Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Weihnachtsmarkt


Care Bear and I went to the Heidelberg Christmas Market yesterday. (Much warmer than when we walked to downtown Frankfurt on Sunday. I'm sure it was in the 20s yesterday. Definitely the climate for hot flashes.) (Did I mention I'm in Germany? Don't tell Rudy!) This poor deflated Santa was chained to a chair outside what I'm assuming was a bar. I couldn't help but think of my mom and Christmas's past. I can't find the photo of her Santa hanging by his neck on her porch. Maybe it was a snowman. Whatever. It was hanging by it's neck.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

For My Face-less Book Folk

Zoey had her first Christmas of 2009 last night. I'm leaving TOMORROW for Christmas with Care Bear and her family in Germany. So I had to give Zoe the gifts we had for her.

Aunt Carrie and Uncle Mike's gift was the PABORITE! (Not a typo - F is usually pronounced P with the Zoe.)

She immediately declared she needed a hat.



She named her Polly and talked really cute little talk to her nose-to-nose while petting her. When she wasn't riding her - hard.



I need to add that Rudy went a bit Cow Dog on us. Don't know if it was the presence of another animal in the house that didn't seem to think Rudy should have been given all attention, or if it was the wild horseback riding with the whoops and hollering going on. He ran from hill top to hill top. (Chair top to couch top.) The dog can leap.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

It's Still All About Rudy...

I've been trying to figure why the blogging hasn't been as regular. Is it because Rudy is growing up and just not that cute little puppy anymore?



NAH! That's not it. I still spend most of my day telling him he is just the cutest thing. (He doesn't understand unless I use a high pitched squeaky baby talk voice.)

(Sorry that is a little fuzzy, but doesn't it catch his essence? Kind of like, yep, I'm growing up and I'm much cooler. Want to play?)

See...he is still our Rudy Patootie.





I'm blaming my new quest to color coordinate his toys.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

We have a new watchdog!

I just don't know what he is watching. The first 6 months we had Rudy I could count on one hand the number of times I heard him bark. He barked at a weird kid in Iowa. Justified. He barked at the lawn guy who was encroaching in Rudy's backyard territory. Justified. He barked early one morning at Mike's headlights running down the fence as he was leaving for work. OK. Not justified. Kind of weird, really, but he's a pup and learning. Those lights were kind of scary and surreal. Maybe those cute little puppy yelps in his sleep are from dreaming of alien abductions.

Last night, or rather early this morning, at 2 am he sat up on the bed (YES he sleeps on our bed) and BARKED and BARKED. I walked him out back. Mike went out front to check things out. We saw nothing. As we started drifting off again...you guessed it. MORE BARKING. Not yapping, which was a big fear of mine given his lineage. So I'm really relieved. I hate yappers. He was BARKING. Like he meant it. We sat up peering through the blinds. And then heard a really, really strange noise. It was either a metallic screeching or a weird animal. Or, maybe it was alien.

Today he sat on the top of the couch (not the seat, mind you, the top, back, head rest, whatever you call it) barking at a squirrel sitting on the fence. He wasn't interested in going out to bark at it. Preferred the safety of the indoors. Perhaps he knows the space ship is lurking. Just waiting.

At any rate. Rudy found his bark. If I'm awake at 2 am again tonight, or tomorrow morning, he's in trouble. He'd better hope the aliens take him.