Goodbye, Irene!

We are glad to see the last of you. Even Southern hospitality has its limits. 

The first rain bands started about 10:30 Friday night, and the wind finally died down about 2 AM Sunday morning. So basically 28 hours of storm. 

All said, it could have been a heck of a lot worse for us. 

Two fence panels fell down. The posts were snapped at the bottom. The fence is propped back up for now. Once the ground dries out enough, we'll install new posts. 

All that green is not grass. It's tree branches from the oak and pine trees. But the scooter didn't even fall over!

Our poor pool. :(

More branches down.

Branches on the deck.

We were blessed that it's only a little clean up. We are so blessed to have friends who cared about us, prayed for our safety and kept checking to make sure we were okay. We especially love Greg. 

Greg with mom back when she had long hair

Greg spent 10 hours of his own time making sure our (brand new!) generator worked properly. That's a whole 'nother drama. But he made it work and showed mom how to safely power our house with it. Although we didn't need it, it was a relief to have that peace of mind. There are lots of people here without power and it's super hot and humid. We pugs would have been melted.

BTW, we've heard from Lady Pug Mugs and they are all okay, too.

Thanks to all of you who worried about us. 

Almost over

It's about 9:30 here now. Wind is still blowing hard, keeps raining but we are still okay. 

In fact, we've slept most of the day. 

Tallulah did get a little anxious with all the wind noise, but she's snoring at the moment.

Tallulah

Petunia

The biggest issue has been pottying. Isabelle does not like to use potty pads. 

So she's been holding it for a while. She did pee NEXT to the pad about 5 hours ago.

Mom did some cleaning, we did some sleeping. 

We did get our nails trimmed which entitles us to a rib bone. 

Isabelle is still working on hers.

Irene's still blowing

It's about 3 pm here. The eye of the hurricane is still south of us by about 100 miles. The worst of it should start around 5 pm, go until 10.
So far, there's a bunch of small branches in the yard. And lots of water. Our soil holds the water so we have ponding until it drains.
Lots of streets in our area have flooded and closed. There are five bridge/tunnels combos that lead into our area. Only one is open right now. When the wind is really bad and there's as much rain as we are getting, those tunnels can fill up with water so it's better that they are closed. Bridges over open water like the Chesapeake Bay can be dangerous to be on with the wind gusts.
It's not safe to be outside and the windows are all blurry with rain, so pictures at this point.
We did hear that one little boy has died because a tree fell on his apartment today in Newport News. That's across the Chesapeake Bay from us. A few more people in North Carolina have died as well. Although we are still okay, please keep praying for everyone in the path of this storm. Pray that everyone has common sense to stay home, be on the lowest level of their house and don't take any risks.

getting ready for Irene

Mom is busy getting everything ready for the storm. She works for the city of Norfolk so we don't evacuate.
But we should be okay. We are in zone 3 for storm surge. Our house is elevated and the property is elevated. So we should be safe from flooding.
We have a generator and a window air conditioner so we will be comfortable if the power goes out. Our fridge and cupboards are stocked. We have plenty of bully sticks and yak chews to keep us busy.
Our internet is down (not storm related) so posts will be from the blackberry for now.
Mom will so her best to post on Sunday. She has to work that day but will try to sneak in some time to post for us.
We do have our Twitter account 2pugsinapod linked to our page so you might see some info there.
To our northern MidAtlantic friends Minnie and Mack and other folks in the northeast like Wilma and the Devil Dog, you are in our prayers.

Whole lotta shaking going on

As you've probably heard, we had an earthquake here today. 

The epicenter was about 130 miles northwest of Norfolk. 

Mom's office is on the 7th floor of her building. 

She said it shook enough to make her grab for the wall to stay standing up!

Pretty scary for her.

But no damage here at all, thank God.

But when mom came home. she got stung by bees. Isn't that a kick in the pants?
She's never been stung before so she immediately took some Benadryl. Now, Benadryl would make most people a little sleepy. But after all the excitement of the day, she's still wired.

Now, we are preparing for Hurricane Irene's arrival this weekend. Not looking forward to that one at all. But mom has gas, a generator, plenty of food and water containers. And we are hoping to get an window AC unit tomorrow. Ordered it online, hoping to pick it up at the store. 

If that works out, we will be sitting pretty. If not, can we move in with someone with air conditioning?

The sunset of summer

The end of summer will be here so soon. 

It always makes mom a little sad. 

So we are soaking up every last bit of summer sun that we can. 

Hope everyone has had a great summer and is living life to its fullest.

Weekends are for relaxing

For us anyway. 

   Mom has been busy. Here's her list.

laundry

mowed the lawn

dishes

made dog food

grocery shopped

made food for freezing

took us to the dog park

took Isabelle to Carealot

We did this.

Isabelle

Tallulah

Petunia

Hope your weekend has been relaxing!

Only 135 days til Christmas!

We had a very special visitor to Virginia this weekend, Santa!

Photos by Feist

We had to put on our best dresses and go see him right away. Never hurts to get a good word in early.

PS. Santa to said to keep up the begging for treats faces because it tests our parents. THEY get put on a list, too.