Happy Birthday, Michele! Sounds like you had a great one!

Whittier Elementary is holding a BBQ fundraiser on Saturday!

Firefly and GeeGuy both have entries about our local governments. And what they have to report is not encouraging.

J&K Real Property Mgmt: Good site, with pictures and details of rental properties of all types, sorted by Condo, 1 Bedroom, 2 Bedroom, etc. Plenty of apartments listed.

Macek Companies: a few rental listings, but not too many pix.

RentGF: just like the name says, it’s only rentals. Not a lot of listings, but very detailed and with pictures.

Maas Properties: only several listings, but it does include a few in Cascade.

Mom and dad said that Doctor Mike is going to “check me out” to make sure that I’m doing OK. I guess people do that when they get a new puppy. I’ve got news for this “Doctor Mike” — I’m better than OK — I’m SUPER PUPPY! Did you know that I can fly?

Oh, and I think my mom and dad like the name Tiki - they keep saying it over and over to me, so I guess that’s what they want my name to be. I’m cool with that. I’m just glad that they didn’t pick a doofus name for me, like Max or Rover!

Oh, before I go, here’s a picture of me with one of my favorite friends - it’s a blue monkey that squeaks!

Hi, I just voted to help my favorite farmers market win $5,000 in the “Love Your Farmers Market” online contest, sponsored by Care2.com and LocalHarvest.org. Every vote helps promote local food, family farms and sustainable agriculture. Please help the Great Falls Original Farmer’s Market win by voting today. Help us win the $5,000 so we can make our Farmer’s Market even more awesome. Thanks for your help!

You can vote for Great Falls Farmer’s Market by clicking this link; you have to provide your name and an e-mail address, and tell them what makes ours so special. Even though I’m not thrilled with the sponsors of the contest, it would be very cool to have the Great Falls team win!

Here’s some pix from one of my trips to the Farmer’s Market:

So I’m thinking we can get a good group of GF Flickrites/photogs/cameranuts to get together one evening, walk around downtown, shoot a few frames & grab a drink (not necessarily adult beverages) with conversation after.

Drop by her place and let her know if you’re in. Sounds cool.

The atmosphere is fun, the staff (hi Tiffany!) was upbeat and happy, and owner Dave was on hand making sure that everyone was enjoying the food and the fun. A few flat-screen TVs above - two on sports and one on news - and free WiFi make this a winner. Oh, and the huge “garage-door” opening for patio dining is a very cool thing (sorry didn’t get picture yet).

And while we were enjoying our dogs, we saw a few friendly folks we know (including blog-buddy GeeGuy!) - everybody seemed to be in a good mood and enjoying the place.

So how did the Downtown Dog House stack up against it’s main competitor, Stinky’s? I haven’t tried Stinky’s yet, but Krista ate there a few days ago, and she said the Downtown Dog House was WAY better than Stinky’s. She noted that Stinky’s was OK - until we ate at the Dog House, which she said completely blew away the competition. Stinky’s has a more variety on their menu (sandwiches, etc), but the dog quality and atmosphere just didn’t even come close the Downtown Dog House.

So what do you think? Have you tried any of the hot dog eateries? How did they rate?

Some more pix - click to see larger size:


Downtown Dog House
#4 5th Street South; phone 406-454-DOGS (3647)
Open Monday through Saturday from (?) 11 am to 8 pm, closed Sunday

And the other gathering of online folks is being sponsored by GeeGuy of Electric City Weblog; it will be held a week later on July 18 and is open to bloggers, commenters, and lurkers - click here for more information!

So - to quote Ben Bailey - are you in?

And I have some new friends! They are dogs, like me, but their mommy said that they are “puggles.” Their names are Logan and Lexi, and Lexi doesn’t like to play with me, but me and Logan have LOTS of fun chasing each other and playing! Logan is bigger than me, but I’m not scared of her!

And I taught my dad how to play a game that I call “Ready Go!” He throws one of my toys (my favorite is the blue squeaky turtle!) and yells “Ready…GO!” and then I run and attack it and bring it back to dad so that we can do it again. It’s fun!

Oh, and something weird happened: mom and dad picked me up and put me in water and rubbed some weird-smelling stuff all over me! They even took a picture of it - that’s so mean! But believe me, I’m WAY cuter than that, but that water stuff just made me look like a doofus. That’s OK, though, because when they finished I got to run around and rub and slide all over the couch and the carpet until the water was all gone.

And I met Doctor Mike and his friends - that was pretty fun, and I got some tasty treats, but they did some weird things to me. Doctor Mike kept poking me and then something stuck a pin in me - it didn’t hurt, and they said it was “for my own good,” but that was just odd. How would they like it if I stuck a pin in them?!

OK, that’s all for now - I’m going to eat some grass and be cute now!