defeated Team Proctor at beer pong.


13. Twice.


14. Before Noon.


15. Betty's Diner in the Imperial Palace will not serve you ice cream at breakfast for some inexplicable reason. I still ate a lot of ice cream in Vegas. Because it's my vacation and I do what I want.


16. A suspicious looking item will get your carry-on bag checked by airport security. Airport security will laugh when the discover that item is 3 decks of cards wrapped in a rubberband inside of a shoe.


17. Cirque del Soleil's O was incredible, but I have no idea what the storyline was. Something about carnies, brides and clowns that fly through the air and dive into pools of water from ridiculous heights.


18. Andy, Rachel and Troy had hot hands rolling the dice at Bill's Saloon and won a lot of people a lot of money at the craps table.


19. When we left Bill's in the morning, there was a group of drunk middle aged men that had been up all night and would chant "Ole! Ole! Ole! Ole!" every time they won a hand of blackjack. Somehow, they were still there and still chanting when we returned 6 hours later.


20. The Vegas shops have classy items for sale. Like this picture of a tiger cub holding the Earth with the sun rising behind him:


21. $5 on MSU basketball will not make you a winner, but $5 on team USA hockey will.

Thank you, Vegas, for an amazing time and for letting us break even so that we can still make the mortgage payment this month.

My Two Valentines

*If viewing this in Google Reader, it seems to be getting cut off at the video?*

Yesterday we had some Moose over and I happened to ask, "Are you guys doing anything for Valentine's Day?"

To which Andy interrupted "Or are you not doing anything because it's a fake made up holiday? Because it's completely BS and it's stupid and nobody should celebrate it anyways?"

To which I excitedly replied, "Ooooo, I can't wait to see what I'm getting tomorrow!"

Sarcasm and jokes aside, we don't celebrate Valentine's Day too extravagantly in our household. I still wanted to take a moment to appreciate the two guys in my life.

First, there's the big furry one. I know I kind of tease him a lot - what with his random barking, inability to walk down stairs faster than 1 mph and appetite for underwear. Somehow, Toby actually manages to be an exceptionally sweet and well behaved dog 95% of the time. Since I know you don't believe me, I've got some evidence. This is what happens after I yell, "Toby, Come!" And I only have to yell once. Well, unless he doesn't hear me the first time because he's too busy eating dirt.



Second, there's the big less furry valentine. Although he may not be the biggest fan of Valentine's Day, I'm lucky because he keeps me pretty happy all 365 days of the year by wearing animal t-shirts and doing man stuff. He makes sure I appreciate all that he does too, as evidenced by this conversation we had the other night:

Andy came in from the garage. He stood in the entrance to the living room, tall and proud.

"Tell me I'm a man."

"You're a man honey."

"I just did awesome man stuff."

"I know I could totally smell the testosterone all the way in here."

"I rigged a special fuel injection for the snowblower." (Honestly, he then went into a bunch more detail but I lost interest and stopped listening somewhere along the way).

"Wow, that's awesome and manly honey."

And he proudly marched away.

And for some reason, this made me smile and like him even a little bit more.

After he came in from completing all of his man stuff, he took a load off on the couch with the Head. About 5 minutes later, I heard snoring and looked over to see this:



And I smiled again and liked them both even more.

Happy Valentine's Day to my two guys.