All posts by Maurice

Saturday Morning

October 18, 2008 Maurice Leave a comment

Max had his first night in his new home. I put his bed at the foot of our bed. I called him up on our bed, and he came, but would only sit. Tried to get him to lay down, but he didn’t want to.

He left after a couple minutes. He lay in the hall for a bit then went downstairs.

He likes to lay with his back to the stairs, that’s for sure. I think he slept the night in the family room, where there are two beds for him to choose from.

Anyway – here is a video from YouTube of Carolyn and Rookie – if you can watch this and NOT smile, chuckle or say awwwww – then you’re one tough bastard.

The part where Rookie puts his paw on her hip is so sweet…. Someone sent me this video a long time ago, with the Subject Line: Tell People this is BUCK! lol Buck was that goofy, that’s for sure! He loved to run through your legs like Rookie does at the beginning of the video.

All About Max, Commentary

Max is HOME!

October 17, 2008 Maurice 1 Comment

Max is home. It took a little longer than anticipated, because traffic was a nightmare! We were late getting there, and late getting home. But he’s finally here. He was a great dog in the car – just laid down in the backseat and took ‘er easy… when we slowed to a stop, he got up to look, but never made a fuss.

We dropped Pam off at the train, then came on home. I’ve put some food and water out, and he took a drink and ate a little. He’s been sniffing quite a bit at Buck’s favorite spots, but he doesn’t seem to mind a bit that another dog was here.

I gave him a tennis ball, and he actually THROWS it back to you! Now how about that!? He even throws it in the air, and catches it! Man, Buck got the ball and never wanted to give it back! I think Max and I will be playing a lot of ball! (Did I use enough exclamation points in that paragraph??)

Anyway – here’s a picture of him in the house for the first time.

He’s very well behaved. A real charmer… Everywhere I’ve gone, he’s come with me. I think he likes me! :)Maurice

All About Max, For Buck

Blog Post – Thursday

October 16, 2008 Maurice 2 Comments

Tommorrow we get Max. I’m taking the afternoon off so I can make sure we get him home.

I feel slightly guilty that we’re bringing home a new boy already, but I simply can’t go on with this void in my heart, and my life. The mornings have been especially painful for me… Buck and I had breakfast together, went for a walk together and generally started our day together. I really miss him.

I’m nervous about Max too – the Chow requires a strong Alpha Male presence, and I hope I’m up for it!

Thanks to every one for the emails, cards and flowers. They really meant a lot to us.

Maurice

Vacations

Ohio 2008

June 25, 2008 Maurice 2 Comments

Ohio June 2008

Now, we were in Ohio again this summer, staying at Joy and Randy’s place. (Happy 38th Anniversary you two!) We played a TON of golf – and let me tell you – Ohio is a GREAT place to play golf.

Let me tell you – some terrific courses, for some unbelievable prices. How does this sound? 18 holes on a terrific championship course, a cart, lunch and a sleeve of balls for 20 bucks! Yep that’s right, we did that in Ohio. And there were other great deals too – but the sleeve of balls kinda set this one apart!

Comparable courses back home in Vancouver would be double, triple or more! Not that you couldn’t pay more in Ohio, but there was no need! They live quite close to Firestone GCC, so that tells you there is a pedigree there. Every day there was a new challenging course to play. But sadly, we took very few pictures. Most of these shots are from the one course – and I’m not even sure what course that is, to tell you the truth.

But hey, 9 rounds in 11 days… we played a lot of golf!

Here is a movie of a couple famous golfers, who recently (October 18, 2008) celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary.

Amish Country

Mesopotamia, Ohio This is the parking lot at the local Walmart in Amish Country, southern Ohio!

As Randy says, Sam Walton knows a thing or two about marketing, and he wasn’t about to pass up customers with shall we say, less than traditional modes of transportation!

Taking a tour through Amish country is a must when you’re in Ohio. Lots of beautiful furniture made by people who take the time to do really nice work. Just amazing to wander through some of the places.

This is outside the store in Mesopotamia. Randy and Pam try to pass as Amish, but the jig was up when we told Pam that she had to get up at the crack of dawn every day!

Standing in the middle of town, across the street from where Randy and Pam had their picture taken is what is billed as the biggest horse in the world. Whether it is or not, this large wooden horse with Amish buggy is pretty darn cool, eh?

Ashtabula County, Covered Bridges

Randy is a prodigious driver and we get to see a lot of the beautiful countryside in Ohio. The golf courses I’ve already raved about, but the area where they live has a lot of deer running around, too!

I believe this movie is of the Harperfield covered bridge, in Ashtabula County, in north eastern Ohio.

This county is quite famous for the number and variety of covered bridges in the area.

ALL THE OHIO PICTURES.

Grand Cayman, Vacations

Feeding Frenzy!

December 7, 2007 Maurice Leave a comment

Lots and lots of fishes! This is a feeding frenzy folks! Pam brought some fish food into the water and they went crazy for it! Not sure it’s the best thing to be doing, feeding fish? Might attract some big nasty fish, who knows?

We chose a site right at the cruise ship harbor in downtown Georgetown called Eden Rock for our last dive, and man, are we glad we got in here. The entry to the water was easy, with stairs cut into the rock. As soon as you hit the water, you see these HUGE fish called Tarpons.

The next couple of pictures are more of the same feeding frenzy. It’s kind of amazing to be totally surrounded by all these feeding fish, with HUGE tarpons just looking on.

Check out the last couple of pictures on this page for the tarpons – they are about 5-7 feet long and about 200+ pounds – quite intimidating! The waiter at the restaurant right beside Eden Rock, cleans his fish, then throws the debris in the ocean. The TARPONS jump right out of the water to grab the pieces! Unreal!

We saw some other great fish, too. Tim spotted this blue peacock flounder. It was so cool to see him move. He kinda glides along like a flying carpet.

Here is a movie of the dive with the tarpons, off Eden Rock. Some fairly large fish here!

Grand Cayman, Vacations

More snorkeling pictures

December 6, 2007 Maurice Leave a comment

We have snorkeled every single day, and most days twice – unless shopping got in the way! I’ve said it before, and it certainly bears repeating, the clarity of the water is truly astonishing. Sometimes it seems we can see as far as we can on land. It is just that clear.

This blue-lipped fish is really bright. Called a rock beauty, it lives up to that name, that’s for sure!

I never dreamed there was such a world under the water! Everywhere we look, there are fish, and lots of them, not a bunch here, a few there, none there. There are fish everywhere we look, everywhere we turn.

Of course we had another great sunset. Going to miss those a lot. Vancouver can get some good sunsets, but a lot are just ho hum. Every night has been a great picture here on Grand Cayman.

Grand Cayman, Vacations

Swimming with the stingrays

December 5, 2007 Maurice Leave a comment

We’re nearing the end of our vacation, and today we headed out to see the famous Stingray City. We took a large catamaran about a mile off land, and then hopped into the ocean. It was FILLED with stingrays. The Stingrays having been coming to these waters for years to collect the scraps the fisherman toss over the edge, as they clean their catch. The stingrays are quite docile, and don’t mind being handled and touched. They feel sort of like a big portabella mushroom!

It was really quite an experience.

Then they took us to the Coral Gardens. That was easily the most amazing experience we’ve had in the water! I was so distracted, I did not hear the blasts to return to the ship and almost got left out there! Honestly, I simply did not hear it, it had nothing to do with not wanting to leave!

But the fish were amazing. We saw a very cool Nassau grouper, Pam’s been waiting for one of those. Big faces and lips on them. The colors of the coral were something to see as well. We thought we’d seen coral, but wow, this was so much different. There were long golden stalks of what looked like feathers waving in the sea. There were elkhorn coral, brain coral… coral I can’t name. But seeing it all together like that, in this huge teeming world, it was amazing. Just remarkable.