TODAY IS NO HO-HUM DAY - IT'S A DAY OF GRATITUDE!

Memorial Day weekend wasn't filled with my typical long afternoons in the sun at a beer garden/street festival or late night parties ending in dance filled debauchery. I spent quality time with my loving man and my three adorable pups – it was perfect in every way!

We had a friend over for dinner last night as John made steak, potato salad and grilled veggies – yum! He's such a great chef and a master of the barbeque grill!

During the dinner conversation we heard about the many big life changes that were going on with our friend - all happening in the next few months.

John compared the difficult life changing decisions she was making to the many he’s made in life - like leaving loving friends and family behind in an effort to progress in his career.

He said, "I can't even imagine still scrubbing cases at that hospital in North Carolina," referring to the surgery position he held at the beginning of his career.

Which led to several discussions about many of our closest friends in high school still living in our hometowns and how they are happy with the small-town lifestyle. And we all knew that bigger cities were more our speed.

Before going to bed I evaluated aspects of my life and how I've progressed from high school till today. Living in three major metropolitan cities and the career I've established for myself is something that I’m proud of.

For the last 4 years, the glue that has kept my life together is the love I’ve found with John and my three pups – I’m so blessed to have such a beautiful family! We live in an amazing home, we have fabulous family and friends who support us AND we’re both healthy - which is an amazing blessing!

I too often take things for granted and find myself sweating the small aspects of life instead of looking at the big picture. I need to stand on top of the mountain and look down and see the great life I'm living.

Memorial Day weekend served as a reminder to me to not become complaisant, forge ahead and achieve in my career, love my family and cherish every day I have on this long twisty road of of life. (Maybe a little too philosophical - but you get where I’m going with all of this)

Today is no ho-hum of a day - it's a day of gratitude. Join me in being thankful for all of the blessings we currently have and the amazing days we have to look forward to in our future!

WE ADOPTED AND HE'S A CUTIE PIE!

We adopted a four month old Brussels Griffon - we named him Davis. He's been trying to keep up with the girls and it's fun to watch them play together.

DeRosa is the alpha of the group so she's mounted him a few times to establish dominance. She also enjoys licking him which is great because he enjoys to be bathed by her little tongue.

Doris wants nothing to do with Davis and can barely sit in same room when he's around. We're hoping this changes soon because Doris is such an amazing dog and her brother needs a friend in this transition into our pack.

We are very blessed to have the best dogs on this planet - more puppy stories to come! (I pictured my brothers rolling their eyes as I typed that last line!)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY - OUR NEW HOUSE!

MAN THOSE ARE SOME CHEESY-LOVEY-DOVEY MAGAZINE COVERS!

I'm posting these photos, made from an iPhone application called iCover, because I'm totally lucky to have a family that loves and supports me in every way...I know, cheesy...but the cheese is good sometimes, it's good to be in the habit of being grateful!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

DeRosa, move at warped speed! Doris, activate your laser eyes! These pups are a force to be reckoned with ;)~

FALL FAMILY PHOTO

Taken in Fairmont Park last weekend.

I'VE GOT MY EYE ON YOU!

JOHN AND THE GIRLS IN PHILADELPHIA

DORIS TURNS TWO YEARS OLD!!!

My little Doris 'Morris-Boris-Yeltsin' celebrated her 2nd birthday this weekend in Philadelphia - we took some nice walks and spent a lot of time playing Frisbee!

Doris is seriously the sweetest thing that's ever happened to me, always giving me tons of kisses, playing hours of fetch, jumping leaps and bound for her Frisbee and cuddling with me almost everyday throughout her two years on Earth. I love you Doris, thank you for being the true embodiment of a "man's best friend!"

DEROSA TURNS 2 YEARS OLD TODAY!

Happy birthday to our little girl DeRosa - she turned 2 years old today!

REVIEW: RITTENHOUSE VETERINARY

As reported by kslaz on yelp.com - 3 STARS:

I just moved to Philly and needed a dependable vet that is within walking distance from my house and Rittenhouse Veterinary is at the perfect location.

My dog had loose bowel movements for a few weeks so I called to make an appointment. The woman said they weren't taking new patients but if I called three weeks later, the following month, I might be able to get in. I took my dog to the UPenn clinic (which was an awesome experience) and found out I needed to put my pup on a new diet.

A week later I called to see if I could purchase the next round of food from Rittenhouse Veterinary and the woman said we could be a patient and buy the specific brand of food with them. She also wanted us to bring in our dogs medical records for their files. I brought the records to the office and they were closed for lunch. It then slipped my mind to bring them back.

Flash forward three months - my other dog is sneezing and having a problem breathing/wheezing. I call to make an appointment and since I didn't bring in the records in - they didn't have us in the computer. Since she remembered the prior conversations she said she would squeeze us in.

She told me twice over the phone that if I didn't make this appointment I would probably not be able to be a patient with the vet and would have to wait a month to see if they were taking new patients. She was pretty abrasive over the phone, borderline rude - but I chalked that up to the whole aggressive "east coast personality" I'm not accustomed to yet.

She then called back and asked that I bring in a copy of both dog's medical records. I said I would bring them by and she could photo copy them. She asked if I could fax them to her. I said who faxes things these days? She said I needed to go to Kinkos and make copies and bring them by. I begrudgingly said fine.

I received a voicemail the Friday before my Tuesday appointment stating that I needed to bring the records by Monday so the doctor could review them before the appointment.

I went to Kinkos Monday morning, made the copies and walked them over to the office. She greeted me at the door saying that she left me a voicemail to cancel my appointment because I didn't bring the records in. I said with a smile, "You told me to bring them in by Monday, it's 11am on Monday...here are your freshly copied records!"

She said fine, and I saw a roll her eyes at me as she shut the door of the office. ME: Did that woman just roll her eyes at me? Why I outta!

After fighting the urge to open a can of whoop a** on her, I moved along to the gym and took my frustrations out on the treadmill.

I went to my appointment the very next day, 15 minutes early as requested, and my dogs were wet from our 8 block walk in the rain to the offIce.

I was given paperwork to fill out. I could tell she was trying to be nice and brought out paper towels to wipe down my dogs. I told her my silky terrier hates to be dried and she can just let her air dry, it wasn't a big deal. She said to my dog, "Oh, you don't like to be dried off but you like to jump on me and get me all wet, how nice of YOU!" IRG! I bit my lip and hoped for a pleasant experience with the vet.

AND, he and his vet tech were AMAZING. They were so nice to my pets and me, we traded pet stories and experiences with our dogs, they both seemed to really like my little girls and they liked the both of them.

The vet took time to explain why my dog was having troubles, what medicines he was prescribing and how they should work on my sneezing pup.

I have since bought our dog food there and of course, the woman at the front desk, as I was leaving told me, you know you should give us at LEAST a weeks notice next time, it takes a while to get the food delivered. I had ordered the food on Friday and picked up on Tuesday as she directed, never saying I was in a rush and could have picked it up the following week if that's what it took. DOUBLE IRG.

Basically the woman at the front desk is an abrasive socially awkward and ungraceful moron who should be fired and replaced with someone who is customer service oriented. If this happens I would be happy to give Rittenhouse Veterinary a 5 star review.

BATH TIME FOR ME AND THE GIRLS

IT'S A FUNNY FACE SUNDAY!

DORIS AND DEROSA RULED THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO

One of out last walks in our old hood - SOMA in San Francisco. We were coming back from our walk to South Park.

THE DEAD BABY BIRD STORY

We took the girls on their first trip to NYC a few weeks ago and they ended up being very popular at the gay pride parade! We dressed them up for the occasion - DeRosa wore a blue cotton hoodie and Doris had on her favorite Chicago Cubs jersey. 

THE SETUP

We always have a great time visiting New York but the drive home is always miserable. This particular Sunday afternoon was extra frustrating due to the construction occurring outside the Holland Tunnel - adding an extra hour and a half to our commute. Needless to say we were both irritable and eager to get home. 

I was playing my umpteenth game of solitaire on my iPhone when we finally pulled up to our building. John asked me to retrieve the hotel cart out of the lobby while he got the dogs and our "crap" together. 

The doormen usually assists us with loading our luggage, groceries, etc. into the building - of course the one time we actually needed his help he wasn't around. 

As I exited the building, with the awkward hotel cart, a young woman kindly held the door open for me as she saw that I was struggling to get through the double doors. 

Like most everything in Philadelphia, our apartment building is old school. According to one of our doormen the building was originally office space built in 1850 and within the last decade it was converted into loft apartments.

John handed me the leashes with the dogs and left me at the corner with the hotel cart jam-packed with our overnight bags, the dog's litter box, their toys, etc. He then pulled the car around the corner to our parking garage which is located a block away. 

Looking back on it now, I should have spoken up and said this was too much for one person to handle - especially with the difficulty I had maneuvering the cart out the door. But for some reason I was up for a challenge. 

THE INCIDENT 

The girls were on their leashes walking along side of the hotel cart as I slowly pushed our belongings (which were haphazardly placed onto the cart) down the uneven sidewalk. To my own amazement, I got everything to the front of the door without dropping anything. 

The two front doors open out and can only be opened with a resident's access code and punching in the correct code a little light above the number pad turns green and the door opens. Doing this much was easy enough and I felt confident that I could make this happen. 

I held the left door open with my left arm, the dogs leash was strapped tightly on my right hand and I tried to use my body/right arm to push the cart into the building. It wouldn't BUDGE. I look down and there's a step up in the sidewalk leading into the building which makes getting this heavy cart through the doorway a near impossible task. 

BOOM! I lost the litter box. Luckily there was a garbage bag around it so the mess was minimal. I let the front door rest on the hotel cart that was only partly in the doorway. I picked up the litter box and some how managed to secure it back onto the cart. 

I heard the dogs screaming and looked down at Doris and saw something in her mouth. DeRosa was getting very excited for what her sister had found. 

GROSS! Doris had a bird in her mouth. I yelled, "No Doris, drop it!" She quickly let it go and I pulled both of the dogs away from a tiny-baby bird. The poor little baby took its last breath under the menacing step up in the doorway. The only thought that raged through my mind was, WHERE'S THE FREAKIN' DOORMAN! 

The girls wanted to attack the bird as it laid still from its sudden death. Did Doris kill it? I'm not sure. Either way, I was standing in the front entrance of my building with a dead baby bird at my feet and two excited dogs ready to pounce on it - not to mention the hotel cart lodged halfway into the doorway.

With the cart firmly leveraged into the door I took their house (a black bag we use for airplane rides - big enough for them both to fit into) and placed them into it. While zipping up the bag and telling the girls to relax, the hotel cart some how squeaked out of the doorway and began rolling rapidly towards a parked car in front of our building...YIKES!  

SMASH!@#$ BOOM!@%$# The cart hit an old white Mazda parked directly in front of our doorway. I looked around to see if there were any witnesses and amazingly enough, no one saw it all go down. There were scrapes all over the car so it was hard to tell if the scratch across the passenger side door was done by the hotel cart or if it was done prior to this incident. 

Honestly, it did look like the cart did some damage but I tried to convince myself it was already scraped up and it didn't really matter. I pulled the cart towards the front door and just stood there for a moment. 

I then looked down the street and could see John walking towards me. I said, "I had a lot of problems getting into the building! Look, Doris killed a bird!" 

He was a man on a mission and after our long drive home he was focused on  getting our "crap" and our dogs upstairs and laying on the couch to read his book. He said, "Birds carry diseases, leave it be. I'm surely not touching it!"

I held the door open as he pushed the hotel cart easily through the door. I grabbed the dogs who were wrestling around in their house/carrier thing and we went upstairs. 

THE CONCLUSION

Once we got upstairs I took the garbage bag that covered the litter box and headed back downstairs to pick up the dead bird and place it in the dumpster on the side of the building - a sad burial for this poor tiny creature. 

When I got outside I saw the new doorman checking out the babes walking down the sidewalk and having a cigarette. He watched me pick up the bird with the garbage bag and throw it away into the dumpster. 

When I was walking back into the building I saw him putting his cigarettes away in his white Mazda parked in front of the house. 

PHOTOS AT RITTENHOUSE SQUARE PARK

We had a very chill Sunday afternoon, we got ice cream cones and walked the girls around our favorite park. John figured out how to use the timer on our small camera, above are the two best shots. My family is in Philadelphia and I missed them when I was away- it's good to be at HOME!

DORIS "MORRIS-BORIS-YELTSIN": I SALUTE YOU!

Our little girl Doris has developed some serious catching skills and shows them off at the dog park everyday!

Doris likes to play catch at the dog park with her Frisbee (she is on Frisbee number two since she ate part of the last one). She can now catch it on the fly, as long as the person throwing it sends it off in a way she can run fast enough and jump to crab it out of the air.

Doris is the talk of the dog park as people constantly ask how we taught her to monotonously retrieve her toys and how she learned to catch her Frisbee. The only answer I have is that she has been practicing everyday of her life as we have played fetch since she was a little pup - so my advice to the other dog owners is to keep practicing and reward highly every time they bring the toy back to you.

I'm a very proud parent of our little Doris Morris-Boris- Yeltsin (her nickname from her daddy John) and always look forward to taking her to the park. She bats her big brown eyes at me, scratches me until I pick up her toy, plays tug of war until I throw it, she will retrieve it every time and stick out her tongue that is covered in little pieces of dirt and rock from the park ground until you throw it again.

Doris is our all-star sporty spice pooch who is so freakin' adorable I can't stand it!

DORIS AND DEROSA FREAK OUT RESULTING IN OLD LADY STINK EYE

Doris and DeRosa are the sweetest little pups and have amazing personalities - I love them with all my heart and have been able to spend quality time with them while I have been unemployed. We have been working with them on some of their weaker behavior points as they have this mean streak in them when we go on our walks - not to humans but whenever they see dogs, birds and squirrels.

When Doris spots another dog she will scream really loud and lunge toward DeRosa and nip her - like she wants her to back off and let her play first. DeRosa lets out relentless barks like she is going in for the kill. They both become quiet when I pick them up and hold them in my arms and do fine when I push their butts to the ground, but it's hard to use these tricks in every situation throughout our walks.

Today we walked to this independent video store a few block away from our house so I could rent some movies (the video store is cool with dogs - they even give them dog biscuits). We have to walk through 3 restaurants with outdoor patios and there is minimal space for pedestrians/dogs to walk. When people have their dogs with them on the patio, there is usually an incident resulting in an embarrassing situation.

After relaxing the girls a few times in the beginning of the walk when we saw other dogs - we turned the corner to walk past the last set of outdoor seating. They saw two little dogs they wanted to play with, resulting with them going CRAZY. I knelt down, pushed their butts to the ground until they relaxed.

After a half a minute of calm, I stood up to start the walk again - the girls barked some more. I then caught this woman's NASTY look. She was shooting bullets at me through her judgmental eyes, what I have learned as the bitchy old woman "stink eye."

Being frustrated already with the relentless obstacles my loved pups were putting me through, this "stink eye" put me over the edge. I looked at her dead in the eye and mouthed, "f--- you!"

I wanted her to know she can keep her east coast wicked witch bitchiness to herself. I wish I would have said that my dogs will eventually learn how to behave but you will always be a bitch. Unfortunately this is all I could muster up in the heat of the moment, next time I hope to provide a better come back.

I normally let this stuff role off my back and I also try not to be surrounded with people like her so I don't have to deal with this kind of negative behavior. Sometime it just feels good to bite back! Do you know what I mean?

I welcome any suggestions on how to stop my girls from this bad behavior. Any dog whisperers out there?

WE REALLY DO LOVE OUR LITTLE PUPS!

We watched Marley and Me on Friday night and no matter how badly my dogs are, we will love them till the end. What a sad movie, I was really crying at the end.

I also feel bad I was proposing to giveaway DeRosa in my last post. She isn't that bad, just a real diva at times. We love her and after watching that movie, I will start cherishing the time I have with her, good times and bad!

PHILADELPHIA SQUIRRELS ARE JUST AS NASTY AS ITS FEMALE DRIVERS

Two separate stories, one decisive conclusion.

WEDNESDAY
I found this photography center that offers evening classes on photoshop, lighting, printing, etc. The website mentioned people can volunteer and receive a discount on classes. I sent over my resume a few weeks ago and I was asked to come in and meet the guy who runs the place - it's called Project Basho. John left work a little early so I could take the car to the meeting. I ran down stairs, kissed him goodbye, and rushed off to my appointment across town.

We live in the downtown area so the rush hour traffic was pretty harsh. Also, keep in mind, almost all of the streets are one way with beautiful-opulent-historic buildings ending at some of the main streets so you have to drive around them to get back onto the street you are on - which is annoying.

As I drove to the meeting I saw a white compact car in front of me with its hazard lights on, parked slightly in my lane and slightly in a parking spot on the left side of this one way street. I looked behind me and the car to my right was far enough behind that I could slide over a little into that lane and get through. The car behind me, driven by an angry east coast woman, blew her horn in a very angry and aggressive way and raced past me. I guess she was upset because I was slightly in her lane for maybe half a second. I just shook my head and thought she was nuckin futs.

As she sped in front of me the car in front of her threw its hazard lights on and came to a slow stop so she needed to get into my lane. Of course, being the bastard I am, I slowed down and boxed her in. I'm driving the Jeep and she was in a compact car, so I was literally starring down at her, watching her blow her horn, yell to herself in frustration and continuously slamming her hands on her steering wheel. The whole time she never looked at me. I watched - for one minute max - laughing at her road rage - caged in like the misbehaved little animal she was acting like. Something I'll never forget, a face I'll always remember; she was soooo mad!

THURSDAY
The very exciting thing to do on my adventures of being a "lady of leisure" is taking the girls out for their daily walk through the Rittenhouse Square Park, which is two blocks over. The girls misbehave all the time, running after everything ranging from birds to an empty bag of popcorn blowing in the wind. They also love to bark at the many squirrels in the park - as we never really saw too many squirrels in San Francisco, so these are new creatures for them.

DeRosa ran after this one squirrel in particular who didn't run away, it kept coming towards her. It usually works this way: the girls bark at a squirrel and lunge at it like they are going to have it for an afternoon snack; I pull them back and yell, QUIET! or NO! or KNOCK IT OFF! and the little squirrel runs up the tree for safety.

This bold squirrel wasn't scarred of my little pups, it had this superior east coast swagger that wasn't going to be ruffled by my little pups. When the girls barked, the squirrel got closer and closer to them instead of running up the tree for safety. I stopped and thought, is that mother-nuttin squirrel going to take on DeRosa?

I had this fleeting thought that maybe the squirrel would win. Does it make me a bad dog owner to think about a squirrel and my dog going into a cage match and thinking my dog would have her ass handed to her by the squirrel? I mean, Doris would kill it in a second, hands down, but DeRosa is such a little puss puss, she is all bark and no bite. I seriously hope we never see a fight like this, but the cage match thought has come across my mind a few times since this incident.

CONCLUSION
Philadelphia's squirrels are just as nasty as its female drivers!