Happy Holidays

Because I can't ever get my dogs to sit still long enough for a picture, let alone a picture of them with super cute christmas hats on (like we've tried for the last few years)... I had to doctor this photo:



Happy Holidays!

Heart... Melting...

I saw this picture on MSNBC the other day and had to share it with you all:


Fire and Rescur Capt. Scott Thompson of Lincoln, Neb., rescues a dog from a burned house on Wednesday, Nov. 12. Everyone from the home escaped safely.

I'm such a nerd. I totally got choked up. Look at that dog's face!

And whoo hoo - I'm off of work for the rest of the week. I'll probably spend tomorrow doing super cool things like my e-commerce project and uploading pictures of me and my pals from high school (since I need to blog about my upcoming reunion).

Vacation Bullet Points

Howdy boys and girls - I'm sure you're dying to read all about my first trip down to the Outer Banks. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the only Maryland residents that has not been to this area before (and there are plenty of cars adorned with "OBX" stickers that prove my point).

I've been gone for a week now and plenty has happened over the course of that week that it really is just too much to type. And seriously - who has the attention span to read through a long blog post? I'll try to keep this simple.

Lowlights

- It took us close to 9 f'n hours to get down there. 9. We were on the brink of divorce by the time we made it into Duck, NC. We didn't leave Baltimore until 11:30am (against advice from others to try to get down to NC before noon) because I had Dragonboat practice that I felt I just couldn't miss. Plus our check-in time wasn't until 4pm that Saturday. Why rush to get down there if we had to hang around with a car full of crap? Oh and The Mr didn't even finish packing until Saturday morning.
- Our dogs weren't too crazy about the beach. We were stoked about being able to take our dogs to a dog friendly beach town and they didn't even like it! We totally didn't take into account that the blazing hot sun wasn't a good idea for them and didn't have an umbrella (next year we're getting a beach tent!). Petie was fine on the beach and trotted right over to the water and even let it splash him. Emily? Just the sound of the waves crashing left her shivering in the sand with her tail tucked between her legs.
- And while taking our dogs on vacation was fabulous, we didn't get to sleep in much because the dogs always woke up around 5:30-6am… every morning. Now The Mr will argue that he deals with this at home but it was VACATION! Vacations are meant for sleeping a lot.
- The late check-in time and early check-out time resulted in lost beach time (2 days). Boo!
- It rained all day on Thursday. Boo!
- We learned the hard way that we need to be better prepared for beach house trips (i.e. always pack bath towels and more kitchen utensils if you plan on cooking).
- Upon our arrival at home I discovered that I had erroneously left a banana on the counter… and it rotted and gave birth to about 50 fruit flies. It was a great fuck you welcome from Baltimore!

Highlights (luckily there are more of these than lowlights)

- The Outer Banks area (at least Duck) is probably one of the cleanest and quietest beach towns I have ever been too. Sadly - I can only really compare the area to Ocean City, Md and its surrounding beaches so I'm not sure if what I just said is even truly fair. After the 9 hour ride I had declared that I was never returning. By the end of the trip, I declared that I wanted to make a yearly trip down to Duck (but I will NOT buy an "OBX" sticker… EVER).
- Even though our dogs woke us up early every morning, it just motivated me to run along the bike trail. I ran about 2.5 miles 5 days out of the week. While this might not sound like much of a relaxing time to you, I felt great. I like being active and it made my gorging on junk food and margaritas justifiable.
- We walked our dogs every morning and every night. I'm not sure if they loved this or hated it. We thought it was great since most of the time we're away from home for about 8-9 hours every weekday.
- The Mr makes a mean Bloody Mary. I don't even usually like Bloody Mary drinks but his were delicious. I knew I married him for a reason.
- On Wednesday when we were playing in the ocean, The Mr noticed 5 dolphins swimming very (and I mean ridiculously) close to shore. This was probably cool for most people in the water to see but Theresa and I both screamed and paddled like hell away from the waves to avoid being mauled by a dolphin (or as Theresa yelled, "You don't know if it's a dolphin!"). Seeing very large dark shadows of mammals in the water is scary as shit. Since we survived the potential mauling, we can laugh about it… but I was scared shitless at the time.
- During the rainy times (it rained in the evenings a few nights), we made the most of it by watching 2 movies: Hancock and The Dark Knight (or whatever the new Batman movie is called). At least I got watching those out of the way. I believe The Mr officially owes watching "Mamma Mia" with me now. Score!
- I obsessively played with Theresa's "Brain Age" game and managed to get my brain age from 44 down to 41 in 5 days. Go me. And seriously - my brain age is 41 years old?! Yikes.
- got me a sweet VEGAN Matt & Nat handbag from The Mr on my birthday.

- We had a delicious dinner at a fancy schmancy restaurant where at one point it seemed that I was on a date with Theresa and The Mr was on a date with T-bag's lover.
- Caught up on all of my magazines. Is it sad that this is a highlight?
- No work! I think that's highlight enough.

Pictures!

Now onto the fun stuff. We actually didn't take a lot of pictures just because we didn't really think about it…

Obligatory foot shot!

I have to thank Theresa for the bday pedicure. My toenail polished had chipped away and I looked like a Baltimore city hooker from the ankles down.

The house we stayed in:


The pool next door. We decided not to get a pool but later regretted it. This is me staring longingly at it.


An evil raccoon (it was hanging out outside of the fancy schmancy restaurant):


The Mr setting up a facebook page for Petie. I wish I could say I was kidding but I'm not.


I watched this Grandpa dig quite the elaborate mote for his grandkids...


This is the result of Theresa and I playing, "How many little stones can we throw on The Mr until he wakes up?" Apparently a lot.




He was only woken up when I tried to play, "How many little stones can I remove from The Mr's back before he wakes up?" The answer is one.

Petie spent a lot of time begging for food. Theresa wouldn't share her hushpuppy.


Sad to be leaving...


However, on the way - we saw the ridiculous amount of traffic exiting the town so we decided to hit up Corolla and see the lighthouse (and to kill time).





And some of the crazy large beach houses we saw...



Lastly - what the hell is this? These were everywhere:

Can someone explain the pegasus painted statues to me?

Oh and p.s. Here's a ridiculously cute picture of my dogs sleeping on the ride home.


I'll post the pics The Mr took from the wetlands/lighthouse park sometime this week.

Satan's Little Helper

You all know by now that I love dogs. I hate bad dog owners and most faults of a dog are generally blamed on the owner (in my book). You know - like when your dog constantly pees or poops in your house (or in a friend's house), I think that is the fault of the owner for not training their dog properly. Or when your dog bites people, I think that is the fault of poor training.


Anywho - we live next door to Satan's Little Helper. Actually, the dog's name is Dookie as in "He poops in my mom's closet all the time". Dookie is a hyper-active poodle that antagonizes my dogs whenever I take them out to go to the bathroom in our backyard (and I use that term very loosely… as in my 3x7' plot of dirt with patches of grass).


While I find Dookie to be a bit annoying, he is a cute dog. He belongs to a family of Mexicans that consist of a father (who works as a car painter and graciously offered to paint The Mr's bumper… as if that isn't enough of a hint to him that he needs to get it repainted), a mother who doesn't speak English, twin 6 year old girls that speak perfect English and are incredibly precocious (or ridiculously annoying, it depends on who you ask) and a newborn baby. It's quite a household.


Every so often, Dookie gets out of the house (or out of the backyard) and begins his reign of terror on the neighborhood. Actually - I've never had a problem with Dookie bothering me. One evening, however, The Mr was attacked by Dookie. Maybe "attacked" is a bit extreme but Dookie definitely went after his leg and tore a hole in his pants and drew blood. When The Mr went next door to tell the mother (more so to find out if Dookie was up-to-date on his shots), the mother responded in her broken English, "sorry".


Since The Mr didn't start foaming at the mouth after the bite, we didn't do anything about it. The Mr now just proceeds with caution anytime Dookie is on the loose. On one particular incident, the neighbors (the ones who so stylishly hung a "Scarface" blanket in their front window) offered up their boxer to scare off Dookie. Apparently Dookie had attacked (bitten) one of their kids.


Aaanywho - that was a really long backstory just to tell you about my conversation with the twins. While they can annoy me from time to time, they are quite sweet and always want to play with my dogs. I ran into them yesterday and while letting them play with my dogs, they proceeded to tell me that the police were going to take Dookie away. The Scarface blanket neighbors had reported Dookie to the police after he bit another one of their children and she stopped by the house to let them know.


Holy hell - the pitiful looks on these girls' faces broke my heart. I told them that the police can't take Dookie away forever (unless he's rabid) but that they'd hold him at animal control for 5 days. They would have to pay a fine of $100/day (so $500 total) to get Dookie out. "But my dad doesn't have that kind of money." I almost wrote them a check right there (until I realized that I, too, don't have that kind of money).


So while I can scoff at bad dog owners, it's tough for me to get angry with 6 year olds when their dog bites someone. I'm not condoning it, but you know - it's just tough to look at the sad eyes of a kid and say, "your dog SHOULD be taken away, you bad dog owners! You need to keep a better eye on him."

I hope that the lady was just bluffing to scare the family into keeping their dog locked up because it would be heartbreaking to see their dog taken away from them. Although it probably should be especially since they haven't taken him to a vet in years (they can't afford to).

My heart strings are being tugged!

Random Stuff on a Monday

There is just so many small things to write about that I don't really have one primary focus for this post. So you get random stuff on a Monday.

- I pass this truck on the way home from work about once or twice a month. And it irritates the crap out of me:

(Click to enlarge it) It says "Men's Ladie's Children's". "Ladie's"? Really? I mean, when you're getting a professional sign made or even a sign for your professional car - wouldn't you ensure that everything was correct?

Oh and I don't recommend trying to snap a picture of a moving vehicle while you're driving. Not a smart idea.

- There is a woman in the office who fills up a gigantic thermos (seriously - it's like the size of a Big Gulp on steroids) with ice from the ice machine and then uses the practically boiling hot water tap to fill her thermos. huh? Is she going for "luke warm" water? Couldn't she just use the normal tap? Can someone explain this to me?

- If one more person asks me to not blog about something, I'm going to start posting their picture, full name, address, phone number and social security number. I don't blog about everything, people! And it's not like I work for the NY Times or anything. Sheesh.

- The Mr and I are going to start a photo blog to keep us on task with our expensive hobby. We're trying to think up a good name. Any suggestions? The Mr suggested "Overexposed" to which I replied that it sounded like a porn site. Btw - it IS a porn site.

- I learned that when tequila says "100 percent puro de agave" it means its a good tequila. Apparently it indicates that no other sugars have been added (100% agave juice!) and that's a good thing.

- I learned that drinking fancy tequila and an orange liqueur that's a higher quality than triple sec (and a much higher proof) really really gets you drunk after about 3 glasses.

- I hate sweating profusely when I'm just sitting. That's just not right. I was sweating profusely when I was skimming my parents' pool on Sunday and while I wasn't exerting too much energy, at least I was moving. I was just sitting in Megan's backyard on Saturday and sweating. My dress was soaked. It was disgusting. I felt disgusting. So I drank a few glasses of margaritas to feel better about myself.

- I now think that Marshall has been put on this planet to do something amazing since he walked away from a car accident that left his car sitting on it's side with nothing more than a scratch. Maybe he's a superhero?

- I'm not good at dealing with people under stress. When the news broke about Marshall's accident, I assumed he and Megan were having a hectic morning filled with ambulances and emergency room visits. I didn't want to bother them to see if they were okay. We drove by their house and noticed their front door was open and the Mr wanted to pop in just to see how he was. I was uncomfortable with this because I didn't want to annoy them so I sat in the car like a jackass. I eventually came to my senses and learned that Marshall is a superhero but still.

This goes for deaths as well. A lot of folks at work will attend a co-worker's family member's funeral and I find that odd. I just think that is overstepping my boundaries because I don't think I'd want any of my co-workers to see me upset at the funeral of my loved one. But that's just me, apparently.

- I hung out with friends at the park on the muggiest day ever! We were all supposed to play bocce ball but I couldn't bring myself to move. I took my camera out to get some more practice with the new lens. Here are some pictures:




What can I say? I love dogs (and Ronny!).

- It made me sad that we couldn't bring our dogs to hang out with everyone on Saturday because Emily is a little aggressive with big dogs. It made me feel like a bad dog owner for having a socially inept dog. The Mr pointed out that it made us GOOD dog owners for recognizing that our dogs aren't good at socializing with other dogs.

- Speaking of dogs, a dog peed on The Mr's foot. haha!

- Continuing with the dog talk, I was so engrossed with the computer yesterday afternoon that I failed to notice my own dog pooping on the floor. I smelled it and definitely thought one of them just farted. Nope.

Young at Heart

I'm not talking about the super cute movie.

I'm talking about my dog, Petie! He is 11 years old today... 77 in dog years. But he still acts and looks (aside from the gray hair) a puppy.

Now I bring you a montage of Petie pictures.







These are some really random pictures... but they were the ones I have uploaded online. I really should open a Flickr account or something, huh?

Raining Cats and Dogs

Where did that phrase originate? Is there an event in time where cats and dogs really fell from the sky? I think I'd crap myself.

Anywho - its raining here in Baltimore. This sort of weather always brings my mood down and its not making for a fun weekend. I'm still in surprisingly good spirits though. I bet its that whole power of positive thinking! Oh and its Emily's 6th birthday (she's my dog)... so you know, feel free to say happy birthday or whatever.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!


Let's see... what else can I chat about? I got some interesting responses to my post about gossiping. Nothing scandalous and I agreed with all of them.

I guess when you talk about positive things that happen to people or about that person, I don't consider that gossip. I consider gossip to be negative commentary that isn't necessary (i.e. ooh, girlfriend needs to consider wearing a looser fitting shirt!)... or it isn't stuff that you wouldn't say to that person's face. Although I have been in situations where its better NOT to say what you really think to a person because no matter how much they claim they want to know the truth - they really don't want to know that the dinner they made you wasn't that good. I don't like to hurt feelings... and for anyone that's cooked me dinner, I'm not talking about you! I'm just using an example.

For the most part, I think I'm a nice person. The "gossip" generally only starts when I feel that you've wronged me. Like... you were rude to me for no reason. You purposely did something shitty to me. Etc... etc. But now - even in those situations, I'd rather just avoid you going forward.

And I've really beaten a dead horse with this whole, "I'm going to be nice!" crap so I'll stop there.

Tonight I'm meeting up with my fabulous blogging pals that live in Baltimore to eat some delicious Lebanese cuisine. Tomorrow is Megan's birthday (feel free to give her a Groundhog Day/Birthday shout-out!) and we're going to one of those Japanese Steakhouses. The chefs all have the same schtick but I love it everytime. The catching the egg in their hat? I always clap. The little onion volcano? Love it! And the pretend squirting of crap all over you but its really just a gag ketchup bottle? Give me more! Seriously - I love it. And doing sake bombs probably helps, I'm sure.

I hope everyone has fun stuff going on this weekend! Oh... its the Superbowl Sunday weekend, right? I guess people probably have something planned.

Oh and just because I thought it was funny. Ben sent me this today: Fashion tips for women from a guy who knows dick about fashion.

Random Posting

Ryan e-mailed me a message of You MUST! CHECK! OUT! WOOT! NOW! Okay, it was more of a "Hey - check out Woot now and read the description."

I don't check this site often and just wait for Ryan to tell me where is something interesting on there but I know its quite popular. Anywho - the item right now is a Roomba vacuum (which I loathe) but the description was hilarious and heart-warming (unintentially, I'm sure):

Dear Brian & Sarah -

You’ve probably noticed by now that I’ve run away. I may only be a dog, but I could see where things were headed around here. I decided to make it easy on all of us and move on.

Please, don’t try to pretend nothing’s changed. Ever since the iRobot Roomba 4290 came into our lives, I’ve been getting less and less attention. Fewer tummy rubs. Less frequent treats. Have you even noticed that my rubber-newspaper chew toy has been lodged between the stove and the cabinet for weeks now? Have you even heard me whimpering for it?

Forget it. I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I’m way past that now. I mean, how could I blame you for choosing the iRobot Roomba 4290 over me? I make messes – it cleans them up. You have to get up in the morning and let me out, but all you have to do for the Roomba is program its scheduler. I see the way you’ve been fawning over it, telling all your friends about it, knitting that little sweater for it. I get it. You’ve found a new best friend.

Funny thing is, you picked the 4290 with me in mind. Remember what you told me when you brought it home? Remember the promises you made? “Look, boy, it’s specially designed to pick up pet hair effectively,” you cooed. “The Intellibin tells us when it’s full. It’s got bump sensors so it won’t run your paws over. And if you flip it over, it’ll shut off automatically, so you won’t hurt your little nose sniffing at its moving parts.” You didn’t think I understood. Well, I understood every word. I went along with your dream, the dream of the four of us together always. What a fool I was.

But I’ll find a home somewhere. Please don’t try to find me. It’s better this way. All I ask is, the next time you’re emptying the Intellibin and you find a wisp of golden-brown fur with a touch of grey, remember that little puppy who used to bark at his reflection in the sliding doors. He wasn’t such a bad little mutt, was he?

Your old best friend,

Rascal

Sometimes I feel like I've turned into a HUGE nerd when it comes to animals... especially dogs. Eric periodically sends me internet pictures of dogs in cute little costumes because its my vice. I love it. Nothing is cuter and I get that its sort of degrading to the animal but gah! Its so cute!

Even so - its this bizarre love of dogs that gets my panties all in a bunch when I hear how friends who have no business owning a dog, throw it down the stairs when it pees in the bed or wipes up the pee WITH THEIR DOG or even keep the leash on their dog ALL THE TIME so that they can yank him around when he makes a mess. How about you guys just give the dog up to a rescue so that a loving family can look after him? Hmmm?

And another random note - I was perusing The Nest's message boards (I do this randomly from time to time) and a girl was ranting about how her boss had just given her dogs (labs) away to a shelter. She was furious. I didn't get it. At least her boss was responsible enough to recognize that she couldn't care for the dogs.

Green Travel Mug

So much has happened over the last couple of days that I don't even know what to talk about! Each event could be its own topic and my brain is still waking up (it seems that my tolerance for coffee has increased... the caffeine still hasn't really kicked in!).

What will I talk about today? Hhmm... first, I just want to give a quick shout out about Avenue Q. Seriously - if you haven't seen it and you enjoy a good puppet show laced with adult humor, SEE IT. I wasn't expecting nearly as much as I saw (puppets... HAVING SEX! PUPPET SEX! that's right - PUPPET SEX!). To give you an idea of how awesomely crazy this musical was, here is a snippet of their complete song list (I'm only mentioning some of my favorites):

- What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?
- If You Were Gay
- Everyone's A Little Bit Racist
- The Internet Is For Porn
- You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You're Makin' Love)
- My Girlfriend, Who Lives in Canada
- The More You Ruv Someone

And secondly, I received an e-mail from the dachshund rescue foster mom who we adopted our dogs from and it led me to this site (its their official site). As much as the local foster mom pissed me off (if you recall, we were denied because of the possibility of 'having children' even though we're not even thinking about THAT part of our life yet) - I still completely support this organization and all rescue organizations. So... if you feel compelled to give a little, please do so!

And speaking of dogs and my insane love of animals, when we were sitting in the waiting room of the hospital - The Mr picked up a hunting magazine. Have you guys ever looked in one of those? holy crap! There were a TON of ads geared towards family bonding. Nothing bonds a family like shooting an innocent animal! Awful. And then there was a reader submission section where people sent in pictures with their "kills" and there was an 11 YEAR OLD GIRL holding a dead deer in her lap! What is wrong with people?

AND (!!) someone, knowing that I'm insane about animals, told me a story about how they KICKED THEIR DOG DOWN THE STAIRS because it peed in their bed. What?! Its a dog! Perhaps if you were a RESPONSIBLE dog owner, it wouldn't have so many accidents in the house. I mean, our dogs have made us mad when they have accidents, but I don't ever physically hurt them. Maybe I raise my voice... actually, I don't even do that! They're DOGS. That's what they do! Yarg!

Sometimes I feel like my brain is going to implode.

Junior High?!

Should I be offended?

And onto an unrelated note - isn't he just the cutest?


Its the beard, I tell ya.

That beard is getting him lots of positive attention. And I think The Mr. totally digs it. He went from saying that he was shaving it off after 2 weeks to saying he'd shave it in a month. Last night, however, he said he'd keep it all winter. Ha! So predictable.

And how about these cutie pies?
Emily


Petie


Cutest dogs ever! Admit it. They're cute.