Petpalooza May 30, 2009

I had been looking forward to this day since Mother's day when I saw the flyer at Sunbreak Cafe announcing it. Petpalooza on May 30, 2009 at Auburn's Game Farm Park. I was so excited! Finally, an event that can be spent with our beloved dogs. I always jump at the chance to take them somewhere if they can go. Savvy and Kaylee were excited as well because they knew they were getting to go somewhere. It was the perfect day too. The sun was out and it was hot. I filled my Camelback pack with water and grabbed some toys for the dogs and their fold up water dish.

We were off! I think my dogs are in love with my car. Not really in love, but I put the seats down so it is completely flat in the back (I have a 5 door) and they have plenty of room to move around and lay down. I rolled the windows down just enough so they could stick their heads outside and they actually had never done this before. On this day, Savvy realized the greatness of sticking her head out the window just before we reached a stop light. With a huge smile on her face, wind was rushing at her head, and her ears flapping in the breeze. She absolutely thought this was the greatest thing until it stopped. She got this very disappointed look on her face. We started going again and she did not immediately stick her head out the window, but about 5 minutes later she figured it out that when a car moves this is the time to stick her head out the window.

We arrived! Lots of dogs and vendors. We started walking by some of the vendors booths. There was a PetSmart booth and they put bandanas on our dogs and gave us a goody bag with a few toys and treats. Almost all the booths had some kind of treat to give the dogs. They were having a blast. The Humane Society was there with pets to adopt. There were some adorable kittens and a cute small older dog that I was interested in. I walked away before I got too interested. They had some entertainment going on, such as dog agility events, costume contests, etc.

We did half the booths and Evan had been bugging me because he was hungry and he had seen someone with a gyro. So we went on a hunt for the gyro. I bought him his food and a bottle of water and we went and found nice little shady spot behind some booths to eat. I was noticing that I was slightly wet on my back when I was walking, but when I took my backpack off I was much wetter than I thought. I thought my hydration pack might not be fully closed, but alas it had a small hole. I could hear the hole, but couldn't find it. Must be time for a new one. At least it was hot out and I could dry off. I gave the dogs most of the bottle of water. They were already very thirsty. They actually really like bottled water for some reason, but of course I do too.

While watching Evan eat I started to get hungry. So after Evan finished eating I made him get me a cheeseburger. So it gave us time to sit and relax a little. A guy walked by and he had this backpack/pet carrier that had a small dog in it. I think my dogs thought that was obsurd because they started barking at the guy (or maybe they didn't like the guy). They had never seen a dog in a backpack before though. So who knows.

Done eating! Time to walk around some more. We looked at the rest of the booths and I bought Savvy a new collar and leash. They were hand made, cotton material, and had a red bandana type pattern to it. Very decently priced.

One booth we saw was for Reber Ranch, which is a place really close to our house. They have a tiny off-leash area our landlord told us about and we had been meaning to check out. I didn't realize they had a store there, which perked my ears up. I really like to go to pet stores. Mainly because I like to spoil my dogs.

We walked down the trail by the river. Savvy always wants to swim, but the river was so swift that it was unsafe. We found a tiny little inlet of water and she got her feet wet. We relaxed down by the river for a little bit and walked back up. We gave the dogs some fresh water and then bought ourselves some ice cream. We found a nice little shady spot and relaxed for a little bit.

Another booth we saw was trying to get donations for a new off-leash dog park that will be located in Renton near the Cedar River. This will be nice to have since Marymoor and Magneson are so far away from us since we moved to Kent. They have a lot of money that still needs to be raised to keep this project on track. If you would like to support this dog park you can donate at the website http://www.rentonoffleash.org/ or you can watch for fundraising events that they put on. Please show your doggy support.

Our dogs were worn out after this excursion, but they had a lot of fun. I hope they do the Petpalooza every year. It's a great idea and also great for socialization for the dogs.

Katie Climbed a Tree

So Sunday, while Evan and I were outside planting in the flower pots we let Katie, our cat, outside to explore for a little bit. First thing, she ran underneath the deck frantically trying to get away from our two dogs, Savvy and Kaylee. Every once in a while we would see her little ears and tail poke up from the outside perimeter of the deck. Unconcerned we went back to planting. All of a sudden the dogs got very excited and ran to the edge of the deck. I turned to see what they were looking at and noticed they were looking slightly upwards towards a flowering tree we have in our backyard. There was Katie trying to balance on a tree branch and looking like she was having the time of her life. It almost seemed like it was the greatest toy ever. We did get a chance to take a picture of her and her awe inspiring moment.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year - 4 days late

I normally do not make any resolutions for the new year. Why? You might ask. Well, because I never follow through with them. This year I am making them only because I can look back on this blog and kick myself for not accomplishing what I set out for, but maybe I will this year. So here is my list.

• Lose Weight - I am in need of losing a lot of weight. I know I will never be as skinny as I was back in high school, which was 10 years ago, but my weight is a tad bit embarrassing these days. I need to make time for my health and I need to go to the gym!
• Be More Social - I need to make some time to hang out with friends or go out on the town.
• Go to Dog Park - At least every other weekend. My dogs need to get out and be more social just like I do. Plus, it is good exercise.
• Shop Less - I am a shopaholic, which comes with working for a major department store and having a nice discount. I need to cut down on spending, period.
• Knit More - There are so many fun projects that I want to do that I need to make more time for knitting.
• Learn to Play Guitar - This is something I have always wanted to do and this year I am going to do it.
• Buy a House/Move to a New Rental - So I would like to buy a house before the housing prices start to go back up, but I am not sure how well that is going to work out. So if we can't buy, we are going to hopefully find a different rental house to live in.

Falling Behind Already

Well, it appears I am not off to a very good start with my blog and I have a lot of catching up to do.

It snowed so much over the week of Christmas. Luckily, I was taking some time off from work, but I really couldn’t go anywhere because of the snow. I did get some cute pictures of the dogs (Savvy and Kaylee), cat (Katie), and of the boyfriend.

I got a candy apple red electric guitar, Fender Starcaster. It is so sweet! I have learned three power notes so far. I have a long way to go, but it is fun to play.

Christmas Eve our modem died. We thought we had to wait two days to get a new modem, but we actually had an extra. I do not know what we would have done if we didn’t have internet for two days. It would have been horrible!!! Maybe that is a tad bit of an exaggeration because I still would have been able to play video games. It would have been a little sad though because I had gotten the expansion for WoW the night before as a present. I could have chosen any of my other consoles to play though.

I baked a ton of cookies on Christmas Eve; Sour Cream Cookies, Snickerdoodles, Macaroons, and Molasses Cookies with a Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. I also made some molasses dog biscuits, which they absolutely love. My macaroons turned out a little on the sugary side. I was a little disappointed, but my egg whites wouldn’t stiffen so I did not know what to do.

The day after Christmas we went to Comcast, our cable company, and we stood in line for almost an hour to get a DVR. Ugh! While it was a long wait, my boyfriend is thrilled we have DVR now. He DVR’d a ton of House episodes. Great show, but I think I am having House overload.

Our Christmas tree is dead already. For some reason it seemed like it did not like the water we gave it. I think the garbage people aren’t picking up the trees until next weekend, which is a major bummer. We can’t turn on the lights on the tree because we are afraid it may catch on fire. The boyfriend is in charge of taking down the lights and ornaments tomorrow.

That’s all for now!

Netflix on Xbox

So I absolutely love what they have done with Xbox and the new update that was installed. NXE, which included an update for Netflix instant play movies. I recently finished watching 30 Rock seasons 1 and 2. Love it! I do wish there were more current movies on instant, but there are some classics, such as Mad Max, Lady Hawke, and of course one my all time favorites Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man.

In fact, I just got done watching Meet Bill and it was okay. Bill was supposed to be a mentor for this kid, but the kid was more of a mentor to Bill. It was an only going to watch this movie once type movie.

Earlier today, my boyfriend and I braved the snow and went shopping. We went to Petco and bought some antlers and an elf hat to put on our dogs.... taking pictures of them is a work in progress. I hope to have something better to post tomorrow.

We also went to this store called Paint Away and we painted our 1st Christmas Ornament, which is going to be our tradition every year for the coming years. Technically this is our 3rd Christmas together, but we have not officially bought our "1st ornament."

The snow is insane! I saw on the news yesterday that it had snowed in Vegas. Isn't it supposed to be like 70-80 degrees there right now? I was in shock when I saw that. We have gotten a few more inches of new snow so far today and there is supposed to be a hige wind storm tonight. Hopefully we do not lose power if that happens.

That's all for today!