Mama's Mia

It was almost 6 months since Pepper died, and I didn't like not having a dog. Since the kids were grown up and out of the house, it was just too quiet.
Since we liked Willi so much, we thought we might get a dachshund. I looked online at AZ central.com and found a breeder who had 3 male dachshund puppies and one female half piebald dachshund and half beagle puppy.
Chris and I went to look at them and the little girl stole my heart immediately!

Canadian Rockies

Mark and I celebrated our 30th anniversary on September 1st. We went to the Canadian rockies. We flew into Calgary and spent a couple of days there before heading to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper. The scenery was breathtaking!

Dad's 80th Birthday

On May 23rd, my dad turned 80
My Mom threw him a party at Artie's Restaurant on City Island. The grandchildren surprised him with balloons, and a good time was had by all.

When Your Parents turn 80

Last month we traveled to New York for my Dad's 80th birthday.

My Mom who is 83, had just gotten out of the hospital 2 days before we arrived. You may know she had a relapse of her leukemia. Her doctor gave her a choice,"We can do a strong chemo, but you will have to stay in the hospital for 3 weeks, or we can do a 'medium' chemo and you can go home in a few days." To this my Mom replied, "I have to go home, it's Frank's 80th birthday on Saturday." The doctor, who has been taking care of Mom for 3 years, smiled and replied, "Oh, I see you married a younger man!"

Sad News

So sorry to have to report that Pepper is no longer with us. She just started refusing her treats, then her food, then even people food. She was vomiting alot and even with medication we could not stop it. She was losing quite a bit of weight. The vet said she had 'Lesions" on her x-rays. Cancer. I'm glad she did not suffer too long.
We are still adjusting to not having a dog. It's so weird.

Sweet Pepper

To be fair, I thought I should blog about my own dog.


Pepper is a Cairn Terrier (the same as Toto in the Wizard of Oz) She will be 14 years old on May 3rd. She was easily the wildest puppy I ever had. She was even nicknamed 'Tornado' by my aunt who was visiting from Austria. Of course she has calmed down now at her age, except for when she tore her ACL jumping down the stairs about a year and a half ago. She sleeps quite a bit now, but still loves her dinner, treats, walks, and play dates with Willi. She is definitely 'Mommy's dog' and follows me around whenever I am home.

Here are a few pictures:

Here comes the 'Diesel'!

Meet Diesel. He is Beth and Tim's new puppy, a Great Dane/Black Lab mix. Mostly Great Dane. He weighed 19 pounds when they got him about 6 weeks ago and now he is 50 pounds at only 4 1/2 months!
The name Diesel came from Shaqille O'Neil who is playng for the Phoenix Suns now. Tim says Diesel 'has a lot of torque but not much speed' I think he will have plenty speed with those long legs!

Wild Willi

Everyone meet my new 'grand-puppy,' Willi!

He is a piebald dachshound adopted by Chris in November. Since then, he has wiggled his way into our hearts. I get to puppy-sit on weekends if Chris needs a chance to catch up on school work, or if he plays golf with Mark.

Go Suns!

Believe it or not, until December 6th, I had never been to any professional sports game. This was my first and it was great. And the Suns won. Go Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Shaquille O'Neal and Leandro Barbosa!

Thanksgiving 2008

Since we met in the Army, and have always lived far away from our families, we had a lot of Thanksgiving dinners with just the four of us.
Then we realized we were not the only ones in this situation, and decided to invite other 'lone' families for dinner on that day.

Each year the guest list has gotten larger. This year we had 21 people.

When we were done eating, we played a Thanksgiving trivia game and learned alot about Thanksgiving history.

For example:

What vegetable did the pilgrims have available for thanksgiving but did not use because they thought it was poisonous?

A. Beans B. Pumpkin C. Tomatoes D. Potatoes E. Cauliflower

Anwer to trivia question: D. Potatoes

Hmm... hard to imagine Thanksgiving without potatoes!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Wastin' Away Again

We had so much fun at the Jimmy Buffett concert last year, we decided to go back to Las Vegas and do it again. We did better with our costumes than we did last time. Maybe next year we will actually find the steet party!

Camping - Then and Now

When Mark and I were dating and engaged, we used to go camping almost every weekend with friends. We would get everything ready to go on Thursday night and set it at the front door. On Friday, after work, we would just load up the truck and head out for the mountains in southeast New Mexico.
We hadn't gone camping together in a long time, but a few weeks ago we decided to go up to Big Lake and camp for two nights. We had a great time fishing, hiking, getting a fire going, waking up at 3 a.m. to thunderstorms with a lot of lightning, thunder and rain pounding on the roof of our pop-up camper...

Just like old times, except for a few minor details.

These pictures will show you what I mean:

Mark & our tent in 1979

Me & our pop-up 2008

Mark fishing then and now: Camp cooking...... You get the idea!

More

City Island, New York

City Island is a small island located in Long Island Sound. It is the place I lived from 1963 till I went in the Army in 1976. That means, from age 10 to 23.

The island is 1.5 miles long and .5 miles wide. Almost 5 thousand people live there.

It was originally inhabited by the Siwanoy Indians and was first established as an English settlement in 1685.

City Island became an important ship building and yachting center in the 18th century. Several of the sloops that won the America's Cup were built on City Island. The Island is still home to yacht clubs, sail makers, sailing schools and marinas.The Island is also known for its numerous seafood restaurants.

Growing up here was great! At the ends of the side streets are small private beaches. I would walk to the beach almost every day in the summer and spend hours swimming with my friends, and sitting in the sand with my transistor radio at my side.

Here are pictures from our recent visit to City Island where my parents and one of my brothers still live.

To read more about City Island, click on 'City Island' under my Favorite Links.

Slide Show-Iowa Nebraska trip

Here are some pictures from our trip to Iowa and Nebraska in June 2008. We went to Andy's graduation and Bob and Adriennes wedding. We even got to experience being in a couple of tornado warnings! It was great to see all the relatives and meet some we never met before. We visited Amish country and toured the Gretna Fire Station, where Mark's brother Terry is chief. We also enjoyed Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and the Strategic Air & Space Museum.