Heather & Jim's Wedding

Here are a few pics from Heather's wedding last weekend. My mom took more with her camera, but we couldn't get organized the day after to get hers uploaded and sent to me.

The wedding was very nice, with the exception of a few annoyances from Heather's self-centered sister - the co-maid of honor (ex: walking out of the church by herself rather than w/the best man and Fanchon), things appeared to run very smoothly.

At Amber & Jason's wedding a few years ago, the groomsmen did a boxer dance, and earned a curtain call for a repeat performance. Anticipating that would be the case, Heather customized boxers for all of the girls in the wedding party and both sides of the family so we could show up the guys. It was acutally pretty funny, even the grandmas were out shakin it in purple boxer shorts!

Home Sweet Home

After being gone at Heather's wedding and a conference in Kansas City, I'm finally home and getting back into the routine.

Here's a shot of Rog & I at Lincoln Park .... it was very sunny!!! I uploaded some pics from the wedding into Photobucket, but at midnight last night couldn't figure out how to get a rotating slideshow thing to work. And now when I try I get a fatal error message. Looks like today's not the day.

The wedding was nice, but don't want to share too many details in this post. Rog seemed to enjoy himself a bit too much at the rehearsal dinner and had a nice display of digestive pyrotechnics along the street on the ride home. Needless to say, there were several others who were in his club that night and the next.

At my conference, we stayed at the same hotel as the New York Yankees. My room was down the hall from A-Rod and a few other players but I never really saw them. I only saw Miguel Cairo who I recognized since he's a former Cardinal. It was pretty cool, but really kind of annoying with all of the people lingering around outside the building looking for autographs, pictures, etc.

Since I'm getting back in the swing, I'll post the wedding pics and some of Rog's exciting news in the next day or so.

Beach Beauties

This past weekend, my mom and Phoebe went on "vacation" and came to see us for a few days while Larry went to some car races. Mom hadn't been here since move-in day and Phoebe has never been on a vacation so it was a nice trip for both of them.

On Saturday, Rescued Racers hosted a beach party at one of the dog bakeries. In the beachwear contest, Phoebe tied for third-place dressed as a lifeguard - since greyhounds can't swim we felt the need to have a guard on duty. Her tank top actually said "Guard" on the back, but you can't see it in the pic. She also had a towel, whistle and red lei around her neck. For her coy moves on the catwalk and her daring leap into the baby pool, Pheobe won a bag of treats from our bakery.

Dream was the grand prize winner, sporting a grass skirt, coconut bra and festive purple lei. It was a close race for first with the black dog. Dream had the edge, though, as a gust of wind blew up her skirt right in front of the judges ... shameless hussy, she'll do anything to win treats.

The next day, we took Dream to final be reunited with her mom. Dream seemed a little interested, but no more so than any other dog. Fly on the other hand was very interested in Dream so we think she knew. But in typical hound fashion, they both looked at the cameras at different times so Rog had to help them out a bit.

Dirt Ball Bar Crawl in Rural IL ... Can It Get Any Better?!?

For Heather M's bachelorette party, since she's from a VERY small town we decided to go on a small town bar tour for her bachelorette party ... which of course was dubbed the dirt ball bar crawl in the preceding weeks. Click on the picture of me, Heather and Fanchon and check out the "Welcome Hunters" sign behind me and the can coozie from the bar in Oakford, Heather's hometown ... it's pretty classy!

Most of us dressed like hoosiers to fit in with the locals, and I was actually quite surprised that with all of our temporary tattoos, camo, wife beaters and shirts with the sleeves ripped off that we weren't quite dirt ball enough in some places. At one place in Kilborn, there were people walking around in the bar barefoot!!!

We cruised in our Navigator limo through 5 or 6 towns with populations under 400 to hit the local watering holes. My personal favorite was an old houseboat on stilts - or cinder blocks depending on how many drinks you'd had - in Bath, called of all things "The Boat." (Picture to the right.)

It claims to be home to the Redneck Fishin' Tournament, an event where the fish jump into the boats ... and it's even broadcast nationwide on ESPN! We even went to some guy named Rick's 50th birthday party in Chandlerville.

Oh the things you learn out in the backwoods... too bad Carrollton wasn't on our route!

Picking Up a Fly Girl - Dream's Mom Meets Dream's Mom

If anyone actually reads our blog, you'll remember that on June 7 we posted that Dream's mom would be officially retired that weekend. Note that it's now July and we FINALLY have "M's I Can Fly" (aka Fly) off of the puppy farm and in St. Louis.

Fly was one of 13 dogs our rescue group picked up yesterday from Kansas City ana Abilene, KS. She had been in Abilene for a little over a week after spending some time in Texas, she's very well-travelled for a dog.

For a dog that's 11, and has been popping out pups for the last 8 1/2 years, Fly is in relatively good shape. Since they feed the dogs a horrible diet, she has very few teeth and appears to have some sort of infection in her mouth. But nothing a few days of antibiotics can't clear up.

Hopefully in the next week or so, we'll take Dream to be reunited with her mom ... who happens to be staying in the same house as Dream's grandma, Mimi.


Our car hauled another girl, Glider, from the meeting point to the vet. She's a very good girl and did her thing out in the grass rather than in the car like the last boy we picked up did! Her only issues was a couple of fleas ... but pretty sure the car is clear.

Feeling Paris' Pain

Thought I'd share a picture I took of the room, cell, whatever where I lived for the last week during my conference. It was hot outside, but you could pretty much see your breath inside! Had they not had great food and only served bologna sandwiches, I would have totally felt like Paris.

Made my first impression of Haynie on move-in day seem not so bad. We definitely had much more room, and walls that weren't cinder block.

But now it's back to the warm house and the bit comfy bed, so all is well with the world.