Go Chargers!

Need I say more?

Happy Memorial Day!

On this great holiday day, I thought I would wish you all a good one. I have had a great weekend.... I got to go to the beach on Saturday and then the spa. I got to go on a hike yesterday. And today I have been lazing around under my mom's feet while she works. I hear my Uncle Mike is coming to see me tonight too.

Now, all that positive does have its downsides. I recently learned that Bo is getting a lot more attention than I am. I get it... he's the President's dog, fine fine. But, when we were at the store, I was so excited that the check out guy gave me a treat that I almost missed it, but then there it was ... a WHOLE BOOK about Bo! I have to do my OWN authorship and all I get is a stinking blog.

Moooooommmmmmm! Come on!!!! I want a book too! (I sure hope she reads this and gets that I was whining and whimpering and gives me what I want).

http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Commander-Leash-Naren-Aryal/dp/1934878707

Why oh why does the world hate me?

Okay, so to start with, last night, there was a crazy bad earthquake... well maybe not crazy bad. Nothing fell down really, but it did shake for a long time. I was really scared and tried to run in the bedroom. My mom sat with me and comforted me though. My dad ran outside... he is soooo East Coast! I heard it was a 5, which I guess is pretty big.

Then, this morning, before my mom's alarm clock even went off, there was all this crazy noise outside. They are taking away my sidewalk! I love that sidewalk. I walk on it, and sniff things, and do all kinds of stuff, but there they were just breaking it up and taking it away.

So, then I came to my mom's office, which was awesome at first because I got to see my Uncle Don, and he pet me and pet me and was super nice. The only problem was that my mom forgot her keys. So, I had to get locked in the lab while she went and did stuff, and I hated it so much I started barking. But then she came back, and we sat on the couch, and also I got to lie on the awesome cold tile floor. So, I guess it seems like its going okay now. I hope I get to go home soon and my world stops changing!


Here are some pictures of me hard at work in the LUCI lab.

Space Doggie!

The STAR group went out for their annual outing... they went cosmic bowling, and all I got was this silly light necklace.

Adorable video

My mom has had a rough couple of weeks at work... lots of grant and paper writing. I showed her this video to cheer her up. This might cheer you up if you are having a bad day.

'Bout time I made it to flickr

Originally uploaded by kaufmans

All my friends have been making fun of me, cuz my mom is soooo boring and never hardly posts to flickr, but my friend sam hooked me up.

thanks sam!

Mom and Dad are back.... and I can almost roll over

My parents abandoned me for a week... they went to some place they keep calling "the big island" but I don't know whats so big about it. As for me, I was pretty well taken care of. My friends Gabi and David hung out with me all week. David taught me to roll over, but I am so fat, I get stuck on my back and then sometimes he is a sucker and just gives me the treat anyway. He also got me two new toys... woohoo! My parents came back and that makes me happy, but they keep talking about how I need a bath, and I am less happy about that. I'll post a picture though once I am all pretty again.

Bye bye Margarita!

I am so sad Margarita has gone... but I will look at this picture of her and think of her fondly often!

My New BFF

So... I am really sad that Margarita is leaving... don't get me wrong. I am even trying to score an invite to her going away party this weekend.

I do want to say, however, that I totally have a new bestie... her name is Gabi. She is way more renegade than Margarita. She took me on a golf course (I haven't been on one of those since my mom was a beer girl when I was just a young pup). She also walked me super far one day, so far I thought I might totally die, cuz I am kind of old and fat. Anyway, I was pooped, but then I was sooo happy, because we were at my other good friend David's house, and he took me for a ride in the car. I thought I would get to go somewhere cool... Normally, he takes me to the beach. That's fun except for he is always making this weird noise when we go there. It sounds like "Hunnnngggington" and he tries to get me to make the noise too... weirdo. Anyway, sorry, got distracted. I am kind of ADD. So, anyway, we got in the car, and instead of going some place cool, he just took me home. It was okay though cuz my new bestie was there.

My mom just told me she is going to stay with me for a whole week in February. I am soooo excited. I almost peed myself with joy, which kind of gets my mom back for torturing me with some kind of crazy small dinosaur thing that makes weird noises.

Patterson Family Holiday Card

Clearly Don knows who is important and has addressed the card appropriately.... either that or he just really wants to be on the blog :)

Either way, I will appease him.

Its raining its pouring....

Wow, it is SOAKING wet outside today. I was NOT happy when I had to go outside to pee. Mom's friend Khai says I should use a "toilet" whatever that is... I think he might be talking about that extra waterbowl that they won't let me drink out of. hmmm... not sure how being able to drink out of that thing after all would help me not have to go outside in the rain.

Anyway... I thought we moved to California to get away from this stupid wet stuff! Maybe if I go to sleep, when I wake up it will have stopped.

Cake!

Saturday was a really weird day. My mom woke up kind of late... I guess she wasn't feeling well or something, because when she took me for a walk, she looked a little green. I figured she was feeling better later, because she baked a cake, which she almost never did. Anyway, she made all these crazy things out of frosting and marzipan on the cake... and I wanted some! She didn't give me any though, and just when I thought I might get some, they took the whole thing away and brought it to a party for Charlotte. I like Charlotte a lot, but she won't let me at her duck collection, which makes me mad. I would have so much fun chewing on them!

Anyway, the cake kind of looked like some of those fun things, but my mom kept saying how you could eat the whole thing, so I am guessing there weren't any real rubber ducks on there. Here's a picture so you can see for yourselves.

Me and my mom

Did I mention that my mom is my most favorite human being in the whole world?

Here we are having fun!

Oh and in the background is my mom's bike that she never ever rides.

My Morning: A photo essay

Good morning... many of you have asked me what I do in the morning while my parents are getting ready to go to work. So here you have this morning in photo essay format.... I can't tell you how I took the pictures, just know that I might have stolen a cool gadget from my mom's work to do it :)

First, I go for a walk...

Whew.... it sure is bright out in the morning in Southern California!When I get done with my walk, I get a treat. I was so excited to get it, I kind of messed up the picture:
Then, I like to lay around a bit, sometimes inside, sometimes out, sometimes near my parents getting some early morning emailing done, sometimes not...


I like to sttttrrrrreeettttcccchhhh my paws out in the sand...
Then, my dad leaves for work...
Then, when my mom goes to get coffee and breakfast, I follow her to beg for my share.

After all the excitement, they leave and go to work, and I go back to lying around

So, there you have it.... my very exciting morning.

Great new (old) picture

My friend Margarita who stays with me when my parents go away just sent this picture.

How awesome! She took it last Spring, which is why it is kind of old, but I just saw it, so its new too :)

Party party party

I recently hosted a lovely little soiree in my new backyard. My mom helped me out by inviting all the other Assistant Professors in her department, but really it was all a ruse to get them to bring their kids over. Kids are fantastic. They pet me. They are the same height as me, so petting is really nice and easy. They feed me.... on purpose and by accident. They run around. They pet me. They feed me. Hmm... I seem to be in a loop here.

Anyway, so the party was really fun, and not only did the kids feed me loads, but also, my mom's new friend and colleague Yunan gave me LOTS of love. I was so tired by the time everyone left (and well fed) that I just laid around and barely even said goodbye.

Today, I got this really great Thank You card in the mail. Finally, someone is recognizing that I am the one who does all the work around here. I mean, I have to look cute, and I have to bark at people when they arrive. I clean up --- well, I eat what falls on the ground anyway. In general, I think we all know that no party would be complete without me. Do my parents ever thank me? No, they certainly do not. Finally, the Pattersons recognized how very important I am. So, I am including their note here so you can recognize it too.



In case you can't read it very well, the top part is to me:

Dear Savannah,

Thank you for entertaining Theo and Joy. You are the consummate hostess. We love what you've done with your owner's apartment.

- Don (but not Sandy) Theo and Joy

There is another note on the bottom part too. It reads:

Dear Gillian and Steve,

Thanks for hosting the fun party! As you heard by now, Theo is fine. Sorry to leave in a whirl of drama! :) Enjoy the rest of the summer & hopefully we'll see you soon.

- Sandy, Don, Theo, Joy, & Martha

Now, there are some very important things for you to know about this note. First of all, lest you should think I bit someone or something, Theo fell down all by himself, and I had nothing to do with it. In fact, maybe if they would have let me go out and run around on the playground with him, this never would have happened. When Timmy fell in the well, Lassie always saved him. If Theo had fallen down and I had been there, I might have dove under him and saved him. You never know, and thanks to my parents being all strict and not letting me outside the fence, you never will.

Second, Martha used to like me and now all of a sudden she doesn't. I was told not to take it personally. Apparently, she had a little run-in with another dog, and seeing as she isn't really old enough yet to understand complexities like good dogs and bad ones, she is taking it out on me. Well, I am trying to be understanding, but it still hurts you know? Just saying "its not you, its me" doesn't diminish the pain of rejection.

Okay, now third... when I first got this note, I was worried that maybe Sandy didn't like me either anymore seeing as how I (a) didn't save her oldest child from a fall and (b) am no longer liked by her youngest one. Alas, my mom has explained it to me. She says that Sandy is a really nice woman who has good manners, and she probably thought it was proper to thank the humans in the house more so than the dog (That's her handwriting on the bottom part of the note). Whereas Don (like my dad) is just a big, silly kid sometimes, and so he thought it was okay to address the dog (me). So, now I feel a bit better. Oh and also, yay for Don finally recognizing how very important I am to the entertaining schedule of my parents.

Tessie the Golden Retriever

OMG, this pup is so cute! She reminds me of another super cute dog I know.... me!

http://www.dailypuppy.com/puppies/Tessie-the-Golden-Retriever_2008-08-14

Me and My Yard

I feel the earth move under my paws...

Okay, this is a little out of control really. I got a new lawn (yay!), but then it MOVED! A LOT!

This happened once before ... you might remember it from my blog, but this time it was kind of a bigger deal. So here are the differences:

	Last Time	This Time
1	So little that my mom thought it was a plane flying too close to the apartment until her friend Charlotte IM'ed her and said it was an earthquake.	Super close and a lot bigger. here is more info! By the way, can I just say how weird it is that the wikipedia article is already up and FILLED with information!?!
2	Mom was home and her friend David was over too. I felt nice and cozy.	Mom was in Seattle and Dad was at the gas station... all alone! Good thing I didn't get trapped under anything!
3	I was over it in no time. Back to sleep for me... you know how I like to sleep.	I was freaked out! When my dad got home, I would't leave him alone. I stayed awake for a whole 7 hours! I think that is a record for me.

So, I think the summary is... that was not very fun for me. My Pop told my parents to listen to me... I know all things and the "big one" is coming. Well, all I have to say is that if that wasn't the big one, my parents better get on that earthquake proofing they keep claiming they are going to do. I don't see any brackets or putty anywhere. Its like they think we still live in Atlanta with all the door locking and neglecting earthquakes and fires. Don't they know that in Irvine people don't steal? They get crushed by earthquakes and evacuated for fires!

On a happier note, my new lawn really is awesome. I have like as much grass as three dog beds. So, I can just go from one spot of grass to another whenever I feel like it. Plus, Nonny got me a big rug for the porch. So, sometimes I lay on that too.

Oooooh.... I think I smell bunnies. Gotta run and not catch them now!

White people like me!

hey sports fans... sorry its been a while! We moved into the new place, which is awesome, but it means that my dad has been walking me a ton. We have a great path we take that leads us through all these pretty flowers and stuff. I did have one incident with something hissing at me from behind a trashcan. That scared me a lot, but most of the time, there's no problems. Anyway, its been making me really tired. I'll post some pictures of our awesome walks soon.

In other news (and the real point of this post), my mom just found this awesome website that tells her all the things white people like. Now, she's white, so you would think she would know, but she's also an academic. Lets face it, there is nothing professors like more than to go off and "research" things they know to be true. If I hear her yammer on about "empirical evidence" (whatever the heck that is) any more, I will literally eat my own poo... oh wait, I do that sometimes anyway.

Right, so back to the point... she found out that white people like dogs (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/04/53-dogs/). Awesome! I have pretty diverse friends, but its still good to know that all the white people like me. I was working really hard at being cute and well behaved and begging and everything, but now I don't have to, 'cause now I know they will like me no matter what. yay!

Moving time

Wow, I am sooo tired! I moved last week. There are still boxes everywhere. It totally sucks. I do have a new yard though, and that is AWESOME! I'll report back more once things are unpacked, and I can stretch out and type more easily.

At work... again...

This is night three of going to work with mom... it was fun at first. I like sliding on the floors and stuff, but seriously, I am getting tired of working so hard. Paper deadlines suck!

The earth MOVED!

Okay, what on earth was that????? Last night, we are all sitting around just fine. My mom was working with her friend David. I was sleeping on the couch. Then, all of a sudden, everything was shaking. My mom said something about a plane flying too close to us, but I thought she was crazy. No airplanes do that! Anyway, a few minutes go by and they are just like "oh no big deal, it was just a little earthquake." No big deal? No big deal? The ground, the ground that is supposed to be totally stable, MOVED! Crazy! Anyway, I was not happy about it at all, and I laid under the table for like an hour afterwards. Nothing else crazy has happened since, so I guess its okay. I figured I better tell all of you out there about it though, just in case you are thinking of coming to visit or something.