sharing a pithy comment from our Cousin Gus (He's a young headstrong terrier... a good dog, kinda slow but he don't steal....)

Deah Colonel Sam & Miss Lulu-I heah you guys hit the rud this a.m.and I want to wish you a doggone good time - just don't forget yaw Maine roots as you flea to state, ok? Yap, that's right - you'll probably come across some crazy sights along the way (Sammy, those southern belles might catch your eye, they can be quite fetching) but don't roll over and be taken in. You just let them know they're barking up the wrong mini-van! I know it might tick them off - but home is home and cousins is cousins. Gotta go, I got seagulls to scare, whawf cats to chase and rotten bait to chew on. Write soon. Luv - Cousins Gussy

note from Lulu: Gus, send us a picture for the dogblog please.

frost on the pumpkin

Albany NY is cool... in more ways than one. We overnighted with Connie's sister Mary Jo, husband Rick and family (5 kids ranging from 16 to 2 years old). Wicked cool. They all wanted to hold us especially Tori (she should be a vet someday...see picture) and Caden threw my ball for me all night long.

The windows were frosted over this morning and the leaves in the Berkshires are just past peak. Gorgeous. The current thinking is to head down Route 81 rather than Rte 95. That way we will have the option to detour off to the Blue Ridge Parkway around Raleigh and catch the foliage there too.

Glen stayed up late to watch the Red Sox clinch the World Series. What a team. One of the other blogs out there is titled "The Joys of Sox." Hehe..

Saturday night we stayed with Kate and Ryan at their new apartment on State Street in Portland. It's a sweet 2nd and 3rd floor, 3 bedroom, hard wood floors, gas Jotel stove, high ceilings w/ great kitchen right in the hub of the city. The announced "house warming party" turned out to be a surprise 56th birthday/retirement/bon voyage party with fine food, cold beer and great company. Blessed beyond measure... and the Sox won that night too.

OK. That'll do.

Later/ Sam n' Lu

of endings and beginnings

Here we go again... I am having a very tough time keeping track of my water dish these days.

It all started about 11 months ago when Gdog and Muma Luv packed up and moved to a 7th floor condo on Pine Point... for December and January! I have to say Lulu and I just loved the 10 miles of beach, the awesome sunrises and chasing the sea gulls. They loved it too. Looking back, they were just trying out their sea legs, seeing what it felt like to unplug from 18 years at 2 Country Way in Waterville. Obviously it felt pretty good... until the heating system sprung a leak one cold Maine February morning and did all sorts of damage.

Three months and $20,000 later the house was ship shape again and on the market. Didn't they complain about having to "fung sheu" the place for the constant stream of house hunters. But it finally sold on July 5th and we all moved into Lee and Becky's cottage on Snow Pond.

Everything else in the house was given away, thrown away or moved to the storage unit. (They like their "second home" as they call it; actually put pictures on the walls and hung wind chimes. Connie and Glen are a couple of crazy chickens. Well, you'll see...)


We just loved the cottage. There were sunsets and swimming and canoeing/kayaking. There were mice to chase and bigger things that went bump in the night (but we stayed safe in our bed for those. I wasn't scared... just tired). There was time to rest, sleep late and eat good food. I guess we should have known it was too good to last especially when Gdog stopped going to work every day in September and started shopping for vans.

Now we are packing up again and headed South for the winter. We almost got left behind with our sister Katie and big brother Ryan. That would have been fun living in the city, but the landlord backed out at the last minute. Must have been afraid we were too ferocious...

We'll do our best to keep this blog sorta kinda current, but keep in mind that we are just along for the ride. Glen and Connie have some ideas and who knows where this will go.

All for now