Travelog for: Pea

Hi there! Very excited to start my travel log! My ancestors & I have been traveling with my hoo-man for the past 14 years. They have all since retired and it is now my turn to take on the world. I love to travel & get dressed up. I'm sure you will see many of my different outfits in my pictures.

I thought I would start my travel log with my latest adventure - a hike to Devil's Head Fire Lookout in Rampart Range - Colorado. During the summer and high fire danger months, someone stays in this tower all day to watch out for forest fires. They can see 100 miles in every direction! At night, they stay in a cabin at the base of the 137 stairs to the lookout.

The first is a picture of me the trail head. You can't tell - but I am wearing a very rustic red plaid shirt and a pair of jeans. I looked like a true hiker!

It was only a mile-ish to the look out tower - but it was all up hill! Very difficult for me to keep up with my little legs compared to hoo-mans long legs. We stopped several times so she could pretend to be an artistic photographer & get some shots of the scenery. I wasn't invited to be in those. Hmph. We eventually made it to the top...

The other 2 were taken at the top of Devil's Head Fire lookout. Hoo-man kept yelling at her hiking partner because she was afraid he was going to drop me over the edge. I do look a big scared. He had me pinched preeeeetttyyy tight!

I like cookies. A lot. Luckily, so does hoo-man. She recently found this amazing mom & pop Italian restaurant by her office that makes all sorts of home made sweets. They have an a-m-a-z-i-n-g selection of cookies.

She must have thought that she could sneak them in the house without me noticing. NOT! I sniffed out that greasy, buttery brown bag immediately and located the COOKIES! Below are the pictures of me, Bean, and Sprout taking control of the cookie bag.

The new Harry Potter movie is out! I have gone and seen everyone one of them as soon as they have come out in theaters. I have also gone and waited at book stores until midnight when the new books were released. (I promise - I was not the only one there! The He hoo-man was quite shocked to see how many people really show up for a midnight book release. ALOT!)

Last year, He hoo-man made me my very on Nimbus 2000 before the release of the 6th Harry Potter movie. I got to hold my Nimbus tightly during the movie. I also zoomed around on it a couple of times - dearly upsetting my hoo-man. She was afraid I would zoom & crash into an unsuspecting person's popcorn.

This year, I extended my Harry Potter collection. I locked hoo-man up in the sewing room and told her not to come out until I had a cape, wand, gryffindor scarf, and hogwarts uniform. There was a bit of drama surrounding the creation of the wand. It was originally fashioned out of a toothpick & left to dry on a paper plate. Someone didnt realize that it was a very valuable unicorn horn Pea-size wand & threw the plate & wand away!!! Hoo-man had to scramble and make me a new one at the last minute. I actually like this second one better because it's slightly bigger (and less pointy). It's made out of a golf tee

I got to wear my new duds to the movie! However, hoo-man made me leave my Nimbus in the car. She wasn't going to take the chance of me getting her kicked out.

I like productive days! Today was one of those because I locked hoo-man in her sewing room for a few hours this afternoon to finish some outfits that were only half done from previous months in addition to starting on some of my holiday wear!

I really do like the outfits that she makes me (except for the Madonna one... That one can stay in the closet... Or be burned. Note to self: I do believe that it is still on Twitpic from two years ago... Go delete.) - It's just so difficult to pin her down & make her sew!

She finished my 2010 new years outfit today. So I guess that's going to become my 2011 new years outfit? She also finished this years fourth of July outfit. She came really really close to finishing it in time this summer for the fireworks, but didn't and it remained on her desk since then. She also finished one of my Thanksgiving outfits for this year! She purchased material to make two more, but I won't hold my breath. Getting one done on time was definitely a monumental achievement for her recently. (She knows I'm just giving her a hard time... I hope... We'll see - I may end up sleeping in the bath tub instead of my cozy hammock if I'm not careful.)

I've included a picture of me with my new Thanksgiving outfit along with the pile of material that she purchased the other day for the rest of my holiday clothes! I still have to have a photo shoot for the rest of the outfits.

Going to work early with hoo-man tomorrow to keep her company. Three day work week!

Back to the grind stone of another Monday at work! I was slightly disturbed when I was plucked from my hammock an entire hour earlier today. Why must hoo-man go to work so early?!? Not only was I woken up early, but I was subjected to sitting in her pocket while she scraped the ice off of her wind shield. I much rather preferred to sit in the nice warm car - or the house for that matter. However, the ice was so thick that the noice of the ice scraper against the windshield was louder than the squeeks I was emitting from her pocket. At least she was nice enough to wear jacket with the silk lined interior today . Besides the cold of the morning, the pockets were very comfy!

I was also treated with a few sips of a ginger bread latte from Starbucks on the drive in. All in all - the morning could definitely of have started out much worse! The day went by fast & when we got home, Hoo-man started working on more of my Thanksgiving outfits. It's right around the corner! She still has half of this one plus one more to finish before Thursday. Yikes!

She has also been working on creating more friends for me. Below is the picture of 3 new critters she created. It still creeps me out when they are empty - like the ones below. For goodness sake - eat something will you!

We started our Thanksgiving baking today!Hoo-man went grocery shopping at lunch today with a co-worker & gathered supplies to make 2 cheesecakes with raspberry and molasses drizzle, cranberry jello salad, and roasted red potatoes with rosemary sour cream.

We had to make one of the cheesecakes tonight for her office gathering tomorrow. It was quite fun! I got to run the mixing machine. That's the closest that I will probably ever come to a power tool. He he he! I also checked all the eggs for cracks. Then we poured it all into the pan. (He Hoo-man made the crust while I was working the heavy machinery.)

At that point it was hurry up & wait. All of our other cheesecakes have come out with giant cracks through them. We have googled & googled methods to prevent the cracking - and all say a constant heat source (ie no opening the oven while its cookig) and a water bath for the pan. Still - no matter what we've done, we have always ended up with a cheese cake that looks like it came straight out of  the San Andreas fault line in California!

BUT!!! This one came out PERFECT! I think it was my mad mixing skills... 

The cheese cake that I helped bake last night was a huge hit today at hoo-man's office! However, I wasn't very thrilled that she took all the credit for it. I did squeak my protests loudly, only to have hoo-man shove me in the top drawer in her desk while she continued on with the rest of the holiday part. Hmph. I *really* DID help create the cheesecake!

It is very cold here in Colorado here today - definitely the coldest day of Fall so far. It was below 30 degrees F all day. Tonight its in the single digits. When I got home - I was cold!! I decided to try and cuddle up with the Dog Monster aka Chloe. I had to slowly sneak up on her though so she wouldnt notice I was there. She puts out a lot of heat, so she's good to snuggle with. However - she does tend to chew on me. I didn't want any more holes in me!





After I warmed up, Bean, Sprout and i worked on some Thanksgiving crafts! We created hand...er... claw print turkeys tonight to make a Thanksgiving card to all of our online friends! To make a claw print turkey - you trace your paw/claw and each finger becomes a feather on the turkey. Poor Bean's turkey didn't fit in line with mine & Sprouts so it's kind of off to the side.

Looking forward to watching the Macy's parade tomorrow morning on TV!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

I had a lovely evening tonight with hoo-man, he-hoo-man, and hoo-man's parents. I ate sooooo much!

We started out with our usual Thanksgiving traditions - watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and then the National Dog Show! I was desperately hoping to see some kind of gecko balloon on TV during the parade - but alas - another year down with no gecko in the parade. Maybe if I get really really famous some day I will get my own balloon! I wonder what outfit I would wear...

After that - I helped hoo-man with the rest of the cooking. We had made the cheesecake the other night, but we needed to make the fresh raspberry sauce. I kept taking raspberries out of the bowl & crawling under the microwave to eat them so hoo-man wouldn't see. I got away with eating 4 of them before I was quickly escorted to another portion of the counter to puree cranberries - which I *don't* like.

We also made homemade butterscotch sauce, cranberry & walnut garnish, and hasselback potatoes with rosemary sour cream garnish. While all of that was cooking, hoo-man finished up my last 2 Thanksgiving outfits! I wore one tonight to dinner and will wear the other for Black Friday shopping tomorrow!

This picture is of our dinner table! I met a very nice turkey - Rob. He was a decoration. A bit ... stiff... but very pleasant nonetheless.


Me & Rob


Here is me & the real turkey. I got in trouble for this one! They were afraid I was going to leave claw marks on it! he he he


Here is our meal spread! In additional to what hoo-man made, her mom made turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, squash, cranberry bread, gravy and tons of other goodies!



Also, her mom (gran-hoo-man?) got me this bottle of Sobe ice tea. It has little geckos on it!

Today I got to go and visit my hoo-mans horses! She has two - Ace and Jesse. They are both very nice critters. This afternoon, hoo-man rode Ace and she let me sit on him too!

Ace is an American Quarter horse that specializes in reining. Thats a form of western riding where the horse and rider get judged on their ability to ride through a pattern with certain required maneuvers. Some of those maneuvers are galloping circles, running fast and doing a sliding stop (This is my favorite - the horses back legs slide through the dirt, like when you where socks on hardwood floor) and spinning.

Hoo-man and Ace compete in horse shows in the summer. So right now - they have some time off. Ace has gotten fat and furry in the past couple of months!

Here are some pictures of me sitting on him:





Here is a picture of me in the horse treat bucket! They get these horse "cookies" after each ride. Hoo-man sneaks some to her boys other times though. He he he


This is where they keep all the saddles!


This is a picture of me with Ace's blanket. Horses get to where clothes like me! Ace is very stylish because he gets a pink one.

We are officially in Christmas mode around here! Today, I drug my tree up from the basement. For a human, it would have been easy to carry it upstairs. However, i wanted to be rugged - like if it I had cut it down myself in the woods!! I am very strong and was successfully able to drag it up the stairs.

Here is a picture of me & my tree:


I dont have many ornaments for the tree, so we decided to make our own out of a salt dough. You make the dough, and then cut out shapes like you would with cookies. Then bake.

Here are the pictures of me cutting it the shapes!



Then I put them on the cookie sheet:


Then they go in the oven!


Here they are baked & hard as a rock!


Tomorrow - we will decorate them!!!

Today I painted all my ornaments! I had so much fun with all the different colors. I turned the large flowers into snowflakes and the small flowers into ...uh...well, flowers! All the stars got metallic paint on them. The candy canes were so hard! I won't be making those again. When it was all done with covered them in really shiney paint. I cant wait to get these on my tree!!!

Here is me with all of the different paints. I had to wear an old tshirt so i didn't get paint on me. It's a very OLD tshirt.


Here they are all painted!


Arent they pretty?!?

Whew! I thought i would never get home today to update my log! I've been at work with hoo-man for 12 hours today. It was such a long and boring day hanging out in her pencil drawer while she worked. Next time i will request that she leave me with some form of entertainment other than a few lousy paperclips.

When we came home tonight we were able to hang out in the craft room for a bit and work on a cool little box for some of my clothes!

Sorry I didnt update yesterday! Hoo-man is planning her company's holiday party and was running around all night getting things together.

Tonight I got to start decorating my tree. The first thing to do is put on the lights. You can see I had problems untangling them...


I got it all worked out! Here is me with the lights on....


Then I needed to add the first of the ornaments. The set that I added tonight are pink plastic snowflakes.


Tomorrow I am hoping to add the ornaments that I created the other night to my tree! I just have to finish adding the strings to them so they can be hanged. After that i can top it with a star and it will be ready for santa!!

I'm so excited! My very first visitor has arrived today - Dusel from Germany! He came just in time too because tonight was the Denver Parade of Lights. It was the perfect opportunity for him to see some of the town.

Here is us in the parking lot in Denver before we walked to the parade. Parking is so expensive during an event. It cost us $15!! There was this pretty cool church behind the parking lot.



We got stuck in traffic on the way down to the parade so we didnt get a very good spot for pictures. Hoo-man had to climp up onto some water pipes just to get tall enough to see the floats but the lights were too dark for pictures

The town next to ours always has reall cool lights in the park during Christmas and she has wanted to take some pictures for a long time. She already had her camera gear so we had a little mini photo shoot in the park! There was this really cool gazeebo there that we posed in for a little bit. During the summer, bands will set up in here and play music during festivals.

In this one we are really small - on the ground in the gazeebo - but you can really see how cool it looks with all the lights.


Here is one a little closer.



Then we posed on the railing next to some holly & red bows. I like this one. It may be my Christmas card....


Tomorrow - I look forward to showing Dusel around town!

I had quite the busy day today. I feel a little bad for my visitor from Germany, Dusel because he must be exhausted from jet lag and he had to be subjected to all of our errands that we had to run today.

Hoo-man is working on creating table center pieces for a holiday party, and we had to run around to pick up things for those. We bought a ton of garland! It looked like we had a small forest in the car!



Then, Dusel got distracted by one of the tractors that was parked in front of the house. We have several, but he thought this one was small enough for him to try out. He he he. He very enthusiastically offered to mow the lawn, but we were promptly plucked off the seat of the tractor as soon as Hoo-man saw us there. She just kept yelling "not safe! not safe!"



When we came back in, all the geckos in the house gathered around the Christmas tree to give Dusel his official welcome!



The geckos demanded some time with Dusel so I was able to step away for some time for tea with an old pal, Colorful.  She was Hoo-man's companion through high school and college. When she retired, I replaced her. She's always fun to hang around with.