So cute!!

Lourdes loves little animals. This is a dachshund puppy from my mom's dog Cindy.

Cindy actually had 6 puppies, but 2 did not live. There are 3 males and this little female. This pup is a little over 3 weeks in this picture. They've all started to open their eyes and are moving about. Lourdes was thrilled to death and did not want to put any of the puppies down. She did a pretty good job of gently handling the pups but had a problem with picking them up and putting them down.

The female pup is already spoken for, but the three males are available for purchase. There are two males that appear similiar with sort of a grayish color and black spots. The other male is a fawn or isabella color (kind of a yellow-tan). The sire and dam of the litter are both long-hair dapples so we hope the pups have long hair. Anyone interested in buying one of the males can leave a comment and I'll see what I can do. Many people have said they are interested but nobody has made a firm commitment.

Our Thanksgiving went smoothly. Mike and Marla did a fine job of hosting. The spread included deep-fried turkey, baked ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green bean caserole, pumpkin pie and cheesecake.

It will be Christmas before we know it.

Just playing with flickr

No, that's not the horse's name. Flickr is an easy-to-use, on-line photo organizer. Hey, it's free!!

Sliding down the links page....

Greg has slowly moved my blog down his list of favorite links. I'm now second to the last, just above his link to Funky Winkerbean. It's my own fault; I haven't posted since February.

I closed my Prodigy account quite some time ago, but my neglected webpage is still there. I also used it to store photos that I link to in my blog. Now I'm going to try FLICKR to store and link pictures. Let's see how it goes:

I loved this picture...

...so I thought I would share it. Raquel took this picture of Lourdes. Seems like she's in the middle of a statement or blink or something. Or maybe she's really tired. Or part Asian.

Scooby-dooby-doo, where are you?

At the hockey game of course!

We went to see the Rivermen this afternoon and Scooby Doo was there. When Lourdes saw him, she went nuts over him like she did when she saw Chuck E. Cheese. She screamed, she jumped, she completely went rigid with excitement. Scooby was kind enough to let us take a picture with him and Lourdes didn't want to let him go. We followed him a little bit and when the kids cleared out, we set Lourdes down and she ran over to him and grabbed his legs and wouldn't let him go.

The Riverman have a mascot called the Captain. One of these days we're going to have to introduce him to Lourdes. She's already crazy about him, I'm sure she'll love to meet him.

Part baby, part flying monkey

She's a daredevil!!




No fear.

How much does a Fisher-Price horse eat?

Please let us know!!

Cold water

I've been a member of the American Legion for several years. One of the benefits of being a member is to receive The American Legion Magazine. I don't always read the entire magazine. I usually thumb through it and occasionally read an article. There's always a page (most times it's the last page) of jokes. I almost always read the jokes because the majority of the time the jokes are not funny. I don't know why I enjoy reading these bad jokes but I always torture myself with them. Every so often there will be a joke that I consider funny. I've often thought that when I find a joke from this magazine, I should post it here to share with everyone. So here goes the first installment of "FUNNY JOKE FROM THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE".

This one is from the February 2005 issue and the joke is not credited to anyone.

Jim went to visit his 90-year-old grandfather. The next morning, his grandfather prepared a breakfast of eggs and bacon. Jim noticed a filmy substance on his plate and asked, "Are these plates clean?" His grandfather replied, "Those plates are as clean as cold water can get them, so go on and finish your meal."

That afternoon, while eating hamburgers his grandfather made for lunch, Jim noticed tiny specks around the edge of his plate and what appeared to be dried egg yolk. He asked again, "Are you sure these plates are clean?" Without looking up from his hamburger, his grandfather answered, "I told you, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them. Don't ask me about it no more!"

Later that afternoon, Jim left to get dinner in a nearby town. As he was leaving, his grandfather's dog started to growl and wouldn't let him pass. Jim yelled, "Grandpa, your dog won't let me out."

Without diverting his attention from the football game on TV, his grandfather shouted, "Coldwater, go lie down!"

This has been the first installment of "FUNNY JOKE FROM THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE".

Part baby, part monkey

Okay, Lourdes has grown a lot in the last few weeks, but check this out: SHE'S TRYING TO CLIMB THINGS!!

Now for something completely different: I noticed that in one of my many, many postings last year, I talked about our new arrival Pancho. I said that he's a cutie and maybe I'll post pics later. Well I guess it's later cause here's finally a picture of him. Just a quick reminder, Pancho is a wiener dog (miniature dachshund) and in Paraguay they say Pancho for hot dog, so that's how he got his name.

Chuck E., The Sequel

Angela brought in some pictures of our Chuck E. Cheese adventure. Thank you for sharing, Angela!

As I was scanning a picture into the computer and then manipulating the size, Lourdes went bananas. She pointed and screamed at the following picture.

So I had to print out her own copy to put in her little photo album!

Who knew my daughter could love a rat?

Saturday was a busy day. We got up and moving fairly early. Fairly early for us that is. Usually a day off is spent sleeping in or lounging around most of the morning. But we things to do, people to see, places to be.


We first packed up our laundry and went to the laundromat. We left directly from there to go to Chuck E. Cheese's to meet some friends. Our friend has a little boy who is just a few months older than Lourdes and he apparently had a terrific time at Chuck E. Cheese's not too long ago.


Lourdes seemed to enjoy the little toddler rides - as long as they weren't moving. When the ride started moving, she had a look of not-quite-terror-but-close-enough on her face. But she definitely like looking at everything. The funny part was when we went to see Chuck E. while he was admiring all the patrons who were adding to his 401k. Lourdes saw Chuck E. and went absolutely bananas! Her face turned red, she stiffened her body and started shaking and screaming! She LOVED Chuck E.! All her commotion was like someone winning Publisher's Clearinghouse. We thought she would be scared of him, but she was completely drawn to him. She touched his face and grabbed his hand. A little later we watched Chuck E. with a bunch of children gathered around him dancing. Lourdes was still going nuts, screaming and kicking. On the way out, we bought her a Chuck E. doll which she immediately hugged and would not let out of her hands.



From Chuck E.'s, we went home to relax for a while before heading out to a Riverman game. We've been to several hockey games this season and the Riverman are turning things around a bit. They got off to a slow start, but have won a high percentage of their games lately. Saturday night they were playing Toledo. The Rivs had moments where they looked really good and more where they looked bad. Toledo would score, then the Rivs would score. In the third period, it was tied at three and the Rivs looked like they might salvage a win. Suddenly, a defender fell down and it was a breakaway, two on our goalie. Toledo handled the puck well and snuck one in to take the lead. Peoria had about a minute to try and answer so they pulled the goalie to have an extra man trying to score. Unfortunately, there was a faceoff near center ice and Toledo managed to put the puck in the open net out of the faceoff! That was it for the Rivermen. Less than a minute left, there was no real chance of a comeback so people started to leave the arena. I wanted to wait until the bitter end in case there was a fight. I wasn't disappointed (well I was disappointed about the loss) because with about 15 seconds left a couple of guys started duking it out. I don't think a hockey game is complete without a couple of fights. If we don't win the game, we should at least make them pay for it.

Later!

Everybody was kung-fu fighting

I know it's been a while since I posted so you don't have to remind me.

Guess what?! Lourdes is walking!! She pretty much started right around Christmas with a couple of awkward steps followed by a fall. In no time at all it turned in to trips across the room. Now she's completely mobile and pretty smooth at it as well. I think she'll be running by February!

Latest word on our upcoming trip to Paraguay is...it's on hold until we get some paperwork from Immigration. We're hoping that in March or April we'll be able to go. Cross our fingers! The family is very eager to see their little grandbaby.

Our little Christmas elf

You can leave comments now

I just changed the setting for my blog so that anyone who wants to can leave a comment. I didn't realize I had it set for members only.

So go ahead, leave a comment.

I'm dreaming of a White.....Thanksgiving!

It snowed today. It started off as rain, and then became snow and rain, and finally just snow. There was quite a bit of accumulation in a short period. Radio reports said the roads were slick, that there were lots of vehicles in the ditches and many collisions. I drove to the gym in the thick of the snowstorm. People were being very cautious, but I did see one Camaro in the ditch (just enough off the road to be stuck).

My workout was pretty good; I put up some good numbers without feeling completely drained. Maybe Friday I’ll have to work a little harder, especially since I’m skipping the cardio workout tomorrow (it is Thanksgiving after all).

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I’m going to do one of those cheesy lists of things for which I am thankful.

1. My wife Raquel – she’s beautiful, loving, and I’m blessed to have her.


2. My baby Lourdes – she’s a beautiful, beautiful baby and I couldn’t possibly love her more than I already do.


3. My family – you have to love your family, no matter what, and I do


4. My friends – some are coworkers, some aren’t but they’re all special.


5. My job – I’ve got a really great job: good pay, diverse work.

My coworkers – Adam and Jerry are the greatest coworkers. We work hard, we have fun, we make fun of each other, we support each other, we teach each other, we learn from each other and we respect each other. But mostly we make fun of each other. I also work with and for many others that are also terrific people that keep things interesting.

6. My pets – they are always happy to see me (especially P-p-p-p-peanut!).


7. My truck – hello, it’s snowing out there!


8. My motorcycle – didn’t put much time on this summer either, but I’m not getting rid of it!

Well have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Election results are in, and the winners are.....

Who cares, wanker. This ain't no political blog.

I've taken to calling my baby Lourdes Banana. It rolls off the tongue with ease. Say it. Not 'it'. Say 'Lourdes Banana'. Wasn't that fun?

Lourdes Banana is standing. She'll probably be walking by the time I get done typing this. She's going through the stage that makes every man cringe: She's touching buttons that power various electronic toys (tv, xbox, ps2, vcr, computer, and printer). I'm going to have to put things out of reach, or put oversized mittens on her hands to prevent her from being very dexterous.

Just sent a package to Paraguay today. Very expensive, over $30, and it's not going to get there for another 4-6 weeks. From now on, we'll just Western Union money. It's cheaper, easier, and guaranteed.

On the immigration front, Raquel's green card is going to take another couple years. I don't understand it. We applied for her green card and the application was approved. However, she either goes back to Paraguay and gets the green card there, or we apply here for a change of status. I don't know if it would be easier and faster to do this through the embassy in Asuncion or wait the two plus years here in the states. We're going to do the waiting thing here. In the mean time, her VISA expires in April and then her passport expires in October. Why can't this be easy?

I think I might go play xbox for a while.

Don't be scared....

I know it's been a while since I last blogged. No excuses. And I won't make any promises to get back into blogging on a regular basis. I'm just going to apologize for not being regular (no bathroom jokes please).

Lourdes is crawling! She's been at it for about a month now. She's not extremely fast but she's fast enough to grab a doggie chew and sit happily and chew.

Pancho

So we've got an infant, two dogs, and  a cat.  What else could we need?

How about another dog?

Mom's dog Cindy had her second litter a couple months ago and we decided we wanted another dog, so now we have Pancho. Pancho is a long-haired blue speckled miniature dachshund and he's Peanut's half-brother. He's a cutie, maybe a picture to follow in another post.

I decided on the name Pancho because that is the word often used in South America (or at least in Paraguay and Chile) for hot dog.

Blogging shouldn't be this tough

Apologies to all who read my Blog (both of you) for lack of updates. It's been since early June and here it is towards the end of June. To be fair, one week of June I was "deployed" to Volk Field, Wisconsin. The rest of the time, I was just lazy.

I wanted to write about taking my daughter to the mall and all the misadventures we had there, but alas, we didn't go to the mall and we had no misadventures.

I could write about the "deployment" but nothing too interesting happened to me there. I hung out a little with my friends, but found myself missing Lourdes more than I was enjoying myself. To sum up the trip, I taught CPR for five days and fought the most ferocious mosquitoes this side of the Mississippi. Within three minutes of arriving at Volk, I was bitten three times. Needless to say I fought back with some variant of Off with a twenty-something percent DEET that I purchased at the Tomah WalMart. I didn't really like the idea of wearing a chemical repellent but it was better than suffering the wrath of those blood thirsty insects. If I lived there, I would have to plant those anti-mosquito plants all around my house. The scent of citronella candles burning would lead you directly to my house. I would figure out a way to screen in my entire yard. I'm not exaggerating, those mosquitoes were thick.

But I'm a survivor. Hopefully there are no long-term effects from DEET exposure and the twitching will subside. Hopefully the half dozen bites I got won't result in West Nile virus. Or Lupus.

Hey, I celebrated my first Father's Day! Lourdes was kind enough to give me a Father's Day card..in Spanish! ¡Qué inteligente! She also gave me a big box of Hershey's candy (Pot o'Gold I think). What a little sweetie she is.

That's all I can muster right now. Maybe I'll be a little more attentive to my poor Blog in the future and not let down my reader(s) as well.

A cap in your a$$

I'm a lean, mean Air Force trained killing machine. Sort of. I'm not so lean at the moment. I'm not too mean most of the time, but I can get a little cranky. I'm definitely Air Force trained. And I can be a killing machine, especially if you are a paper target located 7, 15, or 25 meters away from me and my M-9.

Today at drill, I fired the M-9, nine millimeter handgun. I've shot a nine millimeter once or twice before, but this was the first time trying at a military firing range. To be considered "qualified" to shoot the M-9, one must put a certain number of bullets on the silhouette at the aforementioned distances. I think the number was 30 out of 36 but I'm not certain. However, to be considered an "expert", one must put 30 out of 36 bullets in a circle in the center of the silhoutte. Somehow I was able to put 33 out of 36 bullets in the center of mass making me an "expert" and eligible to wear the Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon. In almost 20 years of military service, I have fired the M-16 several times and I although I have always qualified with the weapon, I have never earned the Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon with the M-16 and now in my first attempt with the M-9 I've finally got it!

In other news, we are going to get another puppy. That's right Dover and Peanut are going to have a little brother. Actually this will be Peanut's half-brother and Dover's foster bother. Peanut's mom had a litter of five (actually six but one was stillborn)puppies recently and we are going to get the only male. This little guy is kind of a blue-gray color with black spots (a dapple) and is full-blooded dachshund. His mom is a long-hair dapple and his dad his a long-hair black and tan. It's still a little early to tell if any of this litter will have long hair.

Not much else to report at the moment.