"Tis the season to be Mary" "Well, that's my name!"

We traveled up to Canada on the 23rd/24th to have a great Christmas dinner and hang out with the Penners, and then spent Christmas day back in Boise. Here are a few pics!

Chewy hanging out, waiting to tear open her gifts.

My sis Kristy and her hubby Joe sent some of the delicious vino from Paige Springs Cellars in Sedona--that always makes for a merry Christmas!

Duane and Chewy are trying to figure out what the present is...

Rock on! It's a remote control helicoptor--everyone needs one of those! Somehow I'm thinking that my Dad had a lot to do with this one. :)

Hallowthankmas!

I thought that I would mesh all of the fall/early Christmas festivities into one post. Very innovative, and not at all lazy like you might have thought initially. First, here are a few Halloween pics for your viewing pleasure. This spider showed up right underneath our patio door, 4 days before Halloween. It was like the the Great Pumpkin, only in spider form and pretty nasty. Both Duane and I were afraid to capture it, so we just monitored it and waited until it passed away. It did, two days after Halloween. Crazy huh??





Duane and I had a carving competition with pumpkins--it didn't start out that way, but after several critical glances back and forth, things got a bit tense and competitive. Mine is on the right and Duane's is on the left. I think Duane's got the edge in this picture with the lights, but mine happened to be a crowd pleaser with the trick-or-treaters.





Moving along, below are a couple of snippets from Thanksgiving. Duane and I went to Vancouver, WA to be with family for Turkey day. I was also supposed to run the Seattle Marathon, but ended up getting really sicko on Thanksgiving night and many nights after. The picture below was taken with my niece Ronnie about 6 hours before I started my barfing extravaganza. Look how clueless I am...and how cute her shoes are!!

Someone stole my camera (Amy) and took a video of Nina and also of Dylan and Andrew playing around (below). Nina is Ross's mom, and Andrew is my cousin. Pretty silly...

Finally, to start off the Christmas party season, Duane and I were invited by one of Duane's coworkers to a Philipino/American Christmas party at her church. Here's Duane posing in front of the main course, a pig. It looks as though he's protecting the identity of the pig. But then he ate some...I'm confused!

Okay, I had to document this part of the party. The hosts wanted to show the audience some traditional fighting "moves" from the Philipines, and what better way to show that then to bring in a bunch of native Boiseans in muscle pants?? I kept thinking that someone was going to pop out from behind the stage and tell us that we were part of some kind of prank, but alas it was no joke. Those men were intense! They stayed after the performance to party it up--they even changed out of their muscle pants. Overall, the party was really fun and everyone was so nice. There were several traditional performances that were more appropriate (see below) and definitely beautiful and entertaining. I can say with confidence that I've never been to a party like that before!!!

Scary Movie IV--Uncut!

Before we get to the movie, here is a picture that is back by popular demand: it's Duane, Chewy and a corndog! As you can see, this was taken a few years ago when Chewy was a pup and Duane was a little crazy. Some things have changed (and some really really have not)...

Okay, here it is: I should have had some great pictures from when we went to Vancouver last weekend, but alas all I could capture was this heartbreaking scene (all 6 seconds of it) with my little nephew Dylan as he was helping his mom wash the car. My sis told me to try out the video option on my camera, and as I hit play (my plan was to "interview" Dylan while he worked) this is what happened (this film is rated PG for some slight cussing and violence):

My sister has cat-like reflexes!! As bad luck would have it, he got his hand pinched in the car door handle the second I started recording--what are the odds?? It may appear that I was a dead-beat aunt, but I was actually looking at my camera and didn't realize he was in peril until I started cussing. Woops! (okay, I think I might be a little bit of a dead-beat aunt) Dylan was okay--he had a very quick recovery and kept on washing the car. He stayed away from the doorhandles though; those things can bite ya!

Post accident, feeling groovy

My Own Private Tennessee

Here's a couple pics from around the neighborhood. It's been so nice, but all the poopy weatherpeople are predicting cold from here on out...

Megs sent us some awesome Tennessee gear--Duane and Chewy were gracious enough to model the fall line for you. If you zoom into the picture below, you will see that Duane was so excited to wear his shirt that he didn't even stop to take of the "large" sticker. Hee hee hee

At first, Chewy was very shy in front of the camera, but after a few takes she was quite the ham.

She wanted to capture the versatility of her new coat, so she had me take the following pics:

The jacket comes off for a pic-o-nic .....or you can reverse it for a fashionable nap!

The Blue Turf

I went to the Boise State/New Mexico State game on Sunday. It was very entertaining, but we won 58-0 so it wasn't exactly a thriller.

Desiree, me and Ashley--right before kickoff

We sat in the student section, but at the top to avoid the "crazies" :)

Speaking of crazy youngsters, here's a pic of them in action.

One Wedding and a Pizza Place

Duane and I went to a wedding this past weekend for my friend Tracy and her (now) hubby TJ. I took some great shots of the bride and her dad. Here's my most artistic shot (ie: I swear I did that on purpose). I think she might want to frame this:

Duane and I hung out up on the balcony, sipping beer and people watching--it was great! On the right is a picture of the bride making the rounds and saying hi to all the guests. The little girl in the picture (my friend's niece) is apparently mad at the bride for not having the right type of punch-- That'll teach her!!

Here's me with my pals Ashley and Tracy! For some reason, I still feel the need to squat down and pretend to be 5'2" when my friends are shorter than me. I'm not sure why I do that, but they certainly made fun of me for it!

Also this past weekend, the pizza joint Lucky 13 opened up (it's right across the way from our house). Duane and I certainly had to check out the eats and the beer selection. It was mighty good! I think I had some sweet timing with the camera, don'tcha think?

Chewy's Update

Chewy here, just wanted to give the ol' blog a quick update. Some people are having trouble keeping up so I'm here to pick up the slack!

This first pic was taken a month or two ago when Bob came out to visit. He's my summertime boyfriend--I pretty much have a man for every season!

Next, we have a picture of me with the Penner clan. I decided to give a profile pose in this shot, as it makes me look quite stoic. Can't argue with beauty!

And here is a really great shot of Duane and I playing around outside with one of my many squish toys. You can't really tell from the picture, but there was a huge storm coming in and it was super duper dusty and windy. I heard Angie talking about me blowing away or getting taken out by a tumbleweed, but Duane and I prevailed and got to play. Small victory!

I know this picture (below) is a little blurry, but I was very excited about the green monster that came to visit us one day. It was on the screen door and I couldn't take my eyes off of it! Part of me wanted to befriend it, and part of me wanted to take a bite to see what would happen. Both options were squashed (again, Angie is a freak and thought it would try to attack me) but I did get a few good pics!




John Candy? Are you back? No, this is just Jim, one of my pals and owner of the infamous Magic. We were spending the day at Lucky Peak, and I think Jim got confused and thought we said "week", as he brought too much crap. The other picture is of Duane and Jen cooling off in the lake, and I'm trying to entice them out (the lake wreaks havoc on my hair!). It's kinda hard to see me, but my shadow looks great.

















I hope that you have enjoyed this posting. Really, I don't think you understand how hard it is to type with paws!! If you want to show your appreciation, might I suggest some Pupperoni's or Milk Bone treats???

Uh Oh, It's Magic...

We've had quite a few visitors this summer at the Penner casa, but the newest one is certainly the most "intriguing". His name is Magic, and we're dog-sitting him this weekend. Magic was adopted by our friends Jim and Jen 3 weeks ago from the pound, so we don't really know his history. All we do know is that when he first met Chewy, he liked her in a not-just-friends kind of way. Chewy's no hussy, so she has bobbed and weaved her way to safety on numerous occasions.

Just in case you are worried about Chewy, I should mention that he has toned it down a bit, and I will make sure to debrief and process with Chewy when Magic leaves as she might have some PTSD.

More than anything, I'm just wondering what the protocol is for when one of those huge eyeballs pops out?? Can it be shoved back in? Is it supposed to fall out? When you look into his eyes, all you can think of is how the heck they haven't fallen out already. I'll guess I'll have to keep you posted! ****If you love pugs, I'm sorry if this post is offensive, but I just don't understand the "magic".****

Views From the Penner Casa

My sis was asking for some random pics of our house, so here are a few to enjoy:










Here's a pic of our side yard and also a shot of Chewy. I was trying to make it less boring by adding the dog-in-action...kind of a two-for-one huh?













Per my sister Amy's request, this is the view from our front porch. I apologize for not having Chewy in the picture-- I could have placed her in the street, but I figured it wasn't worth the risk (Duane would have called me deadbeat mom)!

From our patio, you can see they are building something, and that something is Lucky 13, a sweetly awesome pizza joint. Alas, I may never ever learn to cook anything but Crunchy Chews...












I had to add this picture b/c this is one of the three hawks that seem to stalk Chewy. They are about the same size, but they have some serious hamhocks--I'm sure they do squats and romanian deadlifts...anyway, they happen to be our neighbors so there's nothing we can do about it (unless we were to cut down their tree--hmm)

The Mariners are playin' hardball...

So Duane and I met his brothers and his dad in Seattle for a Mariners game on Monday night. Everything was perfecto--good food, good weather, great game. Too bad I forgot to take pics once we got to the stadium!! I got so excited about where our seats were (24 rows up behind the enemy's dugout) that my brains fell out and I was just drooling and watching the game (I might have had a beer as well). Anyway, I did take a few pics before we got to the game:

Are those two twins? A lot of people were asking us that--it actually got quite annoying--but no, that's just my pa-in-law Jim. We both got these sweet t-shirts in the gift shop.

Here's a pic of the Penner clan; Bob's in the back b/c he's kinda shy (or maybe, more accurately, he was being a poohead and doing it on purpose)!! You may want to observe the way that Duane and his dad are standing--they look exactly the same! And rumor has it, Jim can still beat Duane in a foot race (a very short one, but still). Oh yeah!!!

The restaurant where we ate supper was very good, but they did not serve their Stella in the proper glasses, which is ALWAYS a party foul. This picture (below) was taken before the wrongful Stella serving glass debacle, so as you can see, we were very cheery and unaware. Ignorance is bliss!

Oh man, in this picture (below)we were looking right at the stadium, but for some stupid reason I thought the picture of the city was more important right then. Sheesh. Anyway, this is the last picture for the night. There were a lot of things I probably could have taken pictures of: the foul ball that was caught 5 seats away from us, the crazy peanut vendor that I wouldn't have bought anything from no matter what, the Mariner's star player Ichiro Suzuki at bat (he is a fantastic player but his batting stance is hilarious--it looks like he has to "go" really bad), the cute little kid that squirmed for three hours straight on his mom's lap (she was a patient lady), or the huge Starbucks coffee I got for like 20 bucks when it started getting chilly (of course they sell Starbucks--it's Seattle!).

Before we left, Duane and I had to stop off at our favorite pizza joint that we always try to visit when we go to Seattle. You gotta love Seattle pizza!!

Hee haw hee haw hee!!!

Impress your friends...

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First post?

Here is our very first posting--very exciting! People all around the world are holding their collective breaths in anticipation. I know, I know, the pressure is immense but I'm quite used to it! Above is a sweet pic of Mo and Geri, post race. Geri rocked the Boise Twilight Criterium, and there was much fun to be had before, during and after (after pics below). Estan listos? Empesamos...