My Grand Day Out -- Wine, Cheese, Bread, and Salami

After a grueling week of work (says my Mom), this past weekend we took Grandpa out for Father's Day breakfast and on Sunday we went to Sonoma to browse shops, walk the town, and eat!

Mom brought out lots of samples of food for me and Dad from this store, Sonoma Cheese Factory. I stayed under the table, enjoying the shade and eating the cheese and salami samples and later I got to eat lots of bread. That's pretty fine treatment I say!




My Dad and I stayed outside at one of the wineries, Sebastiani Vineyards, but when my Mom went inside, look who she found! We didn't know dogs were allowed inside.


We thought only Casper was allowed inside wineries?? Had we looked at the Sebastiani web site in advance of our dogventure, we would have known dogs were permitted because there is a dog on the main page of their web site!

I searched for Ronak since he knows fine wine, but he was nowhere to be seen, so I partook of the wine by myself. Well, okay, so I only licked the outside of the glass. Then my Mom finished up the wine and had forgotten I had licked it earlier. She's silly and thinks she's got cooties from me now.


Ohhh, I'm getting woozy. But at least I am stylishly dressed to match the color of the wine. A girl has to look good when she goes out for a day on the town.


Here are two pictures some have questioned. I have been accused of being more than a bit tipsy in these two photos. The reality is my Mom was insisting on taking more pics, but I was trying to look at a dog I spotted and my Mom was hindering my view. "Mom, you're in my way!" Honestly, I wasn't inebriated in these photos and I didn't lose my sense of balance. Honestly. I'm innocent.

Eskie Ambassador at Work

My parents were very proud of me when we spent the day in San Francisco and I played a really good Eskie Ambassador. Lots of people came up to pet me and I did really well.



My Dad said people's reactions to me are funny. You see them pointing at me, or you overhear conversations of people talking about me, or you see them sneaking photos of me, or they want to pet me. Dad says it's like they have only read books about dogs and have never seen a dog in person.



We passed a strange man who was sitting on the cement sidewalk. When he saw me approaching, he leaned all the way into me, almost touching me. Mom tried to steer me clear of him, and guess what.... I walked right past him without a blink of the eye and went on my merry way. I did a good job. When the strange man in a silver outfit and standing on stilts tried to get my attention, I gave him one big bark and then ignored him. I did good.

Here I am watching the smelly loud sea lions. They sure make a racket. Someone needs to tell them to shush:



I like sitting under things. Maybe it is because it is shady. Mom bought a $3.50 cupcake! Holy cow! That is expensive!









Do your parents see this look often?



Here I am at the fountain where a lady told me I sit so pretty and she asked if she could take my photograph. Lady, do you want my pawograph, too?

Brown Thumb

It's a struggle. My tomato plants are not nearly as healthy as Teddy Bear's and Princess Isis'. Woe is me. I was thinking maybe my Mom is overwatering them, so she has cut down on the water a lot. That is why the dirt looks DRY now!

Click on the photos to enlarge and see how dry and crinkly the leaves look.

The photos are in no particular order except for the path I took as I strolled and sniffed around my yard.

#1 - One of the first to be planted. Planted around the same week as Teddy's. You can see a few little tomatoes developing, but we really don't have much hope for them.









#2 -This one was planted a few weeks later. Pretty pathetic, huh? But at least you can see one "large" green tomato on there. And yes, it IS dropping to the right... but hey, tomatoes are vines! They are supposed to droop this way and that.








#3 - Ah, my youngest plant. It is still green. I guess it hasn't had time to experience the wrath of my brown thumb, ah, I mean paw. The local realtor give all the neighbors tomato plants. Despite this plant being about 2 months old, yes, MONTHS, it still looks like a baby.








#4 - Click on the pic and you will see all the green tomatoes growing in a cluster. Yes, I suppose this might prevent them from growing to be big tomatoes, but I'd rather see a bunch of tomatoes than only one or two.

This plant was planted around the same time as Teddy's. Teddy's are doing much better than mine.









#5 - Not much to say anything about this one. It is one of my older plants. Does that surprise you? I guess after you've seen plants 1 to 4, it is no surprise. Oh, woe is me.









#6- This plant is in the front yard. It gets a little bit of water from my grass sprinklers plus the water we give it. This plant is the healthiest of the bunch. It looks the greenest and the leaves are not dry or shriveled looking. We planted this one 2nd to LAST. One of the youngest plants we have.







My Mom says even though we aren't good tomato plant growers, it's the thought that counts. We plant tomatoes every year, despite our brown thumb. This is the first year we have planted so many.

Teddy, if you want to see some really neat veggies, take a look at this post I made a few years ago. You will see neat pumpkins and lemons and tomatoes! You will have to scroll to around the middle of that post to see the veggies. Be sure you click on the photos so you can see all the detail!

Berlin Meeting with Knut, the Famous Polar Bear!

Excuse my long absence but my secretary (aka Mom) and Dad were in BERLIN! While they were there, they got to meet a white furry friend, the famous polar bear named Knut! Knut made headlines a couple years ago when his Momma abandoned him after giving birth to him at the zoo. Some mean people said he should be left to die because that's what would happen in nature. Knut is very popular at the zoo. You can tell he wants to interact with his fans.







Here are two videos of Knut:





My parents also met the white wolves. Dad said they looked like me, but of course I am prettier. That goes without saying but it is nice to hear. They need a good grooming, wouldn't you say?





And a video of the wolves:



JB, my Mom was on Big World Assignment and asked Knut and the white wolves to be your friend. They said you are famous and have been waiting a long time to be asked to be your friend! They are honored to know you!

While in Berlin, my parents went to the local grocery store and saw these. Not sure what they are, but I think it is for people. Then why do they have a picture of a dog on it? Isis, do you know?



For those of you who have parents that travel, when your parents are not able to take you along (DogGod forbid), do they take a photo of you with them? This is the photo my parents took of me. They put the photo in their Rick Steves Germany tourbook so every time they opened the book up, they saw me!