Its about time I got around to do this…. and I really do not have an excuse as to why I have not done it before now… apart from I could blame it on Robbi for making me drive her around to get her tags for the car and then a Texas driving licence all day yesterday.  She will read this at some point today and I will get a crack at the back of the head as she walks by my office…

The five things that Denny and Charlie do…

• Charlie always has to jump in the swimming pool when we take him out for his final “be clean” of the day, and then we have a wet Pug on the bed!
  
  
• Denny loves to be woken up on a morning with a “belly rubbins” – it has to be done otherwise he we sit and stare at you for the remainder of the day.
  
  
• Charlie just has to remove every single toy from the toy box over the time span of the whole day, but he will sit and watch you place them all in there nice and tidy first. 
  
  
• Denny has to have the first lick of any yogurt pots that may become available in the house, he does not mind Charlie having a go, but Denny has the longuest tongue so he must go first to get the good bits from the bottom.
  
  
• Denny and Charlie both have complete run of the house and are allowed to sleep on our bed.  We trust them implicitly and they are not caged when we leave the house for any extended period of time and they are the most well behaved pugs we could have ever wished to own.  We love them both dearly and treat them as if they were our children.

As for sites we visit on a regular basis, well there are many that we like to drop in on to catch up, but probably the top 5 are:

www.PugStories.com

www.theSwhataPugs.moonfruit.com

www.NorthShorePugs.com

www.MurphythePug.com

Sachithepug.blogspot.com

Posted by Richard at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I took a trip out this afternoon to see if I could get some local shots to start building up my library again, but its was just so very slow and uninspiring.   I drove up to La Porte and the shipping channel, but that was just plain old disappointing.  Then I took a drive down into old Seabrook – but there are so many “No Trespassing” signs that stop you getting to the best shots. 

In the end I decided to go to one of thepublic boat ramps between Kemah and Seabrook and took a couple of shots there. 

Herman and his Hermits

A Good Catch

Looks a bit tatty to me…

Nothing too good – perhaps a better day will be had tommorrow.

Richard

Posted by Richard at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have always known that Denny was a photogenic Pug, the amount of photos I have of him just goes to prove that.  But this shot of Charlie, which I took the other day while he sat in the hallway to my office, I think proves that we have yet another star of the Digital Imaging world among us.

The loss of my data after the thunderstorm has set me back a few months, and I really do need to knuckle down now and get some updates on DennyandCharlie.com.  That reminds me, I still need to respond to our “tagging”.

Anyway, better get back to the grindstone!

Richard

Posted by Richard at 03:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have been tagged.... but we have also been hit by lightning! Yup, we had a big storm today and it took out my hard drive! Bugger.

Anyway, we went out to buy a new 300GB drive and an Uninteruptable Power Supply with Surge Protection for my computers. Just finished restoring all my data and now its time for bed (3:23am!)

So, we will work on the tags in the morning!

Posted by Richard at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Although Denny has never really expressed a real love of the water, he has always never minded playing in it. Charlie on the other hand seems to have a real craving for the stuff. If it's not whining to get in the bath or the shower with us, its a ganeral need to play in puddles and splash in his water bowl. So we always knew that Charlie was either going to love the pool or he would find it a rather daunting prospect. How lucky we are that we have a Pug that actually loves it and even has the common sense to get himself out if he falls in while we are not watching.

We have taught Charlie from the first time we let him play in the pool that there are specific ways to get out, and we have markers that he can see and recoqnise from the water. We bought a pack of little training cones and these are places at the steps and the tanning ledge on the pool edge. He seems to have picked up the point really quickly and now routinely jumps in the pool and swims to his escape areas.

More photos of the boys in the pool coming soon... I just have to pursuade Denny!

Richard

Posted by Richard at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Robbi has been working hard all day so I decided that we would head out this evening to watch the sun go down at Pine Gully Park. It was so nice to have a breeze, although not a cool one, keeping you somewhat more comfortable while walking outside.

Pine Gully Park has a nice long fishing pier that you can walk down and fish to your hearts content, there were a few people enjoying the cooler part of the day doing just that. It was quite relaxing just to watch. Here are some photos so you can see what I mean.

Richard

Posted by Richard at 03:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I took a little short trip out this afternoon, to check on some recreation areas that allow access to the sea. Literally about 5 mins from the house is a little area with BBQ grills and picnic tables along with a 20 car parking area. It overlooks Galveston Bay and the Houston Shipping Channel.

Although it does not have the amenities of somewhere a little more touristy, it should does have the views and the seclusion that I am sure Denny and Charlie will love when the weather gets a little cooler for them to be out and about with me.

Richard

Posted by Richard at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are making great progress. More of our belongings arrived today, specifically one of four Kelly paintings we own. All I have to do now is find somewhere to hang it...its not as if I do not have many choices! So many walls!

It really feels like this house is becoming a home now. I think I am really going to like living here.

Richard

Posted by Richard at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I bought myself a house-warming present the week we arrived, but have only just got around to really getting to grips with it. The present was a Sony Digital DSLR a100 (the replacement for the Dynax 7D which I already have) which has another 4 megapixels of resolution making a total of 10.2 The quality is amazing and I am really looking forward to getting out there and taking some shots of Seabrook for a new web-site I am going to get working on in the next few weeks.

Here are a couple of shots of the boys sat on the sofa...

Posted by Richard at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, we finally now have the time to get on with some fun things.... its only been two and a half weeks since we arrived in Seabrook, but the time has simply flown by with all the niggly things we had to sort out.

We had to go shopping for a whole new set a furniture for the house along with all those items you take for granted when yuou have lived somewhere for any extended period of time, such as cleaning products! You would be amazed at how boring shopping can become when you have to keep "popping out" to buy something else to do that little job. But today, the 15 August, we have finally got to the point where we cannot honestly think of anything else we need to buy. Give it time though, I am sure I will think of something before the day is out.

Anyway, you may have noticed that the webcam is now online. Its located on the top of my office hutch in my home office (which may I say is bigger than any room we had in the house in England). We are still awaiting some furniture to arrive for the office (filing cabinets) and I need to get a 2 seater sofa and a rug too, but its coming along nicely.

The top floor of the house, apart from the master bedroom, is still a little bare. We are still thinking about what to do with the spare bedroom, decoration wise, and the game room is a completely clean slate - we just have to decide on what we want to use it for. Ideas anybody?

Anyway, I am going to download some photos in a while and will try and get some online so you can see how the boys and munchkin are settling in here in Texas.

Richard

Posted by Richard at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, I know we have been in the house now for over 2 weeks, but you would not believe the hassle we had getting Internet sorted out! Anyway, its done and we are going to get some updates online this week (hopefully some today). I am looking for a location for the webcam also....

Posted by Richard at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)