Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Hello everybody, and a very warm and cheerful hello:
I am back, woof, and I will start writing from now on. Chris has confessed that she has kept you entertained while I was away in my kennel and with no access to the internet. So you should be well-informed about all her journey to the U.S. It's a shame she did not take me, I would have had a great time annoying Shadow, this I am sure of. But she says the apartment would not have been too comfortable for all of us, and his mom and Shadow himself aren't too fond of me being there in the apartment with them. What a pity, what a pity. Further Chris explains that she is not sure how I would have liked spending some 13 hours in airports with no space to run around or go for a little stroll outside. It is indeed hard to imagine how one can go up in the air with a machine they call a plane. If you want to search my archive, you know that geese trouble me a lot, you see them in the sky, want to chase them but just can never reach the high level they're travelling in. And when they're on ground level they are in water, which is not my element either. So planes, wow, what a mystery!

Well I remember when Chris and mom came to pick me up. OUr supervisor had taken me outside, and when I saw Chris I ran and jumped up on her. We went into one of the dog squares that has a fence around it. There Chris started playing wiht me and throwing snow at me. I ran back and forth and jumped with joy. It is so nice to smell this familiar smell and hear the familiar voice. A little while later even Mom came to join us. She ran after me and played with me, too, it was such a great time! We then went to the shopping mall, where Chris put me in the harness. She was really satisfied with the way I worked and guided her. I did not even try to smell the meat. We met a couple of children, and Chris permitted some of them to pet me, really cool. And then back home and hello to grandpa Ajax. He has really aged, he never plays with me again. Doesn't matter, I run after and bark at him anyway, maybe there comes a day he does feel like playing, and then I am going to be there.

At home I smelled another smell that reminded me of Shadow. Chris seems to have finished unpacking, at least there was no suitcase standing in the living room. O how I really love my home, my mat, my living room!

Chris is sleeping here with me. She is watching tennis most of the night, goes to bed early and takes naps during the day. Okay, I won't complain, she is staying with me. One night she even took me for a little walk, because I asked for it. She isn't so bad, she is really a nice master. Now if Shadow was here - that would be perfect. I bet Chris would love it. He calls all the time, or Chris calls him, I don't care, but they talk a lot. All right, enough from me for now, otherwise I would keep you up all day and night chatting away - it is really wonderful to be back home, yours, Hapoo.

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Hello everyone:
Have I told you that the statistics have developed? But I guess that's up to Hapoo to explore, like she always did. But I still owe you an update on our last days in SF and the journey back. The last complete day in San Francisco I decided to accompany Shadow to work. I took my laptop and a walkman I had borrowed from his father, so time passed quickly. We had lunch at an Indian buffet, not bad at all, I tell you. Talking about food - hey I had a lot of international cuisine to try: Thai, Chinese, Mexican, really delicious burgers, pancakes (how international indeed), Indian and Pakistani, and of course, delicious dinners at home.
Anyways, after work we went to meet Shadow's professor - a strange chap but nice indeed, I had quite a bit of fun listening to their in-depth discussions about Iranian ancient everything - languages, history, just about everything. And then back home a delicious fish meal and a quiet evening to come. It must have been really quiet, because I cannot remember anything in particular.
The next day I left it to Shadow to pack my suitcase, and after I had arrived at my sister's he proved to have done a great job. Nothing had leaked or broken, how wonderful!That day it was raining, so we decided not to go for a long walk, but instead we bought some more pastry from two Iranian shops, had nice lunch, and then it was time to go to the airport. There the security procedures bothered me, plus the fact that Shadow was not allowed to accompany me through to the gate. So it was quite short goodbyes, and being guided to the security area by an assistant is not a pleasant feeling at all. And then off we went, almost immediately through to the gate. I had a bulkhead aisle seat, how wonderful - and beside me a nice couple with a 16-months old boy. He was great during takeoff and landing, did not make much noise and enjoyed playing with me. As we flew out at night I slept through most of the flight to London.

Over there I had to wait quite a bit to picked up by another assistant, but then we smoothly went through right into the next plane. Another aisle seat, and this time my neighbour was an eleven-year-old girl who was a little nervous. They had announced a few turbulences on the way to Berlin, so she was scared the plane could crush on the way. I calmed her down and distracted her by talking through most of the flight. In Berlin my assistant had no problem finding my two bags, and my sister and her son were already waiting for me right outside the restricted area.

I spent about another week with them, celebrated my nephew's birthday and got used to Central European time again. I really had a wonderful time in the U.S. with Shadow, but I bet Hapoo is delighted to be back at home with me, being able to sleep on her mat by the heater and going for walks with the three of us, Mom, grandpa Ajax and myself. And she will take over the blog from now on - I hope she does not bite me for stealing it from her for the past month. So goodbye from myself and many thanks for reading my updates, Chris:-)

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Hi all:
As I told you, we spent Jan 2-4 away, so I could not have updated. Yesterday and the day before I was kind of busy, so please excuse the delay! But reading is worth it, we had a wonderful holiday.

We went to Lake Tahoe, a quite famous skeeing place at the border of California and Nevada. In order to get there we had to rent a larger car than the Beetle we were driving now. As we were trying to get the best offer, we went to the Oakland airport, but people were either very rude or did not have as good an offer as our favourite car rental enterprise. So Shadow, friend Cyrous and I finally left 1.5 hours after schedule. O heaven, those two made fun of me and my need for timing and punctuality. "It's the German in her, it's not her fault."

Near Sacramento we picked up Maryam, Cyrous' sister. She is really fun to be around, joyful, lively and always a joke waiting just on the tip of her tongue. Finally I was not the only one who mildly complained about the delay.

Driving to Tahoe was quite an adventure. First we were stuck in several trafic jams, and then we started worrying whether or not we needed snow chains. We managed without all the way, although the road was in parts quite snowy and icy. The car was strong and Cyrous a capable driver. Maryam and I had a great time laughing, watching the coolest men on earth trying to get our room key out of a box. Somebody gave them instructions via phone, but tell you, they had something in their ears or brains, they never understood a word correctly!

The room itself was okay. We did not stay there for long, but instead went out to a really good Italian restaurant - at least my food was good. Shadow did not like his, Maryam was pleased with just about anything, and Cyrous' apparently had too much cheese. That night it did not take much time for me to fall asleep.

Breakfast the next morning proved to be another adventure. We were given free breakfast, but for that had to go find a casino. Again, the poor baby boys found lots of things to complain about. Maryam enjoyed the gfact that the food was "free, come on guys", and I was reminded of the good old days when mom and I were all around Ireland, stuffing our tummies with English breakfast n the morning, to have enough energy till the evening. However, it was decided we never go to that casino again.

In the following hours the men made up their minds and decided to spend the money on cabin passes and skeeing equipment, so they could go skeeing. I have never been downhill skeeing, and Shadow was not too sure how well he would perform, so I decided not to attempt trying. Maryam suffers from height anxiety, so she remained in my company. We spent the time talking and gossipping, making fun of just about everybody we knew and laughing and laughing. Shadow must have been very proud of himself, he ad enjoyed skeeing a lot.

On the way back we stopped to go shopping for tomorrow's breakfast and joiurney back. Then Cyrous and Maryam spent their time with other friends, while Shadow and I had dinner at Kentucky fried Chicken, a fast food Shadow LOVES, and then we went to a casino his uncle had recommended.

That was a fun experience. We had set our rate to be $20 each to lose. Since I have no idea about black jack, we decided to play roulet. Our $40 were gone just like that, Shadow having won eight once, me nothing at all. Had I not been there, he would have played and played. He enjoys that game. We did not win anything at the slot machines either, although I gave it a try. Another fridge magnet, and then back home. There we sat and chatted with the rest of the gang. There I found my master in terms of tennis knowledge and economy, and we indeed had quite an interesting conversation.

Next morning came, and Maryam proved another skill, a perfect breakfast manager, although I had to show her how to set a table - Shadow is the main critic of that task at home! We checked out of the hotel on time and hit the road. We stopped by the lake to take pictures in the snow and of the landscape. We had not done so on the entire trip - shame on us! And Maryam for some reason did not feel the need of a snow fight anymore, she decided the snow was indeed too cold. This time the road conditions were perfect, dry, sunny, clear - so we made it to Sacramento in one go, Shadow driving all the way. It was the most important reason for a break, the bathroom break highly desired by Shadow any time the opportunity was given - that made us see Maryam's home. We ended up having a snack in a book store - o how highly unusual! Home finally, give Cyrous his car keys and then go to a store to find out a little more about my mini disk recorder. And then finally back to sleep! Shadow was so tired! The poor thing had to do all the driving! Well it's not that I didn't want to drive - they just did not let me!

Really nice trip we had - but next time we will go cross-country skeeing, that's Shadow's promise. Two more full days in San Francisco, then home to see my sister and my Godson - this is the time I will not be able to update my weblog. Bare with me for at least a week and a half, and I will be back, that's a promise!
Have a good time and don't forget to check, Chris:-)

Hi all:
As I told you, we spent Jan 2-4 away, so I could not have updated. Yesterday and the day before I was kind of busy, so please excuse the delay! But reading is worth it, we had a wonderful holiday.

We went to Lake Tahoe, a quite famous skeeing place at the border of California and Nevada. In order to get there we had to rent a larger car than the Beetle we were driving now. As we were trying to get the best offer, we went to the Oakland airport, but people were either very rude or did not have as good an offer as our favourite car rental enterprise. So Shadow, friend Cyrous and I finally left 1.5 hours after schedule. O heaven, those two made fun of me and my need for timing and punctuality. "It's the German in her, it's not her fault."

Near Sacramento we picked up Maryam, Cyrous' sister. She is really fun to be around, joyful, lively and always a joke waiting just on the tip of her tongue. Finally I was not the only one who mildly complained about the delay.

Driving to Tahoe was quite an adventure. First we were stuck in several trafic jams, and then we started worrying whether or not we needed snow chains. We managed without all the way, although the road was in parts quite snowy and icy. The car was strong and Cyrous a capable driver. Maryam and I had a great time laughing, watching the coolest men on earth trying to get our room key out of a box. Somebody gave them instructions via phone, but tell you, they had something in their ears or brains, they never understood a word correctly!

The room itself was okay. We did not stay there for long, but instead went out to a really good Italian restaurant - at least my food was good. Shadow did not like his, Maryam was pleased with just about anything, and Cyrous' apparently had too much cheese. That night it did not take much time for me to fall asleep.

Breakfast the next morning proved to be another adventure. We were given free breakfast, but for that had to go find a casino. Again, the poor baby boys found lots of things to complain about. Maryam enjoyed the gfact that the food was "free, come on guys", and I was reminded of the good old days when mom and I were all around Ireland, stuffing our tummies with English breakfast n the morning, to have enough energy till the evening. However, it was decided we never go to that casino again.

In the following hours the men made up their minds and decided to spend the money on cabin passes and skeeing equipment, so they could go skeeing. I have never been downhill skeeing, and Shadow was not too sure how well he would perform, so I decided not to attempt trying. Maryam suffers from height anxiety, so she remained in my company. We spent the time talking and gossipping, making fun of just about everybody we knew and laughing and laughing. Shadow must have been very proud of himself, he ad enjoyed skeeing a lot.

On the way back we stopped to go shopping for tomorrow's breakfast and joiurney back. Then Cyrous and Maryam spent their time with other friends, while Shadow and I had dinner at Kentucky fried Chicken, a fast food Shadow LOVES, and then we went to a casino his uncle had recommended.

That was a fun experience. We had set our rate to be $20 each to lose. Since I have no idea about black jack, we decided to play roulet. Our $40 were gone just like that, Shadow having won eight once, me nothing at all. Had I not been there, he would have played and played. He enjoys that game. We did not win anything at the slot machines either, although I gave it a try. Another fridge magnet, and then back home. There we sat and chatted with the rest of the gang. There I found my master in terms of tennis knowledge and economy, and we indeed had quite an interesting conversation.

Next morning came, and Maryam proved another skill, a perfect breakfast manager, although I had to show her how to set a table - Shadow is the main critic of that task at home! We checked out of the hotel on time and hit the road. We stopped by the lake to take pictures in the snow and of the landscape. We had not done so on the entire trip - shame on us! And Maryam for some reason did not feel the need of a snow fight anymore, she decided the snow was indeed too cold. This time the road conditions were perfect, dry, sunny, clear - so we made it to Sacramento in one go, Shadow driving all the way. It was the most important reason for a break, the bathroom break highly desired by Shadow any time the opportunity was given - that made us see Maryam's home. We ended up having a snack in a book store - o how highly unusual! Home finally, give Cyrous his car keys and then go to a store to find out a little more about my mini disk recorder. And then finally back to sleep! Shadow was so tired! The poor thing had to do all the driving! Well it's not that I didn't want to drive - they just did not let me!

Really nice trip we had - but next time we will go cross-country skeeing, that's Shadow's promise. Two more full days in San Francisco, then home to see my sister and my Godson - this is the time I will not be able to update my weblog. Bare with me for at least a week and a half, and I will be back, that's a promise!
Have a good time and don't forget to check, Chris:-)

Friday, January 02, 2004

Hello friends:
I wish you all a very happy new year, and I bet Hapoo and Shadow don’t mind if I do so on their behalf as wel. May a few of your wishes come true one by one, so life always holds something joyful.

Secondly, I need to tell you that I did something only a woman can do - we went shopping for shoes, and I left the store with three pairs of them. But honestly, the price was good, and the exchange rate dollar versus Euro is quite in favour of the second, which makes U.S. shopping q uite attractive.It was crazy, but the shoes are really comfortable. We must have tried half of what was in the shelves before we decided. It was real fun.
On January 2nd we wil go away for three days, so bare with me, and then I will be back wth a few more interesting news. For now, let me wish you all the best for the new year, Yours, ChrisJ