Hey... I'm Going To Rehab Tomorrow

So a couple of weeks ago, one a Saturday that we FINALLY had off from Tiki Tan, we decided to take a trip up to Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC.

If you don’t know what Bowman Gray is, it is the longest running weekly short track that is still sanctioned by NASCAR. Who really cares right? Well, that is true. But what makes the place cool is that it is a quarter-mile track that is built around the outside of a football field that the local Winston-Salem Division 2 or 3 college team still uses. The stadium serves as both a racetrack and football stadium.

On top of that, it is just a cool looking place and they pack fans in there every week for just regular weekly shows. They get maybe 6,000 to 8,000 people normally… and for big shows, can get over 10,000. That is impressive for a weekly short track.

So after inviting everyone we know (ok, maybe not, but a lot of people), it was just Jennell, JT and Dale heading to the stadium. Of course, a tradition when going up there is heading to Kurleys BBQ. It is one of my favorite places to eat and has great food. They get it out to you faster than any fast food restaurant and have the best hush puppies going. It’s in Welcome, NC, which is where the Richard Childress shops are located. I guess a lot of the RCR guys eat there every day. It is a place straight out of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on Food Network. Of course, the day Guy Ferri goes there, I’m sure I’ll miss it!

After Kurleys, we were off to the stadium. It had rained plenty leading up to Saturday, but it wasn’t supposed to rain then. So things were looking good. Once we parked and paid for our tickets (we went on $1 ladies night… meaning all women were just $1. And regular tickets were just $10), we were decideing on where to sit. There are plenty of options there and not one bad seat. So we decided on the front row of the beer garden, so we could drink some beer.

Now the front row at BG is special because the track has no catch fencing, expect for in turns one and two. On the straights, you are sitting right by the track with nothing separating you from the track other than a concrete wall.

It was going well and racing was just getting ready to start. We had our beers in hand when came one of the track’s regular fans. And as you can imagine, sitting in the beer garden section, he was something else. Broken foot/leg/toe or whatever he had, he sat right behind us and eventually moved himself right down beside Jeremy. The guy knew EVERYONE! And he smoked enough for EVERYONE. And he didn’t care is his ashes were going into JT’s beer and left over hush puppies.

And, most unfortunate, his family was sending him to rehab the next night, so you know what they told him… go to the stadium and get drunk. And he was. And he told EVERYONE. He told us and we didn’t even know him. And he told everyone that was sitting in the front row, second row, third row and evern whistled and yelled to people in the top row to tell them. It was a real treat.

After one race, we decided that we’d had enough. And with the contact buzz we were getting from his beer drinking, we decided to find some new seats so we could watch the races and hear the race cars.

We sat in turn one, up high this time. And the view was awesome, as you can see. You can see the whole track well and really get a feel for the racing, even though you aren’t right on top of it.
So after the second race of the night… the wide started blowing, and before you knew it, the rain was falling. Most people headed for the exits, but we just stayed put. We thought it would pass. And it did. But then it started raining again. And after about 2 minutes of thinking about it, they called the race.

So Jennell’s first stadium experience was a short one… but it included all of the highlights… big crowd, good seats, Kurley’s BBQ… and even a possible trip to rehab.

We can only imagine what she’ll see in a full show there. We’ll be back soon for sure!

He's Not A Happy Puppy!!!

Hey there everyone. We just thought we would write and give you an update to a couple of things that have been going on and keeping us busy and away from the computer to update you all on this blog. It was such a great idea in the beginning and still is, but it seems like we just never have time to keep it updated.

Brutus has been doing some of the updating for us lately, but as you all know from the last post, he isn’t really able to update you now. He wanted to, but his “typing” fingers, aka his front paws, are all bandaged up right now. So instead, he’s sitting here and we’re just doing short-hand for him while he is “barking” out (pun intended) instructions.

Brutus had a great day on Thursday. He went to a new vet to get a “major” surgery. He became half a man, as he said in the last post. In addition to that, he had his duclaws removed, hence the bandages on his front legs. He also got updated on all of his shots, which were due anyway. All in all, it wasn’t one of his better days! But it is all for the better.

When we went to pick him up, he came out of the back with a protective cone on his head… ala the great 80s movie One Crazy Summer (if you’ve seen it, you know exactly what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t go rent it. This cone protects his incisions and keeps him from trying to lick them or get at them.

Even though he doesn’t find it too funny, it is rather comical. The cone extends plenty far around his neck, allowing him to pretty much run into everything in the house. Going up the stairs, down the stairs, around the couch, around the kitchen table… no matter where he is, he bangs that cone on everything. He often gets hung up on something because of the cone… and when he does, he just looks at you with this “what the hell is going on” look. Now that we know he is feeling better, it is rather comical.

Even less funny for him is that face that he will have to wear the cone until his front paws get better enough to where he won’t gnaw at them. We wanted to take some video and post it on the blog, but we didn’t do it early enough and he’s figured out, for the most part, how to walk around and not hit everything!

The vet and vet techs said he did a great job while there and got through the surgery just fine. He was a happy puppy going in and everyone there loved him. Not bad for a monster like him going into a new vets for the first time.

And don't worry everyone, we're sure he'll be back behind the keys of his computer soon enough.

This May Be My Last Post

Hello Everyone, its your favorite dog Brutus! I am not sure what to tell you but I keep hearing mom and dad say I am having some kind of surgery on Thursday...and I really don't understand what that means and if I will be able to continue writing. I also don't know what I am having surgery for as I seem to feel fine and do "whatever" I want all the time. They don't have surgery for stubborn dogs who seem to always get into trouble do they???? Oh know, what could this mean.....

I think this surgery talk came up a while back because I was getting into a lot of trouble and really not being too good of a dog, but hey what do they expect from me, its me Brutus :) But thankfully I hadn't heard anything about it for a while, but then suddenly when Dad was gone for the week to Ohio things changed and as soon as he was back home I had a surgery scheduled. Now again, I am really not sure what this is all about...I have heard mom say I will be missing some manly stuff (ouch that doesn't sound good). And I have heard Dad saying how funny I will be with some cone thing on my head....boy what have I gotten myself into here...

I guess that maybe my decision to start chewing on the granite in the bathroom and eating the corner of the wood molding was not the wisest decision in hind site. I think mom and dad may have been slightly upset about this.
I mean really come on, from this picture it doesn't look too bad...right? They can easily replace the wooden molding...as far as the granite goes it really does look worse in person. I have managed to get some chunks out of it and leave lots of teeth marks and deep scratches in the top part of it.

Or maybe this was the bad decision...when I decided that one corner destroyed wasn't enough so I wanted to see how the other corner tasted. As you can see I was able to get a big chunk off the bottom on this side.

Well enough about me and this surgery deal because it is depressing me to talk and think about. Not sure why I have to lose some of my manlyhood on Thursday and not really sure how that is going to fix the granite in the bathroom...but I guess we will see.

As far as other happening around here....it is supposed to start raining her today for the next couple of day. We have sure had a lot of rain so far this summer. And man when it rains it pours. I know mom and dad are getting tired of the rain. The garden has gotten too much water from the rain and the yard is just like a swamp all the time, it never dries out and the grass seems to be dying in a lot of spots.

This is what happens to the backyard when it rains (which over the last couple months has been at least a couple times a week). Now don't get me wrong, I love to run around, splash and play in all this water....but that usually gets me in some trouble. It might be because then I like to run in the house and shake all over everything. I do see how the grass has a hard time growing when all this water sits on it. I guess when the contractors built our backyard they forgot to level it out or make any grading so the water would flow away instead of just puddling back there like a lake.

Garden update: well mom and dad have managed to keep me out of the garden with the fence, which I don't really like. Things seem to be looking good in there, although I notice some plants starting to yellow a little bit and in my previous life I had some gardening experience that tells me things are a little too wet in there. I know there is nothing mom and dad can do because it just keeps raining, but I hope it can dry out and survive ok because mom and dad both seem pretty excited about their garden. Mom planted a few more plants this morning in it, she added some cilantro, banana peppers (hot ones), and jalapenos....none of which really excite me.

Well since I may only have a couple days left...I better get off this computer and enjoy them! I will probably cause some trouble, just because I can...I mean really how much worse can it get? Hopefully mom and dad will keep you all up to date on my status....and please, please don't laugh at any funny picture of me with a cone on my head. I think I will talk with the vet/doctor about this and see if the cone thing will really be necessary.

Wish me luck

Brutus

Garden Project

Well it has officially been a month since our last post so I guess that means either we have been really busy or we just don't feel like posting on our blog anymore. Actually I have no idea where the last month has gone, so yes we have just been really busy. I had the great idea that we should plant a garden this year, especially since Jeremy is such a vegetable lover..lol. If anyone needs any veggies this summer there will be plenty to share because there is no way I will be able to eat all this myself and Jeremy will only eat the corn.


After some debate on where the best place to put the garden would be, we realized the corner of yard by the house really would be the best and make the most sense, although we knew this would not be the easiest location to put it....as you will see in later pictures.

Yep, thats the spot. Perfect know just dig up the grass and get the soil ready to plant a garden. What do you mean the ground is too hard, where are your muscles?

Ok, so just rent a tiller and the ground will be all ready to plant. Why do I see standing water where we are planting the garden? Oh thats right our crappy yard tends to all puddle when it rains and apparently we have picked one of those puddle areas. Once we get the ground all tilled up we will be ok though.....right?

What do you mean you spent all day with the tiller and this is all you got done! I don't see standing water anymore, but the ground doesn't really look ready to plant a garden either. So after a few days of hard labor, a rented tiller (that really did no good..although we should have known this because when they were trying to put up our fence they had to jack hammer the ground on this side due to all the hard rock underneath) we are moving on to "Plan B".

"Plan B" consists of making a raised garden, which is really what we wanted in the beginning anyway. Here is the first truck load of soil. And the guy that loaded it told Jeremy "this dirt with grow some good tamaters" so I guess the pressure is on, although we didn't plant any tomatoes.

Here is truck load two of soil and the start of the retaining wall.

Ok, wall is complete and soil is ready to go. Now someone just needs to plant, plant, plant.

I took over the planting since Jeremy said he had no idea what to do, plus he had already done all the work by getting the thing made and ready to plant. So on I went planting rows and rows of seeds and hoping like heck they actually grow.

This half of the garden is by far the most important: 3 rows of corn and 3 of peas!

Corn was the first thing to start popping up, lucky for Jeremy

A few bean sprouts then followed....man the peas better come up or I will tear this whole garden out :) And I am happy to report everything came up over the next couple of weeks and we have a healthy and growing garden. Now we just have to keep watering it and wait for all the good fresh veggies.
This is what the garden currently look like. We have Corn, Peas (of course), Green Beans, Lettuce, Onions, Artichokes and Cucumbers.