What a Weekend!

We have had a very nice, and very productive weekend. Yesterday we washed the cars in the morning with both dogs down at the car wash in our complex. I kept Ayla on a leash most of the time since she has a habit of wanting to go visit the golfers on the course below us, but Mac was free and mostly followed us around. Once the cars were clean we brought the dogs back to the condo, gave everyone treats and put Mac in his pen, then Chris and I headed out to Home Depot. We picked up gardening supplies for the patio, then went to Pet Food Express for pet supplies including a nice new bed for Mac's pen. Once we were back home the dogs, cat, and both of us headed to the patio where Chris gardened and I attempted to keep Mac out of the soil. I had to make a trip out to pick up a few more bags of soil, which blew up in the truck of the car (fun). We got the patio cleaned up just in time to enjoy some BBQ-ing in the late afternoon sun.

Today we did pretty much the same. We had to go back to Home Depot for another planter, and we came back and BBQ'd Gardenburgers for lunch. In the afternoon we piled the dogs in the car and went out for a drive, came back and played ball with Ayla while Mac explored, then BBQ'd dinner. Can you tell we like our grill? Mac even met one of our neighbor's St Bernard today, and was thrilled with the big guy. Oh, and Mac can already sit on command too!

Instead of putting up a ton of single pictures, here's a little slideshow:

And here's a little video of Mac and the Hot Dog:

Adapting

Christopher and I have been talking about adding another dog to our household for a while now, and specifically an English Bulldog. We were taking Ayla to visit her trainer a few months back and she had a bulldog puppy in her class. We talked with the dog's owner a bit and admired the pup, and our trainer insisted we take down the breeder information. The breeder just happened to have a litter that would be ready to go about a month later, so after much discussion between Chris and I, and many emails and pictures from the breeder, we decided to go for it.

Little Mac came all the way to us from Alabama. I picked him up at the airport this past Monday and we've all been in love ever since. He is a feisty little monster at times, but it also a sweet little lovebug. He snores, loudly. He grunts, snorts, and groans a lot. And he is completely adorable. Just look at this sleepy face:


He weighed 11 pounds when we brought him home, though he's gained half a pound since then. He's a roly-poly little guy:

And here you can she his stout little body, with plenty of wrinkles:

Ayla is adjusting to Mac. At first she was scared (yes, she is a scardy-cat Doberman - I even have a shirt for her that says "Wanna-Be Doberman"). Now she's interested and plays a little, though she's still a little wary. And she's lacking sleep since there's so much to watch. Come to think of it, we're all a little low on sleep:

We're working on penning/crating him for when we have to be at work. He doesn't like it, but its getting better. Its been interesting comparing Mac to Ayla as a puppy. She was a very quiet puppy, and she's always been so delicate and feminine. Mac is all boy, rough and tumble.

And he has so many wrinkles!!!

Meet Mac!

Say hello to our new addition, Mac. He's a 9-week old English Bulldog. I'll write more tomorrow (hopefully!)

Less Lazy!

So here's a bunch of recent pictures!

Ayla on our hill in February

With pretty wildflowers in the background

Ayla and Chris yesterday

Ayla and me (see how much the flowers grew in half a month!?)Where's Waldo?Here's a funny video of Ayla bounding through the flowers. That's pretty much how she always runs too. She looks like a deer and people point and laugh. :)

Here's a knitted shopping bag I completed last month

Its Knitty's Everlasting Bagstopper and it stretches like no one's business. The bagger at the grocery store was very surprised. I like to think of it as my Mary Poppins bag.

Ayla says, "Always have a sense of humor!"

Lazy

I've been too lazy to upload pictures and post a new entry. I think its because I have quite a few pictures to look through and edit, but I feel like I shouldn't post without pictures... *sigh*

The weather has been gorgeous out here lately, which is good because it was raining cats and dogs before that. Last Friday I took Ayla swimming at Shadow Cliffs. We haven't been in a while due to weather, though Chris took her a couple times when he was off for a week. I did my old routine of picking up a veggie sandwich from Subway, grabbed the dog, and headed out (I ate my Salt & Vinegar chips on the drive, but didn't share with the pup since I figured she wouldn't like them). There was a fire truck in the parking area when we got there, but they didn't say anything to me so I figured it was okay to go in. We walked around a while in the valley and an emergency helicopter circled above us for 15 or 20 minutes, but I didn't see smoke or anything, so we kept going. We got to our beach area and I set up my little picnic. There was a Parks police SUV on the road above us, but still no word. I have no idea what it was all about, but they all went away fairly quickly. Ayla played in the water and chased her ball a lot, so we had a good time.

Saturday morning we went on our hike. Someone please convince my dog to stop eating cow pies! Its funny though, a few of the other hikers really start retching whenever any of the dogs has a little snack. I just don't want kisses from a manure-mouth.

I watched Elizabeth last week, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age on Saturday. They were both great; Cate Blanchett was wonderful in them. I'm disappointed to hear that The Other Boleyn Girl is getting awful reviews from film critics since I've been looking forward to it for a long time now. I'll just wait until I can rent it I suppose.

Sunday we took care of things around the house, played on the hill with Ayla, and relaxed on the patio. I made French onion soup and Portobello Wellingtons for dinner. It was tasty, and I have a good base to add upon for the Wellingtons now. And puff pastry always looks so neat.

Now to get started on those pictures...