Yay for Sunshine!

Hearts of Palm, ,mozzarella balls and sunflower seeds!

It's so nice outside this afternoon.   At first Linda thought she would leave us both in the backyard while she went out for a few hours. The cable man is supposed to come and dig our yard up and she was afraid he would leave the gate open while they worked so she kept us inside.  Yesterday they sprayed white paint all over the grass where they need to dig.  If I don't post for awhile, it's because they are working on the lines.  Linda just now got home from her lunch with her friend.  Cris made a wonderful salad, then they walked to Starbucks for coffee.  Now that she is home, she is making Chim and I stay outside on the deck to get fresh air.  In just an hour, she needs to leave again to teach her classes.  Tonight is Jerry's turn to walk us, but it all depends on his schedule (plus sometimes he forgets it is Tuesday.)  Linda is going to try and take a 30-minute nap since she is super tired from waking up so early.  She's really hoping we stay quite and don't bark. (Never mind, we are already barking to come in.)

The Mysterious Missing Giraffe

We've had a kidnapping, or in this case...calfnapping.  While Linda was cleaning today, she noticed for the first time that the baby giraffe is missing from it's Mama.  This is very puzzling.  She specifically remembers it being there last Thursday when Noah left.  He likes to say goodbye to the family when Gretel comes for him. (Sometimes he cries to take them with him when he leaves.)  This morning, the baby is gone!  Where could it have gone to?  There is only one plausible answer and that would be Chimmie.  He could have dragged it off somewhere and chewed it's head off.  Linda should have found it cleaning though. Do you think he totally ate it up??  OH NO.  It is made of wood (Tierney bought it back from Africa on one of her many trips there) and everyone knows he loves to chew wood.  We think he would be in serious pain if he ate that much roughage, right?  It could have gone missing when the company came to do the massive cleaning a few weeks ago.  They left Linda's expensive jewelry and a twenty dollar bill that was on her dresser alone, why would they take a 8" giraffe?  The hunt is on. 

Tough Mudder or Warrior?

Hey look!  It's a Tough Mudder Yorkie!!

Registration for Tough Mudder opened yesterday.  Linda immediately called Taylor to tell him to make sure they got a Saturday spot in an early heat.  This one is closer than last years.  She was fantasizing about being able to run it this year.  She is tough and she does not mind getting muddy at all.  But as a friend told her last night when she mentioned wanting to do it "Linda NO! I've seen you walk."  So maybe Linda does limp a little.... and her knee is plastic and metal....and her hip/back/disc is whack.....and she's not a youngster anymore.  But she FEELS like she could do it!  A bunch of people from church are signing up for a short 3 mile obstacle race called Warrior Dash this May in Maryland.  She could definitely do that one.  Heck, I could even do that one! 

Tuesday Randomness

How could we leave this amazing backyard??  And this is only a small part of it too!

Chimmie woke Linda up way too early this morning.  She put the pillow over her head so she would not hear him.  It actually worked... for a little while.  His whines got louder and turned into yips so she had to get up to let him outside.  The rule is once she is actually out of bed, there is no going back.  Getting up early does have it's perks, but on her morning/afternoon off, not so much.  Since tonight is her Combat class, she HAS to restudy the material since she has not looked at it all week.  The entire week has been spent trying to learn Water in Motion.  As soon as she's done practicing, we are going to get a walk since it's not freezing out.  Then she might be meeting a friend for lunch before her late afternoon/evening classes. (OH NO, Chip is doing her "going to barf any second" meow.  Get the spray bottle OxyClean ready. One of the great things about old carpet is she does not stress about the little accidents.  If her carpet was brand new, she would be freaking out trying to catch her and lock her in the bathroom.)  Since we are on the subject of carpeting, Taylor and Linda talked about fixing up our big house and staying here until late spring before we put it on the market.  There would be way more rules on where the pets could go.  There would be doors shut on all carpeted areas!  We would get the tile and hardwood rooms only. He says she'll get all her investment back because she'll be able to ask more for the house.  I bet once she fixes it up, she'll love it so much she'll not want to leave.  In her heart, she doesn't want to move.  It makes sense to move, but when he talked about putting a contract on the TH by Tierney at the basketball game last night, her tummy started hurting and she felt sweaty.  That reminds her of her dream last night.  It was another wandering dream about not making it to class on time.  She was walking and walking, but did not even know if she was heading in the right direction. She came across a neighbor of Tierney's who told her she was going the right way, but wouldn't she rather learn her 3rd degree Black Belt patterns instead.  They got to the DoJo and it was pitch black so she could not see what he was doing, only hear his voice.  She ended up not being able to learn her patterns and not getting to the gym on time, but it didn't matter because when the lights came on all her students from the gym were in the room waiting to start class.  When Chimmie woke her up a few seconds later, she was so sweaty it was like she actually taught her class in her sleep.  Her hair was plastered to her head.  How weird is that??   

Cheesecake!

Four people shared this, so it was only 1/4 of the calories!

Taylor, Sarah and Baby Girl

Linda took the kids to Cheesecake Factory for Tierney's birthday dinner.  It turned out to be much later than she planned, so that means we had to be patient to go outside to potty.  Linda left for work at 3:00 and went straight to the basketball game.  By the time she got back home, it was after 9:00.  A big dog can hold it hours and hours, but little dogs have little bladders so we can't go as long.  Neither Chim or I had an accident, so we each got a cookie when we came back inside.  Tierney liked her man p.j's and her dresses.  Linda also got her Hello Kitty and Disney Princess band-aids, plus some jungle animal paper plates just for fun. 

Flat Fox

His tail is wagging faster than the speed of sound

We finally had to throw away old Flat Fox.  There was a scrap left about the size of a dollar bill.  Chimmie loved sucking on it and taking it to bed with him, but it was getting kind of gross.  Today, Linda bought him a new Flat Fox.  If I would have taken video of him the last 2 hours, and edited it to music, he would have been the next You Tube sensation.  To say he is happy about Flat Fox is a huge understatement.  He is ecstatic, over the top, crazy in love with him.  Both ears are already chewed off, but that is the way Chim loves his toys.  For the first time ever, he was actually singing to it.  It kind of sounds like a baby wolf howl.  Once I tried to get near FF to check it out, but he actually rammed into me and knocked me off my paws.  Linda has taken it away from him while he watches a few times to let me smell it.  She has to set the law of whose toy it really is.  He's not allowed to growl or fuss when she has it.  Right now he is actually nursing himself to sleep sucking the nose.

"Are you my Mommy??"

Balloon Pit

Tierney and Linda were talking the other day and falling in love came up.  Most girls have a list of how they want to be treated when they become a wife.  This saying above is exactly what Tierney said.  If he was 6'4 (so she could wear her highest heels), attractive and had a good job, that would just be vanilla icing on her Fun-Fetti cake.  The number one requirement is that he love Jesus more than her.  Yay for Tierney!

Speaking of Tier.  Surprise! This was her cubicle when she got to work this morning.  She has very fun co-workers!  I'm not sure how, but Tierney just posted that she is sitting in the balloon pit actually working.  Linda is taking her out to dinner tonight.  She made 4 giant sugar cookies and will be decorating them the Fun-Fetti way since that is Tier's favorite.  They are waiting to see if Taylor and Sarah can come too.  Taylor is super busy with work, real estate, and homework from his Master's degree.