This Video Made My Day

This is fantastic... I love it!

Ginny's Report Card

Yesterday morning we took Ginny to Happy Tails Pet Resort. We had plans to hang out with some friends last night and knew we'd be out late. In the past we have just arranged to have someone come over and feed and walk her, but we thought we'd try the "Pet Resort." We took her yesterday morning, and just picked her up this morning... so she stayed there overnight. When we picked her up, we got her "report card."

She "Loved" outside time, playing on equipment, and "double" loved pettin' and lovin'. She also thought playing ball and swimming were "Kinda fun." Apparently she behaved herself and had a good time. :) She was WOUND UP when we picked her up. We came straight home and took her outside to the dog park here and she just ran and played until she wore herself out.

She crashed when we got back inside...

She was happy to see Matt... :)

It isn't super cheap to put her up there, but its nice to have that as an option. I was relieved that she seemed to be happy there and the people seemed nice.

Puppy Dog Eyes

Look at my sweet puppy.... :)

Bastrop Fire

The fire in Bastrop has yet to be fully contained, although they are making significant progress. It is unbelievable to see pictures of the fire there. It has destroyed hundreds of homes and thousands of acres of land. At one time, the fire stretched to 16 miles long.

We could see the clouds of smoke in Austin...

There have been several fires popping up around the area. There was one 1-2 miles away from our apartment yesterday, but luckily they were able to control it. There have been several smaller fires in the Cedar Park/Leander area, one of which damaged a friend's yard, but thankfully not their house. Unfortunately, it sounds like many of these smaller fires lately have been started purposefully. I just can't imagine what satisfaction someone would get out of doing that. I know a few arrests have been made already.

This morning, while at work, it got real hazy outside and the whole building started smelling like smoke. Apparently it was just blowing through from somewhere else, but it was pretty awful.

Anyway, we're keeping an eye on things, and we've still got some bags packed by the door in case something were to happen.

Fires

No rain + extreme heat + high winds = a lot of fires across Texas.

We had fires all around us last night. Luckily none of them got any closer than about 15 miles away from us. There was a really bad one in Bastrop (southeast of Austin) that destroyed over 400 homes... I think they are still trying to get that one under control. There were some in Pflugerville (north east of us), a couple in Cedar Park (north of us) and a pretty bad one in the Steiner Ranch neighborhood (about 15 miles west of us). There are/were several more in the area. Apparently there were several in other parts of Texas as well.

Some old church friends of ours live in Steiner Ranch and had to evacuate, but we saw a facebook post this morning that they think their house is OK. I just saw a video on the news of a personal video taken by a Steiner Ranch resident and it was just awful. So many homes lost. I haven't heard too much about people being injured though, so thats good.

There were just SO many fires, that we decided we ought to be prepared just in case we were asked to evacuate. Matt put together a few things that he considered the "essentials." We packed a few clothes, the computer (which has all of our pictures), some dog food for Ginny, and all of Matt's musical instruments. :) When I got up this morning I informed Matt that he also needed to add the fire extinguisher to the pile! I made Ginny pose for the picture since we consider her "essential." :)

It sure is tough to try to decide what to pack and what not to pack. Unfortunately, not everyone who had to evacuate last night had that option. We didn't have any immediate threats last night, but we are still at "high risk" for fires today. We're keeping a watch on it and trying to stay safe!

Are You Embarrassed?

Ginny has done this "trick" for a while now, but she is stubborn about it. She usually only does it on command when she is real sleepy. We've tried to catch it on video before and haven't been able to, so I was happy to get this clip last night...

Craigslist Rocking Chair

When I don't have anything to do, I like to get on Craigslist and look at two different categories.

"Pets" and "Antiques"

This particular time, I was looking at antiques. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just browsing. I came across a rocking chair for sale that looked JUST like one that my grandmother used to have in her house.

I recently (within the past month or two) had a dream that I went back to my grandmother's house and I was so sad that the people now living there had changed it so much. Everything looked so different.... except for one room. The smaller living room was EXACTLY the same, and I went in and sat in the rocking chair that she kept in there and just enjoyed being in my grandmother's living room.

That same rocking chair is the one I found on Craigslist! I went to Matt and gave him my sweet, puppy dog eyes, told him that it was really special to me, and asked if I could buy it. He just looked at me and said, "How am I supposed to say no to that?" (that means I have the puppy dog eyes down)

SO. I contacted the lady and found out that she had already talked to a guy about him possibly picking it up on Saturday. I told her I'd pay $10 more than the asking price if she'd let me have it instead, and explained why I wanted it. I then found out that she had just increased the price on the listing to nearly TWICE as much as originally listed, it just hadn't updated on the site yet.

The good news.... I got a message from the lady that said, "I'll let you have it for the price you offered since I know you really want it."

YAY! So we drove to Round Rock and met the woman in a Panda Express parking lot (which Matt liked, because he LOVES their orange chicken!) and picked it up! She said that she started doing some research and thinks it might actually be worth a couple of hundred dollars. Apparently the guy who wanted to pick it up on Saturday was an antique collector, but the woman said she just felt better about giving it to someone who really wanted it.

So here it is! It doesn't necessarily "fit" our living room, but I absolutely love it. :)

This is Matt holding Ginny so she wouldn't get in the picture with the chair... but I got their picture anyway. :)

So there! It was a fun day for me because I'm really excited about this rocking chair! Just thought I'd share. :)