Can you say "stylish!"?

Okay, this just cracked me up so I had to take a picture of what I saw when I went to the grocery store one day..... Notice the matching scarf!

Looking for a tax write-off?

Just thought I would take the time to remind all of you that if you are looking for another tax write-off as the year comes to a close, consider charitable giving. Here are a few of my favorite foundations and organizations trying to make a difference (some of these may not be tax-deductible):

Project Red - Working with the Global Fund to provide medication, services and education about HIV and AIDS to men, women and children throughout Africa. In partnership with a number of retailers and manufacturers, varying % of profits from purchases of Project Red merchandise go to Global Fund programs. Partners include Motorola, the GAP, Converse, Emporio Armani, Amex and Hallmark.

Keep a Child Alive - dedicated to providing African children affected by HIV with much needed services and medication. 100% of donations go to directly to their programs.

Make it Right - to help families in the Lower 9th ward in New Orleans still struggling after Katrina.

ReNew Orleans - Purchase merchandise and 25% of the sale price is donated to 3 foundations dedicated to revitalizing New Orleans in an authentic way, Common Ground Initiative, Tipitina's Foundation and Replant New Orleans. Also hear music from New Orleans musicians.

The Humane Society - Donate to help save neglected and abandoned animals across the country.

Heifer International - Donations go to helping disadvantaged families around with world by providing livestock and training to make them more self-reliant.

Kiva - Microlending in a digital age. Make a small loan to a struggling entrepreneur in a developing country and give them to leg up they need on the road to economic empowerment.

A milestone....

I went to the pet store yesterday to buy more food for the dog and I realized that she is now old enough to eat the adult food! She is technically sort of a large breed dog so they tend to grow longer than smaller dogs so she was supposed to get puppy food through 15 months.

Well, she is now 16 months old so I bought her adult food and am mixing it in with some puppy food to ease the transition.

She still acts like a puppy though, albeit a somewhat calmer one.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my puppy's 1st birthday! Wow, Puppy! How does it feel??

Woof, woof.....woof, woof, woof, woof!

To celebrate she has a sleepover with a new doggie friend (unplanned but I will take the credit!), had a day at doggie day care, and then got a special bone cookie wishing her a Happy Birthday! Yummy!

A different dog.....

I decided to get my dog a nice short summer cut since the weather is starting to warm up..... She must have a really thick coat because i have noticed that she seems "happier" in cooler weather and always finds the coolest spot on the floor to lay on.....

So I took her in on Saturday. When I went to pick her up, I was told that she did not like the haircut at all and she was trying to bite the groomer when he got down to her legs which was a total surprise to me since she is always such a good natured friendly dog. My other surprise was how she looked!



After, I got over the intial shock of bringing in a black dog and getting a grey one back (!!) the cut is growing on me. The funny think is, she looks like a totally different kind of dog now -- more hound like. And apparently (hopefully) she will turn back black as her hair grows out.

I still think she's cute!

Joys of owning a puppy and the saga of the poopy foot!

So I was excited to get some relatively consistent warm weather this week and decided to plant the flowers in the flower pots by my front door that I had purchased right before a freeze came through a couple weeks ago. I had been, with limited success, keeping them alive in the garage until I could get a chance to plant them. Last night I did.... I was relatively pleased with myself! I got out my garden gloves (first times really used, except for the hellish weekend I spent cutting down kudzu last year ---Kudzu is the devil's spawn!!) and I used the Miracle Gro potting soil that I had picked up at Home Depot. As the sun started to set, I stood back, pleased with my efforts, with visions of huge over-flowing flowers tumbling from the boxes in the next month or two...

This morning I let the puppy out in the morning as usual. But, when I went to let her in later on, to my horror, her little mouth and nose were covered with....... Miracle Gro soil!!! :-O Yes, my cute little puppy had proceeded to tear apart about half of the plants I had planted the night before! :-(

I couldn't really discipline her for this, although I was rather upset, because dogs don't really get discipline unless you correct them when they are in the act. So, the most I could do while I was sweeping up dirt and looking for plant fragments with root stems to re-plant was scold her if she came near anything with I was doing my clean up....

Then, I took her to doggie day care (yes, I know.... more on my slightly neurotic dog mommy habits later) and as we were approaching the door, unbenounced to me, the puppy stepped in a pile of dog poop that another owner had so lovingly left as they were bringing their dog in for the day.

The puppy is very, very excited to go to day care and play with all of her friends. In fast, her starts getting excited before we even leave the house! So, by the time we get there, she is really wound up. She was especially wound up this morning, so much so that she proceeded to pee right as we got in the door. (sigh!) The owner can to get her and get a mop to mop everything up. So he is holding the puppy's leash with one hand and mopping with the other.

Meanwhile, a woman is standing at the front desk. I recognize her because she lives somewhere near my neighborhood and often walks her big black Great Dane by my house. We are talking and then..... to my horror..... the puppy jumps up, while on the leash that the owner is holding and plants the poopy foot right on the back of this woman's sweater!! I see this all happening in slow motion........ Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! And there we were, me with my shame and embarrassment and her with her poopy sweater as she was on her way to work! (Ugh!) So I tried to help her get it out. The day care place had some stuff that got the smell out and most of the stain but I felt so bad..... At least she was a dog owner and could be a little bit more understanding.....

I would have offered to pay for dry cleaning or something but it wasn't really a dry clean type of sweater. I have decided that the next time I see the owner again, I am going to pay for a day of day care for the woman........ That, and that puppy and I are going back to obedience classes starting next week to work on not jumping!

Despite it all, how can you not love such a cute face!!

Puppy's first snow!

So there was quite an accumulation of snow on the ground by the time I woke up this morning. I still think this is totally surreal......


Snow in April!?!?






Snow in these locks that had just been basking in the natural glow of the beautiful Jamaican sun!


This was also, however, I realized, the first time my dog has ever seen snow! So it was fun to watch her "discover" it for the first time!






Running






up the stairs









Eating

Snow beard!