HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Trick or Treat Time! Missi and I just finished our pumpkins for this year. I did the one on the left - it says "Happy New Year!" Okay, there's your first Halloween trick. Gimme some candy or there will be more. Missi carved the witch and the cauldron. Pretty good pumpkins this year, if we do say so ourselves.




This is Mulan as Princess Leia. Isn't she cute!

She, like the real Leia, has kissed her own brother (Mickey).








Mickey reprised his role as Darth Mickey this year, he's so intimidating.











Mulan sticks her tongue out at those of you who don't give out Halloween doggy biscuits.


Happy Halloween!

Wildfires October 2007

Hey everyone, Me and the 3M's are fine, here is a quick update of the fires from our perspective. This shot is looking south from our house. The glow is from the Colorado Hills fire somewhere on the other side of the hill. There have been 5-6 hot spots that made it over the crest and onto our side of the hill in this picture. One of the hotspots had flames taller than the 2 story structures in the picture. Fortunately, all those hot spots were put out.

Here's a screen shot from 10news of a map diagramming where the San Diego County fires are.





This screen shot is of the evacuation area imposed for the Witch Fire that is now burning on the west side of the 15. My office is in the evacuation area, Missi's is right outside of it- close to the 5 freeway.



Our area looks to be okay right now- the Colorado Hills fire (southeast over the hills) and the fire in the FallBrook area seem to be relatively calm. Mickey and Mulan are busily napping. So we're all okay, just heard on the news that the fire closest to us may be close to 40% contained. Alright!

What do Mickey and Mulan have in common with MVP LT?

Artificial Grass!


After about a year of a carefully planned, persistent and balanced chemical warfare attack Mickey and Mulan can finally declare victory. Through the power of their yellow snow-cone making juice they have destroyed enough of the evil natural grass and have forced their "masters" to get some artificial turf.

This is what the yard looked like before.




Now it looks like this!

Now Mickey and Mulan happily run and play on the turf, and Missi and I can finally use our bocce ball set

More Pics of Elliott

Obviously, Uncle Handsome ran out of time on his last post about Elliott because we have a ton more pictures to share of our new nephew.

Elliott adored me right away (and the feeling was mutual!)









Dar freaked out every time Elliott cried. He would only let me photograph him when Elliott was calm.















Elliott was a very curious boy and would take the time to check you out while you held him (that or he really liked to look at the trees through the window behind me).








Here's a close up of Elliott checking out Uncle Handsome.











And here is Elliott and I snuggling one last time before Uncle Handsome and I hopped on a plane back to California.

Great Smoky Mountains

For the second half of our trip, we drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Great Smoky Mountains and Cherokee, NC.










So, we're on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were so excited that I pulled off at every turnout to take pictures. Turns out we were too low for the color changes, so most of our pictures have a lot of green in them (the color changes start at the higher elevations and work their way downwards).





We finally found some great color at the higher elevations. The camera really doesn't do the colors justice.










We finally made it to the Great Smoky Mountains...although...we never saw any alleged "smoky" in those mountains...










About half the park is in Tennessee...we can add another notch on our belt of states visited. In this pic, Dar is tennesseing and is finally tenness-believing.










The little black blur at the back of this picture is one of two black bears we saw from the road. So, our poor pix are partially my fault b/c I couldn't manage to get my mighty Ford Taurus fully off the road and the ranger was yelling at me. It was partly Dar's fault because he had the big zoom lens on and it couldn't focus on a bear that close (at one point, after we turned around and came by the bear again, it was 15 feet away from our car). Trust me, it's a bear.


We have pics of our Cherokee adventures too, but that will have to wait for another post.

Our Nephew!

So in the interest of getting more hits on our blog we decided to pull out the big guns - pix of Elliott. Enjoy!
By the way did you guys know that you have to wash a pacifier if it falls on the ground before putting it back in the baby's mouth? Somewhere there are grandparents screaming "What the heck did Uncle Handsome do now!"





Sometimes growing up we'd see our mom playing with a baby and she'd exclaim something a little out of control, like "Oh she's so cute I'm gonna pinch her and bite her"
So I guess it runs in the family -




So here's one more picture of Mickey and Mulan's cousin. I guess us west coasters will have to wait till Thanksgiving to get our Elliott fix!

Vacation All I Ever Wanted...

Sorry it's been so long since we last wrote, but we were on vacation in North Carolina, visiting the fam and seeing some sights. Here are some highlights from our trip.

So, we started the trip in Charlotte. Dex and Jess and Elliott took us around town to see some sights. We had lunch at Price's Chicken Coop. It's kinda crazy there-if you order a chicken sandwich, they take two pieces of chicken, on the bone (like if you ordered it from KFC) and slap it on a bun, wrap it up and hand it to you.






This is us eating our Price's lunch at Freedom Park in Charlotte. It was Elliott's first picnic (yea, us!). That was a beautiful and huge public park-very family friendly. Darwin's chowing down on his barbecue and savoring his Sweet Tea. Yes, Dar discovered Sweet Tea and that is the ONLY thing he drank for the rest of the trip.






That's downtown Charlotte. The tallest building there is the Bank of America building. We learned that Charlotte is full of Bank of Americas and Shell gas stations. We never ran out of money or gas.








They also took us out of the city and up to the Latta Plantation. That's the house-circa 1800. It was Elliott's first plantation.










We then went for a hike on the grounds of the Latta Plantation. It was Elliott's first hike and probably the only hike we went on during the entire trip. The Latta Plantation had a latta land to explore ;)








We have a lot more to tell and show from our trip, but I'll give Dar a chance to get a word in. Stay tuned!

300!

The last time I found myself in this situation Mulan was to my left watching intently, and Mickey was to my right- sleeping soundly. It was the tenth frame, I was perfect up till then. I slowly turned and looked at Mulan. She gave me a knowing look, and I said to her-
"This is about to happen."

I started my approach - swung my arm smoothly - let go of the B button with a slight twist of my wrist and...

299.

Tonight I found myself in the same situation, Mulan to my left, Mickey sleeping to my right but this time I did my end zone dance after the sweet sound of success. Tonight, I was perfect.

An Intruder!

On Friday night, we swung by Costco on the way home to pick up dog food and some contact lens solution. $160 later, we finally got out of there and with our gourmet dinner (a slice of pizza and a hot dog), we finally headed home.

Mickey and Mulan, as usual, were ecstatic to see us, but we immediately sat down and began scarfing down our dinner. I thought I heard a noise upstairs, but I told myself it was nothing.

I should have known better...

I ignored my instincts before and Mulan almost gassed all of us out of the house, but that's a story for another day.

I continued eating my pizza and thought I heard a noise again upstairs. I did a quick head count-Dar, Mickey, Mulan and Missi. Oh crap.

I normally go upstairs as soon as we get home to change into my jammies, but I was really hungry after working all day and after our jaunt to Costco, so I actually ate dinner in my work clothes. Since we were so late, it was dark out already and pitch black upstairs.

Dar finished his dinner and got up to make Mickey and Mulan's dinner. I heard another noise. I quietly got up out of my chair, faced Dar and waved my hands frantically (you don't think I'm stupid enough to investigate this by myself, do you?)

Dar didn't notice, so I continued to try to silently get his attention. He finally looked up from the gourmet doggie dinners. I heard a noise-I think someone is upstairs.

For once, Dar believed me and looked around frantically for a weapon to defend himself. Of course, our normal choice for weapons, a mag light and baseball bat, are normally kept under the bed, just about where I am hearing this noise.

For some reason, he ignores all of the knives in our kitchen and the hardy wooden stick in the sliding door, and decides he doesn't need a hardy weapon, only solid backup. Darwin tries to get the dogs to back him up.

Unfortunately, dinner comes first with the dogs, and they both stared longingly at the counter where their dinners sat. Frustrated, Dar grabs the empty can of dog food to try to lure some back up (You don't think I'm going up there, do you? It's very dangerous-you go first)

Mulan follows him about halfway up and Mickey stays put in the kitchen, knowing the good stuff is still on the kitchen counter. I try to tell myself it's nothing and go about picking up some of Mulan's messes from the day.

Dar is creeping about halfway up the stairs, and he yells AAAAGGGGHHHH! Who's there!

Holy crap! I am right! Being right is a terrible feeling when it means there is an intruder in the house. I am debating whether we should call 911 or just evacuate the house when both Dar and I clearly hear a door upstairs bumping up against a door jamb (like it had just been moved).

My internal debate was still ongoing, when Darwin finally turns on the light upstairs, and asks did you leave the windows open in our bedroom? Of course.

He flings open the bedroom door with his jagged empty can of dog food screaming. Nothing. I decide that I better go upstairs and make sure he is alive.

Dar is wandering around the bedroom when I get up there. Turns out that we did not latch one of the doors to our bedroom securely and it was bouncing off of the door frame, propelled by the gentle breeze we get in the evenings.

I am still not satisfied since there are 3 more bedrooms upstairs with their doors closed (to protect the rooms from Mulan). Check the other rooms. Dar grabs our hardy baseball bat from under the bed.

One by one, Dar quickly flings open the door screaming, confirms no one is in the room, and then does the same thing to the closet. By the last room, I'm pretty sure that if anyone is in there, they will not be frightened by the ominous screams as the door is flung open.

Fortunately, there is no one there. I knew our fierce guard dogs protected our house that day.

Meet our contributors!

Meet Mickey and Mulan, the best bloggers we know cuz they know about as much as we do and their opinions are probably better than our's. These two crazies are the reason for this blog and so I'll let them introduce themselves-

Mickey: I dunno what to say . . . uh- 67 pounds of pure unadulterated muscle, 3 years old, german shephard mix, love the bitches! Booyah mom -can't get mad at me cuz I'm ruffering to the four legged ladies, howl at yo boy! Anyhoo my people parents got me from the county shelter in Carlsbad, try adoption first! That's it for me, by the way - I rule at tug of war.

Mulan: I'm a black lab, 1.5 years old, and I came from the Escondido Humane Society, I like tearing books and chewing blankies and basically locking myself in rooms to tear them apart - ha ha I kid I kid.

p.s. I blame Rogue.

Well, those are our doggy contributors. We'll be seeing you!