my bad day

no, I'm not trying to steal your job. it's a hobby, stop taking it so F**king serious.

thank you for the presant George (or possibly Rocco). I love dead birds in my office.

Cat I'm a Kitty Cat!

Dinner with the Russels

Last night we met Matthew, Tammy and their two girls Grace and Emma for dinner. Emma loves getting her picture taken, especially when she's making funny faces.
Emma, almost 2, has already figured out how to be sarcastic. she was swinging her arm at Matthew to get his attention, he asked 'Emma do we hit?' and she replied 'yes'
This is Grace, who is 5 going on 30. She and Andrew had a big conversation about cartoons. Grace was telling us all about her favorite show where they can take anything and make it hilarious. Andrew asked 'even Cancer?' I swear if he spends any amount of time with that child she will get in big trouble at school next month with Burke humor.

a shipment of new toys

I got my order from PetEdge and received, along with other essentials, the new toys. Geroge doesn't play with toys that often, but Ruby and Sushi were thrilled with the shipment! So I gave them each a bungee-bone and they ran around like it was Christmas morning.
Then I asked them to pose on the couch with their new toys, and they acted like it was the saddest day in their lives!
Eventually Ruby settled down in my office to suck on her new toy.
and Sushi just collapsed from all that crazy play-time on the couch.

more from the garden

My Review of 'The Ant Bully'

We were really excited to see Andrew's first feature film on the big screen last night. the people in line behind us must have thought I was crazy taking his picture while he bought tickets.
Andrew beside the movie poster. tickets in hand - we are ready to go
Tht's right folks, theater 14, 7:15 pm. I have to say I really enjoyed the movie. I'm biased though. go see it and judge for yourself. 5 out of 5.

why moving is hard.

We moved here in May. One would think that by now, the last week in July, everything would be taken care of? Well no such luck. We just got a bill from AT&T in Dallas for satellite TV for $190 for service from May to July, plus late fees. So today I called them and said "we cancelled our service in May, why did we get this bill?" And the guy wanted me to fax him my lease to prove that I moved! I told him I didn't have to fax any lease to anyone, and to look at the date that they changed our address from Texas to Washington, and use that as proof. They mailed us a bill to our new house in Washington for TV service in Texas!! Obviously we don't live there anymore. 1/2 hour later, they have cancelled our service and removed the charge from our account, and closed the account. Some people in Dallas have been enjoying free satellite TV for 2 months now. Sadly, they will lose that today. Moving is hard work.

Friday Night - Ant Bully in theaters

Andrew's movie, the Ant Bully, is in theaters starting Friday. please go see it, and cheer for him when his name rolls in the credits.

My Review of 'The Devil Wears Prada'

I didn't expect to like this movie as much as I did. Meryl Streep is incredible and steals every scene she is in. I am a big fan of Stanley Tucci. 4 out of 5

hot summer day in Bellevue

It was really hot here today. Rumor has it we are having a heat wave. it's not a heat wave by Texas standards, but it's way too hot to not have AC in the house. We bought a few fans and luckily it cools down at night. There was however a sale at Target on inflatable kiddy pools...
Andrew enjoying the cool water and a cool beer
me lounging in the sun.
George really liked the pool when it was shallow. Once it started to fill up deeper he decided it was scary. He did however do a few assisted laps.
Ruby had her pool frisbee - perfect in the big pool back in Texas but not so great here in our ghetto-pool. She cooled off a little though.
Sushi however hated the pool. she did love to play tug with Ruby and the pool frisbee. I think every dog toy we own is in the yard today!

PSA about Pets

don't mate your dogs with bears.
while puppycubs are cute, they do grown into either dears or bogs, and that's a big mess. Please spay and neuter.

just trying something out

George the Ratter

Today, George caught and killed 2 mice. the first one he brought inside was just a head. not sure what happened to the body. the second one he brought inside was still squeaking.
apparently I don't feed him enough and he has to hunt for his own food in the wild.

Lawny 2 to the rescue!

it seems we have bees in our back yard. a big nasty hive of them in the dirt by the fence. Sushi has already tried to catch one. while I love what they will do for my garden, I dont need George to get stung and never go into the yard again. Thank goodness for Lawny 2! He's coming by tomorrow morning to help us in bee-hive removal. Gotta love Lawny 2!

Full Moon over Dallas

I went to Dallas on the weekend for a last minute trip to go to a last minute wedding (congrats! Robbie and Sonya! will post your pictures soon!). My flight arrived in DFW at 1:30 am and Jessica picked me up and we drove 1/2 hour to the hotel. Well you see some funny sights on the highways of Dallas in the wee hours of the morning. One such sight, a full moon from the car next to us. I noticed an ass in th window and told Jessica, and after we laughed a bit, she pulled away because it's a good chance everyone in that car was drunk... well they pulled up to us and mooned us again! so 2 full moons in Dallas this weekend. funny thing is the one in the sky was a 1/2 moon...

My Review of 'Pirates of the Caribbean - dead man's chest'

this is a fun movie with lots of roller-coaster-like sequences. very exciting and thrilling... that is until HOUR 3. just get on with it already! the plot falls apart and the character's motivation just gets thrown out the window. then it's set up nicely for another stupid sequal (which I'm not going to see!). On the way out of the theater there was a guy leaning against a wall with a baby car seat having a heated discussion about the movie with a cop. that was more entertaining than the movie,... mainly because it ended. 2 out of 5

poor disfigured cuz

the first cuz toy we ever had... this poor sad cuz has truly been loved. so much so that he has no legs left!

pictures from our yard

some added color for the front yard - while Mom was here last week she helped me put some plants in. I have the bark mulch in the trunk of the car but Andrew has to do that for me because I'm allergic to it. the lily is really beautiful though.
the orange lily I just planted.
a close up of the lily
I planted some herbs and annuals in this bucket by the door. inside are chives, basil, lavender and wave petunias
a closeup of the purple petunia

Horray for Lawny 2

Lawny 2 is new and improved! he came this morning and did an incredible job. Along with a crack about how I should water the grass more (thanks man) he was quick, efficient, and thorough and our yard looks 100% better (aside from being brown). Now it's raining so i guess I don't need to water it today right?


This is a picture of Lawny 2 from the kitchen window. He's done already so he's driving away. note the dead brown crunchy grass... guess I should be watering it after all...

Where are you Lawny?

a few weeks ago we hired a company to take care of our yard -- mow, edge, etc. Our gardener, who I named Lawny, came to the house with his industrial mower, weed eater and edger. He did a great job, including trimming the grass that has grown between the concrete slabs in our patio. We were happy, Lawny was happy, our grass was happy.

Lawny was supposed to come on Friday. Friday came and went and still no Lawny. I called the company and asked where he was, and they told me that Lawny got some complaints and they had to let him go, and they would be getting back to me about his replacement.

Well then I got an email saying that because they had to let Lawny go, and it happened on the week of July 4, they are behind in their work and there would be a delay in service. As a result, everyone experiencing a delay would receive 10% off their bill.

Well it's Tuesday. It's 4 days since Lawny was scheduled to work on our yard. STILL no new gardener. Our grass is dormant from dryness (I'm watering now), but the dandilions are threatening a coup. Andrew has made a vandetta against the dandilions, and is slowly making progress with spade and elbow grease. STILL no gardener. I called them and left a message asking where our yard is on the schedule and when we can expect to see our new Lawny, but they haven't called me back.

Where are you Lawny? Please help, our yard is taking over!

our trip to Mount St. Helens

it's a long 3 hour drive to Mount Saint Helens, but we finally got there and this is how it looks as you drive toward it
we stopped at a road side look-off where you could get Mount St. Helens and Mt. Rainier in the same photo. Mt. Rainier is much bigger than MSH, but from this angle it looks like a tiny white spec on the left side of the photo
this is a picture of me taking a picture of the volcano.
these pretty yellow flowers were all over the place up there. they smelled really great. Mom said they were a form of lupins. they were in purple too.
this is as close as Mom would get to the volcano.
Andrew and his snazzy new car. Mom is still in the back seat hiding from the volcano
Here is Hollie walking among the tourists at the observatory
again Hollie at the observatory
this is the volcano - there's acidic ash all around it and nothing grows there. it erupted in 1980 and all the trees around it were killed (all the people too). if you look closely you can see a plume of smoke coming out of it
another shot of the volcano - you can see the small plume of smoke. they said if it's smoking it's safe, but if the smoke stops get away because it means it's blocked and could blow up.
me and Andrew at the volcano observatory. now we drive another 3 hours to get home...

some random pics of the dogs

unfortunately, George refused to sit still long enough to get his picture taken. Hollie took all these - most of them on her fancy new camera.
Sushi is demonstating her ability to blend into the foliage in her new camo hoodie
Ruby is showing off her new pink one. she loves pink.
Sushi on the patio chair
Rocco enjoying the sunshine
Ruby telling Hollie 'enough pictures already'
the girls sunbathing in the dining room

AMAZING

I know this is completely unbelievable, but I swear it's true. this is my mother. she is eatin sushi. for real.

how we spent 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone. We took a drive to Snoqualmie Falls. it's about a 20 minute drive from where we live. Mom is obsessed with cherries though, so she made us stop along the river at a vendor to buy cherries.
mmmmm gotta love those cherries! that's right - $1 a basket!
Here is Hollie at the river behind the cherry vendor
Andrew is demonstrating the proper way to pose by the river with a coffee
Me and Andrew by the river - the water looks calm but it's very fast moving.
this is a picture of Hollie taking a picture - check out how long her hair is!
this is us walking across the bridge to get to the waterfall. you park your car across the street and then take this foot bridge over the road so you don't have to deal with traffic. not that traffic is a problem - it's in the middle of nowhere
pretty purple flowers at the waterfall
this is Snoqualmie falls from above. the mist cloud is so big it's hitting us up here!
another waterfall pic
the mist cloud makes it look dreary, but it's really a bright sunny day. we hiked down the cliff to see the bottom of the falls -- 1/2 mile down, then 1/2 mile back up. I swear it was farther walking up than down, but Hollie insists otherwise
this tree was on the hike. it was so cool - that's 2 trees growing out of a stump.
this is another tree on the hike. very very tall
here's a pic of me and Andrew by the bottom of the falls. it was very scary dangerous climbing down there, but lots of people doing it with their infants and young children - crazy! one lady had a boom box and another lady had a big 1/2 watermelon. lots of picnicers down there.
a better picture of us that shows the whole waterfall

steak and margaritas

We took Mom and Hollie to Black Angus - a steakhouse up the streets. We all enjoyed a margarita with our dinner
I got frozen lime
Hollie got raspberry
Andrew and Mom got strawberry
we got our steaks and Mom asked the waitress for A-1 sauce. we all started eating and Mom waited, and waited, then got another waitress' attention to say that she was still waiting for her A-1 sauce... which was right in front of her. note there is nothing left in the margarita glass....

pics of our living room

this is Andrew's pride and joy - his new tv with way too many speakers
this is what our living room looks like. the giant TV, two new couches, and the nice creamy coffee colored walls.

90% of these pictures are of Taylor

Hollie arrived at the airport first - I think it was 7:00 am.
Taylor, Julie, Natalie and Mom arrived later that day. 6:00 pm
Taylor really liked this wall of lights.
He really liked the baggage carasal too. Unfortunately, someone took Julie's suitcase. Someone named Marshal - because they left their bag - identical to Julie's. Luckily she can wear some of my clothes. We bought some new clothes for Taylor.
This is the fountain in downtown Bellevue. there were lots of fountains, and Taylor really likes water.
Julie, Natalie and I went to the spa and got our hair colored and cut. it was a HUGE spa, but they were awesome
Taylor really liked it at the spa. for some strange reason he wanted to sit at the table with this guy. we don't know who he is, or if he wanted to sit at a table with Taylor.
another fountain outside the spa in downtown Bellevue.
more random shots of Taylor by the fountain
he really likes fountains
more Taylor by the fountain.
what a sweet angel face!
We took Taylor to a children's museum to play. he really liked the drums
this kid can rock out!
we spent an afternoon at Seattle Square. This is Taylor at the space needle
to get up into the Space Needle you need to wait in a very long line. as we were going up, Taylor realized that Nana (Mom) was waiting down below for us. he was really excited to see her.
Julie and Taylor on top of the Space Needle
Natalie and Taylor surrounded by tourists. check out the dude to the right who's trying to get out of the picture
and back to the ground - where Taylor got to find Nana again
He had fun in the bouncy-tent
and on the carasal.

My Review of 'Superman Returns'

I learned a 2 things from this movie. An airplane weighs approximately the same as a gigantic continent sized crystal. and Superman is the boogie man. The best part of the movie was watching the trailer for Andrew's movie at the beginning. The second best part of the movie was the ending credits. 1 out of 5

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