Summit Meeting

After dinner tonight, Gail and Ben and Maggie and Cedar all climbed up on the couch for a family meeting...Maggie and Cedar quickly fell asleep while Gail and Ben worked out some important stuff...

Maggie and Ripple

We were enjoying a quiet and lazy Sunday morning, and then decided to go meet the Buerketts for some breakfast at the Corner Cafe in Gabriels...


One of the great side-benefits of visiting with the Buerketts is playtime...Ben can play with their daughters, and Maggie can play with Ripple, their black lab...in the picture below, you can see the 2 dogs, as well as 2 Canada Geese that swam over to investigate all of the splashing...


Ben likes throwing sticks, and the girls like fetching them, so it works out nicely for everyone...


We went back to their house, and left the dogs downstairs to play, while we did the same upstairs, but they got jealous and tried to fit through a cat-door to join us...it didn't work...


When we got home, Maggie was exhausted, and immediately found an uncomfortable position to go to sleep in...

Maggie-Moo

We call her Maggie, Maggie-Moo, Magpie, Maggie-Lou-Whooo, Maggie-licious, The Magginator...and early in the morning when she barks at turkeys laughing in our woods, we call her "quiet, QUIET, QUIET!!! Dumbie!"...

She lives with us, she loves us, we love her...


She and Cedar sleep spooned together after a hard day of napping...


Another picture, only marginally different, but they're so cute together, who cares?


Here they are on the upstairs couch...ahhh, change of location is a great thing...I don't know what's with the zombie eyes, but Maggie's convey sleepiness, and Cedar looks like he wants to devour my soul for waking him up...


You can see that Maggie is very uncomfortable around children...


Maggie had been torturing "Lambie Santa" for a couple of days, she'll probably be getting coal from the jolly old elf up North, but we'll supplement her take as needed...


Neither of our dogs looks like Sam, the 3 time winner of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest, seen above with his pround mom (who loved him, and slept with him in her bed every night!)...I have included a video of Sam and his mom for people who can't believe anything that ugly isn't photoshopped...enjoy...

Fun, Fun, Fun...

Gail and I went out for dinner and a movie last night, while Ben had a date with Staci, Ben's all-time favorite babysitter. They colored and threw water-balloons and watched movies and ran around and had a great time. We had a great dinner at Anthony's, our favorite fancy-eating-place in the North Country. We also went to "28 Weeks Later", a sequel to one of the 5 best zombie movies ever made!!!

I have included a trailer for the movie below, feel free to skip it if gratuitous violence and mind-bending frights are not your thing...



This morning, we woke up to some Mother's Day fun...lots of cards and some cool presents for Mom...


There was also some wreckage from last night's balloon masacre with Ben and Staci...I noticed these while walking Maggie...


A picture of some Mom's Day booty...


This is a low-quality digital picture of an old-fashioned printed picture of Zeke and Cedar, right after we brought Cedar home...Zeke died this week...he was a very good boy, and we loved him a lot...


Here's a picture of one of Ben's projects from his date with Staci..."It's a balloon guy with eyes" is how he explained it to me, and you can't argue with that...


Ben and I made french toast for Mom, he had a great time helping to make it, but decided that he doesn't really like the end product...no matter, Gail and I do...


Ben and Maggie had a good time playing on the floor while Gail and I finished our breakfasts...


Maggie got tired after a while, but kept on playing, albeit at a slower, less frenzied pace...


After the play session, she staggered away...and fell asleep in her water bowl...this is not staged or photoshopped...she can, and does, fall asleep anywhere...I suspect that the more awkward the position is, the more sleep-karma/credit she gets...


Gail went to the Paul Smiths College graduation after the french-toast-a-palooza, and Ben and I went over to the playground at Petrova Elementary School in Saranac Lake...he was working a whole "Indiana Jones" thing there this morning...hopping around, dodging acid and boulders and dinosaurs while he "rescued treasure"...


He also showed himself to be quite a swinger...he loves to feel the wind in his hair, kick and pump, and get swinging high enough to dance on the threshold of scaring himself...


It's a beautiful day, and we may go back out again for some geocaching this afternoon...

Gail's Summer Office!

Gail has spent a big chunk of the last 2 days working for PSC and on her Doctoral work at our home...outside...the wireless connectivity extends out here with sufficient efficiency to allow her to watch an episode of "Jericho" every now and then in addition to submitting her work and checking email...I ran an extension cord out to make sure that her battery keeps fully charged...an Adirondack chair and fancy desk (made from a 5 gallon bucket of ice-melting stuff) round out the office-furniture...the hose is hooked up to provide a water fountain for her and her officemates...



The best feature is, of course, the hot and cold running (mostly sleeping) dogs...Cedar patrols the perimeter, while Maggie and Zeke stay close for frequent meetings and treats...


I love teaching in Lake Placid, but this looks pretty great!!!

2 Weekends...

We went into NYC and CT 2 weekends ago, and to CT this weekend...lotsa travel...I have some pictures to share...I'll be brief...



We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Ben for the first time...we were heavy into the Egypt section...Ben loves mummies, and I love the layout of the Temple of Dendur...


My Grandma, Ben's Great-Grandmother, turned 97 on the 24th, after the museum, we visited with Grandma to wish her a happy birthday...


The next morning, we took Ben up to Grand Central Station to meet Muz...they took the train (a first for Ben) out to CT while Gail and I hung out in the city!!!


We walked them down onto the train...


And saw them off...


This weekend, Ben and I headed down to CT and visited with muz and fuz...


And Maggie, who ended up coming home with us at the end of the weekend...she's a sweety!!!


We visited the beach on Cream Hill Lake, Ben stripped down to his shorts and noodled around in the water for a while with Maggie...


Muz made a great picnic for all of us, plus some friends from down the road...Ben really enjoyed the biggest tiny tomato in the world...


After lunch, we went up the hill to let Ben jump on his first trampoline...just to make it extra special, we found one of the old-fashioned kinds without all of those ridiculous safety features that run rampant in this over-protective age...he had a great time...


We watered and turned the compost, and Ben watered me!


On the drive home, Maggie took a nap on Ben's lap...take a moment to appreciate my ability to take a stellar photo over my shoulder while driving in excess of 90 mph (I kid...)


We got home, and set up her crate, but she was much too tense to calm down enough to check it out...again, I kid...



Watching TV later, Maggie and Cedar were snuggling up with Gail on the couch, enjoying "Brothers and Sisters", each of them enjoying their new brother or sister...


2 great weekends, but I wouldn't say no to a weekend at home next weekend...plus "28 Weeks Later" (a potentially great zombie movie!!!) is coming out on the 11th...maybe a babysitter...