The premier of Duker-day!

Hi, my name is Duke and I'm the pup that my mom sometimes talks about here. I know she puts pictures of me on here so much that she had an idea...

Maybe I should give you the short version of my life so far --
I was born on September 29, 2006. There were just two of us, my brother and I, and our doggy mama was just too old and tired to take care of us. That task fell to the lady who would become my mom and her daughter who became my sister. ☺ And my mom thought I would need a strong name to match the strength I would need to get me through those first weeks. She named me Duke and my brother was named Toby (that sister named him!) They bottle-fed us every two hours around the clock and helped us go potty and kept us clean. Most of all they loved us.

My brother and I, doing what we did a lot in those early days.

In a few weeks, we were starting to eat puppy food. And then it was time to move on. This was never meant to be our forever home. There were other families that wanted us to live with them. My foster family already had a dog and didn't really want another. My mom and sister were really really really sad to see us go (that's how my mom tells it). My mom was especially attached to me because I'm the baby she took care of the most. She missed me and was sooo happy when, after a week, the lovely people who wanted me couldn't end up keeping me after all.

I'm about a month old here.

 I know I hit the puppy jackpot when I got this family. They love me and...they were very easy to train. I have my own bed on the floor at the foot of my parent's bed. I get to go on lots of car rides. I can usually be pretty sure that when my mom has to go to where my dad is working, I'll get to go too. My favorite kind of ride is the one where we go to that place with the golden arches. I get most of the french fries and my own cheeseburger and, if they get apple pies, my mom ALWAYS saves me part of hers. I make it kind of hard for her to forget though! Once a year, my parents pack up the car (leaving plenty of room for me to stretch out) and we go to this little house that has A LAKE! I'll talk more about that another time. Sometimes my mom and dad leave without me. It's never for more than a few days, but it feels like a lot longer.

Anyhow, I have more stories to tell and way more pictures to show and my mom tells me that I will be back here every Saturday...or, as we like to call it - Duker-day!

What were you doing a year ago?

Click on the link They’re wild for Ingalls Wilder at LauraPalooza to see where Jim and I were. He's the James in the article who had accompanied his wife Laura to the conference. Targeted by the reporter because he was the only man (at that time) at the ice cream social.
I'm not sure how thrilled Jim was about his "celebrity status" but I'm pretty happy that he was there with me! ☺ Next year? I'm not so sure he's up for a repeat performance...

Jim is not in this picture...or any picture from the whole LauraPalooza experience. However, I believe that the reason Laura Ingalls Wilder author and expert, John E. Miller, came to sit at our table was because he spotted Jim (sitting with us at that time) as the only other man in the room (same reason the reporter sought him out)...besides Dean Butler. See him there in the background? ☺

On why I don't like Burger King...

This morning, before I was even brushed, washed and dressed, Jim asked if I wanted to run up to Marysville (our nearest city) because he needed to pick something up that he needed for his first service call today. He threw in the offer of a breakfast out and I was getting dressed before he could finish getting the words out.

There's a local restaurant that we enjoy and we would normally do breakfast there, and we do fast food less often as I don't tolerate those foods as well, but this morning we were in a rush, so...

Usually a quick breakfast out consists of McDonald's hotcakes, but I really wasn't prepared for being out amongst the people yet, so Burger King's drive-thru was where we headed to today. We don't often go to Burger King, our local one or any other. The service is usually poor and slow. You can always tell when the owner is working at ours because everyone is more polite and the line is moving much quicker than usual. If we have to do drive-thru though, Jim prefers Burger King because he likes their croissanwich better than McDonald's breakfast sandwiches...and it's nearly impossible to eat hotcakes behind the wheel.

We're at the Burger King drive-thru and  -
Jim orders: "I'd like a number 2 with a large coffee and two number 8's, one with a large coffee w/two creams and the other one with a milk to drink." He says it slowly and clearly.
BK drive-thru: "Pull forward to the second window." I hate when they don't read back the order, or put it on the screen, or at least give your total since that sometimes is a good indication that they screwed up.
We get to the second window and are informed that they only have enough coffee for one cup, "would we like to wait?". Jim should have said no but he said yes. Two things: 1) we ordered two coffees and two would be nice. 2) you run out of coffee at 8am?
She then gives us our total: $6.03. For three meals? I say, "That's waaay not right." Jim says to me, "Forget it. We'll go to the other place." and he pays. When Jim gets annoyed at service (and isn't getting cheated), he would rather just patronize the competition. Believe me, we have complained to them or had to correct how they took our order on more than one occasion. So, we pay, get our food and drive forward to wait for that coffee.

I told you what we ordered. Here's what they gave us:

Okay...how did they get the drinks right, but only got one meal out of all of that?

Once we got our coffee, we headed to McDonald's and gave them our business. They rarely screw up and are usually quite nice. They just need to have something similar to a croissanwich and Jim would be happy.
Oh, and see that website on the receipt where they ask me to visit and give "my thoughts"? I did visit and I did give them "my thoughts". ☺

This, That. and The Other

And that's exactly what I'm talking about today --

• My chicks are growing like crazy and they give me a chuckle each and every day. I never thought having chickens would bring me a little joy (and a lot of stink) but they do.
• We spent the evening last night at our son's house. Just the five of us celebrating Brittany's (Jon's girlfriend) birthday. She's a Fourth of July baby. Chinese take-out, birthday cake and nursing school bday presents for Brittany (we're happy that she's starting nursing school this fall☺). We're a kind of low-key family, not overly demonstrative, but I hope Brittany knows that we do love her!
• One year ago today (well tomorrow if you go by the date, but it was Tuesday), we left to head to Mankato, Minnesota and LauraPalooza. Beyond Little House is having a LauraPalooza event this week into next, looking back at last year's LauraPalooza and forward to next year's. I will be sharing a memory or two next week over there and a little more in depth right here (because I may tend to go on and on☺)
• Also on Beyond Little House last week, I posed a question: "What kind of fan are you?" regarding what, as a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, might you collect, if anything besides the "Little House" books. My collecting has evolved over the years from books, to knickknacks, to antiques of items mentioned in the books or that Laura, herself, may have had. I have a hankering to talk about it more in depth here because, as I mentioned above, I tend to go on when in comes to LIW. Is anyone interested in seeing and hearing more about my collection here on this blog?
• Every year wrens nest in the same birdhouse in our backyard. They are my very favorite birdsong to listen to and one of the reasons I don't have a/c, so that I can have my windows open...especially early in the morning when all the birds are greeting the new day with their beautiful song.
• Call me crazy, but I've decided that my beloved pup, Duke, has enough to say that I'm devoting a day a week here to him. He'll share pictures, his thoughts, maybe a short (or long) story. It'll be every Saturday, but we're calling it...Duker-day!

I thinks that's it for the This and That. So, here The Other:

 Jamie, from From My Classroom Window (who also happens to be my daughter☺) tagged me and gave me two awards. Thanks Jamie! I already have one of them and here's the other:

I'm supposed to tell you seven random facts about myself, tag people and pass the award onto five people. Let's see...can I think of seven random facts that I haven't already talked about here:

1. Daisies are my favorite flower.
2. I can count on one hand the number of nights Jim and I were away from our kids while they were growing up. I don't regret it, but now that they're adults I'm cherishing the times Jim and I can get away on our own for a weekend.
3. I wonder why, at 50, I know what I want and I can get there, but I just don't...(I know what I mean!)
4. It's easier to think of seven negative facts about myself than it is the more random or positive ones I'm trying to come up with. And it's taking waaaay too long to think of them!
5. I wrestle with the fact that, for the first time in over 25 years, I don't volunteer for anything. I enjoy the freedom, but feel a little empty.
6. I feel my children are my greatest accomplishment. Other than that, I often feel that I have failed in most other aspects of my life.
7. I used to be a cat person, but then Duke came along.

Okay...who to tag and pass the award to?

1. Debbie at Debbie's Digest
2. Retired Knitter at My Next 20 Years of Living
3. Delores at thefeatherednest
4. Julie at Empty Nest Insider
5. Just Stuff From A Boomer

You know I hate picking people. Maybe that should be another random fact about me...

Simple Sunday

1999 at Jim's family cabin. My kids, then ages 19 and 10, paddle boating with the neighbor dog in hot pursuit. ♥

Doing double duty

We don't have a/c in our house.

I know, right?!

And you know what? We don't have cable either. We truly do live in the '50's.

We really don't mind...and that's not my point this morning. Sometimes I stray off topic.

Since we don't have a/c, we have a oscillating stand fan in our bedroom. I love it. It has served us well for several years. It's always there in the summer, standing by waiting for whenever we may need it. And it came with a remote! Which was really cool when we bought it because we didn't know fans had remotes.

This year when we brought our trusty fan down from the attic, and by "we" I mean "Jim", I put new batteries in the remote and...it didn't work! Well, the fan worked, but not the remote. Which meant that now I would have to actually walk to where the fan is to turn it off and on. Geesh.

I can deal though. I could really use the exercise anyhow.

Then, one day last week, I turned the fan on before getting into bed and it was making a noise. A loud noise. The kind of noise that would prevent us from sleeping. And we had to turn the fan off. I missed it, but started thinking of getting a new fancy fan with a remote that worked and I felt better.

The next night came after a busy day and there was no new fan when we were getting ready for bed. I turned old trusty fan on thinking maybe the noises disappeared. Guess what! They did. And I forgot about new fancy fan with working remote. Till Jim turned the channel on the tv and I heard a beep. "Why do I hear a beep when you change the channel?" I wondered to Jim. More channel changing and further investigation revealed to us that...every time that Jim turned the channel he changed a setting on our fan. We discovered that changing the channel up or down changed the timer on the fan and changing the volume up or down changed the speed of the fan. Hmmm...interesting.

I mean we should be happy that we have a remote for the fan again, right? Except that now...we can't get the tv and the fan to agree.

Celebrating in heaven...

Today would have been my mom and dad's 60th wedding anniversary. My mother had to celebrate what would have been their 50th without my father. Now they are together for this one. So...

Happy 60th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

I'm trying not to miss you (too much) because I know you are together.