Broken Comments?

Hi everyone!
I guess the comment moderation thingy is not working correctly. I changed the setting and hope we are back to accepting your comments.
Thanks!
puglette
:o)

A Trip to the Beach!

Hi everyone!

Hubby and I took Friday off and packed up the puppies and headed to the Oregon Coast. It was a beautiful day, sunny and almost warm. You could smell spring trying to break out. We even saw some daffodils and crocus popping their heads up to get some sun.

We headed south and then west to get to Cannon Beach, Oregon. Cannon Beach is a really quaint town on the beach. The beach is huge, very wide and flat. Cannon Beach holds a sand castle building contest every summer, there are fabulous creations everywhere.

We took the scenic route to the ocean. We spent a good part of the drive meandering along the Columbia River. The Columbia is a huge river and it makes a natural border between Washington and Oregon. We like to follow this route as it leads to the small town of Cathlamet and the small ferry boat that crosses the Columbia River. The Cathlamet ferry is a small barge type ferry. The first time we took the ferry, we drove onto a platform and waited for the ferry to arrive. We were totally surprised when we started floating out into the river! We had actually driven onto the boat and didn't even realize until we started moving. Unfortunately our timing wasn't good on this trip and the ferry sailed as we pulled up. We decided not to wait the hour until the next boat and continued our drive.

Just before crossing the bridge over to Oregon there is a small rest stop. This rest stop has the funniest name for a rest stop that I have ever seen. Welcome to Dismal Nitch!

Whoever named this place must have been having a bad day. This Nitch is anything but Dismal. It is a lovely place to stop and look across the river at the lovely bridge and the town of Astoria. Actually, William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame named this little spot Dismal Nitch. He and his crew were stopped by stormy weather just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean and meeting with a trade ship. They were stuck for six days in this location and missed their meeting with the ship. I guess the bathrooms weren't built then.

Just a friendly reminder...No Fish Cleaning in drinking fountains.

We stay in a nice hotel in Cannon Beach called the Hallmark Inn. The Hallmark is right on the beach and we had an ocean front room. All of the ocean front rooms have a view of the biggest attraction in Cannon Beach, Haystack Rock. What a view! Haystack Rock on our left and Ecola Lighthouse to our right. Simply beautiful scenery!!!

Hubby and I had been saving some gift certificates we had received for use at the Hallmark Inns. Our family knows we love this hotel so we had been given these gifts. We were even able to use the gift certificate for a yummy steak and seafood dinner at the restaurant across the street. Our stay was totally free! We really like the Hallmark because of the way they welcome our stinky doggies. We had a basket waiting for us with dog biscuits, three Frisbee's, a sheet for the bed so the puppies can snuggle and three of the cutest water bottle holders with a collapsible water bowl in one of the pockets.

We only stayed the one night and headed home after a yummy breakfast and a trip to the local yarn store. We also stopped in some of the other shops and looked around. Tons of cute shops are ready to wander through. There is a great quilt shop, glass blowers, souvenirs and art galleries. I bought a book of patterns and sizing techniques for crocheting fluffy woman sweaters. Not fluffy sweaters...fluffy women. ;o)

We arrived at home early Saturday evening and spent the rest of the weekend at home. We love to have some down time at home to recharge before the work week. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too! We are all booked up with dog show activity in March...yikes! So we need to get our relaxing in when we can.

Take care everyone!

hugs,

puglette

:o)

Childhood Memories

Hi everyone!

Yeah! Here we are at mid week! I have been really busy so I am glad I can see the weekend on the horizon. :o)

I was recently reminded of some childhood memories...memories of things that "scarred me for life!" I read the recent blog post over at JD's I Do Things So You Don't Have To and she was telling us about her traumatic trip to the movies when she saw The Godfather. If you don't read JD's blog, you should, it's quite funny.

So this got me thinking about my own childhood traumas and I thought you all would love to hear about them! Well, maybe not, but I am in the mood to share.

When I was young, I spent many happy summer vacations camping with my mom and dad and my niece. My niece is a year older than me. I will spare all the details of how that happened except to say there is a big gap between my siblings and me. We went all over California camping and exploring. My dad loved ghost towns so we saw a lot of those too.

We went to Yosemite several years in a row. We always stayed at Camp Curry, a tent camp. We had a ton of fun, swimming in rivers, hiking, looking at scenic views. My dad was an early riser and I can still remember the single light bulb hanging from a string in the tent over my bed. Daddy would be up and shaving and would always have a nice cup of coffee ready for me.

On one of our many adventures we stopped at the top of a dry waterfall. There were railings to prevent you from falling over the edge of the cliff. So here we are, my mom and dad and us two young girls enjoying the view when daddy says he wants to show us the view. Well, the next thing you know I am lifted up and over the railings and I am looking down the cliff! Yikes!!!

This is the day I became afraid of heights.

As the years went on and Yosemite got crowded and harder to get a tent, we moved our camping trips up north to the Trinity Alps area of California. This is a lovely area of lakes and mountains near Mount Shasta. We especially liked going to Whiskeytown Lake. This was a fun lake because it had a designated swimming area and a nice picnic area with a little food stand. I got a horrible sunburn there one year, I was paddling around on a raft and stayed out too long and was a true lobster. I am very, very fair. But that is not the traumatic event.

One day we were enjoying the lake swimming and splashing about. My dad was out in the lake with us girls and life was good. We just loved it when daddy would get out and swim with us. I had gone to shore for a snack or something and saw my dad out in the lake. He was pretty far out and was waving me over to him. I have always been a good swimmer so I wasn't concerned about the distance. So off I go, swimming out to see my dad...when I got to him I was paddling around and wondered why he wasn't doing the dog paddle to stay in place. He said he was standing on the bottom of the lake and I should just stand up next to him. Cool!! Well, I went to stand and just went down, and down, and down! I remember seeing my arms reaching for the surface, by the time my feet hit the bottom the water was over my hands by a few feet. While underwater, I looked over and saw my dad's legs...he was standing on a big rock!!

I was so mad I swam back to shore as fast as I could. When I reached the shore and started to walk out of the water I noticed something else horrifying! I had a sucker fish attached to my finger!! Aauugghh!!!!

That was the day I became afraid of swimming in deep water and swimming with fish.

So there you have it, two stories that shaped my childhood and made me the goofy woman I am. There are many more stories to tell. Some involve my husband trying to kill me. You'd think he would have the courtesy to wait until we have huge life insurance policies!!

Talk to you soon!

Hugs,

puglette

:o)

for JD :o)

Sleepy Sunday

Hi Everyone!

We have been relaxing and lounging today after a day of agility yesterday. Charlie did not win any ribbons but she did have a good time. Grandma and her dog, Annie won a beautiful ribbon!

We had our little pen and kennels set up on the outside as this was a busy group. Not much room was left when we arrived. Fortunately it was not raining and we even had some sunshine!

Here are the days contestants. Annie the Westie; Archie the Bichon and our Charlie girl.

Charlie got in some quality smooching and snuggling with dad while waiting for her turn to run.

She is so good at these shows, she never pulls or barks at people or dogs. She can be so focused on her run, but then play keep away at the end. She's getting better but we always seem to have one romp around the exit area.

Doesn't she look so sad? Poor puggy stuck in the x-pen. :o(

This little cutie was our neighbor outside. Isn't she pretty?

We did not win the Mango Minster Best in Show, but we sure had fun participating! Thank you all so much for your support. We appreciate your kindness. :o)

Take care and have a good Monday!

Talk to you soon,

hugs,

puglette

:o)

Happy Valentine's Day Please Vote Today!

Hi everyone!

Thank you all so much for checking out Charlie over on Mango Minster. I am sorry I have been neglectful of the bloggie...I did not tell you all that the final voting had not started until today! I am so sorry!

Today is the first day of voting for the "Best in Show"award. All votes must be cast by 5:00 pm EST on Sunday, Feb. 15th.

The post is kind of long, lots of cute doggie photos. You need to go all the way to the comments to vote, your comment is your vote.

Speaking of "Best in Show", that is a very funny movie and is good viewing during Westminster / Mango Minster time. :o)

Thank you!

Happy Valentine's Day

Puglette

:o)

Shameless Self Promotion

Hi everyone!

I hope you have been visiting the Mango-Minster dog show. There are new group winners. You should check them out. Or I suppose you could just take my advice and

Vote for Charlie!!

BEST in Show!

This is so much fun, we have been enjoying the Mango Minster show and all the hard work done by Mango and Dexter's Mom. I can't believe all the hard work and posting of links and photos she has put in to this. Thank you so much!!

Ok, well you know what to do...vote for Charlie in the upcoming Best in Show contest!!

hugs,

puglette

:o)

Monday, Monday

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. :o)

Ours was a nice mix of a little busy and a lot of relaxing. I went to a baby shower on Saturday and then hubby and I went to daughter's house and had dinner.

The baby shower was a lot of fun. We are anticipating a new great-nephew in a month or so. It was fun getting together with the women of the family and their friends. We are going through a nice phase of adding new members to our family, either new babies or new relationships. Some times we get both! That's the way it was at the shower, our family got to meet more of the new mom's family. Hubby's sister is going to be a first time grandma, and I will tell you that I am glad it's not our turn yet. ;o)

Dinner with daughter and her fiance was a lot of fun as usual. It's really nice to just spend time with these two, we all chat and laugh. It's wonderful!

Oh! I almost forgot!...I got a new award!

Punchbugpug from Pug Possessed was so sweet to give us the Kreativ Blogger Award!

This is a nice award, I get to list six things that make me happy. :o)

My Family, they are pretty special.

My pets, dogs and cats. I really love my animals.

A really good book, I just adore reading.

Dessert, sigh.....

The smell of the warm redwood forests.

The ocean, rivers and streams, lakes...water, I love water.

Now I get to pass this on to six other bloggers that are Kreativ. I would like to pass this award to Madison's mom; Joan and Skippy; Jemima and her mom; Frank the one eyed pug and his mom; Dozer, Cooper and Dottie's mom and Mango RH's mom.

If you haven't checked out Mango-Minster yet, you really should! It puts Westminster to shame! Mango's mom has done an excellent job posting all the photos and commentary for this fun dog show. And...the Sporting Group winner has been announced.

Charlie wins!

Best of the Sporty group is the Sport Pug!

We are so proud of our little girl. :o)

Ok, that's all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful evening.

Talk to you soon!

hugs,

puglette

:o)

Pug Poem

Hi everyone,

Here is a cute pug poem I recently received from Charlie's breeder SuLen's Precious Pugs. You can see a couple of Charlie photos there too! There are a lot of cute pug photos on the breeder site, but it is very full and can be slow to load.

In just six days, in order to begin it,God made the world and everything in it.

And after he rested, he said with a start,"Whatever shall I do with these leftover parts?"

"When I decided to make creatures to travel two by two

And populate the world, I thought my work was through.

But my order got mixed up somehow I found out with a shock,

All my creatures are completed, but there's parts left in the box!

There's noses and toeses and things that look like roses

And eyes that melt your heart away-

You think anyone supposes

There's enough left in the box, that with lots of glue and stuff

Another creature can be made that would be good enough?

"So God summoned Gabriel, who said "Now don't you fret,

Let's stick the parts together and see what we get.

"The angels put their aprons on and spread the parts around,

And soon another creature appeared there on the ground.

Four tiny legs stuck on a sausage bod,

A piglet's tail on one end, the other just as odd.

Just a mass of wrinkles where a face should be

And the nose put on inside out-least it looked that way to me.

When God surveyed the results, he said "T'would do no harm

To give this funny little thing an extra dose of charm.

And since the pint sized hearts are gone a lion's heart will do

For this mini creature that thinks she's 6 foot 2.

"So now the story has been told and it gives my heart a tug

To learn just how she came to be, this thing we call a Pug.

-author unknown

Agility Saturday

Hi everyone!

We went to AKC agility trials on Saturday. We had a lot of fun! Charlie did not win any ribbons but she did have a fun day with mom, dad and grandma. And Ollie and Honey got to come along too!


Charlie and grandma waited in line for their turn.



Charlie waited with dad while grandma ran with Archie.



Charlie waited for treats...a lot of treats.




Charlie, Ollie and Honey all got new jackets! Honey wore hers in the car, she barks at the people and the other dogs. Honey's is red fleece with dog bones in white and she looks very stylish.





Pugs in Plaid!











We all met some new dogs, some very cute dogs!




Archie and Annie snoozed in their kennels.








Charlie and Ollie snoozed in the x-pen.









Most of the pictures look like this...all blurry because it was cold in there!



We were in a large horse barn, no heat except in the bathrooms. I hung out with Honey in the car an awful lot of the day. I am reading a pretty good book, The Lonely Werewolf Girl so I didn't mind...although Honey did bark at the four huge doberman's in the car next to us. She's so tough, all 12 inches and 20 pounds of her.


We are watching the Superbowl, sort of. Hubby is watching the game while playing another game on his computer. I am waiting for Bruce!!! Woohoo!! I love Bruce Springsteen. :o)


I hope you are all safe and warm, hug your family!

hugs,

puglette

:o)