Just Sayin'

Oh! Just so you know. I have no intention of giving up blogging. Blogville will have to close forever before I walk away. I am just curious about the steadily declining audience and participants. Many of my favorite bloggers no longer blog. That is tough - I really enjoy reading them even if I check in irregularly and comment even less. My assistant, Mommy #2, thought once she was working from home that she would have more time to spend reading blogs and commenting. It is absolutely the opposite, though. She is ALWAYS busy on NON-BLOG things.

But I have too much to say and do to keep it all to myself.

Hopefully my poll gets some replies, though. I really want to know what people think about blogging vs other social media like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Today we are heading to a big WARM-UP. We have completely skipped SPRING here in Silicon Valley. We had rain and temps in the 60s just 2 weeks ago and this week we are cooking at temps we used to only see in late SUMMER. So what gives?

Mother Nature is going through menopause, I think. Mood swings like crazy . . . uncontrolled heat followed by deep chills. . . just a little off. I don't know what to expect anymore.

To all my Blogville Friends in the FLOOD areas, I hope you are safe and on dry ground. It is a terrible situation which will go on for a long time AFTER the rains stop.

Am I Ever Really WORDLESS On Wednesday?

This is me expressing my displeasure at ANOTHER rainy day.

I know. I know. During our LONG LONG drought we were anxious for some rainy days. At first it was fun.

Now I am over it.

It is not so fun anymore.

I think Mother Nature needs to find some BALANCE.

It's Spring in the Stores . . . It's Spring on TV . . . So, Where is SPRING for ME?

What???

It is raining AGAIN here is NorCal. It seems like lately we get 1-2 days of really awesome weather followed by RAIN. . . Rain . . . and more rain.

I admit. I like a little RAIN. But my patience is wearing thin because this is too much. I know, I know. Those of you who LIVE in the rainy parts of the world are scoffing at me about now. "What a lightweight that Noodles is!" or "She thinks THAT'S RAIN? I'll show her our daily BUCKETS of rain! Now THAT is something to whine about!" And so on.

Rain on the windshield and an incredibly
green hill

If you THINK about it, though; you will realize that I have spent 7 of my 9 years in a DROUGHT situation. It hardly rained at all! And if it did, it lasted AT MOST one month and then disappeared altogether. But this has been going on since NOVEMBER of 2018. I have had about my limit.

I have to admit, it does make MY FOOTHILLS look so lovely and green, don't you think?

And the smells outside are unbelievably rich and not at all DUSTY smelling.

And the everything in the yard looks so happy.

But I am still ready for SUNSHINE AND SPRINGTIME!!!

Can't it start NOW?

PLEASE?

Drying out

Howdy Everypuggy
It has been storming and raining and blowing here for the last 2 days. TWO WHOLE DAYS! It was so bad even I refused to go outside to potty! I eventually did because I got sorta desperate. . . but I sure did not want to. I came back in and was wetter than if I had taken a BATH!

This is what Mommy chose to do on the rainy and windy Saturday morning - make persimmon jam. I actually don't like it when she makes jam because I don't get any of it! Well, depends on what she is brewing. Some FRUIT she will share with me. Not persimmon, though. She worked so hard at this task and denied me cuddle time.

So I gave her the cold shoulder when she FINALLY sat down with me. I need to set the guidelines, you know, or she will totally take advantage of my tendency to CUDDLE.

Today, Monday, it rained early and right now is drying out. It is still cold and damp, though. After so many years of drought and then bad wildfires, I will take all the rain the skies can dish out. Well, short of flooding. That isn't fun either.

We are supposed to get rain pretty much all week. It's a good way to begin the new year.

Moody Mid-Week MALAISE

When the clouds are DARK and mysterious
I write a story in my head
It stars a pretty little DOG
An especially special Princess PUG

Our dear HEROINE looks for fun
Adventures fall in her lap
Into her YARD she stealthily moves
Looking for anything out of the groove

Into the LARGE pile of leaves
She LEAPS with complete aplomb
Sniffing and rustling noisily through
Always aware of something new

What's that NOISE over there in the HONEYsuckle?
I better go investigate
Our CRAFTY hero dashes away
Over where the leaves sway

A sneaky CAT and not her sister
Slinks away to the left
Bark! Bark! BARK! she shouts
Be OFF - I want you OUT

Just then the SUN comes peeking out
From behind a sinister CLOUD
"Good job my dear little HELPER
The WORK you do keeps the yard SAFER."

And there my STORY ends
The day is DONE, and put to rest
I'm tired - CREATING is an energy ZAP
I look around for my FAVORITE lap
THE END

Wordless Wednesday BUT Not Really

LOOK how green our hills are this year! And notice the gray clouds. That is the reason why.
It's not APRIL yet but this photo reminded me of this.

April Rain Song

by

Langston Hughes

Let the rain kiss you

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk

The rain makes running pools in the gutter

The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night

And I love the rain. 

"P" is for Pee Protest

This is what it looked like out the door this morning

It's Raining

It's Pouring

My Bladder

Stopped Storing

It Reminded Me

I Gotta Pee

So I went to the

Door - ing

And took ONE LOOK OUTSIDE  

It's Raining

It's Pouring

I think I'll wait

SomeMORE-ing

I gotta pee

But I can SEE

It's NOT stopping

And it's POURING

Really Mommy. I can HOLD IT

A Sight Seldom Seen

As you know, we received a lot of rain over the past 5 days. It seems like the storm lasted a lot longer than that, but this is an accurate account according to the local newspaper. It was raining so hard and so long that going out side was difficult. Except Mommy bought us these

This is a raincoat in a BAG! And see the loop? It has a snap and can hook on your LEASH! Isn't this an absolutely brilliant idea?

She got the raincoats at our favorite doggy BOUTIQUE - Biscuits: Give a Dog a Bone. It is located in San Jose's Japantown and is run my our FURiend Ms. Jennifer. Well, until she opened Biscuits, we didn't know Ms. Jennifer at all! It's true. But we wandered in one day and guess what? She recognized me from my BLOG! Can you believe it?

So now we go there for specialty things like Bully Sticks (for gifts because I am banned from them) and leashes and now these, our raincoats. Don't they look absolutely wonderful on us? And they are as comfortable as they are functional. I, PUGsonally, loves loves loves my rubber ducky motif. And Molly says she ROCKS the pink like no other Malty Mix!

We are in a dry spell for a while now but I tell you, we are all pretty happy with the rain we had. Yes, there has been some mud sliding and power outages and flooding. . . but there are also full reservoirs and streams AND an abundance of growing plants. These are things we have not had in a long long long long long while. SO thank you Mother Nature.

Remember that PARADISE I was talking about
on Friday? Alum Rock Park? This is the creek
that runs through it. It has not looked like this for years!

And thank you Ms. Jennifer at Biscuits for selling such groovy raincoats.

T.G.I.a.R.L.F - What?

Thank Goodness

It's a 

Rainy

Lazy

Friday

Happy Friday. Have the best weekend EVER.

Barking Through 2016

Hi EveryPuggy! We are still here and waiting for the Mommy to get her act together. We are being patient.

Mommy is in the process of moving her office home. Long story but she is still employed which is good. And even better - she will be able to spend a lot of time with us in the CASA because she won't be commuting all the time or 38 miles away at her office. So I can hang with it.

This is at LAST year's Pet Expo

Today she had the cable guy come out to install an internet line for her. No, his NAME was NOT Larry! It was Javier which could be the Spanish equivalent to Larry. MAYBE? Anyhoo. . . me and Molly greeted him with a lot of barking and huffing because he is a stranger. Is and was. We barked loud enough to make Mommy's ears ring - every time he walked in the house. . . into the room . . . under the house . . . basically anytime he changed what he was doing at the moment. Mommy growled at us a couple of times but she KNOWS we were just doing our jobs and guarding our HOME. She covered us with a blanket (we were BOTH in the crate) and we still barked. But I gotta admit that after a while, barking was not so much fun when we couldn't see the PERP, if you know what I mean. So we took naps. . . BUT just for a LITTLE while. As soon as he started to talk to Mommy, we started up again. We are funny like that.

He eventually left and all's quiet again in our home.

This weekend is the PET EXPO at the fairgrounds. We had all kinds of fun at it last year and might be able to go again this year. I will keep you informed.

And for anyone who hasn't see the news in like a MONTH, El Niño has arrived in NorCal! We have had mostly rainy days since before Christmas! How refreshing is that? In fact since last Tuesday we have had a total of 3 days of clear weather and then it started raining (at least it waited until Mommy came home from the Forty-Niner game). The nice weather lady on TV - Kari Hall - said it is supposed to rain AT LEAST 4 of 7 days this week. Wow. All of the plants and trees look so happy. And it kinda looks like we have a lawn because the area where the lawn would be is all green with WEEDS. I'm not complaining. Those WEEDS feel better than the brown crunchy GRASS we have been doing our bidness on.

Dear Blogger - Quit Hiding My Posts and Other Stuff

Does this hat make me look
ANGRY?

Dear Blogger
Quit hiding my Posts.My FURiends don't see my posts. I think they don't love me. So I don't want to POST. But I do.
And No One sees it in their Blog Roll.
WHY???

Hi FURiends,
I have heard (and noticed myself) that almost every other post is not showing up in the blog roll. I don't know why they are not there. I am posting like I always have - 5 days a week. . . usually before Noon (Pacific Time). So I do not know why you cannot see me in the roll. Please continue to look for me and comment on my posts. Maybe THAT will make Blogger stand up and take notice.

In OTHER NEWS. . . well there isn't a lot of NEW NEWS out there. We got rain. Over an inch of rain in SAN JOSE! That is almost unheard of even in non-drought years. Our yard was so happy it looked like it was dancing! It might have been the wind cuz it was windy. But to me it looked like the trees and plants were dancing with joy. Even this morning the yard looked so much happier. It's nice to put drought worries out of our minds for a minute or two. But that is all because we are still in a drought. I heard the news lady saying that it would take DOZENS of storms like that to get to normal. And normal does not mean out of the drought. Reservoirs are close to empty and need to be replenished.

More importantly, the snow pack needs to deepen. We had NONE last year and only INCHES the year before. This is really where our water comes from. The Sierra got a good amount of snow yesterday and will hopefully add to that this week. I like the snow. It is cold but it kinda tickles my feet.

And in BIGGER news, I got a new food yesterday. It was about time. The BEAR was almost empty and I think we were eating the same thing for 100 days or MORE. Give the taste buds something to look forward to, Mommy!!! Sheesh!

I'm rambling now. Again, thanks to everyPUGGY who entered a story the other day. It was fun and you all are SO CLEVER.

R.I.P. BB and Thanks for the Rain

First, I want to say farewell my inspiration - Mr. BB King. Never was there a more iconic bluesman than him. His talent will be missed.



I downloaded this video from Youtube - Eagle Rock - thanks for sharing it.


A lot of you promised to perform RAIN DANCES for us in CALI. Well I am here to say thanks - it totally worked!!!!

We got about half an inch of rain yesterday which is really fantastic! We are pretty close to normal rainfall for the year, thanks to yesterday's storm. It won't erase 3 years of drought and we will still have water restictions all over the state - but it helps. A lot. Mommy's car got washed for the first time since our last storm. . .  the trees and flowers look happier than they have for a while. . . and the air smells so fresh and clean. Oh! Even the pollen levels dropped some so maybe my nose will quit running.

And it's all thanks to YOU for helping us out with rain dances.

Happy Friday everyPUGGY and may the sun shine on you whatever you are doing.

I'm Wishing on a Star - Maybe George Clooney?

Northern California is having a DROUGHT. The overlords of the water have been using this excuse for a number of years to validate raising our rates. But this time it is TRUE! We have not had much water at all over the past year (no matter how much I complain about every drop coming from the sky) - and now the reservoirs are drying up.

So I am wishing on the most powerful star I know - George Clooney - to help end our drought. Send us SOME rain, soon!  If anyone can help, I am sure he can.

Stella and the other Three Little Pugs added to our growing ONE HUNDRED list.

20. One Hundred WAYS TO DRIVE YOUR PAWRENTS CRAZY


And the rest of the list is:

1. Wesley McPoodleton suggested more HAPPINESS
2. Idaho Pug Ranch also suggested more HAPPY THOUGHTS
3. Jessie Jane suggested 100 days of Sunshine the Cat (not gonna happen)
4. Southern Fried Pugs suggested 100 HAPPY THINGS
5. Susie and Sidebite suggested more HAPPY THOUGHTS
6. Frank the Tank suggested more HAPPY THOUGHTS
7. Mommy #1 suggested 100 NOODLES' FACTS (blush)
8. Angel Payton, Donald and Daisy's Gampy suggested 100 days of Bloggerville HAPPY/FUNNY/SUPPORTIVE posts
9. Frankie Furter and Ernie suggested 100 THINGS WE (mostly dogs, but pets) LOVE TO DO
10. The Slimmer Pugs suggested 100 THINGS NOODLES LOVES TO EAT
11. Lucy from Feeling Beachie suggested MORE BREAKFAST (I assume she means 100)
12. Jessie Jane has amended hers to 100 NOODLES ADVENTURES
13. Susie and Sidebites has amended theirs to 100 THINGS NOODLES DOES TO MAKE US SMILE
14. Casey suggested 100 DAYS OF ADVENTURES
15. One Hundred Inspirational Thoughts
16. One Hundred Words that Mean Happy
17. One Hundred Good Deeds
18. One Hundred Ways to Brighten Someone's Day
19. One Hundred Simple Pleasures

ONE MORE DAY TO ENTER. . . . . 

Win. . . Winning. . . WINNINGEST!!! The Votes are Counted for Crazy Hair!

ANNOUNCING THE WINNER OF OUR PUP-A-TOP CONTEST

Hazel of Idaho Pug Ranch is our Grand Winner

COMPLETING THE WINNERS LIST FOR OTHER GREAT PRIZES

Benny is a HANDSOME Second Place

Greta is a CUTE Third Place

Congrats to all of our winners. 

Please drop me an email (noodlesthepugataoldotcom) and let me know where I can send your prizes. 

This was such a FUN FUN contest. Thank you to everyPUGGY who played and voted. It was a tough decision, to be sure. I used a 2 part voting system which was ONE PART reader votes and ONE PART judges. Only, Sunshine the Cat decided to vote for ALL of the entries so I had to do some really COMPLICATED mathematics full of percentages, and ratios, and statistics, and so on. It was clear, in the end, that HAZEL had the CRAZIEST hair of all.

I got a little sidetracked last week and still need to do my MR. CHEWY treat review. I practiced all weekend and I think I have it all decided.

More Fun is coming your way with the end of my One Hundred Happy Thoughts and my birthday. So much to do; so much to plan; and so much to WRITE!

HAPPY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: When it rains I love the clean smell of the air and the cool tickle of the puddles on my toes.

Taking Care of the Rain - A New Product!!!

Borrowed from CutePugPix online. My
Mommys are not THAT talented

It has not rained much in NorCal lately. We had all that rain from October through December - so much we thought we would have a very wet winter as well. Boy did we get fooled. It has hardly rained at all and the amount of rain we have received is not much, either.

That said, it is enough that Molly and I get soaking wet when we go outside to do our BIDNESS. In fact, if we ARE NOT soaking wet then we get TIMED OUT in the pen for peeing in the screen room. But I digress. Mommy keeps a towel on the door handle to dry us off when we come in so we do not muddy-up the rest of the house. This towel gets wet and dirty pretty quickly with two of us so it is always being laundered.

PoochieBells to the rescue. The good folks at PoochieBells sent us a TO-GO Towel, one of their newer products, when we tried out their PoochieBells (which are super duper). The TO-GO Towel is specifically meant to clean wet muddy dogs and prevent their tracking the filth inside. Plus it is portable so you can keep one in the car, one in the overnight bag (yeah, I have one for when I visit Auntie B), and one near the outside door.

Here is a comparison picture of my previous towel and the TO-GO Towel

Mommy can wrap me completely up in the TO-GO Towel and get all my muddy bits dried. Molly simply gets lost in it. To make it even better, it works really well to dry us off. Better than the cute micro-fiber towel we normally use. Convenience and usability - Mommy gives it a thumbs up.

However there are some untested issues with the towel that keep us somewhat reserved about regularly using it.

1. How long can it be used? We haven't had enough rain to adequately answer this question. It can be wrung out and dried between uses, we know that. But at some point it will wear out. We would like to know that point.
2. How green is it? It is bio-degradable, that much we know. But it will still add to the trash pile in our city. We try really really hard not to use too many disposable things in our home. As it is, we use a lot of paper towels for pee pee clean-ups (uh, I mean for MOLLY, not ME). So do we want to add to the waste problem? Again it comes down to how many times it can be used.

These are questions we will investigate more as we use it more. There is rain on the forecast for next week and I now I am planning on getting my Princess Pug Paws wet at least a couple of times.

Check it out for yourself, though. The TO-GO Towel can be purchased from here The PoochieBells Store.

We find the PoochieBells company is a very conscientious and friendly company to work with. I loves loves loves it and I think you will too.

HAPPY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: I love rain. It makes the air smell so good and makes the cushy grass grow.