Back Home

Early Sunday morning (but not as early as Turkey Day) mom and dad got back on the plane. Meme made French Toast with Columbus Bakery bread (it was yummy, I hear).

The flight to North Carolina was pretty good, and then mom heard the dreaded words: "extreme turbulence". As they were coming into Dallas, it was really windy and they were told to fasten their seatbelts. Mom imagined flaming balls of fuel, and plane parts everywhere. Dad was just trying to grimace through the pain of his leg being SQUEEZED really hard. And all that turbulence? Amounted to NOTHING! The landing was text book. Haha.

The took a taxi home (just like on Amazing Race), and then THEY WERE HOME! We were all so excited to see them. I couldn't stop running around. And around. And around. We all hung out the rest of the day, and they told us all about their trip.

Tomorrow: a review of our awesome Pet Sitter.

Day 3 in the 'Cuse

Saturday morning was pancake time. I'm thinking all these people do is eat. Everyone had Mickey Mouse pancakes (a Meme specialty), then they went to the niece's basketball practice.

After practice, they went to lunch. Of course, more eating. But this was a super special place - they went to Heids Hot Dogs.

http://heidsofliverpool.com/ If you've never been to Heids, you are missing a treat. And if you're ever in Syracuse, make SURE you go to Heids. It's not just a hot dog. It's a hot dog OR coney cooked an extra special way. They're so famous that the TV show Man versus Food filmed a segment there.

http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Man_V_Food/Episodes_Travel_Guides/Syracuse

Mom craves them, and always goes there when she visits. Dad had a coney and chocolate milk (the only way to eat them), and loved it. He could have eaten lots of the hot dogs, but had to save room because there was a big party on Saturday night.

So off they drove to mom's other brother's house. Lots of people came over, and there was tons of food and talk. They went down memory lane until they finally packed up the car and headed home. It had snowed a little, and was really cold. But they made it home safe.

Next morning: back on the plane.

Day 2 in the 'Cuse

On Friday morning, Meme and mom showed dad around town. First, they went to see the house mom grew up in. It's right around the corner from Meme, so that took about 2 seconds. Then they drove by LeMoyne Elementary School, where mom when to kindergarten.

Then they went through the ritzy part of the North Side -

Sedgwick Farms http://www.sedgwickfarm.org/history.html, just to show him how the other half lives.

Then it was out to Eastwood, and the Palace Theater

http://palaceonjames.com/history

Mom remembers going to see movies there, and the owner wacking her with a flashlight when she put her feet on the seat in front of her.

They went past mom's 2 aunts house, then up to Henninger High School, where mom went to high school. She won't go inside, because she wants to remember it like it was 30 years ago.

Next stop, downtown Syracuse. When mom was little, she would take the bus downtown and go shopping. Sadly, the city has gotten run down over the years, and nobody walks around much anymore. But it was fun to see the historical sites.

Clinton Square http://www.clintonsquare.com/history.htm

Armory Square http://www.armorysquareofsyracuse.com/about/history.php

The Cathedral http://www.cathedralsyracuse.org/

The Onondaga County Courthouse

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM85E4_Onondaga_County_Courthouse_Syracuse_NY

Then they went and bought fresh italian bread from Columbus Bakery. It's made in brick ovens, the old fashioned way. The place hasn't changed since mom was a kid (and her mom, and her mom), and the bread is divine. They bought 2 loaves, both point (they were out of flat), and broke off big chunks to eat on the way home.

For lunch, they took dad to have "real" pizza. Apparently the stuff we have west of the Mississippi is no good. At least by Syracuse standards. So they went to Twin Trees for some delicious pizza. http://www.twintreesaveryave.com/ Manga!

Then it was back to the house, because everybody was coming back over to, you guessed it, eat dinner and talk. Lasagne was on the menu, and the bread of course.

The niece and nephew stayed overnight, so they all watched the basketball game (Syracuse University basketball is a religion there) and went to bed.

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. It's a little late this year, because mom and dad weren't home for Turkey Day. They went on a plane to visit mom's mom. They left us with a petsitter (more on that later), and flew to New York. Syracuse, to be specific.

Early, early, EARLY on Turkey Day they jumped in a cab and got on a plane. The plane left at 5:20am, so you can imagine how early they had to get up. Mom hates to fly, so she was freaking out, but got on the plane anyway. The plane left on time, with no x-rays or pat-downs. Dad's junk went untouched. They transferred in North Carolina, then on to Syracuse. When they landed, the pilot told them it was 28 degrees - YIKES!!! And there was snow on the ground.

As soon as they landed, they called Meme, and she came and picked them up. Then it was off to mom's brother's house for turkey and the fixings. Mom got to visit with her brothers, their wives, and the 2 nieces and 1 nephew. They talked and ate. And ate and talked. Then mom's cousin came by. So there was MORE talking and eating. In between the socializing, they played with a puppy. Her brother has a new Boxer puppy. Mom says she's really cute (doubt it - she's NOT a pug), and was a lot of fun. They have a 2-year-old Boxer, too. Her niece has trained her to do all sorts of tricks. Apparently, she put us to shame. Mom's been trying to teach ANY of us to roll over with no success. But this Boxer just rolls and rolls and rolls. She got lots of cookies for her tricks (!), and then the humans ate and talked some more.

The next day, they went on a "tour" of mom's old stomping grounds, to show dad (he'd never been to Syracuse.) I'll write more about that tomorrow.

WE'RE BEERKNURDS

It's official. Mom's a member of the UFO Club. What's that, do you ask?

Well, a few weeks ago, mom and dad found a cool draught emporium. Basically, it's a beer joint. See, mom loves beer. I mean LOVES beer. The darker, the better. This

beer place is called the Flying Saucer, and they have over 200 kinds of beer. It's in downtown Fort Worth, and on Sundays there's free parking downtown.

http://www.beerknurd.com/stores/fortworth/

When they went the first time, mom swore that she would join the UFO Club as soon as she got a job. Well, she has a job (temporary, but a job nonetheless), so they went and signed her up. With her membership she gets a cool shirt.

She also gets a membership card. Every time she drinks a beer, it's recorded onto her card. When she drinks 200 beers, she gets her name on the wall and A PARTY!!!! Dad didn't join (he's a beer wimp), but he likes the idea of a party. The goal is to hit 200 in time for mom's 50th birthday. That means she has to drink, like, 2 beers a week for the next 2 years. She says she can do it. I think she can, too.

She's going to write about the beers she drinks on her blog. She'll put the titles in caps for the beer updates. Just so you can keep track too.

Her first beer was......drum roll please......The Ugly Pug.

http://www.rahrbrewing.com/our-beers/year-round-beers/ugly-pug.html

It's a Texas beer, which works out good, since Texas beers are on sale on Sundays. Win, win! She says the Ugly Pug was really good. Kind of dark, but tasty.

Her second beer was 512 Bruin.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17863/53957

It was dark, too, but not as heavy. Kind of chocolatey.

Make sure you keep watching the blog to find out what kinds of beer she tries next. She likes dark beer, so you'll see a lot of those on here. She also likes beer on tap. And she'll be trying lots of ciders. Eat your heart out, Trish.

It's Finally About Us!

Since we've been in Texas, mom and dad have gone off exploring a lot. And they usually leave us at home. But today, Arnie and I got to go on a hike. We went to a place called River Legacy Park http://www.riverlegacy.org/ and it was awesome.

The trails are paved, and perfectly flat. Easy walking. Or in this case, dragging. When we start out on a walk, we usually pull on our leashes.

The park runs along the Trinity River. It's about 10 minutes from our house.

Mom is constantly amazed at all the turtles that are in the rivers. Every time we see a river, we see lots of turtles clinging to rocks and branches.

We took a break by posing in front of some pretty fall colors.

One of the COOLEST things about Texas is that every park has dog-sized drinking fountains. At least all the parks we've been to. Unfortunately, I won't drink out of them. They make noise, and water shoots into the bowl. I'm not sticking my nose into that. Arnie isn't so particular. He loves the fountains, and drinks and drinks until he's not hot anymore.

Mom had her new camera with her (obviously), and took pictures along the way. At the end of the walk, I was having none of it. Here I am refusing to sit for dad. Notice the look of complete disdain? Notice Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes sitting? For the record, I never sat down. Dad gave up trying. Score one for Gracie.

We walked for a couple of miles, most of it power-walking. When I got home, I curled up for a bit of well-deserved napping.

Doing the Jimmy

Lots of things happening here in Texas, so the blog's been coming last on the list. First of all, mom has a job (yea), so she's not here at home as much. Second, the weather's been beautiful, so we've been going on lots of walks, because three, we're entered in an agility trial next month and we need to get in shape (mom's words, NOT mine).

But mom took time to videotape one of our tricks. The other day on dailypuglet.com, Puglet said everybody who can Jimmy should send him a video. Weeeelllll, WE CAN JIMMY. To beat the band, I might add. When Levi was 6 months old, he learned that trick at a clicker seminar. It's his default behavior - he can't even lay down without his chin hitting the ground. Because he knows it, we all have to know it. The whole Three Muskateers thing. So we made a video, and here it is:

Face It - we're cute!

Mom's been taking lots of pictures of us with her new camera. She decided I could blog some of just our faces. In the interest of fairness, I've decided to go cutest, um, I mean youngest, to oldest.

Here's me. My mom says I always have the same look on my face: eye's bugging out, every nerve trembling, waiting for a TREAT to come my way. OK, she's right.

Here's Arnie. Mom says he always looks so serious when he's having his picture taken.

This is more like the real "Arnie". He's really a big mush.

This is Snap. She looks all regal in this picture. That kind of fits her personality. She takes herself waaaaay too seriously. She worries all the time about being good. I say what the heck. If they wanted good, they should have gotten Golden Retrievers.

Snap has a silly side, too. They call Boxers "clowns" and she has the Boxer sense of humor.

This is Levi. Mom hates taking pictures of him these days, because she can see just how senior he's getting. He just turned 12 years old, so he's earned those silver hairs.

And the old man, Puck. She didn't get a shot of his face because he a) won't stop moving around looking for squirrels, and b) he's completely deaf and can't hear her calling him to look at her anyway. He still runs the household, and he's the only one I don't "challenge" - even I'm not that brave.

Wordless Wednesday