A Pug Holiday

Ruby and Dora very much enjoyed their Thanksgiving. They got a lot of turkey, sat on our laps while we played pitch, and best of all, they got to play frisbee with their Uncle Chester.

Thanksgiving

We had a lot of fun in Edmond for Thanksgiving! We played Pitch, watched Hairspray, went to see Enchanted, watched the Cowboys game, and ate a lot! Here are a few pictures/videos...





Here is a cute video of the new spectacular musical group "Mema and 3 Hairy Moser Men". Aren't they great?! (Philip has since shaved his beard, he is much more kissable now!)

Enchanted was...

the. best. movie. ever.

Soooo cute!

Call me crazy, but...

I totally can't wait to see this movie!!!!

Mike Leach is a big whiner!

Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach went on a post game rant after his Red Raiders were beaten in Austin yesterday by the Longhorns. He claimed that one particular official was biased against his team and that the fix was on. If coach Leach would simply look at the statistics and the game film of the calls in question he might be inclined to recant those statements. The replay of both disallowed touchdowns clearly showed a dropped pass on one and a sumo style take down on another. Here are the penalty stats: Texas Tech 6, for 68 yards, Texas, 7 for 89 yards. Is that bias? Maybe coach Leach should concentrate on recruiting some defensive players that actually want to tackle and not on whining about the officiating. I know I'm a UT homer, but even the most impartial fan could see that this game was called fairly. They could also see that Michael Crabtree is going to be a beast in the NFL soon. Phil in Dallas- I'm out.

It's self-cleaning!!!

Tonight we had a debate about an old Friends episode. The question was, in the episode where Joey and Chandler are discussing sharing soap ("soap is soap! It's self-cleaning!") which one made the comment, "The next time you take a shower, think about the last thing I wash and the first thing you wash." I said Chandler. Phil said Joey. So I went to find it on YouTube. Instead, I found this:



This cracks me up because I actually tried to take a video of this toilet in the Frankfurt airport because I was so fascinated by its self-cleaning magic. However, I decided that would be kind of weird so I didn't. But it turns out that somebody else was equally impressed by the same toilet, took a video, and posted it on YouTube. So what the heck... I'll share their video.

The pug update

Ruby and Dora haven't been in the blog for quite some time so this post is dedicated to them. As always, they are cute and mischievous and good little companions. Here are a few of their latest escapades....

THANKSGIVING FEAST

We gave them some steak bones Thursday night. It was delicious for them and good entertainment for us. Dora wasn't very good at pulling the meat off; however, Ruby quickly learned to hold the bone down with one paw to get better gnawing action.



Ruby




Dora

Ruby "Don't Mess With My Bone" Moser

FRISBEE FUN

Today was a nice lazy Saturday so we walked them over to the middle school to play frisbee. This is a cute video clip showcasing Ruby's mad jumping/teeth gripping skills. Sorry, I held the camera vertically not realizing that it would make the video clip hard to watch. Tilt your head and enjoy.

POOR DORA

And finally, the biggest mystery around our house is how Dora managed to get a huge gash on her tongue. It's hard to get her to hold still to take a picture of it, so here's my best attempt. It looks painful! We noticed it a few days ago when we came home from work to find Ruby covered in bloody spots. I cleaned her up but couldn't find any cuts on her body. After a while we finally noticed that the source was Dora's mouth! Ouch!

Home sweet home!

1. It's great to be home!!! Phil picked me up at the airport yesterday afternoon and gave me a bouquet of roses. He has a beard now! I will have to post a picture of his new look later.
2. Yesterday was the day that would not end. I skipped back 7 hours and the flight from Frankfurt to Dallas was a nearly unbearable 11.5 hours in duration. Ugh. I hope I don't have to travel again anytime soon for work. I am thoroughly sick of fleugzeugs.
3. All of my photos from my trip to Germany are posted here.
4. Sorry, there will not be any interesting posts for a while. I am going to be swamped at work and studying for my audit exam/running in my spare time! Maybe Phil will take up blogging. I do feel bad that the "Court and Phil blog" is really just the Courtney blog.

Visit to the Cologne Cathedral

View from the TOP!

Sweet baby Emma

Emma is just one of the happiest babies I've ever met. And she is always willing to smile when she sees a camera!




With her nanny, Antja, who speaks fluent English but only speaks German with Emma!


Like my nephew Austin used to be, Emma is easily entertained with Tupperware!

Some things are just cooler in German.

Schloss Benrath

This afternoon we went to Benrath Palace just south of Düsseldorf. It was used as a hunting lodge and is now a park and museum.

This rococo and neoclassical Palace was built in the mid-eighteenth century by the architect and landscape gardener Pigage, commissioned by the local Elector Carl Theodor. The Palace sits in 60 hectares of beautifully landscaped gardens. Many of the Palace rooms are as they would have looked when originally built.

The fall colors here are amazing and it was great to spend the afternoon in the fresh air walking around the gardens. There weren't any flowers to see because everything is covered in a blanket of leaves, but that's almost as pretty! This would be a great place to go running - the grounds were really extensive. Emma slept most of the time in her cozy little stroller.


The front of the palace/hunting lodge.


A map in the museum showing what it would have looked like back in the day. (Although it certainly isn't run-down or anything now. It's gorgeous!)


Me and Kristen


There were lots of swans, geese, and mallard ducks


Kristen and David

Guten tag from Düsseldorf!

I was a little sad to leave India but I LOVE GERMANY!!! I arrived in Düsseldorf at 10:30 am and Kristen, David, and little Emma met me at the airport. We took the train back to their apartment, which is so adorable. It's nice how you can take the train & streetcars to get pretty much anywhere.

It's been over 5 years since I last saw Kristen (at Stephanie and Ben's wedding) so we had fun catching up today! She and David are here as missionaries and will be living in Germany for 3 years.

Despite the cold and drizzly weather, we walked all over the place today (including down to the Rhein) and I really enjoyed taking in the sights. I had a very yummy bratwurst and some equally delicious German chocolate. Then I saw a Starbucks, yay!!! Brittany thinks I am addicted, but I'm not... it was just strange not ever having it as an option in India.

The only problem here is that people can't tell I don't speak German just by looking at me so I just smile and say "sorry". At least in India, they'd take one look at me and do their best to speak English. I downloaded some basic German lessons on my iPod, but I don't remember anything except "danke" and "guten tag". I also learned the word for "airplane" because they repeat it like a million times on Lufthansa flights, so for the record, my favorite German word is "flugzeug" (literally "fly-thing"). Very fun to say.

Tomorrow we are going to go to church, then tour a castle here in Düsseldorf, and possibly take a train to Cologne. Stay tuned for more pics! Sorry these are kind of blurry!


Hooray! I missed you, my grande chais!


Emma, Kristen, and me


She was so happy in her stroller!


The slightly twisted steeple of St. Lambertus church was an accident caused by builders using damp timbers!

Bundi experience

All of the advice for tourists and visitors to India says "Don't buy food from street vendors!" But last week the girls convinced me to go across the street with them to one of their favorite little places. Everything was deep-fried so I figured it was safe enough - and I didn't get sick. Of course, there were some things I liked and some things I didn't. Since today's my last day we went again. This time I took my camera with me so that I could share the experience.


Health department? Running water? Hand sanitizer? Unheard of at a bundi, apparently...


Deep-fried green chilies - not my favorite item on the menu!


These are good. It's fried lentils of some sort but it just tastes like tempura-fried dough.


They insisted that I try chat (so it turns out that's not the term for internet cafe) and so I did. It was a crispy thing covered in a hot stew-like substance made of chickpeas, with fried noodles and diced tomatoes sprinkled on top. A little spicy but not bad. I look like such a girly girl with the way I'm sticking out my pinky finger. I should photoshop that out.


The bowl was actually made of leaves! Wow! I was excited to learn this. Pollution here is so bad that it's good to know at least some of their trash is biodegradable!

Last Day in India, part 2

Blogger doesn't like to let me post more than 5 photos at a time. So here are more.

The scaffolding here truly concerns me.

Beware the asterisk...

Who named this place?????

This one's for Bea.... WEGETABLES!

The entrance to Hitec City - Deloitte, Oracle, Dell, Google, and Motorola are all here, to name a few.

Last Day in India

I was afraid this 3-week trip would feel like an eternity, but I'm pleased to say that the time has flown by and I've enjoyed everything about my trip. Oh wait, except for the feather in my chicken sandwich. Ok - almost everything. I'm kind of sad to leave. Here are some random pictures I took on the commute to the office this morning. (They aren't the best quality but these are things I have stared at every day and I don't want to forget them!)


I'm still not sure what an "Income Tax Colony" is...


I love the way the girls ride "side-saddle"


This annoys me.


There's something for everyone here! Even Mama Roxie would like this part!


Competitor