Let's face it... my dog's cute, and I'm broke.

So this works! Just click the cute button and I might be able to get the $500 PetSmart card or something, which would be nice because frankly, I could use a little help, and Sebastian deserves a reward for rocking peoples' worlds.

This dog makes me laugh.

So, Sebastian has become increasingly liked around our house (mainly because now he doesn't try and kill my dad so much, although he did bite Grandpa because he thought he was hitting me... apparently men shouldn't smack me on the back!) and lately has been pretty funny. For example, he has now decided that he likes watching Spongebob with the kids (yes, he really does watch it) and his favorite place to sit is with Josh... or rather, on him. Another example, Lydia brought home a tennis ball the other day, which is, literally, the same size as Sebastian's skull, but he's determined to play with it. He has this system where he wedges his mouth around it, and it looks like he's a snake eating a chicken egg or something. He's really weird. I love him.




Another thing I love? Going down to the horses with my best friend Mallie. We have enough inside jokes to use at least five per situation. Pretty awesome, right? I am helping her break her dad's colt, Deuce (named after the hotrod magazine) who is a gorgeous black and white two year old gelding. Yesterday I was able to saddle him up and ride him-- and he behaved perfectly! I love that horse. I also love that Mallie and I are still goofy enough to make jokes about what it looks like from behind when she waters the horses... we're silly kids.



Very nice.

It's only eight more blocks

So a few days ago, I went to Salt Lake with a buddy of mine to see our friend's band. After we saw their band (it's called Victoria, they actually are pretty good-- they sounded good even in the crappy accoustics of Kilby Court) we stopped to fill up the gas tank. My friend noticed an old man shuffling by who looked pretty exhausted. My friend asked him if he needed any help, where he was going. In response, the old man answered, "Oh, I'm just walking to my old army pal's house. It's okay though, it's only eight more blocks." And then he gave us this huge grin. We offered him a ride and he accepted. In the car I asked him if he lived in Utah or if he was visiting. He told us about how he had come here to get his second hip replaced at the VA hospital in Salt Lake. The doctor had apparently not drilled the hole big enough for the prosthetic to fit in, and had subsequently cracked his pelvis. The doctor "fixed" it by simply wrapping a wire around it. So put this together-- two bad hips (one of them only two months post op), a hot day, and a fourteen block walk to an old friend's apartment. Most people would've been a little grumpier answering my friend's original question, but no-- this man simply smiled and said, "It's only eight more blocks." This made me want to change my own attitude about life. Even when it's not fun or comfortable, every day is only twenty four hours and the only way you can change how it ends is by changing your attitude. I loved his gratitude, no matter his circumstances. The moral of this story? Love life- it's only eight more blocks.



These are two perfect examples of how attitude changes everything. First, we'll talk about Sebastian-- I know he's just a dog, but he's amazing. He was born in terrible conditions (a puppy mill in Hawaii), and then went to a terrible home (abusive man) for a year and a half, and yet now that he's with me, he's been so fun. In the mornings, his silly behavior makes me laugh, he is always so excited to start the day. He knows when someone needs some extra love, and he's the first to give it. In the picture here, he's sitting with Josh watching TV, even though Josh isn't always the gentlest with him. Josh had had a rough day, and there he is, sitting quietly with Josh's arms around him.
The other example I have here is Josh. You all know how much Josh teaches everyone around him. Josh always finds a reason to smile, and he usually comes up with a reason to make us laugh along with him. He's the sweetest kid, even though he's been through so much, and even though he has so much to struggle with every day. He's pretty much awesome.



Now for things that made me smile yesterday: First off, my best friend Mallie. And her reaction to one of the most hideous bridesmaid dresses ever. When she pulled it out of the box, she showed it to me with a pretty dark look. It's a cerulean blue satin dress, with no sleeves, and four symmetrical pinches in the skirt, along with a very puckered seam down the back. It made Mallie look overweight with a badonkadonk butt. She thought it was hysterical. We tried a lot of different ways to make her NOT look like an immodest cup-cake, but it was so much fun mocking it that it took us about two hours just to find a suitable cover-up (suggestions ranging from a poncho to a trash bag to a Muslim outfit). Here's her "modest cup-cake" face. I love her to death.



Another thing that made me smile is that I got to hold a hummingbird!!! It flew into our house and got stuck in a windowsill, so he let me pick him up. He rested in my hand for about five or six minutes, catching his breath and calming down. When he was calmed down, he flitted off- but not before I could snap one picture! Life is a miracle, in all sizes.

Things that, just recently, made me laugh.

I'll start out with these two gems. First off, while searching for the right dog for a friend of mine and her husband, I came across this:

So, I was curious. What made them think this name would make their dog more appealing? Why can't they just say, "I'm a backyard breeder and the first male dog I found to breed to my girl was a shit zu, so these are more mixes." Or, to shorten that, come up with something clever like all those, ahem, "DESIGNER BREEDS" are being called (notice the air quotes and slightly distainful tone). Anyway, it cracked me up.

My boyfriend Alex just recently went and helped clean up a YMCA kids' summer camp grounds, and on his way there, right next to the summer camp grounds, he saw this and snapped a shot to send to me.

Anybody else questioning the location of this "ranch"? That must be one memorable summer camp for those kids.

Lastly, I've got a few of the Famous Josh Quotes for you. I've recently been working on a portait of Josh, and part of my experimenting on this portrait included a storm happening in the back ground. Josh's first reaction upon seeing it? "Woah. I look like I rule the world!"

Later on, during the same car ride, Josh was trying to explain to me what the doctor had told him about his headaches and what was causing them. He thought hard for a minute to remember exactly what was said, and then said, "Oh yeah! She said I had an inside-us affection." Translation? Sinus infection. Josh just has a way of making everything sound like a good thing.

3 more things I love about my family.

1. Lydia's insane love of cereal, and grumpiness in the morning. She poured a Pyrex serving dish full of Cheerios and sat up to eat. When I laughed and busted out the camera phone... she got a little perturbed. Hence, the blurry but brilliant picture. Classic.


2. My dad tolerates my love of X-Men. Just before he went to get his long winter hair pared down to a shorter cut, he allowed me to experiment with his hair... so that I could turn him into Wolverine. This is his Wolverine pose.


3. I have a dog who does this with his ears for no apparent reason.

Stickers are no match for him.

Just recently, the home-dwellers of my family (meaning, those who are not either too grown up to come or are not in Denver for the summer) were able to take a much-needed and much-deserved break. We went on vacation for a week to Escondido, California, which is a lovely place! Having loved so many things about this trip, I thought I'd share a few points. You ready for this? Wait for it.... wait... wait.... okay NOW!

Escondido (and surrounding area), California-- May 2009

-We saw a few pods of dolphins having an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet just off of the Oceanside Pier.
-Josh's comment about "The Phantom Rider", a roller coaster at Knott's Berry Farm: "That freaked the hell out of me!" (Don't worry, I waited to laugh until after he was scolded and I was out of sight)
-Another thing about "The Phantom Rider"-- I, singlehandedly, convinced Lydia to ride it. And she only cried a little.
-I got asked five times if Lydia was my daughter. One genius admitted this reason to asking said question- "Oh wow, but you guys look so much alike!" Uhh... no.
-Josh said "seashell" correctly for about ten whole minutes. But it sort of slipped back into "she-shells". I'm okay with that for a little longer, it's pretty cute.
-I thought I caused an earthquake by kicking the cupboard doors while chatting on the phone. Nope, it wasn't just loud noises. Turns out it really was an earthquake.
-I read a book cover to cover in two days. I haven't had that kind of time in... well, at least over a year and a half. Usually all I have time for is a chapter here or there.
-I finished my self portrait, a portrait of Lydia, and began one of Josh.
-I thought I was going to die because I thought I had swine flu. Turns out it was exhaustion. Whew, dodged that one.
-Some random old lady in a purple wide-brimmed hat with a red feather (she was even from the Bronx... how much cooler can a random old lady get?) stopped me in the grocery store to tell me I should get Lydia's hair cut shorter, because it was too pretty and hence unfair to Lydia because she had to be more careful because of it.
-I went a whole week without CSI.
-I went a whole week with only three TV shows- either A) Spongebob (if the kids had the remote... what's new?), B) some crapumentary about Kobe Bryant (if Dad had the remote), or C) HGTV (if Mom had the remote... nothing new there either, so maybe the only difference here was that I never got control of the remote, or all three of these things are constantly on).
-I held a bunny again. I haven't held a bunny since Sweet Pea died. Sweet Pea was Lauren's rabbit, who died because she was too traumatized to eat (good job Josh and Lydia... oh boy.). When she started to go downhill, Lauren insisted on me helping her, and since the bunny wouldn't chew, I had to chew for her and spit it out and then put it in her mouth... then Lauren had a dentist's appointment but didn't want the bunny to die alone, so we took the bunny with us to the dentist's, where it, yes, died. I forgot how cute they are when they're not dying and can chew for themselves.
-Lydia saw a heavier lady who was wearing a tube-top, and so had a spare tire, and she made this comment: "Does she have... four?"
-I slept (or rather, made valiant attempts to sleep) on a grid of metal bars with a two and a half inch thick pad on top of it. It was supposed to be a hide-away bed.
-Josh got a geode and a guy with a lapidary saw cut it for him. He was the first person to ever touch the crystals inside of it, and he thought that was pretty cool.
-Josh ran ahead of us to inspect the restaurant we were about to eat at. To decide if he was for or against the dining decision, he examined the food. With his face about two or three inches away from it. While a couple on a date was eating it. Lydia was mortified.
-I massacred three little boys with the water-gun we had with us... they were picking on Josh in the pool. They ended up swallowing a lot of poolwater, because I shot it into their mouths every time they opened them.
-I caught the biggest sand-crabs I have ever seen. There were two, and they had to have been at least an inch and a half long. That is huge, for something that's usually the size of a potato bug.
-I realized how much I love and missed the ocean.
-I realized how small I am compared to said ocean.
-I got purple Converse high-tops. (Their sheer existence is proof of divinity)
-I overheard Josh in the Gymboree outlet watching the kids' show on their little TV. There was a memory game segment, and after it shows you the correct match, it says, "Great job! You're very smart!" Well, apparently Josh had chosen the wrong match. His response to the narrator was, "You're a horrible woman!"
-Josh was sleep talking in the car: "Stickers are no match for me!"
-We were given a free copy of the Harlequin romance novel, "Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch" (by B.J. Daniels) because, and I quote from the back of the book, "Harlequin is celebrating 60 years of providing women with pure reading pleasure. To mark this occasion, we're giving you this FREE BOOK from the Harlequin Intrigue® line..... Harlequin has a romance for every mood!" This gorgeous piece of intellectual treasure was waiting for us in our hotel room, along with samples of Splenda and Pepto-Bismol. That's hot.
-Did I mention that I got purple Converse?
-I fell in love, on accident of course.
-Actually got a sort of tan. Miracle of miracles.
-I won my dad in a bet (about whether or not pigeons and doves were the same species or just the same genus... yep, we live on the edge around here).
-I almost peed my pants. St. George couldn't have appeared soon enough.
-I decided to apply to UVU... well, that was a long time in the making, but I wasn't sure until our trip.
-I figured out who Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka reminds me of: a Carol Burnett/ Michael Jackson lovechild.
-I realized that In-n-Out has the most divine burgers ever... I sorta forgot. Also they have cool giant safety pins as part of their uniforms, but they won't sell one to you.
-Josh found an Indiana Jones-ish hat, and promptly found one for Dad that looked like Indiana Jones' dad would wear.
-Lydia decided she loves Keropi.
-I matched a carousel.
-I got butterflies because I am so excited for the second Transformers.

And last but not least...
-I got purple Converse.


These pictures are all from my cell, so pardon the crappiness. Also, I have higher-class pictures from a real camera to come. So keep checking back. I'm resurrecting my blog.

I'm stealing Amy's "Love and Hate" tradition

So I have decided having a blog is like having a potted plant- even if you don't want to carry the stupid thing upstairs to water it, you have to in order to keep it alive. Then at random moments, you notice your green plant and say, "Hey, that's a good-looking plant. Good thing I water it and keep it alive." So I'm watering my blog, even though I have nothing to say. Because I have nothing to say, I stole Amy's jumping off place- her love/hate posts. So here goes.

Today's hate:

Stupid College Boys.
Let's admit it. There are three kinds of guys in college. One, the kind that is genuinely nice and sweet and is also confident enough to ask you out, and he won't be the subject of jokes in your family for the next year. Two, the kind that is nice and sweet, but too shy to ask you out. Or three, The kind that are total morons, but they're brave enough and gutsy enough to ask you out (and they'll pretend to be nice almost the whole time). Unfortunately, there seems to be a great abundance of the third kind. And a bit of the second kind too, but they aren't much help if they refuse to make eye contact when you speak to them. Oh dear. This proves to be a bit of a predicament.

Today's Love:

Thanks to Brand New, I have not decided to bite down on the cyanide pill just yet while riding the train (it is quite the ordeal, and it takes a very long time, and it's really boring). Lucky for me I have Deja Entendu to listen to while I ride the Public Transit from Hell, and it makes it livable. Heaven blessed me with Guernica. I love music. The end.

So how was that watering?

Reasons I love family dinner: Weiner dogs, Babies, and Old Pictures.

So today, we had family dinner at my house (complete with the leaves in the table to make it long enough to fit everyone- I'll have you know that our table is pretty imperiously huge). Tonight for me was a particularly awesome night, because my family just makes me happy like no one else can. There were three things tonight, though, that made me really happy. We'll start with this.


That, my friends, happens to be my sister and brother-in-law's new puppy, who happens to be among THE coolest dogs I've ever encountered. And that is saying something, because I have worked at the vet's, a dog daycare, and the animal shelter, so I've worked with quite a few dogs in my day. This little dog is a piebald miniature dachshund, with gorgeous green eyes. Her name is Magda, and I can't help but think that I might have to steal her. That being said, Amy and Jon, I promise I will give her back when you ask me to puppysit, but just know it's very tempting. The next awesome thing about tonight was this.

This is Jack, my 2 month old nephew. He weighs in, currently, at 13 lb. What a little chunker!! He is so cute though, and today was a huge milestone for my aunthood- I made Jack smile. Not just one of those weird newborn muscle-spasm smiles that disappear within seconds, but a prolonged, huge, gummy smile. And it was adorable and it melted my heart. Remember how I'm an aunt? Me too. Then, this:

Lauren, my big sister, was looking for pictures to put in Brian and Ali's wedding slideshow, and discovered this gem. Yes, that is me and Lauren, and yes, she is, as a matter of fact, holding my head like a football. For most of our growing up years, Lauren and I shared a room, and in that room, we shared a queen sized bed. Inevitably, it led to some pretty strange night-time antics, such as "steam-rolling" (the objective of this game is to roll on top of, and consequently squish, the other person), me reading scary stories to Lauren before we fell asleep (I thought it was funny that I could terrify my older sister), "THE CLAW!!" (just don't even ask), Power-Ranger Gymnastics ("The splits, the splits, how does she do it?"), and a whole variety of other oddities. By the end of this, we were pretty exhausted, and that resulted in some funny (and in my mind, cute) pictures in the mornings. The thing I love about this photo is that it makes me think of all the times that Lauren would hold my hand or calm me down when I'd had a bad dream, all the stupid jokes we split our sides with, all the random pranks I pulled on her. It makes me remember how lucky I am that she's my sister. So the moral of this story?

I love family dinners.