Head in the sand?

One of our fun little day trips in Aruba was a visit to the Ostrich farm! One Ostrich egg is equivalent to 2 dozen chicken eggs. That would be quite the omelet!

Feeding them was interesting! Notice the lumps in their long necks as the food works its way down!

We learned to tell an Emu from as Ostrich! The big guys are the ostriches.

Emus, like most birds, have 3 toes.

Ostriches are the only bird to have 2 toes. Cheetahs can run faster for short distances but the ostrich can run almost as fast for miles and miles.

If anyone ever calls you as Ostrich it isn't a compliment. Our guide said that all they do is eat, mate and protect themselves. Those tiny little heads can't seem to learn anything at all. The ostriches at this farm are primarily for meat. Ostrich drumstick anyone?

Oh, and they don't bury their heads in the sand to hide but they do bury their eggs. Mom sits on the eggs all day and Dad all night. The eggs are tough enough to withstand 300 pounds! Might be a bit difficult to make that giant omelet!

Favorite views in Aruba

We loved our trip to India and Nepal with Fun For Less Tours but those two weeks hardly count as a vacation. With 5 a.m. wake up calls and constant on the go activities we needed a vacation to recover from the trip! Aruba was just perfect for total relaxation! Here are two of my favorite views:

The pool and the beach from my lounge chair! Now that is a real VACATION!

Puppies, puppies and more puppies!

What's even cuter than one puppy! Twenty-seven puppies! And I spent the afternoon with them!

We had outdoor play time!

Just like kids, they had the 'if she has it, then I must want it" mentality!

Lots of puppy kisses during cuddle time! They loved my watch and my glasses and my camera strap and all the snaps and cords on my ski jacket! If it is possible to chew it, they did!

I especially liked "Individual attention time"! It's important for these future guide dogs to get lots of one on one attention so that they are completely used to different people handling them! We were happy to provide this service! I love the expression on my puppy's face. I'm sure he is going to be a STAR!

Doesn't he look like he's asking when his individual time is going to be?

These three are from the J litter. That means that they all have J names. I think they are Jed and Jethro and Jocelyn. It's like having one family with two blondes and one brunette!

After their exhausting afternoon they enjoyed some puppy nap time!

I get to go back two more times! Lucky me!

NO outfit is complete without dog hair!

Except for visits from Jackson, Scott's friend's dog, we have been 'dog less' for awhile now. I miss having dog hair on my clothes. Well I don't really miss the dog hair but I do miss having an excited pooch overjoyed to see me every time I come home. So I have started volunteering at the Oregon Guide Dog School in Boring, Oregon. I'm helping in the Vet Clinic. So far I have done some clerical work, some sterilizing, and some other organizing stuff. But I've also snuggled with a dog coming out of sedation after an X-ray and spent time loving on a retired guide dog, named Nottingham, who is recovering from a sickness and was lonely. I've walked a beautiful confident Golden Retriever names Jonathan and a sweet yellow lab named Nexie! And I've loved every minute! I haven't had my camera with me so I haven't posted about this new project.

This week all that is going to change. Normally the Guide Dog School gets 6 new puppies each month. These puppies stay at the school until they go to their 'puppy raiser' homes which are located all around the West. But because of a problem with Parvo at the school in California, yesterday they got 27 puppies age 7 - 9 weeks! And I get to go and work with them!!! I'm so excited! The puppy coordinator said, "If you think 6 little puppies are cute, you should see 27! Some of them are so small they can fit in your pocket." I can hardly wait! And I promise pictures!

New Year's Eve - Goodbye 2010 - Hello 2011!!

Tonight for New Year's Eve we walked across the street to our local Lake Oswego movie theatre. It is the kind of place where the same guy who sold us our tickets also worked the concession stand and started the movie! I liked that hometown feeling. We saw "The Social Network".

I agree with this review "Fantastic performances, compelling story for teens and up. "Iffy" for Ages 14–15" and I'd add "Iffy for people sitting by their Bishop." Movies make me so mad when they add sex scenes and drug use that they don't really need for the story. The acting is wonderful....even Justin Timberlake does a good job as a despicable character. Really smart people who come up with revolutionary ideas like the founder of Facebook are fascinating. And the whole chain of events that led to the creation of Facebook does make an interesting story. It is a good movie and I can see why it is often listed as one of the year's best.

Oregon Aquarium

Among the the interesting displays at the Oregon Aquarium were several made from trash found along the beaches of the area....like this fish....

and this piece of 'trash art'. Amazing and kind of sad that people leave all this junk on the beaches. Although I can honestly say that along the beaches in Lincoln City we saw almost no litter.

Isn't this little sea otter adorable? We watched while they were fed lots and lots of shell fish. They are fat little guys but I guess they need to be in order to stay warm in that cold water.

These fascinating things are called Sea Nettle. Watching them was hypnotizing!

I love it when I catch a glimpse of one of the little boys I remember in these big bearded men!

The aquarium at Newport, Oregon was a great way to spend a cool, rainy day!

Jackson's Christmas

Jackson is our 'guest dog' who, in May, came to our house in Eagle for a visit and is still there! Do you think we should stop considering him a guest? Jackson definitely enjoyed his Christmas holiday!

He was outfitted with the perfect jacket for those rainy Oregon beach days.

Santa bought him a new chucker and a big supply of balls.

The guys never tired of throwing a ball for him and he never tired of retrieving.

The beach was a perfect place to pick up chicks...well it would have been if he had been intersted in anything except for balls and balls and balls and the occasional stick!

He caught a few waves! His owner lives in Hawaii. It's too bad he can't go there for a visit!

The wind gave him a new look! What a handsome guy! After an exhausting day he could curl up on his own bunk bed for a long winter's nap.

While visions of balls and sticks danced in his wee little head!