the Oscars

Eating bacon-wrapped scallops, loaded potatoes, and other goodies while enjoying Seth MacFarlane hosting the Oscars. Kate Winslet, we saw your boobs!

crystal clear

A surprise present from my sister in LA... give me half an hour and I'll have the dog napping!

end of the work week

Nothing says job well done like one-minute nachos, white wine endorsed by a mysterious black cat, and a kitchen full of pets vying for gastronomic dominance.

How you really feel on Valentine's Day

Feel the obligatory love!

wear your heart on your nail

I am really into this heart manicure thing! I'm going to see how many spiffy color combos I can work with. Love this bright red and soft gray!

She just wants to be a girl

That's the cutest and most generous excuse I can think of for Soleil. Why else would a dog chew through a new tube of tinted moisturizer and drag my bra halfway through the house? She wants to be just like me... maybe.

This little rascal could sleep anywhere

Even while hanging over my shoulder ♥

my greatest creation yet

I think I finally got this blogger app working again. Which means it's time to play catch up... from about two weeks ago...

A pile of whoopie pies, some with chocolate buttercream and some with my brand new speculoos cookie filling! Just blend some of Trader Joe's cookie butter with a little crisco to make the spread more spreadable and voila! A delicious whoopie pie that tastes a bit like a s'more.

And while we're still sitting at the table, why not show off the new color of the heart on my nail?

shake that ache

I'm not completely pooped but still pretty tired after the first salsa class of the new year.

Huzzahs:

• I didn't forget everything.
• Both teachers remembered my name and how to spell it but not how to say it... it's usually the other way around.
• Both teachers treat me like a senior student.
• We learned a new crossbody pattern... new steps are good.
• Lots of hugs!

Uh-ohs:

• Both teachers treat me like a senior student... which means that they pass by with critiques about taking smaller steps. No, this is still a huzzah!
• A weird, slightly creepy student from last year still attends... and he remembers me :-(
• I hadn't practiced for 3 weeks so my stamina was non-existent and I was prettty sloppy towards the end of the second hour.
• We learned a new crossbody pattern... which is more difficult than the first.

I do love me some cane sugar coca-cola... and let's face it, I love this little heart, too.

onesie time is nail art time

It's cold out and all I feel like doing is sipping tea and painting nails in my shark onesie. But since we all gotta do better, I'm upping the game with my first ever nail heart drawn with a bamboo skewer.

if you can stay awake long enough

Johnny Cat has already turned in for the night but if you're going to stay up for the new year, remember to keep it classy San Francisco. Let's leave the bus burning to 2012.

Soleil's first Christmas

CUTENESS OVERLOAD!

Wassail!

The Holidays in San Francisco with kooky old me? That means it's sweater time! FOR MY DOGS!

Soleil models her crazy couture. Strut!

Lulu is too happy to sit still!

Soleil indulges my desire to deck myself in Christmas ornaments...
Light-up Christmas lights necklace? Check.
Glitter bird ornament borrowed from our tree? Check.
Happy dog? Check!

But there's no mistletoe!

 Happy Holidays everybody!

the rainbow strikes again

I've moved back in to Mumsy's house and I have come to the colorful process of sorting through my t-shirts... colorful indeed.

BFFs

Who gets to babysit Lulu the 30+ lb. Beagle mix over Thanksgiving weekend?

I do! Soleil and Lulu are total BFFs... after all, they're the about same age. They can't stop playing with each other or stealing treats.

a not-so-angry but definitely belated Halloween

In light of the Giants parade, the president of my work judiciously moved back our first ever Halloween party to today. It was nice to see everyone smiling and dressed up, and I think it was enjoyable even for those who didn't dress up. We had a department of purple fairies, part of the Avengers team, Psy of gangnam style fame, and a flock of angry birds and pigs.

Did you say Angry Birds?

The crazy and extra angry explosive black bird in the center? That's me!
Everyone else is a co-worker and they are beautiful people,
I'm just giving them some privacy.
I'm sure this looks pretty weird...
This photo taken by a friend.

Going birdy with temporary tattoos...
here we have a pimp bird and his two pregnant chickens!

tough pigs meet tough birds

Just in time for Halloween

I kid you not! Final Jeopardy of the day:

Category: 21st Century Games

The villains in this game were inspired by the swine flu epidemic scare.

None of the geniuses on the show got it but I knew straightaway... WHAT IS ANGRY BIRDS?

And as the universe (or multiverse, whatever) would have it, Alex Trebek read the correct question just as I was opening a box full of Halloween costumes. Guess what some choice friends and I are dressing up as!

CAW!

dogs on money

Hello, this is Soleil. As you can see I'm wearing a Giants jersey. That's because I love everything my human likes, and she's a big Giants fan.

You'll also notice that I'm at home instead of the game. This is not because I am a dog - at least I don't think that's the reason. It's because the prices for these post-season games are crazy! The face value to stand is in the ballpark of $68! Excuse me but that's a lot of steak I'm giving up. For $68 I need a steak, a chew toy, and a nice secure place to curl up.

So instead of going to the Game 1 of the NLCS, my human took the money and threw a viewing party. There was soda, beer, guacamole, garlic fries, mini tacos, tomato-mozzarella sticks, whoopie pies, and lots of chicken wings... I stole a lot of those. And on top of that, my human's friends brought other tasty treats.

The cost was well under $68, which means nothing to me since I am a dog but there you go!

The game was pretty amazing - I loved it when the Giants batted in 4 runs in one inning. But I wish they would've used the money my human saved to score a few more. I hate the Cardinals... well I think I hate all birds but I definitely hate the Cardinals!

she's mine, all mine!

For a while I considered getting a chinchilla.

Then the universe presented me with the baddest little girl to keep all to myself: now Soleil lives with me!

She's quite a handful but all in all it is a joy to have this cute and slightly needy critter by my side. Today was a busy day for her... roadtrip, picnic, and car wash. It all led up to her first bath by me, which I'm sure she'll never forget.

date night

Last Friday was Tater and Muddy's engagement celebration, and though he wasn't invited, it was held at the Cheers-like bar/restaurant of my ex. He didn't show (amazing! he used to be there every Friday night like clockwork) but I was relieved. Until I got to talking with a few of his friends; now I have doubts about the veracity of his reasons for breaking up.

And all of this made me think of him throughout the weekend, which I haven't done since thirty minutes after he broke up with me back in June. And then I started wondering... is there something wrong with me? I know, relationship fail.

But no, there's nothing wrong with me (nothing major, anyways!) And if you don't like what I am, then get lost! And whether or not what he told me is true doesn't matter (because if it's true, he's the idiot we all know he is and if it's false, then he's a liar... don't need those in my life.)

And it got me thinking about some awkward patterns in my colorful dating history. "When is the last time someone bought me flowers?" I thought as I was grocery shopping. "When is the last time a date showed up with flowers at the door?"

February 2011. Doesn't sound like such a long time but that is six males and five first dates ago.

So I decided to take myself on a date and bought myself flowers. And a baby deer table knick-knack at $5 to make myself really smile. I cooked beefy pasta with lots of garlic, opened a bottle of pinot grigio (because matching your wine to your pasta is really not necessary,) and spread some fashion inspiration on the table. Oh yeah, get out the romantic tealight candle because tonight is the season premiere of Season 2 of Revenge and I love that shamelessly juicy saga of a girl taking matters into her own hands. Go on Emily, get 'em!

Flowers... is that so much to ask? I should've known that he-who-blows-up-my-toilet doesn't deserve me.