The future's so bright...

...we gotta wear shades.

Boy, we look like a bunch of real winners, huh? Must be a slow news week here in Seattle.

• The picture of Chris was taken last week as he was on his way to Vegas for a mustache-themed bachelor party (there are more mustache pictures in the "Miscellaneous May" photo set). Thank goodness that facial growth was gone when he returned. The shades and orange trucker's hat, however, remain.
  
• The picture of me is from our honeymoon -- I was sporting the latest Croatian moped fashion. You can't get much cooler than that.
  
• The picture of cone-free Cowboy shows off his new Doggles, which we use to protect his eyes when he is hanging his head out of the car window. He gets a lot of double-takes from passersby, but now he can happily let his jowls flap in the wind without worrying about damaging his newly-repaired eye.

This weekend I'm off to LA to watch Trish kick some tush as she earns her black belt and receives her state championship titles (first in her bracket in both forms and weapons, second in sparring). Hopefully she'll get a few more trophies that are taller than she is. Go Trish!

Pictures: Miscellaneous May

Here's the last set of pictures for today -- a collection of miscellaneous photos from May. It includes the following:

• Eric & Jen's new Berner puppy, Bodhi
• A couple random shots from dinner, hiking and the NW Folklife Festival
• An example of fine Seattle parking
• Chris like you've never seen him before (and will probably hope never to see him again)

Link: View miscellaneous May pictures

Pictures: Conehead Cowboy

As I mentioned before, Cowboy has been wearing a cone for the past two weeks. He had to get surgery on his eye to fix his entropion -- an inward rolling of his eyelid. His lower lashes were rubbing against his eye and causing ulcers to form, so the doctor performed a little nip and tuck to roll his eyelids back out. Since he was already getting plastic surgery, I asked if they could also give him some botox injections to fill in the wrinkles on his forehead and maybe do a little "neck tuck" to get rid of those rolls of skin, but they didn't go along with my plan. Ah well. I guess an eye lift is better than nothing.

So life with the cone has been entertaining. I already described Cowboy's little couch-howling (is this the dog version of Tom Cruise's couch-jumping?) and his cone-mutilation episodes. He also managed to crack his cone in half when he tried to play "touchdown" (a game where he runs between our legs) with me and ran his cone smack into my shin at top speed. He scoops up dirt and grass when he tries to sniff, and routinely walks into trees which inevitably startles him.

We thought the cone would be off last Thursday, but when they took the stitches out, one of them split open. So the doctor left one stitch in and said we could take it out ourselves in 48 hours and start to wean him off the cone. We have to watch him carefully to make sure he doesn't scratch his eye, but it doesn't seem to itch him so we don't think it will be a problem.

In the meantime, Cowboy looks like a junkyard dog. In addition to the black eye with stitches, he's got the dirtiest, trashiest looking cone around -- bent out of shape and criss-crossed with duct tape to mend all of the cracks. That's our boy!

Link: View conehead pictures

Pictures: Maifest in Leavenworth

We headed over the pass to find sunnier skies and German food at the Maifest in Leavenworth. We stayed the weekend and enjoyed a Volksmarch through the hills, singing and dancing performances, a lot of German food, and a nice game of putt-putt golf. I like to brag that I shot a 73 at golf. Granted, it was a par-56 course, but no one really needs to know that. And yes, Chris shot under par. Hmph.

Link: View Leavenworth pictures

Pictures: Blue Ribbon Cooking School

Chris and I took a cooking class at the Blue Ribbon Cooking School as part of a Point B event. We had a lot of fun learning to make a really fancy menu that I can't remember for the life of me. It had a salad, some kind of meat, risotto, green beans, and a really rich chocolate dessert -- all with much fancier names. I took several pictures as we were preparing the feast, but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the final product. Whoops.

Link: View cooking class pictures

Pictures: Baxter's Birthday

On May 6, Baxter invited all of his buddies over to celebrate his 2nd birthday. Ben had the BBQ going and Carrie kept everyone (including the pups) well-stocked with tasty food and drinks. This year Cowboy wasn't the only big dog around, so he ran and played himself to exhaustion. It was a great day for the pups and their people!

Link: View Baxter's birthday party pictures

Pictures: Mexico Cruise

At the end of April, Trish and I went on a weekend cruise to Ensenada with her brother Felix, John, and about 30 other people to celebrate her friend Greg's birthday. I did the same cruise with Sita almost 10 years ago, and I have to say, it is more fun when you go with a huge crowd of people you know.

When Sita and I did it, we did it on Carnival (which tends to be a younger party crowd). So even 10 years ago, we felt like the old ladies on the ship because it was full of high school and college kids on spring break. A couple years ago Trish and I took a 10-day cruise to Panama with her family on Princess cruise lines and that was the opposite experience. It was super luxurious, and we were the youngest people on board by about three decades. That was a fantastic trip and we went with a large group of people we knew, which made it even more fun.

This time, we took Royal Caribbean. It was a step up from Carnival, but definitely not the luxury of Princess. The crowd seemed to be closer to our age this time, but it didn't really matter because we had our own crowd with us. We set sail from LA on Friday, docked for a day in Ensenada on Saturday, sailed all day Sunday (we must have just been doing circles since LA is only a few hours away), and returned to LA on Monday. It was a great little mini-vacation!

I've posted the pictures on Flickr. Click the link below (or click on the title of this post) to see the set. It's much easier if you view the pictures as a set rather than going directly to my Flickr account and looking at the main page (which shows my most recent pictures). The main page doesn't post them in the correct order, so it can be confusing.

Link: View Mexico cruise pictures

Crating the conehead

I know I said I'd post pictures soon, but I haven't been on my home laptop in over a week and that's the one with all the pictures. I'll try to get to them sometime this week.

We had a nice, mellow Memorial Day weekend. We wanted to go on a hike, but thought better of it after considering all of the trouble Cowboy could get into with a huge cone on his head. Instead we hiked along the Iron Horse trail, which is nice and wide and allows plenty of room for the cone.

We also enjoyed a BBQ at Robin & Glenda's and I got to see little Thomas for the first time. He's about 4 weeks old and such a mellow baby! I'm usually nervous about holding babies that small, but he just laid there and stared at me so it was pretty easy. And it's amazing how quickly Tatum's grown! She's 16 months old and has such a great little personality. Chris and Robin had their own fun watching the Indy 500 and then going through Robin's old sports posters, shot glasses and pennants. Chris needs to be reminded, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's posters."

On Monday, we scurried through the NW Folklife festival as quickly as possible (while grabbing some roasted corn on the cob and kettle korn) to head to the Pacific Science Center for an IMAX movie. We saw "The Alps", a story about John Harlin III's summit of the north face of the Eiger, following the same route which took the life of his father when John was 9 years old. It showed some amazing footage of the Swiss Alps as well as the climb itself. It was especially neat to see while our own memories of the Bernese Alps (and that scary scary north face) are so fresh.

We've been leaving Cowboy alone in the house (rather than in the crate) since he's had the cone. We tried to crate him once, and that was a miserable failure. The cone is so wide it doesn't fit through the door, so Chris had to back Cowboy into the crate and wedge the cone in last. That left Cowboy's head propped into place, unable to move.

Apparently, however, Cowboy figured out a way to move. After less than 3 hours in the crate, I came home to find him still wedged in, but the cone mutilated beyond recovery. I think he pushed the cone up against the front of the crate so that it bent back towards his mouth, and then he proceeded to chew it to pieces. I had to take him back to the vet to get a new cone, and they actually laughed when they saw him. They were amazed at how much damage he'd been able to do in so short a time.

So now we leave him loose in the house. He hasn't done any damage so we were thinking that maybe we can leave him loose when the cone's off. But then yesterday, Chris forgot his sunglasses so we turned the car around after a block and returned home. Chris walked up to the porch and saw Cowboy standing ON the couch (he's not allowed on furniture), howling at the top of his lungs. He was so into his howl that he didn't hear or see Chris walk in.

That little sneak. We had to laugh anyway -- it was pretty funny. But I guess that means it's back to the crate for the Cow once the cone comes off!

One of these things is not like the other

A plastic baggie full of Cowboy's Buddy Biscuits looks an awful lot like a plastic baggie full of Honey Nut Cheerios. It does not, however, taste the same. Not at all.

And baby, I have it

"You can't teach people to be lazy - they either have it or they don't."
~ Dagwood Bumstead

Once again, I have no excuse. I've been busy and I've been lazy. I've been trading the comforting glow of my computer screen for the warm rays of the Seattle sun (as I told Sarah, we're the "other" Hawaii). I've been going on long walks in the rain, listening to classical music, and curling up on the couch with my special someone to watch Hitchcock movies.

Oh wait, scratch that. My life is not a personal ad or a Lifetime movie. What I've really been doing is taking the shortest walks possible in the rain while allowing Cowboy enough time to do his "business", listening to Lyle Lovett, Oasis, and Ludacris, and telling my special someone to turn down the TV so I don't have to listen to golf commentators all evening.

I will update my photos soon with shots from my latest thrilling adventures, including (and probably limited to):

• A cruise to Mexico with Trisha
• Baxter's birthday party
  
• A weekend full of German food, polka bands and Volksmarches in Leavenworth
• Cowboy's eye surgery and subsequent larger-than-life head cone which is severely impacting his joie de vivre (and his ability to walk through the house without running into every single piece of furniture and doorway)