The Adventures of Verbier...April 1999

The Adventures of Verbier

(the "No one believes I'm a Puppy School Graduate"
black toy poodle)

Yeah I know, I'm a slacker. I get it all from Mom. I gave her my film to take to Target AGES ago, but she still hasn't taken them....so, no new pictures. Plus, Mom's been extremely busy and hogging the computer. This is the first chance I've had to sneak on the computer all month.

Gotta go. Mom's coming back into the office and I'm sure she's going to want her computer back.

Geez, it is HOT. For the past week, the temperatures have been 90+ degrees and the humidity makes my hair nasty when I go outside. Mom and I do all of our outdoor activities early before it gets unbearably hot. I don't like to go outside after about 7:30AM. Plus, I've discovered that I really love air conditioning. Why go outside at all? I've got everything I need inside. Until this heat goes away, I'm going to try to do as little as possible.

We got a picture of my buddy, Casper in the mail the other day....turns out, he has learned how to "shake." Casper's dad sent us a very nice picture of Casper showing us his stuff. Good job Casper!

Verbi

Casper - showing us his most impressive trick (55774 bytes)

Graduation day for me! Actually, I kind of cheated. I still have one more make-up class to go to before I can really say I graduated ('cause I went to camp instead of class a couple of weekends), but my teacher gave me a certificate today anyway. PLUS, I won a prize today. We had a contest in class to see who would sit the fastest when our Moms or Dads stopped when we were heeling. I WON! Mom couldn't believe it. I was really good at that game. My teacher gave me a huge poochie treat as a prize. Lucky me. I think this makes up for the bad day at the groomer's.

Man, oh man. I was sent to the groomer's yesterday. Major bummer. I can't stand going there. I always end up in trouble. The groomer gave me another bad report card 'cause I growled at her. Well, she shouldn't have been messing with my feet. I can't stand having my feet messed with. Mom was not pleased with my behavior. I was not pleased with the groomer.

Here's a picture I meant to include in yesterday's diary entry. It's of me and my buddy, Casper. Mom's got me on her lap because she said I was playing too rough with Casper. She said we were at Casper's house and I had to be nice to him. Yeah, whatever. I can't wait til Casper comes to my house so we can have some real fun. BTW, Mom weighed me the other day... I weigh almost 10 lbs. Unbelieveable. Dad says that Mom feeds me too much, but I know that's not true;-)

Verbi and Casper...big buds(49300 bytes)

The exhausted poodle at dinner (49264 bytes)

Man, am I pooped! The picture shows me in my exhausted state...sneaking a nap in at the dinner table. What an jam-packed event-filled trip. You wouldn't believe all the fun I had this past weekend. Forget Camp Kennelwood. I'm going on trips with Mom and Dad whenever I can!

Mom, Dad and I drove to Knoxville for the 4th of July weekend. Mom and I picked up Dad from work on Friday and drove like crazy. We ended up in Knoxville WAY past my bedtime. I was crabby. Mom kept trying to get me to sleep on the way there, but I was too excited. There was so much to look at...afterall, I've never been on such a long car trip AND I've never gotten to go anywhere at night AND I never get to sit in the back seat all by myself for that long (did you know seat belts are unusually yummy?). I usually only get to go for short car rides during the daytime.

In any event, it was an adventure. I got to visit with Dad's mamaw, meet my granddad Jim, my uncle Sam, and aunt Meg. I also got to meet Franklin (Mamaw's scary cocker spaniel who would like to have me as a Scooby snack...Mom says Franklin could eat me in about 2 bites...YIKES!). I also got to meet my grandmom Peggy, granddad Paul, and uncle Casper. That's Casper to the right. Casper is my buddy. He didn't want to eat me (whew!). Plus, I got to visit with aunt Carolyn and uncle Nick again. Most excellent.

My buddy Casper, a most cool Maltese (25541 bytes)

We drove back yesterday. Mom said traffic was much lighter than she thought it would be. Dad and I slept most of the way home. I'm still pretty tired. I think I'm going to go back to bed.

In case you've been wondering, my lack of posting lately has been more attributable to problems with Geocities. I haven't been able to upload my pages as often as I would like. Ever since they merged with Yahoo, I've been having all sorts of trouble. Anyway, just be patient with me and my posting. Hopefully, Geocities will get their problems ironed out in the next few months. Enough griping. Here's what's been going on with me.

Verbi the poodle with Mamaw (15675 bytes)

As you know, Dad's mamaw came to visit us last month. Here's a picture of me and Mamaw. She's really wonderful. Mom, Dad and I are going to visit Mamaw this weekend. I'm really excited. This is the first long car ride I'm going to get to go on. Yeah sure, I get to ride in the car around town all the time, but Mom says this is going to be like a hundred in town car rides combined. Whoopee!

Usually, I go to Camp Kennelwood when Mom and Dad go on trips. I really love it at camp, but Mom and Dad miss me too much when I go there. So, I'm keeping them company on this trip. Plus, I get to meet the rest of our family. I'll be sure to get loads of pictures to post. Speaking of pictures, here's some pictures of my Dad in Kansas City. The one on the right is of Dad with a bunch of his art museum buddies.

Dad in front of the Kansas City Art Museum (17998 bytes)

And the photo on the left is Dad in front of the art museum and their lawn art. Some people like to have ceramic/plastic deer in their front yard, some people like to have enormous shuttlecocks. I'm kind of glad Mom sticks to impatiens for our front yard. Well, I've got to get packing. So much to do....so little time.

Camp was a BLAST! I had so much fun. I got playtime with other puppies 3 times a day. Very cool. My counselor said I was a very good boy...I got an excellent report card. Mom and Dad were quite proud of me. I came home exhausted yesterday. You wouldn't believe how exhausting it can be to be good. I napped for a good part of the day...thank goodness I'm back to my old self today. Mom and Dad also got to go somewhere fun over the weekend. They visited Branson, Missouri and Eureka Springs, Arkansas. You can see the bed and breakfast where they stayed by clicking here.

Here's something exciting...Mom told me this morning that I get to go on my very first vacation. Mom and Dad think I'm finally old enough to go to an overnight camp. They are sending me to Kennelwood for the weekend. Mom says it's the puppy spa and camp. I'll get a camp buddy to play with at playtime three times a day. I can't wait! I could use a vacation. I've been in sooo much trouble lately. Yesterday, Mom caught me standing on her bed in the middle of a big pile of tissues (I had pulled out all of the tissues from a kleenex box that was on the nightstand). Busted! She was really mad. I thought her eyeballs were going to pop out of her head. Anyway, it looks like all is forgiven. I've been extra-sweet today.

Taking the time to smell the flowers (17152 bytes)

Spring is here in St. Louis. I've decide that I really like spring. We have some very pretty tulips in our front yard. Mom lets me smell them when I go outside to play.

Dad and Verbi enjoying the spring flowers (21042 bytes)

That's Cloe in the picture on the left. She lives next door. Cloe is part cocker spaniel, part golden retriever.... and she's not my buddy. We share a backyard. I'm on the other side of the fence. Mom doesn't let us play together without Cloe's Mom or Dad around because she says I know how to irritate Cloe. (You can kind of tell, Cloe is irritated in the photo).

My front teeth have come in! Thank goodness. For a while, I only had two big front teeth and the rest of my front teeth were gone. Dad said I looked like a beaver when I smiled. Oops. I've gotta go. Mom needs the computer and she is cranky. Something about taxes. I don't know what they are, but I've got a feeling taxes are bad bad bad. Later,

What a week this has been! I keep losing my teeth. Four of my bottom teeth are gone and so are two on top. I've got a big gap right up front when I smile now. Mom was going to take some pictures of me with my missing teeth outside today (because she just found her camera...it's been lost for a while), but the weather is kind of cloudy and gray...like it's trying to decide whether or not to rain. Dad doesn't have to work this weekend. If the weather is nice this weekend, Mom said that the three of us might get to do something really fun and exciting. I sure hope the sun comes out.

I had my very first Easter. I got an Easter present from my Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Paul... RAISINS! Imagine that! I'd never had them before... Mom says raisins are a delicacy and that I can't have them all the time, but what a treat! Also,Mom let me play outside on Easterfor quite some time because the weather was so nice. Lately, instead of going for walks (which I don't like...see my March diary), Mom has let me just play in the front yard (with my Flexi-leash on). I like that much better. It's not scary (ie no big neighborhood poodles that want to eat me) and all sorts of nice people come over to visit when we are outside. Poor Dad had to work all day and all night on Easter and then all day today. He just got home and is sound asleep. Mom's in the kitchen making gumbo (so I got to sneak in some computer time). Here's something interesting...do you know what just happened to me? I've lost 4 of my front teeth! Mom could hardly believe it. Dad laughed when I showed him. Oops gotta run. It's time for dinner.

You wouldn't believe how much weight I've gained lately. In the past few weeks, I've gotten HUGE. Mom weighed me yesterday and I weighed 15 lbs! Yesterday, I got another haircut. My groomer called Mom to come get me and told her I was rotten; and hence, the funny haircut. My groomer and Mom are hoping I will outgrow my rotten-ness. Dad laughed at my haircut when he got home. He said I look like that Taco Bell dog. The very top photo on this page was taken pre-haircut. It was on one of our walks outside. It doesn't look like I'll have to go on many walks the rest of this week (hip hip hooray). The forecast is for cloudy crummy weather (Mom never takes me out unless it's warm and sunny). Oh yeah, about my weight...April Fools! I'm still a shrimp.