Ben's new puppy...

We drove up to Westville this afternoon to look at, and choose, Ben's new (future) puppy...out of a litter of 11 puppies with 4 females, 2 unfortunately died...both females...so we had 2 chocolate girls to choose from...




They were both lovely and sweet, but after extensively play-testing both of them, we all agreed on the larger of the 2 puppies...she has a nicer head, prettier eyes, has a chunkier feel to her, and just feels right...in the picture above, she is in Gail's arms...we have been talking about names a lot lately, and went up with 8 possibles:

• Brandy
• Bubbles
• Lobster
• Lollipop
• Colby
• Rainbow
• Marnie
• Penelope

This is a picture of the puppy that we named "not Penelope"...


This is a picture of the girl dog that we named "Penelope"...


All of the pups had finished a wild rumpus and meal minutes before we arrived, so while they were happy to see us and snuggle a bit, they were somewhat sleepy...this is Penelope in my arms...


Once we had identified Ben's future dog we put on a collar that we picked up out the way up to the interview...you can see that the process exhausted Penelope, who is asleep on Gail's chest in the picture above...


In addition to the collar, we painted her toenails a tasteful and understated red color, as can be seen above...this is more of an identification tool than a fashion statement, but it works both ways...we'll be picking her up in a couple of weeks, and you'll probably see a couple more pictures and videos once she comes to live with us for good...

Gone Fishin'

Ben woke us up this morning at about 5:30am to tell us that it was snowing...groan...

Despite the weather, he insisted that we go fishing, so we got out his fishing pole and hit the driveway for some serious practice...


We started off working on the basics of his range of motion while casting and the mechanics of releasing the line...


We then moved on to direction and accuracy, aiming for (and eventually coming pretty close to) the red boating cushion...

Spring Break, part 4

This was our last day in NYC, so we crammed it full to the rim...Ben just went to bed (9:30pm) after a cool down at the end of our day...



We started out by going to the playground in Madison Square Park, which is in the shadow (architecturally if not actually) of the Flatiron Building...


Ben had, as always, a great time in this playground, which has a great mix of kids who look and sound very multicultural when compared to our playgrounds in Saranac Lake...


After some lunch, we met up with Anti-Sarah, who took a half-day and went out to the New York Aquarium, out in Coney Island...it was super...better than expected!

I couldn't capture all of the wonderful sea life that we saw during our visit (fast beasties behind glass and low light make for poor pictures), but I did get some video of our favorites...



This otter was rescued by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, and when he could not be rehabilitated, he moved to this one, and has been educating New Yorkers and visitors for years...even though he is 16, he moves with a boneless grace that is amazing...



The highlight of the visit for all of us was the giant walrus who spent as much time checking us out as we did him...



Ben loved this walrus, and we had a hard time moving on...these videos don't capture the sounds he made while looking at us...squeaks and farting noises and bristly trumpeting...



Anti-Sarah had better hope that this video is never seen by the head hunters for the Shark advocacy group that she is seeking a job with, or she'll be out of luck...



I loved watching these jellyfish move around in the water, although they certainly give me the wiggins...



These little mushroom-shaped jellyfish just seemed weird...like some anime cartoon gone wrong...



We ended our visit to the Aquarium with a live show featuring a super-talented harbor seal and his entourage...we had a wonderful time at the New York Aquarium, and hope to visit again sometime...special thanks to Anti-Sarah for the idea and the legwork involved in making this trip happen...

This evening, after a super thin-crust pizza dinner, Ben and Sarah and I went to Jump, a great theatre experience that combines martial arts with acrobatics with comedy...




We had a wonderful time, and Ben really enjoyed the action and kicking and jokes and seeing live theatre...



They did amazing jumping and flipping and fighting...Ben couldn't take his eyes off of the performance...



He was tired enough at the end of the performance that he had a little meltdown once we got outside, but he did get a chance to say hello and thanks to a couple of the performers who were talking to the audience on their way out before he crashed...we got home and read a story with muz, and he went to bed...he was asleep before I left the room...

We've had a great time in NYC, and (but?) he'll need a couple of days to recover from the fun...

Spring Break, part 3

The first day we got to NYC, Ben spied Maggie's new bed and was very impressed...Muz and D offered him the use of it while we're visiting (without consulting Maggie I have to add)...

It's a step up from the run of the mill dog-beds, and Ben loves it...



The above is a picture of the bed as Maggie sleeps on it...


This is a picture of the dog-bed as Ben sleeps on it...

Spring Break, part 1.5 & 2

Sorry for the discontinuity, but I had to add this picture that I meant to include in the last blog entry...it's from last weekend, at the end of a Muz-made blueberry preserve feeding frenzy...


Now, on with the regularly scheduled blog entry...




This morning, Ben and I went to the Children's Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) and had a fun time...the current main exhibition is: "Gods, Myths & Mortals: Discover Ancient Greece".

The exhibit was great, and like the rest of the museum, is designed for kids Ben's age, and is chock full of interactive and hands-on activities for little people...


The picture above shows an Odyssey-related game that had Ben steer an ancient Greek vessel by moving from side to side...the computer tracked his movements and would alter the heading of the ship and the background of the screen as we avoided (or sometimes crashed into) rocks, monsters, and angry gods...


They also had a great climb-in-able Trojan Horse...


Can you spot Odysseus in the picture above?


They had a cool display on Aristotle, and his theories on logic...and Ben had fun trying to fool this bust of Aristotle in an animal identification game based on the characteristics of a few dozen animals and some basic questions used to organize/classify them...


Upstairs in the building, they had lots of edu-taining activities and displays, including this one on firemen and fire-safety...


Ben picked what must have been the smallest fire-jacket in the bunch, and stuck with it...he loved this spelling game that involved a combination of putting out fires with laser-guided water cannons and spelling various three-letter words...


He also really liked playing this game about germs and getting sick...he found it more fun and easier to play the part of a virus than to be the immune system...here he can be seen infiltrating the nose of a potential sickee, and avoiding both the snot and nosehair with a grace and skill that would make most virii jealous...


We ended our visit with a brief stint of Ben as postal carrier, a job that he loved, but ultimately found unfulfilling...he liked bringing packages to kids and shunting them down the slides in the post-office (packages, not kids)...

All in all it was a fun museum, and we may go back again...there were lots of nice kids, many moms and nannies, and 2 dads (including me)...it seemed like a neighborhood destination and playdate spot, as some kids seemed to come there quite often to hang out with friends and the nice staff members...

After leaving the museum, Ben and I walked over to Zabar's, a museum (or shrine) of food and food preparation...we wandered the aisles for a delightful 15 minutes, looking at and smelling the wonderful food before picking out some great stuff for our lunch...4 kinds of olives, cheese, smoked salmon (and some bagels from H&H, the best bagel place in the known universe), sweet sausage, a couple of salads, dried fruit, etc...I was going to take a picture, but as soon as I had it laid out at Muz and D's house, Ben fell on it like a lumberjack at the noonday whistle...he may have eaten some of the enamel off of the plate...he tried everything, and like almost all of it (he's not a big fan of olives)...I also got some coffee (blue mountain style) for when we head home...

A nice morning and lunch...Ben's education continues...