AND THE WINNER IS.......

We were not expecting a winner in less than 24 hours but there you have it.  The winner was MH of Cottage Grove who sent me the following response:

Horseshoe "Field or Pits"

The triangular covers keep the sand dry from the rain and the narrow concrete paths are for walking back and forth to retrieve your horseshoes.

Just to refresh every one's memory, here was the photo that obviously was not challenging enough.   I am now scoping out The Villages for a more difficult contest picture.  Stay tuned for the next Villages contest appearing soon.  Spread the word to family and friends. 

THE CONTEST

Steve and I took Moe to the mailbox on Water Lilly and thought we'd introduce him to "The Villages" poop areas.  During our walk & tug session, we ran into the item shown to the left.  We had no idea what it was so Steve being Steve, took it apart and found out what it was.  Needless to say, I was shocked but it did make sense even for me. 

The only clue you will get is that this item is located behind the Bonita mailboxes and next to the Bonita pool. 

The first person who emails me with the correct answer will win a gift card to Subway.  Perhaps if it is very difficult, and I suspect it will be, we "might" give you another hint but we'll see. 

Write to brianvlgr@live.com,  with "Villages Guess" in the subject line.

Happy Guessing 

THE NEW CLEAN UP

Does this look like the face of a guilty party?  I think so.  As you may, or may not know, Steve and I had new carpeting installed in the house down in Florida.  A stupid thing to do while you're trying to house train a puppy.  The old stuff was so ugly, letting his "duties" fall on it would have been a help. If not for the toxicity of the excretions, it really wouldn't have mattered at all.

Speaking of toxicity, while Steve is in Wisconsin, Moe and I are having a battle to see who is going to win out the potie war.  I guarantee, I will win.

That being said, I may win the war but I think he's winning the battles.  He did his job behind the love seat which made me angry.  I didn't yell, hit or even cry, but I was close. (to crying).  The landfill outside Madison smells better.

I knew I had to do something without puking during the removal of toxic waste, so I used the can of spray air freshener Steve showed me before he left, so that would be my ammunition.  I got my cleaner, paper towel, scrub brush and "the can" and had at it.  I knew that if I didn't do something about the smell this was going to become a problem.  My first instint was to spray the dump with the fancy spray but that didn't sound so good.  Then the light went on, dim as it is.  I decided to spray the pretty fragerance into the air and while it trickled down to the "area" I would have at it.  So I'd spray a bunch in the air and pick things up.  Spray into the air and wipe up the area, spray the stuff and scrub the landfill, spray into the air and blot again. 

So had you come into the house you'd have seen sprays coming up from the back of the love seat and then the sound of brushing on the carpet.  

All that being said, it does work.  I wish I could sell it as a kit.  The spray, scrub and shit kit. 

And so it goes....



Moe

Moe is trying to make peace with what Florida laughingly call "grass".  He enjoys being outside more than he dislikes the grass is my guess.

But this morning Moe is not having a good day.  He must have eaten something outside that didn't agree with him because he has been chowing down on that grass like mad.  And anyone who has ever had a dog knows what happens after a dog eats grass.  You get to see it again, from either bow or stern!

This all started early this am so Brian took the first shift and is now catching up on sleep while I am on duty.  All part of having a dog!

Happy New Year!

2012 has arrived.  And no, neither Brian or I looked or felt like this little guy after our New Year's Eve celebration.  Well, to be honest, I feel like that pretty much every morning, New Year's or not! 

And that makes 2011 history.  Can't say that we are sorry to see it go.  We've had better years.  Yes, there was good, but the bad was pretty bad.  Health issues and loss of loved ones pretty much wrap up the bad.

But hey, lets be optimistic!  2012 brings us all that damned election media frenzy.  That is unless the Mayans are right after all and 2012 is the last year for all of us.  I seriously doubt that, but it will be in the news too.

Actually, our New Year's Eve was more like the picture on the left.  We enjoyed a New Year's Eve party here in The Villages with friends, old and new.  And there was actually a "Conga Line" and even though Brian is not a dancer, he did jump in with the rest of us.  What I wouldn't give for a photo of that!  :-) So, Happy 2012 Everyone!



Happy Holidays

Brian, Moe and I would like to wish all our readers (we're hoping in 2012 we will hit double digits!) a very Happy Holiday Season.  Whether it be Christmas, Hanuka, Yule or Servitude to the Shopping Gods, we wish you all the best for the Holiday Season.

Our Christmas present this year was obviously Moe.  The 6 pound 7 ounce bundle of fun and attitude that we added to our little family in November.  Having a dog in the house again has been the best gift we could have given ourselves.

This is turning out to be a bit of an odd Christmas for us.  We both decided that Moe was enough of a Christmas present for both of us, so we did very little shopping.  As much as I HATE snow, the weather has not really been very Christmasy.  Since we are leaving for Florida the Wednesday after Christmas we didn't put up a tree or a lot of decorations.  A few here and there just to avoid complete Scroogedom.

All of this is leaving me and Brian with sort of a feeling that we are not "doing Christmas".  But if I may get a bit sentimental for a moment, all the things the Holidays represent; family, friends, gatherings, gift giving, that warm and fuzzy feeling the Holidays conjure up......   we are lucky enough to have all year long.  Not just on Christmas.  And I know, a big part of Christmas is to remind us of all we have and a great excuse to get together with loved ones, but please remember - if your Christmas is not a reenactment of "White Christmas" or "It's A Wonderful Life", happiness doesn't happen just one time a year.  It happens all year long.  Sometimes we just don't stop long enough to realize it.

So, once again, from our house to yours HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Settling In

It has been less than a week and Moe has settled in quite well with us.  The first few days he was very quiet, but more and more of his personality has been coming out.  And yeah, we think that is a good thing.  Mostly a good thing.  :-)

We have been taking him to work with us which, so far, has worked out really well.  Everyone there seems to love him and so he gets lots of attention but most of the day, he curls up under my desk and sleeps.

Aside from the fun of having him at work, we have to be honest and admit that part of the reason is that Moe does not like to be alone!  Even when he is chewing on a rawhide, like in the picture, he stops every so often and looks around to make sure either me or Brian are still within view, then back to the chewing.  If not, the rawhide is forgotten and he's off to find one of us.

He is starting to play more, has conquered steps and pretty much is living the charmed puppy life.  Well, almost.....

As I said before, he does not like to be alone, but life is tough even for puppies and so there are times he has to be left alone.  Like when Brian went to take his Realtor's License test (which he passed with flying colors - way to go Brian!) or today when we went out to lunch.

On Brian's test day, I guess we didn't have the zipper on the kennel closed tightly enough and when I got home to check on him, he met me at the door!  Nothing seemed to be peed or pooped on, nothing chewed so we counted ourselves lucky.  Laughed about it actually. 

Then to prove we have the superior brain power here, when we left him in the kennel to go to lunch today we made sure to latch the end of the zipper to the catch at the top of the kennel.  We came home to find him almost out of the kennel again!  I say almost because we caught him with his head and one paw sticking out of the hole he CHEWED in the kennel! 

We bought this fabric type of kennel because we thought, how much damage can a 6 pound puppy do?  Guess he taught us a lesson!  This thing is made of heavyweight nylon.  Stuff they use to make backpacks and luggage.  Not tough enough to hold back Moe though!  As I said before, Buzz Saw - I mean Moe - doesn't like to be left alone!

Gotta admit that it sort of tickles me though.  We were hoping that even though Moe is on the small side, he would have a little spunk.  Maybe not this much, but ya gotta laugh.....