Houdini Needs a Bath

I'll let the title, pictures and videos speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Some Picture Updates

Obviously, we've been slacking for a the last couple months. Hopefully, we'll do better now that warm weather is arriving. I find that we don't take nearly as many pictures during the bleary winter months. I'll cut to the chase and share some pictures. They include pictures of Buddy in our huge amounts of snow, my Valentine's day piece de resistance, and a wonderful visit from Nancy and Linda.

It was impossible to capture just how much snow there actually was, but our backyard looked like this for much of the winter.


See how deep Buddy is!! He loved it. He would leap and bound around the yard and make himself absolutely exhausted.


I wish he would learn how to take out the trash, rather than simply chew on the lid that was already broken.


Yes, this is my masterpiece! Ok, so I know I have a long way to go, but I thought it was a pretty good first attempt!


This is the view of the city and the Art Museum from Vesper Boat Club's balcony.


Is it just coincidence that they are standing identically, or is it in the blood?!?


Reverse view, from the Art Museum towards Boathouse Row.


After much persuasion, they finally joined in for the obligatory Rocky picture.


I think the picture says it all!


It's pretty much guaranteed that if you visit us, we are visiting the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I have to say though, if you don't visit us in the first year (before July), then you may not get to go with us because I think we have nearly reached our max!!!


One of Buddy's favorite ways to sit. I call it the wheelbarrow.


Bud sends his love. He is moments away from giving kisses!

Snow Here, Snow There, Snow Everywhere

We left Chicago expecting to enjoy a milder winter, and, in truth, it is milder. However, the snow has been unbelievable this winter. Philly certainly is warmer and less windy than Chicago, but the amount of snow that we have received at one time has been unparalleled to anything we saw while in Chicago. In December, when mom and Emily were visiting, the city got 24 inches of snow in a little over 24 hours. This past weekend, we got 28 inches (though not quite that much at our house). Tonight and tomorrow the weather gurus are expecting that we will get another 12-18 inches. I've never seen anything like it. We certainly never had this kind of snow while I was growing up! We love the snow, and we would love it even more if we had a driveway. Parallel parking is even more obnoxious when you have to fight over parking spaces. Everyone in the neighborhood has been using chairs and the like to save parking spots (hopefully I'll get some pictures to share). Someone had the nerve to move our cardboard boxes today. Obviously they didn't read the news article about people getting killed for moving "dibs" articles! Not that I'd go that far, but I did think about printing out the article to put on their windshield.

Buddy is definitely a huge fan of the snow. He plows through it, and digs his head in. We still can't figure out why he burrows his head in the snow. He jumps and leaps and runs in circles. He doesn't know what to do with himself because he is having so much fun.

Here are some pictures from various snowfalls this winter:

Buddy loves to leave his mark, and the footprints demonstrate how much he loves to explore.

Who needs a milk mustache when you can have a snow mustache!

As you'll be able to see below as well, Buddy loves to play chase, especially in the snow.

A couple Buddy pictures

Buddy too shy to pose with his new snow boots, but I caught his picture anyway :)

Buddy likes his new Christmas toys, but he was so tired after playing at Doggie Daycare, while we were out of town, that he fell asleep while chewing on it.

Buddy has Christmas Cheer

We think Buddy must love Christmas as much as we do. The pictures explain how easy decorating for Christmas is when Buddy helps.

This awesome peanut butter flavored rawhide bone the size of Buddy was supposed to keep him occupied while we decorated the tree.

But, apparently Buddy liked his bone and the Christmas lights. I could post more pictures to prove my point, but it will suffice to say that no matter where the lights were, Buddy looked like this.

We later learned that Buddy isn't partial to Christmas lights. He just loves laying on Christmas decorations while eating his bone. Under the Christmas tree is just about his favorite spot these days. I think he is trying to remind us what a gift he is in our lives.

Frosty the SnowBud

Winters here in Philadelphia are a big change (for the better) from Chicago. I have yet to have the cold bring instantaneous tears to my eyes that then immediately froze. It's kinda nice. The winter has been mild so far, and for that I am thankful. For those of you who don't know, our parked Olds got hit by a drunk driver and is currently out of commission (or possibly permanently out of commission). So now I channel my inner 12 year old and bike to my babysitting job. Needless to say, I am glad I don't live in Chicago right now. Though I do miss the public transportation system.

It has snowed once this winter. The snow experience here is much more comparable to Nashville than Chicago. Super wet snow that melts fairly quickly, and a city that's not particularly ready to deal with it. That said, it is still always nice to see a few flakes.

Buddy wasn't quite sure what to make of the snow. He definitely was not excited to go outside in it.

Once he did go outside in the snow, he couldn't stop sniffing it. He even tried chasing a few flakes. Hopefully, he gets to see it a few more times this winter.

Update Time!

Finally, I'm organized enough to start posting again. Organized meaning that we have a computer and I found the cable for my camera to download my pictures.

Let's see - over the last couple months a lot has remained the same. I am still babysitting for the family with two kids under the age of two, but I'm only babysitting for the baby now. The two year old started back to "school" five days a week which means that I won't be taking care of her any longer. Even though my days are a lot easier now, I miss taking care of her because she certainly kept things interesting. Instead I will simply be watching her little brother who is eight months old now. When I first starting taking care of the kids, the little boy needed to be propped up in his high-chair and couldn't roll over. Now, he is crawling all over the place and is pulling himself up on anything that he can. He is the happiest baby I've ever met and is a pleasure to take care of. All of that said, I might have lucked into an interview for an attorney position. So please keep your fingers crossed that I actually get the interview and then maybe even can get the job. It would be a huge relief for us if I was making a true salary again. I sure would miss the childcare lifestyle though! It is nice working three days a week :)

Matt is still enjoying his job. We actually planned a get together for all of the residents and significant others in his residency class. Unfortunately doctors are not the most organized bunch (in my experience), and it all fell apart after I had started prepping food. Instead we went out to dinner with two other couples. It was a great time, and I look forward to getting to know these people over the next few years. Matt's rowing has slowed down, as usual in the fall, but he is still training and is happy with where he is.

Buddy is the sweetest pup in the whole world! (We are not biased at all!!!) He is still a puppy though and is still learning his manners. He is growing by the day. The other day we were looking at pictures on some of our older blog posts and could not believe how small he used to be. He is over 35 lbs now, and when we first brought him home he only weighed 13 lbs. They say that puppies are at about half of their full grown weight at four months, which we are hoping is true as he is now four months old.

Two weeks ago Buddy graduated from puppy school. He now knows how to sit, stay (sometimes), come (sometimes), shake, down (of the laying down variety), leave it, off (occasionally). He does not know is that jumping up on visitors is obnoxious and that counter-surfing is unacceptable. Despite that, here's the proof that he actually graduated:

Just in case you've missed seeing pictures of our dear Buddy - here are some of our favorites in no particular order!

This is Buddy's everyday look - quiet staring.


What is this a picture of, you ask - Buddy. More specifically, Buddy when he tries to eat the camera when you take his picture.


Buddy likes to raid our recycle bin - his treasure this week, peanut butter. But he couldn't quite decide between his two favorites: a stick or peanut butter.


Eventually, the peanut butter won. No surprise, the tummy always wins. And yes, he did eventually manage to get the jar open!


How could you not love this puppy?!?


Buddy's first bath. He obviously is a bit skeptical that it is going to be an enjoyable experience.


He clearly decided that bath time is not his favorite time! His next bath went better - apparently he only likes warm water!


Buddy loves his elephant and puppy. Unfortunately, the puppy is no longer with us. Buddy de-stuffed him!


My two favorite boys love to curl up together. This is how you will find them almost every night.


Mr. Stoic. That's our Buddy.


This was the best purchase we ever made for Bud. Buddy curled up in his bed about 0.2 seconds after he told him that he could. If he's not curled up with Matt, he's probably in his bed.

Buddy's First Trip to the Park.

Today we took Buddy to the park near our house for the first time. He was one tired pup after our adventure, but he definitely had fun!

This park is only about 3/4 mile from our house. Lots of people bring their dogs there, and it has lots of trees and nice benches.

Buddy found this stick, and he decided to bring it home with him. I don't blame him - it was a lot of fun.

Little rest break for the champ!

Decided that one pic of the owners wouldn't be a bad idea. After our trip to the park and some yard work, we are both ready for a good dinner!

More Buddy!

Let's get straight to the point - more pictures of Buddy:

Hmmm - I guess we don't leave anything on the floor anymore!

Something tells me that he hasn't quite learned "come" yet.

One of his many "favorite" spots. Unfortunately, he just discovered a hole in the fence there.

This picture helps gauge his size - he is sitting next to our bottom stair.

View of the city from Boathouse Row. I tried to get Buddy too, but that just wasn't going to happen. He did surprisingly well with all of the people, dogs and bikes - I was impressed!

Too bad he doesn't like sleeping on his blanket in the crate. He always drags out the blanket to cuddle with it.

Another favorite spot by the washing machine.

Though this picture doesn't quite show it - he loves playing fetch with his rope.

Awwwww.

Awwwww again!

Last favorite spot - where the mums used to be. He loved the mums but I moved them to the front yard after I learned they were poisonous for dogs and he got a bit sick. Not sure if it was related, but we weren't taking chances.