Wordless Wednesday: Rita Must Be a Good Dog...

...cuz it says so right on the box we got today! Yep, Rita won something again! This time from Good Dog Takeouts treats from Jeffie's month long birthday party over at Talking Dogs Blog.

It's no wonder Rita thinks every package that comes to the door is for her - more than half the time, they are!

"Oh, for me?? Give me a hand, Momma!"

Wordless Wednesday: Jealousy

Today's word is jealousy, cuz I bet you are gonna be jealous that I got to get my hands on this little fluffball yesterday! Meet my new nephew, Reggie!

Reggie with his favorite aunt! (Sure my other sis will have somethin' to say about that.)

Wordless Wednesday: Spa or Gulag?

Rita generally doesn't like to be brushed, so when Daddy came at her with the brush** this weekend, she went belly up. 

Ugh. You try to get a little shut-eye in the sun. But no....

I Have Been Remiss - Part II: Winnings!

Okay, I know it's wordless Wednesday, so I'll try to not be too wordy and mainly show pics of what we won, but I have to give shout-outs where they are (over)due!

First off, we won several books!

"I don't always read, but when I do, it better involve a dog." ~ Rita

Wordless Wednesday: Uninvited Visitors

In just the last couple of days, we've had a lot of uninvited visitors. First there was this little guy:

"May I come in? No? Okay, then, I'll just poop and be on my way!"

Slightly-Less-Wordy Wednesday: Staycation

A couple of weeks ago, the hubs suddenly decided to take a week off. We didn't have time to plan much, and we had some things to do around the house, so we decided on a "staycation." We'd only done this once before, and the last time it was pretty much a disaster. We took off the week in 2003 when the massive "Cedar Fire" hit San Diego. The fire hit the second day of vacation, so we spent 3 1/2 days basically trapped in the house (because the sky was orange and the air unbreathable) while we watched the terrible, depressing news. (At one point we even had our cars packed and ready to evacuate.) Luckily this time was much more successful!

A staycation is pretty much ideal when you have a dog. (No worries about how the pooch will adapt to the new locale.) And we had fun being dorks and pretending we'd rented our house from VRBO. ("Can you believe these people left us all these projects to do? Jerks!")

We basically pretended we were retired. We slept in every morning, enjoyed our coffees, and then went for long walks on the beach with Rita:

Had the beach to ourselves!

Wordless Wednesday: SPRING!

To celebrate the first day of spring, I thought I'd share pics I took of some of the beautiful flowers in our neighborhood on a recent walk with Rita. And... we have a winner in the What the Dog Ate's birthday giveaway!

But first... Spring has sprung:

A California poppy

Wordless Wednesday: To The Beach!

Snapped a few shots of Rita on the way to the beach the other day. These are taken after we turned on to the little one-way road that leads to Fiesta Island, or Disneyland for Dogs as I call it. I just held my camera over and snapped, without looking, but they still came out kinda cute.

This one is taken w/ window up, no flash

Wordless Wednesday: Breakfast With a Side of Oxytocin

Unfortunately, my hubs has a very stressful job. He also has trouble managing his stress. Rita apparently knows this, since she suddenly decided she should sit between us while we eat breakfast on the sofa in front of the news. (Sorry about the picture quality - took it with my iPad, shooting in to the light. Should know by now to always have the camera handy.)

Administering the proper dosage of oxytocin

She's supposed to be over on "her" side of the sofa, on her towel. But since the hubs can use a dose of oxytocin before work, I don't mind a little dog hair. (Besides, our house is practically covered in it anyway.) You can read about dogs and oxytocin here, but here's a key nugget: "Oxytocin, which is sometimes dubbed 'the cuddle hormone,' helps reduce blood pressure and decreases levels of cortisol, a hormone related to stress and anxiety." Keep that stuff coming, Rita!

You might suspect that she only chose to sit there to have access to our breakfast of peanut butter toast and yogurt - but you'd actually be wrong. She's totally gone off peanut butter, and if I offer her a bite or my plate when I'm done with it, she turns her head and acts like I've put the most disgusting thing ever in front of her. As for the yogurt, she might lick a bit off a spoon when you're done, but she does NOT want to lick the cup. (She's so odd.)

Do you try to extract some cuddle hormone from your dog?

Wordless Wednesday: DONE

If you've been following along, you know we started a so-called "6 week" backyard remodeling project waaaaaay back in mid-October. Finally, for today's almost-wordless Wednesday, the word of the day is DONE.

"I love my new sunning spot!"

Wordless Wednesday: Old-Fashioned Tweets

Rita's not much for Twitter. She prefers her tweets to be the old-fashioned variety. (She actually prefers to try to catch birds, but seeing them on TV is the next best thing...)

"How did that bird get in here?"

Wordless Wednesday: Beam Me Up

Rita met her first cat.

This is my sister's cat, Topi. He's very sweet. I think this pic looks like he's going to put a tractor beam on me and beam me up. (Either that or use some sort of death ray to blast Rita to smithereens...)

Wordless Wednesday: Just Bee(s)

Today, instead of our usual photo(s) for Wordless Wednesday, I've got a video. A dogless video, though. Sorry...(come back tomorrow for doggy video goodness).

You can't actually see the main subject, but hopefully you can hear them:

That's the tree in our front yard. When the hubs went out to get the paper on Saturday morning, he came back in and said, "Come look at this tree." I said, "It's lovely. I can see it through the window." "No, I mean, come listen to this tree." It was actually a wee bit scary, since I've seen swarms of bees flying over the house before - as pictured below:

This is actually taken from inside - I'm not out there w/ them. Thank heaven!

I had JUST come in the house and closed the back sliding glass door, which had previously been standing wide open. I almost had a houseful of unwanted visitors. I like bees, but nobody likes unannounced visitors. (Do they?) Luckily on Saturday, they happily stayed in the tree all day and never tried to come in.

(As usual - I intended to be wordless, but that didn't happen... Maybe next time.)

Happy slightly-less-wordy Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday: The Never-ending Deck Story

Remember way back in October when I posted the beginning "rubble"-stage photo of our backyard reno? At that time, we thought the project would be done by Christmas. At this point, I'd be happy if it was done by Valentine's Day. Sigh.

Anyway, at least we have boards on the deck now, so Rita can sun herself when the workers aren't there (standing around, gabbing). As you can see in the photo, the edging isn't done yet, and we still have no steps. Some day....

Maybe by the summer I'll have "after" pictures to share! (All I can say is, thank heaven it's a fixed cost contract and not "time and materials"!)

Happy (mostly) Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday: Doggy Photo Ops

For today's post, I'm sharing some of my sis's photos from their fabulous holiday trip they took to New York, London, Paris, Bologna & Rome. (No, I'm not jealous. Really!)

Here is a quick trip through a few fabulous cities, as seen through a camera lens looking for cute dogs and dog-related things.

First stop - New York, Saint Patrick's cathedral to be exact. You're familiar with the phrase "a dog in the manger" right? Well, this manger scene has one!

Thinking I need to add a dog to my Nativity scene.

I love that he's got a good seat, right up front.

Wordless Wednesday: Basking in the Glow

It's been really cold lately in San Diego. Apparently not record-setting cold, but we have short memories here so it feels like it's much colder than past winters. So, since Momma didn't raise no dumb puppies, Rita can usually be found in the best seat in the house (if one of the ugliest).

We have an old leather club chair in our sun room, and that's her favorite spot on a cold day:

Warming up on a cold afternoon

Wordless Wednesday: Do You Mind?

... your pet's waistline?

Today I'm attempting something different. I'm not sure this feat is allowed under the Bloggers' Rule Book section 2.III.iv subpart D regarding blog hops, but I'm going to try to hop into two hops at one time. (Drum roll please...Hope i don't break something...)

Of course, today is the usual Wordless (um, slightly less wordy??) Wednesday, and since that's so popular (pupular?), I thought it'd be a great time to let all those hoppers know about the Show Off Your Dog's Waistline Campaign, brought to us by Dawg Business.

We've all heard the phrase "a waist is a terrible thing to mind" -- especially at this time post-holiday time of year. But, for your pup, if you don't mind their waist, who will? (Unfortunately, we also have to mind their waste... but that's another blog post.) The goal of the campaign is to bring awareness to pet obesity, which, just like with people, is a big-assed problem.

So, here's Rita's waistline:

"Why are you taking this silly picture, Momma?"

Wordless Wednesday: Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Here's hoping '13 will be lucky for all of us!

Wordless Wednesday: Rita's Christmas Recap

Rita here with a photo-journalist style review of my holiday.

It started out not too good. There was a lot of this.

Seriously?

Wordless Wednesday: Presents!

This is our first Christmas with Rita so it will be fun to see how she reacts to everything. We've been spoiling her and letting her open any presents she gets early. She seems to love the gift idea, and tears right in to the paper. (I've never had a dog that didn't instinctively know how to open a wrapped gift. I swear, dog toys must have a specific odor.)

"Let me in there!"