Alas, the other day I saw that the dreaded ETS syndrome had hit close to home. Merlin was suffering a bad case:

(ETS: Errant Tounge Syndrome)

I managed to put my phone cable upstairs under some things and it took me a while to locate it, so these pictures are a bit later than normal.

Last weekend of Faire was supposed to be the end of July, but due to the rain weekend, they extended it another weekend.
That was great, as it allowed me a final chance to get out there this year. All the usual greyhound booth friends were there. Hopefully I can stay in touch with them over the winter better this time than I did last year. Probibly the last weekend in Aug is looking likely for my annual post faire BBQ.

Merlin says: “Dad! weren’t we through with this thing?”

T shows that Dazzle is a lap dog too:

Working the crowds:

Sabrina doesn’t seem to mind Merlin putting his leg on her head:

Thats all till next year!

Finally pulled the pics off my camera from the recent Grand Canyon trip. It was a blast, but too short…

Thursday night I flew out to visit my friend C in Goodyear, AZ. We just grabbed some food on the way back from the airport and went back and crashed.

Friday, C worked and I relaxed around his folks place. Very nice house. Big and has a very nice back yard and view. After work we went out for dinner and then a movie. Clerks 2 was playing at the right time, so we went to that. It almost looked like it was going to be a private showing:

It was an ok movie and entertaining while I was there, but it wouldn’t bear repeat viewing.

Saturday I had C drop me at the airport and I met up with one of my sisters that was heading up from Tucson. It was a 3 or so hour trip up to Williams, which wasn’t too bad. We all amused ourselves with a silly car game (a-z find words that start with each letter in turn). The hotel was nice and the buffet place we ate (it was included with the package) was pretty good as well. The hotel had wireless, but it was unusable. It kept dropping out all the time while trying to use it, so I ended up using my phone connection when I needed to check emails.

The hotel had a nice outside area in back that we took over. It was great weather…

Sunday was the train trip up to the canyon. It started out with a gunfight:

We had some music up (and back) on the train (sorry for it being blurry, the train was moving around):

The train going around a curve:

My brother and one of my sisters:

The train depot at the canyon:

The tour bus we got seated 16, and there were 16 of us (although my nephew was in his wheelchair, so we had 1 empty seat).
Here’s the guide walking up from the back of the bus:

The bus took us to about half a dozen lookout places (as well as lunch).

The mules that take people down into the canyon:

First look at the canyon. You should probibly just click on the picture and go to the full gallery. There are a ton of pictures, and I don’t want to link to them all here (but I will do a few more of the notable ones). You should go look now. I’ll wait… go ahead…

Some of the rails were comforting:

Some clouds:

The orphan mine. It was a uranium mine on the canyon rim. Closed now, but it could be reopend someday.

Here you can see part of the bright angel trail going down in the canyon from the main bunch of buildings (lodge, etc):

The train getting ready to head back to Williams. On the way up it was a deisel engine, but on the way back we had a steam train:

The Grand View car on the way back (they gave us cheese and crackers and champane and such on the way back):

The engine on the way back going around a curve:

The back of the hotel (facing the train depot):

Monday was travel back to the airport and back home.

Made it back home a bit ago… it’s sure nice to be back with my pups and kitty.

I took about a zillion pictures at the Grand Canyon… will post those and write up some impressions of the trip tomorrow.
It was a very nice trip, but it’s also good to be home.

ok, this will be the last photo post I will flood people with. Sorry for slacking and doing them all at once to catch up.

I went up to Almost Home for Hounds yesterday to meet the greyhound puppies.
They are all super duper cute. Very pretty and seem very happy. I took Kurt and Merlin up to meet them as well.
We met two of the puppies in a yard with just Kurt and Merlin and then I went and hung out in the yard that has all 5 puppies in it for a while.

Kurt was (as expected) pretty uncaring about the puppies. They were fine to sniff him and be sniffed, but no real issues.
Nash the puppy bugged Merlin to play and Merlin did the silent snarl thing he does and the puppy totally backed off.

Find the puppy:

All this playing with the big dogs is tiring:

After meeting all the puppies and playing with them, I definitely like Nash the best.
He seems outgoing, but not bossy, seems to get along ok with Kurt and Merlin and is just cute as can be.

I am going to think on it over the weekend, but I might be starting fostering him come tuesday.

I also got to see Fancy again. She’s the foster I had for a few days last week. She’s a totally diffrent dog being back where she’s comfortable now. She did zooms around the yard, come over for attention and was just generally very happy. I could easily foster her again and see how her personality comes out after a few days here.

Last weekend Kurt and Merlin and I went down to near Santa Fe for T and J’s wedding. A nice time was had by all. Here’s a few selected pictures from the trip:

Is it just me, or is Colorado Springs always under construction?

Kurt and Merlin cuddled up for the trip:

Would hate to get in an accident with this guy (in Santa Fe):

The Courtyard and door to our room:

Merlin finds the couch:

Some folks helping me take a picture of C.

The wedding Ceremony:

In an effort to catch back up on pictures before I leave town again, here’s some pictures from the weekend of the 15th and 16th out at faire.
It was hot. Hot hot hot. We were doing ok on donations, then someone came and dropped 2 c-notes in the jar. That was a very good day.

Another lap dog was out:

Some relaxing pups. Merlin got the good spot in the corner again:

Nice ears Mr Byron:

Do I have to wear this silly collar to walk in the parade?

Merlin says: “Yeah, they insist on these silly things when we walk in the parade”

Cool coat to the rescue:

This is an ok pillow:

Ah, the perfect place for my paw:

A cute resting Dazzle:

Guinevere, don’t look up, I’m above you with a kilt.

Dazzle decides to go thru someone again:

I’m not usually one to link to people’s posts, but this one from Bronxelf is spot on:

Introverts vs Extroverts on the net

I’m such an Introvert.

Well, it was a lovely weekend. Friday’s trip south was pretty uneventfull. We got checked in at 10k waves just fine. They were all very very nice folks there, it was a lovely spot. There were celing fans to terrify kurt, but he handled them better than he has in the past. After getting all checked in and unloaded we decided to make someone deliver food to us and had a nice late mexican food dinner.
Saturday we loafed around and killed time until the wedding. The wedding was at hyde park lodge and was lovely. It did start to rain, but there was enough cover than everyone could stay out of it. Lots and lots of yummy things to drink at the fully stocked bar. Very yummy dinner as well. It was really nice to see some folks that I haven’t seen in many years and catch up. I helped break down the bar and we wandered back to the room to hang out the rest of the night.
Sunday was packing up and a brunch in santa fe before heading back north. The place we went let us sit outside and have the dogs there with us, which was nice. The trip back was long, but not nearly as bad as if it had been all the way from Cruces.

Will try and catch up on my picture post backlog in the next few days…

This week is gonna be busy too:

• Tonight: GURPS game
• Tomorrow or Wed night: going up to Nutt to see puppies and see who I am going to foster next
• Sometime: meet with my dog/cat/house sitter to get her a key and all setup
• Thursday: fly to phx to visit my friend C and then go on our family vacation to the grand canyon
• Friday: hang out with C
• Saturday: go to my sisters house and then up to Williams, AZ
• Sunday: Grand Canyon train trip and back to Williams for the night
• Monday: fly home.

Well, I think I am mostly packed up to head out to Santa Fe and ready to hit the road.
It used to be that I would be very anal and make up a detailed list of everything I should take on a trip and check them off, and so forth, but now I find myself more and more just thinking before I leave what I need and tossing it into the back of the vehicle. Hopefully it will all work out. Kurt and Merlin seem both very eager to hit the road. They love riding in the car.

I might do some posting from there depending on if I can find wireless, we will see.
Have a good weekend everyone…