Happy Halloween!
BL and TL
From: Tara

Okay, so I know I've done three blogs in a row, but I have it on good authority that Brandon is thinking about blogging about his visit home (where he currently is now), so we should hear from him soon.

At any rate, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Recently Brandon and I along with new friends Amy and Aaron went to the




in Niles, Michigan.  It's about 30 minutes from where we currently live.  We had a great time, even me, who is the world's biggest chicken!  I still remember once when I was a child, and one of my mother's friends tried to convince me to go down a very big waterslide.  I think I was around 9 or so, and she tried reverse psychology by saying "You're not afraid...are you?"  I looked straight at her and said, "Yes, I am! And I'm not going!"  Defiant stance and all.

The haunted houses were luckily not as scary as I thought they would be, but I still screamed several times and hung onto Brandon for dear life.  There was one part where a giant snake-like creature came roaring out of a body....well, I ran for cover, ie Brandon, on that one.  Also, an INCREDIBLY creepy autopsy room.  Thank goodness nothing under those white covers grabbed me, I might have accidently hurt someone!  They don't allow cameras inside, but these are some pics from their website.  They had wonderful props!   




They say they change it every year, so I can't wait to go again. 




They had the main Haunted House, and two others called "Redneck Revengence" (which wasn't too scary) and "London Screams, After Midnight" (which had the giant snake).

Next year I want to try out the "Field of Screams with Maniac Maze" and the "Dark Terror-Tory Haunted Hayride".  We didn't really know how long any of the houses would take, but now we know for next year that we will easily have enough time to do everything.  They also had carnival food and a couple of Midway games, and a big outdoor projection screen playing old black and white scary movies. 

All in all, it was kind of cheezy, and a little creepy, but I love cheezy.  And since most of their profits go to charity, I didn't mind spending money on cheezy.  So thanks to Aaron and Amy for going with us.  We had a great time! 
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Oh no! Say it ain't so!!
BL and TL
From:  Tara

O, the tragedy!  Those of you who know my obsession will alas be alarmed when I tell the news:  My GT Express 101 Cooker has died!  I plugged it in, and....nothing.  Gone.

RIP, dear friend.  




But wait!  There's more!






Don't worry....Brandon knows.  And I don't want to hear any conspiracy theories.  My GT Express 101 cooker died a natural death. 


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In Conclusion....
BL and TL
From: Tara

So even though there are technically about 7 or so hours left on the poll to the right, I think we can safely call in the jury foreman on this case.  Especially since Brandon had agreed to it before he wrote his blog, AND since we went Monday and bought the kennel.  (was there really any doubt?)  Brandon conceded as well, and even attempted to show Bruno that the kennel was not a bad place by putting himself into the kennel.  By the time I had grabbed the camera, Brandon had quickly weasled out of the cage, but I promise you that

this guy put his whole body into this cage.  The smug look is because I couldn't catch him in the act with the camera. 
Bruno sniffed around the kennel for a while, but didn't really get in it until later that night, when Brandon was playing Rock Band and I was in the office.  I was called in and saw this:
 
Doesn't he look cozy?

So the great debate is at last at an end.  And as I promised in my very first blog, I will NOT make this blog all about my dog.  But you can see how hard that is!

Here are my last Bruno moments for this month.  The X-Box gave us the red ring of death, which is similar to the blue screen of death on a computer.  So Brandon, being ever the handy electronics fix-it guy he is, decided to see if he could fix it.  And he did!  But as you can see, he didn't do it alone.



Bruno told me that this work was for boy's only, and that I had to butt out.



Bruno puts himself in the most amazing positions.  I think his life's goal is to be an acrobat dog in the circus. 



And finally, Bruno got his first ever haircut!  The groomers did a great job, especially since I didn't want them to trim too much and was VERY specific.  So he got his ears trimed and his paws trimed.  He looks great!

That's it for Bruno.  I PROMISE that I will not blog about him for at least another month.  Of course, I'm only speaking for myself.  If Brandon blogs about it him, that's none of my doing.  Honest.  Yep.  All him.  Not me.  Remember that.
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Save Bruno!!
Brandon
From Brandon:

People of the blog, I am here to defend Bruno Landry on these false accusations of unlawfullness and rambunctiousness. The plaintiff will have you believe that Bruno Landry has a long history of devastation and destruction. I will attempt to show that this is a mere instance of mistaken identity and misfortune. First, in regards to the "planted" pictures below. In none of these pictures it was shown that he actually committed any of these crimes. He was not caught in-the-act on any of these pictures and all these should be considered inadmissible.


As a matter of fact, let's break down this picture in question.














Notice how Bruno Landry is not in the first picture. This is proof that the picture below was staged. As you can clearly see he is pleading for his innocence.

From the pictures above you can notice that the wooden stand would have had to have fallen back and to the right to have caused the tree to fall, back and to the right.



This picture shows his height in relation to the stand. Also, notice the book on the floor (as seen above) which would have been placed on top of the stand (as shown in this reenactment). This would have created added weight. The sheer amount of force that would have been needed to create this chain of events from Bruno's stand point would have been insurmountable. No way my client, in his stature, would have been able to achieve such a feat.


Again, notice the innocence plea. The sheer amount of angst and distraught my client is having to deal with over this whole matter is disconcerting to say the least.



It could be argued that he jumped on the recliner, saw the book, attempted to read said book and accidentally knocked over the stand. From previous blogs we have learned that he does indeed like a good read now and again. This is more plausable due to the better vantage point. He could have knocked over the stand easier. But wait, the book was not in the chair but on the floor. Clearly by the pictures above you can see that the trajectory of how the stand fell in relation to the book on the floor is perfectly in alignment. Also, notice the title of the book. "In Cold Blood", indeed.


How did this happen one may ask. It is up to speculation but I for one will not stand idly by while an innocent man is procecuted. Please ask yourself, isn't it innocent until proven guilty? Isn't this America? Isn't it the home of the brave and the land of the free? Let's not take away an innocent man's freedom.


There will be a "Save Bruno" rally Saturday 2PM at the dog park. Anyone who cannot attend may post a comment to help right this injustice.


Thank you and God bless.
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Bruno Moments
BL and TL
From: Tara

Bruno.  Oh Bruno.  Sometimes my sweet little Cavalier is not so sweet.  Lately we have had seperation anxiety issues, and much to Brandon's dismay, I have decided that we need to start kenneling Bruno when we leave the house.  I think it will be much better for him and Brandon completely disagrees, and that is the impasse we have been at for quite some time now. 

My arguement is as follows:  Even though we have a strict routine that we stick to, we still sometimes end up with destruction.  Case in point, this week I was gone for only two hours and returned to this:


I made him pose next to the scene of the crime, then sent it to Brandon, hoping to prove my point of kenneling.  This was my email.
I was only gone for two hours. It's time to admit that he needs a kennel. The sooner we get one, the sooner I can train him with it. It will be large enough that he can move around easily. But what if this tree had fallen on him. And yes, I put the chair by the door, AND YES, I walked him for over 10 minutes before I left.
This was Brandon's response.
it looks like he is saying "i dont know what happened?
That's it.  That's all he said.  How can I reason with the two of them???  Bruno is very clearly a "daddy's boy" and that has kept him from the kennel so far.

 

But enough is enough.  I don't have a picture of the two HOLES he put in the wall.  Luckily Brandon is very handy, and fixed them.  He did a great job, and you can't tell at all, but now we have to put a chair beside the door to block Bruno's favorite spot on the wall to chew.  We can't leave any paper lying around, and he loves to chew on coasters, especially ones that Mommy has made out of plastic canvas.

That was my resume, by the way.  So I challenge Brandon to tell me, here on this blog in front of all of our friends and family to tell his side of the story.  Because my side is that Bruno needs to get a little older before he has so much freedom when we are not home, and a kennel would be like a safe bedroom for him to hang out in.  If we were to be gone for over four hours, I would take Bruno to doggy day care.  He loves it there, but it's not feasible to drop him off everytime we go out.  So now I will wait to hear what Brandon has to say. 

On a side note, here is a picture of Bruno's new friend Esther.




  She is a 7 month old Irish Wolfhound, and the sweetest thing!  But Bruno doesn't seem to notice or care about the difference in their size.

 


He loves to get her to chase him!!


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Going home
BL and TL
From: Brandon

Well, here it is…..drum roll please. My first blog post. Ta da!!! When Tara first told me she wanted to start a blog I thought, sounds good as long as I don’t have to write on it. Funny how things change. Anyhow, back to the thought at hand.

The flight is booked and I am ready for the last week of October. I will be off to Lake Charles. Woo hoo!! It’s crazy to think that it’s been 8 months since I’ve been home. A strange thing starts to happen when you move from a place that you thought didn’t have too many redeeming qualities. A place where you were born and raised and spend most of your life. You start to miss it. It’s like that saying “You can’t see the forest for the trees”. I get that now. I know, some might be thinking that I’m nuts and why the hell would you miss mosquitoes, hurricanes, brutal summers, love bugs, the lack of winter and the answer is, I don’t. I don’t miss those things at all. What I do miss is family, friends, the food, drive-thru daiquiris, the southern hospitality (I for one was a big skeptic on this one. I didn’t know it actually still existed until I moved up north). These are the things that trump the bad. These are the things that are important. So, in 2 and a half weeks I will be back home to soak up some of the good.

On a side note, the brutal summers down south are equal to the frigid winters of northern Indiana. Tara and I are on the downward spiral of good weather. The morning news was talking about possible flurries this weekend, blah. Snow is a fun and good until you have to drive in it or do any outside task for that matter. Changing the battery in my truck last winter in sleet and snow wasn’t fun for me. It does make us appreciate the spring though. To give you an idea this picture is from a town about 30 minutes north from where we live. This is a light post, right off the coast of Lake Michigan. I rest my case.


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