Birthdays and Doggies

Yesterday was my sister Kelli's 19th birthday and we had our family over after dinner. Since the weather was so nice, we wanted to sit outside. My twin sis and I had decorated our outside deck with a Tiki theme for Kelli's birthday (gotta love Party City!!) . Anyway, we were having a very nice time.

Our dog, Murphy, was playing with my cousins but, every once in awhile, would go over to the neighbor's gate to see his dog. However, the neighbor's dog (a male rottweiler) does not like Murphy. At all. It's not a new dog, but is new to the neighbor's house...he's only had him for a few weeks. Since both the neighbor's dog and our dog are males, we think that's why the other dog doesn't like ours. (Murphy tried to like him, but would get barked at every time he tried to make nice.) Murphy assumes this dog is friendly because he grew up with the neighbor's former dog (a female rottweiler) who treated Murphy more like her puppy. They got along very well, but unfortunately she was sick and died earlier this year.

Murphy, who is only a little rat terrier, can fit his head through the bars of the neighbor's gate. He's done this before, but previously just got barked at. For whatever reason, though, last night the neighbor's dog lashed out at Murphy and bit him. He's got 3 or 4 puncture wounds on his snout. We think that the other dog was really worked up from all the activity in our yard and just didn't want Murphy invading his territory. My sisters, cousins, and I were especially upset. None of us realized right away that he had been bitten, until he cowered away and my cousin Gina said she thought she saw the other dog actually bite Murphy. It took a few minutes of looking over him until the blood came to the surface of his snout. I felt so bad because Murphy looked so upset. We put peroxide on the wounds to keep out infection and iced it to reduce swelling, but it's still a little swollen today. Murphy was following my sisters and I around everywhere today (which he usually does when he's frightened or upset about something). Thank God, though, he's had all his shots, and will be going to the vet soon anyway for a nail-clipping and check-up.

Hopefully Murphy will learn to not be so trusting of other animals he doesn't know. I wouldn't want to see anything like this happen again!

Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog

Yesterday morning, my sister and I had CPR/First Aid certification for our summer camp job, so we were up early. As we were getting ready, our mom had let our dog out. He, of course, was taking his good old time coming in, but my mom noticed that he seemed to be looking at something in the driveway. So, she went out on the porch to see what he was doing and saw him tiptoeing around and sniffing something. I heard her say, "Murphy, get back!...what is that?" (Murphy has a tendency to eat random things, so we have to watch him.)

I went outside into the driveway to see what it was and it was a bullfrog! I got Murphy in the house and called my sister out to see it. He was pretty big! We could hear Murphy jumping and whining at the screen door (surely he was jealous, because when we came in, he sniffed us like crazy...as if we were out there petting the thing or something!). I grab my camera phone to take a picture and then we tried to figure out if it is still alive.


Kelli skipped a small pebble in its direction (not to hit it...just to see if it would move). The pebble doesn't hit it but kinda skips right by it. Nothing. I also noticed that it wasn't making any sounds or blinking its eyes, and the pouch at its throat wasn't moving at all. So, we figured it was dead and went back in the house. A half-hour later, when Kelli and I went back outside to leave, the frog was gone. We don't know where Mr. Frog came from or where it went, although we do have some creeks in town (but not near my house). Hopefully he made it to the water safely though!

Need to Brag About My Twin

My twin sister, Erin, plays for The Baltimore Blues in the Eastern Women's Baseball Conference. The Washington Post did a story about their league.

Yay, Air!!

Most Haunted

There is a series on the Travel Channel that I like to watch sometimes (as long as I'm not alone or trying to go to sleep). It's called Most Haunted. The premise is that they have a team of people, made up of parapsychologists, mediums, historians, etc. go into a place reported as haunted. Usually the kinds of places they visit are ones that are still open to guests and visitors--like inns, restaurants, museums, and historic homes. The team aims to confirm what workers and/or guests claim to see or feel.

This Friday, June 1st, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern, the Most Haunted team will be broadcasting live for 7 hours from the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.

A few years back some friends and I went to the ESP for their Terror Behind the Walls Halloween tour (remember, Michelle??). It's definitely a creepy place. At one point, the tour led us up to a second level cellblock where there was a row of dark cells. The catwalk along the row was only but 2-3 feet wide. There was a guide standing at the start of the row to send a few people down the catwalk at a time. My friend Lauren and I stepped up to begin our walk arm-in-arm. But the guide, noting our fright, made us separate and walk down the row by ourselves. I remember being terrified because the cells were these dark, steel-doored holes in the wall. Some of the cells no longer had the doors on, so they just looked so dark and scary that I was certain that someone or something would jump out at me. I covered my eyes for most it because I really didn't want to look inside the cells. Here's a screen capture to show what I'm talking about, taken from the ESP's online tour:

Cellblock 12

You can see a 360° view of the cellblocks and other areas of the Penitentiary here.

I hope to catch as much of the Most Haunted Live special as I can, depending on what I'm doing Friday night. If not, I'll have to fire up the old VCR.

Annoyance

I am so frustrated right now because my site feed is not updating correctly...my posts are listed in the wrong order. I think it has something to do with me going back and trying to add labels to posts that were missing them (from the old version of blogger). It's treating those old posts as new and bumping them to the top of my feed. UGGGHHHH.

Unless you subscribe to my feed, you won't notice this......so, carry on. Rant over.

EDIT: I am no longer annoyed. A kind soul on the help group told me how to fix the problem. Yay!

New Pictures

I've uploaded pictures from this month, including Mothers' Day and Memorial Day Weekend.

From Steve & Kathy's BBQ on Sunday, pictures at Flickr.

From Mothers' Day & Memorial Day with my family, pictures at Yahoo Photos.

Woah...

From The View - May 23, 2007 - Elisabeth vs. Rosie

They're at it again...