Mini me

Well, I did it! Thanks to a little convincing from Dan , I finally got my mini. It is a red 2003 diesel Mini One (the Mini One is not available in the US...I think it is a touch smaller than the Mini Cooper). We are hoping to get the roof and mirrors painted white eventually, then it will be my perfect little car. Even though I have had it for a couple of weeks, I finally took a couple of pictures to post. It looks pretty cute on these quaint European streets.

Puppy Update

Just a quick update on the puppy, he went to a lovely home last night. They took to him instantly and he cuddled right up to them as well. Then he showed off how good he was at fetching the ball and even sat and layed down on hearing the commands in Portuguese (though I think the hand signals may have helped). So this time it all worked out well in end, though Dan may be worried about how many "dog needs home" e-mails he will have to send out at work!

A little off topic...

But the Red Sox are in the World Series! Even though we can't stay up late enough to watch the games over here, it is a lovely way to start the day to wake up and see that they have won. So hopefully Colorado has had enough time off for the hot streak to cool down, because they have been unbeatable lately (literally). Here is hoping 2007 will be another year for Red Sox fans to remember (in a good way this time...)

I'd like to take this opportunity to say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!!!!

And if you want to, you can too, just enter your birthday wishes in the comments section (or send us an e-mail), and I will make sure that at some point, Dan checks the Blog for them! I don't think he really does check otherwise, but just in case I won't spoil the surprise and post a picture of his present. You can all check back later and see it after he does. It is getting set up right now and I hope he likes it, cause I know I do!

This is only the beginning

So what is sure to be the first of many over the next three years...a stray dog is now sheltered in our yard. It started when I noticed a puppy in our neighbors yard, they have a small fluffy black and white adult dog called Lila, but this German Shepherd cross was not her. I also noticed that we hadn't seen our neighbors car for a couple of days, but a different car was in the driveway. My assumption, they were gone, someone who was housesitting brought their puppy. The puppy cried and barked a lot, and despite a light being on in the house every night, we didn't see anyone for a few days. I started tossing treats in to the puppy, who gobbled them up. Then taught the puppy that rather than jumping like a maniac on the fence, treats would only come when he sat down. Continued the lessons from my office balcony, throwing treats to puppy when he saw me and sat down. Still no people. I was worried about him, started feeding him meals, and considered climbing the fence to get him out, especially since the neighbors yard was in considerable disarray, with potted plants and plastic pots destroyed everywhere, and usually our neighbors (who we can not yet actually communicate with, but are an older German couple who seem nice, generally) are very tidy and have obviously spent considerable time on the yard. Finally, the neighbors arrived home, apparently they were in Lisbon for 6 days, and had no idea why a puppy was in their yard. When seeing the mess in their yard they were very upset, and the husband grabbed a heavy metal pole and hit the puppy a couple of times. I immediately had to go over (under the guise of walking my dogs). Puppy was cowering in a corner of their yard, they were trying to shew it out, I whistled and it came running over to me at their gate, they thanked me and promptly shut the gate. So a quick summary of a long story: Puppy is now in our yard. I have since walked the puppy around our neighborhood and asked (as best as I could in my limited Portuguese) if anyone knew where he lives, nobody did, and I was laughed at for thinking this stray puppy had a home. So now we are trying to find a new home (Dan seems to think two dogs is enough, and, in theory at least, I agree with him). Problem is we leave for Al's wedding next Thursday, so time is limited. The pup looks like a German Shepherd cross, not sure how old, definitely very friendly and "puppyish." The photo up top is of him from our balcony, sitting nicely so he can get a treat. I have since taught him to lay down as well, and we are working on fetch and bringing the ball back to me. Smart little guy, here is hoping something works out for him.

I guess this blog is good for something

So while we had many requests to start a blog to keep people updated on our lives over here, mostly we were thinking "what do we get out of it?" Of course there is the obvious benefit of not having to type up individual e-mails of the same stories several times (sorry everyone, I am not original enough to write unique stories to each of you). But little did I expect that the blog would actually pay off after my very first post (the one where I whinged about the yogurt containers that only had a couple of bites of yogurt in each one...and FYI, I have since even done the conversion, 125 grams is just around 4 ounces). No sooner had the notification of the blog address gone out then I received an e-mail with links for several different yogurt makers and an offer to purchase one for me for Christmas (thanks mom!!) I didn't even know such a thing existed, and now it will allow me to flavor it with the maple syrup we imported from Vermont (it is supposed to be for gifts...but we don't even know 24 people yet, so I guess I can spare a few for our own use).

Well, I guess what I am trying to say is...between that and all of the lovely e-mails I have been getting from everyone, you guys have made it all worth it, aw shucks.

What is one more week?

That is the question Dan came home asking last night. What is one more week without our furniture? I didn't mind the question the first time it was asked, which was at the end of September, by the way, when we thought our container was due in October 5th. Since then it has been delayed by a week - 3 more times. Meaning that our furniture that left Vermont August 23rd, will, at the earliest, get here October 24th. Maybe it is just me, but does that seem a little ridiculous to anyone else out there? At least if I had been given that date from the beginning I could have prepared myself for it...but this game they are playing just seems a little cruel.

Hopefully no one out there is as depressed as I am by this most recent development. But in case you are, here is a photo Dan took last night that might amuse you and help lift your spirits. I was tired of sitting on the hard plastic lawn chairs we have been using, so came up with a more comfortable way to watch TV in our empty living room. I was also feeling a little under the weather, and I guess I was a little more tired than I thought. Luckily Tazzy is very tolerant...I think she stayed there for over an hour.