Monday, August 29, 2011

SLURP



Wow, so many slurps to choose from!  Go get yourself one or two!

Thank you for all of your concern this weekend.  We are enjoying the sunshine today!


Sunday, August 28, 2011

Irene

Well, it's a weak one, but she's definitely here!

5:30 - Finn needs to go out!  Momma's thinking, "Are you kidding me?!?!"
If you look closely, you can see her, the big golden blur in the middle of the lawn.
7:30 - just tons of rain, tons and tons of rain...
And at 8am, we're still wet from our walk two hours ago
and we're heading back to bed for some more snuggling.

9am - Who was I kidding?  She knows it's raining and she loves it out there.
Hope everyone else is weathering through okay!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Storm is Coming!

...or is it the early morning haze?  7am here...



8am and all the lawn furniture is secure.  Finn takes a sniff around...




10am - where is everyone?!?  I want to play!  It's just a little rain...




No sign of the froggie in the backyard, thank goodness!

3pm:  After an afternoon of napping and waiting, the rain is here!  See you on the other side!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Dahlias, Camellias, and Rhodies, Oh My!





Last call for flower pics!  Get them in to Momma at 
marianne(dot)d(dot)howard(at)gmail(dot)com before Sunday!

And this is what we call hurricane prep:


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

What, There Was An Earthquake?

We were too busy to notice!  A visit from Grandma at lunchtime kept us occupied!  Look who is becoming a Finn fan!


We did feel a little shakin' at 1:55pm but it was smooth sailing afterwards!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Failed Photos

I admit, when I am planning a blog post, I take a ton of pictures.  Who am I kidding, I take a ton of pictures all the time.  Sometimes, they are pretty awesome, and sometimes, they are an epic fail.

Too dark


Eyes closed


Too blurry


Not looking at me


Flash


Subject too far away


What do you do with your failed photos?   Sometimes I just delete them, but sometimes they get saved, because they are just part of the bigger moment.

Here's the rest of the set from the first one, too dark - 






I think she's cute even when she's blurry, dark and not paying attention, no?  These pictures are from our first day at home together, how could I delete any of those!

***Subliminal message***


Just a few days left - send them on in to marianne(dot)d(dot)howard(at)gmail(dot)com

PS-I still haven't seen the frog hopping around anywhere and I am CONVINCED it's still in the umbrella.  Did you see his sticky finger-thingamabobers?!  Gross!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

In News Unrelated to Finn, But Still Involving Animals

I was contenting watching tv yesterday when I was summoned to the backyard.  At first I thought maybe something happened to Finn, so I made sure to get myself out there.  I soon discovered this.


Looks normal, right?  I was promised dinner outside last night, and so I noticed the umbrella was in the table, cleaning up of the area was happening.  All seemed right with the world.

Take a closer look.



Screams!  Why did I have to see this??  Why, why?  And then this.  


The darn thing moved.  Fast.

And it hopped right into the crease inside the fabric and we didn't see it come out.

I have a frog living in my umbrella.

We ate dinner in the dining room last night.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Finn Notices the Deer...and it was borrrrring!

It started out just as a simple walk, but as I turned the corner, I saw...four little deer!  I ran back to get my camera, thinking I would get some pretty interesting interactions, maybe Finn getting exciting and jumping around a bit, but Finn noticed them and then just sat down and watched!


The deer noticed us.  They watched us watch them.  And then the deer ran away.  Just not the reaction from either party I thought we would get.




And least we weren't on When Animals Attack!  Next time I think we'll turn around and just go about our business!

Friday, August 19, 2011

My Green Shoe

I posted this great picture of Finn with her new toy - the green shoe - in my previous post and someone had a question about it.  It's actually just a piece of rubber in the shape of a shoe with a rope attached through it.  It came in either green or orange.  I purchased this toy on Saturday and she's pretty much made her way through the entire rope.  Nice and quick work.


I bought this thing because Finn's been known to be found like this - she will actually pull the sole out of the shoes and shaking the rubber around!  


Aw, so precious.  At the same time, I bought this little squeaker too.  It makes a quacking sound when the head gets pulled from the body.  She'll pull it, the noise will be made, and the she'll jump back.  Oh Finn!


Don't be forgetting to send in your flower pics!  Look, so pretty!  


I'm just kidding, I promise more beautiful pictures than that!  

And check out Sarge's list for all of the party details!

Happy Friday folks!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Versatile Blogger

Well, I was just tickled when the 2 Brown Dawgs passed along the Versatile Blogger award to us this week!  We are just honored!  Finn meets a lot to our family, and so it makes me very happy that she has her own following here in Blogville.


The award requires that we share seven things about ourselves.  From Finn's point of view, here we go...

Hanging in Momma's office yesterday

1. I'm Momma's first dog and it just drives Pops crazy that she is the one who has trained me to listen to all commands.

First picture together

2.  I'm a girl golden.  Lots of people call me a "he."  They don't see my pink collar??  Or my loveable cute face?

3.  Every morning, I head into Momma and Pop's bedroom and see what they have left on the floor for me to bring downstairs and throughout the house.  Some mornings it's a sock, some mornings it's a t-shirt.  They know I am coming up to find something to retrieve, so they leave it out for me the night before.  They think I don't know this.

4.  Momma is petrified of bringing me to the dog park by herself, so I only go with both humans.  She schmoozes with the other humans while Pops makes sure the pool and bowls have clean water and that I am playing nicely with the other pups.

5.    They can't believe how quickly I chew through the toys they buy me.  I have very sharp teeth.  It doesn't matter what they get me - squeaky toys, rope toys, stuffed animals - there are very few toys I haven't destroyed.


6.  When Pops comes home late, I follow him around until I am ready to fall asleep at night.  I just miss him so much during the day if he's not around.  As you saw yesterday, I just wait at the door and look out for his vehicle to pull in.

7.  Momma always checks the geographic location of my bloggie viewers!  We can figure some of our international friends out, but we always love to see new places pop up - Portugal, Russia, India - who are the folks checking in from here?

And now, to pass on the award, I would like to honor my friend Megan.  We've been friends for about ten years; we met working together during graduate school.  She's a wife of a Marine, raising two children in Japan, and she blogs about her transition to life there and about her wonderful family.  I am always looking forward to what she has to post next!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Waiting for Daddy to Come Home


Labor Day Bash Subliminal Message

Ok, so you must go here to check out the Labor Day Party Roster of Activities!  There's so much going on, there's no way that you won't be able to make it!  I don't know what to do first, get my isms ready or figure out what I am wearing to the prom, you know what I mean?

Did any of you catch my subliminal message yesterday?!?  Did your human have a sudden urge to go through old photographs and look for flowering buds??  I'm hosting the Flower Show, so please make sure to send me your pictures by August 28th at marianne(dot)d(dot)howard(at)gmail(dot)com.  And, I promise I won't remind you again until this weekend, ok?  :)

Monday, August 15, 2011

Walking in the Rain

Finn has been having a pretty awesome 24 hour period.  Why, you ask?  Because, it's raining here.  Not just sprinkles either, torrential downpour.  And what retriever doesn't like water?  You ever notice that your walks take about 20% longer...when it's raining?  Oh yes, we love the rain.

This is what the sky looks like.


This is the let-me-out-to-play, I've-been-a-good-good-girl-so-far-today look.  (Also known as I-am-going-to-reek-havoc-and-jump-and-splash-and-pull-and-drag-you-on-our-walk-today look).



This is the puddle where we like to splash.


This is the motion we like to make in water - just a little tap, tap to make sure that when the water is splashed, we can catch it in our mouths.  We do this in every puddle, no matter how big or small.


This is the tree that fell down a couple of blocks over.  Luckily, it fell into the road.


This is the rolling around in the tree moment which caused us to smell like pine.


This is where we decided to lay down for a bit and soak in the water and smells.


*Subliminal message* *Flower pictures* *Flower pictures* *Flower pictures* 

Time to shake it all off.


This where we decided to look up at the sky and try to figure out where the rain was coming from...


...in the middle of the road, no less.


And now this is what we're doing while Mommy's typing it all up.