#PETER ON TOUR - THE SPORTS EDITION

We used Peter's trip as an excuse to sneak in a couple of sports games so that we could give him an "American experience" but also so we could tick some more off our list. First up was an ice hockey match. 

I chose the matches to go to and decided that since I was in LA I should really go see the Anaheim Ducks who are in fact The Mighty Ducks. Yup, I was fully expecting to see Emilio Estevez coaching them and some impressive flying V formations. Unfortunately things have moved on since the nineties and in fact this game is played by fully grown men, not kids. Shame. But they were still pretty impressive. 

The NHL games are definitely entertaining and very full on. It was rather loud and noisy with lots of entertainment slots in the breaks. Every time the home team won there was lots of noise and flashing lights with everyone cheering their heads off. The cheerleaders came out on skates at different points and did their thing too. There were even a few minor fights which we enjoyed!  

Andrew got quite into it in fact, he was screaming his head off. Apparently he really likes hockey and has chosen it as his American sport. I however disagree. I have well and truly become an American football fan, especially after our next sports game.

So the final sports game was an American football game. We've been to a pre-season NFL game so we decided to try a college game as we had been told they were pretty impressive. They weren't wrong. We went to see the University of Southern California, known as the Trojans. It was homecoming week too so it was insanely busy and so much fun.

The build up and entertainment factor at a football game is definitely bigger than the hockey. When we arrived and finally found our seats there was a humongous marching band on the field playing and entertaining with a guy dressed up as a soldier in full costume leading them around. After the fireworks the team took to the field and the game began. 

Half time saw the band take to the field again, but this time it was 1000 strong! It played some impressive tunes and just took our breath away at the sheer size of it. No university game in England really has this much pomp and circumstance! Its insane!

But I have to say that the highlight of the game wasn't winning the match, it was what happened every time they scored a touchdown. Just watch and you'll see!

Yup every time they scored their mascot, Traveler the horse, would charge up and down the field whilst the band played and the crowd chanted! It was truly insane. 

But thats just one of the reasons I love football (said in a slow Southern drawl!). 

H

MACINTOSH MONTHLY

So this is the first Macintosh Monthly post! Hooray! October was a bit of a blur if I'm honest. We spent the first half of the month separated from Mac because we were in England and then the second half of the month was all a but topsy turvy as Andrew had to go back to England again. Poor old Mac didn't know what was going on with all the suitcases being packed and unpacked all the time. 

Still we survived October and more importantly we survived those crazy flash floods that happened. For those of you who weren't aware our area had a crazy amount of rain in the middle of October, all on one night which caused some crazy flash flooding. There's an article on the BBC about it here which just shows you a little bit of the aftermath and a youtube video shows you what it looked like as it was happening. Thankfully where we were it wasn't that deep but there was mud flowing freely down the streets. 

The next day everything was brown and there were still huge mud flows and puddles everywhere. This was one of the streets right next to where we live. 

Obviously Macintosh thought this was brilliant and used it as an excuse to go wading through all the mud and puddles. 

As an owner, who would have to bath him when we got back, I decided he could only go so far so he ended up having these cute little bootie looking mud patches. He's hilarious. 

So that was our major excitement for the month of October. I have to say the mud lasted for ages and we had many muddy walks. Until eventually the Californian sun dried tall out and then it cracked into something strangely beautiful. 

Let's see how November treats Mr Macintosh!

H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Andrew arrived home from a work trip very very late last night/early this morning. He struggled to sleep a bit due to the jet lag, so was up rather early this morning having had very little sleep. Macintosh was obviously pleased to see him and once he was awake he was hungry. Andrew fed him, did some other bits and bobs until he felt tired again, before crawling back into bed. 

I woke up later than usual, due to the late night, and saw Macintosh was awake. Figuring that he was probably very hungry by this point I shot out of bed and walked through into the lounge. Macintosh started hanging out by his food cupboard and looked positively famished. I quickly threw some food into his bowl and he wolfed it down.

Fast forward until around 11:30am. I had been out and about and come back to find Andrew still asleep. Conscious that he wouldn't be able to sleep if he stayed in bed I woke him up. In his groggy state he mumbled lots of things and enquired whether I had walked Macintosh because he fed him at some unearthly hour this morning. This rung alarm bells because I had fed Macintosh when I woke up because he clearly looked famished! After clarifying with Andrew in his slightly more awake state we have in fact discovered that our food motivated beagle has in fact had two lots of breakfast this morning!

When I confronted him this is what he did....

He just sat there. Totally unbothered. No real show of emotion. He is so deceptive this one! I will have to watch out for him in future. 
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Last week I decided to take Macintosh for a walk. We had some storms earlier in the week and there had been some flash flooding in the desert area. After a few days of heat I had assumed that most of the puddles would have dried up and that the desert would be back to normal. With that in mind I put on my flip flops and Mac and I set out. 

The first part of the desert was fine but after a while we began to encounter some leftover puddles. The sand around the puddles had turned into a muddy substance and was actually quite slippery. I had been told by Andrew to watch out for it, so I did. Macintosh avoided the puddles and so I thought I was completely safe, until right at the end of our walk....

We were one puddle away from the safety of dry sand. I was distracted for half a second and in that half a second my wonderful beagle decided it was now time to go into the middle of the puddle. He made a small dash for it which pulled hard at the lead and caused me to stumble forward. In doing so I ended up on the slippery sand/mud and did what can only be described as a cartoon style slip. My legs were running on the spot and I was failing about in an attempt to stay upright. However my attempt was futile. I landed straight on my bottom in the middle of the puddle. This caused Macintosh to jump and sent him running around me in circles at high speeds flicking mud everywhere. Trying to stand up covered me in more mud and ended with a scraped knee, but eventually I got out of the puddle.

I now had mud all over my bottom, up my legs, my flip flops were caked in mud and my dog was filthy too. On top of that I was still quite a way from home. I attempted to clean my flip flops in the muddy water. I only succeeded in removing the lumps and covering myself in more muddy water. I pulled the back of my top as low as it could go and decided to just walk home.

It was a humiliating walk. I didn't see too many people but whenever I did I ducked behind a car or bent down by Macintosh to fuss him in the attempt to disguise my rather messy self. After an agonising two blocks I made it onto our compound and rushed as fast as I could (on slippery muddy flip flops) into the house. Obligatory photographs were taken before Macintosh and I were both thrown into the shower and cleaned as quickly as possible. Once clean I sent the photos and details of the story to Andrew only to have the response, "LOL" followed by descriptions of how the lads at work found it funny. Now a few days later I see the humour in it but at the time I was mortified. 

And just to round off this humiliating post I'll show you the two photos I took. The first is of my legs and Macintosh which doesn't portray the mud as too severe but the look of my shorts will give you an idea I'm sure!

Fun and games!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Macintosh already has a girlfriend in Penny and now he has a best friend. His name is Zeus and he's an eighteen month old German Shepherd that lives just down the road. The two of them always got on well whenever we bumped into each other as they would play for ages. So the other week Zeus' owner asked what time we typically walked Mac so we could start a regular play time. Now everyday at 7pm we head out to our patch of grass and the two dogs go mad for an hour or so. It completely wipes them out and we have a peaceful evening as they both crash out.

We've been having this playdate for the past couple of weeks so Macintosh has got himself into a little routine and at around 7pm every day he starts to get twitchy and excited. He'll pace around or scratch at the door as if to say 'come on its Zeus time!' Once he's on the lead to go out he'll start to pull like mad as he's just so excited to see him. In fact the other day I let him off the lead early and watched him effectively run on the spot as he was trying to go so fast towards Zeus. It was like a doggy wheelspin!

So there they are, hard at play. I have no idea what Macintosh is doing in the above photo, but they are so funny together! 

Zeus loves to play fetch so his owner will throw a tennis ball and he'll bound after it with Macintosh in tow, who is just running so he can chase Zeus. Mac will never try to get the tennis ball as Zeus is very protective of it but he loves to just chase him up and down the grass. 

I really wanted to get a video of them running but in the above picture I hadn't changed my phone camera over and shortly after I snapped this photo Zeus ran right into me and knocked me over! Obviously he then began to lick me to check I was ok whilst Mac darted around slightly worried. I was in hysterics, as was Zeus' owner. So I'll have to try again, with my camera set right, to see if I can snap a video of them playing. They really are too funny! I'm sure you'll see much more of Zeus as he is literally Mac's best friend, just look at his happy face! 
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

On Friday and Saturday Macintosh had his girlfriend Penny over to stay whilst her owners moved house. Obviously this was a source of great excitement for them both!

Now I don't have any other pictures to show you. I think we were too busy enjoying spending time with them. But I do have the funniest story to share....about Penny. See we have a little routine at nighttime where Macintosh goes outside for his last toilet break whilst we are busy getting ready for bed. Usually he pops outside, does his business, he trots back in and goes straight to his bed. 

Well on the night Penny was here that didn't happen! The two of them would go outside and distract each other completely to the point where Andrew had to go outside. Once they'd finally done their business Macintosh trots in through his doggy door as usual and starts to walk to his bed. Penny suddenly sees that Mac is inside and decides she needs to follow him, so she starts running. Now because Andrew came outside it looks as if the back door is open, except that he shut the screen door behind him. So Penny goes running at the 'open' door hoping to follow Mac only to hit the screen door super hard. She goes flying backwards, looks up at Andrew bemused and shaking herself off goes in through the doggy door. 

Obviously Andrew and I are in stitches, once we've checked she isn't hurt! Apparently though according to her owners this isn't the first time its happened! Seriously funny!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

I was ready to give you a good long post about some of the hilarious antics that Macintosh got up to whilst we were away. However when we arrived home last night we discovered that we had been invaded by a small army of ants! As a result I've not had time to write anything.

So instead you'll have to make do with this super cute picture our friends took of him and the knowledge that he had a grand old time stealing spots on the sofa, dragging socks into the garden, refusing to for walks until he was ready, trying to eat every bit of food he can and waking everyone up at 6am with his pathetic whining! Yeah he loved his time away!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

This week Mr Macintosh's cheeky side came out a little bit. Unsurprisingly it surrounds food, or more specifically coffee! Andrew and I were pleasantly sitting after dinner one night drinking our coffees when Mr Big Nose starts sniffing out my coffee. Of course he is not content to just sit back and smell it so he slowly creeps across from his sofa to me in order to finish off the remainder of my coffee! Obviously I photographed it before I told him off, which Andrew says is encouraging him but I disagree, it is simply good documenting!

Here in slow-mo format is the event...

Oh Macintosh, at least we can laugh about your antics. Most of the time.
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

It's going to be a quick post today. Macintosh has been fairly good of late but that could be due to the sunny and warm weather. He's spent most of the day lounging around outside soaking up some rays! He really loves sunbathing and always look quite cross when you make him come inside, unless you're about to feed him, then he positively runs in. 

But just in case you are beginning to think he's a wonderful dog who is just so photogenic and in no way crazy. I wanted to remind you that he's also quite weird. You see Andrew and I were attempting to start a Christmas puzzle we had been given by his parents, and well, Macintosh thought he would help. Naturally dog's are good at puzzles. See....

He stayed like that for quite a while. He was ever so helpful as you can imagine. What a weirdo!  
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Macintosh managed to stay up with us last week to see in the new year. As you can tell from the photo below he wasn't overly pleased at being kept awake. 

In between all the celebrating I asked Macintosh about his New Year's resolutions for 2015. He thought about it for approximately 2.4 seconds and then proceeded to tell me his top 5.

So here are Macintosh's New Year's resolutions....

1. Eat more - especially the human food that he's not supposed to have!

2. Play harder - he had lots of new toys at Christmas which are still completely in tact. They obviously need destroying.

3. Nap more and for longer.

4. Eat more - pretty much anything and everything he can get his mouth around!

5. Do more tracking - there's such a wealth of a smells around here so he really wants to make the most of those wild scent trails. 

Looking at the above photos taken in the last 5 days I'd say he's got the napping one down. Yesterday on his walk he ate 6 things off the floor, who knows what they were but that obviously meant he's taking his eating resolutions seriously. I think he's well on his way to keeping his resolutions...if only I could do so well at mine!

H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

This past week has been fairly busy. It held lots of final preparations for Christmas, work parties and other Christmassy events. Macintosh has not appreciated the lack of care and attention and has been a bit of a pickle. However Andrew is now finished for Christmas (hooray!) and we can focus all our attention on this unruly pup!

There have been lots of parcels arriving this week so Mac has been fairly busy sniffing every inch of them to ensure they are totally safe. Andrew came home on Tuesday with a large amount of parcels, which clearly contain nice things as Mac went crazy over them! There are no photos of that event though as I too went crazy over the parcels! Haha!

                                               

We can't leave the presents under the tree until the last moment otherwise our delightful beagle will do what beagles do best and destroy them all. So I've been keeping them hidden in our spare room, except that Mr Clever-clogs has already worked this out. Any time I go near the room he's immediately by my side just in case he can worm his way in and have another sniff around. It probably doesn't help that Christmas food is being stored in there too! That certainly does attract a beagle!

To finish off this short post I'll just add a couple of hilarious photos taken this week. In order to get one of them we had to bribe him ALOT with food. Can you guess which one?
H

                                          

                                          

PS We have lots of trips and things planned for over Christmas so be prepared, there should be a lot of blog posts! 

MACINTOSH MONDAY

This weeks Macintosh Monday is going to be more of a photo dump. There have been some comical moments with Macintosh this week which have provided some light relief. He has been a bit of a pain and we've had some issues with wee in the house. I am not best pleased and have been busy trying to get him straightened out. At least the funny moments have made it better. 

Some of you have seen the photo of Mac in a bobble hat this week on Instagram. It took quite a lot of bribery in order to take that shot and as you can see he didn't exactly like it!

With all the rains this week Macintosh has fully enjoyed the puddles that have been created out in the desert. It's been funny to have to bring him home and hose him down again like we did in England. He's loved getting muddy and dirty though. 

We've caught Macintosh sitting at some quite hilarious angles this week. He seems to think he's human from time to time. 

Finally the funniest thing that's happened all week is that we have been trying to do some more training with Macintosh to improve his ability to leave food alone. We tried with bacon this week and managed to get bacon on both paws and him sitting for about 30 seconds before I allowed him to snap it up. Just time to take a picture...

It's a little blurry but you can feel the frustration radiating from him towards me!!!!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

This past week, after thanksgiving, Christmas arrived at the Woodruff household. The previous post showed what the Christmas decorations looked like. Well during the decorating process Macintosh got rather involved! 

The fact we bought a 9 foot tree scared him somewhat so there was lots of edging around, unsure of what we had bought and what it was going to do. Once he had got over that fact he then wanted nothing more than to be under the tree sniffing at it, or attempting to drink from the tree stand. I didn't manage to get a picture of that because I was shooing him away constantly. In England he could have drunk from the tree stand, but here where the tree has a greater risk of drying out there's not a chance he can drink from it!

He also found our mince pies irresistible and was found poking around near them on numerous occasions. Having told him off too many time we moved them to a higher location. Obviously that didn't deter him. He is just so determined!

But the funniest thing was when we were attempting to take an artistic photo of him near the tree so that the lights behind him would blur. In theory it was a straight forward photo shoot, but no. Macintosh wouldn't look anywhere near where he was supposed too, or he stole the treat from my hand mid shot. 

                                

                                                     

                                     

However the funniest photo and the point at which Andrew and I creased up in laughter and were unable to continue was this one.....

I mean seriously! People say he's a photogenic dog but after looking at that photo... Oh dear Macintosh! He definitely inherited Andrew's photo-face!
H