We Gave it the Old College Try

In our search for a new dog, we took a shot on Junior, a mixed Golden (although where that comes in, we're not sure, see picture) and an unknown breed, although Rot or Pit was the best guess. So yesterday we brought him over to see how he would do with the family. He is 5 months old and already weighs 55 pounds and was built like a linebacker. He had an absolutely great disposition, but was all puppy although built like a full grown dog. He could not sit still. He chased Gordie all over the house wanting to play (that did not go over well with Gordie, who ended up in Dad's lap most of the afternoon). So when he wouldn't play, he barked incessantly at him (annoying to both Dad and Gordie) and then decided he would try to chew everything in sight including pillows, bumper guards on the table, Brendan's trains and DVD's and Gordie's tail (again, not well received). After shopping for a cage for him, Mom and Brendan returned home. At this point, Junior decided since Gordie wouldn't play, Brendan was about the right size and ended up tackling him two or three times and wanting to wrestle. Since Brendan was outweighed by about 25 lbs., it ended up being a one sided affair. After a few times of that, we decided for the sake of Brendan standing upright over the next few months, it was time to call it a day and return Junior back to his Foster Parent. We wish him the best, he will make somebody a great dog, just not us. So it's off to probably trying to find another Golden (they just fit us to well) and we did get a call today from the Golden Rescue fund that there may be some Golden puppies available which we may be looking at. So that's our finding a new dog update for now. Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a great New Year tomorrow night.

The Trials and Tribulations of Winter in the South

As you can see from the attached pictures, Winter in the Southern States is just brutal. Since most everybody that checks in on this blog is from somewhere north of here (except for the occasional Texas visitor, and that one poor, deranged Laker fan in L.A.), we thought we would show the torture we go through here in the winter, especially in December. Did you see what Brendan had to go through to hit golf balls? I mean long pants and even a mock sweater? We have it so tough down here. Feel pity for us please, it's only supposed to be in the high 60's next Saturday ( also we just needed some kind of blog to get that damn Jimmy Johnson off of the top of the blog, I mean really, could we look more Southern redneck, all credit to the wife on that one). So we added a picture of our Christmas tree to show we actually took these at Christmas. I love when the white on the ground is sand and not snow. On a serious note, we hope all of our friends and family have a great and safe Christmas and New Year. We miss seeing all of you and we are so glad to get Christmas cards and stay in touch with our friends from Kansas City, Raleigh, Manhattan, KS, Los Angeles, Nashville, Indiana, Texas, and many other parts of the country. We cannot be luckier to have the friends that we do and we cherish all of our friendships that we have made over the last 16 years in all of the different cities across the country. We can only hope to be as lucky in the future meeting as many great people as we have over the last 17 years. Our prayers to you and your families and we hope to see many of you before long. Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing.

Life Is Good

A Star is Born (Yeah Right!)

We attended Brendan's Christmas concert last week Thursday. Needless to say it was an adorable disaster. Off key singing, missed words, you name it, it happened. I have attached a video from it for your viewing pleasure. If the camera is bouncing it's because I was laughing so hard.

Ode to Ollie

As I'm sure countless others of you are aware, the one really bad thing about owning pets is when the day comes you have to put them down. It's a heart wrenching, guilt ridden, exhausting endeavor and no amount of knowing it was the right thing to do makes it any better. For the 3rd time in the last 25 months, we had to put one of our dogs to sleep this last Saturday. We got Ollie, our 3rd Golden Retriever that we have owned, through the Golden Rescue fund here in Atlanta two years ago when our 2nd Golden, Scout had passed away. The day we met Ollie, we knew he was the dog to have. He was so kickbacked and relaxed and had the absolutely best disposition of any dog we had ever had. Brendan walked up and played with the tags on his collar and Ollie just gave him a look of "whatever kid, I ain't moving". He became a permament fixture on our couch almost immediately and we never had any kind of accident or behavior problem. We know we will never have a dog this absolutely good and trained ever again.

About a year ago we discovered that Ollie had a chronic kidney problem. With medicine and a special diet we were able to keep him around for almost another year. We will miss him horribly, he was our friend and companion. No matter how many times you go through it, it always feels like the first time and each time has it's own pain and mourning. Kudos to Shireen for actually going inside and doing the last 3, thus why I think the next one will be a puppy, we need a break from this exercise for a few years and with Gordie being young, obnoxious and in incredible shape, hopefully we won't have to worry about him for the next couple years (although he did learn the couch thing from Ollie, see picture). So here is our tribute to our pal and friend, may we have many more like him.