Happy Birthday to me!

Click here to see pictures taken by Laney's Mom.

My birthday is on Halloween. Mom said I was going to have a party, and I've really been looking forward to it. Apparently you get cake on your birthday! Whoa, What a great idea that is!


Mom took me to the store and I helped her pick out my cake. They said it was called a "bone cake", which sounded great... but it turns out it wasn't a real bone, it was just shaped like one.



Mom showed me the cake at home. But, UNFAIR!!!! No cake for Gizmo until my party!!! What!!! Seems like if it is my cake, I should get it right away. I'm not really sure why we have to wait for things. But, Mom said I could see the cake, but couldn't have any until the party.


So, we are having my party at the Bark Park. I love the Bark Park, and I have a lot of great friends there... but, truthfully... I think I would have rather just had the cake all to myself. But, Mom said something about getting too much of a good thing was a bad thing... blah, blah, blah... that sounds wrong to me. Too much of a good thing is more of a good thing I always say.


Abby, Chloe, Fergie, and Eddie where all there. Also, Dad didn't get a picture of them but, Blake, Baxter, Laney, Jackson, Sandy, and several other of my best pals were there to celebrate my birthday.



I didn't get all of the cake. Mom made me share with the gang, but I think I got more than anyone else... hee-hee (well... it was my birthday). Mom was trying to cut the cake to hand out pieces to all of the dogs, and I would just run by and snatch a piece. Then Dad would say, "Hey, who's dog is that?" Ha! He didn't even know it was me. Maybe he thought it was Cooper. One reason Dad didn't get many pictures is apparenly it is hard to serve bone cake, and keep and eye on me, and take pictures all at the same time. But, I would rather have more cake and fewer pictures. Can't have too much of a good thing (can't believe Mom doesn't know that.)


No one told me about people giving you things. I thought the cake was enough of a reason to look forward to your birthday party. But, Blake's Mom and Dad gave me an edible card, and a toy! Sweet! Thanks Blake! Cool parents! When you chomp down on my new toy it makes a scary laugh and says "The devil made me do it". Fun!


Since it was my Birthday, I decided to carry around this big stick for awhile to show everyone that I was special.

It was a great day at the Bark Park. I felt special and got lots of attention. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Halloween Party at the Bark Park

You can click on this link if you want to see more pictures from the party.

I love the Bark Park. I love it so much it is hard to write about it. How can words capture something so important as the Bark Park? Well, I can't just write about the Bark Park and do it proper justice, but I think I can tell you about the unofficial Halloween Party that we had there today, and maybe give you a small insight in the wonderfulness that is the Bark Park.

First off, one of my best Bark Park pals is Cooper.
Cooper is like "my brother from a different mother". We are both about the same size and color, we are both boys, and we are both very good looking... or so I am told I am (often, and usually by my Mom). In the above picture I am the one more towards the top of the picture, and the one with the more beautiful two colored tongue.

So, Cooper was at the park today, and we had a blast playing. Sometimes he jumps up and knocks me down, and sometimes I jump up and knock him down. Sometimes, we run around and we knock down other dogs and people (almost).


I like this picture, because in this one, I have Cooper down. Ha! Take that Cooper. The other beautiful looking dog at the top of the picture is Abby. Abby is really pretty. She has long hair, and acts like a girl. She doesn't wrestle much, and she usually is kind of quiet and obeys everyone, like a girl. Cooper and I like hanging out with her. Cooper and Abby are what people call "pure bred Golden Retrievers". I'm what is known as a Golden Mix. I came from the Humane Society. I think being a mix must be better. I'm not sure, but Mom said it was. But, it was one of those long wordy "Mom" explanations. Like when they tell you how it is more important to be pretty on the inside than the outside. Where you know they are trying to make you feel better, but they do make a lot of sense also. Anyway, I don't bring it up much. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

So, some of the people had decided to bring costumes today and have an unofficial Halloween party. So, there were a lot of treats around because the people thought maybe we would get into our costumes better if we had lots of treats.

Everyone is gathering around trying to get a treat. You almost forget you have a costume on when you start trying to get in position for a treat.

You know, I'm still not real wild about the ducky costume. But, I seemed to get a lot of treats and attention, so I went along to be a good sport until...

Cooper came along and tried to take my costume. Man, Cooper! You know that isn't a real duck right? It is just a costume.

Ha-ha... Cooper got in trouble for trying to eat my costume. That'll teach you.

Anyway. It was a blast. There were some really great costumes. I think Eddie and Laney looked the best in their costumes. They both looked like real super hero dogs.

Eddie (or Bat Pup)

Laney (Super pup) and Sandy (Colts Fan)

I think if the Ducky costume had a cape, I might have liked wearing it more.

Sandy and I are close to the same age. She is a little younger. But, she really is fun to play with. I think everyone likes playing with her. She plays with big and little dogs.

There were a bunch of other dogs at the park too. I don't mean to leave anyone out. It is hard for me to remember everyone and give them all a"bark out".

Well, we wore our costumes, ate lots of treats, and we ran and played. It was a good day.

Halloween Party

First I need to give a shout out to my Bark Park pal Lois Lane, or Laney as I like to call her. I started blogging because I liked her blog. You should check out Laney's blog, it is pretty cool. Laney is one of my main buddies from the Bark Park. I think she would make a good movie star dog. We have a good time playing together.

I do have only one small complaint about her. She really doesn't know how to play "Get the ball from Gizmo" correctly. Most of the dogs, (and some of the people) know that when I have a ball, the game is to chase me and try and get the ball. Whoa... that is really a fun game. But, sometimes when I am playing it Laney will run up behind me and growl and nuzzle me from behind, which startles me. Then I drop the ball and turn around really quick to find out what is going on. Then Laney runs over and grabs the ball and runs off with it. Duh! Laney, that is not how you play the game!

Anyway, I'm going to blog more about the Bark Park and the neat dogs that I have met there sometime in the future. But, I also wanted to point out, that besides meeting lots of neat dogs there, and some people too, I guess (if you are into that kind of thing), I've never seen a cat there!!! Sweet! Take that Alley Cat, and Gnarly! Ha! Guess you will have to find a Meow Meadow or something to go play in.

So, anyway if you checked out Laney's blog you can see that she had a way cool Halloween costume. I mean that thing is sweet it has a cape and everything. They are having a Halloween costume party at PetsMart where I went to school.
Here is a picture from my graduation. I think Mom was pretty proud of me that day!

So, I was kind of thinking that sounded cool if I could get some kind of sweet costume. First thing I thought was I could become "G-izzle" gangster pup. You know maybe a doo-rag, shades, maybe a leather jacket. Nice! I was working on sweet rap like "I'm G-izzle king of the park, all of the ladies swoon when I bark... can I get a whoop whoop". Yeah... nice. That just seems so cool I get all tingly just thinking about it.

So, I was really happy when mom said she was going to go out and get me a costume so we could go to the party.

Then, Tuesday Mom, Dad and I went up there. There were a lot of neat costumes. We saw some football players, and cowboys. Pretty cool, but nothing quite like the "G-izzle" costume that I was planning on.

So, we get inside, and mom takes out the costume from the bag she had and YIKES!!! Oh No!!! Oh embarrassing!

Mom got me the "Rubber Ducky" costume. This isn't quite what I had in mind. I'm not sure I can lay down any rap in that... Oh mother, the shame.

But, on the bright side, they had free treats! SCORE!!! so I went ahead and posed for the picture and got my treats. But, I don't think I'm going to be putting the Rubber Ducky costume on again anytime soon!

BTW- Any cats get to wear super cool costumes and get free treats? Huh, Gnarly? Huh, Alley Cat?

My niece the cat.

I got my blog back from Dad, and thought I would write about something that people are actually interested in... me, Gizmo.

In my family I have Mom, and Dad (Erika, and Eric), an older brother Adam, and older sister, Lindsey.

Adam doesn't live with us at home. But, whenever he comes over I bark at him a lot until he plays with me and gives me treats. He might be the easiest person to get a treat from. Most people make do a trick. But, with Adam just barking will usually do it.

Lindsey is only around once in a while. She lives in the house, but apparently has another place where she lives sometimes too. Lindsey and I are both blondes. I like hanging out with her when I can, and she taught be how to roll-over, which is one of my highest value tricks.

Here is a picture of us hanging out together when I was little.

But, as much as I like Lindsey, she did one thing that I'm not entirely sure I can forgive her for yet.

Apparently, when Lindsey was living at her other house before I even was born, Lindsey had a friend that got something called a "cat". Cats are like dogs, but smaller, less fun, and with very sharp claws. So, Lindsey's friend got this cat which she named Gnarly. And boy, was that a good name choice. Turns out not all cats like people, and like attention. Strange!! So, Gnarly is one of these cats. Gnarly really doesn't like it if you touch it, talk to it, look at it, or try and play with it. Why do these things exist? Well anyway, Lindsey's friends didn't like having the "loner" cat, so she said she was going to just take it to the pound. But, Lindsey is one of these people that doesn't like to see any bad thing happen to anyone or anything... even a cat. Which... you know maybe if a bad thing was going to happen to something... having it happen to a cat wouldn't be so bad... But, no one asked me. So, Lindsey volunteered to keep the cat.

When Gnarly first came home I really loved her. I thought I had buddy to play with all of the time. But, no one in the house wanted us to play together. They kept us in different rooms. Oh, I could hear the cat, smell the cat, but I wasn't allowed near the cat. Not fair! It went that way for a whole summer. Then Lindsey went back to live at her other house, and she left the cat behind. So, Mom and Dad started letting Gnarly and I hang out together. At first whenever the cat saw me it would just run and hide. Which was great! Because that meant I could chase and bark. Then a couple of times. I actually caught it! And, I would start to play with it like I would a small dog at the bark park. But, Gnarly does not play fair!!! As soon as I would start trying to play she would start smacking me with her paws and they are SHARP! worse than any dog at the Bark Park.

But, I would rather play and get scratched than not play at all. So, I just kept trying to play with Gnarly. I started kind of learning how much I could get away with before she got really mad. And, Gnarly stopped running every time. Sometimes she would actually walk around near me and not run away. Sometimes she would actually let me push her with my nose and nibble on her head a little before running away. She likes to drink out of my water bowl, even though she has her own upstairs. Luckily she doesn't like my food.

So, we have kind of become uneasy friends. We can hang out a little. I still chase her once in a while. She still tries to scratch me once in a while. We have established some boundaries. Like, I have a rule that I can not climb up on tables and counters. Gnarly also has this rule, I obey the rule when anyone is looking at me, an Gnarly never obeys the rule. In this picture I am trying to get Dad's attention to yell at the cat, that is clearly in a rule violation.

Oh well, all things considered I guess it is more fun having the cat around than if it wasn't here. But, if they would have asked me, I would have suggested another dog.

Trip to Verizon to see Sarah Palin

Picture slide show from my trip to Verizon to see Sarah Palin

Ok, this isn't really a post from Gizmo. This is really Gizmo's dad. Gizmo said I could use his blog, because I promised some friends that I would write a review of my trip to see Sarah Palin at Verizon, and Gizmo didn't think we needed two blogs in the family. So, I will use his just this once.

So, I was holding out some hope of having some company on the trip to the rally. But, I couldn't bribe any co-workers of going with me, and my daughter apparently got a better offer and couldn't make it either. So, I had to make the trip by myself.

I had heard on the radio that they were moving up the time the gates opened, and heard that the security was going to be tight, and it was going to be slow getting in, blah, blah, blah... so, I decided I better get there early. I was in the parking lot by 1:15pm for the 4:30 pm speech. There was already a pretty big line, but the parking lot didn't look crowded, and the traffic was pretty light to get in at that time.















I got in the back of the line, and it was moving along pretty slow. But, there were a lot of vendors selling buttons, shirts, playing cards ("McCain/Palin playing cards where Obama is the Joker"), and other knick knacks. It was mildly entertaining watching the vendors work the crowd. I overheard a vendor selling buttons ask one selling t-shirts if they had even earned lunch money yet. To which the t-shirt guy said, he was doing "very well".

Finally after about an hour and 15 minutes in line I made it up to the security check. It was almost like going through the airport. Metal detectors, all metal out of your pockets, all bags and electronics hand checked.















Finally I'm inside, I met a guy in line that warned me since we just had regular tickets, we had no choice but to sit in the lawn. The pavilion was reserved for VIPs. Sure enough we were pretty much guided right into the lawn. The pavilion looked like it was only about 20% full at that time, and the lawn maybe about the same. It sure seemed like a lot more people had been in line ahead of me. The lawn only had one small entrance to get in for the entire lawn, and the entire front of the lawn was sectioned off with a 4ft high plastic chicken wire fence. Since I was alone I buffalo-ed my way to just about center stage near the front of the lawn. It was about 3:00 by the time I settled in my spot on the lawn. I was surprised that just an hour and half before the show was supposed to start the place didn't really look very crowded to me.

There were a lot of State Police walking around, and every once in a while they would catch someone trying to go over, or under the fence that was sectioning off the lawn people. They would chase them back over to the lawn. A woman near me got the attention of one of the police man, and started grilling him about why we were fenced in, and why there was only one entrance, and on and on and on... which sometimes when people do something like that I find it annoying, but this time I was actually grateful, because I was quite bored sitting there, and found it interesting, when the policeman basically just said it was set up like this because it was the "governments" decision to do it that way. The secret service thought it would be easier to control things with fewer entrances and exits.















So, as time marched on closer to 4:30, the place did start filling up. By 4:15 the lawn was more than 1/2 full, and the pavilion was filled except for an area of about 300 seats right at the back of the center section. This section was behind a platform that had a bunch of reporters and cameras on it. Probably the thinking was that those seats had obstructed view.

I'm not really sure what happened next. Either my section of the lawn was invited, or some hostile Republican near me just took his own initiative, but the section of fence in front of me was lowered and "my lawn gang" and I charged over the downed fence and we claimed the back section of the center pavilion seats. The whole thing only took seconds. I'm still not positive what happened. I heard some people saying the ushers were trying to keep us out, but I think I walked right past one, and they didn't seem to care. But, one way or another I got an upgrade from the lawn to about 10 rows in from the back of the pavilion center stage. Not too shabby.

The first speakers came out right at 4:30 There were a bunch of people on stage, behind the podium. Some I think were invited out of the audience. The first speaker was the head of the Republican party of Indiana, other speakers were the head of the state department of instruction , and the state attorney general. Might have been another person or two in there, they all gave short speeches, 5 minutes max. All fine... nothing too exciting... c'mon lets get on with the show. I noticed by now that the lawn is almost full, and the pavilion is 100% full.

A woman that they said was the highest ranking female military officer ever, a 3 star general, came out to lead the pledge of allegiance. Then that was followed immediately by the singing of the National Anthem. Then, a woman came out and sang "God Bless America". I was really struck that the singer was unusually good. Then, Aaron Tippin came out, now I have to admit, I have no clue who Aaron Tippin is. Apparently, he is a some what well known country singer. Turns out the woman that sang "God Bless America" was his wife, and is in his band, and he said that now we all knew that she was really the singer in the family. Aaron Tippin sang 3 or 4 songs he dedicated one called "Kiss This" to Obama. He explained that he was trying to get a kiss from his wife once when she wasn't happy with him, and she told him if he wanted a kiss, he could "Kiss This". His last song was called "Drill Here, Drill Now". Again. I must confess. I've never heard of any of these songs, or him. But, it looked like some people knew him and the songs, and were singing along.















Well, when he was done it was about 5:30. And... then we had a loooong wait... nothing was happening... songs were playing on the PA... people were singing along... sometimes people would chant things... I think there was a "Maverick" chant... a few variations of "Sarah" chants... but, then it would be quiet again...

About 6:15pm Indiana Lt. Governor Becky Skillman walked out and gave about a 15 minute speech. She recapped Mitch Daniels accomplishments. Some magazine or something picked Mitch Daniels as the best Governor in the US. Who knew? Well, at the end of her speech she introduces Sarah Palin.

Sarah walked on stage to big applause. Everyone was on their feet and cheering. She spent a few moments shaking hand with people. Before going to the podium. I was snapping pictures like mad at this point, only to discover latter that I'm not much of a photographer. Maybe 1 picture survived from her trip around the stage were you could kind of tell it was Sarah Palin sort of...

Palin's speech was fine. Nothing too exciting if you follow the news I would say it was pretty standard stuff. The crowd loved it. She criticized Obama and Biden both a lot, said a lot of good things about McCain. She tossed out the work Maverick at least once. She did a recap of some of the things she did in Alaska. She did have one line I hadn't heard before when she was talking about how she had taken on corruption in Alaska, she said she didn't go into politics to win "Miss Congeniality". Then she said she won that over 20 years ago, and didn't need to do it again. A reference to being in the Miss Alaska contest, where I think she did win Miss Congeniality.

After her speech she got a nice round of applause. And then she hopped down off the stage and started signing autographs. They had an area in front of the stage barricaded off where she walk around with the secret service close by and sign autographs.















It took me awhile but, I worked my way down to near the front of the stage. I might have got to within about 30 yards of her at the closest. But, I couldn't make to an autograph. But, from what I could see she looked like she was having a blast. She was autographing everything in sight. I noticed that people were constantly trying to hand her things like, babies and cell phones. She held several babies. She would hold them for quite a while, while at the same time autographing with her free hand. When she got a cell phone, she would just start talking into it. It looked like she was having actual conversations with the people on the other end. She was smiling and autographing, and just seemed in her element. All the while surrounded by stern men in suits.

After 30 - 45 minutes of autographing she hopped back on the stage. Shook a few more hands... signed a few more autographs with the people in the stands behind the stage... turned around waved to the few hundred of us still there, and then she was gone.

Trip to the Bark Park!

Here are some pictures from a Recent trip to the Bark Park. It was a beautiful, warm, October day, and my friends and I had a really good day playing!