This, that and whatevers 10/28/14

Hi pals, Mei-Ling here...

We still have not gotten our courtyard or retaining wall done.  Yup, it's been over two months and the work isn't completed and some of the so called "completed" work has to be ripped out and re-done.  I think momma better plan on cooking a big turkey for Thanksgiving because it doesn't look like these workers are ever going to be gone.

 Here is a photo of the courtyard walkway where some worker walked in the wet cement...

That same worker didn't bother to make sure the concrete was all the way to the form...I think he got fired because now they have to jackhammer out the set concrete and do it all over again.

Now on to the more important thing, ME!  I am four months old and looking very, very pretty, even if I do say so myself. 

Here I am in my new coat with flowers on the hoodie.  It also has a pretty bow on it.

Momma says I'm going to need a coat because it is starting to get colder now...

Momma has been letting my hair grow so she can put it in a top knot.  She put a ribbon in it but it is still too short so I've been walking around with hair hanging in my eyes.  Not being able to see well hasn't stopped me from taking stuffies and food away from Puffy - BOL, BOL.

I'm being very good about letting momma comb me but that might change when my double coat come in when I get to be about 6 months old because that's when all the tangles really start to be a problem.

My furbrother Puffy and I get along real well and I love to play with him although he doesn't like to play as much as I do.  I also love, love, love, LOVE  to yap at him - BOL, BOL.  Daddy and momma are constantly telling me to "STOP" but I have a lot to say and I'm not going to be silenced. 

 "Um, Mei-Ling, I was playing with that."  "Too bad Puffy, if you want it back you're going to have to wrestle me for it."

 "The stuffie is MINE! Get off of me Mei-Ling!"

"Nope, not going to happen Puffy.  Momma said you have to share the stuffies." 

 "Mei-Ling, I don't mind sharing, but you can't just take the stuffie I'm playing with away from me.  That's rude!"

 "But Puffy, it's the only way I can get you to play with me."

 "Mei-Ling, I'm an old pup, my back hurts and just do not have your youthful energy.  Why don't you just lie down next to me and we can have a nice long nap?"

"How about I give you a really nice back rub instead?"

 "Does your back feel better now?"  "Yes it does Mei-Ling! Thank you, but I'm still ready for a nap."

 "You didn't really think I was going to continue to play with her did you?  She wears me out!"

"It's going to be a long time before I give him another back rub!"

Let me tell you about what happened yesterday 10/16/14

Hi pals, Puffy here...

Yesterday was not a very good one here at our home.  We had five workers show up around 9 AM to do the concrete work but the concrete company had a truck break down so everyone was standing around doing nothing until late well after 2PM when the truck with concrete finally arrived.  Since it was delivered late in the day, all the work couldn't be done. 

Momma feeling sorry for the five workers decided to bake some cupcakes for them, but she is still having issues with getting recipes that work at high attitudes, at least that is what she is blaming it on.  Momma mixed up all the ingredients and put them in the oven to bake.  She set the oven timer so she would know when to take them out and came back to the bedroom to watch the ID channel, which has all kinds of programs regarding murders, kidnapping, stalking, and other nasty things that humans do and promptly forgot that she was baking (do you see where I'm going with this)?

Anyhoodle, when momma remembered, she hurried to the kitchen and discovered there was still four minutes on the timer so she wasn't late, but smoke was coming out of the oven.  Momma turned on the oven light to see if there was a fire in it (there wasn't), so she opened the oven door and discovered the cupcakes had risen above the container and spilled onto the hot oven then collapsed like flat pancakes back into the cupcake tin.  There was no saving these cupcakes so momma removed them from the oven and put everything into the sink.  Everything would have been just fine except now momma needed to clean the oven and since it was still hot, she didn't think she should try to clean up all the spilled cupcake batter from the bottom of the oven because she didn't want to get burnt.  Any smart person would have waited for the oven to cool off, then wipe off what could be removed before setting the oven on self clean, but we are talking about my momma here so bear with me.

Momma told daddy what happened and that she needed to clean the oven so she could use it to make dinner later.  She warned him that he would probably be a "little" smoke but not to get alarmed because it would be the spilled stuff getting incinerated.  Need I tell you that there was more than a "little" smoke?  OMD, smoke was bellowing from the oven like you wouldn't believe.  Momma had the hood fan going and ran around and opened every window in the house but there was so much smoke coming from the oven that our house was filled with smoke in no time but for some reason the smoke alarm didn't go off like it should have..  Mei-Ling and I were running around in a panic so we were herded back into our bedroom where the smoke hadn't invaded and momma shut the door to keep it smoke free.  After about one hour, the smoke finally stopped but the house was so filled with smoke that it took hours for it to dispel.  Momma was able to use the oven to make dinner and after dinner, she decided to use the left over cupcake batter to make two cupcakes.  This time momma put the batter into individual small cake pans and then put those pans into s lager container just in case the batter should again spill over the top of the cake pan.  Mei-Ling and I settled down on the bed to watch Survivor and forgot all about the cupcakes - Yup, she did it again!  Daddy came into the bedroom and told momma that she had something BURNING IN THE OVEN - BOL, BOL.  Momma jumped up and went into the kitchen and yup, the cupcakes had again spilled over, flattened out and now were burning in the oversized pan.  The good news is that they didn't make a mess in the oven again but even today, our house still smells like something burned in it - BOL.

So today the workers are back and were doing the concrete but their boss showed up and everyone got in trouble.  In fact, the boss was so upset with the work they have done today that he is going to have them jack hammer out the new sidewalk in our courtyard and re-do it plus some of the sidewalk in the back of the house also.  Momma says we will not be happy with a jack hammer making noise but there is nothing that can be done.  It's a shame the boss wasn't here earlier to supervise the workers so this kind of stuff wouldn't have occurred. 

Puffy

The power of plastic 10/12/14

Hi pals, Mei-Ling here...

Let me tell you about this wonderful stuff called "Plastic money".  I was rummaging around in momma's purse and came across one of those magic cards and took it.  Momma did say we shared around here so I felt it was perfectly acceptable for me to make a few phone calls with it.

One bank card and phone - this should be easy....

I'll call Zaidie and increase our order on the MEATZ OF THE DAY deliveries.

I know his number is on instant dial...

Hello Zaidie.  It's me, Mei-Ling from New Mexico.  How are you doing?  Sorry to hear that your beautiful photos have vanished from your blog.  Anyhow, I would like to increase our MEATS OF THE DAY quantities to tide us over for the coming winter.  Here is the number of the bank card...

Could you please repeat that?  My bank card has been declined?  OH NO!!!!  There must be a mistake.  Could you please try again?

Zaidie  again tells me that the bank card is declined and wants to know if I has a different card I would like to try.

Sorry Zaidie, I'll have to call you back in a few minutes....

What am I going to do?  Maybe I can find another bank card in momma's purse...

Well that wasn't easy but I did it.  Now all I have to do is call Zaidie again and increase our MEATZ OF THE DAY order...

Hi Zaidie, it's Mei-Ling again.  Would you please increase our MEATZ OF THE DAY order as discussed earlier?  Here is the new bank card...  Zaidie runs the card number and it is accepted.  Thanks Zaidie, Puffy and I look forward to receiving the extra MEATZ.  I'll be talking to you again soon.  Bye....

Now all I can do is dream about all the extra yummy MEATZ that I am going to get...

 

Something tells me that I am going to get in trouble for this but it will be worth it - BOL. BOL.

Hello - do you remember us? 10/11/14

Hi pals - Puffy and my pesky fursister Mei-Ling here.

Momma has once again neglected to update our blog - she says she has been busy but I know that isn't true.  She just didn't feel like doing it as she says there isn't anything new to write about.

We still have the workers here - they even filled the tree ring up with dirt so daddy can plant the Prairiefire Flowering Crabapple tree can be planted in it. 

Here is the tree ring with the Crabapple tree waiting for daddy to plant it...

We even have some artificial grass that daddy is going to put down after the concrete sidewalk is done.

  Here is the roll of FAKE grass...

Mei-Ling and I are checking out the area where the sidewalk is going to be in our courtyard...

The workers were supposed to be completely finished with our projects this week but as you can see from the above photo and the ones below, that didn't happen.  We have been having rain off and on for several weeks so the poor workers didn't really feel like doing anything.

 Here is where the back sidewalk will be - to the left is where the retaining wall will be built...

The small cylinder green thing in the back ground is the water holding tank for gray water which will be used to water the plants in the green house when it gets built.  Hopefully when everything is done there will be no more trenches and mounds of dirt re-directing the water flow away from our house.

Now, on to more important things - BOL, Mei-Ling has finished all her shots and will be going in for her "big girl surgery" in December or January.  She weighs 5.4 pounds and is very healthy.  I don't growl at her much anymore because when I do, it gets her excited and she just continues on with whatever it was that caused me to growl at her in the first place. 

 We share a nice cool drink of water together...

Now she wants to wipe her wet face all over me...

We played for a while... 

It made her happy...

But even better it made her tired so she went to sleep and I got some peace and quite - BOL, BOL

12 tons of river rocks 09/20/14

Hi pals, Puffy and Mei-Ling here...

We told you about the river rocks that daddy had delivered and although 12 tons sounds like a whole lot, we thought you might like to see what it actually is.

This is the pile of river rocks minus the bit that was used by the courtyard fence below... It sounds like a whole lot more than it actually is...

Those red bricks are going to be used on the tree planter and retaining wall.  Momma's not so keen on having to walk on river rocks to get into the courtyard and will probably put a paver walkway right by the gate entrance.

 Guess whose pretty little feetsies these are....

Those of you who guessed Mei-Ling are right - BOL.  I could easily blow this courtyard but momma says everything will be made "dog safe" once all the work is completed. 

Here I am in the courtyard.  The workers haven't been back in about one week and with winter approaching they better get back here soon and get the job DONE!

 

 The workers had leveled the courtyard and were in the process of fixing the drainage issues so we would no longer have a lake when it rained in the courtyard.  Do you see that orange flag over to the left of the picture?  That's were our tree planter is going to be.  It will be nice to have a tree in the courtyard.

Here is where we are going to have a concrete sidewalk.  Right after the walkway was formed it rained but since our dirt is hard it didn't get destroyed.  Momma will be buying some artificial grass and pavers to make a real nice area for Mei-Ling and I to do our business at.  Momma's not sure if artificial grass is the best choice for areas that get snow and ice.  She is wondering if the ice on the fake grass will hurt our feet. 

Me and my furbrother Puffy 09/14/14

Hi pals, Mei-Ling here...

I have learned that my humans has dubbed me "The little terrorist"!  I'm just a fun loving little puppy who knows what I want and have no problems convincing others that I should have everything.

I have managed to work my way into my furbrother Puffy's bed and have even convinced him to share his huge stash of stuffies with me.

"Hi Puffy, what do you have there?  Oh I see you have Sadie, one of Roscoe the rat's babies.  Can I play with her?"  "No, go away, Sadie is mine."

   

"Okay, I'll just come up here and watch as you play."

"Momma, Mei-Ling is taking Sadie!"

"HaHaHaHa - I got Sadie!"

 

Puffy doesn't stay mad, instead the little terrorist and he took a nap together.

Puffy doesn't mind sharing his stuffies.  In fact, he likes to play tug with Mei-Ling.

 

When Puffy has enough of Mei-Ling, he climbs the stairs to the top of the bed leaving Mei-Ling behind because she can't climb the stairs, YET!

 

Here I am with Puffy out in our court yard.  He is showing me something that smells really interesting.

 

I also like to stop and smell the flowers.  In fact, I like to eat them too - BOL.

 

This is a nice pile of stuffies - Puffy says I can play with them all!  He's a really nice big brother.