Happy Birthday, Daniela

We celebrated Daniela's birthday just before we left Minneapolis (it was actually the day we flew home, but it's no fun celebrating birthdays on airplanes).

We woke her up with the traditional signing of "Las Mañanitas;" she also got to blow out her candles first thing in the morning, and open her gifts. This is the traditional Mexican way to celebrate birthdays-- gotta love the idea of eating chocolate cake for breakfast!


Happy Birthday, honey!

Ursa Major and Ursa Minor

We spent Thanksgiving in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with Daniela's mother and brother and nephew, as well as Mamita's 2 dogs and Roberto's 1 wolfdog (sadly, no pictures were taken of the dogs, though they were very cute and funny).

Mostly we spent a lot of time fawning over Jack, Roberto's adorable and sweet 11-month-old baby. Oh, and eating. Lots of eating.


It was hard to choose among the pictures of Jack and Roberto...


He's such a sweet little boy...

He's very strong and will soon be walking, if his pulling himself up and other preliminaries are any indication...

Big hand and little hand.. it's a classic.

Happy Thanksgiving

Raz, Lucy, and Moose (not pictured) hope that you and yours had a great Thanksgiving. The Menagerie is back from the holiday and getting ready for the next holiday (in which 3 dogs and their 2 humans will drive approximately 900 miles in a small car).

We recently had a nice visit with Jen, who played patty-cake with Raz...

Still on top

Raz wants Lucy to know that, despite her small size (even smaller since her intestinal difficulties, from which she's now recovering), she is still the top pug dog. Raz often goes to great lengths to dominate Lucy-- by ostentatiously sitting on top of her, by licking her ears or head, etc. Lucy generally puts up with it without complaint, though she often (as here) has a rather annoyed expression. Raz held this position for at least 15 minutes or so...

The ghosts of halloween past

Ok, so I know that Halloween is pretty much well and over by now. But Ingrid still posted something Halloween-related yesterday so...

I thought this might amuse you all...it's me and my brother Roberto, circa 1981.

Post-Halloween Meme

Number of Skittles I've eaten: about half of the original bag

Number of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups I've eaten: 8

Number of tiny tootsie rolls I've eaten: approx. 1000

What I had for lunch yesterday: Halloween candy

How bad my stomach feels: pretty bad

How much I love Halloween: a lot

Why I love Halloween reason #1: you are supposed to eat a lot of candy

Why I love Halloween reason #2: You get to be someone else and be really whacky at it

Why I love Halloween reason #3: I get to use the Dremel to carve the pumpkin. This indulges both my love of Halloween AND my love of power tools.

Am I already planning for Halloween 2007? Yes.

Do I have a typewritten plan for next year so that I don't forget any of my ideas between now and then? Yes.

Does this plan include NOT putting out carved pumpkins on the night before Halloween, lest our new neighborhood indulge in "mischief night?" Yes.

Do I plan to dress like a zombie and attack a SUV with non-toxic, non-paint corroding purple goo? Possibly.

More Halloween pics

Daniela did manage to salvage Halloween-- our one non-stolen pumpkin was carved up with the new Dremel power-pumpkin-carving thing, the dogs were decked out in Halloween stuff, and vast quantities of candy were purchased to dole out to the (handful of) trick-or-treaters.

Here is the pumpkin carver at work...

And the finished product:

And the whole Halloween "ensemble"...


We made several attempts to get all three dogs to pose properly for a Halloween picture, but to no avail.


This is the closest we came, with Moose eyeing the camera warily...


It was easier to get a picture of just the two pugs...


Of course, the dogs were none too pleased to wear their costumes. Raz and Lucy demanded food as compensation:


Moose just asked politely to have it taken off...