Actions Speak Louder than Words: Meet Ferret

When meeting new people, I try not to smear their reputation by posting videos of them doing silly things on my blog.
At least, not until we've hung out more than once.

After that.....they're fair game like everyone else.

(pictures, on the other hand, go into effect immediately)

In an attempt to protect the innocent, we shall call him.....Tim?

(hehehe...gotta love a Monty Python reference!)

But Tim doesn't work. How about Ferret?

(nickname origin is secret, and shall not be divulged)

(for any cost)

(unless it's a bunch of money...then maybe)

(or jewelry)

(there's a new Audi that's pretty nice)

Anyway.......

Ferret's awesome! And this video is one of the reasons he gets along with the group so darned well.

(he's the guy in the brown sweater)



Whoops...nope, that's not the one. :-) :-) Love ya Mot!!!!

Oh wait...here it is.

(keep watching....it happens about 27 seconds in)



Avoid the camera when it's recording? Nope, not for him.

Make a statement when camera is recording.....now that's more like it! :-)

And then there's this one.....

He may hate me for posting this...but Steve insisted.

That's right Ferret, blame Steve. I had nothing to do with it.

(whistling)

Really. :-)



Welcome to the group Tim. :-) :-) :-)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Toilet Paper Sam

At least she was keeping herself occupied...right? :-)

Weekend Update: Ghost of Weekends Past (2)

OK folks....it's winter in Nebraska. And not only that, but the Nebraska winter has been traded with Siberian winter.

Uh huh...there are people in Siberia, wearing shorts and tshirts, because they have our 30 degree weather.

Seriously.

Would I make this sh*t up?

Anyway....why do I tell you this?

Because I'm looking for excuses to explain why every one of my non puppy posts is about going to the bar.

Really...it's the only place I take pictures any more. From bar to hockey, from hockey to bar. From bowling to bar.

Here's the thing...the four of us hang out...all the time. We've just traded our normal get together spots (our house, their house, etc) for the Worm.

But they have tequila, and chicken nachos!!!

Can you blame us? :-)

We've jumped ahead a week....so come with me to Feb 12th -13th.

Come on...it's safe!


As per tradition. (Our tradition.) There must always been a hand print in the front on the daiquiri machine. Always.

Look in the background of other pictures I've taken other nights.....there will always be one. :-)


This is Josh and Monica (Helga). They live downtown, and are usually there when we are. They're from Michigan.

Michigan was in town for hockey. Instead of going to the game...we all stayed at the Worm and watched it on TV.

Mavs won...Michigan lost. (We invited them to come sit with us at the game on Saturday..they didn't show. We must give them crap!)


Every once and a while, we'll get a shot or two of one of her reeeaalllly top shelf stuff to share and try.

I won't tell you what we call this one.

It's nickname is inspired by the shape of the bottle.

That's all I'll say.

At some point in the evening...a fuse blew in the black and white hallway from hell. (which, by the way, is a term of endearment...never change the floor Nat...you hear me?)

It was mere moments before we all raced down the dark hallway to the source of the problem...the light switch in the men's' room.

All I can say is....."never let drunk men with power tools try to fix your shorted out light switch."


And never let a drunk person run the camera. It was pitch black down there. All we had were candles. And I just started shooting pics and video. The video is all sound....because it was so dark (duh)...and the pictures all turned out something like this.


Right after I took this, everyone was blind. I had no idea who I was going to get in the shot. Pitch black is an understatement! :-)


Working on the switch by candlelight.


We found the problem was more than we could handle at that time, so the door to the hallway was locked.

Some would unlock it to go to the restroom (there's another restroom, but they insisted on peeing in the dark)....and then "someone" would lock them in the hallway. It never ceased to get old. :-)


At some point, the camera was taken from my possession....and when I woke up the next morning, it was in my purse.


We entertained Chris, and the rest of the staff, all night.


Do you see Danny's wet leg. Do you want to know how it happened? He spilled a full margarita on the floor.

Directly on my foot.

I was squishing around in my shoe the rest of the night.

Apparently a little of it got on him.

After this...the events of the night become fuzzy. I've mentioned the horrible week I'd had at work....well, I successfully forgot all about work that night.

I also forgot how we got home (thank you Steve!). And I forgot about the snowball fight in our front yard (which I apparently TRIED to take pictures of).....



Steve and Danny chickened out of the hockey game the next night (lazy bums!)...so Mot and I went together...just the two of us. Date night!!!!!!!

Mavs won again. Woohoo!!!!!!!

And, I'll have you know. Just so you don't think we complete drunks. We didn't go to the Worm before or after the game.

Sunday was bowling day...but I'd already prebowled (our quartet was supposed to sing in Lincoln that day). The gig got canceled...(actually we canceled it....there were blizzard white outs going on, and the interstate was shut down due to pile ups and such)....so Mot went bowling, I stayed home and napped on the couch with Sam.

Ah, puppy napping. Love it!!!!!

Weekend Update: Ghost of Weekends Past

I fell off the "blogging about my weekend" wagon during the month of February. There are a million reasons, none of which are interesting enough to write about. Life happens...you know?

So....let's travel back in time. Omaha. Stardate 63563.4. (Feb 5th, 6:00 pm)

(I had to look that one up.)


The weekend had finally arrived. Ohio St was in town for hockey. Mot and I headed down after work, and the boys arrived not too long after. We met at the Worm, and headed over to the arena.


It was snowing. But really, is that worth mentioning? It's been doing that since June 7, and is going to continue until August 14th.

Per the Farmer's Almanac.

OK, not really. But that's what it SHOULD have said. :-)


And, as with smoke and flame...where there's snow, there are snowball fights.






Durango, the Maverick mascot, came up to say hi. It's not often he moseys up to our neck of the woods.

Mavs won. There were over 13,000 people in attendance. Fun game!

Since Natalie wasn't at the Worm before the game, and since we parked right across the street (how very convenient, eh?)...we went in to see if she was there on our way back.

She was.

But...she wasn't working. Her and her hubby had been on vacation all week, and she just stopped in to check the place out and say hi...so, she sat down and hung out for a while.


Danny and Steve brought that bottle in to her. Aren't they sweet???


I have this thing about stealing Danny's hats. The one I was wearing in Denver, Danny's. This one, Danny's. This one didn't work so well with the ponytail though. :-)

Mot had to work the next night, and Danny was staying put at home...so Steve and I went to the game Saturday night.


We decided to try out the chicken nachos. (maybe not the best weight loss food, eh? but heck, there's grilled chicken in there...that's healthy...protein is needed...and guac, that's a veggie....right?)

:-)

Ferret and his buddy Chad were there when we arrived. The only pic I have of Chad is actually a video of him singing some sort of Illinois fight song or something. Not being an Illinoigian (hehehe), I'm not sure what it was.

The four of us headed over to the game (Mavs won, again!!), then on our way back to our vehicles......well......

Yeah......you guessed it.


Natalie said I'd never get a good picture of her. She doesn't know me well enough to know that it was then a challenge. :-)


Steve and I playing taxi service for Ferret that night.


We invited sleeping "beauty along" for Sunday Funday donut morning. Mot met us there when he got off of work that morning.

Then, after breakfast, the two of spent the rest of the day dismantling the desk in our den...and covering yet another wall of the room in bookshelves. :-)

From there we went to bowling, then home to get ready for the upcoming week.

Actions Speak Louder than Words : Us vs the Hallway

So...it's no secret...we have a new place to spend our evenings after bowling...and our evenings before hockey.

And after hockey games.

And maybe an occasional evening just because we were in the area.

And we can neither confirm nor deny being told by the owner not to come down one weekend, because we "don't need to single handedly pay her rent for the month."

We may or may not invite the owners to Sunday Funday donut mornings.

And, it's been reported that everyone in the bar seems to know us all by name....or, at the very least, they know us as the "Sunday group."

I mean, we're nothing, if not loyal. If we like a place, we hang out there. We switch off on who gets to drink, or who gets to drive that night.

We're really responsible that way. :-)

But, for every evening that someone is driving....there is at least one person who isn't driving.

If you know what I mean?

So, I thought I'd start making Fridays my "videos of drunken debauchery" day.

No....it's not video of people breaking windows, or looting stores, even peeing on the main streets of town. It's just us...being silly....for a camera.

My camera.

And most of the time, people aren't aware it's on video mode.

I'm sneaky that way.

Well.....I was sneaky...but now they steal it from me....and I'm a victim as well.

What's fair is fair I guess. :-)

I'm going to kick off the Friday video fest with something I like to call....the "Hallway."

In 'the Worm' (what we fondly call Eat the Worm)...there is a hallway to the bathroom.

It's a long hallway.

And when you've been drinking...it's a RREEEEEAAAAALLLLLYYYY long hallway.

First up, John vs the Hallway

P.S. no worries...these things are like 20 seconds...IF that :-)



This little spot is what I like to call...."Steve knows the camera video is on. Steve has also decided the best way to tackle the hallway of doom is with speed. Go as fast as you can, don't stop, don't falter, and never....never look at the camera."


I consider the hallway a runway of sorts. Most people walk (stumble) down it....mesmerised by the offset black and white tiles. I like to make the best of a bad situation. When the hallway starts to waver back and forth....the best way to handle it is my being unpredictable. Catch it off guard before it can do you harm.

To quote Kevin Bacon (ummmm...baaaaacoonnn)...

(ahem)

To quote Mr Bacon....."Let's Dance!"

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

The musical side of me took about a million years staring at the huge pipe organ in the cathedral we visited in Denver.

(whew, that was a long sentence)

I'd love to hear it being played!!!!!

Here's a small snipit of it.

Training Camp

Sam just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Mot took her to the vet for her rabies shot, and she weighed in at just over 35 pounds. Doc says we're going to have an 80 lb lab.

Swweeettt!!!!

I have to admit fully, that her puppy-ness has been testing the boundaries of my patience.

Really, really testing.

"Oh my gawd, why did we buy you" testing.

"Mot, if you don't get this beast away from me, I'm going to lose it" testing.

"For the love of.............."

You get the point.

That being said, she's brilliant. She's cute. And she's awesome.

Yeah, she has me wrapped around her little white toe.

As I type this, she's pushing a rawhide bone (full of peanut butter) around the room with her nose. Because it's too big to pick up? Nope. Because the floor is slick? Nope.

She's doing it because it makes noise.

If it can be slammed, banged, crashed, or smashed.....she'll do it. And she's smiling the whole time.

I go to the basement to do a load of laundry, and I no more than get to the bottom step when WWIII has begun in my living room just above.

Any more, I just finish what I'm doing, then go up to assess the damage.

She's actually quite good...even now that the serious chewing has started. We have enough toys for her to gnaw on, that most of our own personal possessions have been spared.

So far.

(sigh)

She's a retriever to the T. She's fetched since the day we brought her home. Mot is now throwing multiple dummies at one time.....she brings one back then goes for the other. The only problem is how deep this d*mn snow it. We've broken.....oh no, we've obliterated records for the length of time people have not seen their driveways, sidewalks, and lawns. I know for a fact we put steps on our deck....but I'm forgetting what they look like. It's been since the beginning of Dec that I've last seen them.

But anyway.....Sam knows nothing but snow....so she's quite the snow bunny. :-)

Last week, on the 7th to be exact, Mot was again outside with Sam. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on. She watches the throw....and tears after it when Mot tells her it's OK to go. (another thing she's done since the beginning) But this day....the two of them were so darned cute together. The way she would snuggle up against him while he was throwing. The way he would sit there with his hand on her back...even though she stays without us doing that.


















I'm not the only human in the house wrapped around that little white toe of hers. :-)

Back in the Saddle Again

As you have probably already noticed, I've been MIA in the blog world lately. Works bites the big one right now.....and if it wasn't for the whole responsibility thing, I'd have thrown myself out the nearest window, and ran into the sunset screaming and ripping out my hair.

But...since my parents raised me right, I've just been dealing with it. I normally don't take work home with me (mentally)....but the last two weeks haven't been normal. Not at all.

So, having said that.....I'm back now. I'm going through all the pics I've taken the last couple weekends, and I'll start getting everyone caught up on the drunken stupors, hockey games, and all other misc capers we've participated in. :-)

Lucky you! :-)

It's the little things in life.

She gets up at 5:00 am this morning....again. She puts the dogs outside and then wanders downstairs to change into her workout clothes, and grab her gym bag. She comes back upstairs, packs a lunch, makes a protein shake, brings the dogs inside, and then heads to the garage.

The drive in takes quite a bit more time than usual. Probably due to the 6 bloody inches of snow they've received since she went to bed. Normally the snow is a happy thing...but today it's just more of a frustration than anything. (Probably because she hasn't seen the ground (either grass, dirt or pavement) since some time in November.) But...no one has driven on the roads she takes before reaching the interstate...and she uses her car as a small red snowplow to get to where she's going. It's fun and puts a smile on her face.

The gym is almost empty....the weather has kept everyone at home, or has delayed their arrival. After some strength training, she has her pick of treadmills. The lady that runs with "mixing bowl arms" and 8-9 mph speed isn't there to make her feel like a slacker. It puts a smile on her face.

She tunes her iPod to the FM station noted on the TV screen ahead of her so she can watch TV while running. The timing between the audio in her ears, and the video in front of her is off....about 3 seconds. It's like watching a martial arts movie with English voice overs. Mouths moving, no sound.....then sound follows later. It puts a smile on her face.

She starts getting bored on the treadmill. Thoughts of things she has to do at work, and at home are buzzing through her brain. Someone climbs onto the treadmill next to her. There are 8 treadmills in a row right there, and they pick the one directly next to her? She looks over and sees it's her husband. He ended up getting out of bed and coming to the gym with her after all. She feels guilty, he was sleeping so nicely until she woke him up to see if he was coming. And even more so because he hates treadmills. But, him being there puts a smile on her face.

When the time comes, she goes to the locker room to shower and get ready for the day. She tries to hurry, so she can say goodbye to hubby before he leaves. When she walks out of the locker room and out into the gym, she can't find him anywhere. Has he left? She goes outside and his vehicle is gone.

She gets into her car, puts her keys into the ignition and looks up. The snow is still coming down, maybe even a little heavier than when she arrived over an hour ago. She notices something on her windshield. The heavy snow has almost erased it...but it's still there..faint, but still there. She sees the same thing on the foggy bathroom mirror at home sometimes. A heart is drawn in the snow on her window.

It puts a smile on her face.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Towering Above

After leaving the Denver capital, we decided to see if we could get inside the cathedral across the street.



And, believe it or not....I took this picture from the car, as we were driving by. I just stuck the camera out the window and fired off a bunch of shots.

From my camera, that is.

I don't make a habit of shooting at churches.

Really, I don't.

Well....camera shooting maybe.

Ah, never mind!!!

Weekend Update #42: All in the Family

After taking Lauren to the shooting range Saturday morning, the three of us (Mot, Nej and Sam) headed to Plattsmouth to see Mot's brother, niece, and their new pup (Sam's brother) Ice.


Isn't he a handsome devil?


The sun was setting, I don't have an external flash for my camera (yet), and...well...they're puppies...who never sit still. I could just about cry that this picture isn't in focus. :-(


This one is a little less blurry, but Sam, as always, has found something off in the distance to watch. She's a watcher, that one. :-)

The two of them spent 5 hours doing nothing but playing. All out WWE for dogs, the entire afternoon. They were both covered in drool and slobber....but having the time of their lives beating the crap out of each other....as any good brother and sister should. :-)

Weekend Update #42: They grow up so fast.

My sister, my niece and their dog Emmy came over to visit Thursday night. Actually, it was a play date for Sam and Emmy. :-)

Lauren really wanted to come over, because she thought Uncle Mot might be home...and she really needed to talk to him.

Turns out, she REALLY REALLY wants to start turkey hunting with Mot and I. In fact, she said she wants to get a turkey and eat it for Easter - how cute is that?

He took her downstairs and had a "gun talk" with her while Inny and I babysat the playing puppies (tornadoes in fury bodies). He starting showing her shotguns and explaining how they work, etc. Neither my smaller 20 gauge or .410 fit her quite yet....her arms just aren't long enough. But...he still wanted to introduce her to shooting.

So...Saturday morning we picked her up and took her to our local indoor shooting range.

My little girl, in her pink shoes and coat...walked right into that place with all the confidence in the world. I knew she was nervous...but she handled herself very, very well.

We doubled up her hearing protection, and the noise didn't bother her in the least. Mot did another "gun talk" with her...and then started her off shooting one .22 round at a time.

The first target we had up didn't show her shots very well...so we switched to a more visible option. Once she could see where her shots were going...she had a blast!!!

I might be a little biased...but she did great! Her first target had three shots on the edges....but the second target didn't have one outside the center rings.

The range was pretty full.

Of guys.

Who kept stepping back to watch her shoot.

One guy right next to us had his target a little further back than hers...but not much. His shots were all over the paper.

Once he saw how she was doing....he pretty much kept to himself, and you could see his concentration level go up a few notches.

I giggled.

After we left the range, we had to drop her off at a birthday party.

I can only imagine what everyone thought when she arrived with her two targets. The first thing she said my sister when we dropped her off..."Aunt Nej says I can put this on the fridge, with my other artwork!!"

(hehehehe)

Reminds me of my aunt and uncle from St. Louis, doing the same thing with my cousin's targets. Any smart burglar will think twice when breaking into a house, and seeing targets with "Jane Doe, Age 7" scribbled on them. :-) :-) :-)


Getting some more instruction from Uncle Mot before starting.


Learning how to aim, and about sight pictures.


Loading.


And finally shooting.



She was grinning from ear to ear when we left, and was already asking when we could go back again. :-)