Happy Halloween

This year Gimli was nice enough to tolerate a costume and so he's pretending to be a gnome.

Here's his picture that was submitted to The Daily Corgi's Halloween costume contest.  If you haven't already voted, please vote Gimli.  You'll find all the details here - The 2012 Howl-O-Ween Costume Contest.

I also took a few pictures this evening with Gimli and our pumpkins. They are supposed to be outside, but it's been raining non-stop for the past 5 days and I fear the paint will start coming off. I think I was supposed to repaint them with a clear sealant, but that didn't happen.

I'm especially proud of the Evil Queen Mickey Mouse pumpkins. Next year, I hope to have a better showing.

Happy Halloween everyone and stay safe in all this wacky weather!

Rain, rain everyday

"If you think it's going to rain, it will." - Clint Eastwood

It has been raining almost non-stop for the past week.  The ground is mush and water is stagnating under the river rocks in our front yard.  We haven't seen the sun in the same amount of time.  Gimli's walks have been, run out, pee, try and avoid walking even though Candy will pull Gimli along, then be so scared that he won't poo, then I turn around and head home.

And now Sandy or what's left of her is on her way to us.

This is what I see when I look out the window:

You can only see a portion of the large tree, but we are hoping it doesn't come down.

Where was all this rain in the middle of July when we had a heatwave and the grass in the yard turned brown and scratchy?  The gigantic weeds in our yard are surely enjoying this weather, someone has to.

Update:

I took Gimli for a walk around 5 pm and it was windy and cold.  You could hear the wind howling, so I'm sure it's going to be a very windy and rainy night.  I might even beg for Gimli to sleep in the bed with us.

Flat Gimli Friday - Heidelberg Part 1

I've decided to do a new feature here every Friday to highlight Flat Gimli.

For the first one, it's of Flat Gimli and his travels around Heidelberg Castle.

Crossing the drawbridge

In the museum

In front of the Groß Fass, (Heidelberg Tun)

Wordless Wednesday - What's in here?

Corgi? What's that?

In our subdivision and perhaps in our city, corgis are not well known - either breed of corgi is not well known.  There are the more common German Shepherds, Labs and Goldens and the Doodle varieties and other small dogs.  Therefore, whenever we go out with Gimli or talk about corgis, people look at us with a "huh?" look on their face.  Mike and I resort to the standard: "They are the Queen's dogs", and then everyone knows what we are talking about.

I am so royal, they made a dish with my picture.

The other day, I walked Gimli down one of the lesser traveled streets in our neighborhood.  We came upon this lady, who had just gotten home and she asked if she could meet Gimli.  I obliged and naturally, Gimli was his usual happy, friendly self.  He was fresh from the groomers so he was particularly soft and cute. She remarked that she doesn't see that many corgis and she owns a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, but her late mother in law had a corgi.

After a few minutes, her neighbor came out from the garage and Gimli wiggled over to say hello.  We started talking and he asked for Gimli's name.

Candy: "His name's Gimli".

Male neighbor: "Oh, what a cruel name. How can you name him that?"

Candy: "He's named after the dwarf from The Lord of The Rings."

Male neighbor: "Oh, well that's different then."

Candy in my head: um, ok...

I then proceeded to give the male neighbor the abridged version of the corgi breed standard and about their herding and so on.

We left a few minutes later to continue our walk, maybe we'll run into them again another day.

Saturday Smiler - Sir Hisssss

Colorblind

This month, we'll have been in this house for 3 years.  This means we've been living with stark white walls all this time.  As I've mentioned before, we finally hired a painter to cover the entire downstairs, (except the powder and laundry room), and the staircase and upstairs hall.

We also traded out our sofa and coffee table for a new sofa and invisible coffee and end table.  The room is slowly coming together and what we have so far, I quite like.

This past weekend, Mike and I went looking for throw pillows and we purchased a few, though I still think we need more.  I picked up a lovely purple and gray one, which I plopped onto the love-seat and promptly forgot about.

Soon after, Mike and I were watching TV, when Gimli started to growl.  He stood with his head on the love-seat cushion and growled at the purple and gray pillow as if it was was a fluff monster coming to kill us all.

I thought I was the fluff monster?

Then, as quickly as he started growling, he stopped and went back to his antler.

So it has come to this, a colorblind dog is giving us decorating advice.

Wordless Wednesday - Fall is here!

Itchy & Scratch part 2

I realized I never posted an update on Gimli's bout of allergies, so, here it is.

His allergies were getting better as we continued to administer the over the counter generic Benadryl, but then Gimli developed a booboo in between his toes.

I'm not sure how he ended up with a booboo there, but he kept licking and licking so much so that he irritated it further.  We continued with the allergy medicine in the hopes he'd ignore it, but that only made him less itchy and more prone to lick his toes.

As a result, we had to resort to the cone.  The last time he wore the cone, it was after his neutering surgery at 6 months.  He couldn't walk with it then and he cannot walk with it as an adult.  He runs into walls and the bottom of the cone becomes stuck in the floor and the tile and the carpet.  As a result, he becomes a very cranky dog.

I don't think this is how it's supposed to go on...

Once he was in the cone, we were able to put Polysporin on his booboo, which really helped it to heal faster.  Gimli was lucky that he only had to wear the cone for about 3 days.

It's been much cooler the past few weeks, so I'm hoping his allergies are over until the Spring, when we'll start all over again.

You know you're getting old when...

You know you're getting old when you were sitting cross legged on the couch and you get off the couch to go to bed, only to find your right foot is numb and you have a weird pain in your right hip and so you hobble to the kitchen and try not to fall over because you're holding a Kennedy Space Center mug with your name on it, "Candy", because they never put that name on anything anymore so you have to save it for as long as you can.

Wordless Wednesday - Wiling the day away

It finally happened

There's no mistaking it, corgis are short.  Gimli stands about 11 inches from his toes to his shoulder and his head is maybe 12 or 13 inches tall.  Because corgis are short, people often mistake the fact that underneath all that hair and fluff, there lives a small tank.  A small tank that packs a mighty punch.

Before we left for vacation, I had a hair appointment one early Saturday morning.  Off I went and when I returned home, I came into the house and Gimli was uncharacteristically missing from the door to greet me.  I went into the kitchen to drop off my purse and then I heard it.

Mike's voice from upstairs: "Wait."

Gimli looking at him with big brown eyes.

Mike's voice from upstairs: "Ok, go."

To which I heard the thundering of paws racing down the stairs.  I crouched down and waited the 5 seconds it takes for Gimli to arrive, when he came charging at me and knocked me over.  I never thought Gimli would be strong enough to knock me over, but he did.

I fell onto my butt with corgi kisses going everywhere and me laughing.  Of course, when I laugh, Gimli acts sillier, which makes me laugh even more.

I love this dog!

Sunday Smiler - a day late

I ran out of time to post yesterday's smiler, so here it is today.

Here's he is waiting to commence the 5k walk.