Maggie in Denver

I thought you would like to see pictures of Maggie and her cousin, Abby, in Denver.

"Mom, I thought you said there would be snow!"

"That's alright. We can play in the grass"




"Oh, this is snow!! It's cold, Mommy!"

'I kind of like it!"




"Abby, it's getting cold out here. Let's take this inside"



"We can wrestle in the house."

"Mommy, I think I wore Abby out!"

"We're taking a nap. Talk to you later!"

*note: We were in Denver for three weeks and this went on the entire time. Non-stop playing and wrestling and chasing squirrels and rabbits. Maggie and Abby became best buds. Can you guess who the "Alpha Dog" turned out to be?

Blog Friends and Scottys

On our drive home Sweety and I were so very fortunate to stop in and meet in person my dear blog friend, Mary and her husband Bill. We had the best time. It was like we had known each other for years. Mary's house is so full of vintage treasures that I didn't know where to look first. She loves to collect the same types of antiques that I do and has a real knack for decorating. Her best attribute, however, is making her guests feel like a million dollars. Thank you Mary and Bill for a wonderful afternoon. I can't wait to come back there to visit again.

Miss Jean, Mary and Miss Maggie

I was just speechless when Mary gave me a welcome present. It's the little ceramic Scotty planter above. She said she has had it for quite a while and just felt like I should have it. I told you she was wonderful! The ribbon is organically hand dyed that Mary made herself. She is quiet the crafty lady!! She also had a gift for Sweety. A gift bag with bottled water, granola bars, candy and apples. What a great idea and one I will remember and use. I think we had most everything eaten by the time we got out of New Mexico.

I wanted you to see where my new little Scotty from Mary lives now. This is an area under our stairs in the living room. The small chair is needlepoint that I found at a consignment store and has a Scotty on it. The large chair has a Scotty on it (see previous picture) and was a gift from my sister. The cabinet is my first sewing machine. My son carved his girlfriends name on it when he was seven! See the little Scotty on the rug! Target people, or I should say, Tar-jay! It's one of my favorite little spots in our house.

Have a wonderful week!!!

Maggie's Vacation

Maggie getting ready to be chauffeured in the van

Maggie in the snow

Maggie at the Painted Desert


Maggie (and I) at the Petrified Forrest

Maggie at the Grand Canyon


Hey, just whose vacation was this anyway!?!

*Just a note to ease your mind. We have a leash that hooks into the seat belt latch on one end and on to Maggie's harness on the other. That way she is perfectly safe and secure while we travel. When I take her out of the car I attach her regular leash to her harness before I unlatch the other one that stays in the car. You can't be too cautious when traveling with your pets.

We're Home!!!

Yea! We're home!!! We got in yesterday afternoon late and I immediately went to bed. We had a wonderful trip home but it was long, long, long. The last leg of the trip, I didn't think I would make it. I do all the driving so no rest for me the six days we took to get home.

We stopped at lots of places that Sweety has been wanting to see: The Grand Canyon, The Painted Desert, The Petrified Forest and The Meteor Crater. Maggie was a big hit every where we went. There are people all over the world with her picture now.

We met so many wonderful people on our way home, starting out with my blog friend Mary and her husband Bill. We had a delightful visit and it seemed like we had been friends forever! There was the retired Army nurse that works at the rest stop in Raton, New Mexico, the retired lady trucker that works in the dining room in the Holiday Inn Express in Raton, numerous fellow travelers. All were so friendly. I guess vacationers are happy people.

One thing that was "interesting" to me were the motels. Talk about discrepancies in brands. We would get a wonderful room and the next night it would be horrible. One was so bad that I complained and got the entire cost of the room credited. I'm not going to mention by name the bad ones. However, the La Quinta in Flagstaff, Arizona was absolutely wonderful!!! Terrific room, great accommodations and consideration for handicapped travelers and for dogs. Elynn was our front desk clerk and she is a true gem!!! Of course, the fact that her roommate has a Scottish Terrier didn't hurt any. She instantly fell in love with Maggie.

So tell me, fellow travelors. What is your trick for getting good motels? Do you go by word of mouth. Is there a specific brand that is always good no matter where you go? I really want to know.

Today I'm doing laundry - lots and lots of laundry - and cleaning house. I'll get my pictures downloaded as soon as I can so I can show you some of our trip.

Now, back to that laundry.......

Good Bye Colorado

Well, Sweety, Maggie and I are leaving for home in the morning. On one hand, I'm excited to go home and see my grandchildren and my daughter. Redmond and Dory both had birthdays while we were gone and I missed all the festivities. I have a new little puppy to meet as Mom got a new Yorkie named Daisy. My sister and I have some serious antique shopping and lunches out to catch up on. I'm way behind in yard work and I need to get my flower beds and pots planted and ready for summer. Sadly, I'm missing my lilacs blooming. Dory said today that they are covered with flowers. I have painting to do, cleaning and organizing to get caught up on. My BFF and I have our annual Lavender Lunch to get ready for in June. I have lots to keep me busy.

But oh how I hate to leave my son. This past three weeks have been such a gift. He's in the military so we don't get to spend lots and lots of time together. Since he moved to Denver, though, rather than overseas, I've loved catching up on baking cookies for him, doing his laundry, just plain spoiling him. I am planning on coming back a few more times between now and the fall, though. You see, he is being deployed sometime in the fall so you can see why I need to be near him lots now.

We're taking our time going home. The weather should be much better and we'll have more time to visit places we didn't see on the drive out here. One thing I am excited about is that we're stopping on the way home to visit a great friend that I met in Blog-land! It's Mary of Mary's Meanderings and she is such a great gal, I just can't wait! It's so fun to meet your virtual friends in person!!

I'm going to attempt to check my blog on our way home. When I get back home I'll hopefully have lots of pictures to share.

Denver, thank you so much for being such a great place to visit!!!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

So we went to Estes Park, a little tourist town north east of Boulder at the gates of Rocky Mountain National Park. It's a quaint little village with lots of shops and is dog friendly! I had our son drop me off in town so I could shop and he and his Dad could go to the park.

I had warned them that snow was predicted. Did they listen? No! It'll be fine, they said. They dropped me off just as the snow was lightly falling. Then it came down more and more and more. Before I knew it, myself and a large number of other silly tourists were walking around town in a blizzard. A BLIZZARD PEOPLE!!!! I was dressed warm enough. But BLIZZARD!!!! I would window shop and when I got too cold, I would go into a shop. At first I was a little agitated, but then I started to laugh and decided that what the heck, this is kinda fun!

After a while I walked down to Starbucks for a rest. That's when son called to say his car had skidded off the road and they were waiting for a tow out. In all, they were stuck for over an hour and a half. Luckily no damage was done, lots of people stopped for help. No harm, no foul. Funny thing, make that, stupid thing. He got a warning ticket for going over a double line and into a ditch. He wasn't driving fast and it's not like he did it on purpose. I'm just glad I wasn't in the car when the police officer was there if you get my drift!!!

So when they were getting pulled out of a snow drift I was in Starbucks drinking hot tea sitting in a cushy leather chair reading a book. Can we say Karma people!!!?!!!

Easter Greetings

Easter Blessings to all of you out there. I hope you have a wonderful day filled with love and family.

Friday's Adventure

Today I drove by myself from son's house near Denver to Colorado Springs. What a gorgeous drive! It's only about an hour down I-25 and passes by Castle Rock, Colorado and the United States Air Force Academy. The Rocky Mountains are all along to the right of the freeway and Pike's Peak looms over the town from a distance. Magnificent. There was a turn-out where I could have stopped and taken a picture had I been thinking straight. I will on our way home, though.

My main reason for going down was to visit Ruth's Stitchery. It's a fabulous quilt/stitchery/sewing machine store. They were featured in the 2006 edition of Quilt Sample and still maintain the great atmosphere that got it there. I walked in and didn't know where to look first! Lots of fabric and patterns for us quilters and lots and lots of stitchery for you stitchers out there. When I finished I went down the road to the American Classics Market Place, the largest antique store in Colorado Springs. Wow is all I can say. I could have spent all day there.

On the way home I stopped at The Cracker Barrel for lunch. We don't have them in California so this was my third visit on this vacation. I always get the chicken and dumplins' which remind me so much of my childhood and the way Mom fixed them for Dad. Their macaroni and cheese will make you weep! I'm not saying, but there is truth to the "vacation butt" rumor!

Tomorrow we're off to visit Estes Park, weather permitting. The guys are dropping me off in the quaint little town to shop the quilt, antique and gift shops while they site see. Sorry, but I have seen trees and rocks before! Tee Hee! This evening will be spent relaxing, watching movies and eating Cracker Barrel leftovers!

Have a Glorious and Happy Easter!

Checking In

Still here in the Denver area. The weather here is really interesting - exciting if you will. We had snow last week and the other day Denver broke a 131 year record with 82 degrees. Today is clear with lots of wind and we are expecting a little rain. Where I live you don't pay much attention to the weather as you know pretty much what to expect on any given day. Here not so much. You need to check the forecast before venturing out very far. At least I do - inexperienced as I am.

We took a jaunt up to Wyoming the other day just to say we did. It was amazing to realize that we were traveling on the great American plains that we heard so much about in history class. It's sad to a degree, however. The drive is so historic, but covered with Applebees, Best Buy, WalMart, Subway shops. Sacrilegious in my opinion. It looks not unlike where I live. In fact, you can drive across this country and after a while you can't tell the difference from one state to another.

We did see one thing that set our hearts racing. A herd of buffalo! They were so magnificent I couldn't believe my eyes. Something I had read about all my life and there they were. Sadly, there were no places to pull off the freeway to take pictures.

On our next trip out here we hope to go further north into Wyoming and some of the other bordering states and see if we can get away from so much civilization and see the true spirit of these great states.

I hope you all have a Happy Easter. Maggie sends her love!!

Responsible Pet Ownership

I was checking in with my sister the other day to let her know how we were doing here in Colorado. You have to understand one thing about Janice. She loves animals, especially dogs. She has six, count them, six rescue dogs in her beautiful home. The last one she rescued is Savannah. They found her sitting my a freeway entrance not far from her home. When she went back to catch her, Janice crawled through the field with a dish of food. Crawled mind you, so she would not frighten the dog. That dog has fallen into the lap of luxury.

The other day Janice had taken two of the dogs to the park to play. All of a sudden she looked down and a pure bred Scottish Terrier was sitting at her feet. At first Janice thought it was Maggie and that we had arrived home and we were surprising her. Truth be told if it had been Maggie, she would have been running away fast and furious and would have made San Francisco by evening. She is not good at "stay Maggie!"

At this point Janice picks up the dog and notices it has no tags on it's collar. She scours the park for the dogs owner with no luck. In fact, another lady was there that had just caught a lost Yorkie and was looking for it's owner, also. Janice went to some of the houses in the neighborhood with no luck so she took it home. She would have kept it but it started attacking her dogs (I'm sure it was just scared) so she took it to her vets. He said he would keep it until evening. Finally, the Animal Shelter came and took the Scottie which worried my sister. The next day the vet called with news that the owners of the Scotty had come to the Animal Shelter and reclaimed their dog.

So a happy ending to a story that could have gone so wrong.

Now I get to get on my soap box. For heaven sakes people!!!!! If you go to all the trouble to get a pet and go to all the expense pet ownership entails whether it be a purebred dog or or a Heinz 57, for crying out loud get tags for it!!! Tags with the dog's name and your phone number. Get a city license for it so it can be recorded in your area. Get the tags from the vet. And for the love of God, get your animal micro chipped. It is not that expensive. Less than $50. If you truly can not afford to do all of that, and I realize that not everyone can, then you should rethink pet ownership.

Harsh you say? Sure! I am not apologizing for it, either. If I ever lost Maggie I would be devastated. But we have her tagged and chipped and the chances of getting her back are so much greater than a dog that isn't.

So....

**A note of addition: I am very sympathetic with the fact that the economy is in a terrible state. Many people, through no fault of their own, are losing their homes. HOWEVER, this is no excuse to dump you pets or leave them locked in your home and walk away. Call a friend, ask a neighbor, contact your local vet, no kill animal shelter or rescue agency. There is a way!!!