Wiggle Time!

Yesterday I took Joanna to see The Wiggles at the DCU Center in Worcester. It was fun even if we did do it on the cheap. Parking for the event was $20!! so I parked at the train station for free and we walked. We also had the cheapest seats. Here is the view from our seats.



I'm glad my camera has a really good digital zoom.



The put on a good show. Very high energy. I image they can eat what ever they want without gaining a pound. There was a lot of audience interaction too. They even wandered into the first balcony which was more than I expected. I knew they would not venture into the rarefied air of our seats. Children brought roses for Dorothy the Dinosaur and bones for Wags the Dog which were gathered up during the show. They also got all the names of children who were having a birthday and sang happy birthday to them. I can image some poor guy scribbling down all the names so he could read it back to their headsets during the song.

I recognized the dancers from the videos Joanna has. I thought it was nice that they brought their regular dancers with them rather than getting local dancers. It was also fun listening to them trying to say Massachusetts and Worcester (rhymed with rooster). At least I know that they do actually play their instruments. At one point I saw Murray pick up his guitar, strum a bit, fool with a knob on the amplifier, strum a little more then thump the side of the amp with the heal of his hand. That seemed to work.

Here is a picture of Joanna under the influence of upbeat music and sugar.

You Belong in the Zoo

On Wednesday Joanna and I went with Amy and Ainsley to the Southwick Zoo.



I was a beautiful day and the girls enjoyed looking at the animals.



The playground was even better than the animals, a lesson in sticking with activities that are FREE! Best of all was the petting zoo.

Joanna loved the kids and the calves,



but her favorite was the piglets.



She wanted to buy some animal feed but mommy was too cheap/frugal to spend 50 cents on a handful of dried corn so I suggested she pick up some of it that was laying on the ground. The animals didn't seem to care.

The night before we went to the zoo Joanna washed her hair with some new shampoo. She kept telling up how it smelled like peaches and calling us over to smell it. It would seam that goats like peaches too because while she was feeding the piglets one of them tried to eat her hair. Of course there is no accounting for taste, the goats also tried to eat Amy's shoe and another lady's camera strap.

Tougas Revisited

Yesterday we went back to Tougas Farm. This time it was for blueberries. Blueberries are so much easier to pick than strawberries. They come off easy and no bending over required. I took the top of the bush and Joanna took the bottom.



We got a bunch of berries and Joanna made some new friends.



The younger child in the picture was having a little trouble getting the berries into her basket. Her mother said she should have weighed her before they went in so they could have accounted for all the berries she ate in the field.

After picking the berries we went to Rick's office to do some work and took the blueberries with us. Between the visitors and the regular office staff there were a lot fewer berries when we left.

We are watching Mopsy this weekend and when I spoke with Jan about it she said she had a recipe for blueberry rhubarb pie. That sounded yummy! She said she would leave the recipe on the counter when we came to get the dog and we could help ourselves to some rhubarb from the garden. We only had one problem. When Rick got there we realized we had no idea what rhubarb looked like when it was growing in the ground. We decided to get some from the store since we knew what it looked like there. Here is the result.
















Can't wait to try it tonight!

Getting Back to Normal

After having all those dogs in the house we really needed to do some cleaning. The normal dog hair dust bunnies we get from having two dogs turned into dog hair tumble weeds with four dogs. Joanna did her part in the cleaning effort.
















We also had a little recovery operation. When the heat wave broke a storm rolled in. It was preceded by some really high winds. Joanna had left a ball out in the yard and the winds blew it into the water and almost halfway to the lake. Rick and Joanna went to retrieve it.
















Success!
















While we were down by the water we found what Libby had been after when she went into the water.
















I think I've been hearing this guy serenade us at night.

Since we purchased the new (to us) sofa and move the old one, Shiloh seems to think the old sofa is now his. He likes to take naps on it and finds it very useful in facilitating barking at the neighbors.

It seems like an awfully large dog bed to me.

Saturday With The Pack

Joanna has been enjoying the extra dogs. She really likes Libby.



This is what you get if you stand around with a dog biscuit.



I'm not so sure about one of those dogs.

Today we took the pack outside for some play time. They seemed to enjoy being outside.



Libby went for a swim in the lake so we had to hose her off.



Mopsy had to bark at everything.



There was fetch time



and frolic time.



After we came in Joanna had to check Libby's blood pressure to make sure she didn't over exert herself.



Joanna decided she was fine and gave her a party hat.





















After that we went on a shopping expedition. I have really been wanting more seating in the living room. I'm tired of needing to bring in the dining room chairs. We didn't have a lot of money we could spend on furniture so we went to the Thrift Store. All furniture was half price. We found a standard size sofa. I figured that combined with our smaller sofa should help with the seating problem. We looked it over and checked under the cushions. No stains or rips in the fabric. The upholstery was certainly not something I would choose but the price was right so we got it.

















Yeah, I know it looks like something my grandmother owned when I was little but it was $25. At least I didn't get those round brass plate wall hangings to put over the top of it.

Havin' a Heat Wave

Here it is, the official porch thermometer picture for yesterday. Imagine if it had been in the sun instead of on a shady porch!



Joanna wanted to play outside anyway. The dread pirate Joanna the Yellow took about 3 rocks on her pony before fleeing to the comfort of the air conditioned house.

Dog Days of Summer

The Misarski's are on vacation and we are taking care of their dogs. Normally this would mean that I would go to their house in the morning and evening to make sure the dogs had food and water and let them out to play and take care of any necessary business. We had to change that plan today. This is the weather report for today.

The room the dogs are in does not have air conditioning and I just couldn't leave them there in this heat. So here is what I have to deal with today.


The picture doesn't really capture the whole experience. Add in lots of barking and dominance struggles with Shiloh. The first thing that happened when they came in - Shiloh growled at them and Mopsy pinned him to the ground with her paw on his throat. Shiloh is now sitting in a corner sulking and giving a low growl whenever one of the interloping dogs approaches.

Mopsy is barking at everything. She makes Shiloh seem like a quiet dog. She barks when she needs to go out, she barks when she wants attention, she barks for no apparent reason. Sometimes Libby feels a need to join the chorus. I think I might just want to go ahead and take the Excederin now. I'm also thinking about going to see a movie, any movie.

How is Rick handling this? He is getting on an airplane. I told him I would be happy to take his client to their INS interview and he could stay here but he didn't think that would work.