I have smart dogs!

When Riley was a pup, we decided that we wanted to try to train him to ring a bell on the door when he wanted to go potty. Every time it was time to go potty, we would take him to the door and ask him if he wanted to go potty and to ring the bell. We would not open the door until he ran the bell. He was very easy to train.

The trick to this is to only get him to ring the bell to go potty, not to go outside and play. Riley has mastered this. Travis is a slacker, he lets Riley do it for him.

People never believe me when I tell them that Riley rings a bell to go potty, so I video taped him. This also is proof, that if Riley was human, he would be a cheerleader. He does EVERYTHING with such enthusiasm.

The Bathroom Tour Continues

This was taken at The Spaghetti Warehouse in the Strip District. They have a beautiful, antique floor to ceiling mirror with the most beautiful frame. I ended up cutting off the frame in the photo. This mirror is perfect for taking a full-body photo!

Never complain about your paycheck again!

This is Shannon, she is a special client of mine. I am part of her behavioral therapy. If she is good, during the week, she gets to have a manicure on Friday. She's been a client pretty much since I started doing nails in 2001.

I love her. She makes me realize how much we forget about the little things in life. The things we overlook a lot of times.

A couple of weeks ago, she came in for her appointment. She told me that she had something to show me. She excitedly pulled out her paycheck from her purse. She works for the Progressive Workshop. Most of her "pay" is all of the programs and activities that she gets to do in the program, but they do give them a paycheck. Look how excited she is! She is so proud of that paycheck!

Now take a look at that paycheck. It's for $3.55! Shannon didn't care. She was just happy to get a paycheck!

Don't ever complain about your paycheck again!

Don't leave your camera!

This is what happens when you go out for a smoke break and leave your camera on the table. It gives me free reign to take any photos I want! My friend, Paul found this out the hard way when a bunch of us from the Class of 83 (I'm an honorary member) went out for dinner on Valentine's Day.

I take photos in the bathroom, don't you just love the blue toilet seat!

These are so not worthy of The Bathroom Tour!
I take photos of the electrical outlets.
I put the camera in my lap and shoot, low and behold look at all the gum we have here!

I take photos of people's finished beverages!

I take photos of the window decorations.

I take photos of feet. That's my purple Ugg boot and Deanna's "Do Me" boot.

I make people make funny faces!

Then I pull out the big guns, I start balancing spoons off of my face. This is pure talent people. I am not only balancing the spoon off my face, I am taking the photo too!

So, moral of this blog post.....never, ever, ever, leave your camera unattended when I am around!

Play date with Murhpy!

My friend Kris was home for Valentine's weekend and she suggested a play date for the dogs. She has a black lab named Murphy. Kris grew up down the road from us, so she just walked through the second field to join us for two hours of roming and ball retrieving. It was beautiful when we started, then the snow started. All three boys were pooped at the end of the day.

Meet Trixie!

Well, the new laptop arrived and I am in love. It is about 50 percent larger than Little Fujitsu, but I am getting used to it. I guess in my old age, it's good to go from a 9 inch screen to a 15.5 one.

My friend, Patrick, suggested that I should name her Trixie after Speed Racer's girlfriend. She looks like a Trixie, so that is her official name.

So far, I really like Vista. I was really afraid to get a new computer since they all come with it now, but so far, no issues. I've been able to network with all the other computers in the house and they are running XP, I've been able to connect all of my hardware without any issues as well. So far so good.

Now I am going to work on the back log. I have a TON of photos to share including new Bathroom Tour photos.

Sick Laptop

I haven't been blogging much lately. It's not because I don't have a lot to blog about, I do, it's just that my laptop has been sick since January 29. I really don't like blogging from my desktop. I don't know if it reminds me of working a real job or what.

I guess "injured" is a better word to describe my little, tiny Fujitsu Lifebook that has been my best friends since I purchased it years ago from Vicki Peters. The little plug that you plugged in the AC Adaptor into that provides power or recharges the batter has been acting up. Some days, it would be plugged in and it wasn't registering, but if you would wiggle it, it would be okay. At first, I thought the cord was bad.

I then realized that most of the plastic from the plug inside the computer was missing. Then one day a metal prong came out. Mr. Bruises took it to his friend who is a computer doctor and he took it apart and said that the little board that works that plug looked fried. Hm, now that he mentioned it, I did smell something burning about a month ago, I just assumed it was dog hair!

So, it doesn't look good for the laptop. I've been assured that I can get all my photos, files and information off of the hard drive. I then purchased a new laptop that will arrive on Tuesday.

This new laptop is a lot larger than my little Fujitsu, so I hope I come to like it's size. There is a hell of a story to tell about this new laptop and the ordering, but I am going to wait and see how things turn out before I blog about it.

So, sorry for my absence. I am sorry that some of you are in purple withdrawal. I promise once me and my new pink laptop become acquainted, I will be blogging nearly daily again. I have a back log of stuff for you.

What was that? Why didn't I get a purple laptop? Well if I got a pink one this month, a donation was made to the Susan G Koman Breast Cancer Foundation. I'm all about saving the ta-tas.

Sixburgh Steelers

Sunday was the Super Bowl and the Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the Arizona Cardinals for the World Championship. Mr. Bruises and I stayed home and watched the game. I am the fan in the house. I was wearing my Polamalu shirt and my Terrible Towel was in my hand. I can't watch football in public, I am too violent and I swear entirely too much. Even more than a typical day.

All week, I was predicting that it would be a close game, but that the Steelers would be victorious. Little did I know how correct I would be. That was probably the most gut wrenching, make me want to puke, game I've ever seen.

With two minutes and thirty some seconds left, when Arizona's Fitzgerald scored the touchdown that put them into the lead for the first time this was the conversation:

Mr. B - "It's over, they lost"
Fonda B - "There's
still two and a half minutes, plenty of time for a touchdown"

Mr. Bruises learned a lot about football that night. He also learned that Steeler Fans NEVER GIVE UP. Those last few seconds, I was hyperventilating into my Terrible Towel chanting "Please, Please, Please, No, No, No, Yes, Yes, YES!!!!!!"

My Steelers were victorious! Naturally, Pittsburgh planned a big celebratory parade and I knew I wanted to be there. I drug Pinky Donchadare-O with me and we had a blast. After parking the car, we proceeded to walk the parade route, looking for the perfect place to view the parade.

As we were coming down the Blvd of the Allies, we came upon this parking garage that was totally filled with fans. The crowd would erupt with cheers and jeers as they tossed stuffed footballs from below to the top. We decided that we wanted to join the fun, so we found a spot, on the side on the next to top floor.

It's all fun and games until the Po-Po take your footballs away!

The freaky fans were out in force. We have the Pom Pom man, who was dressed in a suit of black and gold pom poms.

Then we have the guy who is half naked and painted black and gold.

Even the Jesus freaks came out for the parade. I guess the thrill of warning a quarter million people was too much!

The kids above us were crazy and sitting on the railing!

Finally, the parade started and opened with an awesome high school band. Their colors were black and gold.

Here he is, the man, Mike Tomlin. He lead the parade and he was on foot!

Almost all of the players were video taping us as we cheered, waved our towels and took photos and videos. Here's Ben videotaping the parade.

Lots of others too. Baby Ci Ci's truck was a rockin! Those boys were having FUN!

Finally, I bring you the WORST mascot ever! He who must not be named.

Congratulations Pittsburgh on your SIXTH Super Bowl win. Steeler Fans adore you!