The Three Amigos

Well, sort of. Quigley and Linguini got off to a bit of a rocky start but by the end of the day everyone was okay sharing the couch. :o)

Caught in the act!

Happy New Year!

Funk and Quigs rang in the new year in style. :o) I guess Robert's and my hard-partying night of fondue and movies just wore these guys out!

Our Christmases

Remember when Robert bought me a super awesome camera for my birthday? Me, too. Unfortunately, the box didn't come with an improved desire or ability to take photos so I have no photos of either the Kimball or McCauley Christmas celebrations. (The post's title is a bit of a misnomer... Sorry.) I'm pretty much just SOL on the McCauley photos but Melanie took oodles of photos on Christmas Eve so once I get those bad boys from her I'll put'em up. In the meantime, peruse the few photos I did take. (Apparently, something about dogs triggers my very weak photo-taking gene!)

Robert did a beautiful job wrapping my gifts:


I sported some nifty holiday footwear:


My mom worked VERY hard to get Quigley interested in his bully stick gift:


It didn't take as much to get the dogs interested in the Skineez skunk:


Quigley went crazy on that skunk's ass!


All that playing tuckered the pups out pretty quickly:


Quigley eventually retired to his new Snoopy bed. You know I'm a sucker for Snoopy!


To be continued...

Our Christmas Card to You

This year, Robert and I opted not to mail out a Christmas card. Of course, once all of your beautiful cards started arriving I felt like a huge ass. So, in the spirit of card giving, I whipped up a little holiday message for you all:

Love,
Lauren, Robert, Garfunkel (and Quigley!)

Dog Territories

Quigley has been at our place a little bit more often the past few weeks so I, of course, have been a bit snap-happy. (We like to have Q over for play time when the weather's too wet to visit the park. We also just like having two dogs running around the house so it's nice that my parents are willing to loan Quigs out to us!)

Here's a lovely photo of my fajita being double-teamed by the Dog Vultures:



A few nights ago I was the meat in a puppy sandwich on the couch. I had Quigley on my right:

And Funk on my left:



That same night, Robert had some work to do from home. He was having a hard time concentrating in the living room so he went off to work in the bedroom. But he didn't get too far from his fuzzy shadows:


But! Quigley better watch out - there's a new puppy in town lookin' to infringe on his territory. When we brought Garfunkel with us to the McCauleys' for a recent party to celebrate Carmen's birthday, Garfunkel got along smashingly with John (Robert's cousin) and Lali (John's fiancee)'s little chihuahua mix, Rocky.



I think Quigs is still #1 in Funk's book but it's nice to know he's capable of having more than one friend.

Random Puppy Pics

Time for some major cuteness! I snapped a couple of photos of Quigley hanging out in his favorite spot at my parents' house - atop the AC vent - and he doesn't have the crazy demonic green eyes so I thought I'd share.


Of course, once he figured out I was looking at him, he immediately rolled over for a tummy rub. He's getting to be as much of a TR whore as Funk!



A few days later Quigley came to hang out at the condo while my parents were out and about. I made the mistake of getting off the couch to get a glass of water and when I returned, this is what I found:

What cracks me up is that they both use the pillows as if they were people and not dogs! It's hysterical. The dogs were in no hurry to make room for me upon my return, either. I had to be pretty aggressive and even at that they sort of just skooched down. I got a half-cushion. I am so whipped. It's sad.


(This photo was taken several days after the photos above but I love how Quigley is sleeping on Garfunkel's head. I had to include it! I hadda!)

Lost Funk Photos

While taking photos of the Panda hat, I realized I had a few photos of the Funk that never made it to the blog. How can this be?! He hasn't had a photo post since June 7th! I KNOW! Poor thing will start to feel unloved.

Here he is, a few weeks back, pulling the stuffing out of his Tuff Toy lobster. He'd already pulled just as much stuffing out about 3 or 4 times prior to this so I have no idea just how much stuffing is in that sucker! Because there's still a bit left in the body even now. Crazy.



And here he is basking in his cloud of fun:



Quigley came over a few days ago while my parents attended a play and the puppies just get sooooo excited when Robert comes home. They bombard him as soon as he walks in the door; here, they actually let him change and sit down before literally dog piling on him.



It's always fun when Quigley comes over. He adds just that little extra pep to the house. :o)

PPR Reunion '10

This past Saturday was the annual Pound Puppy Rescue reunion get-together and this year it was held in Fremont, at the Niles Community Park. Robert and I kept waffling on whether or not to take Garfunkel because while he is usually good at the dog park with other dogs, he's not so good with people and even less good with rambunctious kids. Plus, since I quit working and his routine has thus been abolished, the Funk has been having a hard time. He doesn't really know what's going on or what's going to happen - am I leaving? am I staying? am I going to abandon him forever? what?!! - and, as such, his behavior of late hasn't been the best. We were still trying to decide what to do about the picnic when Robert took Garfunkel to the dog park Saturday morning. I don't want to get too specific and thus tar and feather poor Funk but let me just say that his outing didn't reassure us that he'd do too well at the PPR function. So we decided to bag it. Then, about and hour-and-a-half into the picnic, my mom called to sort of let me know what was going on (they adopted Quigley from PPR so they took him on over to the shindig to reunite with his family) and to let me know that the one guy from our litter who was supposed to show up hadn't yet done so (great). The phone called stirred up our indecisiveness and Robert and I began hemming and hawing... again... about what to do with the Funk. Ultimately, we decided to run down to the park and catch what little was left of the festivities. We did miss out on a lot of the dogs (and people) but there was still a handful of folks there when we arrived. And while Garfunkel still refused to get into the water, even as he watched other dogs frolic and be merry, I'm happy to report that the rest of his behavior was pretty darn good. (I think hitting the picnic at the end was a wise move on our part.) We didn't get to see Funk's litter mates or foster family but we did get to see Quigley's, and that was nice.

This is Quigley's mama, Gracie

Here's 2 of Quig's 3 brothers, Sammy and Charlie, Gracie and Quigley

Charlie is a big boy - he's about 1 1/2 times as long as Quig or Sammy and about 17 pounds (Quigley weighs about 11 pounds, I think). As you can see, both of Quigley's brothers are all black and Quig is the only puppy who looks like his mom. And, boy, does he! I just love his coloring, especially his little eyebrows. What a cutie. :o)

Gracie with Sammy and Charlie

Here's a 5-week-old litter that was brought to the picnic. SO. CUTE! I love the little pink paws.

I didn't really get any photos of Garfunkel at the picnic because he kept running around like a maniac but here is what he looks like as I sit and type this post:

I'm a sucker for puppy tongues.

Puppy Pictures!

Robert bought me a fancy shmancy new camera (a Nikon CoolPix P90) for my birthday and, while I haven't yet read the encyclopedia that came with it, I have been fiddling around with it for the past few days. I'd been bemoaning my missing camera battery while also expressing a longing for an SLR camera for ages so I guess Robert finally got tired of hearing me whine and bought something to appease me. (In fairness to myself, I wasn't actually whining that I wanted HIM to buy me a camera... Just that I wanted to save up some money to buy an old refurbished SLR camera someday. Do I know anything about proper photography? No. But I want to be able to take cute action shots and close-ups of Garfunkel. I'm weird! This is why I didn't want to spend thousands of dollars on a new or even relatively new SLR camera. A funkomatic refurbished one would've worked fine. In my mind, anyway. Most likely, however, had I actually gone that route, I would've been disappointed with the results and had no recourse. Then Robert would still have to listen to me complain. But at least it'd be a different complaint, right? Silver lining, people!) Anyway, my point is that I have a new camera and I took some photos. They're not great because, as I said, I know nothing about taking good photos OR my new camera but here they are just the same.




This is Garfunkel as seen from overhead. Like my puppy slippers? Me, too.




Garfunkel's canine always hangs out over his lip when he lies down. It's so darn cute!!! Love.

Oh, and notice his super awesome birthday collar. Nice, eh? Since this month is home to a big birthday for both him and me, I bought him a celebratory collar to wear all month. Whee!



Ugh. This would've been cute if it wasn't so damn annoying! I had Monday off and Robert worked from home in the afternoon. (He had some morning meetings in Pleasanton and rather than drive all the way to Menlo Park for 5 or 6 hours he worked from home.) Garfunkel is a-OK with hanging out with me all day because that's our routine. He knows that I might take him somewhere fun but most likely I'll hang around the house when I'm home alone with him. So he's content to hang out in the arm chair or play a few rounds of Loofah Dog with me. But when Robert is home, Garfunkel can't stand it. He desperately wants Robert - and only Robert - to take him somewhere or play with him or something. Unfortunately for Garfunkel, Robert had a phone meeting on Monday afternoon and spent 2 hours shut up in the office. Therefore, the Funk's extreme excitement at Robert's early return quickly turned into unmitigated panic and despair at being able to hear Robert but no longer see him. He wouldn't play with me. He wouldn't eat. He wouldn't chew on a bully stick. I went to my parents' house and picked Quigley up in the hope that a playmate would bring the Funk out of his funk. No dice. Garfunkel not only refused to play with Quigley, he also insisted on sitting or pacing outside the office door while mewling. I shouted and gesticulated wildly at him for so long (to no avail) that Garfunkel wound up being afraid of me for some reason and kept hiding under the kitchen table every time I'd take a step toward him. Once Robert finally emerged from his cocoon, Garfunkel wouldn't let him out of his sight. He sat on Robert's feet at the table. He followed Robert into the bathroom. And he insisted on sitting right next to Robert the entire time Robert worked in the bedroom while Quigley and I played in the living room. Absolutely ridiculous! Garfunkel is the WORST host. Really.


Who wouldn't want to play with this adorable little guy?! C'mon!




Look at that little sleepy tongue. Hee hee!



I felt so bad for Quig. He so wanted to play with Garfunkel but was rebuffed at every attempt. He played with me in between naps on the couch but it just wasn't the same. :o( And he's such a love bug! It was fun having a little guy that could hang out on the couch. We cuddled and played all afternoon. Suck it, Garfunkel!

Holiday Photos

Well, today is the crappiest of all days - the day I was forced to head back to stinky ol' work after a two week vacation. :o( A vacation I didn't get to truly enjoy because of my sickness(es). [I know you know that already but I'm wallowing in self pity here for a moment - indulge me, won't you?] Plus, today is the 1st day of the winter quarter here at The Bay so things are craaaaazy. I've already had 6 disgruntled students find their way to my office and me no likey! I am also woefully behind in all my regular entertainment blogs so I'm feeling a lot of (self-imposed) pressure to catch up. I'm frazzled here, people!! And I think I'm just going to have to stay behind, entertainment-wise. I told you 2010 wasn't doing much for me. Pleh.

To make matters worse - or, at the very least, not any better - I misplaced the battery charger for my camera sometime after getting back from Hawaii and so had no camera with which to take oodles of holiday photos! My parents let me borrow theirs a few times, though, so I was able to take a smattering of photos. Nothing to write home about, really, but here they are:


This is my mom with Quigley* about 5 minutes after bringing him home on Christmas Eve.


Quigley catching a nap. Little dude is only 3 pounds!!! He is TI-ny! But a spunky little guy; he plays really well with Garfunkel and vice versa. It's so nice that my poops has a new friend to play with everyday!



I really like Quigley's coloring - gives him a bit of pizazz, I think. He's just the cutest little fluff ball... and he loves to give you kisses! If you don't like puppy licks, don't get near this little guy. I have to say, though, as much as I like Quigley, I am a wee bit reserved around him. Everyone thinks he's so cute and everyone thinks my poor Funk is a maneater. :o(

I'm jealous on Garfunkel's behalf and very protective of my little poop. He's cute, too!! And well behaved (... most of the time)!! Really! Big dogs** are so prejudiced against. They do the same things little dogs do but because their teeth are bigger and their barks are deeper people automatically assume they're uncontrollable beasts that would rip your throat out as soon as look at you. Gah! The topic gets me very worked up... Sorry. Moving on.



Robert and I headed over to the Trouts' on the 28th for some fun and games with the Gerbes, Saitos and Kidders. We started with Battle of the Sexes, which we all took very seriously. As you can see in these two photos, the men took aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages to pick just the right question to try and stump the ladies. Didn't always work - we ended the night with a 1-1 draw.


Waitin' for the guys...





I say this every year but it's always a good time with Christina and her family. We get spoiled in the winter because she's here for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now that it's the new year, I don't think she'll be back for quite a few months. Boo.


* Quigley was a name I offered up to my parents because my mom loves her some Tom Selleck. Magnum was a no-go but Quigley turned out to be a keeper. (In case you don't immediately get the reference, Tom was in a movie that three people - my parents and aunt - saw in 1990 called Quigley Down Under. Oh, Alan Rickman - what were you thinking?!)

** I should probably qualify this statement as not ALL big dogs are as prejudiced against as particular breeds like Dobermans, Am. Pit Bull Terriers, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, etc. People don't seem as intimidated by misbehaving Golden Retrievers...