And Puppies Make Three

Happy Mother's Day to Mommies of All Kinds, Past, Present and Future!

2013-05-12T15:40:00.002-07:00

Celebrating with my favorite ladies as my own mommy is in New York with her mommy. :)

MDOG Egg Hunt 2013!

2013-04-18T17:28:00.001-07:00

We made the MDOG FB page! Singer and BoBo had a blast again, and cleaned up! (No bunny ears this year.)

Dat Ball.

2013-03-24T14:17:00.001-07:00

I'm a little sad that winter is finally ending. More snowboard please.

D.C. or bust.

2013-03-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

I got admitted to the D.C. bar! Although the weather was a snowy mess up north, the forecast for D.C. was a balmy 50 degrees.

Since I didn't have any backup doggy care, Singer and BoBo took a trip to NJ to stay with their favorite trees, ticks and trees.

Really helped get us through all of that CLE!

Other than the main ceremony on Friday, I also had to take a full day CLE on Saturday.

That didn't leave that much time for sight-seeing. I knew I wanted to see the Air and Space Museum, a frou-frou Latin place, and I wanted to hit at least one Joe's during the trip. And the hotel pool.

Pool for the exhibitionists.

The trip waaay over-delivered. The hotel itself was lovely, walkable to class and the swear in location.

In addition to the usual government buildings, I ended up seeing:

Looked for Bo everywhere. Couldn't find him.

and Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Museum of Natural History, Air and Space Museum, National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden (and skating rink!), Chinatown, and

Got too excited and got the shakes apparently.
Hope Diamond has nothing on this!

Don't judge.

Beautiful day.

Zippy's growing up

2013-02-24T15:07:00.000-08:00

Zippy zipped his way past 100,000 miles earlier this month. I remember his purchase like it was yesterday. (His competitors were a Saturn Ion, Honda Civic and a very very far off Mini Cooper.)

Since his purchase, he's survived countless parking lot dings, hit and runs, and a few bang ups. He's also taken me to law school and back, brought home Singer and been to nearly every New England state.

Sleepy, drugged out BoBo

2013-02-08T15:34:00.000-08:00

i AM awake!

Drowsy, me? Noozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

I always sit like this.. folded in half.

BoBo's a feisty one at the vet, and she inevitably is sedated against her will...

So busy.

2013-01-31T22:17:00.003-08:00

So so busy.

1) snowboarding posts to come

2) craziness in court

3) gave up a massage session--- didn't have time.

Really? I need to get away for a little while. Beach, snow, both?

Dan in Singapore.. we miss you!

2013-01-20T11:18:00.002-08:00

We're so tired...of waiting for you to come back.

...Couldn't find you under the pillows either!

Belated Christmas Things

2013-01-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

A lot of firsts this year: first batch of sugar cookies, first snowboarding outing, first year in the house without THE Christmas tree.

Best Instructor: Danny Ho

First Attempt At Christmas Cookies

Where is the tree? Unimpressed Singer

Unimpressed Reindeer Singer

Happy New Year!

2013-01-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

The world is your bivalve.

Rang in the New Year doing something I said I would never do. And wouldn't you know, I was right about why it wasn't worth doing! New Years in Times Square. If it was on your bucket list, I just checked it off for you. It was never on mine, but if it was, done and done!

Looking forward to embracing everything that 2013 has to bring with love and compassion. (Thank you Annie!) I hope the year is filled with family, bald and furry friends, new adventures, and new achievements.

Party time!

2012-12-23T19:43:00.005-08:00

Instead of a standard birthday cake, I decided to let my crazy-dog-lady freak flag fly and make Singer's squirrel dreams come true. She finally caught one!

What, you've never heard of edible birthday veggie art?

If you squint, it looks like a squirrel, right? It turns out that fashioning a squirrel out of carrot shavings freehand is harder than one would imagine.

Obscenely large birthday carrot.

Birthday girl!

2012-12-20T19:33:00.002-08:00

Birfday cake again Mom?

Happy birthday to my silly little Singer! She brings the awesome to the party every time, and she's made every minute of these last two years together just that much better. I love her to pieces.

Christmas magic

2012-12-17T19:08:00.001-08:00

Where sadness goes to die. These aren't even 1/4 of the decorations.

While my taste in Christmas decorations tends towards retro, [ ] County is home to some wonderfully tastefully decorated houses. This gingerbread confection literally brings tears to my eyes. You can't see it from the picture, but the entire rear of the property is decorated like a winter wonderland.

Sometimes, I take a detour on my way home from work just to check it out. By sometimes, I mean at least once a week. I wish I could knock on the door, ask for a tour of the property, run around the yard squealing like a pig, and then drop down on one knee and ask it to marry me.

I want to marry the crap out of this house.

Asian drivers...

2012-12-10T17:44:00.002-08:00

Well, I'm getting a little better at this visualization thing...

Blog slacking

2012-12-06T18:28:00.003-08:00

I've been seriously slacking on the updates lately and... I am sorry! The new work schedule is.. different, and I miss the wonderful familiar things in life. Most of all, I miss my weekend routine with Singer. Lately, I've been totally consumed/ worrying my face off trying to figure out an upcoming logistical nightmare: one month with no doggie day care and a work/ commute that requires me to be away from the girls for more hours that I'd want anyone to "hold it".

So sparing you the gory details, I think I'll try a 2.5 hr daily commute + a midday dog walker until 1) my dogs forget who I am, 2) I pass out at the wheel, or 3) I use up the girls' college fund.

Thanksgiving 2012

2012-11-22T05:00:00.001-08:00

Good morning, and Happy Thanksgiving.

This year, I am thankful for good health, new experiences, new achievements, and the unwavering support of my family and friends who have guided me through it all.

2012 Season Recap Part I

2012-11-16T18:54:00.001-08:00

Gas tank won. Again.

The 2012 racing season ended much like the 2011 season: way too soon! I think this season was even shorter than last season, and I never even made it out of New Jersey this year. The entire season consisted of 0 indoor races, 2 autocrosses and 2 kart races. My main goal for the season was to break 44.23-- we'll get back to that later...

Quantity of racing aside, 2012 marked the end of both the Zippy era and Ralphie as we knew him. In April, I got into a fender bender that messed up Zippy's strut. To avoid any more problems, I put Zippy into retirement and moved into G Stock, which I sort of like. I've been doing relatively better (not saying much) and making the most of the "spin it or win it" mantra. Let's just say I haven't been winning it, but I have been having fun.

The other piece of news is that Ralphie got a new motor in October. During one of the last practice sessions in October, the Comer kicked the bucket. I thought there was something wrong in the hot grid when Ralphie refused to idle, but figured we could figure it out after the session. Apparently I was being way too optimistic. Right after I made it out of the helmet turn, Ralphie just rolled to a stop. There was plenty of go juice, no funny smells, but just no more go. I managed to push him back to the staging area and hoisted him up onto his ~~stretcher~~ kart stand. It didn't take long to figure out what the problem was: every time the piston got to the top of the cylinder head, it would go CLUNK! and stop. With some effort, we could force the crank shaft back around, but clearly, there was something very very wrong.

Taking off the cylinder head revealed a badly pitted piston and a hunk of metal smashed into the top of the cylinder head. Not good. I think my eyes might have sweated a little too. The Comer's pretty old, and parts aren't easy to come by. It's possible that something got sucked into the intake (which would be an easy fix), but just as possible that a bearing cracked and there are more bits of metal flying around down there, waiting to make their debut appearance. In any event, it was clear that the Comer would not be making another appearance in the near future.

Post Sandy Snow

2012-11-07T17:38:00.005-08:00

Before

20 min later.

Hurricane Sandy Damage

2012-11-06T04:17:00.000-08:00

The terrible twosome, surveying the damage.

What used to be Singer's pooping tree. Apparently, when
Singer saw her old pooping grounds for the first time, she just stared.

In the grand scheme of things, my parents didn't fare too badly in the storm. Yes, a giant tree next to the house toppled over and they lost power, water, phone, and heat for 6 or 7 days, but no one was hurt. This giant tree resides right above their bedroom, and luckily, toppled straight back into the yard, crushing a fence. No people, no cars, no dogs, just a fence.

I ended up hosting everyone at my house for the rest of the week. Two dogs, parents and me makes for a tight squeeze, but they were good times over all. :)

Wish I'd figured out how to change shutter speed.
Would have been an awesome shot of her zooming around the tree.

Love this dog... and I'm doing the Tough Mudder 2013!

2012-11-05T18:40:00.003-08:00

Nawlins. Yeah, I said Nawlins.

2012-10-29T05:02:00.000-07:00

I fell in love with a brown eyed girl in New Orleans. Everything else that happened in New Orleans stays in New Orleans (unless I buck up and upload some pictures).

Busy busy busy month

2012-10-24T18:28:00.004-07:00

It's been a busy month of itinerant living, but Singer's been a sport about it. As a treat (for me and the girls!) we took them on a group dog hike and to an off-leash beach.

The hike on Saturday was BoBo's first and we weren't sure how she would handle the terrain, given her penchant for lying down in the middle of the road during walks. Apparently peer pressure works wonders on her. She plodded/ trotted along for 2.5 hours over 3.6 miles of decent terrain, and didn't stop once! She had a ball with the other dogs. Singer, no stranger to the dog hike, did just fine, running around like a maniac as usual.

The next day, we took the girls on a spontaneous beach trip--- their first, to my knowledge, trip to the beach ever. Judging by their reactions, it certainly won't be their last. Although I now know why people throw balls into the ocean and not down the beach. No one likes a mouth full of sand. Not even BoBo.

Summertime Firepit

2012-10-07T18:15:00.001-07:00

Didn't have a chance to post this earlier, but had a terrific time with wonderful friends over Labor Day weekend breaking in the new fire pit AND (new to me) grill! Perhaps if I knew how to use my camera I'd have a cool, slow exposure picture of everyone using their sparklers... Doh.

Carpenter Ants-iness: how to build a simple and inexpensive bookcase

2012-09-28T10:18:00.003-07:00

Simple sketch...

A few weeks ago, I decided I was qualified to design and build a bookcase. It would be a simple affair: 4 feet wide and 4 feet high. Nothing fancy, just a utilitarian bookcase. I sketched up a bookcase, and went to Home Depot to pick up some lumber.

That's when things got expensive. A sawdust bookcase at a big box store will run about 40 bucks. However, the off the shelf tally for these materials are roughly:

Screws...........................nomimal
2 2x3's for the four legs...<$4
4 boards.........................$24
8 support bars.................$2

The materials

This was more than I wanted to spend on my bookcase, considering the fact that its chances of eventually ending up as bonfire wood were quite high.

Enter the Helpful Sales Associate! After spying me out of the corner of his eye, he asked what I was up to. I told him I wanted to build a bookcase and had a Plan. I also asked him if Number 2 was the cheapest grade of pine he had. There is no shame in being honest. After he pointed me back towards the lumber I already thought was too expensive, I asked if he had any offcuts. What are offcuts? Known by many other names, it's the stuff that lumber yards try to get rid of for cheap because parts of the wood are damaged, knicked or were the scrap from a larger project. Helpful Sales Associate told me that indeed there were offcuts and that there was a piece of plywood from the morning that might be quite useful.

Spying this terrific piece of wood, I asked him if he could rip it into four pieces, one for each shelf. Ripping means perforating with the grain. Cutting means perforating against the grain. And that is the end of my lumber know-how. So after this kind gentleman ripped my wood (for free!), I went on my merry way. That's when the Helpful Sales Associate came back and said he had an idea for my support bars that would save me some money. He said there was a stick of wood that he could cut into 8 pieces. Terrific! I ended up buying the 2x3s at full price. Final tally:

One of the "ladders"

Screws...........................nomimal
2 2x3's for the four legs...<$4
4 boards.........................$2.01
8 support bars.................$0.51
Total...............................<$7

Under $7! Except this is where the hard work really began. Basically, my shelves would consist of two side "ladders" connected by the shelves. The shelves are not only supposed to hold up the books, but hold the two sides together.

Almost final product! Please excuse the garage mess.
Most of the stuff is BoBo and Singer's. No really, it is. That's
their extra beanbag, the bike I purchased to ride with Singer, the bike
trailer I got for BoBo to come along, a spent bag of dog
food, the Radio Flyer wagon I got to tow BoBo along, the crate they
don't use anymore...

Each of the rungs are screwed into pre-drilled holes on the 2x3s. After completing two ladders, I screwed the shelves onto the rungs. Since this bookcase wasn't intended to be a show-stopper, I screwed the bottom three shelves in through the top of the shelf. The top shelf was screwed in through the bottom, since the screw heads are more likely to show on the top shelf.

And.. TADA!!! (Nice and level too!) I will be adding a backing to provide more support and also to prevent the books from falling out of the back.

Birthday Freebies

2012-09-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

Aww, what's sweeter than a birthday? Getting free stuff during the entire month of your birthday, and to the coupon clipper go the spoils! This takes a little advanced planning in most cases, but remember to sell your soul to the man, I mean, sign up for your favorite retailers' email clubs. They'll usually ask for your birthday month and bombard you with emails during the year. But in return for the hassle, they send you a freebie coupon during your birthday month. Some retailers even mark your email club anniversary with another coupon!

Drum roll please...

Redeemed:
Eastern Mountain Sports: $5 off $5 purchase
Buffalo Wild Wings (birthday): free cake with ice cream (no separate purchase required)
Buffalo Wild Wings (email club anniversary): 6 free wings
Ruby Tuesday: free burger
[Ahem] Mill Restaurant: "free" entree, lots of caveats

Ladies in Waiting:
Baskin Robbins: one free scoop
Texas Roadhouse: free appetizer
Hooters: 10 free boneless wings (wings aren't wings if they don't have bones!)
Joe's Crab Shack: free appetizer

I'll update as I redeem. :)