Bulldog Video

Happened across this video and just had to share. I love the underbite and the way her little tongue sticks out. But, the funniest part has to be when the guy filming can't hold in his laughter anymore and the dog looks at him! Gotta' love them bully breeds!

The Mighty Lizard Hunter

I was sitting at the computer the other day when I heard our pitbull, Doom, making a fuss at the sliding door. He was stomping his feet and emitting a raspy noise that is part growling and party heavy breathing (I have always been so thankful that Doom is a very quiet dog...doesn't bark at random noises. In fact, he very rarely barks unless he's excited. More often it's a growl, which suits me fine since usually if he's growling, it's because he's heard or seen something outside the house that isn't "right".) I grabbed the camera and took this little video. Oh, how he would have loved for me to open the door so he could chase that fat lizard around the patio! And, at the end of the video when he tilts his head back to look at me, notice the green dot between his eyes. That was from rolling in the grass earlier in the day!

Wednesday Whispers

Favorite Things Friday

I receive a lot of jokes and videos via e-mail. This video of a Blaupunkt commerical is definitely one of my favorites. It depicts why you shouldn't leave stuffed animals in the back window of your car.

Bud Light Clothing Drive Commercial

This commercial was e-mailed to me from a friend yesterday. It should have been a Superbowl commercial. I about fell out of my chair during the part with the guy and the pen. Very funny!

Who Says Dogs Can't Smile?!

I was looking through some old pictures the other day and came across this picture of our pitbull, Doom when he was a just a pup. He loves to lay on his back, and when he does, his upper lip tends to fall away from his teeth. The result...he smiles! Okay, it's more like a goofy grin, but I love it! All the anti-pitbull folks would probably like to say he's snarling and getting ready to go for my throat, but that's just because they've never been around one that's well-bred, obedience trained, has responsible owners and a BIG personality like this guy!

Heather King Photography Giveway at The Lost Earring

Kelly over at The Lost Earring (one of my favorite blogs) is hosting a giveway for a set of Fine Art Greeting cards from Heather King Photography. Click here for all the details. Entering the giveaway is easy...so don't miss out! Both of these gals also have shops on Etsy. If you click the links above and go to their respective blogs, you will find a link to their Etsy shops.

Thought for the Day

"You don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing".

I totally live by this. Dave and I are always chasing each other around, wrestling, and playing silly little games that originated shortly after we started dating (a couple of decades ago). Sometimes I think to myself, "Are we going to be doing these same things when we're 65"? The answer...absolutely!

Daytona Biketoberfest

Back in October, Dave and I went to Daytona for Biketoberfest and were joined by our brothers and sister-in-laws. This year we stayed in Ormond Beach very close to Destination Daytona (the empire that Bruce Rossmeyer built) instead of near the track like usual. When I went to book the hotel room near the track, I was sticker-shocked when I saw the rates of $200 per night. Now, I know that hotel rates are always jacked up for special events, but this was ridiculous especially with the economy. I would have thought the hotels would be offering deals just go get rooms booked. In any case, I decided to search around Destination Daytona since we knew we'd be visiting the bars down on US 1 at night. Bingo! Found a hotel within walking distrance to Destination Daytona and slept 6 very comfortably for a very reasonable price. We had a really good time. The weather was really nice Friday night when we arrived. It was comfortable enough to wear short sleeves on our outing to the Broken Spoke Saloon. It's an outdoor, pole-barn style bar that's become a favorite. The antics of the crowd kept us entertained to say the least! And, then there was the chic on the custom. Man, we saw her get on this really nice custom...stretched...raked...fat tire and she looked really good. Kinda tough, but in a feminine sort of way. Now, her and her man, who was also on a really nice bike decided they didn't want to park in the regular lot, but back where the crowd was. So, we're all watching her, and she's trying to get it turned around...goes forward a bit, then gets stuck and has to be pushed backward. How disappointing! Ladies...if you're going to ride you need to be able to get yourselves out of any situation! Dave asked me what I would have done it that situation. Well, I would have started that bad boy up, 'cause ya' know it sounded good...all loud and mean...and would have drove it right through the crowd in front of the stage...people would have moved out of the way! We spent Saturday walking around downtown and then back at Destination Daytona. Saturday night we hit the Iron Horse Saloon, which is also an outdoor bar. The weather was a little cooler, so we all threw on an extra layer. The economy definitely had an effect on the event this year...crowds were much smaller than normal.

One of the bars down on Main Street

Bob, Janis, me and Dave at the Iron Horse Saloon

Custom sportbikes at the Rat Hole Show at Destination Daytona

Group shot at the Broken Spoke after several rounds of adult beverages. Janis, Belinda, Josh, Dave, me and Bob...say cheese!

Things You Would Say to a Little Kid or a Drunk Friend

The following is a list of things that could be said to a little kid...or a drunk friend!!!

"Pull up your pants!"

"What is that in your hair?"

"I think you've had enough to drink."

"Do you want your mommy?"

"Why are you crying?"

"I can't understand a word you are saying!"

"Here...let me help you put your shoes on the right feet."

"Don't do that...you are going to get hurt!"

"Stop crawling around on the floor. You're old enough to walk!"

Anyone got any others you'd like to add to the list? I'd love to hear 'em!

Ocala National Forest - September ATV Trip

In a prior post I talked about our visit to Ocala National Forest and the ATV trails. We had such a good time, we decided to go back for our vacation in September. I was able to find a mobile home close to the trailheads that was available for rental for much less than a hotel would have cost us. Since it had a full kitchen, it made for a very practical and inexpensive vacation since we were able to buy groceries and make most of our meals instead of eating out (although we did splurge on Outback for dinner the first night and Bob Evan's for breakfast the last day...yummy!). The biggest plus about this rental, though, had to be that it was pet friendly, so Doom got to go on vacation with us! The first picture was taken the first day after we had been on the trail for all of 5 minutes. That black thing on the opposite side of the mud hole is a black bear (keep in mind, most Florida wildlife is much smaller in size as compared to other areas of the country...the only things that are larger in Florida are the mosquitoes!). The bear was already in the middle of the trail as we came around a bend so we were quite surprised (we hadn't seen any wildlife our previous trip). We expected the bear to take off into the woods when he saw us, but he actually got quite comfortable and laid down! Just as Dave and I were ready to put the ATVs in reverse and head down another trail, the bear got up and headed into the woods. These tracks in the mud were about 30 miles from where we saw the bear. This trip, we saw lots of tracks...mostly bear and deer.

It was much drier this trip and the trails were very dusty. What made the matter even worse was I had applied sunscreen that morning so the dust was really sticking to me. I knew I wasn't going to be able to ride like this all week, so we made a trip to Walmart so I could buy some T-shirts and bandanas.This is how I dressed for the remainder of the trip when we were riding. The bandana actually worked out really well (I could finally breathe!) because it also covered the bottom of my sunglasses and helped to keep the dirt out of my eyes. Notice the half grin on Dave's face... he called me the "masked marauder" for the rest of the trip. He did, however, give me credit for being such a trooper and finding a way to deal with the situation.

Even with the bandana, this is how I looked after a day on the trails. Dave wouldn't let me look at myself in the mirror before he took this picture. Funny guy! The really funny thing is I believe I made a comment like, "Wow...I didn't really get very dirty"!

A shot of one of the trails while we were taking a break in the shade.

See all the dust behind me? Dave's ATV throws up twice as much 'cause he's got these gnarly new tires that really dig in. Some may ask why I didn't ever get to lead...well, it was by choice. For one, lots of these trails (we covered about 130 miles during the trip) hadn't been ridden in quite some time so there was lots of overgrowth (low hanging branches, bushes, etc) and lots of banana spider webs. I decided I'd rather put up with the dust and dirt than getting smacked in the face with branches and spider webs!

The three of us on our way home!

How We Spent Saturday

Dave and I had made a list of things we wanted to get done on Saturday before we went to a friend's Halloween party. Unfortunately, priorities got rearranged after a little mishap involving my neighbor's Kawasaki Mule UTV and our well on Friday evening. My neighbor was on her way over to another neighbor's house for a Halloween party. She decided to stop at my house to see if I had changed my mind about attending. I'm not a real big Halloween person, and had already attended one party the Saturday before, had a Halloween party at work that day, and was going to another Halloween party on Saturday so Dave and I had declined this particular one. In any case, my neighbor pulled the mule up in the backyard and parked next to the screen. I met her at the back door and we talked for about 10-15 minutes. This entire time, the mule was running and the headlights were on. Suddenly I noticed some movement of the mule's headlights (I only had a small porch light on, and it's very dark in our neighborhood as it's rural and there are no streetlights). It took a second for me to realize that the mule was idling kind of rough and it was slowly inching itself backwards. Normally this wouldn't be much of an issue but there were some factors that turned this in to a big problem. First, the parking brake on the mule wasn't working, second, although the mule was parked on a flat spot, the ground started to slope downwards just a few feet behind it, and third, the pipes for our well were at the bottom of the slope (can you see where this is going?). When it dawned on me what was happening, I turned to my neighbor and told her the mule was starting to roll backwards. As she was running towards the screen door to try to catch it, I jokingly added, "Hey...don't let it run over the well". I probably should have kept my mouth shut about the well part 'cause it did exactly that. Once my neighbor went out the door, I couldn't really see what was happening as the mule was rolling backwards, so the headlights were still pointed towards the house...then I heard the PVC pipes from the well snapping...and I knew exactly what had happened. Dave was in the next county down visiting a friend, and it was late enough that all the stores were closed so there wasn't a whole lot we could do about it until morning. For those of you that have never had the experience of living in an area that uses a well for water, Ill give a brief explanation. Basically, in rural areas that are not on a city water system a well is drilled about 30-60 feet in the ground somewhere in the yard (normally in the backyard). Then pipes are run from this well to an electric pump that sits up closer to the house. When you turn on a faucet or flush the toilet in the house the pump pulls the water up from the well and runs it through a filtering system. While most of the pipes are underground there is a small section that is above ground (and I'm sure there is a reason for this...but I don't really understand the mechanics of it all!). In any case, those are the pipes that were run over and that meant I had no running water in the house. The good thing was, because of the time it happened, I really wouldn't have any need for water until the morning when we were ready to take showers and do some laundry. I consider myself lucky that Dave is a jack of all trades and can fix just about anything so I knew we wouldn't have to call anyone (and spend lots of $ on labor!) to have it fixed. Saturday morning Dave went out to examine the damage and determine what he would need to fix it. He returned form the hardware store and started on the repairs. Unfortunately, the PVC glue he used to glue the pipes together had gone bad and wasn't working so we had some leaks and had to go through the whole process of cutting out and fitting in new PVC pipes and priming the pump 3 times (we went to the hardware store and got different glue after the second set of leaks). What is that they say about 3rd times a charm!? My neighbor felt really awful, but I told her it could have been worse...no one was hurt and the mule didn't pick up enough speed to go through the fence and into the neighbor's pond! In the end, we were able to laugh about it!!!

A Blonde Joke

I was reading one of the blogs I follow, EsThings, and her latest post was a joke about a blonde. I'm going to follow her lead (since I'm also blonde) and post a blonde joke. I think this is one of the funniest I've heard.


A blonde calls her boyfriend and says, "Please come over here and help me. I have this killer jigsaw puzzle and I can't figure out how to get it started." Her boyfriend asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?" The blonde says, "According to the box, it's a tiger." Her boyfriends decides to go over and help with the puzzle. She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says, "First of all, no matter what we do, we are not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a tiger." He takes her hand and says, "Second, I want you to relax. Let's have a cup of coffee and then," he sighed, "Let's put all the Frosted Flakes back in the box."


That was GRRREAT!

Just for Fun

One of the blogs I follow, The Lost Earring, posted the other day about the options on your cell phone camera (or digital camera for that matter) that you may or may not know about. She was specifically talking about the "negative"option and requested that folks take pics using this option and send them to her so she can post them on her blog. I've decided to pass this along 'cause it's just for fun...no prize to win, no guidelines to follow, etc. I think too often we get caught up in what we have to do in life, and forget to take some time to do something just because it's fun (you know...the old stop and smell the roses...just this time when you stop, take a pic of them in negative mode!). I think it will be interesting to see what people come up with. Click on this link to the actual post for information on how to send the picture to her. I was so intrigued, I tried it immediately. This is the pic I sent...it's me sitting in my office at my "regular" job (now...before you even go there...I wasn't goofing off on company time...I was on lunch...just trying to use MY time wisely and take care of some jewelry "stuff")!

It reminds me of the movie "The Patriot" where Heath Ledger's girlfriend puts ink or dye in his tea and turns his teeth black!

The Trampoline Dog Video

Thought I would share this video I found on myspace.

The Trampoline Dog

4th of July

I know...I know...that was months ago. Well, during our vacation last week, we finally finished taking the rest of the pictures that were left on our 2 disposable cameras. I tend to lean towards the disposables just 'cause most of the time we're doing stuff in which a digital camera could easily be damaged!!!. In any case, there were lots of pictures from 4th of July weekend when our family came to visit. We had such a great time!Dave and Branden

Belinda and Autumn

Janis and Belinda

Janis on the dirtbike...yay!!! (kind of hard to see in the pic...look on the road to the right between the pine tree and palmetto bush)

The mudhole at the end of the block

Me and my sistas!!!

Now That's Just Funny!