I'm back!

Well, we got to the pond and Mom almost left immediately cuz there were sooooo many cars there was no place to even park. But, in order to leave, we had to drive down to the landing and Mom realized it is a HUGE lake so there was plenty of room for us all on the water! So we unloaded the kayaks and me and her drove back up just as someone was pulling out so we got to park.
Fortunately we went to the swampy area first cuz just after we got thru that part, both Mom and me heard a bunch of thunder!!! We hightailed it back around to the landing just as the lightening really started flashing. But...it didn't start pouring until we were all loaded up and leaving.
There was such a bottleneck at the landing that the warden was directing traffic!!! He even helped Mom put the kayaks back on the car.
I will say, it was really, really, really HOT out on that pond!! Poor Harvey was even hotter than me cuz he didn't have any hair to keep the sun off his skin. But, Mom wet us down and we were fine. We saw lots and lots of pretty flowers and dragonflies.
Even though our trip was cut short, we still were there over an hour and we did have a ton of fun!

ANOTHER Diary Daily pick for ME!!!!!

Hey, I have another diary pick today!!! Cool, huh? Mom is taking me and the two hairless wonders kayaking to my FAVORITE lake over in Vermont.
Julia is going, too. Toto has to stay home, hehehehe!
Well, gotta go now cuz they are ready to leave. More later????

Summer's here and it is HOT!!!

Here it is, almost bed time and it is STILL almost 90 degrees outside. We have TWO air conditioners here in our house and it is still 78 inside!!! Too hot for me!
I voted for a trip down to the lab pen and the little blue swimming pool but Mom said it was TOO hot. Besides, we would have had to chase the chickies back out of the lab pen and Mom said they were enjoying lying around under the bushes down there. What about us, Momsie??? We don't get to lie around under the bushes on the cool ground???
She told me WE have the cool AC in the house. Yeah, right!
I, for one, prefer the great outdoors, as long as there are no bugs out there, BOL!
Speaking of bugs, Mom is quite impressed with the great job those chickies and Guineas are doing on the bugs. Since they have been wandering around our dog yards and the lab pens there have been NO fleas on any of us and only Riley had ONE tick, and Mom found it right away so he shouldn't be sick from it, even though it was a deer tick.
By comparison, she picked MORE than 15 of them off ONE grooming dog just today, and plenty off the other ones.
However, Mom says she has spent way, way more on those chickies than she would have spent on Advantix so far... the eggs are costing her about $10 EACH!!!
I say it's all about the pleasure we get from enjoying watching (and chasing!) the chickies AND, we don't need NO poison on us!!!

Shoes with toes, next a nose???

Well, Mom got her new shoes in the mail today. She immediately decided to try them on. It was pretty funny!! She kept trying and trying to get her foot into the left one, but her last middle toes kept folding over instead of going into the places for them.
She was getting pretty frustrated, then decided to try on the right one... bingo, slipped right on like a well fitted glove!!! She hopped around the kennel, decided it was pretty comfy, so really started working on the left one. Of course, this time it also slipped right on with all her toes where they belong!
So far she has worn them for NINE hours! They must be pretty comfy cuz usually she peels off her shoes before she even gets all the way into the house after work and she is still wearing these!
She says they are GREAT!!! They have nice, tough but flexible soles and a great arch support, yet the tops are very soft fabric material. Mom HATES those sandals that go between your toes so she was worried about the feeling of the separated toes... no problem!
She is having a MAJOR pain in her bad knee but is hoping it is NOT from the fact that these shoes have no heels and are therefore putting different angles on her walking. I reminded her that she ALWAYS goes barefoot and never has a pain in her knee, so it must NOT be her shoes.
BTW, they ARE pretty funny looking. Fortunately, she got the ones that are black and gray and not the hot pink ones or the lime green ones or, worse yet, the bright purple ones, BOL!!!!

My turn for diary daily pick!!!

Hehehe...Toto was lording his diary daily pick over ME the other day! Now Mom says I have my own daily pick today.
Once again, we didn't get an email from HQ, but Anya was nice enough to mention it in my diary. Mom is writing this on the iPad cuz the work computer STILL isn't working. The problem is only with the Internet stuff, though...solitaire works just fine!!!
Interestingly enough, the iPad didn't work when it was linked to the router...It only works on 3G, but the puter at home works on the SAME ROUTER.
Ah, there is always something. Tonya is on vacation this week so Mom is crazy at work so I gotta go now.

Dead computers?? I didn't do it!!!

Wednesday night Mom discovered her desktop computer was DEAD. Nothing would open right and, if it did, it would instantly freeze up and she would have to do a hard reboot.
She worked on it ALL evening and go no where, finally took the iPad and went to bed!
Thursday morning it was the same and she assumed it had finally died since she has had issues with it since she got it. Off to work, that one WILL work!!!
Nope, the one at work was EXACTLY the same. Okay, now something IS wrong! Her computer man brings his dog to daycare so when he came she had him take a gander and he came up with NOTHING!!! A virus??? She uses a GREAT antivirus program and it had updated definitions the previous day. Of course, he blamed AOL, so Mom uninstalled it, NOPE.
All day long whenever Mom had a free second she tried to fix the puter. She removed AOL, the virus program (thinking the problem started when she updated the definitions?), and on and on and on.
When she got home, she tried the desktop with a USB modem instead of the DSL, thinking maybe that was the issue. NOPE.
Finally, she did a recovery restore and voila, PERFECT!!! Problem is, the one at work doesn't HAVE that option. It seems that there was an automatic Windows update and therein lies the problem. Apparently, they fixed it, since this morning the one at work is also working again.
Now she only has to fix ALL the stuff on that one that she messed up trying to fix it...go figure!!
And, we were looking forward to a nice weekend outside, enjoying the beautiful Summer weather.

Mother is confused...

My Mom is suffering from some sort of mid life crisis, however, we think she is kinda OLD for mid life. She says it IS mid life since she plans to live for a very, very LONG time.
Anyway, we discovered her problem today when she decided to spend some of the yard sale money. First of all, she ordered a pair of those running shoes with TOES!!! Of course, she can barely walk, much less run so I am not sure what she is planning to do with them. She says she LOVES to go barefoot but she HATES to step on things that hurt so these should work.
We are all preparing to laugh when they get here and she wears them.
Next, she ordered a METAL DETECTOR!!! She says she always wanted one of those since she first knew about them. I think she is hoping to find something very valuable, especially since our house is over 200 years old. Actually, I suspect it will be like the stuff she found when she dug the garden...old bottle caps and nails, and, not even square nails.
I can see it all now...our whole dog yard will be full of holes and we will probably break our legs falling in those holes.
Speaking of falling...I was just lying here on the bed, sleeping on the extra blanket. For some reason, Mom pulled the blanket out from under me and I toppled right over and landed up against Smokey Cat. He was growling and snarling at me, so I didn't dare move. Unfortunately, I was lying on my back with all four legs sticking straight up in the air, so Mom was laughing at me!! Nice lady, fortunately, she forgot she has a camera right in her iPad and could have recorded my faux pas.

Yard sailing...

Yes, I did spell that right...instead of sailing in our kayaks we are having a yard sale so I wanted that reference. I am helping, along with Ali. Our job is to demonstrate the dog stuff like the crates and jackets and carriers. Must be working cuz we sold over $100.00 worth of junk so far!!
Mom wants to sell everything so she doesn't have to lug it back inside tonight.
Hey, Julia slept over last night. She slept on the futon in Moms room. As a result, I am VERY, VERY tired today. When anyone sleeps in that futon I need to lie right up against Mom and watch the person in the futon so they don't get Mom. Hard work, it is!!!
I was hoping we would go off paddling today but Julia has a bad cold and Mom is tired so we are doing this instead. Oh well, it is nice out...hot in the sun, cool in the shade. And, it is easier!
Hey...when I came out of the dog room to come out here I missed Ajax so, figuring he was in Moms room, I ran in there to check. Would you believe he was sleeping right in the middle of MY waterbed!!! There is going to be big trouble if he thinks he is joining us in there every night!!!

Mom, he is not a dog, he is a HORSE!!!

Last week Mom brought home a new pet for us. She calls him a dog, but, frankly, I have NEVER, EVER seen a dog as big as he is! Us little ones have to be very, very careful that we don't get under him cuz he would squash us like a bug if he stepped on us!!!
I guess Mom knows what she is doing...at least he is nice and hasn't bothered any of us yet. I did find it necessary to bark at him for a few days to make sure he knows I am the boss here. Didn't seem to phase him too much and I finally had to stop barking cuz I got a sore throat!
It is amazing how small our house suddenly got. I can't even walk across the floor when he is lying there cuz he takes up way, way too much room. It's a gosh darn good thing he doesn't want to sleep in Mom's bed with all of us... there just wouldn't be ANY room for Mom!!!
I guess the good news is that he won't be competing with me for a ride in the kayak. Mom KNOWS he will sink it, BOL!

NO turtles!!!

Of course...Mom says we can finally keep a turtle and there were NO TURTLES sunning themselves at the pond!!! Mom says it was probably too hot for them so they were staying in the water. I suspect Mom KNEW that would happen and that is why she said we could keep one this time!!!
Mom and I did see the mink again, though. She shot off a photo but when we looked at it you couldn't see the mink unless you knew where he was. We paddled over and there was a huge pile of crayfish shells. Guess he's been eating them for his breakfast???
It was VERY hot at the pond and Mom's shoulder was very sore paddling so we couldn't stay long. We did get to eat our lunch on the island so we didn't need our leashes there. That was fun!!
Then, Mom took Julia to another pond so she could hunt for some critters. We had to stay in the car cuz Mom says too many people leave fish hooks and broken bottles there and she didn't want us to get hurt and spoil our weekend. It was VERY cool in the car in the shade so we people watched cuz she left all the doors open.
When we got home us three special dogs all got to go down to the big yard with the pond. (hehehe other dogs, HA!) Mom and Julia did some work on the pond, then they planted flowers along the dog fence up on the big stone wall. Then, we made a strawberry pot with hens and chicks for Julia's Mom. (Not REAL hens and chicks, BOL!)
It was supposed to have HUGE thundershowers during the night so Mom and Julia decided the camping weekend was over and we took down the tent and packed up all our camping stuff. Me and Toto and Ali got to chase Mom on the tractor... that was FUN!
Finally, Julia went home and we went to bed, BOL! Today Mom is cleaning and we are resting up from the huge weekend.