Any potential future followers:

I started a new blog at saidinsilence.com

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.

I FINALLY got internet, thanks to my new neighbors, so posting will no longer be painful.  Huzzah!

Remember when I said I was excited to have my new bike?  Well, did I ever mention I haven't truly ridden a bike for any sort of real distance in probably 15 years?  Yesterday, during a record breaking hot day, which was also incredibly windy, Tyler got me to ride for about 15 miles.  My butt hurts incredibly bad from the seat and I have a ridiculous sunburn on the tops of my shoulders and my nose.  I can wear a t-shirt, but makeup only goes so far in covering up things you want hidden on your face.  I feel a little ridiculous, but at least it's just temporary.  I still like my bike.  I just won't be riding it for a couple of days.

I brought Panda to the most fun adoption event yet on Sunday.  There was so many adorable puppies.  There were even two I secretly considered adopting myself.  One was a female who looked and acted like Winston but she was about 5 times bigger, which, is still pretty small.  Her breed was something of  a mystery to them, but I am pretty sure she was a Brussels Griffon or Affenpinscher mixed with a Chinese Crested.  The other was a black female Brussels Griffon, and she was just very docile, gentle, and sweet.  I guess I also toyed with the idea of this grey miniature poodle with no teeth.  She was very sweet and incredibly soft, and so cute and tiny, but to be honest, it was mostly because she looked really bizarre without any teeth and I loved her for it.  I'm a glutton for strange dogs, I guess.

Fostering has been going well, by the way.  We're still working on some potty training issues, but Panda has gotten MUCH better.  She almost always pees outside, but her pooping inside has unfortunately not changed a whole lot yet.  She's become much more social, but she can still be very shy and still spooks pretty easily, but I give her another month and I think she'll be doing much better.  She got a lot of compliments from the other fosters (a few of them have even fostered her for short periods of time), they all said she looked great physically, because she used to be a bit overweight, and that she seemed so much more friendly and social.  She's always been a sweet dog, but she mostly just tended to herself when I first started fostering her.  Now, she is starting to enjoy the company of people and trust them a bit more.  I'd say she's probably at the halfway point, but moving really quickly towards healthy responses towards people.  I'm really proud of her, I can't imagine what her life was like in the puppy mill.  It really makes me feel good that she is making such strides and that people are noticing.

Anyhow, time for food and bed.

I suck at this.

My poor blog, I suck at doing this regularly. I am going to try and do this much more frequently starting today. Because I am no longer in the habit of thinking, "I need to write a blog about this" throughout the day when interesting things happen, this may get off to a boring start. We shall see.

What inspired me to want to write again (with more consistency) was another blog I stumbled across in an endeavor to win a piece of jewelry for Winston. It's an excellent blog written by a veterinarian with a great sense of humor, www.pawcurious.com I highly recommend it, as I just spent the last hour or so reading through it.

Tonight, Motorhead played First Ave, which is why I have found some extra time to myself to make a post. You see, I dislike Motorhead quite a lot, and Tyler loves them quite a lot, so he is having boy's night and I am having quality alone time, which is another term for time to use the internet.

Things are going really well for me. As most of you probably already know, I am engaged as of January 1st. I am really excited to be married to the love of my life and to have a beautiful wedding. What I am not excited for is planning the wedding and paying for it. I have immersed myself in bridal magazines, I think about the wedding more frequently than I'd like to admit since it's not happening about another year and a half, and it seems like a LOT to take on, so I'm a little stressed.

Anyways, my ac adapter isn't working right, and my computer is about to die, so I'll have to cut this short, sorry guys!

Tuesday, July 27th.

New York City on my third day. I haven't done anything productive or fun yet, as all of this walking has made me yearn for some stationary time. Very uninteresting, so I'll talk about yesterday.

After I left the hotel, I spent my day walking around the area near the hotel. I started by trying to pick a cheap place for lunch. I found what I was looking for in a small chinese restaurant. It was good, but I must admit, I don't think I could tell the difference between quality chinese food or mall chinese food. Then I walked some of the back roads to check out the apartment complexes in the neighborhood.

I kept walking, and decided to do some shopping on 5th avenue. It was a lot of the same shops you can find back in Minneapolis, but it was still a good way to kill time. After some time, I met up with Tyler and Kari at the hotel where we waited for some friends of theirs to show up, so we could have a night out on the town. We went to a delicious restaurant and split wings and burger au poivres. Delicious. Then we went to Motorcity for a couple of drinks, then onto Max Fish's for more.

Then it was time to head back, as both Kari and Tyler needed to wake up early. Tyler was hungry, so we ended up at a little deli near the hotel. There was a cat there, who seemed nice enough, so of course, I wanted to pet it. It attacked me. I hate cats. Then we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

I'm a little groggy from too much sleep, so apologies for the uninteresting post, but believe me, it was all a lot of fun

Now, I've procrastinated about as much as a I can, so it's time to shower and find myself a small, cheap meal.

New York City, day 1.

I'm sitting in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City for the first time ever. This is my second day in town, and I still haven't stopped being amazed at the size of the city. I have to wonder, after living in this city for a while, do New Yorkers begin to feel as if they have seen all of the intricacies of the city, or does that take a lifetime? There is so much to see, so much to do. I am alone for the next 6 hours, and I could probably still entertain myself by stopping into the various shops within a 4 block radius. Which, is probably what I'll end up doing because, even after riding the subway all night yesterday, I still don't feel confident in my abilities to go much further.

Yesterday, Tyler and I must have walked 15 miles. We saw Times Square, Central Park, went shopping, were escorted to a corner to look at designer knockoff purses, ate fabulous foods, shopped, walked around Greenwich village, and took lots of pictures. Every day could be like that, with different locations, and the 7 days we will be here still won't have been enough to cover everything.

We are staying in the Chelsea Hotel for the next 4 days, then moving onto Newark for the remainder of our trip. Before we arrived, I was very excited to stay at the Chelsea. It has so much history, the pictures of the hotel are absolutely awe inspiring. But I must say, this hotel is poorly represented online. Yes, it has a fabulous history, and therefore has historical merits, but our room is probably a step above a ratty studio in the city - It is aesthetically unpleasant. It does have a nice balcony to view the street and people watch, it also has a kitchenette with the strangest array of dishes (pots and pans, but no plates or bowls, etc.). It's not the prettiest room, but the location works, and it is still our home for the next few days, so we will enjoy it nonetheless.

I was really amazed to see how dog friendly New York is. There are dogs EVERYWHERE. The owners seem so proud of their little companions as well. As I oohed and awed at the little guys and asked to pet them, the owners were always happy to oblige and talk about their pets. Which brings me to another point, I had always heard that New Yorkers were relatively rude. I haven't seen any indication of that whatsoever. Perhaps it's due to the areas we've been in, I'm not sure. I mean, there's definitely a harder edge that comes with being around SO many people and having to adopt more independence to be able to negotiate a life in such a large city, but it's barely noticeable. Maybe this is something that will show itself later in the week. You know, aside from when I have to tell a vendor I'm not interested in his poorly made designer knock off purses. But really, Prada? Dolce? They don't get made with the cheapest fabric lining you can possibly find.

I'm about to get ready and explore some on my own. So far, I've been given SO many recommendations for places to visit. As it stands, I'm dying to check out canal street during the day (we went later in the evening last night), I'd like to head back to St Mark's (since we were caught in a torrential downpour yesterday and couldn't keep checking out the shops), visit the tokidoki store, go to the museum, maybe the zoo, Molto Mario's restaurant (he'll never live down that name in my heart), and go to Baskin Robbins to pick up my birthday cone (since they no longer exist in Minnesota). Oh, and the Sex and The City nerd in me wants to take a picture on a stoop just like Carrie's, somewhere in the Village.

New York has really proven to be a great city so far.

slippery.

It has been a busy past few months. I found myself with some extra time, and not a whole lot to do with it. I was reminded of my blog, and figured I should probably do some updating in case anyone still reads it, or just for posterity.

Things have been going well for me. I just had my ten year anniversary at work. Things are going peachy between Tyler and I. Winston is as cute as ever.

I'm in the middle of doing laundry. I'm ready to switch loads, but I am TIRED and lazy. I'm going to New York City for the first time this upcoming Sunday. I am VERY excited. I plan to do quite a bit of shopping, hang out with friends who have moved there, visit MOLTO MARIO's restaurant, go to the bronx zoo, and the met. It will be my birthday while I'm in town, so I plan to celebrate at least one evening.

Here's the posterity portion of this post: Justin Bieber and Zac Efron were at my place of work over the past month. It was a big deal...for 15 year old girls.

Tyler is getting off work late. Once he is finished, I am picking him up and we are going to make a pizza from scratch. Well, minus making the dough from scratch.

If you are reading this, remind me that I need to update more often. Or every post will be as lame as this one.

Mousey.

I am watching The Last Temptation of Christ. A movie about Jesus invokes my interest as much as the biggest blockbuster action flick enthralls the masses.

I do not believe in god. I am not religious. But Jesus' kindness, his empathy, and his drive to treat others with a moral standard unlike no other, motivates me. If Jesus lived today, he would be cast aside as a crazy. Yelling prophecies to the masses on the streets, he would be another homeless man to be ignored. But he spoke many truths, and for this, he remains a mentor for me. Minus the spirituality, the fear of god, the worry about what happens when we die. I believe in taking care of one's self, treating others with respect, doing unto others as you would have done to you. Not because I'm afraid of what happens when you die, but because I know it is the right thing to do. I hope, endlessly, that treating others with kindness will ultimately lead to the same treatment. Although, I must admit, such selflessness has only come about rarely. I hope this isn't always the case. My biggest joy comes in the selfless love of others, it scares me that this kind of love seems more difficult to come by with each passing year.