Signal Knob & Pug Party

Saturday 9Sep06

7am we met at the usual spot. This Mountain Club of Maryland hike was led by Ron Eshleman. Ron, Heather, Karen, Rich, Jim and I carpooled to the Massanutten trailhead. Car-ride discussion ranged from retirement to slaughtering chickens, to the accident we witnessed, back to slaughtering chickens, to strangling squirrels, then back to the chickens again. We stopped at McDonalds for the usual pre-hike sausage mcmuffins. It was cool and foggy in the morning. By mid-day, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful 80 degrees. We hiked down the Massanutten trail to the Tuscarora, then got back onto the Massanutten trail to the Signal Knob overlook, where we ate lunch overlooking the town of Strasburg, VA. Trail discussion ranged from eating to food to castrating squirrels, to mating preying mantises, to mating crabs, to islamic extremists, and a host of other subjects. The group was lively and interesting. We didn't see any animals or people on the trial, except one person near the beginning and one set of spaniels near the end. It was a fun hike. Dinner at Cindy Dee's finished out the night with their famous chicken. (More chicken discussion) We were back to the cars by 8:30pm. It was a long day.

Sunday 10Sep06
This Baltimore Pugpalooza event was hosted at Violet and Elvis' house off of Perring Parkway. There were about 25 to 35 pugs (they wouldn't stand still long enough for anyone to get an accurate count). We probably could have figured it out by asking people how many dogs they brought, but I suppose it wasn't important. The pug pool was a great success. There was another pug named Jada at the party. My Jada and the new Jada sniffed noses and butts and then seemed content to let the name confusion die. Kisses was still a little confused. The boys were very interested in the pretty pug wearing the sundress. Maple had the best belly flops into the pool and Joesie was the cutest pug puppy at the event. The October event is officially Pug-O-Ween. Jada and kisses are considering going as Lobsters, but we'll have to put more thought into it.