What a month it's been for Mac - first, his favorite team wins the Super Bowl, and now his very own breed wins Best in Show at Westminster!

First of all, Mac isn't a thoroughbred beagle, but he doesn't know that. Anyway, he watched with anticipation and was filled with glee when one of his own won. We were thrilled too! As you can see by the last pic, he was so excited that he jumped up on top of the screen and shared an

ah-roo! with Uno!

Mac gets all decked out for the Super Bowl and is totally THRILLED when the Giants win in the final seconds of the game!

Mac has been completely bored with this whole Palm Springs thing, so he looked forward to watching the game in his old NY Giants uniform. Sadly, as you can see, it no longer fits. He had to sort of "tack" it on. Happens to all of us, I'm afraid. Anyway, when his team pulled through at the last minute, he was so proud that he attempted his very own goal kick. He did rather well considering his legs aren't jointed and he can't kick.

P.S. Some people may say that we are drinking too much wine out here in California, but my answer to that is NO WAY! However, try the Mumm Napa Cuvee Champagne if you can get it. It's GREAT!

P.P.S. Does anyone know the history of jersey #53? We're not sports fans and Mac's not telling.

Let's put it this way, Mac is keeping "Mumm."

Finally, after nearly 3 weeks, some pix of our newest residence (in Palm Springs, of course)

The first pic is of the front of this place, which really isn't very impressive. It's the back of it, with the ponds and waterfalls and ducks that's really nice. The last pic is of a bird of unknown type, I just like the way it came out.

We will probably be here in Palm Springs until the end of February, then we are ABSOLUTELY moving on, either to the San Diego area or to Arizona. Weather has been constantly improving, should be up to the mid 70's by midweek. We're having fun but getting kind of lazy and, dare I say it, in a rut. Will be back with some Super Bowl weirdness from Mac.

A WWII P-38 Flight Demonstration

We went to this flight demo at the Palm Springs Air Museum. The first 3 pix are of the P-38 called 23 Skidoo (bit of confusion there, thanks jcmranger). It did about 3 or 4 loops over the museum and it looked and sounded really great. Just like aircraft in old war movies.

The last pic is of Ed standing in front of one of his all-time favorite planes, a PBY (also vintage WWII and in flying condition, but it didn't go up that day).

A Roadrunner!

We are still in Palm Springs and we haven't seen much wildlife lately so this was a treat. This is actually the same bird, with and without his crown. Got these shots a few blocks away from where we are staying. Roadrunners are supposedly plentiful around here (this was the second one we've seen). Lots of hummingbirds too. Next time I spot a hummingbird I'll have the camera handy, hopefully.

We moved into another condo this past Wednesday. Will be back with pix of the place and other stuff soon.

SOME PIX TAKEN AT A CHARITY HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL

This Hot Air Balloon Festival was actually a benefit for the familes of the Marines who are stationed nearby at the Twenty Nine Palms Air-Ground Combat Ctr. The festival itself was held on the grounds of a casino about a half hour away from Palm Springs. Some of the balloons were unbelievable, as you can see. My personal favorites were "Arky" (third one from the bottom) and "Sushi" (the fish who makes multiple appearances). Humpty Dumpty and the blue dragon (called Azul) were pretty cool too. I took so many pics it was hard to choose and many of them don't even look real to me, and I was the one who took them! The day was kind of overcast so all the shots have a somewhat eerie quality. Sadly, some balloons never made it off the ground, the Energizer Bunny among them. That's him up top, looking slightly drunk.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Who's that masked stranger? Why, it's Mac, of course! We're still in Palm Springs and, yes, we have waaaay too much time on our hands........dressing up a tiny stuffed dog, what will we think of next?

A full moon over Palm Springs on the eve of Xmas Eve

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Please don't laugh.... at us... with the dogs....

The first photo of us with the dogs was taken at the Palm Springs CA Villagefest where, for a small donation, we had our pic taken with these adorable service dogs (sponsered by Animal Samaritans); next up is Mac (in a most becoming holiday suit) and a friend in front of our "Christmas tree." Then a formal portrait of Mac is his Santa/Pope/yodeler holiday suit; finally, he insisted we take him out to find the real Santa, no luck, but we did find some snow (white paint) in front of a house decorated to the max. And a Merry Xmas to all!!!

Palm Springs - Round 2

We came back to Palm Springs after our trip to LA and these are a few shots of the new condo that we are staying in (and again, it's cheap!). The person waving by the pool is Ed, the weather was warmer back then (around the third week in November), it's gotten cooler since, 60's during the day and as low as the 40's at night. We are planning on staying here until the middle of January, it's really a great place. Nice people, nice weather, not too crowded, very pretty, and surprisingly not too expensive. We are going to go around and look at properties with our rental agent (the guy who got us both condo rentals) soon. This could be the place! I have no idea where we are headed after this. I really don't want to leave!

P.S. The 16th of this month marks 6 months on this trip. I can't believe it, the time has flown.

The weirdness that is Venice Beach and Hollywood

No trip to Los Angeles would be complete without a stroll along the Venice Beach boardwalk and Hollywood Blvd. When we first got to Venice Beach we thought, "this isn't that weird," boy, were we wrong. What a bizarre circus (and the admission is free!). The best were the guys slumped over on the sidewalk with signs that said "need money for beer" or "need money to get stoned." At least they were honest. Now for the photos: the first is just a distance shot with me and Mac; next Ed decides he wants to join the freakshow - I woulldn't go inside, I had no intention of looking at 3-headed pigs. There was a guy standing outside the place with a 2-headed turtle, that was enough. Next up is a group of chanting and singing hare krishnas (what fun!); after that is a pic of a sand sculptor who was actually quite good (but you couldn't take his picture unless you left a tip); finally we have a rather pathetic back-packing clown. Sigh.
Now for Hollywood: the sign of course. The rest is all about Mac. He had photo ops with Barney and Batman and was estatic! Actually, Batman had to come rescue him from Barney, who wouldn't give him up and was squeezing him to death! Nah, not really. What really happened (and what made me realize that "Barney" was losing it) was after we took the photo and I gave him his tip, he said "thank you princess." To me! Last time I looked I wasn't 4 years old! I think that guy has been in that suit too long. As for Batman, he was really getting into it. Notice the split! It's a good thing we didn't visit both of these places on the same day, that's all I can say.

We meet up with my sister in LA, Mac makes some new friends, and we all take a trip to the Queen Mary (and a Russian sub)

We finally met up with my sister in the middle of November. Mac came along of course, and while at her house made some new friends; right behind him in the photo is Tabo (with the big mouth). Mac liked him but was a tad intimidated by him, what with his size and the mouth and all. Now right next to Mac is Hida (with the big red face and teeny tiny black eyes), she was a different story. He most definitely was smitten and was heartbroken when we had to leave.

The following photo is of my sister and Ed on the bridge of the Queen Mary. Next up is Ed inside the Russian sub Scorpion. Finally we have a photo of the Queen Mary and the Scorpion with the city of Long Beach in the background. And a wonderful time was had by all!