Doggy baths

OK. So it's been a busy week (or so). Somehow that feeling of being on top of things quickly slipped away to "yikes, I'm so behind!" So, rather than do all the things I'm supposed to do, I'm telling funny stories on my blog.

So, for those of you who have met Lugh...he's, shall we say, not fond of water (even little puddles). When bath times comes around it takes about a bag of Scooby snack treats to get him in the bathroom where I promptly shut the door and wrestle him into the tub. Then comes the 20 minutes of the most dejected face you can imagine, with his tail so far between his legs that it's plastered against his stomach. When it's all over he gets his revenge and drenches me with a few vigorous shakes of his body, takes off down the hallway wiping his big wet white butt all over every wall in the house.

Imagine my surprise when in an effort to destress I decided to take a relaxing bath. Warm sudsy water with Lush bath bombs perfuming the air. Quiet. Gentle. Your eyes are closed. Your thinking of warm sunny beaches (even though you have a blueberry mask tightening up the skin on your face). So peaceful...until...Lugh decides that the bathtub is a big water bowl and he loudly slurps and slurps and slurps up the soapy bathwater like it's candy. Uck. You open your eyes in shock only to experience the feeling of a mask being licked off your face. Uck-o.

Long story, short - Lugh is no longer afraid of the bathroom. However, now I am...

Pumpkin Carving

Well, it's my favorite holiday - Halloween. First, I took Lugh (the dog not the person) to a local pumpkin patch. He got really excited - had to sniff everything - even had to drag me through the corn maze. I would have had pictures, but my battery ran out. I tried to get Lugh to pick the pumpkins, but he was more interested in peeing on them. Not good. In the end I came home with a bunch of quirky pumpkins and some gourds (by the way, don't try to carve gourds they're super hard).

Then I picked up Llew and Gemma so they could experience their first AMERICAN Halloween. They dug right in.




As you can see, this was serious work - deep concentration.



And "wallah!" our first carved pumpkin - look at the proud parents:



Lugh was of course very proud - although he wanted to eat it.



We ended up with 7 pumpkins (wow) - our own little pumpkin patch where we can await the Great Pumpkin.



We then ran outside and gleefully "lit them up". Wow - it was so cool to see so many different ways of carving a pumpkin. We're just so darn creative!





This was a witch Gemma carved - very clever how she carved the hat into the top part.



Llew used the idea to do this one - and even gave it a scar like in Harry Potter.



This is "burp man" - his mouth reminded us of a cartoon "burp".



This is one that we thought needed a bunch of eyes - it's a bit odd - but it looked very cool lit up.



Last but not least was a teeny tiny pumpkin that almost looked like glowing lava when it was lit. It was so hard to carve that instead of carving eyes we stuck some pieces of pumpkin on skewers and stuck them in the pumpkin.



As an end note - got lots of comments on our pumpkins Halloween night. Lugh handled himself quite well with all the little kiddies (and high schoolers trying to live out one more Halloween's worth of candy). Happy Halloween dreams...

London October 2007

Whew - I took my whole research team (Shanna, Shawn, and Llew) ...



to London for the 7th Design Thinking and Research Symposium. We presented our paper (and did a fabulous job if I might say so) and celebrated with a pint (or two) at some old pubs.

The cool thing about these old pubs (besides being a part of every day life) - is that you can feel the history. In the older pubs they have movable glass screens where you can order your beer but you can close the screen so you can have a separation between you and the bar staff (wouldn't want them hearing anything confidential!). You can see this in the picture below - where Lugh is ordering us some pints -



Many of the pubs put great effort into silly names - this is the only picture we had that we felt comfortable publishing...



Later we went to the conference dinner at the British Museum (probably the most intense historical art museum you can ever imagine - thanks to Britain's skill in colonizing). From mummys to the Rosetta Stone to whole buildings rebuilt inside the museum's walls.

This is the whole group having a lovely dinner - see if you can spot anyone you know :)

A good time was had by all...

Once the conference was over - we took to the streets - and played around in Portobello Market.



Geez - makes me miss the farmer's market in Fremont. Oodles of yummy food - but perhaps our favorite was where we were told we could have "delightful cupcakes" (a bit strange to find one was photographed in Vogue magazine). We of course gobbled them up - and yes, they were delightful.

While we were munching away, Shawn was tooting his own horn looking for goodies to bring home.

You can imagine our surprise when Shawn found a book on Indianapolis in the market!

We also got a crash course in cricket (borrrrring). Llew explained the paddle and the ball - and even though the explanation was fascinating...sorry to say the sport itself still seems awfully boring. A game that lasts 5 days...ugh.



Later that day we all headed off to the Hind's Head for Llew's birthday bash. This is one of Heston Blumenthal's restaurants (The Fat Duck is across the street and wayyy out of our price range). We had a lovely traditional (or as Llew would say "proper" English lunch). Llew was smiling from ear to ear -

The rest of us got a kick out of the signs over the door...and well the size of the doors themselves!

Around the corner was a very cool old church - it seemed like the stones were almost like obsidian. They were glassy...I wonder where they came from. I, of course, took a bunch of shots in hopes of adding it to my texture wall.

While Llew hung out with family, the rest of us went sightseeing. One of the places we went was the track at King's Cross where they film the Harry Potter movies. More specifically, track 9 1/2 . Which doesn't really exist, although they were nice enough to put a bag cart at the place where it would be so you could experience rushing through the wall to get the Hogwart's Express.

Later that evening we ended up at what had to be the strangest place we've ever been. Words can't describe it (wall to wall "Stuff"). And yes, that thing above Shawn - is what you think it is.



When we got home we were surprised to find Llew had...changed... (where'd his beard go?)

The Lugh Photobook

Ok - this is my homage to Lugh!

Gemma told a story of Lugh that is one of my fav's (it's a story of Lugh helping in the yard, well, "helping" is perhaps too strong of a word). If you want to read it go to: Lugh the gardener

These are some of my favorite shots:




This is where you get a sense of his "odd body" - I think he taught yoga in another life. Yes, the second picture - he's sitting on his head. Ouch.



This is when he's a sweet little angel - sleeping as if he has no care in the world...



And then...the devil in him creeps in...



Bad dog. Bad Bad Bad.

Of course when a lamb bone from the Aussie party (see Gemma and Llew's post) is the prize - we're back on our best behavior. Aussie Party link



If you want to watch a video of Lugh in action - this is one of the low level anxiety attacks he gets...we're not sure what the story is...we sent an email to Cesar Milan and got no reply. Llew (the person not the dog) thinks we should send it in to that Funniest Videos show.