Calendar Contest we entered

We are so excited.

Benji and Lassie

We entered a Calendar Contest.  It's a fundraiser for Benny the French Bulldog who has liver cancer.  (Do you remember when we posted those cartoon games for Benny a little while ago to try to raise money for  him.)   Good luck to everyone who entered the contest!  Voting started yesterday 8/25/13 and lasts until September 1.  If you would like to vote, you can vote once a day ( every 24 hour period)  all week long.

Thanks for voting. 

We didn't know about the calendar contest until the day of the deadline.  It took 2 humans to take our picture.  Since we go all wild and bananas when Mommy holds a treat up, Mommy asked her niece to help her take the picture of us.  Mommy's niece held up a hula hoop in the air while we were playing ball -- and Mommy (tried) to get down low to snap the picture.  We are very happy with the picture.

We sure hope they raise a lot of money with the calendar to support Benny the French Bulldog.   Fight Like a Frenchie, Benny! 

To vote, scroll to the bottom of their post and then you check off the box next to the name of the entry you like and then press the vote button.  Here is the website to vote at:  http://www.heartlikeadog.com/2013/08/25/its-here/

Umbrellas and Hula Hoops

This is what the front of our house looks like (plus or minus some weeds.)

Last week on Tuesday, there was a strong storm that came by our neck of the woods.  Mommy was at work -- so you could imagine her surprise to come home and see....

Do you see it, our back yard blue picnic table umbrella somehow flew up with the wind OVER our house, and landed upside down in front of our house. That must have been a very strong wind to pick our umbrella OVER our house!  Thank goodness the pole of the umbrella didn't break the window. 

Our backyard neighbor lost their umbrella  too.  The wind threw their umbrella up over a high wooden fence and it landed in our back yard by our Grotto. Mommy was shocked to see it there because there are a lot of trees in that corner, so it's amazing how it still managed to navigate thru the trees to land in our yard like that.

Mommy went to the neighbor and told them their umbrella landed in our yard and it is all broken up -- they said they had 3 umbrellas in their yard -- they all went flying -- two of theirs managed to stay in their yard but they couldn't find the 3rd one.  Mommy jokingly said -- found it!  

A lot of tree tops snapped off trees down the road too.  That must have been some storm that day!


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This week, there was a little storm (nothing like last week).  And then Mommy came home to see....

Wind knocked this chair over.

 

 

You guessed it -- another umbrella went flying in our yard.  This is mommy's Ghetto Umbrella.  See Mommy's niece accidentally broke the handle off a regular umbrella.  Instead of throwing it out -- Mommy duct-taped it to a long pole and she put it by the picnic "wanna-be" area by the shed.  (Trust me, no one eats in this area.) 

Mommy got rid of the Ghetto Umbrella.  She would have been so upset if it damaged something when it went flying like that.

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Oh, on the subject of Duct Tape... during last Tuesday's storm... our Ghetto Jumps got broken.  Here is a picture of me (Lassie) looking at the pool that was standing up against the wall of the house that fell over in the wind.  When the rain filled up the pool -- it managed to knock the sides off our 2 ghetto jumps that were on the floor next to the pool.   Don't worry, Mommy fixed the ghetto jumps with more duct tape, so there is peace in the universe now.  (We weren't very happy Shelties to see our ghetto jumps destroyed like that by the storm.)

Oh, the pool, is a little blow up pool that Mommy had for the niece and nephew, they used it once this year and several times last year-- butt they complained how small it was and it got a small hole during the storm -- so no more pool at our place.

 

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With all that wind going on at our place lately, you would think the wind might have knocked that hula hoop that Mommy's niece accidentally threw up on the roof  when friends visited in Spring --that is stuck on top of our roof  -- off our roof.  Negative!  The hula hoop is still laying on top of our roof even with all that powerful wind.  

 

Butt Mommy bought us a new hula hoop a few weeks ago (its about time).  Here are pictures that Mommy just loves of us playing with the new hula hoop.

I (Lassie) am standing with all 4 feet inside the hula hoop. 

 

Benji

Oh yes, I'm standing in the spotlight!  I deserve an emmy!

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Here is a new stuffie that Mommy's niece bought for us (that Mommy paid for).  His name is Mr. Pigglesworth! 

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And last butt not least.   Mommy tried to take a "nice" picture of us in the yard.  She held a treat in her hand and this is what happened.... Benji is jumping and I am barking saying "GIVE US THE TREAT NOW!"

That picture just makes Mommy laugh so hard! 

Lassie and Benji

P.S.  We entered a Calendar Contest.  It's a fundraiser for Benny the French Bulldog who has liver cancer.  (Do you remember when we posted those cartoon games for Benny a little while ago to try to raise money for  him.)   Good luck to everyone who entered the contest!  I think voting starts tomorrow.  We sure hope they raise a lot of money with the calendar to support Benny the French Bulldog.   Fight Like a Frenchie, Benny!



Geocaching Adventure near NY

We are joining our blog friends Finn, Charlie, & Gizmo GeoDog in a Geocaching adventure. Well, that is -- Flat Lassie and Benji's Adventure!

If you remember, a little while ago, we attempted to find a Geocache in Philadelphia called Lemonhead of Liberty as part of Park Day Bingo! -- butt we couldn't find it. The Geocache was supposed to be under a log by the base of a mural -- butt we got stumped (literally) because the log looked like a super heavy tree stump! 

We decided to give Geocaching a second try!


1.  We looked on the Geocaching website for an area somewhat near home to try to find a Geocache.  We clicked on one that we thought might be good because of its location  -- butt then we saw the name of the Geocache and said forget about it!  

Can you see, the name of the Geocache in the picture below - it is in blue -- it's called "Flea Cache."  I forbid Mommy from going there -- we don't want Mommy to end up with fleas!  

2.  Since we figured we weren't going to try to find that Geocache, we took Finn's advice, and we downloaded the Geocaching App (the free one) for the cell phone, so we could try to find something on the road! 

Mommy, Grandma, Mommy's sister and family went on a family trip to Sloatsburg, NY. They went to a religious pilgrimage; the pilgrimage is held once a year.   The place they went to is right on the border between NY and NJ.   So, on the roadtrip from South Jersey, Flat Lassie and Benji and Mommy kept playing with the Geocaching App to try to find a Geocache! 

Our car is the Blue Dot on the pictures below, and the Geocache spot is the Green Dot.  Mommy has no sense of direction, so she was lost the entire car ride, (even with the App's built-in compass).

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3.  Here was an interesting Geocache that popped up on the roadtrip!  It's called "Squirrel's Hideout" near New Brunswick, NJ.  Flat Lassie and Benji quickly looked out the car window to see if they could sniff the sent of the Squirrel's Hideout -- butt those little tree rats are so sneaky and picked a hideout near "Farrington Lake" so, we couldn't sniff their scent from the car! Mommy's brother-in-law who was driving the car wouldn't stop (or even slow down the car) so we could get a good enough sniff!  :(



4. A ha!  On our road trip we saw another one that looked super interesting!  It's called "Bone Yard" its near a Roosevelt County Park near Metuchen, NJ.  We could just imagine an entire yard full of dog bones!  Unfortunately Mommy's brother-in-law who was driving the car wouldn't pull off the highway so we could find that yummy cache!  :(

5.  Can you believe this!  We saw one that said "Wildcats...OH MY".   Now that sounded like our kind of Geocaching Adventure.  Could you just imagine Flat Lassie and Benji barking and chasing all those CATS all over the place!  By now you guessed it -- Mommy's brother-in-law didn't want to stop the car so we could check out this Geocache either!  :(

6.  A message saying "Who Let the Dogs Out?" popped up on the Geocaching App.  We couldn't make heads or tails where this location was -- but we figured the "dogs who got out" probably backtracked where we just were and decided to bark at some Wildcats, then go to the Bone Yard, and then check out the Squirrel Hideout!    That's just our guess though! We don't know fur sure because Mommy's brother-in-law wouldn't let us out of the car!  :(

7.  We were getting really close to NY at this point, we were on Route 17.  Mommy tried to hold up our picture by the window so you can see the mountains in the background.  (Maybe the New York bloggers might know if this is actually a mountain or a ridge.  We don't know fur sure -- so we just call it "mountains".)

You can also see there is a McDonalds in the picture too (hint hint hint -- keep this picture location in mind.)

8. We finally crossed over the NJ/NY border and we checked out  the App for the closest Geocache place to where the pilgrimage was -- and it was called "Cookies For U!"  We were super hungry at this point and could go for a doggy cookie...but alas.....

9.  We lost our signal at the Religious Pilgrimage in Sloatsburg, NY, and couldn't go try to find the Cookie Geocache!!!!  :(

10. After the Pilgrimage, we were starting to head back home, so we decided to fill up the car with gas.  And low and behold, next door to the gas station was the McDonalds that we showed you a picture of eariler!   There is a Geocache at the McDonalds -- it's "Behind The Micky D's."

11. Oh my dog!  This was so exciting!  Quick, take a picture of the map! Well, I think we zoomed in too much for the picture.   The Geocache is between Suffern, NY and Mahwah, NJ.  It's on the NJ side of the map.

12.  We got out of the car!   We walked around the perimeter of the McDonalds.  We were watching the GPS screen go from distance in  miles to feet.



13.  This is a picture of Flat Lassie and Benji posing with the rocks that were directly behind the McDonalds!   The Geocache wasn't in this spot though!  So, we kept on looking trying not to be too obvious!

14.  Look it's the view of the "mountains" in the background again! This picture is from the spot directly behind the McDonalds. 

15.  We started to panic!!! A car pulled up to the McDonalds "Drive-Thru" Window behind the McDonalds when we were examining the area out back. 

We thought this looked like it might be the spot for the Geocache -- there was a bunch of tree branches piled on top of each other, butt then there were some empty soda cups there too!  

We hesitated and kept looking at the Geocaching App screen.  It still said we were still hundreds of feet from the Geocache.   We just didn't understand - this can't be it -- we are only a few feet away from that spot -- not hundred of feet like the App was telling us.

And then more cars came thru the drive-thru, and we were really in a Panic by this point so we won't be seen by the Muggles.   (Muggles = non-geocachers!)

16.  So, we gave up.  And headed back to the car without finding the Geocache.  Butt Mommy got something better than finding a Geocache....

17.  She got a Happy Meal at McDonalds just for the toy!   Don't get me wrong -- Flat Lassie and Benji enjoyed the fries and hamburger... butt Mommy really wanted the Smurf Toy to bring back home to the real Lassie and Benji to show them since it was part of our Geocaching Adventure!

18.  Here we are in the picture below with the McDonald's Happy Meal Toy -- it's Brainy Smurf !  (As you can tell from our expression below, we would rather Mommy brought us back the hamburger and fries to pose with instead of the toy!)

What a pawsome adventure!  Too bad we didn't find the Geocache! 

When Mommy got home she realized -- she was probably supposed to go behind the fence in that spot where she was so confused with the tree branches/soda cups.  It was probably hidden behind the fence!  Oh well!  We gave it our best effort -- that's what counts!

Lassie and Benji the Shelties

P.S.  Here is a picture from the Religious Pilgrimage that Mommy went to in Sloatsburg, NY. There is a grotto (modeled after the grotto at Lourdes).  There are candles lined up on the rocks and a waterfall. (Can't see the waterfall from this picture, people were standing in the way so we cropped them out of the picture.)  This area provides the background for the prayer services.  



P.P.S. Thanks for reading this super long post!!!!