Look at the well-behaved puppies. Surprisingly these moments aren't TOO rare, but maybe not frequent enough just yet.

Levi always cracks me up when he curls up in such a tiny ball. For a 60+ lbs. dog, he can curl up and look half that size. When he does this, the power of the cuteness is almost overpowering.

And I had to include this picture because I think it's funny. Megan falls asleep to about 90% of the stuff that's on tv, but this time it was alittle bit funnier than normal.

So here is our tree! Thanks to Joel and Amy for providing the "tree" part. It's the first normal size tree I've had in quite a long time actually. We decided to go the "colorful" route for this year, and it turned out pretty nice I think.

You know how sometimes in a picture you catch the "truth" about something. Maybe you see something for what it really is, or something that wasn't there before? Oooh...scary...
Well, I think that happened here, and it happened in the form of Levi not having a head. What does it really mean?? Ooooh... Does it mean, my dog is a ghost?! He's like the headless horseman! Or maybe it just means he's alittle lite in the "brain" area...
I kid, I kid. He's a smart dog...most of the time...

Rockin' out with Chili Dogs

Megan rocks out on the drums playing Rock Band 2. It's been too long since my last post, but wutcha gunna doo. Not a ton of new news to report, other than being slightly sick yesterday. It was nice staying home all day on the couch. I did remember, however, how much I hate watching movies on cable. Stupid commercials every 10 minutes.
The first snow of the year through my kitchen window. After this picture my camera battery died.
Of course what recent post would be complete without pictures of the two dorks. We finally got them to play tug of war...with a toy actually designed for such. Titus has the advantage...not sure about weight, but definitely in strength. So Levi went to taking the "low" road...
...by laying on the ground. Of course Titus just ended up dragging him which was pretty hilarious. Even though I've been alittle sick lately that didn't stop me from whipping up a batch o' chili.
Oh yea...eat that!

Dogs, Dogs, and Dog n' Cat

The kids, sort-of allowing me to snap a couple pictures. The cute-factor is overpowering...

Titus' first meeting with Brutus. Brutus' expression pretty accurately shows us his opinion, but overall he handled it well. After all, it's not everyday the big kid's shadow doesn't cover everyone up anymore.

A meeting only dogs fully understand...we think.

Aside from a slight blur, a pretty good representation of Titus' demeanor. He had his first vet visit today, and it went pretty well. Dr. Brush thinks he could be a Belgian Trevurn and Belgian Shepherd mix, but German Shepherd and Collie were mentioned here and there as well. Either way, everyone thought he was quite the looker. His attention, however, almost never ceases to fall on anything other than this...

...it's to the point of an obsession. We figure he's never been around cats, but holy cow does he find a ton of interest in them. If he's in his cage and hears Izzy meow, he starts whining....even if he was previously asleep. I locked him out of this room so Izzy could relax, and he started whining. He doesn't do much other than stare at the cats, maybe give some chase here and there. In this picture he stuck his nose alittle close. That raised paw of Izzy's just gave him a warning bat. We were secluding Titus to the downstairs so the cats could relax upstairs. Dr. Brush said just let them go and once Titus gets a good swipe on the nose, his fascination will quickly dissappear. sounds like fun!

Rockin' Out with our New Dog's Out

Well, maybe not new "Dogs" but new "Dog." Meet Titus...at least that's the name were trying to stick with although we've been known to yell "No Titan!" several times in the 1st day we've owned him. You can't see it in this picture, but Levi is undoubtedly showing Titus a toothful.
We decided to adopt Titus, (formerly Champion), after we, (heavy on the Megan side :)), thought Levi needed a pal. Hopefully Titus can fill that role. He's roughly 1 and a half yrs. old. and was listed as a German Shepard Collie mix, although we're thinking he's some sort of Belgian Shepard mix.
They seem to be getting along pretty well and Levi is warming up to him so far. Levi has been attempting to assert his dominance in the house and although being smaller, he seems to be doing a good job. Of course, I've noticed that Titus seems to have a submissive personality so this has been working out...so far. Titus also seems to have an extreme interest in the cats...to the point of obsessing over them. If he sees a cat, (usually Izzy), in a certain part of the house he continually goes to that spot, (whether she's there or not), looking for her. We're working hard to break him of this, and Izzy has unwillingly been nominated the guinea pig to help expose Titus to cats more as he's obviously never been around any small animals. In other news:
My Brother-in-law's band, A Dying Breath, had their first show last night at the Newport. I recorded the event and took some pictures with a few coming out pretty decent. Out of the 3-4 bands I saw while there, (there was a total of maybe 8 or 9), Dave's band was by far the best. The music style is pretty heavy, unlike alot of bands where all it seems to be is the same song over and over with mostly unintelligible throaty screaming, their band was certainly not that. Each song had a unique sound and had a nice mix of heavy and lighter parts. I'm no music critic, but they rocked.
You'd be surprised how difficult it is to get good pictures in such low light. I probably snapped about 300 pictures, with only a handful coming out pretty nice. I'm pretty sure that's just the nature of shooting in those conditions, but I'm not quite an expert with my camera yet...
It was an awesome show, and I would have liked to stay all night, but since I wasn't sure what to expect when I got home to the new beast I decided I needed to get back home to the dog/horses. Seriously, when they play/wrestle around, the house shakes...

My house suddenly seems so much smaller now...

Halloween '08, picture-lite style.

My porch on Halloween. Awesome. Notice my lame last minute decorating attempt in the bottom right-hand corner. Hopefully in the near-future I'll get an outside outlet so I can do a better job decorating for x-mas.
Ooooh. Scary. So I got the last-minute birght idea to paint a pumpkin like a ghost. I bought some spraypaint and went to town. Not surprisingly I found out the glossy white spraypaint does stick to the pumpkin, but like to stick to almost anything else better...and would come off quite easily. I also found out that matte finish paint, (the black spraypaint), doesn't like to sit on glossy paint very much. Either way it worked out in the end.
About midway through trick-or-treat Megan was approached by a group of our neighbors. I was finishing installing a dome light in the bathroom at the time. Our neighbors all seem like very nice people, and they're all very glad to have us in the nieghborhood...especially since we removed a big eyesore from the block.

The next day, today, we had our "inspection" by the bank. The guy seemed pretty laid back. He said he prettymuch was just verifying work had in-fact been done on the property. So he stopped by, took a few pictures, and said the bank should have his report monday and everything should be good. FINALLY. I spent my past two days off trying to tie up all sorts of loose ends around the house in anticipation of this inspection as I had no idea how much he/she would scrutanize the house. Although it wasn't very necessary, at least a chunk of stuff on the to-do list was taken care of.