Thanks to one of my new favorite websites, Ana White, I found the perfect building plans and started my project.  My only experience with woodworking had been shop class in middle school, so it was a long, educational experience.

First things first – I had to learn how to notch a piece of wood out.  Seems simple enough, but it made my whole body sore from all the cuts required to notch a single piece out – and I had 10 notches to make just for the table.

You may also notice in the picture to the left how big a mess it makes – sawdust everywhere…

While learning to notch wood, I quickly realized tools are not made for women, and our world is just not made for 5′ tall women either…

Here is how I managed to get high enough to hold the saw and be able to see what I was doing:

Once I got the legs notched, everything started moving faster!

Tahoe (coconut shell in mouth) checking in on my progress

Finishing off the frame of the table

Building the benches

Unfortunately I didn’t make my deadline of Thanksgiving for finishing everything.  By Thanksgiving I had finished the table and constructing the benches.  But something I didn’t realize was how long it would take to let all of the finish dry on the benches.  After a quick run to my favorite home improvement store, and consulting with the super helpful Home Depot employees, I was talked out of putting the final stain and finish on the benches, unless I wanted all of my guests to sit on wet polyurethane!  Good thing was that we at least had seats I guess….

So after Thanksgiving, I was able to put the final touches on the benches, and we now have a dining room table!  All for the cost of less than $200.

The end result!

Another view

The pumpkins, Christian won again this year (his is on the right):

The decorations:

Cobwebs were hung all over the front of the house with various eyeballs and fingers stuck in them.  A skeleton hung from the front window. 

Christian turned the raised vegetable garden into a graveyard with a dead man’s hand reaching out from the dirt.  And our fountain became a fountain of floating eyeballs.

And since Christian wanted to make sure he addressed the “trick” part of the holiday, he hung cockroaches from our trees that line the sidewalk.  We heard a couple of screeches over the week from passersby

This is our second Halloween in Talmadge, so the good thing is that we were prepared for the trick or treaters.  Last year we ran out quickly, so this year I stocked up.  Christian thought I was insane for buying so much candy, but he didn’t see the lines we had last year down our front pathway.

To make sure we knew how much to buy next year, we tallied how much candy we went through this year – at 1 piece of candy per kid, we had handed out over 400 pieces of candy by 8:30!  And we still ran out!  At the end of the night Christian was giving away the glowsticks we used to decorate, and even our pumpkins.

The advantage of having 400 or so kids come by our house is that there are a lot of chances to scare them.  At first I was hesitant about scaring little kids, but Christian showed me how to do it right.  He hid behind a wall at the front entryway and yelled when a kid approached.  We got them pretty good….Is it bad to enjoy that so much?

Anyways, that was our Halloween.   Count Tahoe hopes you had a spooktacular Halloween as well!

Christian found two big piles of dirt in the yard that seemed to have appeared overnight. MOLES! Oh no!

First thought that popped in my head – sic the dog on them!! After all, he insists on sticking his nose in EVERYTHING while we’re on our walks, so now he can put that hobby to good use.

Assessing the Situation

After assessing the situation, his nose told him to start away from the mounds. And we later found he was right! There was another tunnel right where he started.

As he was digging, some of the dirt would hit the side of the house. That would throw Tahoe off, because he’d hear the dirt hitting the house, and would think that there was another mole behind him

Here’s Tahoe sticking his nose in the mole’s business:

He’s taking a break now.  We’ll see if his digging was enough to scare the moles away!  Keeping our paws crossed.

Things we’ve learned from Joe-isms:

- How did he make it to 100? “By not dying.”
- Be grateful, be appreciative. There’s not a single time we’re with him where he isn’t expressing his gratitude and appreciation for anything and everything.
- Old school manners: No elbows on the table, finish everything on your plate, don’t be seated until all women present are seated, take your hat off in the presence of women. His mother would be so proud to see that she raised such a gentleman!
- It’s not worth the time to worry.

And can’t wait to learn even more from him!

And here are two of probably the best speeches I’ve heard in a long while…I was so caught up with the first though, I forgot to press record until half way through!  But I have the last half here.  Apologies for the poor quality, and you’ll have to turn the volume up to catch the words…

Tony’s Speech:

Mark’s Speech:

And some wedding pictures:

Click here to view photos

The video goes on for over a minute, but you’ll get the idea after 5 seconds….

And here is another of us trying to get Tahoe closer to the bunny room, same thing here – you probably only need to watch the very beginning to get the idea….he will literally stay frozen for minutes staring at the room.

These were all taken at the old house – but Tahoe does the same thing at the new house already.  The bunnies stay in the middle room and Tahoe will scurry past the room to get to the third room to wait for me to come out of the bunny room.  Or he’ll just peek into the hallway from the dining room until I come out!

And the last video: This was taken by Christian one afternoon when Tahoe saw me drive up to the house, returning from work.  He got so excited!  But what he didn’t realize is that I drove up, and drove right off to run an errand.  He was too busy running around the house with excitement that I was home to realize I wasn’t coming in….Christian started the video after a good minute of Tahoe doing this, so this is just the tail end of his excitement when he started getting tired from running…

The common theme – he is a very excitable dog.

The first clip is an example of how he waits for me to come home from work, and treats every day that I come home as a special event.

The next clip is probably the most excited I’ve seen him – it starts with him in my car, on my way back to Saratoga with Jeffy.  He quickly realizes he’s back home, and can’t contain his excitement for quite a while.  Neither can Mom and Dad, so much so that they forgot their other two kids (me and Jeffy) were home too!

And the final clip – on New Year’s day, back in San Diego, we brought him to Fiesta Island.  Tahoe loves the water, but refuses to swim in it – probably because his legs might be too skinny to keep him afloat!  So he stands in the water up to his belly and just drops his tennis ball in the water, picks it up, drops it, picks it up…until he gets distracted enough he forgets his ball is in the water and it floats far away enough he can’t reach it.  And he won’t swim to go get it….

Enjoy!  Many more clips sitting on my computer that I will upload soon!

It was at the Hollywood Bowl where 17,000 people actually came out for this event:

And in case you want to hear Jeffrey and his friend Mike singing, here you go:

Next morning – Brunch!  Now for those who followed Christian and I on our road trip, you know I like to eat.  So the rest of this post is about the food….skip it if you’ve just seen too much of me eating.

Brunch was yummy…Eggs benedict!

Then after a day of shopping, we headed down to Irvine to see Mike.  He was nice enough to take us out to a delicious Chinese restaurant since there are no real places in San Diego (Pick Up Stix was voted best Chinese down here….that’s like Panda Express, but worse).

Relaxing after stuffing our tummies with dumplings.  Dad – Do you like Jeffy’s watch???

I caught Jeffy and Mike playing footsy under the table

And for my to go bag – a bag of 50 frozen homemade dumplings that will probably last me unil I’m 50….

And then I drive off into the sunset on a full stomach – no better way to end a visit with good friends and family!

Posted in Uncategorized ]]> http://two4theroad.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/jeffy-a-drop-of-golden-sun/feed/ 0 two4theroad IMG_6457 IMG_6459 IMG_6463 IMG_6464 IMG_6466 http://two4theroad.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/csi-canine-scene-investigation/ http://two4theroad.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/csi-canine-scene-investigation/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:47:55 +0000 two4theroad http://two4theroad.wordpress.com/?p=514 ]]> Tahoe continues to live up to his original reputation as “Xiao Tio” – When my mom first met him when she stopped by my apartment in San Francisco to check in on him, she called him a “little thief” (xiao tio) because he had stolen his biscuits from the counter when she turned his back on him.

Christian and I decided to try letting him have the run of the house one night because he had been so good lately.  Xiao Tio quickly took advantage of the fact that mom and dad were gone…

Here is how the crime scene unfolded….

First things first – Always head to the kitchen to see if the trash can has been knocked down.

Check.  Food all over the floor.

This time Xiao Tio decided to also open up the cupboard beneath the sink because that’s where his treats are hidden.  Check treat inventory – CHECK!  A bag is missing…

First hiding spot to check – the bed:

While Xiao Tio thinks he’s sneaky, this is his go-to hiding spot: He tucks his loot into the edge of his bed.  Here is the bag of bones he stole.

Next step is to check on top of the microwave, because this dog likes to steal human treats too.  The criminal is not good at covering up his tracks.  Take a close look at the counter….

Don’t see them?  Try this close up:

Yes, those are multiple sets of paw prints on the counter….

Upon inventory check of treats above the microwave, I quickly deduce that of course the dog has stolen my brand new bag of trail mix.  I search high and low and in all the old hiding spots, but no trail mix to be found.

The next morning, Christian solves the case of the missing trail mix – Xiao Tio has now expanded his coverage to the backyard, where he has proceeded to dig up the new lawn in an attempt to hide the bag of nuts.

Conclusion – The dog will never get full run of the house again!